Thus much I have said of myself by way of obtaining a
more ample account Q^yoursdfm return, the first hour you
can vanquish that unfortunate (mti-ccbcoeihea acrihendi with
which it is the &te of us both to be afflicted, and which I
fear neither brimstone nor scratching will ever cure.
The interest I have taken in the stupendous events on the
Continent, since I saw you, has been intense, and often of a
complaisant kind; because methinks I desciy, following on
the la^k of victorious armies, a legion of potential spirit,
brandishing — besoms, instead of arms, with which to dear
the world, preparatory to the solemn approach, appearance,
and advance of a 'Eew Order of Things. If the catastrophe
which Providence intends could ever be augured from the
first acts and scenes, surely the present aspects of things are
most luminously prophetic of events too mighty for any but
the later and revolutionary ages of the world.
Present my most friendly respects to Mrs. G. I was ex-
tremely glad to find her so well and so considerably happy
in a situation of which, so long as she retains it, I hope the
disagreeable circumstances will lessen, and the advantageous
ones be augmented ; and such a hope is certainly warranted
by the difference between what it was at first and what it is
made now. You will express to Bobert my sincerest wishes
for his success and happiness. If Hannah Fletcher is with
you, I would be remembered to her; and you will yourself
believe me yours, with unaltered friendship,

J. JFOSTEB.
II. — TO A FRIEND AT DOWNEND.
Frome, July 31, 1804.
