The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Grosvenor C. Bedford, 4 April 1793
“My philosophy, which has so long been of a kind
peculiar to myself—neither of the school of Plato, Aristotle,
Westminster, or the Miller—is at length settled: I am become a
peripatetic philosopher. Far, however, from adopting the tenets of any
self-sufficient cynic or puzzling sophist, my sentiments will be found more
enlivened by the brilliant ![]()
| Ætat. 19. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 181 |
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colours of fancy, nature, and
Rousseau than the positive dogmas of
the Stagyrite, or the metaphysical refinements of his antagonist. I aspire not
to the honorary titles of subtle disputant or divine doctor, I wish to found no
school, to drive no scholars mad: ideas rise up with the scenes I view; some
pass away with the momentary glance, some are engraved upon the tablet of
memory, and some impressed upon the heart. You have told me what philosophy is
not, and I can give you a little more information upon the subject. It is not
reading Johannes Secundus because he may
have some poetical lines; it is not wearing the hair undressed, in opposition
to custom perhaps (this I feel the severity of, and blush for); it is not
rejecting Lucan lest he should vitiate the
taste, and reading without fear what may corrupt the heart; it is not clapt on
with a wig, or communicated by the fashionable hand of the barber. It had
nothing to do with Watson when he burnt his books; it does
not sit upon a woolsack; honour cannot bestow it, persecution cannot take it
away. It illumined the prison of Socrates,
but fled the triumph of Octavius: it shrank
from the savage murderer, Constantine; it
dignified the tent of Julian. It has no
particular love for colleges; in crowds it is alone, in solitude most engaged;
it renders life agreeable, and death enviable. . . . I have lately read the
‘Man of
Feeling:’ if you have never yet read it, do now from my
recommendation; few works have ever pleased me so painfully or so much. It is
very strange that man should be delighted with the highest pain that, can be
produced. I even begin to think ![]()
| 182 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 19. |
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that both pain and
pleasure exist only in idea. But this must not be affirmed; the first twinge of
the toothache, or retrospective glance, will undeceive me with a vengeance.
“Purity of mind is something like snow, best in the
shade. Gibraltar is on a rock, but it would be imprudent to defy her enemies,
and call them to the charge. My heart is equally easy of impression with that
of Rousseau, and perhaps more tenacious
of it. Refinement I adore, but to me the highest delicacy appears so intimately
connected with it, that the union is like body and soul.”
Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC)
Athenian philosopher and scientist who studied under Plato; the author of
Metaphysics,
Politics,
Nichomachean Ethics, and
Poetics.
Grosvenor Charles Bedford (1773-1839)
The son of Horace Walpole's correspondent Charles Bedford; he was auditor of the
Exchequer and a friend of Robert Southey who contributed to several of Southey's
publications.
Constantine I (272 c.-337)
Roman emperor who convened the Council of Nicea (325) and moved the imperial capital to
Constantinople.
Lucan (39-65)
Author of the epic poem
Pharsalia about the Roman civil
wars.
Plato (427 BC-327 BC)
Athenian philosopher who recorded the teachings of his master Socrates in a series of
philosophical dialogues.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Swiss-born man of letters; author of, among others,
Julie ou la
Nouvelle Heloïse (1761),
Émile (1762) and
Les Confessions (1782).
Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)
Athenian philosopher whose teachings were recorded by Plato and Xenophon.
