fill my vacuum with some lines that General Conway has sent me, written by I know not whom, on Mrs. Harte, Sir William Hamilton’s pantomime mistress, or wife, who acts all the antique statues in an Indian shawl.  I have not seen her yet, so am no judge; but people are mad about her wonderful expression, which I do not conceive; so few antique statues having any expression at all, nor being designed to have it.  The Apollo has the symptoms of dignified anger:(818) the Laocoon and his sons, and Niobe and her family,(819) are all expression;’ and a few more:  but what do the Venuses, Floras, Hercules, and a thousand others tell, but the magic art of the sculptor, and their own graces and proportions?

I have been making up some pills of patience, to be taken occasionally, when you have begun your journey, and I do not receive your letters regularly; which may happen when you are .on the road.  I recommend you to St. James of Compost-antimony, to whom St. Luke was an ignorant quack.  Adieu!

(817) “The Marquis de Bouill`e, in order to draw upon himself the indignation of the Assembly, addressed to it a letter, which might be called mad, but for the generous motive which dictated it.  He avowed himself the sole author of the King’s journey, though, on the contrary, he had opposed it.  He declared, in the name of the Sovereign, that Paris should be responsible for the safety of the Royal Family, and that the slightest injury offered to them should be signally avenged.  The Assembly winked at this generous bravado, and threw the whole blame on Bouill`e; who had nothing to fear, for he was already abroad.”  Thiers, vol. i. p. 197.-E.

(818) “In his eye And nostril beautiful disdain, and might And majesty, flash their full lightnings by, Developing in that one glance the Deity.”  Byron.-E.

(819) “Go see
Laocoon’s torture dignifying pain—­
A father’s love and mortal’s agony
With an immortal’s patience blending:—­Vain
The struggle:  vain against the coiling strain
And gripe, and deepening of the dragon’s grasp,
The old man’s clench, the long envenom’d chain
Rivets the living links,—­the enormous asp
Enforces pang on pang, and stifles gasp on gasp.”  Ibid.-E.

Letter 388 To The Miss Berrys.  Berkeley Square, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 1791. (page 516)

I am come to town to meet Mr. Conway and Lady Ailesbury; and, as I have no letter from you yet to answer, I will tell you how agreeably I have passed the last three days; though they might have been improved had you shared them, as I wished, and as I sometimes do wish.  On Saturday evening I was at the Duke of Queensberry’s (at Richmond, s’entend) with a small company:  and there were Sir William Hamilton and Mrs. Harte; who, on the 3d of next month, previous to their departure, is to be made Madame l’Envoy`ee `a Naples, the Neapolitan Queen having promised to receive her in that quality.  Here she cannot