st dialogue between Southey and
Porson, in Vol. i. of my _Imaginary Conversations_.

_North_.--Not to that only, though in that dialogue there are
sentiments much at variance with those which you would now give out
as Porson's. For example, remember what Porson there says of the
_Laodamia_.

_Landor_.--The most fervid expression in commendation of it is
printed as Porson's improperly, as the whole context shows. It
should have been Southey's.

_North_.--So, I perceive, you say in this new dialogue; and such a
mode of attempting to turn your back on yourself, to borrow a phrase
from your friend Lord Castlereagh's rhetoric, will be pronounced,
even by those who do not care a bawbee about the debate, as not only
ludicrous, but pitiably shabby. Keep your seat, Mr. Landor, and keep
your temper for once in your life. Let us examine into this
pretended mistake in your former dialogue about _Laodamia_. Well, as
you are up, do me the favour, sir, to mount the ladder, and take
down from yon top shelf the first volume of your _Conversations_. Up
in the corner, on the left hand, next the ceiling. You see I have
given you a high place.

_Landor_.--Here is the book, Mr. North; it is covered with dust
and cobwebs.

_North_.--The fate of classics, Mr. Landor. They are above the
reach of the housemaid, except when she brings the Turk's Head to
bear upon them. Now, let us turn to the list of _errata_ in this
first volume. We are directed to turn to page 52, line 4, and for
_sugar-bakers_, read _sugar-bakers' wives_. I turn to the page,
and find the error corrected by yourself; as are all the press
errors in these volumes, which were presented by you to a friend. I
bought the whole set for an old song at a sale. You see that the
omitted word _wives_ is carefully supplied by yourself, in your own
handwriting, Mr. Landor. On the same page, only five lines below
this correction, is the identical passage that you would now
transfer from Porson to Southey. Why did you not affix Porson's name
to the passage then, when you were so vigilantly perfecting the very
page? Why does no such correction appear even in the printed list of
_errata_? Let us read the passage. "A current of rich and bright
thoughts runs throughout the poem. [114] Pindar himself would not, on that
subject, have braced one into more nerve and freshness, nor
Euripides have inspired into it more tenderness and passion."

[Footnote 114: Vol. i. p. 52.]

_Landor_.--Mr. N