On the subject of your letter—­quite irrespective of the injunction in it—­I would not have dared speak; now, at least.  But I may permit myself, perhaps, to say I am most grateful, most grateful, dearest friend, for this admission to participate, in my degree, in these feelings.  There is a better thing than being happy in your happiness; I feel, now that you teach me, it is so.  I will write no more now; though that sentence of ’what you are expecting,—­that I shall be tired of you &c.,’—­though I could blot that out of your mind for ever by a very few words now,—­for you would believe me at this moment, close on the other subject:—­but I will take no such advantage—­I will wait.

I have many things (indifferent things, after those) to say; will you write, if but a few lines, to change the associations for that purpose?  Then I will write too.—­

May God bless you,—­in what is past and to come!  I pray that from my heart, being yours

R.B.

E.B.B. to R.B.

Wednesday Morning,
[Post-mark, August 27, 1845.]

But your ‘Saul’ is unobjectionable as far as I can see, my dear friend.  He was tormented by an evil spirit—­but how, we are not told ... and the consolation is not obliged to be definite, ... is it?  A singer was sent for as a singer—­and all that you are called upon to be true to, are the general characteristics of David the chosen, standing between his sheep and his dawning hereafter, between innocence and holiness, and with what you speak of as the ’gracious gold locks’ besides the chrism of the prophet, on his own head—­and surely you have been happy in the tone and spirit of these lyrics ... broken as you have left them.  Where is the wrong in all this?  For the right and beauty, they are more obvious—­and I cannot tell you how the poem holds me and will not let me go until it blesses me ... and so, where are the ‘sixty lines’ thrown away?  I do beseech you ... you who forget nothing, ... to remember them directly, and to go on with the rest ... as directly (be it understood) as is not injurious to your health.  The whole conception of the poem, I like ... and the execution is exquisite up to this point—­and the sight of Saul in the tent, just struck out of the dark by that sunbeam, ‘a thing to see,’ ... not to say that afterwards when he is visibly ‘caught in his fangs’ like the king serpent, ... the sight is grander still.  How could you doubt about this poem....

At the moment of writing which, I receive your note.  Do you receive my assurances from the deepest of my heart that I never did otherwise than ’believe’ you ... never did nor shall do ... and that you completely misinterpreted my words if you drew another meaning from them.  Believe me in this—­will you?  I could not believe you any more for anything you could say, now or hereafter—­and so do not avenge yourself on my unwary sentences by remembering them against me for evil.  I did not mean to vex you ... still less to suspect you—­indeed I did not! and moreover it was quite your fault that I did not blot it out after it was written, whatever the meaning was.  So you forgive me (altogether) for your own sins:  you must:—­