LETTERS OF JOHN KEATS
64
[1818
up to the Writing of a Sonnet preparatory thereto in my next you shall have it. There were some miserable reports of Rice's health I went, and lo Master Jemmy had been to the play the night before, and was out at the time he always comes on his legs like a Cat. I have seen a good deal of WordsHazlitt is lecturing on Poetry at the Surrey worth. greatness of the thing
—
—
—
!
—
Institution
—
be there next Tuesday.
I shall
Your most
John Keats.
affectionate friend
XXXII.
—TO JOHN TAYLOE. [Hampstead, January 30, 1818.]
My
dear Taylor
— These
lines
about " happiness," have rung in a mending " See here,
—
now
stand
ears like " a
chime
as
my
they
" Behold
Wherein It appears to
lies
me
this will appear to
happiness, Peona
?
fold, etc.
I hope
the very contrary of blessed.
you more
eligible.
" Wherein lies Happiness ? In that which becks Our ready minds to fellowship divine,
A
fellowship with Essence till we shine Behold Full alchemised, and free of space The clear religion of Heaven fold, etc.
—
You must
indulge
me by
—
putting this
in,
aside the badness of the other, such a preface
for is
setting
necessary
The whole thing must, I think, have to the subject. appeared to you, who are a consecutive man, as a thing almost of mere words, but I assure you that, when I wrote it, it was a regular stepping of the Imagination My having written that argument will towards a truth. perhaps be of the greatest service to me of anything I ever did. It set before me the gradations of happiness, even like a kind of pleasure thermometer, and is my first step towards the chief attempt in the drama. The playing of different natures with joy and Sorrow