My wife desires her kindest love to Mrs. Butts, and I have permitted her to send it to you also.  We often wish that we could unite again in society, and hope that the time is not distant when we shall do so, being determined not to remain another winter here, but to return to London.

I hear a Voice you cannot hear, that says I must not stay, I see a Hand you cannot see, that beckons me away.

Naked we came here—­naked of natural things—­and naked we shall return:  but while clothed with the Divine mercy, we are richly clothed in spiritual, and suffer all the rest gladly.  Pray, give my love to Mrs. Butts and your family.

PS.  Your obliging proposal of exhibiting my two pictures likewise calls for my thanks; I will finish the others, and then we shall judge of the matter with certainty.

To THE SAME

The wonderful poem

(Felpham), 25 April, 1803.

MY DEAR SIR,

I write in haste, having received a pressing letter from my Brother.  I intended to have sent the Picture of the Riposo, which is nearly finished much to my satisfaction, but not quite.  You shall have it soon.  I now send the four numbers for Mr. Birch with best respects to him.  The reason the Ballads have been suspended is the pressure of other business, but they will go on again soon.

Accept of my thanks for your kind and heartening letter.  You have faith in the endeavours of me, your weak brother and fellow-disciple; how great must be your faith in our Divine Master!  You are to me a lesson of humility, while you exalt me by such distinguishing commendations.  I know that you see certain merits in me, which, by God’s grace, shall be made fully apparent and perfect in Eternity.  In the meantime I must not bury the talents in the earth, but do my endeavour to live to the glory of our Lord and Saviour; and I am also grateful to the kind hand that endeavours to lift me out of despondency, even if it lifts me too high.

And now, my dear Sir, congratulate me on my return to London with the full approbation of Mr. Hayley and with promise.  But alas! now I may say to you—­what perhaps I should not dare to say to anyone else—­that I can alone carry on my visionary studies in London unannoyed, and that I may converse with my friends in Eternity, see visions, dream dreams, and prophesy and speak parables, unobserved, and at liberty from the doubts of other mortals:  perhaps doubts proceeding from kindness; but doubts are always pernicious, especially when we doubt our friends.  Christ is very decided on this point:  ’He who is not with me is against me.’  There is no medium or middle state; and if a man is the enemy of my spiritual life while he pretends to be the friend of my corporeal, he is a real enemy; but the man may be the friend of my spiritual life while he seems the enemy of my corporeal, though not vice versa.