| ‘“J’honore une race commune, |
| Car, sensible, quoique malin, |
| Je n’ai flatté que l’infortune.” |
‘In a note to “Couplets on M. Laisney, imprimeur à Peronne,” he says: “It was in his printing-house that I was put to prentice; not having been able to learn orthography, he imparted to me the taste for poetry, gave me lessons in versification, and corrected my first essays.”’
‘Of Bonaparte, —
‘“Un conquérant, dans sa fortune altière,
Se fit un jeu des sceptres et des lois,
Et de ses pieds on peut voir la poussière
Empreinte encore sur le bandeau deg rois.”
‘I admire, also, “Le Violon brisé,” for its grace and sweetness. How fine Béranger on Waterloo! —
‘“Its name shall never sadden verse of mine.”’
TO R. W. E.
‘Niagara, 1st June, 1843. — I send you a token, made by the hands of some Seneca Indian lady. If you use it for a watch-pocket, hang it, when you travel, at the head of your bed, and you may dream of Niagara. If you use it for a purse, you can put in it alms for poets and artists, and the subscription-money you receive for Mr. Carlyle’s book. His book, as it happened, you gave me as a birthday gift, and you may take this as one to you; for, on yours, was W.’s birthday, J.’s wedding-day, and the day of ——’s death, and we set out on this journey, Perhaps there is something about it on the purse. The “number five which nature loves.” is repeated on it.
