"  To  iValler  Savage  Landor,  Esqre."


410  THE    IMAGINARY   CONVERSATIONS. [^-aa"

my  admiration  for  Landor'a  genius,  I  must  decline  all  future  concern
with  bis  works  ;  but  1  doubt  not  another  publisher  will  readily  now
be  found. Even  the  timid  firm  of  Longmans,  who  once,  1  believe,
published  for  him,  would  probably  be  tempted  now."  Nor  was  it  the
worst  part  of  his  letter  where  he  thanked  Hare  for  having  defended
him  even  before  lie  could  himself  be  heard. "You  have  done  me,
on  a  trying  occasion,  the  most  important  service  I  ever  received,  and
I  cannot  but  henceforth  regard  you  as  a  friend  whose  esteem  1  hope
never  to  forfeit. 1  ought  not  to  have  been  afraid,  knowing  you  ;  but
.somehow  I  never  expect  any  high  degree  of  virtue  from  my  fellow-
creatures. This  arises  perhaps  from  my  never  having  put  it  to  the
test  before. 1  always  dreaded  making  the  experiment ;  henceforth  I
shall  take  a  higher  standard."

Writing  again  from  Trinity  College  on  Sunday  the  24th  April,  Hare
sent  this  letter  to  Landor,  telling  him  that  he  would  see  from  it  how
much  pain  he  had  been  giving  to  a  most  simple-hearted  and  amiable
man. He  would  also,  Hare  trusted,  have  become  convinced  how  fu-
tile had  been  the  grounds  of  his  indignation  ;  and  he  would  be  thank-
ful that  his  friend  had  had  it  in  his  power  not  to  suffer  the  wound
to  rankle,  but  could  instantly  soothe  and  heal  it. "  You  say,  in  the
conversation  on  the  death  of  the  grand-duke,  'Lose  nothing,  as  you
hope  for  heaven,  of  that  which  may  give  you  a  better  opinion  of
your  fellow-creatures,  —  a  just  and  noble  one  of  God's  great  work.'
The  principle  is  a  truly  beautiful  one,  and  I  rejoice  much  in  having
been  the  means  of  leading  Taylor  towards  it. 0  that  you  yourself
would  more  regularly  act  according  to  it,  and  believe,  when  you  see
something  that  appears  not  quite  right,  that  it  may  as  often  be  a
mistake  as  a  misdeed  !  "  Beneath  all  Landor'a  wild  irascibility  there
was  a  noble  nature. He  accepted  silently  this  wise  rebuke. Taylors
imed  censorship  of  his  writings  remained  still  a  point  of  offence
which  Hare  had  too  lightly  passed  over  ;  but  not  another  complaint
was  made  by  hijn. 