| 290 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
Affairs in the political world had now somewhat settled down, and the immediate fear of an insurrectionary movement had passed away.
The original intention of the Government in wishing my father to come up
to town for the purpose of conferring with him, was, as he had supposed, to endeavour to
induce him to conduct a political journal which should aim at counteracting the influence
of the seditious and anarchical portion of the daily and weekly press. This, however, was a
scheme which no inducement they could have offered would have per-
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 291 |
This, in the first instance, he consented to do; and the result was that article “On the Rise and Progress of popular Disaffection”* which excited the “ponderous displeasure” of Mr. William Smith; but for some time he still adhered to his intention of embodying his views of the dangers and evils of the existing state of society in England, and the remedies, in a small volume fitted in size and price for general circulation.
Other avocations, however, intervened, and together with the improved aspect of public affairs, caused him to lay aside this idea for the present. “As to politics,” he writes at the close of the year, “I have nothing to do with them now. The battle has been won; but that, indeed, was a cause in which I would have spent something more precious than ink.” . . . . “When I touch upon politics,” he continues, “it will be with a wider range and a larger view than belongs to any temporary topics.” It seems probable, indeed, that the Colloquies on
* This article was reprinted in his Essays. |
| 292 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
The first letter with which the new year opens shows pleasingly how abiding were his feelings of gratitude to his early friend Mr. Wynn, and also speaks of his present literary employments.
“Many happy returns of the new year to you and yours.
It is now thirty years since you and I first met in Dean’s Yard, and in
the course of these years half the human race who were then living have gone
under ground. How long either of us may keep above it, God knows; but while we
do, there is little likelihood that any circumstances can break or loosen an
attachment which has continued so long. Your path has been just what might have
been predicted,—straight, honourable, and in full view, only that one
might have expected to have found you on the other side the house and in
office; and one day or other (the sooner the better) I trust to see you there.
What mine might have been without your helping hand, when I was among the bogs
and briars, I know not. With that help it has been a very pleasant uphill road,
with so many incidents by the way, that the history of them would make no bad
Pilgrim’s
Progress, especially as I am now at rest among the
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 293 |
“We are enjoying a beautiful winter here. No snow has yet fallen in the valley, and it lies on the fells not raggedly, but in an even line, so that Skiddaw and Grisdale bear no distant resemblance to the Swiss mountains, and imbibe tints at morning and evening which may vie with any thing that ever was seen upon Mont Blanc or Jungfrau.
“I am writing for the Quarterly Review upon the Poor Laws, or, rather, upon the means of improving the lower classes,—a practical paper, containing, I think, some hints which any clergyman or other influential person In a parish may usefully improve. It is not unlikely that I may gradually withdraw from the Review; that Is to say, as soon as I can live without it. It takes up far too great a portion of my time; for although no man can take to task-work with less reluctance, still, from the very circumstance of its being task-work,—something which must be done, and not what I desire at the time to do,—it costs me twice or thrice the time of any other composition, as much in the course of the year as it took to write Thalaba or Kehama. This last poem is going to press for a fourth edition; they sell slowly and steadily.
“The life
of Wesley is my favourite employment just now, and a very curious
book it will be, looking at Methodism abroad as well as at home, and
comprehending our religious history for the last hundred years. I am sure I
shall treat this subject with moderation. I hope I come to it with a sober
| 294 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“My books from Milan have reached London;—something more than 100 volumes. Ramusio is among them, and the Gesta Dei. I have not yet heard of my Acta Sanctorum, the arrival of which will form a grand day in my life. Little leisure as I find for poetry, and seldom indeed as I think of it, there is yet a sort of reluctance in me wholly to give up any scheme of a poem on which I have ever thought with, any degree of fondness; and because I had meditated a Jewish poem many years ago, I bought at Milan the great Bibliotheca Rabinica of Barlotacci, as a repository of materials. Could I have afforded to have written verses during those years when nobody bought them, I verily believe I should have written more than any of my predecessors. God bless you!
