Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/78

78 to Alexander the Great—Mount Athos cut into a colossal statue of humanity. What a pretty creature Miss Geraldine Jewsbury is! You will have to answer for a revived taste for dissipation. I really gave myself credit for being grown quite recluse and philosophical, but I have found my first party so delightful that I am now longing to go to another. I dare say my next will cure me; one swallow does not make a summer, and a pleasant party is a rarity."

But to return to the subject from which a recollection of that pleasant party, and the letter commemorative of it, have diverted our attention—her constant habit of writing letters of friendly criticism, with all the industry and copiousness of one who had no critical tasks to perform publicly, or no channel for the expression of her opinions. Many writers, those of established reputation equally with the more obscure, can boast of "articles" in acknowledgment of the works they had presented to her—letters, not of mere compliment, but entering at length into the merits of the subject—not merely pointing out what she liked or objected to, but stating why—and stamping a value upon her opinion, by showing how carefully she had read what she had reviewed. By several authors we have been favoured with letters of this description; and their publication here would have been a gratifying duty, had the interest of the various subjects demanded the same remembrance which is due to the motive that prompted the criticism.

It will be enough to show her unweariedness in this respect, and how minutely she would discuss even the smallest contributions to the literature of the time, to refer to her numberless notes upon the publication of any magazine in which she happened