“I have pursued so little method in my own studies at
any time of my life that I am in truth
| 240 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 51. |
“With regard to metaphysics I know nothing, and therefore can say nothing. Coleridge I am sure knows all that can be known concerning them; and if your friend can get at the kernel of his ‘Friend’ and his ‘Aids to Reflection,’ he may crack peach-stones without any fear of breaking his teeth. For logic—that may be considered indispensable, but how far that natural logic which belongs to good sense is assisted or impeded by the technicalities of the schools, others are better able to determine than I am, for I learnt very little, and nothing which I ever learnt stuck by me unless I liked it.
“The rules for composition appear to me very simple;
inasmuch as any style is peculiar, the peculiarity is a fault, and the proof of
this is the easiness with which it is imitated, or, in other words, caught. You
forgive it in the original for its originality, and because originality is
usually connected with power. Sallust and
Tacitus are examples among the Latins,
Sir T. Brown, Gibbon, and Johnson among our own authors; but look at the imitations of
Gibbon and Johnson! My advice to
a young writer is, that he should weigh well what he says, and not be anxious
| Ætat. 51. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 241 |
“One of our exercises at Westminster was to abridge the book which we were reading. I believe that this was singularly useful to me. The difficulties in narration are to select and to arrange. The first must depend upon your judgment. For the second, my way is, when the matter does not dispose itself to my liking, and I cannot readily see how to connect one part with another naturally, or make an easy transition, to lay it aside. What I should bungle at now may be hit off to-morrow; so when I come to a stop in one work I lay it down and take up another.
“For a statesman the first thing requisite is to be
well-read in history. Our politicians are continually striking upon rocks and
shallows, which are all laid down in the chart. As this is the most important
and most interesting branch of knowledge, so also is it one to which there is
no end. The more you read the more you desire to read, and the more you find
there is to be read. And yet I would say this to encourage the student, not to
dismay him, for there is no pleasure like this perpetual acquisition and
perpetual pursuit. For an Englishman there is no single historical work with
which it can be so necessary for him to be well and thoroughly acquainted as
with Clarendon. I feel at this time
perfectly assured that if that book had been put into my hands in youth it
would have preserved me from all the political errors which I have outgrown. It
may be
| 242 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 51. |
“The advice I would give any one who is disposed really to read for the sake of knowledge, is, that he should have two or three books in course of reading at the same time. He will read a great deal more in that time and with much greater profit. All travels are worth reading, as subsidiary to reading, and in fact essential parts of it: old or new, it matters not—something is to be learnt from all. And the custom of making brief notes of reference to everything of interest or importance would be exceeding useful.
“Enough of this. Do you know who wrote that paper in
Blackwood which you sent me? for
I should like to know. Whoever the author be, I very much agree with him. But
when you say that conciliation and comprehension should be the policy of the
Church, I agree only as to the latter. Compre-
| Ætat. 51. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 243 |
“A humorous French criticism upon the Tale of Paraguay has found its way into the Westmoreland Gazette, that I have shown off my professional knowledge too much in dwelling upon vaccination and the cow-pox. This I get by my doctorship.
“God bless you!
