Have you read 'Zanoni'? And do you relish the gathering up of dropped (or strewed) Platonisms, & forming them into such a crown of glory, - of holy radiance, as the moral of that book? Nothing wd. beforehand have persuaded me that such an allegory as that wd. be given us in our day, - though I had caught glimpses in Bulwer's mind of higher powers & better thoughts than he had been used to give out. But this book is such a spring above all his former efforts - such a soaring - as has surprised me: - & others, to judge by the pertinacity of some people in declaring that he cd. not have meant the allegory we hold between our hands; - a thing they might as well say of the maker of a clock, or a county map.