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　　LETTER 63

　　CHARLES LAMB TO THOMAS MANNING

　　[P.M. August 11, 1800.]

　　My dear fellow (N.B. mighty familiar of late!) for me to come to Cambridge now is one of God Almighty's impossibilities. Metaphysicians tell us, even He can work nothing which implies a contradiction. I can explain this by telling you that I am engaged to do double duty (this hot weather!) for a man who has taken advantage of this very weather to go and cool himself in "green retreats" all the month of August.

　　But for you to come to London instead!—muse upon it, revolve it, cast it about in your mind. I have a bed at your command. You shall drink rum, brandy, gin, aqua-vitae, usquebaugh, or whiskey a' nights; and for the after-dinner trick I have eight bottles of genuine port, which, if mathematically divided, gives 1-1/7 for every day you stay, provided you stay a week. Hear John Milton sing,

　　"Let Euclid rest and Archimedes pause."

　　Twenty-first Sonnet.

　　And elsewhere,—

　　"What neat repast shall feast us, light 注释标题 We poets generally give light dinners. and choice,

　　Of Attic taste, with wine, 注释标题 No doubt the poet here alludes to port wine at 38s. the dozen. whence we may rise

　　To hear the lute well touch'd, or artful voice

　　Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air?"

　　Indeed, the poets are full of this pleasing morality—

　　"Veni cito, Domine Manning!"

　　Think upon it. Excuse the paper: it is all I have.

　　N.B.—I lives at No. 27 Southampton Buildings, Holborn.

　　C. LAMB. The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5