st line, the only one upon which I shall venture
for fear of infection, I would advise Mr. Gilchrist to keep out of
the way of such reciprocal morsure--unless he has more faith in the
"Ormskirk medicine" than most people, or may wish to anticipate the
pension of the recent German professor, (I forget his name, but it is
advertised and full of consonants,) who presented his memoir of an
infallible remedy for the hydrophobia to the German diet last month,
coupled with the philanthropic condition of a large annuity, provided
that his cure cured. Let him begin with the editor of Pope, and
double his demand.

Yours ever,

BYRON.

_To John Murray, Esq_.

P.S. Amongst the above-mentioned lines there occurs the following,
_applied_ to Pope--

"The assassin's vengeance, and the coward's lie."

And Mr. Bowles persists that he is a well-wisher to Pope!!! He has,
then, edited an "assassin" and a "coward" wittingly, as well as
lovingly. In my former letter I have remarked upon the editor's
forgetfulness of Pope's benevolence. But where he mentions his faults
it is "with sorrow"--his tears drop, but they do not blot them out.
The "recording angel" differs from the recording clergyman. A fulsome
editor is pardonable though tiresome, like a panegyrical son whose
pious sincerity would demi-deify his father. But a detracting editor
is a paricide. He sins against the nature of his office, and
connection--he murders the life to come of his victim. If his author
is not worthy to be mentioned, do not edit at all: if he be, edit
honestly, and even flatteringly. The reader will forgive the weakness
in favour of mortality, and correct your adulation with a smile. But
to sit down "mingere in patrios cineres," as Mr. Bowles has done,
merits a reprobation so strong, that I am as incapable of expressing
as of ceasing to feel it.

_Further Addenda_.

It is worthy of remark that, after all this outcry about "_in-door_
nature" and "artificial images," Pope was the principal inventor of
that boast of the English, _Modern Gardening_. He divides this honour
with Milton. Hear Warton:--"It hence appears, that this _enchanting_
art of modern gardening, in which this kingdom claims a preference
over every nation in Europe, chiefly owes _its origin_ and its
improvements to two great poets, Milton and _Pope_."

Walpole (no friend to Pope) asserts that Pope formed _Kent's_ taste,
and that Kent was the artist to whom the English are chiefly in