“Your letter was not received till this morning, I presume from being addressed to me in Notts., where I have not resided since last June, and as the date is the 6th, you will excuse the delay of my answer.
“If the little volume you mention has given pleasure to the author of Percival and Aubrey, I am sufficiently repaid by his praise. Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess a tribute from a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering. But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, if I did not decline such praise as I do not deserve; and this is, I am sorry to say, the case in the present instance.
“My compositions speak for themselves, and must stand or fall
by their own worth or demerit: thus far I feel highly gratified
by your favourable opinion. But my pretensions to virtue are unluckily so few, that
though I should be happy to merit, I cannot accept, your applause in that respect. One
passage in your letter struck me forcibly: you mention the two Lords
Lyttleton in a manner they respectively deserve, and will be surprised to
hear the person who is now addressing you has been frequently compared to the latter. I know I am injuring myself
in your esteem by this avowal, but the circumstance was so remarkable from your
observation, that I cannot help relating the fact. The events of my short life have been
of so singular a nature, that, though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust
ever will, prevent me from disgracing my name by a mean or cowardly action, I have been
already held up as the votary of licentiousness, and, the disciple of infidelity. How
far justice may have dictated this accusation I cannot pretend to say, but, like the gentleman to whom my religious friends, in the warmth of their
charity, have already devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. However, to quit
myself (the worst theme I could pitch upon) and
| A. D. 1808. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 133 |
“Your name and connexion with our family have been long known to me, and I hope your person will be not less so; you will find me an excellent compound of a ‘Brainless’ and a ‘Stanhope*.’ I am afraid you will hardly be able to read this, for my hand is almost as bad as my character, but you will find me, as legibly as possible,
