See him if you have opportunity: a man very easy to _see_
and get into flowing talk with; a man of much sharpness of
faculty, well tempered by several inches of "Christian _fat_" he
has upon his ribs for covering. One of the idlest, cheeriest,
most gifted of fat little men.
Tennyson has been here for three weeks; dining daily till he is
near dead;--setting out a Poem withal. He came in to us on
Sunday evening last, and on the preceding Sunday: a truly
interesting Son of Earth, and Son of Heaven,--who has almost lost
his way, among the will-o'-wisps, I doubt; and may flounder ever
deeper, over neck and nose at last, among the quagmires that
abound! I like him well; but can do next to nothing for him.
Milnes, with general co-operation, got him a Pension; and he has
bread and tobacco: but that is a poor outfit for such a soul.
He wants a _task;_ and, alas, that of spinning rhymes, and
naming it "Art" and "high Art," in a Time like ours, will never
furnish him.
For myself I have been entirely _idle,_--I dare not even say, too
abstrusely _occupied;_ for I have merely been _looking_ at the
Chaos even, not by any means working in it.
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