Tuesday. July 12.
Went into the Library to try to rationalize my mind about the deathwatch,—by reading the Cyclopœdia. Feel very unwell today, & nervous. Read the mysteries of Udolpho—by way of quieting my imagination? & heard the boys read Homer & Zenophon—& read some of Hugo Victor’s & Lamartine’s poetry—his last song of Childe Harold.[1] Miss Steers kindly sent a packet of French poetry to Mr. Boyd’s for me yesterday. Le dernier chant wants the Byronic character (—an inevitable want for a French composition—) and is not quite equal even to Lamartine. No letter!!—
1. Alphonse Marie Louis de Lamartine, Le Dernier Chant du Pèlerinage d’Harold (Paris, 1825).
