196 ERRONEOUS STATEMENTS. 



worth whilst residing here, and then m company 

 with Davy ; it was the day they ascended 

 Helvellyn together. 



AMICUS. It little imports, whether true or 

 false. The incidents of such a life are of minor 

 interest. His poetry, I apprehend, reflects his 

 mode of life. 



PISCATOE. Just so. It was his wish that 

 his life should be read in his writings; he 

 desired no other biography. Many things said 

 of him had better been left unsaid, such as have 

 been given to the world with no kindly feeling 

 towards a man to whom we owe so much ; and, 

 more objectionable still, such as have been 

 founded in error, as the statement derived from 

 the writer just mentioned, that he was reserved 

 and close in conversation, that he was slo- 

 venly and had little regard for order in his 

 dealings with books ; instead of which, I can 

 assure you, he was more than commonly orderly 

 and careful about books ; and in conversation, 

 open and confiding, giving utterance to his 

 thoughts to compare him to a gushing spring 

 as they welled up in his mind. 



AMICUS. I remember the charges, and am 

 glad to hear them rebutted. I think I have 

 somewhere read of his cutting the leaves of a 



