and, I may add, yourself; and that you may all three do so, is, I
assure you, my very sincere wish. I am not sure that long life is
desirable for one of my temper and constitutional depression of
spirits, which of course I suppress in society; but which breaks
out when alone, and in my writings, in spite of myself. It has been
deepened, perhaps, by some long-past events (I do not allude to my
marriage, &c.--on the contrary, that raised them by the persecution
giving a fillip to my spirits); but I call it constitutional, as I
have reason to think it. You know, or you do _not_ know, that my
maternal grandfather (a very clever man, and amiable, I am told)
was strongly suspected of suicide (he was found drowned in the Avon
at Bath), and that another very near relative of the same branch
took poison, and was merely saved by antidotes. For the first of
these events there was no apparent cause, as he was rich,
respected, and of considerable intellectual resources, hardly forty
years of age, and not at all addicted to any unhinging vice. It
was, however, but a strong suspicion, owing to the manner of his
death and his melancholy temper. The _second had_ a cause, but it
does not become me to touch upon it: it happened when I was far too
young to be aware of it, and I never heard of it till after the
death of that relative, many years afterwards. I think, then, that
I may call this dejection _constitutional_. I had always been told
that I resembled more my maternal grandfather than any of my
_father's_ family--that is, in the gloomier part of his temper, for
he was what you call a good-natured man, and I am not.

"The Journal here I sent to Moore the other day; but as it is a
mere diary, only _parts_ of it would ever do for publication. The
other Journal, of the Tour in 1816, I should think Augusta might
let you have a copy of.

"I am much mortified that Gifford don't take to my new dramas. To
be sure, they are as opposite to the English drama as one thing can
be to another; but I have a notion that, if understood, they will
in time find favour (though _not_ on the stage) with the reader.
The simplicity of plot is intentional, and the avoidance of _rant_
also, as also the compression of the speeches in the more severe
situations. What I seek to show in