ship. He contends that it is a work "I should not have ventured to put my 66 name to in the days of Pope, Churchill, "and Johnson, (a curious trio !) Hobhouse "used to write good verses once himself, "but he seems to have forgotten what 66 poetry is in others, when he says my "Cain' reminds him of the worst bombast "of Dryden's. Shelley, who is no bad "judge of the compositions of others, "however he may fail in procuring suc 66 cess for his own, is most sensitive and "indignant at this critique, and says (what "is not the case) that Cain' is the finest 66 thing I ever wrote, calls it worthy of "Milton, and backs it against Hobhouse's "poetical Trinity. "The Snake's rage has prevented my "crest from rising. I shall write Hobhouse "a very unimpassioned letter, but a firm 66 one. The publication shall go on, whe"ther Murray refuses to print it or not. "I have just got a letter, and an ad"mirable one it is, from Sir Walter Scott, "to whom I dedicated Cain.' The sight "of one of his letters always does me 66 good. I hardly know what to make of all "the contradictory opinions that have been "sent me this week. Moore says, that "more people are shocked with the blas 66. phemy of the sentiments, than delighted "with the beauty of the lines. Another 66 person thinks the Devil's arguments irre"sistible, or irrefutable. says that "the Liberals like it, but that the Ultra"ists are making a terrible outcry; and "that the he and him not being in capitals, "in full dress uniform, shocks the High "church and Court party. Some call me "an Atheist, others a Manichæan,—a very "bad and a hard-sounding name, that "shocks the illiterati the more because "they don't know what it means. I am "taxed with having made my drama a peg "to hang on it a long, and some say tire 66 some, dissertation on the principle of "Evil; and, what is worse, with having given Lucifer the best of the argument; "all of which I am accused of taking from "Voltaire. 66 "I could not make Lucifer expound the Thirty-nine Articles, nor talk as the Di"vines do: that would never have suited "his purpose,—nor, one would think, theirs. 66 66 They ought to be grateful to him for giv ing them a subject to write about. What "would they do without evil in the Prince "of Evil? Othello's occupation would be 66 gone. I have made Lucifer say no more "in his defence than was absolutely neces66 sary,-not half so much as Milton makes "his Satan do. I was forced to keep up "his dramatic character. Au reste, I have "adhered closely to the Old Testament, " and I defy any one to question my moral. 66 "Johnson, who would have been glad of an opportunity of throwing another stone "at Milton, redeems him from any censure "for putting impiety and even blasphemy "into the mouths of his infernal spirits. 66 By what rule, then, am I to have all the "blame? What would the Methodists at "home say to Goethe's Faust'? His devil 66 not only talks very familiarly of Heaven, "but very familiarly in Heaven. What "would they think of the colloquies of "Mephistopheles and his pupil, or the 66 more daring language of the prologue, "which no one will ever venture to trans"late? And yet this play is not only "tolerated and admired, as every thing he "wrote must be, but acted, in Germany. "And are the Germans a less moral people "than we are? I doubt it much. Faust "itself is not so fine a subject as Cain. It "is a grand mystery. The mark that was 66 put upon Cain is a sublime and shadowy "act: Goethe would have made more of it "than I have done*.” * On Mr. Murray being threatened with a prosecution, Lord Byron begged me to copy the following letter for him : "Attacks upon me were to be expected; but I perceive one upon you in the papers which, I confess, I did not expect. "How |