Chapter 102

"Ravenna, May 20. 1820.

"Murray, my dear, make my respects to Thomas Campbell, and tell him from me, with faith and friendship, three things that he must right in his poets: Firstly, he says Anstey's Bath Guide characters are taken from Smollett. 'Tis impossible:--the Guide was published in 1766, and Humphrey Clinker in 1771--_dunque_, 'tis Smollett who has taken from Anstey. Secondly, he does not know to whom Cowper alludes, when he says that there was one who 'built a church to _God_, and then blasphemed his name:' it was 'Deo erexit _Voltaire_' to whom that maniacal Calvinist and coddled poet alludes. Thirdly, he misquotes and spoils a passage from Shakspeare, 'to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,' &c.; for _lily_ he puts rose, and bedevils in more words than one the whole quotation.

"Now, Tom is a fine fellow; but he should be correct; for the first is an _injustice_ (to Anstey), the second an _ignorance_, and the third a _blunder_. Tell him all this, and let him take it in good part; for I might have rammed it into a review and rowed him--instead of which, I act like a Christian.

"Yours," &c.

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