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 295 |
“I am glad that the first tidings which informed me of your illness, told of your recovery also. There is an enjoyment of our absent friends, even of those from whom we are far distant, in talking and thinking of them, which makes a large part of the happiness of life. It is a great thing to be in the same place with a friend, it is something to be in the same planet. And whenever you are removed to a better, there are few men whose loss will be more widely felt in this, for I know no one who has administered so much delight to so extensive a part of the public. I hope your illness has left no weakness behind it. We stand in need sometimes of visitations which may lead us to look towards eternity; and in such cases the stroke is merciful when it falls on the body. There is a joyousness, too, in the sense of returning health,—a freshness of sensation such as one mi^ht expect from a draught of the fountain of youth.
“About four months ago, John Ballantyne wrote to ask me if he should dispose of my
property in the Ed. An. Register
to Constable, upon the same terms as
those of the other persons who had the same shares in it. As I had given it up
for a lost concern, I was very glad to hear that I was to have about the same
sum which the share had cost, in a bill from Constable at
twelve months’ date; four months, however, have elapsed, and I have heard
| 296 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“The neighbouring county is in an uproar already with the expected election. —— has succeeded in producing as much turbulence there as he could desire; and if we may judge of what the play will be by what the rehearsal has been, it may prove a very serious tragedy before it is over. I am out of the sphere of this mischief. We shall have mobs, I think, upon the Poor-Law question, which is as perilous in its nature as a corn bill, and yet must be taken in hand. I know not whether the next Quarterly Review will look the danger in the face, and say honestly that we must be prepared to meet it. Preventive measures are very easy, and would be found effectual. How grievously do we want some man of commanding spirit in the House of Commons to do constantly what Canning only rouses himself to do now and then. There is, however, good promise in the Solicitor-General; to him, I think, we may look with hope, and to Peel.
“I saw Humboldt at Paris; never did any man portray himself more perfectly in his writings than he has done. His excessive volubility, his fulness of information, and the rapidity with which he fled fromevery fact into some wide generalisation, made you more acquainted with his intellectual character in half an hour than you would be with any other person in half a year. Withal, he appeared exceedingly good-natured and obliging. It was at Mackenzie’s that I met him.
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 297 |
“Remember us to Mrs. Scott and your daughter, who is now, I suppose, the flower of the Tweed.
In a preceding letter my father refers to an article on the Poor Laws which he was then preparing for I the Quarterly Review. This was a subject he would hardly have taken up of himself, being well aware of his inability to handle topics requiring a clear head for statistical calculation and political economy. He had, however, been urged to it by Mr. Rickman, who furnished him with information and argument on all those points he felt himself unequal to—“as a history of the poor rates, a catalogue raisonné of the abominable effects of the Poor Laws, an expose the injudicious quackeries which from generation to generation had made bad worse.”
It appears that although “the Poor-Law question and its remedies, if to be remedied,” would have seemed, of all subjects, one of the least objectionable for discussion, Gifford at first had some fears lest it might be rather above the temperature of the Review, and to his hesitation about inserting it (before he had seen it) the following letter refers; while the next shows that a perusal of the paper removed his objections.
| 298 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“I apprehended, as you know, some such demurrer on the part of the feeble. They are, I believe, the only persons who, when engaged in mortal combat, were ever afraid of provoking their enemies, or striking them too hard. . . . . .
“Murray wrote me a brief note the other day, wherein, without any mention of this paper, he said he never desired to see another article upon either politics or religion in the Review, because they are ‘certain of offending a great mass of people.’ I replied to this at some length in a way which for a little while would impress the magnus homo; but because Mackintosh and a few other Ops. praise a number which does them no harm, he fancies because they are pleased the rest of his readers must be pleased too. This is the mere impression for the moment; but that the Review will ever proceed in a bold, upright, and straightforward course is not to be expected.
