31 JANUARY 1885, Page 14

AN EMENDATION.

[re THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Could I have at all anticipated your 'need of praise for the Dedicatory Sonnet in my volume of " Florien," I should have.been more careful over the obscurities which may involve the end. In view of the uncertainty of terrestial things, may I, through you, submit to my readers the following reconstruc

tion?

Dear wife and perfe..7t friend ; my household queen, With watchful care making my home so dear, That all my work mere pastime doth appear,

If but thy fair face in my room be seen,

And the soft voice's music intervene Like Melody itself the brain to clear Of o'erspun tissue of thought's atmosphere

By gracious fancies where God's band bath been,—

Man cannot rise, or so I think, to heights Where spirits pure as thine unconscious move, Till that white Purity's exceeding lights The grosser spirit's earthy strain reprove, And the best angel of Jehovah's fights Arm us anew with His whole armour—Love.

—I am, Sir, ,te.,

Eastbourne, January :261b. HEamtN C. MERIVALE.