[Footnote 2: John Pinney.]
[Footnote 3: Montagu.]
[Footnote 4: Wordsworth.]
[Footnote 5: Pinney.]
[Footnote 6: Montagu.]
[Footnote 7: Letters CVI-CIX follow 89.]
LETTER 90. TO POOLE
March, 1800.
If I had the least love of money I could make almost sure of £2,000 a year, for Stuart has offered me half shares in the two papers, the "Morning Post" and "Courier", if I would devote myself with him to them. But I told him that I would not give up the country, and the lazy reading of old folios for two thousand times two thousand pound—in short that beyond £250 a year I considered money as a real evil.—
I think there are but two good ways of writing—one for immediate and wide impression, though transitory—the other for permanence. Newspapers are the first—the best one can do is the second. That middle class of translating books is neither the one nor the other. When I have settled myself "clear", I shall write nothing for money but for the newspaper. You of course will not hint a word of Stuart's offer to me. He has behaved with abundant honour and generosity.