_Mr. D'Israeli to John Murray_.

"It is a most disagreeable office to give opinions on MSS.; one reads
them at a moment when one has other things in one's head--then one is
obliged to fatigue the brain with _thinking_; but if I can occasionally
hinder you from publishing nugatory works, I do not grudge the pains. At
the same time I surely need not add, how very _confidential_ such
communications ought to be."


_Mr. I. D'Israeli to John Murray_.

I am delighted by your apology for not having called on me after I had
taken my leave of you the day before; but you can make an unnecessary
apology as agreeable as any other act of kindness....

You are sanguine in your hope of a good sale of "Curiosities," it will
afford us a mutual gratification; but when you consider it is not a new
work, though considerably improved I confess, and that those kinds of
works cannot boast of so much novelty as they did about ten years ago, I
am somewhat more moderate in my hopes.

What you tell me of F.F. from Symond's, is _new_ to me. I sometimes
throw out in the shop _remote hints_ about the sale of books, all the
while meaning only _mine_; but they have no skill in construing the
timid wishes of a modest author; they are not aware of his suppressed
sighs, nor see the blushes of hope and fear tingling his cheek; they are
provokingly silent, and petrify the imagination....

Believe me, with the truest regard,