Scott's poems are very pernicious.

They call away the mind from spiritual religion, and from Tancred and Sigismunda." But I am exceeding all ordinary limits.

If these hasty remarks fatigue you, impute it to my desire of justifying myself from a charge which I should be sorry to incur with justice.

Love to all at home.
Affectionately yours, T.B.M.
With or without a moral, the poem carried the day.

The subject for the next year was Waterloo.