despise his commendation, and I defy his malice. _He_
crush the 'Excursion!!!'[33] Tell him that he might as
easily crush Skiddaw. For myself, _popularity_ is not
the mark I shoot at; if it were, I should not write
such poems as 'Roderick;' and Jeffrey can no more stand
in my way to _fame_, than Tom Thumb could stand in my
way in the street.

"He knows that he has dealt unfairly and maliciously by
me; he knows that the world knows it, that his very
friends know it, and that if he attacks 'Roderick' as
he did 'Madoc' and 'Kehama,' it will be universally
imputed to personal ill-will. On the other hand, he
cannot commend this poem without the most flagrant
inconsistency. This would be confessing that he has
wronged me in the former instances; for no man will
pretend to say that 'Madoc' does not bear marks of the
same hand as 'Roderick;' it has the same character of
language, thought, and feeling; it is of the same ore
and mint; and if the one poem be bad, the other cannot
possibly be otherwise. The irritation of the _nettling_
(as you term it), which he has already received [a
portion of the letter is torn off and lost]....
Whatever part he may take, my conduct towards him will
be the same. I consider him a public nuisance, and
shall deal with him accordingly.

"Nettling is a gentle term for what he has to undergo.
In due season he shall be _scorpioned_ and
_rattlesnaked_. When I take him in hand it shall be to
dissect him alive, and make a preparation of him to be
exhibited _in terrorem_, an example to all future
pretenders to criticism. He has a forehead of native
brass, and I will write upon it with aqua-fortis. I
will serve him up to the public like a turkey's
gizzard, sliced, scored, peppered, salted, cayanned,
grilled, and bedevilled. I will bring him to justice;
he shall be executed in prose, and gibbeted in
verse....[34]

.... "'Roderick' has made good speed in the world, and
ere long I shall send you the poem in a more commodious
shape,[35] for Ballantyne is at this time reprinting
it. I finished my official ode a few days ago. It is
without rhyme, and as unlike other official odes in
matter as in form; for its object is to recommend, as
the two great objects of policy, general education