I am to a certain degree indifferent as to the reply to our last proposal, and therefore will not allude to it. Permit me only on subjects of this nature to express one sentiment, which you would have given me credit for even if not expressed. Let no considerations of my interest, or any retrospect to the source from which the funds were supplied, modify your decision as to returning and pursuing or abandoning the adventure of the steamengine. My object was solely your true advantage, and it is when I am baffled of this, by any attention to a mere form, that I shall be ill requited. Nay, more, I think it for your interest, should you obtain almost whatever situation for Henry, to accept Clementi's proposal,' and remain in England;—not without accepting it, for it does no more than balance the difference of expense between Italy and London; and if you have any trust in the justice of my moral sense, and believe that in what concerns true honour and virtuous conduct in life, I am an experienced counsellor, you will not hesitate these things being equal-to accept this proposal. The opposi

tion I made, while you were in Italy, to the abandonment

Clementi had offered to give

Mrs. Gisborne music lessons, with a view to her teaching music.

2 So in previous editions, but probably a misprint for other.

of the steam-boat project, was founded, you well know, on the motives which have influenced everything that ever has guided, or ever will guide, anything that I can do or say respecting you. I thought it against Henry's interest. I think it now against his interest that he and you should abandon your prospects in England. As to us -we are uncertain people, who are chased by the spirits of our destiny from purpose to purpose, like clouds by the wind.

There is one thing more to be said. If you decide to remain in England, assuredly it would be foolish to return. Your journey would cost you between £100 and £200, a sum far greater than you could expect to save by the increased price for which you would sell your things. Remit the matter to me, and I will cast off my habitual character, and attend to the minutest points. With Mr. G-'s, devil take his name, I can't write it-you know who's assistance, all this might be accomplished in such a manner as to save a very considerable sum. Though I shall suffer from your decision in the proportion as your society is delightful to me, I cannot forbear expressing my persuasion, that the time, the expense, and the trouble of returning to Italy, if your ultimate decision be to settle in London, ought all to be spared. A year, a month, a week, at Henry's age, and with his purposes, ought not to be unemployed. It was the depth with which I felt this truth, which impelled me to incite him to this adventure of the steam-boat.

1 In previous editions by.

LETTER LVII.

To THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK.

Leghorn, July 12th, 1820.

MY DEAR PEACOCK,

I remember you said that when Auber married you were afraid you would see or hear but little of him.

:

There are two voices," says Wordsworth, one of the mountains and one of the sea, both a mighty voice." So you have two wives-one of the mountains, all of whose claims I perfectly admit, whose displeasure I deprecate, and from whom I feel assured that I have nothing to fear the other of the sea, the India House, who perhaps makes you write so much, that I suppose you have not a scrawl to spare. I make bold to write to you on the news that you are correcting my Prometheus, for which I return thanks, and I send some things which may be added. I hear of you from Mr. Gisborne, but from you I do not hear. Well, how go on the funds and the Romance? Cobbett's euthanasia seems approaching, and I suppose you will have some rough festivals at the apotheosis of the Debt.

Nothing, I think, shews the generous gullibility of the English nation more than their having adopted her Sacred Majesty as the heroine of the day, in spite of all their prejudices and bigotry. I, for my part, of course wish no harm to happen to her, even if she has, as I firmly believe, amused herself in a manner rather indecorous with any courier or baron. But I cannot

PROSE.-VOL. IV.

N

help adverting to it as one of the absurdities of royalty, that a vulgar woman, with all those low tastes which prejudice considers as vices, and a person whose habits and manners every one would shun in private life, without any redeeming virtues, should be turned into a heroine because she is a queen, or, as a collateral reason, because her husband is a king; and he, no less than his ministers, are so odious that everything, however disgusting, which is opposed to them, is admirable. The Paris paper, which I take in, copied some excellent remarks from the Examiner about it.

We are just now occupying the Gisbornes' house at Leghorn, and I have turned Mr. Reveley's workshop into my study. The Libecchio here howls like a chorus of fiends all day, and the weather is just pleasant, not at all hot, the days being very misty, and the nights divinely serene. I have been reading with much pleasure the Greek romances. The best of them is the pastoral of Longus: but they are all very entertaining, and would be delightful if they were less rhetorical and ornate. I am translating in ottava rima the Hymn to Mercury, of Homer. Of course my stanza precludes

literal translation. My next effort will be, that it should be legible-a quality much to be desired in translations.

I am told that the magazines &c. blaspheme me at a great rate. I wonder why I write verses, for nobody reads them. It is a kind of disorder, for which the regular practitioners prescribe what is called a torrent of abuse; but I fear that can hardly be considered as a specific

I inclose two additional poems, to be added to those printed at the end of Prometheus and I send them to

you, for fear Ollier might not know what to do in case he objected to some expressions in the fifteenth and sixteenth stanzas ;' and that you would do me the favour to insert an asterisk, or asterisks, with as little expense of The other poem I send to you,

the sense as may be.

I thought of

not to make two letters. I want Jones's Greek Grammar very much for Mary, who is deep in Greek. sending for it in sheets by the post; but as I find it would cost as much as a parcel, I would rather have a parcel, including it and some other books, which you would do me a great favour by sending by the first ship. Never send us more reviews than two back on any of Lord Byron's works, as we get them here. Ask Ollier, Mr. Gisborne, and Hunt whether they have anything to send.

Believe me, my dear Peacock,

Sincerely and affectionately yours,

P. B. S.

Jones's Greek Grammar; Schrevelii Lexicon; the Greek Exercises; Melincourt, and Headlong Hall; papers, and Indicators, and whatever else you may think interesting. Godwin's Answer to Malthus, if out. Six copies of the 2d Edit. of Cenci.

These were the fifteenth and sixteenth stanzas of the Ode to

Liberty. [PEACOCK'S NOTE.]