I have just been reading the enlarged Edition of Giaour, and think the additions very beautiful. The description of Love almost makes me in love. Certainly he excels in the language of Passion, whilst the power of delineating inanimate nature appears more copiously bestowed on other poets. Perhaps he has not displayed his excellence in that line only because it has not so much occupied his attention. In the intellectual he is truly sublime, yet I cannot believe that his Genius has yet attained its maturity. There is a progressive improvement in his writings. I shall be glad of his stay in England as I may hope to have some share of his agreeable society next year in London. After the lapse of nearly two years since the declaration of his wishes, it is not probable that they should continue in a sufficient degree to occasion mutual embarrassment. I consider his acquaintance as so desirable that I would incur the risk of being called a Flirt for the sake of enjoying it, provided I may do so without detri-

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ment to himself—for you know that his welfare has been as much the object of my consideration as if it were connected with my own. To shew you that Invention does not languish in this country I was told a few days since that Lord Byron had gone to establish himself in some remote island with a younger daughter of Lady Oxford’s, whom he was to educate & ultimately to marry.

The Novel which you recommend will be a welcome interruption to my present studies, which I should suppose were suited to your taste—metaphysical reasoning, Locke, Dugald Stuart, &c. My early study of Mathematics has contributed to lead me to these pursuits, since they are in fact the Demonstrat[ions] of Moral Philosophy. I differ from many in considering such books of great practical utility—even in the commonest circumstances of life. You will laugh, & think I mean to eat my dinner metaphysically. Perhaps I might be allowed to waltz metaphysically without incurring even Lord B.’s censure.