"June 14. 1814.
"I return your packet of this morning. Have you heard that Bertrand
has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon's having lost
his senses? It is a _report_; but, if true, I must, like Mr.
Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to
prophecy; that is to say, of saying, that he _ought_ to go out of
his senses, in the penultimate stanza of a certain Ode,--the which,
having been pronounced _nonsense_ by several profound critics, has
a still further pretension, by its unintelligibility, to
inspiration. Ever," &c.
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