"I had discovered a thing very little known, which is, that in one's whole life one can never have more than a single mother. You may think this is obvious, and (what you call) a trite observation. You are a green gosling! I was at the same age (very near) as wise as you, and yet I never discovered this (with full evidence and conviction, I mean) till it was too late. It is thirteen years ago, ... and every day I live it sinks deeper into my heart."
Gray to Nicholls,
Works
, vol. i. p. 482.
One of Byron's first acts on returning to England was to buy a copy of the
Scourge
, In Ridgway's bill for books supplied from Piccadilly to Byron on July 24, 1811, is a copy of the