“I have a chance letter from Stuart: he says Cobbett has fallen one third in sale, and all such publications
are declining, but the anarchists are as active as ever, and new opportunities
will occur for bringing their venom into life. ‘These
wretches’ he continues, ‘are effecting their purposes by
libelling; they are driving off the ground every man that can oppose them;
they are conquering by scandal, and
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 299 |
“Stuart is wrong in two points. This sort of scandal is certainly as old as Junius and Wilkes, perhaps much older; and he mistakes my feelings upon the subject and Wordsworth’s.
“God bless you!
“I am not a little pleased that the paper has passed through the hands of
Gifford with so little mutilation. .
. . . My letter to Murraymagne in reply
to his intended act of exclusion, has had its proper effect; but behold the
said Murraymagne does not regard the Poor Law paper as
political:
| 300 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“The second Police Report is not of the character which
you supposed. There is much valuable matter in it; and indeed, both Reports
furnish stronger positions for me than for the enemy to occupy. The Bow-street
men appear to great advantage in both. It really appears as if the coffee shops
would almost supersede dram-drinking, so comfortable do the working classes
find warmth and distention (your
philosophy). Do you know that of all known substances coffee produces the most
of that excitement which is required in fatigue? The hunters in the Isle of
France and Bourbon take no other provision into the woods. And Bruce tells us that the viaticum of the Galla
in their expeditions consists of balls of ground coffee and butter, one
per diem (I believe) the size of a walnut sufficing to
prevent the sense of hunger. I have just made a curious note upon the same
subject for the History of
Brazil: a people in the very heart of S. America, living beside a
lake of unwholesome water, instead of making maize beer, like all their
neighbours, carbonised their maize,—as good a substitute for coffee as
any which was
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 301 |
“Edith May has found a brazen or copper spearhead, upon Swinside, in a craggy part of the mountain, where it may have laid unseen for centuries. It is perfectly green but not corroded; exceedingly brittle, quite plain, but of very neat workmanship, as if it had been cast,—one of my spans in length.
“God bless you!
“I have just finished Henry
Milman’s poem, a work of great power. But the story is ill constructed, and
the style has a vice analogous to that which prevailed in prose about 170 years
ago, when every composition was overlaid with strained thoughts and far-fetched
allusions. The faults here are a perpetual stretch and strain of feeling; and
the too frequent presence of the narrator, bringing his own fancies and
meditations in the foreground, and thereby—as in French landscape
engraving—calling off attention from the main subject, and destroying the
effect. With less poetry Samor would have been a
better poem. Milman has been endeavouring to adapt the
moody and thoughtful character of Wordsworth’s philosophical poetry to heroic narra-
| 302 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“This is a great error. That poetry (I am speaking of heroic narrative) which would reach the heart, must go straight to the mark like an arrow. Away with all trickery and ornaments when pure beauty is to be represented in picture or in marble; away with drapery when you would display muscular strength. Call artifices of this kind to your aid in those feebler parts which must occur in every narrative, and which ought to be there to give the other parts their proper relief.
“Henry Milman was here, with an elder brother, about four years ago, who lodged at Keswick for some twelve months. He is a fine young man: and his powers are very great. They are, however, better fitted for the drama than for narration; the drama admits his favourite strain of composition, and is easier in its structure. Indeed, it is as much easier to plan a play than a poem of such magnitude as Samor, as it is to build a gentleman’s house than a cathedral.
“Do you know anything of Sir George Dallas? He has sent me some marvellous verses by a
son of
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 303 |
“I am busy with history myself, and have written no poetry for many months; why this disuse, there is here hardly room to explain, if it were worth explanation. The account of Lope de Vega in the last Quarterly is mine, as you would probably guess. I have read widely in Spanish poetry; and might in historical and literary recollections call myself half a Spaniard, if, being half a Portuguese also, this would leave any room for the English part of my intellectual being. I anticipate much pleasure in showing you the treasures with which I am surrounded here upon these shelves. God bless you!
