,
Despite some passing clouds of crime.

"But thou, forsooth, must be a king,
And don the purple vest,
As if that foolish robe could wring
Remembrance from thy breast.
Where is that faded garment? where
The gewgaws thou wert fond to wear,
The star--the string--the crest?
Vain froward child of empire! say,
Are all thy playthings snatch'd away?

"Where may the wearied eye repose
When gazing on the great;
Where neither guilty glory glows,
Nor despicable state?
Yes--one--the first--the last--the best--
The Cincinnatus of the West,
Whom envy dared not hate,
Bequeathed the name of Washington,
To make man blush there was but One!"
]

* * * * *

LETTER 178. TO MR. MURRAY.

"April 26. 1814.

"I have been thinking that it might be as well to publish no more
of the Ode separately, but incorporate it with any of the other
things, and include the smaller poem too (in that case)--which I
must previously correct, nevertheless. I can't, for the head of me,
add a line worth scribbling; my 'vein' is quite gone, and my
present occupations are of the gymnastic order--boxing and
fencing--and my principal conversation is with my macaw and Bayle.
I want my Moreri, and I want Athenaeus.

"P.S. I hope you sent back that poetical packet to the address
which I forwarded to you on Sunday: if not, pray do; or I shall
have the author screaming after his Epic."

* * * * *

LETTER 179. TO MR. MURRAY.

"April 26. 1814.

"I have no guess at your author,--but it is a noble poem[27], and
worth a thousand odes of anybody's. I suppose I may keep this
copy;--after reading it, I really regret having written my own. I
say this very sincerely, albeit unused to think humbly of myself.

"I don't like the additional stanzas at _all_, and they had better
be left out. The fact is, I can't do any thing I am asked to do,
however gladly I _would_; and at the end of a week my interest in a
composition goes off. This will account to you for my doing no
better for your 'Stamp Duty' postscript.

"The S.R. is very civil--but what do they mean by Childe Harold
resembling Marmion? and the next two, Giaour and Bride, _not_
resembling Scott? I certainly never intended to copy him; bu