"Do read mathematics.—I should think X plus Y at least as amusing as the Curse of Kehama, and much more intelligible. Master S.'s poems are, in fact, what parallel lines might be—viz. prolonged ad infinitum without meeting any thing half so absurd as themselves.
"What news, what news? Queen Oreaca,
What news of scribblers five?
S——, W——, C——e, L——d, and L——e?—
All damn'd, though yet alive.
C——e is lecturing. 'Many an old fool,' said Hannibal to some such lecturer, 'but such as this, never.'
"Ever yours, &c."
LETTER 78. TO MR. HARNESS.
"St. James's Street, Dec. 8. 1811.
"Behold a most formidable sheet, without gilt or black edging, and consequently very vulgar and indecorous, particularly to one of your precision; but this being Sunday, I can procure no better, and will atone for its length by not filling it. Bland I have not seen since my last letter; but on Tuesday he dines with me, and will meet M * * e, the epitome of all that is exquisite in poetical or personal accomplishments. How Bland has settled with Miller, I know not. I have very little interest with either, and they must arrange their concerns according to their own gusto. I have done my endeavours, at your request, to bring them together, and hope they may agree to their mutual advantage.
"Coleridge has been lecturing against Campbell. Rogers was present, and from him I derive the information. We are going to make a party to hear this Manichean of poesy. Pole is to marry Miss Long, and will be a very miserable dog for all that. The present ministers are to continue, and his Majesty does continue in the same state; so there's folly and madness for you, both in a breath.
"I never heard but of one man truly fortunate, and he was Beaumarchais, the author of Figaro, who buried two wives and gained three law-suits before he was thirty.