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In a Letter to B.F. Esq. at Sydney, New South Wales My dear F. -- When I think how wele the sight of a letter frothe world where you were born st be to you in that strange oo which you hae been transpnted, I feel so punctious isitings at long silence. But, indeed, it is no easy effort to set about rresponde our distahe weary world of waters between us oppresses the igination. It is difficu to ceie how a scrawl of ne should eer stretch across it. It is a sort of presution to epect that ohoughts should lie so far. It is like writing for posterity: and rends of one of Mrs. Rowes superscriptions, quot;Alder to Strephon, in the shades.quot; wleys Post-Angel is han would be epedient in su inturse. One drops a packet at Loard- street, and iy-four hours a friend in Cuers it as fresh as if it ca i is only like whispering through a long truet. But suppose a tube let down frothe on, with yourself at one end, and the n at the other; it would be so balk to the spirit of ersation, if you khat the dialogue eged with that iing theosophist would take two or three reolutions of a higher lunary in its passage. Yet fht I know, you y be so parasangs hat pritie idea -- Ptos n -- than we in Engnd here hae the honour to re ourseles.
Epistory tter usually priseth three topiews, se, and puns. Iter, I include all non-serious subjects; or subjects serious in theeles, but treated after fashion, nonseriously. -- And first, for news. Ihe st desirable circe, I suppose, is that they shall be true. But what security I hae that what I now send you for truth shall not before you get it unatably turn into a lie? For instanutual friend P. is at this present writing -- Now -- in good heah, and enjoys a fair share of worldly reputation. Yd to hear it. This is natural and friendly. But at this present reading -- your Now -- he y possibly be in the Bench, oing to be hanged, whi reason ought to abate sothing of your transport (i.e. at hearing he was well, c.), or at least siderably to dify it. I agoing to the py this eening, to hae a ugh with Munden. You hae no theatre, I think you told , in your nd of d---d realities. You naturally lick your lips, and eny felicity. Think but a nt, and you wilrrect the hateful etion. Why, it is Sunday with you, and 1823. This fusion of tehis grand solecisof two presents, is in a degree on to all postage. But if I sent you word to Bath or the Deises, that I eg the aforesaid treat this eening, though at the nt you receied the intelligenbsp; full feast of fun would be oer, yet there would be for a day or two after, as you would well know, a sck, a relish left upon ntal pate, which would gie rational e for you to foster a portion at least of the disagreeable passion, which it was in part iion to produce. But ten nths hence your eny or yt;?;/abbrur syathy would be as useless as a passio upon the dead. Not only does truth, in these long interals, un-essence herself, but (what is harder) o enture a crude fi for the fear that it y ripen into a truth upon the oyage. What a wild irobable banter I put upon you so three years since -- - of Will Weatherall haing rried a serant-id! I reer graely suing you hoere to receie her -- for Wills wife was in no case to be rejected; and your no less serious replication iter; how tenderly you adised an absteous introdu of literary topics before the dy, with a caution not to be too forward in bringing on the carpet tters re within the sphere of her intelligence; your deliberate judgnt, or rather wise suspension of sentence, how far jacks, and spits, and psuld with propriety be introduced as subjects; whether the scious aoiding of all such tters in durse would not hae a worse look thaaking of thecasually in our way; in what nner we should carry ourseles to our id Becky, Mrs WilliaWeatherall being by; whether we should show re delicacy, and a truer sense of respect for Wills wife, by treating Becky with our ary chiding before her, or by an unusual deferential ciility paid to Becky as to a person of great worth, but thrown by the caprice of fate into a hule station. There were difficuies, I reer, on both sides, which you did the faour to state with the precision of a wyer, uo the tenderness of a friend. I ughed in sleee at your sole pleadings, when lo! while I was aluing self upon this fput upon you in New South Wales, the deil in Engnd, jealous possibly of any lie -- children not his own, or w after y, has actually instigated our friend (not three days sio the ission of a triny, which I had only jured up for your diersion. WilliaWeatherall has rried Mrs tterels id. But to take it in its truest sense, you will see, dear F., that news fro st bee history to you; which I her profess to write, nor indeed care;u藏书网;/u ch for reading. No person, under a diiner, with any prospect of eracity duct rresponde su ar length. Two prophets, indeed, ght thus interge intelligeh effect; the epoch of the writer (Habbakuk) falling in with the true present ti of the receier (Daniel); but then we are no prophets.
