It may be, and
would appear to a third person, an incredible thing, but I know _you_
will believe me when I say, that I am as anxious for your success as one
human being can be for another's,--as much as if I had never scribbled a
line. Surely the field of fame is wide enough for all; and if it were
not, I would not willingly rob my neighbour of a rood of it. Now you
have a pretty property of some thousand acres there, and when you have
passed your present Inclosure Bill, your income will be doubled,
(there's a metaphor, worthy of a Templar, namely, pert and low,) while
my wild common is too remote to incommode you, and quite incapable of
such fertility. I send you (which return per post, as the printer would
say) a curious letter from a friend of mine [4], which will let you into
the origin of _The Giaour_. Write soon.
Ever, dear Moore, yours most entirely, etc.
P.S.--This letter was written to me on account of a _different story_
circulated by some gentlewomen of our acquaintance, a little too close
to the text. The part erased contained merely some Turkish names, and
circumstantial evidence of the girl's detection, not very important or
decorous.
[Footnote 1: Giovanni Battista Toderini (1728-1799) published his work
'Della Letteratura Turchesca', at Venice in 1787. Brunet says, "Cet
ouvrage curieux a ete traduit en Francais, par Cournand. Paris, 1789
('De La Litterature des Turcs')."]
[Footnote 2:
"Yes, his manner was cold; his shake of the hand came under the genus
'mortmain;' but his heart was overflowing with benevolence"
(Lady Holland's 'Memoir of Sydney Smith', 4th edition, vol.
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