* * * * *

LETTER 156. TO MR. MOORE.

"January 8. 1814.

"As it would not be fair to press you into a dedication, without
previous notice, I send you _two_, and I will tell you _why two_.
The first, Mr. M., who sometimes takes upon him the critic (and I
bear it from _astonishment_), says, may do you _harm_--God
forbid!--this alone makes me listen to him. The fact is, he is a
damned Tory, and has, I dare swear, something of _self_, which I
cannot divine, at the bottom of his objection, as it is the
allusion to Ireland to which he objects. But he be d----d--though a
good fellow enough (your sinner would not be worth a d----n).

"Take your choice;--no one, save he and Mr. Dallas, has seen
either, and D. is quite on my side, and for the first.[8] If I can
but testify to you and the world how truly I admire and esteem you,
I shall be quite satisfied. As to prose, I don't know Addison's
from Johnson's; but I will try to mend my cacology. Pray perpend,
pronounce, and don't be offended with either.

"My last epistle would probably put you in a fidget. But the devil,
who _ought_ to be civil on such occasions, proved so, and took my
letter to the right place.

"Is it not odd?--the very fate I said she had escaped from * *, she
has now undergone from the worthy * *. Like Mr. Fitzgerald, shall I