dditional corrections, and two new lines in it. Yours,"
&c.

* * * * *

LETTER 146. TO MR. MURRAY.

"November 15. 1813.

"Mr. Hodgson has looked over and _stopped_, or rather _pointed_,
this revise, which must be the one to print from. He has also made
some suggestions, with most of which I have complied, as he has
always, for these ten years, been a very sincere, and by no means
(at times) flattering intimate of mine. _He_ likes it (you will
think _fatteringly_, in this instance) better than The Giaour, but
doubts (and so do I) its being so popular; but, contrary to some
others, advises a separate publication. On this we can easily
decide. I confess I like the _double_ form better. Hodgson says, it
is _better versified_ than any of the others; which is odd, if
true, as it has cost me less time (though more hours at a time)
than any attempt I ever made.

"P.S. Do attend to the punctuation: I can't, for I don't know a
comma--at least where to place one.

"That Tory of a printer has omitted two lines of the opening, and
_perhaps more_, which were in the MS. Will you, pray, give him a
hint of accuracy? I have reinserted the _two_, but they were in the
manuscript, I can swear."

* * * * *

LETTER 147. TO MR. MURRAY.

"November 17. 1813.

"That you and I may distinctly understand each other on a subject,
which, like 'the dreadful reckoning when men smile no more,' makes
conversation not very pleasant, I think it as well to _write_ a few
lines on the topic.--Before I left town for Yorkshire, you said
that you were ready and willing to give five hundred guineas for
the copyright of 'The Giaour;' and my answer was--from which I do
not mean to recede--that we would discuss the point at Christmas.
The new story may or may not succeed; the probability, under
present circumstances, seems to be, that it may at least pay its
expenses--but even that remains to be proved, and till it is proved
one way or another, we will say nothing about it. Thus then be it:
I will postpone all arrangement about it, and The Giaour also, till
Easter, 1814; and you shall then, according to your own notions of
fairness, make your own offer for the two. At the same time, I do
not rate the last in my own e