I shall select but one more example, from the additions to this poem, as a proof that his eagerness and facility in producing, was sometimes almost equalled by his anxious care in correcting. In the long passage just referred to, the six lines beginning "Blest as the Muezzin's strain," &c., having been despatched to the printer too late for insertion, were, by his desire, added in an errata page; the first couplet, in its original form, being as follows:-- "Soft as the Mecca-Muezzin's strains invite Him who hath journey'd far to join the rite." In a few hours after, another scrap was sent off, containing the lines thus-- "Blest as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's dome, Which welcomes Faith to view her Prophet's tomb"-- with the following note to Mr. Murray:-- "December 3. 1813. "Look out in the Encyclopedia, article _Mecca_, whether it is there or at _Medina_ the Prophet is entombed. If at Medina, the first lines of my alterration must run-- "Blest as the call which from Medina's dome Invites Devotion to her Prophet's tomb," &c. If at Mecca, the lines may stand as before. Page 45. canto 2d, Bride of Abydos. Yours, B. "You will find this out either by article _Mecca_, _Medina_, or _Mohammed_. I have no book of reference by me." [Footnote 106: "Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bluehn," &c.] [Footnote 107: Among the imputed plagiarisms so industriously hunted out in his writings, this line has been, with somewhat more plausibility than is frequent in such charges, included,--the lyric poet Lovelace having, it seems, written, "The melody and music of her face." Sir Thomas Brown, too, in his Religio Medici, says--"There is music even in beauty," &c. The coincidence, no doubt, is worth observing, and the task of "tracking" thus a favourite writer "in the snow (as Dryden expresses it) of others" is sometimes not unamusing; but to those who found upon such resemblances a general charge of plagiarism, we may apply what Sir Walter Scott says, in that most agreeable work, his Lives of the Novelists:--"It is a favourite theme of laborious dulness to trace such coincidences, because they appear to reduce genius of the higher order to the usual standard of humanity, and of course to bring the author nearer to a level with his critics."] [Footnote 108: It will be seen, however, from a subsequent letter to Mr. Murray, that he himself was at first unaware of the peculiar felicity of this epithet; and it is therefore, probable, that, after all, the merit of the choice may have belonged to Mr. Gifford.] * * * * * Immediately after succeeded another note:-- "Did you look out? Is it _Medina_ or _Mecca_ that contains the _Holy_ Sepulchre? Don't make me blaspheme by your negligence. I have no book of reference, or I would save you the trouble. I _blush_, as a good Mussulman, to have confused the point. "Yours, B."