“My last week has been somewnat desultorily employed in going through Beausobre’s History of Manicheism, and in sketching the life of D. Luisa de Carvajal, an extraordinary woman of high rank, who came over to London in James the First’s time, to make proselytes to the Catholic religion, under the protection of the Spanish ambassador. It is a very curious story, and ought to be related in the history of that wretched king, who beheaded Raleigh to please the Spaniards.
“Beausobre’s book is one of the most valuable that I have
ever seen; it is a complete Thesaurus of early opinions, philosophical and
theological. It is not the least remarkable circumstance of the Catholic
religion, that it has silently imbibed the most absurd parts of most of the
heresies which it opposed and persecuted. I do not conceive Manes to have been a fanatic: there is too much
philosophy in the whole of his system,
| Ætat. 32. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 37 |
“If there be any one thing in which the world has decidedly degenerated, it is in the breed of Heresiarchs: they were really great men in former times, devoting great knowledge and powerful talents to great purposes. In our days they are either arrant madmen or half rogues. . . . . I am about to be the St. Epiphanius of Richard Brothers and Joanna Southcote; what say you to paying these worthies a visit some morning? the former is sure to be at home, and we might get his opinion of Joanna. I know some of his witnesses, and could enter into the depths of his system with him. As for Joanna, though tolerably well versed in the history of human credulity, I have never seen anything so disgraceful to common sense as her precious publications. . . . .
“Metaphysicians have become less mischievous, but
| 38 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 32. |
“God bless you!
