“A common Bible, of a good legible print (bound in russia).  I have one; but as it was the last gift of my sister (whom I shall probably never see again), I can only use it carefully, and less frequently, because I like to keep it in good order.  Don’t forget this, for I am a great reader and admirer of those books, and had read them through and through before I was eight years old,—­that is to say, the Old Testament, for the New struck me as a task, but the other as a pleasure.  I speak as a boy, from the recollected impression of that period at Aberdeen in 1796.

“Any novels of Scott, or poetry of the same.  Ditto of Crabbe, Moore, and the Elect; but none of your curst common-place trash,—­unless something starts up of actual merit, which may very well be, for ’tis time it should.”

* * * * *

LETTER 463.  TO MR. MURRAY.

     “October 20. 1821.

“If the errors are in the MS. write me down an ass:  they are not, and I am content to undergo any penalty if they be.  Besides, the omitted stanza (last but one or two), sent afterwards, was that in the MS. too?

“As to ‘honour,’ I will trust no man’s honour in affairs of barter.  I will tell you why:  a state of bargain is Hobbes’s ’state of nature—­a state of war.’  It is so with all men.  If I come to a friend, and say, ’Friend, lend me five hundred pounds,’—­he either does it, or says that he can’t or won’t; but if I come to Ditto, and say, ’Ditto, I have an excellent house, or horse, or carriage, or MSS., or books, or pictures, or, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. honestly worth a thousand pounds, you shall have them for five hundred,’ what does Ditto say? why, he looks at them, he hums, he ha’s,—­he humbugs, if he can, to get a bargain as cheaply as he can, because it is a bargain.  This is in the blood and bone of mankind; and the same man who would lend another a thousand pounds without interest, would not buy a horse of him for half its value if he could help it.  It is so:  there’s no denying it; and therefore I will have as much as I can, and you will give as little; and there’s an end.  All men are intrinsical rascals, and I am only sorry that, not being a dog, I can’t bite them.

“I am filling another book for you with little anecdotes, to my own knowledge, or well authenticated, of Sheridan, Curran, &c. and such other public men as I recollect to have been acquainted with, for I knew most of them more or less.  I will do what I can to prevent your losing by my obsequies.

     “Yours,” &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 464.  TO MR. ROGERS.

     “Ravenna, October 21. 1821.