DEAR Manning,—Olivia is a
good girl, and if you turn to my letter, you will find that this very plea you
set up to vindicate Lloyd I had made use
of as a reason why he should never have employed Olivia to
make a copy of such a letter—a letter I could not have sent to my enemy’s
b——h, if she had thought fit to seek me in the way of marriage. But you see it
in one view, I in another. Rest you merry in your opinion! Opinion is a species
of property; and though I am always desirous to share with my friend to a
certain extent, I shall ever like to keep some tenets and some property
properly my own. Some day, Manning, when we meet,
substituting Corydon and fair Amaryllis, for Charles Lloyd
and Mary Hayes, we will discuss together
this question of moral feeling, “In what cases and how far sincerity
is a virtue?” I do not mean Truth—a good
Olivia-like creature—God bless her, who, meaning no
offence, is always ready to give an answer when she is asked why she did so and
so; but a certain forward-talking half-brother of hers, Sincerity, that
amphibious gentleman, who is so ready to perk up his obnoxious sentiments
unasked into your notice, as Midas would
his ears into your face uncalled for. But I despair of doing anything by a
letter in the way of explaining or coming to explanations. A good wish, or a
pun, or a piece of secret history, may be well enough that way conveyed; nay,
it has been known that intelligence of a turkey hath been conveyed by that
medium
| 156 | LETTERS OF C. AND M. LAMB | Feb. |
I begin to think you Atheists not quite so tall a species. Coleridge inquires after you pretty often. I wish to be the Pandar to bring you together again once before I die. When we die, you and I must part; the sheep, you know, take the right hand, and the goats the left. Stripped of its allegory, you must know, the sheep are I and the Apostles, and the Martyrs, and the Popes, and Bishop Taylor, and Bishop Horsley, and Coleridge, &c., &c.; the goats are the Atheists and the Adulterers, and dumb dogs, and Godwin and M.....g, and that Thyestaean crew—yaw! how my saintship sickens at the idea!
You shall have my play and the Falstaff letters in a day or two. I will write to Lloyd by this day’s post.
Pray, is it a part of your sincerity to show my letters to Lloyd? for really, gentlemen ought to explain their virtues upon a first acquaintance, to prevent mistakes.
God bless you, Manning. Take my trifling as trifling; and believe me, seriously and deeply,
