Chapter 22

"April 25. 1814.

"Let Mr. Gifford have the letter and return it at his leisure. I would have offered it, had I thought that he liked things of the kind.

"Do you want the last page _immediately_! I have doubts about the lines being worth printing; at any rate, I must see them again and alter some passages, before they go forth in any shape into the _ocean_ of circulation;--a very conceited phrase, by the by: well then--_channel_ of publication will do.

"'I am not i' the vein,' or I could knock off a stanza or three for the Ode, that might answer the purpose better.[26] At all events, I _must_ see the lines again _first_, as there be two I have altered in my mind's manuscript already. Has any one seen or judged of them? that is the criterion by which I will abide--only give me a _fair_ report, and 'nothing extenuate,' as I will in that case do something else.

"Ever," &c.

"I want _Moreri_, and an _Athenæus_."

[Footnote 26: Mr. Murray had requested of him to make some additions to the Ode, so as to save the stamp duty imposed upon publications not exceeding a single sheet; and he afterwards added, in successive editions, five or six stanzas, the original number being but eleven. There were also three more stanzas, which he never printed, but which, for the just tribute they contain to Washington, are worthy of being preserved:--

"There was a day--there was an hour, While earth was Gaul's--Gaul thine-- When that immeasurable power Unsated to resign Had been an act of purer fame Than gathers round Marengo's name And gilded thy decline, Through the long twilight of all time, Despite some passing clouds of crime.

"But thou, forsooth, must be a king, And don the purple vest, As if that foolish robe could wring Remembrance from thy breast. Where is that faded garment? where The gewgaws thou wert fond to wear, The star--the string--the crest? Vain froward child of empire! say, Are all thy playthings snatch'd away?

"Where may the wearied eye repose When gazing on the great; Where neither guilty glory glows, Nor despicable state? Yes--one--the first--the last--the best-- The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington, To make man blush there was but One!" ]

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