“At last the opportunity is arrived of sending my important parcel.* My private instructions must be vague,—to make the best bargain you can, and on no terms to sell the copyright. . . . . Longman will probably offer to advance the expense of publishing, and share the profits: this is not fair, as brains ought to bear a higher interest than money. If you are not satisfied with his terms, offer it to Arch, in Gracechurch Street, or to Philips of the Monthly Magazine, a man who can afford to pay a good price, because he can advertize and puff his own property every month. The sale of the book is not doubtful; my name would carry it through an edition though it were worthless. . . . .
“In literature, as in the playthings of schoolboys and the frippery of women, there are the ins and outs of fashion. Sonnets and satires and essays have their day,—and my Joan of Arc has revived the epomania that Boileau cured the French of 120 years ago; but it is not every one who can shoot with the bow
* The MSS. of Thalaba. |
| 122 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
“Foreign Jews are tolerated in Lisbon,—that is, they are in no danger from the Inquisition, though forbidden to exercise the ceremonials of their faith; the intercourse with Barbary brings a few Moors here, so that the devout Portuguese are accustomed to the sight of Jews, Turks, and heretics. You remember Davy’s story of the Cornishman’s remark when his master said, ‘Now, John, we are in Devonshire,’ ‘I don’t see but the pigs have got tails the same as along o’ we;’ if the natives here have sense enough to make a similar inference, they will be one degree wiser than their forefathers. Lisbon grows; many a cornfield in which I have walked five years ago, is now covered with houses: this is a short-lived increase of population—a fine February day—for the English tenant these habitations—and when the army shall be recalled, the houses will be desolate: but the city exhibits an unequivocal sign of recovering industry and opulence; the gaps in the new streets that have stood vacant since the disgrace of Portal, are now filled up, or filling; these are not nests for passage-birds, but large and magnificent houses for the merchants.
“But commerce will for a long, long while be, as in
America, a sordid, selfish, money-getting drudgery,
| Ætat. 26. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 123 |
“My first publication will probably be the literary
part of the History, which is too important to be treated of in an appendix, or
in separate and interrupting chapters. Lisbon is rich in the books which suit
my purpose; but I, alas I am not rich, and endure somewhat of the tortures of
Tantalus. The public library is,
indeed, more accessible than our Museum, &c. in England; but the books are
under wire cases, and the freedom of research is miserably shackled by the
necessity of asking the librarian for every volume you wish to consult: to hunt
a subject through a series of authors, is thus rendered almost impossible. The
Academy, however, have much facilitated my labour by publishing many of their
old chronicles in a buyable shape; and also the old laws of Portugal. There is
a Frenchman here busy upon the history of Brazil;—his materials are
excellent, and he is in-
| 124 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