In the course of the spring of this year, an offer was made to my father
of an appointment, which it might have been imagined would have been more suited to his
habits and likings than any other that had been proposed to his acceptance, and which,
indeed, had it been made to him in earlier life it is more than probable he would have
gladly taken advantage of. This was the situation of Librarian to the Advocates’
Library at Edinburgh; the salary 400l. a-year, with the prospect of
an increase, and the labour of making a catalogue attached to it. “Few
persons,” he says, speaking of this offer,
| 304 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
In thus expressing his freedom from pecuniary anxiety (of which in reality he had so large a share), it seems probable that he alluded chiefly to the small provision the Laureateship had enabled him to secure for his family by means of a life insurance. In other respects, however he might feel in moments of high hope and active exertion, when he perceived his reputation steadily rising, and his work becoming more remunerative, there were many times when the consciousness came over him that his subsistence depended upon his ability to follow day by day “his work and his labour until the evening;” and when the feeling that sickness might at any time, and that old age certainly would “dim the eye and deaden the memory, and palsy the hand,” came across him like a cloud over the face of the sun.
This the reader will see strikingly exemplified in a letter to Mr. Bedford written at the close of the year, which forms
a singular contrast to the expressions my father uses respecting this offer. It would seem,
indeed, that he had taken root so firmly among the mountains of Cumberland, and was so
unwilling to encounter the difficulties of a removal, and to take upon him new habits of
life, that he exercised unconsciously a kind of self-deception whenever an offer was made
to him, and con-
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 305 |
“Your letter to Mr. Coleridge, which has this day arrived, enables me to thank you for Dobrizhoffer, and for the good old Huguenot Jean de Leny. The American by whom the letter was sent to my brothers has not yet made his appearance at the Lakes. When he comes I will provide him with an introduction to Wordsworth if he should not bring one from London; and if he is particularly desirous of seeing live poets, he shall have credentials for Walter Scott. I suppose an American inquires for them as you or I should do in America for a skunk or an opossum. They are become marvellously abundant in England; so that publications which twenty years ago would have attracted considerable attention, are now coming from the press in shoals unnoticed. This makes it the more remarkable that America should be so utterly barren: since the Revolution they have not produced a single poet who has been heard of on this side of the Atlantic. Dwight and Barlow both belong to the Revolution; and well was it for the Americans, taking them into the account, that we could not say of them—tam Marte, quam Mercurio.
| 306 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“I am very sorry that your friend Ritchie should have gone upon an expedition which has proved fatal to every one who has yet undertaken it, and which I think the amateur geographising ‘gentlemen of England who sit at home at ease’ are altogether unjustifiable in pursuing at such a cost of valuable lives. The object is not tantamount, as it is in a voyage of discovery. In such voyages men are only exposed to some additional risk in the way of their profession, and the reward, if they return safe, is certain and proportionate; but, here, Mungo Park went upon his second expedition literally because he could not support his family after the first. If, however, Ritchie should live to accomplish his object, I am no ways apprehensive that his reputation will be eclipsed by his intended rival Ali Bey, that solemn professor of humbug having always made less use of his opportunities than any other traveller.
“If you go through Cologne (as I suppose you will), do not fail to visit St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins, whose relics form the most extraordinary sight that the Catholic superstition has to display. You will also find the Three Kings in the same city well worthy a visit to their magnificent shrine. From thence to Mentz and Frankfort you will see everywhere the havoc which the Revolution has made; further I cannot accompany your journey. We came to Frankfort from Heidelburgh and the Black Forest.
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 307 |
“I envy you your French wines, and in a less degree your French cookery also, both indispensable in the alderman’s heaven, where the stomach is infinite, the appetite endless, and the dinner eternal. I should envy also your bathing upon that noble beach, if Derwentwater were not within reach, and still better the rock baths in Newlands, which are the perfection of bathing. What you say of the country about Boulogne is just what I should have supposed it to be from what we saw upon the road, and the place itself is a very interesting one. I slept there, and did not leave it till noon the next day, happening to have an acquaintance there. . . . . I had been told that the road to Paris was uninteresting, but to me it appeared far otherwise; for even if it had not possessed an historical interest of the highest kind to an Englishman, the scenery itself is in many parts very striking.
