But, being laid on my back, when that
schoolboy thing was written--or rather dictated--expecting to rise no
more, my physician having taken his sixteenth fee, and I his
prescription, I could not quit this earth without leaving a memento of
my constant attachment to Butler in gratitude for his manifold good
offices.
"I meant to have been down in July; but thinking my appearance,
immediately after the publication, would be construed into an insult,
I directed my steps elsewhere. Besides, I heard that some of the boys
had got hold of my Libellus, contrary to my wishes certainly, for I
never transmitted a single copy till October, when I gave one to a
boy, since gone, after repeated importunities. You will, I trust,
pardon this egotism. As you had touched on the subject I thought some
explanation necessary. Defence I shall not attempt, 'Hic murus aheneus
esto, nil conscire sibi'--and 'so on' (as Lord Baltimore said on his
trial for a rape)--I have been so long at Trinity as to forget the
conclusion of the line; but though I cannot finish my quotation, I
will my letter, and entreat you to believe me,
gratefully and affectionately, &c.
"P.S. I will not lay a tax on your time by requiring an answer, lest
you say, as Butler said to Tatersall (when I had written his reverence
an impudent epistle on the expression before mentioned), viz. 'that I
wanted to draw him into a correspondence.'"
LETTER 23.
TO MR.
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