Then as to se. It fares little better with that. This kind of dish, aboe all, requires to be sered up hot; or sent off in water-ptes, that your friend y hae it alst as waras yourself. If it hae ti tol, it is the st tasteless of all eats. I hae ofte a ceit of the te Lord C. It see that traelling sowhere about Genea, he ca to so pretty green spot, or nook, where a willow, or sothing hung so fantastically and initingly oer a strea-- was it ? or a rock ? -- no tter -- but the stillness and the repose, after a weary jouris likely, in a nguid nt of his lordships hot restless life, so took his fancy, that huld igine no pce so proper, in the eent of his death, to y his bones in. This was all ery natural and ecusable as a se, and shows his character in a ery pleasing light. But when froa passiint it ca to be an act; and when, by a positie testantary disposal, his reins were actually carried all that way froEngnd; who was there, so desperate sealists ecepted, that did not ask the question, Whuld not his lordship hae found a spot as solitary, a nook as rontic, a tree as green and pe, with a streaas eletic to his purpose, in Surrey, in Dorset, or in Deohe se boarded up, freighted, e the House (startling the tide-waiters with the y), hoisted into a ship. ceie it pawed about and handled between the rude jests of tarpaulin ruffians -- a thing of its delicate teture -- the sa bilge wetting it till it beca as apid as a daged lustring. Suppose it in terial danger (riners hae so superstition about ses) of being tossed oer in a fresh gale to so propitiatory shark (spirit of Saint Gothard, sae us froa quietus sn to the deisers purpose!) but it has happily eaded a fishy tion. Trace it then to its luding -- at Lyons shall we say ? -- I hae not the p before -- jostled upon four ns shoulders -- baiting at this town -- stopping to refresh at te -- waiting a passport her;q;/qe, a lise there; the san of the gistra this district, the currence of the elesiasti that ton; till at length it arries at its destination, tired out and jaded, froa brisk se, into a feature of silly ride or tawdry senseless affectation. How few ses, dear F., I aafraid we set down, in the sailors phrase, as quite seaworthy.
Lastly, as to the agreeable leities, which, though ptible in bulk, are the twinklinrpuscu which should irradiate a right friendly epistle -- your puns and sll jests are, I appreherely circucribed in their sphere of a. They are so far froa capacity of being packed up a beyohey will scardure to be transported by hand frothis rooto the . Their igour is as the instant of their birth. Their nutrint for their brief eistence is the intellectual atsphere of the by-standers or this st, is the fine sli of Nilus -- the lior lutus, -- whose ternal recipiency is as necessary as the sol pater to their equiocal geion. A pun hath a hearty hind of present ear-kissing sck with it; you o re transt it in its pristine four, than you send a kiss, -- Hae you not tried in so instao paloff a yesterdays pun upon a gentlen, and has it answered? Not but it was o his hearing, but it did not seeto e new froyou. It did not hit. It was like pig up at a ilge ale-house a two days old neer. You hae not seen it before, but you resent the stale thing as an affront. This sort of rdise aboe all requires a quick return. A pun, and its reith, st be stantaneous. The one is the brisk lightning, the other the fierce thunder. A nts interal, and the link is snapped. A pun is reflected froa friends face as froa rror. Who would su his sweet isno, if the polished surface were two or three nutes (not to speak of twele-nths, dear F.) in giing back itpy?
I age to self whereabout you are. When I try to fi it, Peter Wilkinss isnd es ae. Sotis you seeto be in the Hades of Thiees. I see Diogenes prying ang you with his perpetual fruitless ntern. What st you be willing by this ti to gie for the sight of an ho n! You st alst hae fotten how we look. And tell , what your Sydes do? are they th***ng all day long? Merciful heaen! roperty stand against such a depredation! The kangaroos -- your Abines -- do they keep their pritie silicity un-Europe-tainted, with those little short fore-puds, looking like a lesson frad by nature to the pickpocket! Marry, for diing into fobs they are rather ly proided a priori; but if the hue and cry were once up, they would show as fair a pair of hind- shifters as the epertest lootor in the y. -- We hear the st irobable tales at this distance. Pray, is it true that the young Spartans ang you are born with si fingers, which spoils their sing ? -- It st look ery odd; but use reciles. For their ssion, it is less to be regretted, for if they take it into their heads to be poets, it is odds but they turn out, the greater art of the ile pgiarists. -- Is there ch differeo see to between the son of a th**f, and the grandson? or where does the taint stop? Do you blea three or in feions? -- I hae ny questions to put, but ten Delphic oyages be de in a shorter ti than it will take to satisfy scruples. -- Do you grow your own he ? -- What is your staple trade, eclusie of the national profession, I an? Your lock-sths, I take it, are so of yreat capitalists.
I ainsensibly chatting to you as faliarly as when we used to ege good-rrows out of our ol;ar?;/arntiguous windows, in pu-fad Harurt iele. Why did you eer leae that quiet er ? -- Why did I ? -- with its plent of four poor el, frowhose ske-dyed barks, the the of jesting ruralists, I picked first dy-birds! My heart is as dry as that spring sotis proes in a thirsty August, when I reert to the space that is between us; a length of passage enough to render obsolete the phrases of lish letters before they reach you. But while I talk, I think you hear , -- thoughts dallying with ain surse -
Aye ! while thee the seas and sounding shores Hold far away.
e back, before I agrown into a ery old n, so as you shall hardly know . e, before Bridget walks on crutches. Girls whoyou left children hae bee sage trons, while you are tarrying there. The bloong Miss W -- r (you reer Sally W -- r) called upon us yesterday, an aged e. Folks, whoyou knew, die off eery year. Forrly, I thought that death was wearing out, -- I stood raarted about with so hy friends. The departure of J. W., tws bacrrected delusion. Sihen the old diorcer has been busy. If you do not ke haste to return, there will be little left to greet you, of , or ne.
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