He pointed out the beauties of the poem, in order to invite purchasers and readers.

Yet his private opinion to his friend George Ellis was this: _Mr.Scott to Mr.G.Ellis_.
"I have run up an attempt on the 'Curse of Kehama' for the _Quarterly_: a strange thing it is--the 'Curse,' I mean--and the critique is not, as the blackguards say, worth a damn; but what I could I did, which was to throw as much weight as possible upon the beautiful passages, of which there are many, and to slur over its absurdities, of which there are not a few.

It is infinite pity for Southey, with genius almost to exuberance, so much learning and real good feeling of poetry, that, with the true obstinacy of a foolish papa, he _will_ be most attached to the defects of his poetical offspring.

This said 'Kehama' affords cruel openings to the quizzers, and I suppose will get it roundly in the _Edinburgh Review_.

I could have made a very different hand of it indeed, had the order of the day been _pour dechirer_." It was a good thing for Southey that he could always depend upon his contributions to the _Quarterly_ for his daily maintenance, for he could not at all rely upon the income from his poetry.
The failure of the _Edinburgh Annual Register_, published by Ballantyne, led to a diminution of Southey's income amounting to about L400 a year.
He was thus led to write more and more for the _Quarterly_.