The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Walter Savage Landor, 26 November 1808
“In the height of our indignation here at the infamy
in Portugal, one of our first thoughts was what yours would be. We in England
had the consolation to see that the country redeemed itself by the general
outcry which burst out. Never was any feeling within my recollection so
general; I did not meet a man who was not boiling over with shame and rage.
“The Spaniards will be
victorious. I am prepared ![]()
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to hear of many reverses, but
this has from the beginning been as much a faith as an opinion with me; and
you, who know the Spaniards, will understand on what ground it has been formed.
I am glad you know them, their country, and their language, which, in spite of
your Romanised ears, becomes a man’s mouth better than any other in
present use, except, perhaps, our own. Come and see me when you have nothing to
call you elsewhere, and the wind of inclination may set in this way, and we
will talk about Spain, and retravel your route, a part of which I remember as
vividly as I do my father’s house.
“Find out a woman whom you can esteem, and love will
grow more surely out of esteem than esteem will out of love. Your soul would
then find anchorage. There are fountain springs of delight in the heart of man,
which gush forth at the sight of his children, though it might seem before to
be hard as the rock of Horeb, and dry as the desert sands. What I learnt from
Rousseau, before I laid Epictetus to my heart, was, that Julia was happy with a husband whom she had not
loved, and that Wolmer was more to be
admired than St. Preux. I bid no man beware
of being poor as he grows old, but I say to all men, beware of solitariness in
age. Rest is the object to be sought. There is no other way of attaining it
here, where we have no convents, but by putting an end to all those hopes and
fears to which the best hearts are the most subject. Experto crede Roberto. This is the
holy oil which has stilled in me a nature little less tempestuous than your
own.
“I have 1800 lines of Kehama to send you as soon ![]()
| Ætat. 34. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 197 |
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as they can be transcribed, which will be with all
convenient speed. Seven sections, cantos, or canticles more will finish the
poem. The sight of the goal naturally quickens one’s speed, and I have
good hope of completing it before the spring. Pelayo, whereof I wrote in my letter to
Coruña, is not yet begun, the materials not having quite settled into
satisfactory order. It is a grand subject, and I feel myself equal to it in
everything except topographical knowledge. I ought to have seen Gijon and
Covadonga. Asturian scenery, however, must resemble that of the contiguous
parts of Leon and Galicia, and I have the whole road from Lugo to Astorga in my
eye and in my heart.
“We used our endeavours here to obtain a county
meeting and send in a petition which should have taken up the Convention upon
its true grounds of honour and moral feeling, keeping all pettier
considerations out of sight. Wordsworth,—who left me when we found the business
hopeless,—went home to ease his heart in a pamphlet, which I daily expect to hear he
has completed. Courts of Inquiry will do nothing, and can do nothing. But we
can yet acquit our own souls, and labour to foster and keep alive a spirit
which is in the country, and which a cowardly race of hungry place-hunters are
endeavouring to extinguish.
“The ill news is just come, and ministers are quaking
for Sir John Moore, for whom I do not
quake, as he and his army will beat twice their number of French. The fall of
Madrid must be looked for, and, perhaps, Zaragoza may be the Sa-![]()
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guntum of modern history. That may
God forbid! but Spain is still unconquerable, and will still be victorious,
though there should be a French garrison in every one of its towns. We, as
usual, are in fault; thirty thousand English at Bilboa would have secured that
side, and England ought to have supplied thrice that number if she supplied
any. . . . .
“God bless you!
Epictetus (55-135)
Roman Stoic philosopher whose teachings were summarized by Arrian in the
Encheiridion.
Sir John Moore (1761-1809)
A hero of the Peninsular Campaign, killed at the Battle of Corunna; he was the son of Dr.
John Moore, the author of
Zeluco.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Swiss-born man of letters; author of, among others,
Julie ou la
Nouvelle Heloïse (1761),
Émile (1762) and
Les Confessions (1782).
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to each other,
and to the common Enemy, at this Crisis; and specifically as affected by the Convention of
Cintra the whole brought to the Test of those Principles, by which alone the Independence
and Freedom of Nations can be preserved or recovered. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809). Originally published in
The Courier.
