Among the frequent guests are known to you Mr. and Mrs. Cranch, Mr. and Mrs. Story.  Mr. S. has finally given up law, for the artist’s life.  His plans are not matured, but he passes the winter at Rome.

On other evenings, I do not receive company, unless by appointment.  I spend them chiefly in writing or study.  I have now around me the books I need to know Italy and Rome.  I study with delight, now that I can verify everything.  The days are invariably fine, and each day I am out from eleven till five, exploring some new object of interest, often at a great distance.

TO R.W.E.

Rome, Dec. 20, 1847.—­Nothing less than two or three years, free from care and forced labor, would heal all my hurts, and renew my life-blood at its source.  Since Destiny will not grant me that, I hope she will not leave me long in the world, for I am tired of keeping myself up in the water without corks, and without strength to swim.  I should like to go to sleep, and be born again into a state where my young life should not be prematurely taxed.

Italy has been glorious to me, and there have been hours in which I received the full benefit of the vision.  In Rome, I have known some blessed, quiet days, when I could yield myself to be soothed and instructed by the great thoughts and memories of the place.  But those days are swiftly passing.  Soon I must begin to exert myself, for there is this incubus of the future, and none to help me, if I am not prudent to face it.  So ridiculous, too, this mortal coil,—­such small things!

I find how true was the lure that always drew me towards Europe.  It was no false instinct that said I might here find an atmosphere to develop me in ways I need.  Had I only come ten years earlier!  Now my life must be a failure, so much strength has been wasted on abstractions, which only came because I grew not in the right soil.  However, it is a less failure than with most others, and not worth thinking twice about.  Heaven has room enough, and good chances in store, and I can live a great deal in the years that remain.

TO R.W.E.

Rome, Dec. 20, 1847.—­I don’t know whether you take an interest in the present state of things in Italy, but you would if you were here.  It is a fine time to see the people.  As to the Pope, it is as difficult here as elsewhere to put new wine into old bottles, and there is something false as well as ludicrous in the spectacle of the people first driving their princes to do a little justice, and then evviva-ing them at such a rate.  This does not apply to the Pope; he is a real great heart, a generous man.  The love for him is genuine, and I like to be within its influence.  It was his heart that gave the impulse, and this people has shown, to the shame of English and other prejudice, how unspoiled they were at the core, how open, nay, how wondrous swift to answer a generous appeal!