ner for me? Yet it is a certain, undeniable truth, which this personal famine has revealed to me, that most people on this terraqueous globe eat too much. Which it is, and nothing else, that makes them stupid, as also unphilosophic. To be a philosopher it is absolutely necessary to be famished. My intellect is far too electric in its speed, and its growth of flying armies of thoughts eternally new. I could spare enough to fit out a nation. This secret lies-not, observe, in my hair; cutting off that does no harm; it lies in my want of dinner, as also of breakfast and supper. Being famished, I shall show this world of ours in the next five years something that it never saw before. But if I had a regular dinner, I should sink into the general stupidity of my beloved human brethren.

JOHN KEATS TO JOHN HAMILTON REYNOLDS.

TEIGNMOUTH, April 9, 1818.

Since you all agree that the thing* is bad, it must be so, though I am not aware there is any thing like Hunt in it (and if there is, it is my natural way, and I have something in common with Hunt). Look it over again, and ex

* His first preface to “Endymion.”

amine into the motives, the seeds, from which any one sentence sprung.

I have not the slightest feel of humility towards the public, or to any thing in existence but the Eternal Being, the Principle of Beauty, and the Memory of great Men. When I am writing for myself, for the mere sake of the moment's enjoyment, perhaps nature has its course with me; but a Preface is written to the public-a thing I cannot help looking upon as an enemy, and which I cannot address without feelings of hostility. If I write a Preface in a supple or subdued style, it will not be in character with me as a public speaker.

I would be subdued before my friends, and thank them for subduing me; but among multitudes of men I have no feel of stooping; I hate the idea of humility to them.

I never wrote one single line of poetry with the least shadow of public thought.

Forgive me for vexing you and making a Trojan horse of such a trifle, both with respect to the matter in question and myself; but it eases me to tell you: I could not live without the love of my friends; I would jump down Ætna for any great public good, but I hate a

mawkish popularity. I cannot be subdued before them. My glory would be to daunt and dazzle the thousand jabberers about pictures and books. .

JOHN KEATS TO JOHN TAYLOR.

TEIGNMOUTH, April 27, 1818.

I was proposing to travel over the North this summer. There is but one thing to prevent me. I know nothing, I have read nothing, and I mean to follow Solomon's directions; "Get learning; get understanding." I find earlier. days are gone by; I find that I can have no enjoyment in the world but continual drinking of knowledge; I find there is no worthy pursuit but the idea of doing some good to the world. Some do it with their society; some with their wit; some with their benevolence; some with a sort of power of conferring pleasure and good humor on all they meet, and in a thousand ways, all dutiful to the command of great Nature. There is but one way for me. The road lies through application, study, and thought. I will pursue it, and for that end purpose retiring for some years. I have been hovering for some time between an exquisite

sense of the luxurious, and a love for philosophy. Were I calculated for the former, I should be glad. But as I am not, I shall turn all my soul to the latter.

JOHN KEATS TO JAMES AUGUSTUS HESSEY.

October 9, 1818.

Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works. My own domestic criticism has given me pain without comparison beyond what Blackwood or the Quarterly could possibly inflict, and also when I feel I am right, no external praise can give me such a glow as my own solitary reperception and ratification of what is fine. J. S. is perfectly right in regard to the "slip-shod 'Endymion.' That it is so is no fault of mine. No! though it may sound a little paradoxical, it is as good as I had power to make it by myself. Had I been nervous about its being a perfect piece, and with that view asked advice, and trembled over every page, it would not have been written; for it is not in my nature to fumble. I will write independently. I have written independently with

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out judgment. I may write independently and with judgment, hereafter. The Genius of Poetry must work out its own salvation in a man. cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself. That which is creative must create itself. In "Endymion " I leaped headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks than if I had stayed upon the green shore and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice. I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.

JOHN KEATS TO WILLIAM REYNOLDS.

WINCHESTER, August 25, 1819. By this post I write to Rice, who will tell you why we have left Shanklin, and how we like the place. I have indeed scarcely any thing else to say, leading so monotonous a life, unless I was to give you a history of sensations and day nightmares. You would not find me at all unhappy in it, as all my thoughts and feelings, which are of the selfish nature, home speculations, every day continue to make me