ing your solemn fast. I
have been, and am, in very tolerable love; but of that hereafter as
it may be.

"My dear Moore, say what you will in your preface; and quiz any
thing or any body,--me if you like it. Oons! dost thou think me of
the _old_, or rather _elderly_, school? If one can't jest with
one's friends, with whom can we be facetious? You have nothing to
fear from * *, whom I have not seen, being out of town when he
called. He will be very correct, smooth, and all that, but I doubt
whether there will be any 'grace beyond the reach of art;'--and,
whether there is or not, how long will you be so d----d modest? As
for Jeffrey, it is a very handsome thing of him to speak well of an
old antagonist,--and what a mean mind dared not do. Any one will
revoke praise; but--were it not partly my own case--I should say
that very few have strength of mind to unsay their censure, or
follow it up with praise of other things.

"What think you of the review of _Levis_? It beats the Bag and my
hand-grenade hollow, as an invective, and hath thrown the Court
into hysterics, as I hear from very good authority. Have you heard
from * * *?

"No more rhyme for--or rather, _from_--me. I have taken my leave of
that stage, and henceforth will mountebank it no longer. I have had
my day, and there's an end. The utmost I expect, or even wish, is
to have it said in the Biographia Britannica, that I might perhaps
have been a poet, had I gone on and amended. My great comfort is,
that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been
in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered
no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that
tempted me. They can't say I have truckled to the times, nor to
popular topics, (as Johnson, or somebody, said of Cleveland,) and
whatever I have gained has been at the expenditure of as much
_personal_ favour as possible; for I do believe never was a bard
more unpopular, _quoad homo_, than myself. And now I have
done;--'ludite nunc alios.' Every body may be d----d, as they seem
fond of it, and resolve to stickle lustily for endless brimstone.

"Oh--by the by, I had nearly forgot. There is a long poem, an
'Anti-Byron,' coming out, to prove that I have formed a conspiracy
to overthrow, by _rhyme_,