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CHAPTER X.

Third Volume of Dr. Clarke's Travels-Lord Byron-Bp. Mansel-Dr. Clarke's Blow Pipe-Discoveries respecting Cadmium-Election to the office of Sub-Librarian-Inscription for Sir John Moore-Dissertation on the Lituus—Illness -Death-Character.

SHORTLY after the return of Dr. Clarke to his residence in the town of Cambridge, the third volume of his Travels made its appearance from the press, which, as it was more anxiously expected and better received by the public than either of the former, so was it also the most approved by himself. The subjects evidently pleased him, and he seems also to have been pleased with his own management of them, particularly with the History of the Pyramids, of which he expressed his conviction, that it would live, when" he himself should be gathered to his fathers." With the second it was quite otherwise, for he was never satisfied respecting it, either before or after its publication, and when some strong praise of this volume was reported to him by his bookseller in town, he only expressed a wish, that he could find an echo to it in his own breast; more favourable, however, was the opinion formed of it by his friends, especially Lord Byron, whose remarks, coming as they do from a competent witness of no ordinary stamp, and marked as they are with a tone of feeling, which is honourable both to the subject of this Memoir and himself, will not be unacceptable to the reader.

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"ST. JAMES's STREET, June 26, 1812. "Will you accept my very sincere congratulations on your second volume, wherein I have retraced some of my old paths, adorned by you so beautifully, that they afford me double delight. The part which pleases me best, after all, is the preface, because it tells me you have not yet closed labours, to yourself not unprofitable, nor without gratification, for what is so pleasing as to give pleasure? I have sent my copy to Sir Sidney Smith, who will derive much gratification from your anecdotes of Djezzar, his energetic old man.' I doat upon the Druses; but who the deuce are they with their Pantheism? I shall never be easy till I ask them the question. How much you have traversed! I must resume my seven leagued boots and journey to Palestine, which your description mortifies me not to have seen more than ever. I still sigh for the Ægean. Shall not you always love its bluest of all waves, and brightest of all skies? You have awakened all the gipsy in me. I long to be restless again, and wandering; see what mischief you do, you wont allow gentlemen to settle quietly at home. I will not wish you success and fame, for you have both, but all the happiness which even these cannot always give."

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"Dec. 15, 1813.

"Your very kind letter is the more agreeable, because, setting aside talents, judgment, and the laudari a laudato,' &c. you have been on the spot; you have seen and described more of the East than any of your predecessors-I need not say how ably and successfully; and (excuse the bathos) you

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are one of the very few who can pronounce how far my costume (to use an affected but expressive word) is correct. As to poesy, that is, as men, gods, and columns,' please to decide upon it; but I am sure that I am anxious to have an observer's, particularly a famous observer's, testimony on the fidelity of my manners and dresses; and, as far as memory and an oriental twist in my imagination have permitted, it has been my endeavour to present to the Franks, a sketch of that of which you have and will present them a complete picture. It was with this notion, that I felt compelled to make my hero and heroine relatives, as you well know that none else could there obtain that degree of intercourse leading to genuine af fection; I had nearly made them rather too much akin to each other; and though the wild passions of the East, and some great examples in Alfieri, Ford, and Schiller (to stop short of antiquity), might have pleaded in favour of a copyist, yet the times and the north (not Frederic, but our climate) induced me to alter their consanguinity and confine them to cousinship. I also wished to try my hand on a female character in Zuleika, and have endeavoured, as far as the grossness of our masculine ideas will allow, to preserve her purity without impairing the ardour of her attachment. As to criticism, I have been reviewed about a hundred and fifty times-praised and abused. I will not say that I am become indifferent to either eulogy or condemnation, but for some years at least I have felt grateful for the former, and have never attempted to answer the latter. For success equal to the first efforts, I had and have no hope; the novelty was over, and the Bride,' like all other brides, must suffer or rejoice for and with her husband. By the bye, I have used bride Turkishly, as affianced, not married; and so far it is an English bull, which, I trust,

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will be at least a comfort to all Hibernians not bigotted to monopoly. You are good enough to mention your quotations

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your third volume. I shall not only be indebted to it for a renewal of the high gratification received from the two first, but for preserving my relics embalmed in your own spices, and ensuring me readers to whom I could not otherwise have aspired. I called on you, as bounden by duty and inclination, when last in your neighbourhood; but I shall always take my chance; you surely would not have me inflict upon you a formal annunciation; I am proud of your friendship, but not so fond of myself as to break in upon your better avocations. I trust that Mrs. Clarke is well; I have never had the honour of presentation, but I have heard so much of her in many quarters, that any notice she is pleased to take of my productions is not less gratifying than my thanks are sincere, both to her and you; by all accounts, I may safely congratu late you on the possession of a bride' whose mental and personal accomplishments are more than poetical.

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"P. S. Murray has sent, or will send, a double copy of the Bride and Giaour; in the last one, some lengthy additions; pray accept them, according to old custom, from the author' to one of his better brethren. Your Persian, or any memorial, will be a most agreeable, and it is my fault if not an useful present."

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"I trust your third will be out before I sail next month can I say or do any thing for you in the Levant? I am now in all the agonies of equipment, and full of schemes, some impracticable, and most of them improbable; but I mean to fly 'freely to the green earth's end,' though not quite so fast as Milton's sprite."

But of all the compliments paid to him on the subject of his Travels, the lines which follow from the late Bishop of Bristol, gave him the greatest pleasure, not so much on account of the quality or degree of | raise conveyed by them, as for the sake of the person associated with him in the honour of it. Dr. Clarke's answer to the lines is subjoined.

To Professor Edward Daniel Clarke, on his book of Travels.

FOR hours with thee, in pleasure past;

For sense, for nature and for taste,
Delightful Traveller, receive

All that a grateful mind can give;
A mind that lov'd with thee to roam,
And found, in every clime a home;
In every clime, a welcome found,
On Holy, or on Classic ground:

For such the meed must ever be,

Of worth like thine, and courtesy.

But, Oh! with all thy matchless skill,

To bend attention to thy will;

With all that the Historic muse

Can, o'er thy brilliant page, diffuse;
Oh, say, what could thy powerful art,
E'en thine, t'engage and keep the heart,
Did'st thou not bribe the enraptured eye,
With all the charms of symmetry;
The sculptured grace, the magic form,
With life, with taste, with beauty warm;
Did she not bid, with skill divine,

Her pencil glow along the line;
Herself, a thousand powers in one,
Thine own ANGELICA alone?

W. B.

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