_to_ him; and, if they are not a little quieter, I shall embody
it. I should say little or nothing of _myself_. As to mirth and
ridicule, that is out of my way; but I have a tolerable fund of
sternness and contempt, and, with Juvenal before me, I shall
perhaps read him a lecture he has not lately heard in the C----t.
From particular circumstances, which came to my knowledge almost by
accident, I could 'tell him what he is--I know him well.'

"I meant, my dear M., to write to you a long letter, but I am
hurried, and time clips my inclination down to yours, &c.

"P.S. _Think again_ before you _shelf_ your poem. There is a
youngster, (older than me, by the by, but a younger poet,) Mr. G.
Knight, with a vol. of Eastern Tales, written since his
return,--for he has been in the countries. He sent to me last
summer, and I advised him to write one in _each measure_, without
any intention, at that time, of doing the same thing. Since that,
from a habit of writing in a fever, I have anticipated him in the
variety of measures, but quite unintentionally. Of the stories, I
know nothing, not having seen them[22]; but he has some lady in a
sack, too, like The Giaour:--he told me at the time.

"The best way to make the public 'forget' me is to remind them of
yourself. You cannot suppose that _I_ would ask you or advise you
to publish, if I thought you would _fail_. I really have _no_
literary envy; and I do not believe a friend's success ever sat
nearer another than yours do to my best wishes. It is for _elderly
gentlemen_ to 'bear no brother near,' and cannot become our disease
for more years than we may perhaps number. I wish you to be out
before Eastern subjects are again before the public."

[Footnote 21: Those bitter and powerful lines which he wrote on the
opening of the vault that contained the remains of Henry VIII. and
Charles I.]

[Footnote 22: He was not yet aware, it appears, that the anonymous
manuscript sent to him by his publisher was from the pen of Mr. Knight.]

* * * * *

LETTER 172. TO MR. MURRAY.

"March 12. 1814.

"I have not time to read the whole MS. [23], but what I have seen
seems very well written (both _prose_ and _verse_), and, though I
am and can be no judge (at least a fair one on this subject),
containing nothing