“I am sorry to hear that cares have been knocking at your door; they must have gone out of their way, methinks, to call there. I thought that you had no
* This intention was never carried into effect, it being found impossible to procure sufficient materials. |
| 308 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 53. |
“I found a great want of you (as they say in this country) during your absence. One likes to have one’s friends in a local habitation where at any time they may be found; to be out of reach is too like being out of the world. It often came into my thoughts that if H. T. were in London I should have written to him upon such and such occasions, and quite as often that I should have had some brief notices of the strange turns of the wheel.
“You distrust opinions, you tell me, when you perceive a strong tenour of feeling in the writer who maintains them. The distrust is reasonable, and is especially to be borne in mind in reading history. My opinions are (thank God!) connected with strong feelings concerning them, but not such as can either disturb my temper or cloud my discernment, much less pervert what I will venture to call the natural equity of my mind. I proceed upon these postulates,—1. That revealed religion is true; 2. that the connection between Church and State is necessary; 3. that the Church of England is the best ecclesiastical establishment which exists at present, or has yet existed; 4. that both Church and State require great amendments; 5. that both are in great danger; and 6. that a revolution would destroy the happiness of one generation, and leave things at last worse than it found them.
| Ætat. 53. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 309 |
“If our institutions are worth preserving we cannot be attached to them too strongly, remembering always that the only way to preserve them is by keeping them in good repair. The two duties upon which I insist are those of conservation and improvement. We must improve our institutions if we would preserve them; but if any go to work upon the foundations, down must come the building.
“How is it possible to reflect upon the history of former times without inquiring what have been the good and evil consequences of the course which things have taken at the age which you are considering? It is, surely, no useless speculation to inquire whether good results which have been dearly purchased might not have been obtained at less cost. If I were to build a house, I should consult my neighbour, who might tell me how I might go to work more advantageously than he had done. What might have been is a profitable subject for speculation, because it may be found useful for what yet may he.
“God bless you!
