So that, to quote statute and precedent, I
really come under the case cited by Juvenal, though not quite in the
extremity of the classic author:
'Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven.'
"And so much for a mistake, into which your Lordship might easily fall,
especially as I generally find it the easiest way of stopping
sentimental compliments on the beauty, etc., of certain poetry, and
the delights which the author must have taken in the composition, by
assigning the readiest reason that will cut the discourse short, upon
a subject where one must appear either conceited or affectedly rude
and cynical.
"As for my attachment to literature, I sacrificed for the pleasure of
pursuing it very fair chances of opulence and professional honours, at
a time of life when I fully knew their value; and I am not ashamed to
say, that in deriving advantages in compensation from the partial
favour of the public, I have added some comforts and elegancies to a
bare independence. I am sure your Lordship's good sense will easily
put this unimportant egotism to the right account, for--though I do
not know the motive would make me enter into controversy with a fair
or an 'unfair' literary critic--I may be well excused for a wish
to clear my personal character from any tinge of mercenary or sordid
feeling in the eyes of a contemporary of genius. Your Lordship will
likewise permit me to add that you would have escaped the trouble of
this explanation, had I not understood that the satire alluded to had
been suppressed, not to be reprinted.
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