Chapter XXXV: Letter 306: To Mr. Murray

"Venice, January 27. 1818.

"My father--that is, my Armenian father, Padre Pasquali--in the
name of all the other fathers of our Convent, sends you the
enclosed, greeting.

"Inasmuch as it has pleased the translators of the long-lost and
lately-found portions of the text of Eusebius to put forth the
enclosed prospectus, of which I send six copies, you are hereby
implored to obtain subscribers in the two Universities, and among
the learned, and the unlearned who would unlearn their
ignorance--This _they_ (the Convent) request, _I_ request, and _do
you_ request.

"I sent you Beppo some weeks agone. You must publish it alone; it
has politics and ferocity, and won't do for your isthmus of a
Journal.

"Mr. Hobhouse, if the Alps have not broken his neck, is, or ought
to be, swimming with my commentaries and his own coat of mail in
his teeth and right hand, in a cork jacket, between Calais and
Dover.

"It is the height of the Carnival, and I am in the extreme and
agonies of a new intrigue with I don't exactly know whom or what,
except that she is insatiate of love, and won't take money, and has
light hair and blue eyes, which are not common here, and that I met
her at the Masque, and that when her mask is off, I am as wise as
ever. I shall make what I can of the remainder of my youth."

* * * * *