itch of poetry since I left Switzerland, and
have not, at present, the _estro_ upon me. The truth is, that you
are _afraid_ of having a _fourth_ Canto _before_ September, and of
another copyright, but I have at present no thoughts of resuming
that poem, nor of beginning any other. If I write, I think of
trying prose, but I dread introducing living people, or
applications which might be made to living people. Perhaps one day
or other I may attempt some work of fancy in prose, descriptive of
Italian manners and of human passions; but at present I am
preoccupied. As for poesy, mine is the _dream_ of the sleeping
passions; when they are awake, I cannot speak their language, only
in their somnambulism, and just now they are not dormant.

"If Mr. Gifford wants _carte blanche_ as to The Siege of Corinth,
he has it, and may do as he likes with it.

"I sent you a letter contradictory of the Cheapside man (who
invented the story you speak of) the other day. My best respects to
Mr. Gifford, and such of my friends as you may see at your house. I
wish you all prosperity and new year's gratulation, and am

"Yours," &c.

* * * * *

To the Armenian Grammar, mentioned in the foregoing letter, the
following interesting fragment, found among his papers, seems to have
been intended as a Preface:--

"The English reader will probably be surprised to find my name
associated with a work of the present description, and inclined to give
me more credit for my attainments as a linguist than they deserve.

"As I would not willingly be guilty of a deception, I will state, as
shortly as I can, my own share in the compilation, with the motives
which led to it. On my arrival at Venice, in the year 1816, I found my
mind in a state which required study, and study of a nature which should
leave little scope for the imagination, and furnish some difficulty in
the pursuit.

"At this period I was much struck--in common, I believe, with every
other traveller--with the society of the Convent of St. Lazarus, which
appears to unite all the advantages of the monastic institution, without
any of its vices.

"The neatness, the comfort, the gentleness, the unaffected devotion, the
accomplishments, and the virtues of the brethren of the order, are well
fitted to strike the man of the world with the conviction that 'there is
another and a