I wish he may recover--not for _our_ dinner's sake, but
to disappoint the undertaker, and the rascally reptiles that may well
wait, since they _will_ dine at last.
Gell called--he of Troy--after I was out. Mem.--to return his visit.
But my Mems. are the very landmarks of forgetfulness;--something like a
light-house, with a ship wrecked under the nose of its lantern. I never
look at a Mem. without seeing that I have remembered to forget. Mem.--I
have forgotten to pay Pitt's taxes, and suppose I shall be surcharged.
"An I do not turn rebel when thou art king "--oons! I believe my very
biscuit is leavened with that impostor's imposts.
Lady Melbourne returns from Jersey's to-morrow;--I must call. A Mr.
Thomson has sent a song, which I must applaud. I hate annoying them with
censure or silence;--and yet I hate _lettering_.
Saw Lord Glenbervie [3] and this Prospectus, at Murray's, of a new
Treatise on Timber. Now here is a man more useful than all the
historians and rhymers ever planted. For, by preserving our woods and
forests, he furnishes materials for all the history of Britain worth
reading, and all the odes worth nothing.
Redde a good deal, but desultorily. My head is crammed with the most
useless lumber. It is odd that when I do read, I can only bear the
chicken broth of--_any thing_ but Novels. It is many a year since I
looked into one, (though they are sometimes ordered, by way of
experiment, but never taken,) till I looked yesterday at the worst parts
of the _Monk_.
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