"You mention my satire, lampoon, or whatever you like to call it. I can only say, that it was written when I was very young and very angry, and has been a thorn in my side ever since: more particularly as almost all the persons animadverted upon became subsequently my acquaintances, and some of them my friends, which is heaping fire on an enemy's head, and forgiving me too readily to permit me to forgive myself. The part applied to you is pert, and petulant, and shallow enough; but, although I have long done every thing in my power to suppress the circulation of the whole thing, I shall always regret the wantonness or generality of its attempted attacks."[113]
On examining his conscience with regard to this satire, and passing judgment on himself, he adds, in a note to his own verses, after having given great praise to Jeffrey for his magnanimity, etc.:—
"I was really too ferocious—this is mere insanity.—B., 1816."
And farther on:—
"This is bad; because personal.—B., 1816."
With regard to his verses on his guardian, Lord Carlisle, so culpable toward himself, he generously remarks:
"Wrong also—the provocation was not sufficient to justify such acerbity.—B., 1816."
To what he said against Wordsworth he simply adds the word, "Unjust."
And again, with reference to Lord Carlisle:—
"Much too savage, whatever the foundation may be.—B., 1816."