Mr. I. D’Israeli to John Murray.

I am delighted by your apology for not having called on me after I had taken my leave of you the day before; but you can make an unnecessary apology as agreeable as any other act of kindness....

You are sanguine in your hope of a good sale of “Curiosities,” it will afford us a mutual gratification; but when you consider it is not a new work, though considerably improved I confess, and that those kinds of works cannot boast of so much novelty as they did about ten years ago, I am somewhat more moderate in my hopes.

What you tell me of F.F. from Symond’s, is new to me.  I sometimes throw out in the shop remote hints about the sale of books, all the while meaning only mine; but they have no skill in construing the timid wishes of a modest author; they are not aware of his suppressed sighs, nor see the blushes of hope and fear tingling his cheek; they are provokingly silent, and petrify the imagination....

Believe me, with the truest regard,

Yours ever,

I. D’ISRAELI.

Mr. D’Israeli to John Murray. Saturday, May 31, 1806.  KING’S ROAD.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

It is my wish to see you for five minutes this day, but as you must be much engaged, and I am likely to be prevented reaching you this morning, I shall only trouble you with a line.

Most warmly I must impress on your mind the necessity of taking the advice of a physician.  Who?  You know many.  We have heard extraordinary accounts of Dr. Baillie, and that (what is more extraordinary) he is not mercenary....

I have written this to impress on your mind this point.  Seeing you as we see you, and your friend at a fault, how to decide, and you without some relative or domestic friend about you, gives Mrs. D’I. and myself very serious concerns—­for you know we do take the warmest interest in your welfare—­and your talents and industry want nothing but health to make you yet what it has always been one of my most gratifying hopes to conceive of you.

Yours very affectionately,

I. D’ISRAELI.

A circumstance, not without influence on Murray’s future, occurred about this time with respect to the “Miniature,” a volume of comparatively small importance, consisting of essays written by boys at Eton, and originally published at Windsor by Charles Knight.  Through Dr. Kennell, Master of the Temple, his friend and neighbour, who lived close at hand, Murray became acquainted with the younger Kennell, Mr. Stratford Canning, Gally Knight, the two sons of the Marquis Wellesley, and other young Etonians, who had originated and conducted this School magazine.  Thirty-four numbers appeared in the course of a year, and were then brought out in a volume by Mr. Knight at the expense of the authors.  The transaction had involved them in debt.  “Whatever chance of success our hopes may dictate,” wrote Stratford