"November 23. 1813.
"You wanted some reflections, and I send you _per Selim_ (see his
speech in Canto 2d, page 46.), eighteen lines in decent couplets,
of a pensive, if not an _ethical_ tendency. One more
revise--positively the last, if decently done--at any rate the
_pen_ultimate. Mr. Canning's approbation (_if_ he did approve) I
need not say makes me proud.[110] As to printing, print as you will
and how you will--by itself, if you like; but let me have a few
copies in _sheets_.
"November 24. 1813.
"You must pardon me once more, as it is all for your good: it must
be thus--
"He makes a solitude, and calls it peace.
'_Makes_' is closer to the passage of Tacitus, from which the line
is taken, and is, besides, a stronger word than '_leaves_'
"Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease--
He makes a solitude, and calls it--peace."
[Footnote 110: Mr. Canning's note was as follows:--"I received the
books, and, among them, The Bride of Abydos. It is very, very beautiful.
Lord Byron (when I met him, one day, at dinner at Mr. Ward's) was so
kind as to promise to give me a copy of it. I mention this, not to save
my purchase, but because I should be really flattered by the present."]
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