“If, as I trust, you have received my first volume of
the Peninsular War,
and the lithographic views which my friend, William
Westall, has engraved to accompany it, you will perceive that
negligent as I have been in delaying so long to thank you for the
| Ætat. 48. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 141 |
“I have more than once remonstrated both with him and
Murray upon the folly and mischief
of their articles respecting America; and should the journal pass into the
hands of any person whom I can influence, its temper will most assuredly be
changed. Such papers, the silence of the journal upon certain topics on which
it ought manfully to have spoken out, and the abominable style of its criticism
upon some notorious subjects, have made me more than once think seriously of
withdrawing from it; and I have only been withheld by the hope of its
amendment, and the certainty that through this channel I could act with more
immediate effect than through any other. Inclosed you have a list of all my
papers in it. I mean shortly to see whether Murray is
willing to reprint such of them as are worth preserving,
| 142 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 48. |
“Your friends and countrymen who come to Keswick make a far shorter tarriance than I could wish. They ‘come like shadows, so depart.’ Dr. Channing could give me only part of a short evening. Randolph of Roanoak no more: he left me with a promise that if he returned from Scotland by the western side of the island, he would become my guest: if he could have been persuaded to this, it would have done him good, for he stood in need of society, and of those comforts which are not to be obtained at an inn. Mr. Eliot passed through about five weeks ago, and on Monday last we had a younger traveller here,—Mr. Gardner. No country can send out better specimens of its sons.
“Coleridge talks of bringing out his work upon Logic, of collecting his poems, and of adapting his translation of Wallenstein for the stage,—Kean having taken a fancy to exhibit himself in it. Wordsworth is just returned from a trip to the Netherlands: he loves rambling, and has no pursuits which require him to be stationary. I shall probably see him in a few days. Every year shows more and more how strongly his poetry has leavened the rising generation. Your mocking bird is said to improve the strain which he imitates; this is not the case with ours.
| Ætat. 48. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 143 |
“I conclude this too long delayed letter on the eve of my departure for London. From thence, in the course of the next month, I shall send you the Book of the Church. Gifford is so far recovered that he hopes to conduct the Review to the 60th number. I have sent him the commencement of a paper upon Dwight’s book, which I shall finish in town. The first part is a review of its miscellaneous information; the second will examine the points of difference between an old country and a new one, the advantages and disadvantages which each has to hope and to fear, and the folly of supposing that the institutions which suit the one must necessarily be equally suitable to the other.
“Farewell, my dear Sir. Remember me to Alston and my other New England friends; and be assured that to them and to their country I shall always do justice in thought, word, and deed.
“God bless you!
