or two. The paper is finished, and so is the letter.

"Yours," &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 393. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, 9bre 9°, 1820.

"The talent you approve of is an amiable one, and might prove a
'national service,' but unfortunately I must be angry with a man
before I draw his real portrait; and I can't deal in '_generals_,'
so that I trust never to have provocation enough to make a
_Gallery_. If '_the_ parson' had not by many little dirty sneaking
traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had
observed_ him. Here follows an alteration: put--

Devil with _such_ delight in damning,
That if at the resurrection
Unto him the free election
Of his future could be given,
'Twould be rather Hell than Heaven;

that is to say, if these two new lines do not too much lengthen out
and weaken the amiability of the original thought and expression.
You have a discretionary power about showing. I should think that
Croker would not disrelish a sight of these light little humorous
things, and may be indulged now and then.