"By the last post I transmitted to you a letter upon some Rochdale toll business, from which there are moneys in prospect. My agent says two thousand pounds, but supposing it to be only one, or even one hundred, still they may be moneys; and I have lived long enough to have an exceeding respect for the smallest current coin of any realm, or the least sum, which, although I may not want it myself, may do something for others who may need it more than I. "They say that 'Knowledge is Power:'--I used to think so; but I now know that they meant '_money_:' and when Socrates declared, 'that all he knew was, that he knew nothing,' he merely intended to declare, that he had not a drachm in the Athenian world. "The _circulars_ are arrived, and circulating like the vortices (or vortexes) of Descartes. Still I have a due care of the needful, and keep a look out ahead, as my notions upon the score of moneys coincide with yours, and with all men's who have lived to see that every guinea is a philosopher's stone, or at least his _touch_-stone. You will doubt me the less, when I pronounce my firm belief, that _Cash_ is _Virtue_. "I cannot reproach myself with much expenditure: my only extra expense (and it is more than I have spent upon myself) being a loan of two hundred and fifty pounds to ----; and fifty pounds worth of furniture, which I have bought for him; and a boat which I am building for myself at Genoa, which will cost about a hundred pounds more. "But to return. I am determined to have all the moneys I can, whether by my own funds, or succession, or lawsuit, or MSS. or any lawful means whatever. "I will pay (though with the sincerest reluctance) my remaining creditors, and every man of law, by instalments from the award of the arbitrators. "I recommend to you the notice in Mr. Hanson's letter, on the demands of moneys for the Rochdale tolls. "Above all, I recommend my interests to your honourable worship. "Recollect, too, that I expect some moneys for the various MSS. (no matter what); and, in short, 'Rem _quocunque modo_, Rem!'--the noble feeling of cupidity grows upon us with our years. "Yours ever," &c. [Footnote 73: This letter has been already published, with a few others, in a periodical work, and is known to have been addressed to the late Mr. Douglas Kinnaird.] * * * * * LETTER 477. TO MR. MURRAY. "Pisa, February 8. 1822. "Attacks upon me were to be expected, but I perceive one upon _you_ in the papers, which I confess that I did not expect. How, or in what manner, _you_ can be considered responsible for what _I_ publish, I am at a loss to conceive.