"I suppose 'Lara' is gone to the devil,--which is no great matter, only let me know, that I may be saved the trouble of copying the rest, and put the first part into the fire. I really have no anxiety about it, and shall not be sorry to be saved the copying, which goes on very slowly, and may prove to you that you may _speak out_--or I should be less sluggish. Yours," &c. * * * * * LETTER 186. TO MR. ROGERS. "June 27. 1814. "You could not have made me a more acceptable present than Jacqueline,--she is all grace, and softness, and poetry; there is so much of the last, that we do not feel the want of story, which is simple, yet _enough_. I wonder that you do not oftener unbend to more of the same kind. I have some sympathy with the _softer_ affections, though very little in _my_ way, and no one can depict them so truly and successfully as yourself. I have half a mind to pay you in kind, or rather _un_kind, for I have just 'supped full of horror' in two cantos of darkness and dismay. "Do you go to Lord Essex's to-night? if so, will you let me call for you at your own hour? I dined with Holland-house yesterday at Lord Cowper's; my Lady very gracious, which she can be more than any one when she likes. I was not sorry to see them again, for I can't forget that they have been very kind to me. Ever yours most truly, "BN. "P.S. Is there any chance or possibility of making it up with Lord Carlisle, as I feel disposed to do any thing reasonable or unreasonable to effect it? I would before, but for the 'Courier,' and the possible misconstructions at such a time. Perpend, pronounce." * * * * * On my return to London, for a short time, at the beginning of July, I found his poem of 'Lara,' which he had begun at the latter end of May, in the hands of the printer, and nearly ready for publication. He had, before I left town, repeated to me, as we were on our way to some evening party, the first one hundred and twenty lines of the poem, which he had written the day before,--at the same time giving me a general sketch of the characters and the story. His short notes to Mr. Murray, during the printing of this work, are of the same impatient and whimsical character as those, of which I have already given specimens, in my account of his preceding publications: but, as matter of more interest now presses upon us, I shall forbear from transcribing them at length. In one of them he says, "I have just corrected some of the most horrible blunders that ever crept into a proof:"--in another, "I hope the next proof will be better; this was one which would have consoled Job, if it had been of his 'enemy's book:'" --a third contains only the following words: "Dear sir, you demanded more _battle_--there it is. "Yours," &c.