"Pisa, February 6. 1822.
"'Try back the deep lane,' till we find a publisher for the
'Vision;' and if none such is to be found, print fifty copies at my
expense, distribute them amongst my acquaintance, and you will soon
see that the booksellers _will_ publish them, even if we opposed
them. That they are now afraid is natural, but I do not see that I
ought to give way on that account. I know nothing of Rivington's
'Remonstrance' by the 'eminent Churchman;' but I suppose he wants a
living. I once heard of a preacher at Kentish Town against 'Cain.'
The same outcry was raised against Priestley, Hume, Gibbon,
Voltaire, and all the men who dared to put tithes to the question.
"I have got S----'s pretended reply, to which I am surprised that
you do not allude. What remains to be done is to call him out. The
question is, would he come? for, if he would not, the whole thing
would appear ridiculous, if I were to take a long and expensive
journey to no purpose.
"You must be my second, and, as such, I wish to consult you.
"I apply to you, as one well versed in the duello, or monomachie.
Of course I shall come to England as privately as possible, and
leave it (supposing that I was the survivor) in the same manner;
having no other object which could bring me to that country except
to settle quarrels accumulated during my absence.
"By the last post I transmitted to you a letter upon some Rochdale
toll business, from which there are moneys in prospect. My agent
says two thousand pounds, but supposing it to be only one, or even
one hundred, still they may be moneys; and I have lived long enough
to have an exceeding respect for the smallest current coin of any
realm, or the least sum, which, although I may not want it myself,
may do something for others who may need it more than I.
"They say that 'Knowledge is Power:'--I used to think so; but I now
know that they meant '_money_:' and when Socrates declared, 'that
all he knew was, that he knew nothing,' he merely intended to
declare, that he had not a drachm in the Athenian world.
"The _circulars_ are arrived, and circulating like the vortices (or
vortexes) of Descartes. Still I have a due care of the needful, and
keep a look out ahead, as my notions upon the score of moneys
coincide with yours, and with all men's who have lived to see that
every guinea is a philosopher's stone, or at least his
_touch_-stone. You will doubt me the less, when I pronounce my firm
belief, that _Cash_ is _Virtue_.
"I cannot reproach myself with much expenditure: my only extra
expense (and it is more than I have spent upon myself) being a loan
of two hundred and fifty pounds to ----; and fifty pounds worth of
furniture, which I have bought for him; and a boat which I am
building for myself at Genoa, which will cost about a hundred
pounds more.
"But to return. I am determined to have all the moneys I can,
whether by my own funds, or succession, or lawsuit, or MSS. or any
lawful means whatever.
"I will pay (though with the sincerest reluctance) my remaining
creditors, and every man of law, by instalments from the award of
the arbitrators.
"I recommend to you the notice in Mr. Hanson's letter, on the
demands of moneys for the Rochdale tolls.
"Above all, I recommend my interests to your honourable worship.
"Recollect, too, that I expect some moneys for the various MSS. (no
matter what); and, in short, 'Rem _quocunque modo_, Rem!'--the
noble feeling of cupidity grows upon us with our years.
"Yours ever," &c.
[Footnote 73: This letter has been already published, with a few others,
in a periodical work, and is known to have been addressed to the late
Mr. Douglas Kinnaird.]
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