. . . I have just been reading the great Library of Athanasius. {114c}
Certainly only you and I and Thackeray understand it. When men like
Spedding quote to me such a passage as 'Athanasius alas is innocent of
many smiles, etc.,' they shew me they don't understand it. The beauty--if
one may dare to define--lies more in such expressions as 'adjusting the
beaks of the macaws, etc.' I have laughed outright (how seldom one does
this alone!) at the Bishops' meeting. 'Mr. Talboys--that candle behind
Dr. Allnut--really that I should be obliged--.' I suppose this would be
the most untranslateable book in the world. I never shall forget how I
laughed when I first read it.
[GELDESTONE HALL, 22 _May_ 1842.]