[Footnote 33: These lines--perhaps from some difficulty in introducing them--were never inserted in the Tragedy.]
"Thanks for the translation. I have sent you some books, which I do not know whether you have read or no--you need not return them, in any case. I enclose you also a letter from Pisa. I have neither spared trouble nor expense in the care of the child; and as she was now four years old complete, and quite above the control of the servants--and as a _man_ living without any woman at the head of his house cannot much attend to a nursery--I had no resource but to place her for a time (at a high pension too) in the convent of Bagna-Cavalli (twelve miles off), where the air is good, and where she will, at least, have her learning advanced, and her morals and religion inculcated.[34] I had also another reason;--things were and are in such a state here, that I had no reason to look upon my own personal safety as particularly insurable; and I thought the infant best out of harm's way, for the present.
"It is also fit that I should add that I by no means intended, nor intend, to give a _natural_ child an _English_ education, because with the disadvantages of her birth, her after settlement would be doubly difficult. Abroad, with a fair foreign education and a portion of five or six thousand pounds, she might and may marry very respectably. In England such a dowry would be a pittance, while elsewhere it is a fortune. It is, besides, my wish that she should be a Roman Catholic, which I look upon as the best religion, as it is assuredly the oldest of the various branches of Christianity. I have now explained my notions as to the _place_ where she now is--it is the best I could find for the present; but I have no prejudices in its favour.
"I do not speak of politics, because it seems a hopeless subject, as long as those scoundrels are to be permitted to bully states out of their independence. Believe me,
"P.S. There is a report here of a change in France; but with what truth is not yet known.
"P.S. My respects to Mrs. H. I _have_ the 'best opinion' of her countrywomen; and at my time of life, (three and thirty, 22d January, 1821,) that is to say, after the life I have led, a _good_ opinion is the only rational one which a man should entertain of the whole sex--up to _thirty_, the worst possible opinion a man can have of them in _general_, the better for himself. Afterwards, it is a matter of no importance to them, nor to him either, what opinion he entertains--his day is over, or, at least, should be.