"Gifford is too wise a man to think that such things can have any _serious_ effect: _who_ was ever altered by a poem? I beg leave to observe, that there is no creed nor personal hypothesis of mine in all this; but I was obliged to make Cain and Lucifer talk consistently, and surely this has always been permitted to poesy. Cain is a proud man: if Lucifer promised him kingdom, &c. it would _elate_ him: the object of the Demon is to _depress_ him still further in his own estimation than he was before, by showing him infinite things and his own abasement, till he falls into the frame of mind that leads to the catastrophe, from mere _internal_ irritation, _not_ premeditation, or envy of _Abel_ (which would have made him contemptible), but from the rage and fury against the inadequacy of his state to his conceptions, and which discharges itself rather against life, and the Author of life, than the mere living. "His subsequent remorse is the natural effect of looking on his sudden deed. Had the _deed_ been _premeditated_, his repentance would have been tardier. "Either dedicate it to Walter Scott, or, if you think he would like the dedication of 'The Foscaris' better, put the dedication to 'The Foscaris.' Ask him which. "Your first note was queer enough; but your two other letters, with Moore's and Gifford's opinions, set all right again. I told you before that I can never _recast_ any thing. I am like the tiger: if I miss the first spring, I go grumbling back to my jungle again; but if I do _hit_, it is crushing. * * * You disparaged the last three cantos to me, and kept them back above a year; but I have heard from England that (notwithstanding the errors of the press) they are well thought of; for instance, by American Irving, which last is a feather in my (fool's) cap. "You have received my letter (open) through Mr. Kinnaird, and so, pray, send me no more reviews of any kind. I will read no more of evil or good in that line. Walter Scott has not read a review of _himself_ for _thirteen years_. "The bust is not _my_ property, but _Hobhouse_'s. I addressed it to you as an Admiralty man, great at the Custom-house. Pray deduct the expenses of the same, and all others. "Yours," &c. * * * * * LETTER 467. TO MR. MURRAY. "Pisa, Nov. 9. 1821. "I _never read_ the Memoirs at all, not even since they were written; and I never will: the pain of writing them was enough; you may spare me that of a perusal. Mr. Moore has (or may have) a discretionary power to omit any repetition, or expressions which do not seem _good_ to _him_, who is a better judge than you or I.