LETTER 145. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Nov. 12. 1813.

"Two friends of mine (Mr. Rogers and Mr. Sharpe) have advised me
not to risk at present any single publication separately, for
various reasons. As they have not seen the one in question, they
can have no bias for or against the merits (if it has any) or the
faults of the present subject of our conversation. You say all the
last of 'The Giaour' are gone--at least out of your hands. Now, if
you think of publishing any new edition with the last additions
which have not yet been before the reader (I mean distinct from the
two-volume publication), we can add 'The Bride of Abydos,' which
will thus steal quietly into the world: if liked, we can then throw
off some copies for the purchasers of former 'Giaours;' and, if
not, I can omit it in any future publication. What think you? I
really am no judge of those things, and with all my natural
partiality for one's own productions, I would rather follow any
one's judgment than my own.

"P.S. Pray let me have the proofs I sent _all_ to-night. I have
some alterations that I have thought of that I wish to make
speedily. I hope the proof will be on separate pages, and not all
huddled together on a mile-long ballad-singing sheet, as those of
The Giaour sometimes are; for then I can't read them distinctly."

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.