d no recollection of having
ever written such words, and that, if they existed, "he must have been
half asleep when he wrote them."

I have mentioned the circumstance merely for the purpose of remarking,
that with a sensibility vulnerable at so many points as his was, and
acted upon by an imagination so long practised in self-tormenting, it is
only wonderful that, thinking constantly, as his letters prove him to
have been, of distant friends, and receiving from few or none equal
proofs of thoughtfulness in return, he should not more frequently have
broken out into such sallies against the absent and "unreplying." For
myself, I can only say that, from the moment I began to unravel his
character, the most slighting and even acrimonious expressions that I
could have heard he had, in a fit of spleen, uttered against me, would
have no more altered my opinion of his disposition, nor disturbed my
affection for him, than the momentary clouding over of a bright sky
could leave an impression on the mind of gloom, after its shadow had
passed away.

* * * * *

LETTER 336. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, August 9. 1819.

"Talking of blunders reminds me of Ireland--Ireland of Moore.
What is this I see in Galignani about
'Bermuda--agent--deputy--appeal--attachment,' &c.? What is the
matter? Is it any thing in which his friends can be of use to him?
Pray inform me.

"Of Don Juan I hear nothing further from you; * * *, but the papers
don't seem so fierce as the letter you sent me seemed to
anticipate, by their extracts at least in Galignani's Messenger. I
never saw such a set of fellows as you are! And then the pains
taken to exculpate the modest publisher--he remonstrated, forsooth!
I will write a preface that _shall_ exculpate _you_ and * * *, &c.
completely, on that point; but, at the same time, I will cut you
up, like gourds. You have no more soul than the Count de Caylus,
(who assured his friends, on his death-bed, that he had none, and
that _he_ must know better than they whether he had one or no,) and
no more blood than a water-melon! And I see there hath been
asterisks, and what Perry used to called 'd_o_mned cutting and
slashing'--but, never mind.

"I write in haste. To-morrow I set off for Bologna. I write to you
with thunder, lightning, &c. and all the winds of heaven whistling
throu