ive opinions on MSS.; one reads
them at a moment when one has other things in one's head--then one is
obliged to fatigue the brain with _thinking_; but if I can occasionally
hinder you from publishing nugatory works, I do not grudge the pains. At
the same time I surely need not add, how very _confidential_ such
communications ought to be."

_Mr. I. D'Israeli to John Murray_.

I am delighted by your apology for not having called on me after I had
taken my leave of you the day before; but you can make an unnecessary
apology as agreeable as any other act of kindness....

You are sanguine in your hope of a good sale of "Curiosities," it will
afford us a mutual gratification; but when you consider it is not a new
work, though considerably improved I confess, and that those kinds of
works cannot boast of so much novelty as they did about ten years ago, I
am somewhat more moderate in my hopes.

What you tell me of F.F. from Symond's, is _new_ to me. I sometimes
throw out in the shop _remote hints_ about the sale of books, all the
while meaning only _mine_; but they have no skill in construing the
timid wishes of a modest author; they are not aware of his suppressed
sighs, nor see the blushes of hope and fear tingling his cheek; they are
provokingly silent, and petrify the imagination....

Believe me, with the truest regard,

Yours ever,

I. D'ISRAELI.

_Mr. D'Israeli to John Murray_. _Saturday, May_ 31, 1806. KING'S ROAD.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

It is my wish to see you for five minutes this day, but as you must be
much engaged, and I am likely to be prevented reaching you this morning,
I shall only trouble you with a line.

Most warmly I must impress on your mind the _necessity_ of taking the
advice of a physician. Who? You know many. We have heard extraordinary
accounts of Dr. Baillie, and that (what is more extraordinary) he is not
mercenary....

I have written this to impress on your mind this point. Seeing you as we
see you, and your friend at a fault, how to decide, and you without some
relative or domestic friend about you, gives Mrs. D'I. and myself very
serious concerns--for you know we do take the warmest interest in your
welfare--and your talents and industry want nothing but health to make
you yet what it has always been one of my most gratifying hopes to
conceive of you.

Yours very affectionately,

I. D'ISRAELI.

A circumstance, not without influence on Murray's future, occurred about
this time w