Pictures I found but little time
for, yet enough to feel what they are now to be to me. I was only at
the Dulwich and National Galleries and Hampton Court. Also, have seen
the Vandykes, at Warwick; but all the precious private collections
I was obliged to leave untouched, except one of Turner's, to which I
gave a day. For the British Museum, I had only one day, which I spent
in the Greek and Egyptian Rooms, unable even to look at the vast
collections of drawings, &c. But if I live there a few months, I shall
go often. O, were life but longer, and my strength greater! Ever I am
bewildered by the riches of existence, had I but more time to open
the oysters, and get out the pearls. Yet some are mine, if only for a
necklace or rosary.
PARIS.
TO HER MOTHER.
_Paris, Dec. 26, 1846._--In Paris I have been obliged to give a
great deal of time to French, in order to gain the power of speaking,
without which I might as usefully be in a well as here. That has
prevented my doing nearly as much as I would. Could I remain six
months in this great focus of civilized life, the time would be all
too short for my desires and needs.
My Essay on American Literature has been translated into French, and
published in "La Revue Independante," one of the leading journals of
Paris; only, with that delight at manufacturing names for which the
French are proverbial, they put, instead of _Margaret_, _Elizabeth_.
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