Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/114

96 officer, having overhauled the stock, cried out "What the hell shall we do with all these provisions?"

I did not intend to inflict all this nonsense upon you, but having begun to write, it seemed queer to send a mere note 5 or 6000 miles, and not say something about this country; so, having leisure, I let my pen run away with me. Fortunately you are not in any way called upon to read what I was not called upon to write.

I may be here for two or three months yet for all I know. I am, dear Sir, Yours truly, 1em

2nd April, 1873. To W. M. Rossetti, Esq.

Although I returned from my American trip about two months since, I have been so unsettled and occupied with a thousand nothings that I have scarcely looked at a book since my return.

I have at length managed to go pretty carefully through The Witch of Atlas and Epipsychidion, and herewith I send you a few notes thereon, which you must take for what they are worth. Although they are naturally very much like the notes of a reader for the press, whose special business it is to hunt out faults and ignore merits, you may be assured that I duly appreciate the great improvements you have made in the text.

While agreeing with you in ranking The Witch of Atlas very high, I cannot agree with you in preferring it