“I thank you for Chapelain: I read his poem with the hope of finding something good, and would gladly have reversed the sentence of condemnation which I must, in common honesty, confirm; it is very bad indeed, and can please only by its absurdity. . . . .
| Ætat. 23. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 319 |
“I thank you also for your good opinion of me: I would fain be thought well of by the ‘ten righteous men,’ and communicate frequently with you as one of them I suffer no gloomy presages to disturb the tranquil happiness with which God has blest me now, and which I know how to value, because I have felt what it is to want everything, except the pride of a well satisfied conscience.
“The sister and niece of Chatterton are now wholly destitute: on this occasion I appear as editor of all his works for their relief; this is an heinous sin against the world’s opinion, for a young lawyer, but it would have been a real crime to have refused it. We have a black scene to lay before the public: these poor women have been left in want, while a set of scoundrels have been reaping hundreds from the writings of Chatterton. I hope now to make the catastrophe to the history of the poor boy of Bristol; you shall see the proposals as soon as they are printed. Cottle has been with me a few days, and we have arranged everything relative to this business; he is the publisher, and means to get the paper at prime cost, and not receive the usual profit from what he sells. The accounts will be published, and we hope and expect to place Mrs. Newton in comfort during the last years of her life.
“Cottle brought
with him the new edition of Coleridge’s poems: they are dedicated to his brother
George in one of the most beautiful
poems I ever read. . . . . It contains all the poems of Lloyd and Lamb, and I know no volume that can be compared to it. You know
not how infinitely my happiness is
| 320 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 23. |
“God bless you!
