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possibly, fix on any Plan of Conduct towards you, that would entirely tranquillize my Mind. This I should not so much regard, were it not for very particular Circumstances.

I have still so much of my original Heroic spirit, that I would not shrink from any Inquietude or Pain, by which I could contribute to your Health or Comfort, if such Inquietude & Pain would not necessarily produce Consequences that You, (I am sure) of all persons living, would most wish to prevent – I mean those of injuring materially my unsettled Health, & involving me in various distresses.

To explain this, I must enter a little into my literary History, woeful as it is – It will not surprise you to hear, that I have made repeated attempts to reinforce my petty Exchequer with dramatic supplies¸& with my antient Success – This long series of disappointments has involved me in some debt & still more anxiety of spirits, both which I hope, in some degree, to remedy by devoting the next year to as much calm & retired study in this my favourite Retreat, as my Brains will bear; & the more so, as I have promised to execute, by the beginning of the Winter, a new Life of Milton, for a splendid Edition of the divine Bard, which is to appear as a Companion to the Boydelian Shakespeare.—

Now I confess to you very frankly, that I could not execute a page of this Work, were you to pass the Time you mention, or even arrive, this Summer in Sussex; I will only say on this subject in the Words of your acquaintance the old Lion, “Sensation is Sensation”