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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1808
Sydney Smith to Francis Jeffrey, [29 October 1805]
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
Creative Commons License

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Produced by CATH
 
October 30, 1808.
My dear Jeffrey,

I hear with great sorrow from Elmsley, that a very anti-Christian article has crept into the last number of the Edinburgh Review, inaccurate in point of history, and dull in point of execution. I need no other proof that the Review was left in other hands than yours, because you must be thoroughly aware that the rumour of infidelity decides not only the reputation, but the existence of the Review. I am extremely sorry, too, on my own account; because those who wish it to have been written by me, will say it was so.

I hear there has been a meeting between you and your patient Southey, and that he was tolerably civil to his chirurgeon.

Do not disappoint us of your company in the spring, in this great city, and bring with you Timotheus, accustomed to midnight carousal and soul-inspiring alcohol. Brown is like the laws of the Medes and Persians, he changeth not; a greater proneness to mutability would however have been a much better thing for them both; for I have no doubt but that the laws often have been, and that the Doctor often is, hugely mistaken.

Magnitude to you, my dear Jeffrey, must be such
42MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
an intoxicating idea, that I have no doubt you would rather be gigantic in your errors, than immense in no respect whatsoever; however, comfort yourself that your good qualities are far beyond the common size; for which reason, originally, but now from long habit, I am your affectionate friend,

S. Smith.