presence of heart

[eub]

letter of Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth, 9 August 1815:

We [Lamb and his sister] felt as if we had been not enough expressive of our pleasure. But our manners both are a little too much on this side of too-much-cordiality. We want presence of mind and presence of heart. What we feel comes too late, like an after thought impromptu. But perhaps you observed nothing of that which we have been painfully conscious of, and are, every day, in our intercourse with those we stand affected to through all the degrees of love.

Comments

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

I feel like that a lot.