LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1839
Sydney Smith to Harriet Grote, 16 July 1839
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
GO TO PAGE NUMBER:
Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
Creative Commons License

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Produced by CATH
 
33, Charles-street, July 16th, 1839.
Dear Mrs. Grote,

I am very sorry you have suffered so much; mine is not society sorrow, but real sorrow. If there is a real sign of a fool, it is to offer a remedy. Aconitine—why do you so despise it as not to ask a question about it?

I am truly glad you like what I have written; then I have not written in vain. I send you a criticism on my three volumes, which, I confess, gave me a great deal of pleasure; pray return it to me. I have not the smallest idea who wrote it; but it is evidently
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.421
written (my own vanity apart) by a very sensible man, and a good writer. Whether I have done what he says I have done, and am what he says I am, I do not know; but he has justly stated what I always aimed at, and what I wished to be. If I did not think you a very sensible woman, I would not run the risk of your thinking me vain; but I honestly confess that the praise and approbation of wise men is to me a very great pleasure.

I went last night to attend Mrs. Sydney to the Eruption of Hecla at the Surrey Zoological; we saw a pasteboard mountain, ejecting crackers and squibs. The long standing has given me a fit of the gout, and that renders it rather doubtful whether we can come to you; but if I am well enough, we shall be most happy to do so. Let nothing ever persuade you to go to the Surrey Zoological in the evening. Mr. Grote’s subjects were intolerable.

I did not know Charles Austin was a sayer of good things; he has always seemed to me as something much better. Yours,

Sydney Smith.