“You will be better pleased to hear that, if the
carriers do not disappoint me, I may expect tomorrow to receive my three cases
of books, with the Acta Sanctorum, and some fourscore
volumes besides, the gatherings of my last year’s journey from Como to
Brussels. Far better, and far more agreeably, would my time and thoughts be
employed with the saints of old than with the sinners of the present day, with
past events and in other countries than
| 308 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“The state of religious feeling appears to differ much in different parts of France. In most places we found that the churches were very ill attended, but at Auxerre they were so full that we literally could not decently walk in to examine them as we wished to have done. In Switzerland the Protestant cantons have suffered more than the Catholic ones. I had good opportunities of inquiring into this in the Pays de Vaud, and the state of religion in Geneva is now notorious. Upon the banks of the Rhine all the inhabitants who were not actually employed in the fields seemed to be busy in performing a pilgrimage. It was a most striking sight to see them; men, women, and children toiling along bareheaded, under a July sun, singing German hymns. I suspect that the progress of irreligion has kept pace with the extent of French books in the Catholic part of Europe, and that where they have not found their way the people remain in the same state as before. But if things remain quiet for one generation the Catholic Church will recover its ascendency; its clergy are wise as serpents, and with all their errors one cannot, considering all things, but heartily wish them success.
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 309 |
“You should go to St. Omers, if it were only to groan over the ruin of its magnificent cathedral. The country between that place and Lisle is the perfection of cultivated scenery, and the view from Cassel the finest I have ever seen over a flat country.
“God bless you, my dear Wynn! I half hope Parliament may be sitting in December, that I may meet you in town.
The commencement of the next letter refers to some remarks of Mr. Bedford upon a pamphlet (in the form of that addressed to William Smith), which my father had drawn up in reply to an attack which was made upon him during a contested election in Westmoreland. He had been accused from the hustings of having busied himself greatly on the Tory side, and he was denounced to an excited multitude as one rolling in riches unworthily obtained. To the former charge he could have given a direct denial, not having taken any part whatever in the matter; the latter one need not be further alluded to than as proving some little forbearance on his part in not carrying out his intention of publishing a reply. It is right to add that a counter-statement was made from the same place, on a subsequent occasion, by the same person.
| 310 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“If you had written to me in extenuation, as you term it, I should have been as nearly angry with you as anything could make me, for how could I possibly attribute anything you had said to any motive but the right one, or wherefore should I be more displeased with you for not liking my extended epistle more than you were with me for not liking your Dalmatian wine? The roughness of the one did not suit my palate, nor the asperity of the other your taste. And what of that? I dare say you think quite as favourably of your wine as before, and I am not a whit the less satisfied with my style objurgatory. But let that pass. . . . .
“I have just purchased Gifford’s Ben Jonson. He supposes that the Laureate continues to receive his tierce of Spanish canary, and recommends him yearly to drink to Old Ben in the first glass. Tell him, if he will get me reinstated in my proper rights, I will drink to Ben Jonson not once a year, but once a day, and to him also. By the manner in which he speaks of Sidney’s Arcadia, I conclude that either he has never read the book, or has totally forgotten it.
“So you are to have a Palace-yard meeting tomorrow. How
few weeks have elapsed since Hunt was
beaten and blackguarded in the face of the mob till his own miscreants hooted
at him, and yet, you
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 311 |
“God bless you!
“I am glad to hear that you have taken your chance for
happiness in that state in which alone there is a chance of finding it. Men in
your station too frequently let the proper season go by, waiting till they can
afford to start with a showy establishment. Among those who have not more than
an ordinary share of good principles, this is a very common cause of libertine
habits; and they who escape this evil incur another, which is sometimes not
less fatal. They look out for a wife when they think themselves rich enough,
and this is like going to market for one: the choice on their part is not made
from those feelings upon which the foundation of happiness must be laid; and,
on the other part, they
| 312 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“The most profitable line of composition is reviewing. You have good footing in the Quarterly, and I am glad of it, for heretofore there has been vile criticism in that journal upon poetry, and upon fine literature in general. This connection need not preclude you from writing for the British Review. Translation is of all literary labour the worst paid; that is, of all such labour as is paid at all: and yet there are so many poor hungry brethren and sisters of the grey goose-quill upon the alert, that new books are sent out from France and Germany by the sheet as they pass through the press, lest the translation should be forestalled.
