The young Bentham to a friend (not Mulford):
This Mulford is always sluggish about performing his duty, untrustworthy, very forgetful of his debts, an enemy to gods and men. Wherefore I pray that his cucumbers may suddenly wither that no plant may prosper for him that Rover may become even more untrustworthy than his master and may end miserably, that his wretched hovel may fall to pieces about his ears, all this and if there be anything yet more terrible than this, I lay upon him as a solemn curse.