The times., 1899-01-08
ID 81 ..I1j|{{4lt ! tt|I1t1 ! ID !

hoped YOU only meant 10 insinuate the high
price Of Sugar! But am afraid you meant more
Oh. Robert. don't know what You call sweet.
Honey and the honayCoInh, roses and vio!ets are
Yet in the earth. The and the moon yet
reign in heaven. and the lesser lights keep up
their pretty twinklings. Meats and drinks;
sweet sights and sweet smells; country walk,
spring and autumn. iollies and repentance, quar-
rcis and rcconclcmcnts have all sweetness hy
turns. Good huInor and good nature. friends at
home that love You, and friends abroad that miss
Nou-yu possess all these things, and more in
:mwerIblc. and these all sweet things. You
laay extract honey from everything; do not go
gathering after gall. The Bees are wiser IN
their generation than the of sonnet writers
and comnainerS, Bowlcs's and Charlotte Smiths
and all that tribe. who Joys hut what
past. and fill peoples heads with notions of
the urrSltisfying nature nf earthly comforts.
YOU. | tiid this world a very pretty place.
My kind love to all your sisters and To Thomas
lie never writes to me and tell Susanna ! for
give her. c. LAMB.
London, the 18th November, l79s.
One may judge pretty accurately from
this letter what sort of an epistle Robert s
had been.
The wise and temperate counsels of
Lamb did not take full effect upon Rob
ert. neyertheless-possibly he was not of
lamblike disposition-for we presently
find him flying 10 London and domestica-
ting himself with friend. and refusing TO
20 DdCh 10 business anu
position of alder and abettor of rebel
against parental authority can hardly have
been agreeable TO Lamb, but he evidently
sympathized with the young man 10 a GER
tain extent, for he writes to Southey, q
little after this occurrence:
Robert still continues here with me: his faith
rr has proposed nothing. but would willingly lure
! him hack with fair professions. But Rober, is
endowed with wise fortitude, and in this bust
ness has acted quite from himself, and wisely
acted. His parents must come forward in the
end ! like reducing parents 10 4 sense OF un-
dutifulncsss. like confoundng the relations OF
life.
And. after this, there is a letter from
Roberts sister Priscilla. in which she re-
marks that she does not think that Lamb
is "A person for him TO take up his abode
with" She thinks that Lamb would en-
courage those feelings which ii was GER
iainiy Roberts duty TO suppress
In course of time, Robert Lloyd appears
to have gotten over his morbidness. and
some of the later letters which he re-
ceived from Lamb are almost priceless pos
sessions. They discuss various matters OF
the day, most of which as they concern
great men and things, are of interest at
the present time One paragraph in his
comment on Cookies Interpretation of
Richard III shows a marvellous insight,
and explains some of the contradictions,
rot only in that particular character, but
in some other men and women OF Shakes
peare. He says:
AT the inconsistency is that Shakcsocare's bet
ter genius MAS forced l1 strugglc against the
pTejudiccs which made monster of Richard
lie set ont 10 pant monster, but his human
symintliits produced a man.
1t would be easy TO go on quoting in
definitely from these characteristic and de-
Mghtful letters, but it would be hardly fair
to the reader 10 take all the meat out of
the book in advance. There are numerous
charming passages in the correspondence
on The translations of the Had and Odys-
sey, made by Charles Lloyd, and there are
pleasant details of the intercourse be-
tween the families. At the very end of
the book we come upon some quaint say
ings CT the Lloyd children, with comments
which indicate that Mrs. Lloyd was q wo-
man Of quick intuition and plenty of ideas
OF her Cwn. She says. for example. that
the comparative solitude of family inter
course for children in place Of the eX-
citement of general society. is in her opn-
ion favorable 10 habits of reflection and
simplicity CT character; but she adds most
shrewdly that it Is likely Ito produce
great men rather than great scholars" 3"
This distinction is one which some school
Some Of the questions and comments of
her youngsters (undeT ten years old, are
decidedly amusing:
Said Ci.oevcnor Cthc cldcst): Mamma it seems
very wonderful that God was never made ami
yot II would be gutc wonderful II lie was
| made, becanse somebody else must have made
those that made God and 80 still We could not
have told how the FIRST was made
Owen: Could God Kill HIMSELF II He was 10
try. how do YOU think He would do it?''
t.tosvcn"T- Who wonder lighted tho first fi-c?
Iarn'sI suppose il was lighted at the sun.
there must lave been that kind of glass which
mamma told US ot. and glass cannot be made
without Ere.
remarked one cold morning: "IIow thankful
: you should be who hsyc fire and clothing this
cold weather. Many poor children have not
| either"
Jsrles-weIl then. Adam and Eve did somc
good for if they had never been naughty wc
should have been badly of.
Charles Lloyd died in 1928. in his eight
eth year, and these letters remained hid
den somewhere in the family archives till
! 1884. when some OF them were published
! There are very few books of remniscance
and biography which are contriyed to give
as vivid glimpses of the gifted minds and
the domestic life of a hundred years ago
in England as We find in this little vol
ume. philadelphia J. b. Lippincott Com