“Anything which is not bargained for with the
booksellers is, of course, matter of speculation, and success is so much a
matter of accident (that is to say, temporary success) in literature, that the
most knowing of them are often as grievously deceived as a young author upon
his first essay. Biography, however, is likely to succeed; and, with the London
libraries at hand, the research for it would be rather pleasurable than
toilsome. History, which is the most delightful of all employments
(experto crede), is much less
likely to be remunerated. I have not yet received so much for the History of Brazil as for a
single article in the Quarterly
Review. But there
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 313 |
“You have taken, I see, Cornano for your physician. Had I made the same experiment, I
should have been disposed to prefer a diet of roots, fruits, and esculent
plants to bread, which is so likely to be adulterated. There is as much
difference in the stomachs of men as in their tempers and faces; severe
abstinence is necessary for some, and others feed
| 314 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“You have made a wise determination for your son William, for I believe that medical studies are of all others the most unfavourable to the moral sense. Anatomical studies are so revolting, that men who carry any feeling to the pursuit are glad to have it seared as soon as possible. I do not remember ever in the course of my life to have been so shocked as by hearing Carlisle relate some bravados of young men in this state when he was a student himself.
“I wonder you should have any qualms at going to the
press, knowing, as you do, how capriciously at best, and in general with what
injustice and impudent partiality, praise or blame is awarded by contemporary
critics, and how absolutely worthless their decrees are in the court of
posterity, by which the merits of the case must be finally determined. I am so
certain that any subject which has amused your
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 315 |
“Remember me most kindly to your household.
“Since I wrote to you at Boulogne, the greater part of
my time has been consumed by interruptions of which I ought not to complain,
seeing they must needs be beneficial to my health, however they may be felt in
the sum total of the year’s work. I have had for a guest
C——. There is something remarkable in the history of
this family. His grandmother was a she-philosopher, a sort of animal much worse
than a she-bear. Her housekeeper having broken her leg, she was exceedingly
indignant at not being able to convince her that there was no such thing as
pain; and when the poor woman complained that the children disturbed her by
playing in a room over her head, she insisted upon it that that was impossible,
because it was the nature of sound to ascend; and, therefore, she could not be
disturbed unless they played in the room under her. This good lady bred up her
children as nearly as she could upon Rousseau’s maxims, and was especially careful that they
| 316 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“C—— introduced himself to me about three years ago by sending me some poems, which for a youth of seventeen were almost better than should be wished. . . . . When he first proposed to visit me, his father was thrown into a paroxysm of anger, notwithstanding the mollia tempora fandi had been chosen for venturing to make the request; but he suffered him to see me in London last year. He had formed a notion that I was a Methodist, and drank nothing but water; and I believe it raised me considerably in his estimation when C—— assured him that I seemed to enjoy wine as much as any man. . . . .
“Wilberforce,
also, has been here with all his household, and such a household! The principle
of the family seems to be that, provided the servants have faith, good works
are not to be expected from them, and the utter disorder which prevails in
consequence is truly farcical. The old coachman would figure upon the stage.
Upon making some complaint about the horses, he told his master and
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 317 |
“A few words now concerning myself. It was my intention to have spent the Christmas in London; a very unexpected cause induced me to delay my journey. More than six years have elapsed since the birth of my youngest child: all thoughts of having another had naturally ceased. In February or March, however, such an event may be looked for. My spirits are more depressed by this than they ought to be; but you may well imagine what reflections must arise. I am now in my forty-fifth year, and if my life should be prolonged it is but too certain that I should never have heart again to undertake the duty which I once performed with such diligence and such delightful hope. It is well for us
* A part of Christ Church, so called, where Mr. Wynn’s rooms were situated. |
| 318 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“I begin to be solicitous about making such a provision as should leave me at ease in my ways and means, if loss of health or any other calamity should render me incapable of that constant labour, from which, while health and ability may last, I shall have no desire to shrink. When my next poem is finished, I shall be able to do what has never before been in my power,—to demand a sum for it.
