A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1819
Sydney Smith to Douglas Smith, [Summer 1820]
Foston Rectory, 1819.
My dear Douglas,
Concerning this Mr. ——, I would not
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put any trust in him, for he is not trustworthy;
but so live with him as if one day or other he were to be your enemy. With such
a character as his, this is a necessary precaution.
In the time you can give to English reading you should
consider what it is most needful to have, what it is most shameful to
want,—shirts and stockings, before frills and collars. Such is the history of
your own country, to be studied in Hume, then in Rapin’s History of England, with Tindal’s Continuation. Hume takes you to the end of James the
Second, Rapin and
Tindal will carry you to the end of Anne. Then, Coxe’s ‘Life of Sir Robert Walpole,’ and the
‘Duke of
Marlborough;” and these read with attention to dates and
geography. Then, the history of the other three or four enlightened nations in
Europe. For the English poets, I will let you off at present with Milton, Dryden, Pope, and
Shakspeare; and remember, always in
books, keep the best company. Don’t read a line of Ovid till you have mastered Virgil; nor a line of Thomson till you have exhausted Pope; nor
of Massinger, till you are familiar with
Shakspeare.
I am glad you liked your box and its contents. Think of us
as we think of you; and send us the most acceptable of all presents,—the
information that you are improving in all particulars.
The greatest of all human mysteries are the Westminster
holidays. If you can get a peep behind the curtain, pray let us know
immediately the day of your coming home.
We have had about three or four ounces of rain here, that
is all. I heard of your being wet through in London, and envied you very much.
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parish is pulverized from long and
excessive drought. Our whole property depends upon the tranquillity of the
winds: if it blow before it rains, we shall all be up in the air in the shape
of dust, and shall be transparished we know not where.
God bless you, my dear boy! I hope we shall soon meet at
Lydiard. Your affectionate father,
William Coxe (1748-1828)
English traveller, biographer, antiquary, and archdeacon of Wiltshire; he was employed as
a tutor by the Duke of Marlborough and Samuel Whitbread.
John Dryden (1631-1700)
English poet laureate, dramatist, and critic; author of
Of Dramatick
Poesie (1667),
Absalom and Achitophel (1681),
Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Musique (1697),
The Works of Virgil translated into English Verse (1697), and
Fables (1700).
David Hume (1711-1776)
Scottish philosopher and historian; author of
Essays Moral and
Political (1741-42),
Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
(1748) and
History of Great Britain (1754-62).
King James VII and II (1633-1701)
Son of Charles I; he was king of England and Scotland 1685-88, forced from office during
the Glorious Revolution.
Philip Massinger (1583-1649)
Jacobean playwright; author of
A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1625);
his works were edited by William Gifford (1805, 1813).
John Milton (1608-1674)
English poet and controversialist; author of
Comus (1634),
Lycidas (1638),
Areopagitica (1644),
Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.
Ovid (43 BC-17 AD c.)
Roman poet famous for his erotic
Art of Love and his mythological
poem,
The Metamorphoses.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
English poet and satirist; author of
The Rape of the Lock (1714)
and
The Dunciad (1728).
James Thomson (1700-1748)
Anglo-Scottish poet and playwright; while his descriptive poem,
The
Seasons (1726-30), was perhaps the most popular poem of the eighteenth century,
the poets tended to admire more his Spenserian burlesque,
The Castle of
Indolence (1748).
Nicholas Tindal (1688-1774)
Born at Plymouth and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he published a translation and
continuation of Rapin's
History of England (1725-45).
Virgil (70 BC-19 BC)
Roman epic poet; author of
Eclogues,
Georgics, and the
Aenead.
