160 



LETTERS FROM PROFESSOR CARLYLE 



his secretary, to whom the Arabic was their native tongue. I am 

 very impatient however to return to Constantinople, as by this time, 

 if at all, I trust permission may have been obtained to enter the 

 library of the Seraglio, and the season of the year will have de- 

 stroyed every appearance of plague. Most happy shall I be to 

 protract my stay a while if we can discover any thing worthy of in- 

 vestigation ; but if that should not be the case, I do not imagine 

 I shall meet with many other objects that can induce me to continue 

 long at Constantinople. Notwithstanding the impatience which an 

 Englishman with my long English habits must feel of returning to 

 England, I shall not however leave that city till I have obtained all 

 the literary information in my power. If there be any thing that 

 strikes Your Lordship as proper for me particularly to attend to, I 

 should be most happy to receive a hint upon the subject. 



I have the honor to be, &c. &c. 



J. D. Carlyle. 



LETTER III. 



My Lord, Boyukdere, near Constantinople, July 23. 1800. 



1 flatter myself you will not be wholly uninterested in hearing 

 that I am again arrived at Lord Elgin's in health and safety. I re- 

 ceived the letter you honored me with at Constantinople, and I need 

 not say that I was most highly gratified in finding that what I had 

 done, respecting the Arabian Livy, met with the approbation of Your 

 Lordship and Mr. Pitt. I trust no exertions of my own will ever be 

 wanting towards prosecuting the great object of my mission, but I 

 dare not allow myself to entertain any sanguine expectations of its 

 success. The Ministers hitherto have denied the existence of any re- 

 pository of MSS., but the Reis Effendi, through whom this commu- 



