article on 'Edgeworth's Patronage,' I have gotten a high compliment, I
perceive. Whether this is creditable to me, I know not; but it does
honour to the editor, because he once abused me. Many a man will retract
praise; none but a high-spirited mind will revoke its censure, or _can_
praise the man it has once attacked. I have often, since my return to
England, heard Jeffrey most highly commended by those who know him for
things independent of his talents. I admire him for _this_--not because
he has _praised me_, (I have been so praised elsewhere and abused,
alternately, that mere habit has rendered me as indifferent to both as a
man at twenty-six can be to any thing,) but because he is, perhaps, the
_only man_ who, under the relations in which he and I stand, or stood,
with regard to each other, would have had the liberality to act thus;
none but a great soul dared hazard it. The height on which he stands
has not made him giddy:--a little scribbler would have gone on cavilling
to the end of the chapter. As to the justice of his panegyric, that is
matter of taste. There are plenty to question it, and glad, too, of the
opportunity.

"Lord Erskine called to-day. He means to carry down his reflections on
the war--or rather wars--to the present day. I trust that he will. Must
send to Mr. Murray to get the binding of my copy of his pamphlet
finished, as Lord E. has promised me to correct it, and add some
marginal notes to it. Any thing in his handwriting will be a treasure,
which will gather compound interest from years. Erskine has high
expectations of Mackintosh's promised History. Undoubtedly it must be a
classic, when finished.

"Sparred with Jackson again yesterday morning, and shall to-morrow. I
feel all the better for it, in spirits, though my arms and shoulders are
very stiff from it. Mem. to attend the pugilistic dinner:--Marquess