am going to spend this evening with her, and wish you were to be with us.’
‘Cambridge, Jan. 3, 1828. — I am reading Sir William
Temple's works, with great pleasure. Such enlarged
views are rarely to be found combined with such acuteness
and discrimination. His style, though diffuse, is
never verbose or overloaded, but beautifully expressive ;
’tis English, too, though he was an accomplished linguist,
and wrote much and well in French, Spanish, and Latin.
The latter he used, as he says of the Bishop of
Munster, (with whom he corresponded in that tongue,)
“more like a man of the court and of business than a
scholar.” He affected not Augustan niceties, but his
expressions are free and appropriate. I have also read
a most entertaining book, which I advise you to read,
(if you have not done so already,) Russell's Tour in
Germany. There you will find more intelligent and detailed
accounts than I have seen anywhere of the state of the
German universities, Viennese court, secret associations,
Plica Polonica, and other very interesting matters.
There is a minute account of the representative
government given to his subjects by the Duke of
Weimar. I have passed a luxurious afternoon, having
been in bed from dinner till tea, reading Rammohun
Roy’s book, and framing dialogues aloud on every
argument beneath the sun. Really, I have not had my
mind so exercised for months; and I have felt a
gladiatorial disposition lately, and don’t enjoy mere light
conversation. The love of knowledge is prodigiously
kindled within my soul of late; I study much and reflect
more, and feel an aching wish for some person with
whom I might talk fully and openly.