I remember you advising me not to publish my
first blights, on Hampstead Heath[5]. I am returning advice upon your
hands. Most of the poems in the volume I send you [this was the volume
containing _Lamia, Hyperion_, &c.] have been written above two years[6],
and would never have been published but for hope of gain: so you see I
am inclined enough to take your advice now.
'I must express once more my deep sense of your kindness, adding my
sincere thanks and respects for Mrs. Shelley. In the hope of soon seeing
you I remain
'Most sincerely yours,
'JOHN KEATS.'
It may have been in the interval between writing his note Of invitation
to Keats, and receiving the reply of the latter, that Shelley penned the
following letter to the Editor of the _Quarterly Review_--the periodical
which had taken (or had shared with _Blackwood's Magazine_) the lead in
depreciating _Endymion_. The letter, however, was left uncompleted, and
was not dispatched. (I omit such passages as are not directly concerned
with Keats):--
'SIR,
'Should you cast your eye on the signature of this letter before you
read the contents, you might imagine that they related to a slanderous
paper which appeared in your Review some time since.
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