The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 26 March 1820
“Before I see you, you will receive the Life of Wesley*, whereof only
about two sheets remain to
* “There are at this day half a million of
persons in the world (adult persons) calling themselves Methodists,
and following the institutions of John
Wesley; they are pretty equally divided between the
British dominions and the United States of America; and they go on
increasing year after year. They have also their missionaries in
all parts of the world. The rise and progress of such a community
is, therefore, neither an incurious nor an unimportant part of the
history of the last century. I have brought it no farther than the
death of the founder. You will find in it some odd things, some odd
characters, some fine anecdotes, and many valuable facts, which the
psychologist will know how to appreciate and apply. My humour
(as
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| 34 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 46. |
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be printed. Some persons have expressed their expectations
that the book will have a huge sale. I am much more inclined to think that it
will obtain a moderate sale, and a durable reputation. Its merit will hardly be
appreciated by any person, unless it be compared with what his former
biographers have done: then, indeed, it would be seen what they have
overlooked, how completely the composition is my own, and what pains it must
have required to collect together the pieces for this great tesselated tablet.
The book contains many fine things,—pearls which I have raked out of the
dunghill. My only merit is that of finding and setting them. It contains also
many odd ones,—some that may provoke a smile, and some that will touch the
feelings. In parts I think some of my own best writing will be found. It is
written with too fair a spirit to satisfy any particular set of men. For the
‘religious public’ it will be too tolerant and too philosophical;
for the Liberals it will be too devotional; the Methodists will not endure any
censure of their founder and their institutions; the high Churchman will as
little be able to allow any praise of them. Some will complain of it as being
heavy and dull; others will not think it serious
it would have been called in the days of Ben Jonson) inclines me to hunt out such subjects;
and whether the information be contained in goodly and stately
folios of old times, like my noble Acta
Sanctorum (which I shall like to show you whenever you
will find your way again to your old chamber which looks to
Borodale), or in modern pamphlets of whitey-brown paper; I am
neither too indolent to search for it in the one, nor so fastidious
as to despise it in the other. In proof of this unabated appetite,
I have just begun an account of our old acquaintance the Sinner
Saved, in the shape of a paper for the Q. R.”—To Richard Duppa, Esq., March 25. 1820.
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| Ætat. 46. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 35 |
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enough. I shall be abused on all sides, and you well know
how little I shall care for it. But there are persons who will find this work
deeply interesting, for the subjects upon which it touches, and the many
curious psychological cases which it contains, and the new world to which it
will introduce them. I dare say that of the twelve thousand purchasers of
Murray le Magne’s Review, nine hundred and ninety-nine
persons out of a thousand know as little about the Methodists as they do about
the Cherokees or the Chiriguanas. I expect that Henry will like it, and also that he will believe in
Jeffrey*, as I do.
“God bless you!
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
Richard Duppa (1768-1831)
Writer and antiquary; a contributor to the
Literary Gazette; he
published
A Journal of the most remarkable Occurrences that took place in
Rome (1799) and other works.
Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
English dramatist, critic, and epigrammatist, friend of William Shakespeare and John
Donne.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Henry Herbert Southey (1783-1865)
The younger brother of Robert Southey; educated at Edinburgh University, he was physician
to George IV, Gresham Professor of Medicine, and friend of Sir Walter Scott.
John Wesley (1703-1791)
English clergyman and author; with George Whitefield he was a founder of
Methodism.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
