wretch should be saved even by those, some of whom one may suppose he meditated to massacre; for at what does a Frenchman stop?  But I will quit this shocking subject, and for another reason too:  I omitted one of my losses, almost the use of my fingers:  they are so lame that I cannot write a dozen lines legibly, but am forced to have recourse to my secretary.  I will only reply by a word or two to a question you seem to ask; how I like “Camilla?” I do not care to say how little.  Alas! she has reversed experience, which I have long’, thought reverses its own utility by coming at the wrong end of our life when we do not want it.  This author knew the world and penetrated characters before she had stepped over the threshold; and, now she has seen so much of it, she has little or no insight at all perhaps she apprehended having seen too much, and kept the bags of foul air that she brought from the Cave of Tempests too closely tied.

Adieu, thou who mightest be one of the cleverest of women if thou didst not prefer being one of the best!  And when I say one of the best, I have not engaged my vote for the second.  Yours most gratefully.

Letter 427 To Richard Gough, Esq.  Berkeley Square, Dec. 5, 1796. (page 574)

Dear Sir, Being struck with the extreme cold of last week, it has brought a violent gouty inflammation into one of my legs, and I was forced to be instantly brought to town very ill.  As soon as I was a little recovered, I found here your most magnificent present of the second volume of Sepulchral Monuments, the most splendid work I ever saw, and which I congratulate myself on having lived long enough to see.  Indeed, I congratulate my country on its appearance exactly at so illustrious a moment, when the patriotism and zeal of London have exhibited so astonishing marks of their opulence and attachment to the constitution, by a voluntary subscription of seventeen millions of money in three days.  Your book, Sir, appearing, at that very instant, will be a monument of a fact so unexampled in history; the treasure of fine prints with which it is stowed, well becomes such a production and such a work, the expense of which becomes it too.  I am impatient to be able to sit up and examine it more, and am sure my gratitude will increase in proportion.  As soon as I shall receive the complete sheets, I will have the whole work bound in the most superb manner that can be:  and though, being so infirm now, and just entered into my eightieth year, I am not likely to wait on you, and thank you, I shall be happy to have an opportunity, whenever you come this way, of telling you in person how much I am charmed with so splendid a monument of British glories, and which will be so proud an ornament to the libraries of any nation.

Letter 428 To Miss Berry.  Thursday, December 15, past noon, 1796. (page 575)