TALBOT531

Brighton
March 26^th

My Dear Henry

Pray send me a description of your Fête ¹ yesterday, for which I hope you was [sic] in good time. I am not sure whether you meant that French book of yours to be sent back, but it went yesterday Evening with the Figs and Comb. I will now give you the Persian Fable you asked for, “A drop of water fell out of a cloud into the Sea, & finding itself lost in such an immensity of fluid matter, broke out into the following reflection, “Alas! what an insignificant creature am I, in this prodigious ocean of waters, my existence is of no concern to the Universe, & I am less than the least of the works of God” – it so happened that an Oyster which lay in the neighborhood of this Drop, chanced to swallow it in the midst of this humble soliloquy. The Drop lay a great while hardening in the shell, till by degrees it was ripened into a pearl, which is now that famous one fixed on the Diadem of the Sophi of Persia ².”

So you see Humility was rewarded by Distinction. Quicunque enim se evehit, deprimetur; quique se deprimit, is evehetur ³.

Direct your next to N^o 15 Steyne Place ⁴

Yours affectionately
E T Feilding

I hope you were not tired with your long walk yesterday

William Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
Rev^d D^r Hooker’s ⁵
Rotting Dean ⁶
Brighton March 26. 1811 – ⁷