Forster， with his usual affection for us， comes down to bring you this letter and to bring you home.
come down to：歸結為；涉及
托馬斯·哈代致瑪麗·哈代
Thomas Hardy to Mary Hardy
托馬斯·哈代（1840—1928），英國小說家、詩人，1840年6月2日生於英國西南部的一個小村莊。哈代的文學生涯開始於詩歌，後因無緣發表，改而從事小說創作。他的第四部小說《遠離塵囂》（1874）讓他一舉成名。從此，他放棄建築行業，致力於小說創作。哈代一生共發表了近20部長篇小說，其中最著名的當推《德伯家的苔絲》、《無名的裘德》、《還鄉》和《卡斯特橋市長》。另有八部詩集，共918首。
My dear Mary，
I was beginning to think you had given up writing altogether when your letter came. Certainly try to get as long a time as you can Christmas.
I am glad you have been to Oxford again. It must be a jolly place. I shall try to get down there some time or other. You have no right to say that you are not connected with art. Everybody is， to a certain extent； the only difference between a professor and an amateur being is that the former has the (often disagreeable) necessity of making it to earning bread and cheese—and thus often rendering what is a pleasure to other people but a "bore" to himself.
About Thackeray， you must read something of his. He is considered to be the greatest novelist of the day—looking at novel writing of the highest kind as a perfect and truthful representation of actual life—which is no doubt the proper view to take. Hence， because his novels stand so high as works of Art or Truth， they often have anything but an elevating tendency， and on this account are particularly unfitted for young people—from their very truthfulness. People say that it is beyond Mr. Thackeray to paint a perfect man or woman—a great fault if novels are intended to instruct， but just the opposite if they are to be considered merely as Pictures. Vanity Fair is considered one of his best.