It was eventually resolved to publish the Life and Correspondence together; and many letters passed between Murray and Moore on the subject.
From the voluminous correspondence we retain the following extract from a letter from Moore to Murray:
"One of my great objects, as you will see in reading me, is to keep my style down to as much simplicity as I am capable of; for nothing could be imagined more discordant than the mixture of any of our Asiatico-Hibernian eloquence with the simple English diction of Byron's letters."
Murray showed the early part of "Byron's Life" to Lockhart, who replied to him at once:
Mr. Lockhart to John Murray.
February 23, 1829.
"I can't wait till tomorrow to say that I think the beginning of 'Byron' quite perfect in every way—the style simple, and unaffected, as the materials are rich, and how sad. It will be Moore's greatest work—at least, next to the 'Melodies,' and will be a fortune to you. My wife says it is divine. By all means engrave the early miniature. Never was anything so drearily satisfactory to the imagination as the whole picture of the lame boy's start in life."
Moore was greatly touched by this letter. He wrote from Sloperton:
Mr. Moore to John Murray.
"Lockhart's praise has given me great pleasure, and his wife's even still greater; but, after all, the merit is in my subject—in the man, not in me. He must be a sad bungler who would spoil such a story."