Chapter 16

"March 12. 1814.

"Guess darkly, and you will seldom err. At present, I shall say no more, and, perhaps--but no matter. I hope we shall some day meet, and whatever years may precede or succeed it, I shall mark it with the 'white stone' in my calendar. I am not sure that I shall not soon be in your neighbourhood again. If so, and I am alone (as will probably be the case), I shall invade and carry you off, and endeavour to atone for sorry fare by a sincere welcome. I don't know the person absent (barring 'the sect') I should be so glad to see again.

"I have nothing of the sort you mention but _the lines_ (the Weepers), if you like to have them in the Bag. I wish to give them all possible circulation. The _Vault_ reflection is downright actionable, and to print it would be peril to the publisher; but I think the Tears have a natural right to be bagged, and the editor (whoever he may be) might supply a facetious note or not, as he pleased.

"I cannot conceive how the _Vault_[21] has got about,--but so it is. It is too _farouche_; but, truth to say, my satires are not very playful. I have the plan of an epistle in my head, _at_ him and _to_ him; and, if they are not a little quieter, I shall embody it. I should say little or nothing of _myself_. As to mirth and ridicule, that is out of my way; but I have a tolerable fund of sternness and contempt, and, with Juvenal before me, I shall perhaps read him a lecture he has not lately heard in the C----t. From particular circumstances, which came to my knowledge almost by accident, I could 'tell him what he is--I know him well.'

"I meant, my dear M., to write to you a long letter, but I am hurried, and time clips my inclination down to yours, &c.

"P.S. _Think again_ before you _shelf_ your poem. There is a youngster, (older than me, by the by, but a younger poet,) Mr. G. Knight, with a vol. of Eastern Tales, written since his return,--for he has been in the countries. He sent to me last summer, and I advised him to write one in _each measure_, without any intention, at that time, of doing the same thing. Since that, from a habit of writing in a fever, I have anticipated him in the variety of measures, but quite unintentionally. Of the stories, I know nothing, not having seen them[22]; but he has some lady in a sack, too, like The Giaour:--he told me at the time.

"The best way to make the public 'forget' me is to remind them of yourself. You cannot suppose that _I_ would ask you or advise you to publish, if I thought you would _fail_. I really have _no_ literary envy; and I do not believe a friend's success ever sat nearer another than yours do to my best wishes. It is for _elderly gentlemen_ to 'bear no brother near,' and cannot become our disease for more years than we may perhaps number. I wish you to be out before Eastern subjects are again before the public."

[Footnote 21: Those bitter and powerful lines which he wrote on the opening of the vault that contained the remains of Henry VIII. and Charles I.]

[Footnote 22: He was not yet aware, it appears, that the anonymous manuscript sent to him by his publisher was from the pen of Mr. Knight.]

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