[Footnote 35:  The Journal from which I have given extracts in the preceding pages.]

* * * * *

TO MR. MURRAY.

     “June 14. 1814.

“I return your packet of this morning.  Have you heard that Bertrand has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon’s having lost his senses?  It is a report; but, if true, I must, like Mr. Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to prophecy; that is to say, of saying, that he ought to go out of his senses, in the penultimate stanza of a certain Ode,—­the which, having been pronounced nonsense by several profound critics, has a still further pretension, by its unintelligibility, to inspiration.  Ever,” &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 185.  TO MR. ROGERS.

     “June 19. 1814.

“I am always obliged to trouble you with my awkwardnesses, and now I have a fresh one.  Mr. W.[36] called on me several times, and I have missed the honour of making his acquaintance, which I regret, but which you, who know my desultory and uncertain habits, will not wonder at, and will, I am sure, attribute to any thing but a wish to offend a person who has shown me much kindness, and possesses character and talents entitled to general respect.  My mornings are late, and passed in fencing and boxing, and a variety of most unpoetical exercises, very wholesome, &c., but would be very disagreeable to my friends, whom I am obliged to exclude during their operation.  I never go out till the evening, and I have not been fortunate enough to meet Mr. W. at Lord Lansdowne’s or Lord Jersey’s, where I had hoped to pay him my respects.

“I would have written to him, but a few words from you will go further than all the apologetical sesquipedalities I could muster on the occasion.  It is only to say that, without intending it, I contrive to behave very ill to every body, and am very sorry for it.

     “Ever, dear R.,” &c.

[Footnote 36:  Mr. Wrangham.]

* * * * *

The following undated notes to Mr. Rogers must have been written about the same time:—­

     “Sunday.

“Your non-attendance at Corinne’s is very a propos, as I was on the eve of sending you an excuse.  I do not feel well enough to go there this evening, and have been obliged to despatch an apology.  I believe I need not add one for not accepting Mr. Sheridan’s invitation on Wednesday, which I fancy both you and I understood in the same sense:—­with him the saying of Mirabeau, that ’words are things,’ is not to be taken literally.

     “Ever,” &c.

“I will call for you at a quarter before seven, if that will suit you.  I return you Sir Proteus[37], and shall merely add in return, as Johnson said of, and to, somebody or other, ’Are we alive after all this censure?’

     “Believe me,” &c.