Chapter CII: Letter 372: To Mr. Murray

"Ravenna, May 20. 1820.

"Murray, my dear, make my respects to Thomas Campbell, and tell him
from me, with faith and friendship, three things that he must right
in his poets: Firstly, he says Anstey's Bath Guide characters are
taken from Smollett. 'Tis impossible:--the Guide was published in
1766, and Humphrey Clinker in 1771--_dunque_, 'tis Smollett who has
taken from Anstey. Secondly, he does not know to whom Cowper
alludes, when he says that there was one who 'built a church to
_God_, and then blasphemed his name:' it was 'Deo erexit
_Voltaire_' to whom that maniacal Calvinist and coddled poet
alludes. Thirdly, he misquotes and spoils a passage from
Shakspeare, 'to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,' &c.; for
_lily_ he puts rose, and bedevils in more words than one the whole
quotation.

"Now, Tom is a fine fellow; but he should be correct; for the first
is an _injustice_ (to Anstey), the second an _ignorance_, and the
third a _blunder_. Tell him all this, and let him take it in good
part; for I might have rammed it into a review and rowed
him--instead of which, I act like a Christian.

"Yours," &c.

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