The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John Rickman, 9 January 1800
“The subject of your letter is important. I had
considered it cursorily, for my mind has been more occupied by the possible
establishment of a different
* J. R. to
R. S., Jan. 4. J800. |
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| Ætat. 25. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 45 |
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state of society, than by plans for improving the present.
To my undertaking the work you propose, I wish there were no obstacles, but a
very important one exists in the nature of my own powers. The compositions in
which I have indulged have encouraged rapidity of feeling, a sudden combination
of ideas, but they have been unfavourable to regular deduction and methodical
arrangement. Another objection arises from my present plans. . . . . However, I
am impressed by your letter, and should much like to talk with you upon the
subject, and map out the country before us. Have you not leisure for a visit to
Bristol? . . .
“Poetry does not wholly engross my attention; the
history of Spanish and Portuguese literature is a subject on which I design to
bestow much labour, and in which much useful matter may be conveyed. But poetry
is my province, and at present no unimportant one; it makes its way where
weighter books would not penetrate, and becomes a good mental manure.
“I shall be selfishly sorry if you leave Christchurch:
the prospect of haying you my neighbour, considerably influenced me in taking
the Burton House. However, if I recover my health, London must be my place of
residence; and you probably will be drawn into that great vortex,—a place
which you and I see with widely different eyes. Much as I enjoy society, rather
than purchase it by residing in that huge denaturalised city, I would prefer
dwelling on Poole Heath. Bristol allows of country enjoyments and magnificent
scenery, and an open sky view, ![]()
| 46 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 25. |
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for in London you neither
see earthy air, or water, undisguised. We have men of talent here also, but
they are not gregarious, at least not regularly so as in Norwich and London. I
mingle among them, and am in habits of intimacy with Davy, by far the first in intellect: with him you would be much
pleased. . . . . Certainly this place has in my memory greatly advanced; ten
years ago, Bristol man was synonymous with Bœotian in Greece, and now we are
before any of the provincial towns.
“The Corsican has
offended me, and even his turning out the Mamelukes will not atone for his
rascally constitution. The French are children, with the physical force of men;
unworthy, and therefore incapable, of freedom. Once I had hopes; the Jacobins
might have done much, but the base of morality was wanting, and where could the
corner-stone be laid? They have retarded our progress for a century to come.
Literature is suspected and discouraged; Methodism, and the Catholic system of
persecution and slavery, gaining ground. Our only hope is from more
expeditions, and the duke commander; new
disgrace and new taxes may bring the nation to their senses, as bleeding will
tame a madman Still, however, the English are the first people, the only men.
Buonaparte has made me Anti-Gallican; and I remember
Alfred, and the two
Bacons, and Hartley, and Milton, and
Shakespeare, with more patriotic
pride than ever.
“The Beguines I had looked upon as a religious
establishment, and the only good one of its kind. When my brother was a
prisoner at Brest, the sick ![]()
| Ætat. 25. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 47 |
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and wounded were attended by
nuns, and these women had made themselves greatly beloved and respected. I
think they had been regularly professed, and were not of the lay order. I think
I see the whole importance of your speculation. Mary Wollstonecroft was but beginning to reason when she died;
her volume is mere feeling, and its only possible effect to awaken a few female
minds more excitable than the common run. The one you propose, would go on
different grounds and enter into detail: the more nay mind dwells upon it, the
stronger interest it takes; I could work under your directions, and would work
willingly at least, if not well. Come, I pray you, to Bristol; talk over the
plan, and map it out, and methodise my rambling intellect. I will submit to any
drilling that shall discipline it to good purpose. . . . .
Farewell.
Yours with respect and esteem,
Robert Southey.”
Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829)
English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).
Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827)
He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the
scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.
Mary Godwin [née Wollstonecraft] (1759-1797)
English feminist, author of
Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792); she married William Godwin in 1797 and died giving birth to their daughter
Mary.
David Hartley (1705-1757)
English philosopher and physician educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; he published
Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations
(1749).
John Milton (1608-1674)
English poet and controversialist; author of
Comus (1634),
Lycidas (1638),
Areopagitica (1644),
Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
