“And for the remnant which may be to come
      I am content; and for the past I feel
      Not thankless,—­for within the crowded sum
      Of struggles, happiness at times would steal,
      And for the present, I would not benumb
      My feelings farther.—­Nor shall I conceal
      That with all this I still can look around
    And worship Nature with a thought profound.

      “For thee, my own sweet sister, in thy heart
      I know myself secure, as thou in mine: 
      We were and are—­I am, even as thou art—­
      Beings who ne’er each other can resign;
      It is the same, together or apart,
      From life’s commencement to its slow decline
      We are entwined—­let death come slow or fast,
    The tie which bound the first endures the last!”

[Footnote 125:  “Admiral Byron was remarkable for never making a voyage without a tempest.  He was known to the sailors by the facetious name of ‘Foul-weather Jack.’

    “But, though it were tempest-tost,
    Still his bark could not be lost.

He returned safely from the wreck of the Wager (in Anson’s Voyage), and subsequently circumnavigated the world, many years after, as commander of a similar expedition.”]

[Footnote 126:  The lake of Newstead Abbey.]

* * * * *

In the month of August, Mr. M.G.  Lewis arrived to pass some time with him; and he was soon after visited by Mr. Richard Sharpe, of whom he makes such honourable mention in the Journal already given, and with whom, as I have heard this gentleman say, it now gave him evident pleasure to converse about their common friends in England.  Among those who appeared to have left the strongest impressions of interest and admiration on his mind was (as easily will be believed by all who know this distinguished person) Sir James Mackintosh.

Soon after the arrival of his friends, Mr. Hobhouse and Mr. S. Davies, he set out, as we have seen, with the former on a tour through the Bernese Alps,—­after accomplishing which journey, about the beginning of October he took his departure, accompanied by the same gentleman, for Italy.

The first letter of the following series was, it will be seen, written a few days before he left Diodati.

LETTER 247.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “Diodati, Oct. 5. 1816.

     “Save me a copy of ‘Buck’s Richard III.’ republished by Longman;
     but do not send out more books, I have too many.

“The ‘Monody’ is in too many paragraphs, which makes it unintelligible to me; if any one else understands it in the present form, they are wiser; however, as it cannot be rectified till my return, and has been already published, even publish it on in the collection—­it will fill up the place of the omitted epistle.

     “Strike out ‘by request of a friend,’ which is sad trash, and must
     have been done to make it ridiculous.