Chapter 98

"Pisa, May 17. 1822.

"I hear that the Edinburgh has attacked the three dramas, which is a bad business for _you_; and I don't wonder that it discourages you. However, _that_ volume may be trusted to _time_,--depend upon it. I read it over with some attention since it was published, and I think the time will come when it will be preferred to my other writings, though not immediately. I say this without irritation against the critics or criticism, whatever they may be (for I have not seen them); and nothing that has or may appear in Jeffrey's Review can make me forget that he stood by me for ten good years without any motive to do so but his own good-will.

"I hear Moore is in town; remember me to him, and believe me

"Yours truly, N.B.

"P.S. If you think it necessary, you may send me the Edinburgh. Should there be any thing that requires an answer, I will reply, but _temperately_ and _technically_; that is to say, merely with respect to the _principles_ of the criticism, and not personally or offensively as to its literary merits."

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