Your further remarks, however _caustic_ or
bitter, to a palate vitiated with the _sweets of adulation_, will be
of service. Johnson has shown us that _no poetry_ is perfect; but to
correct mine would be an Herculean labour. In fact I never looked
beyond the moment of composition, and published merely at the request
of my friends. Notwithstanding so much has been said concerning the
'Genus irritabile vatum,' we shall never quarrel on the
subject--poetic fame is by no means the 'acme' of my wishes. Adieu.
"Yours ever,
"BYRON."
This letter was followed by another, on the same subject, to Mr.
Bankes, of which, unluckily, only the annexed fragment remains:--
* * * * *
"For my own part, I have suffered severely in the decease of my two
greatest friends, the only beings I ever loved (females excepted); I
am therefore a solitary animal, miserable enough, and so perfectly a
citizen of the world, that whether I pass my days in Great Britain or
Kamschatka, is to me a matter of perfect indifference. I cannot evince
greater respect for your alteration than by immediately adopting
it--this shall be done in the next edition. I am sorry your remarks
are not more frequent, as I am certain they would be equally
beneficial. Since my last, I have received two critical opinions from
Edinburgh, both too flattering for me to detail. One is from Lord
Woodhouselee, at the head of the Scotch literati, and a most
_voluminous_ writer (his last work is a life of Lord Kaimes); the
other from Mackenzie, who sent his decision a second time, more at
length.
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