New-York tribune., 1905-04-16

caring simply for the things they contain The
things? Certainly there are infinite riches IN
these pages; there Is literature as wen as life;
there Is the inspired thought Of an inspired
lover Of books. as well as the purely human
gossip of a lover Of mankind But. somehow.
there is one thing which more than anything
else shines through Lambs letters, one thing
which seems 70 interpenetrate his thought no
matter what the subject may be-his inexhaust-
ible tenderness and goodness. That whiteness
Of soul for which he cherished his friend Martin
Burney was his own shield and buclzler against
all the sorrows of the world II life was often
hard for him. he knew how hard it was for
many others, and, from the beginning to the
end. he seems always to have been doing his
best to tighten the burdens Of his friends. There
is something curiOusly and very happily symbol
ical in the fact that the first Of the letters in
these volumes should be the one written when
he was young man to COIeridge. and begun In
this wise:
Dear c.: Make yourself perfectly easy about May.
I paid his bill. when sent your clothes was
OF single life. so give yourself further concern
had IL
1t was always superfiuOus. IL any else
needed it. And how lavish he is of his greater
treasures his thoughtfuIness. his delcacy, in a
word. his loving kindness! There is letter Of
his sisters TO Mrs Coleridge in which she says:
Il think Mrs Haz!itt a pretty gOodhumore1
woman She has nice little girl Of the PypOs
Kind. who is so fond OF my brother that she stops
strangers in the street to tell them when Mr.
Lamb IS coming 90 see her" There is scarce
line in all his correspondence which does not
help us to understand how the child felt. Among
the new letters are some written by both Charles
and Mary to the Words~oTths, a few relating
TO the loss OF the poets brother at sea- DOrO-
thy Wordsworth, writing to a friend at that
time, urges her to go and see the Lambs
'"They are the best good creatures she says;
blessings be with them! They have syInpa-
thized in our sorrow as tenderly as if they had
grown up in the same Ltownl with and
known our beloved John from his childhood
Charles has written to us the most cOnsOlatOry
letters. the result of diligent and painful in
qUiry Of the survivors of the Wreck-fOr this
we must love him long have breath
I think of him and his sister every day Of my
life. and many times in the day. with thankful
ness and blessings Those words were written
just one hundred years ago. Is not the feeling
toward the Lambs which they express alive in
innumerable hearts to-day?
The very fragrance of nobility is the essential
element in Lambs letters, as it was in his life,
yet there is no epistOlary classic flooded as is
one of his lapses from sObriety to confess? He
glances at it in this passage in a note to
Crabb Robinson: II got home tOlerably well. as
hear, the ether evening. 1t may be a warning
to any one in future to ask me to dinner
party. 1 always disgrace myself. hoated up
stairs on the COachman's back like Ariel 'On a
bats back do fly. after sunset merrily-'" He
was over fifty when he got his pension and re-
tired from that desk 20 which he had been
chained for more than thirty years. but he could
dash Off veritable schOOlbOy's note to Robin
son, II have left the id India House for
Ever! Give me great joy" Joy bubbled up in
his heart all his life long. helping him to bear
griefS which would have crushed many a
stronger man. How he looms beside certain OF
his friends men like COIeTidge and Wordsworth
for example. They were giants. in their differ
ent ways, but for the things which make man
lovable they are as pygmies compared with
Lamb