"he has been a fool all his life,-to un"learn all that he has been taught in "his youth? or can think that some of "the best men that ever lived have been "fools? I have often wished I had been "born a Catholic. That purgatory of "theirs is a comfortable doctrine; I won"der the reformers gave it up, or did "not substitute something as consolatory "in its room. It is an improvement on "the transmigration, Shelley, which all your wiseacre philosophers taught. 66 "You believe in Plato's three princi"ples;-why not in the Trinity? One "is not more mystical than the other. "I don't know why I am considered an enemy to religion, and an unbeliever. "I disowned the other day that I was "of Shelley's school in metaphysics, "though I admired his poetry; not but "what he has changed his mode of think 66 66 66 ing very much since he wrote the Notes "to 'Queen Mab,' which I was accused of having a hand in. I know, however, "that I am considered an infidel. My "wife and sister, when they joined par 66 ties, sent me prayer-books. There was "a Mr. Mulock, who went about the Con"tinent preaching orthodoxy in politics "and religion, a writer of bad sonnets, and a lecturer in worse prose,—he tried 66 66 to convert me to some new sect of 66 Christianity. He was a great anti-ma"terialist, and abused Locke." 66 On another occasion he said: "I ents. Here are three letters just ar 66 rived, from strangers all of them. One "is from a French woman, who has been 66 writing to me off and on for the last "three years. She is not only a blue 66 bottle, but a poetess, I suspect. Her object in addressing me now, she says, "is to get me to write on the loss of a slave-ship, the particulars of which she "details. 66 66 66 "The second epistle is short, and in a hand I know very well: it is anoHear what she says: "I nymous too. "cannot longer exist without acknow 66 66 ledging the tumultuous and agonizing delight with which my soul burns at "the glowing beauties of yours.' 66 "A third is of a very different charac ter from the last; it is from a Mr. "Sheppard, inclosing a prayer made for 66 my welfare by his wife a few days be"fore her death. The letter states that "he has had the misfortune to lose this "amiable woman, who had seen me at 66 66 Ramsgate, many years ago, rambling among the cliffs; that she had been impressed with a sense of my irreligion "from the tenor of my works, and had 66 66 often prayed fervently for my conver sion, particularly in her last moments. is beautifully written. I She must have "The prayer "like devotion in women. "been a divine creature. I pity the man "who has lost her! I shall write to him "by return of the courier, to console with 66 him, and tell him that Mrs. S "need not have entertained any concern "for my spiritual affairs, for that no man "is more of a Christian than I am, what "A circumstance took place in Greece "that impressed itself lastingly on my 66 66 memory. I had once thought of found ing a tale on it; but the subject is too harrowing for any nerves,-too terrible "for any pen! An order was issued at "Zanina by its sanguinary Rajah, that any Turkish woman convicted of inconti"nence with a Christian should be stoned "to death! Love is slow at calculat 66 ing dangers, and defies tyrants and their edicts; and many were the victims to "the savage barbarity of this of Ali's. 66 66 66 Among others a girl of sixteen, of a beauty such as that country only pro duces, fell under the vigilant eye of the |