“Your last letter entered into an interesting subject.
A young man entering into the world is exposed to hourly danger—and what
more important than to discover the best preservative? To have a friend dear
enough, and respectable enough, to hold the place of a confessor, would
assuredly be the best; and if the office of confessor could always be well
filled, I would give up half the Reformation to restore it. In my moments of
reverie I have sometimes imagined myself such a character—the obscure
instrument in promoting virtue and happiness, but it is obvious that more evil
than good results from the power being, like other power, often in improper
hands. I have wandered from the subject. It is not likely I shall ever gain the
confidence of my brothers to the desired extent: whatever affection they may
feel for me, a sort of fear is mixed with it; I am more the object of their
esteem than love: there has been no equality between us; we have been rarely
domesticated together, and when that has been the case, they have been
| 50 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 25. |
“My health fluctuates, and the necessity of changing climate is sadly and sufficiently obvious, lest, though my disease should prove of no serious danger, the worst habits of hypochondriasm fasten upon me and palsy all intellectual power. I look with anxiety for my uncle’s letter; and think so much of Lisbon, that to abandon the thought would be a considerable disappointment. It would highly gratify me to see my uncle, and I have associations with Lisbon that give me a friendship for the place—recollected feelings and hopes, pleasures and anxieties—all now mellowed into remembrances that endear the associated scenes. But that my uncle should approve,—that is perhaps little probable; a few weeks will de-
* In later life, in his intercourse with his children, to whom he was indeed “the father, teacher, playmate,” his own beautifully expressed wish was fully realised:—
|
| Ætat. 25. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 51 |
“I have busied myself in idleness already in the History of Portugal, and the interest which I take in this employment will make me visit the field of Ourique aod the banks of Mondeyo and the grave of Inez. The Indian transactions are too much for an episode, and must be separately related. The manners and literature of the country should accompany the chronological order of events. I should disturb the spiders of the Necessidades, and leave no convent library unransacked. Should Italy be my destination, no definite object of research presents itself: the literature of that country is too vast a field to be harvested by one labourer; the history split into fifty channels; the petty broils of petty states infinitely perplexed, infinitely insignificant.
“You have heard me mention Rickman, as one whose society was my great motive for taking
the cottage at Burton. He is coming to Bristol to assist me in an undertaking
which he proposed and pressed upon me,—an essay upon the state of women
in society; and its possible amelioration by means, at first, of institutions
similar to the Flemish beguinages. You will feel an interest in this subject. I
shall be little more than mason in this business, under the
| 52 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 25. |
“O! what a country might this England become, did its
government but wisely direct the strength, and wealth, and activity of the
people! Every profession, every trade, is overstocked; there are more
adventurers in each, than possibly can find employment; hence poverty and
crime. Do not misunderstand me as asserting this to be the sole cause, but it
is the most frequent one. A system of colonisation, that should offer an outlet
for the superfluous activity of the country, would convert this into a cause of
general good; and the blessings of civilisation might be extended over the
deserts that, to the disgrace of man, occupy so great a part of the world!
Assuredly, poverty and the dread of poverty are the great sources of guilt. . .
. . That country cannot be well regulated where marriage is imprudence, where
children
| Ætat. 25. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 53 |
