“The time seems to be past when (as Dr. Johnson said) a man was certain to ‘hear the
truth from his bookseller,’ for you have paid me so many compliments, that, if I
was not the veriest scribbler on earth, I should feel affronted. As I accept your
compliments, it is but fair I should give equal or greeter credit to your objections,
the more so, as I believe them to be well founded. With regard to the political and
metaphysical parts, I am afraid I can alter nothing; but I have high authority for my
errors in that point, for even the Æneid was a political poem, and
written for a political purpose; and as to my unlucky opinions on
subjects of more importance, I am too sincere in them for recantation. On Spanish
affairs I have said what I saw, and every day confirms me in
| 292 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1811. |
“You have given me no answer to my question—tell me fairly, did you show the MS. to some of your corps?—I sent an introductory stanza to Mr. Dallas, to be forwarded to you; the poem else will open too abruptly. The stanzas had better be numbered in Roman characters. There is a disquisition on the literature of the modern Greeks and some smaller poems to come in at the close. These are now at Newstead, but will be sent in time. If Mr. D. has lost the stanza and note annexed to it, write, and I will send it myself.—You tell me to add two Cantos, but I am about to visit my collieries in Lancashire on the 15th inst. which is so unpoetical an employment that I need say no more. I am, sir, your most obedient, &c.”
