“I cannot refer you to any other account of the Sisters
of Charity than is to be found in Helyot’s Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, a very
meagre but useful book;—compared to what a history ought to be, it is somewhat
like what a skeleton is to the body. When I was first in the Low Countries I
endeavoured
| 238 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 51. |
“It is not surprising that your letters in Blackwood should have produced so much
impression. The subject comes home to everybody, and that Yarmouth story is one
of the most touching incidents I ever remember to have heard. As an example to
prove how much a principle of humanity is wanting, look by all means for an
account of the Foundling Hospital at Dublin, where the most damnable inhumanity
of its kind upon record was practised by the
| Ætat. 51. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 239 |
“The change of ministry in the Quarterly Review is the only change of such a kind which could have affected me for evil and for good.
“As for my importance to the Review, it is very little. Just at this juncture I might do harm by withdrawing from it; but at any other time I should be as little missed as I shall be, except in my own family and in some half-a-dozen hearts besides, whenever death shakes hands with me. The world closes over one as easily as the waters. Not, however, that I shall sink to be forgotten.
“But as for present effect, the reputation of the Review is made, and papers of less pith and moment than mine would serve the bookseller’s purpose quite as well, and amuse the great body of readers, who read only for amusement or for fashion, more.
“God bless you!