“God bless you, my dear Wynn!
“. . . . . I know something of rebellions, and
generally suspect that there has been some fault in the master as well as in
the boys, just as a mutiny in a man of war affords a strong presumption of
tyranny against the captain. Without understanding the merits of this case, it
is easy to perceive that the boys believed their privileges were invaded, and
fancied that the
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 319 |
| 320 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 321 |
“God bless you, my dear friend!
“This is a most remarkable season with us. On the 20th
of November we had French beans at dinner, and now (on the 28th), there has not
been the slightest snow on the mountains, nor the slightest appearance of frost
in the valley. The late flowers continue to blossom still, and the early ones
are pushing forward as if it were spring. The great scarlet poppy has two large
buds ready to burst, and your favourite blue thistle has brought forth a
flower. But what is more extraordinary, the annual poppies, whose stalks, to
all appearance dead and dry, were left in the ground, merely till Mrs. Lovel should give directions for clearing
them away, have in many instances shot out fresh leaves of diminutive
| 322 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“Gifford will tell you that I have been speaking a good word in behalf of the historical painters. (By the bye, get Nash to take you to see Haydon’s great picture, which is prodigiously fine.) I am now upon the Copyright question, which I shall make as short as possible; a few days will finish it, and a few days more finish a paper upon the Catacombs, in which I have brought together a great collection of facts from out-of-the-way sources, some of them very curious. The Copyright must have place in the present number, and no doubt it will, being much more for Murray’s interest than mine. The Catacombs will eke out my ways and means for the next quarter, and I shall have done with the Quarterly Review for the next six months.
“I shall not move southward, till both the Brazil and the Wesley are finished. Three
winter months will do wonders, as I hope to be entirely free from
interruptions. Other circumstances would not allow me to leave home before
March, nor will I move then unless these works are off my hands. I shall then
start fairly, without impediment, and in full force for the Peninsular War; and thus my life
passes, looking to the completion of one work for the sake of beginning
another, and having to start afresh for a new career as often as I reach the
goal. And so I suppose it will be, till I break down and founder
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 323 |
“God bless you!
“I was truly glad to hear of your daughter’s
recovery. I have been in a storm at sea, in a Spanish vessel, and the feeling,
when the weather had so sensibly abated that the danger was over, is the only
one I can compare with that which is felt in a case like yours upon the first
assurance that the disease is giving way. Those writers who speak of childhood
or even youth as the happiest season of life, seem to me to speak with little
reason. There is, indeed, an exemption from the cares of the world, and from
those anxieties which shake us to the very centre. But as far as my own
experience goes, when we are exempt from trials of this nature, our happiness,
as we grow older, is more in quantity, and higher in degree as well as in kind.
What hopes we have are no longer accompanied with uneasiness or restless
desires. The way before us is no longer uncertain; we see to the end of our
journey; the acquisition of knowledge becomes more and more delightful, and the
appetite for it may truly be said to grow with what it feeds on; and as we set
our thoughts and hearts in order for another world, the prospect of that world
becomes a source of deeper delight than anything which this
| 324 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 44. |
“However, I hope that both you and I may be permitted
to do something more before we are removed. And I cannot but hope that you will
take upon yourself a conspicuous part in that reformation of the criminal laws,
which cannot much longer be delayed. Nor do I know any one (setting all
personal feelings aside) by whom it could so fitly be taken up. That speech of
Frankland’s was perfectly
conclusive to my mind: but that alterations are necessary is certain, and the
late trials for forgery show that they must be made, even now, with a bad
grace, but with a worse the longer they are delayed. To me it has long appeared
a safe proposition that the punishment of death is misapplied whenever the
| Ætat. 44. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 325 |
“God bless you, my dear Wynn!
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