“I do not see how these ministerial changes can affect
my brother Tom’s future prospects.
. . . My means have always been precarious. My books are less productive than
they were ten years ago; very materially so, as Longman could tell you. Their novelty is gone by, and with all
the reputation which I have fairly won I have never been a fashionable, still
less a popular, author. At the end of the first twelve months’ sale my
profits upon the Tale of
Paraguay fell short of eighty pounds. I have, God be thanked, been
able to make a moderate provision for my family, but not by anything that I
have laid by; solely by my life insurance, my books, copyrights, and papers. In
other respects I am in a worse situation than I was ten or fifteen years ago.
My poems had then a much greater sale, and I stood upon better ground in the
Quarterly Review. . . . . I am
writing a paper at present
for
| Ætat. 52. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 297 |
“The question about National Education you will see
discussed in my Colloquies,
when they are completed. Here is the gist of the question. The human mind is
like the earth, which never lies idle. You have a piece of garden ground.
Neglect it, and it will be covered with weeds, useless to yourself and noxious
to your neighbours. To lay it out in flowers and shrubbery is what you do not
want. Cultivate it then for common fruits and culinary plants. So with poor
children. Why should they be made worse servants, worse labourers, worse
mechanics, for being taught their Bible, their Christian duties, and the
elements of useful knowledge? I am no friend of the London University, nor to
Mechanics’ Institutes. There is a purpose in all these things of
excluding religion, and preparing the way for the overthrow of the Church. But
God will confound their devices; and my principle is, that where a religious
foundation is laid, the more education the
| 298 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 52. |
“God bless you, my dear friend!
