Your letter gives me credit for more acute feelings than I possess; for though I feel tolerably miserable, yet I am at the same time subject to a kind of hysterical merriment, or rather laughter without merriment, which I can neither account for nor conquer, and yet I do not feel relieved by it; but an indifferent person would think me in excellent spirits. "We must forget these things," and have recourse to our old selfish comforts, or rather comfortable selfishness.
do not think I shall return to London immediately, and shall therefore accept freely what is offered courteously — your mediation between me and Murray
. I don't think my name will answer the purpose, and you must be aware that my plaguy Satire will bring the north and south Grub Streets down upon the
Pilgrimage
; — but, nevertheless, if Murray makes a point of it, and you coincide with him, I will do it daringly; so let it be entitled "
By the author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
." My remarks on the Romaic, etc., once intended to accompany the
Hints from Horace