1448. Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 26 April 1808 ⁠* 

Dear Grosvenor

From one scene of confusion to another. You saw me in London everlastingly at work in packing my books, & here they are now lying in all parts about me, up to my knees in one place, up to my eyes in another, & above head & ears in a third. I can scarcely find stepping places thro the labyrinth, from one end of the room to the other. [1]  Like Pharoahs frogs they have found their way every where, eveny into the bed-chambers. A plague on Harry Pooley, [2]  tho he is the best of carpenters. Last Friday he had the measure of the shelves, & here is Tuesday well nigh over, & yet he is not come.

And now Grosevnor, having been married above twelve years, I have for the first time collected all my books together. What a satisfaction this is you cannot imagine, for you cannot conceive the hundredth part of the inconvenience & vexation I have endured at h for want of them. But the joy which they give me brings with a mingled feeling, – the recollection that there are as many materials heaped up as I shall ever find life to make use of, – & the humiliating reflection how little knowledge can be acquired in the most laborious life of man, – that knowledge becoming every age less & less in proportion to the accumulation of events.

For some things I have been born too late. Under the last reign for instance, or in the first half of this, my pension would have been an income adequate to my wants, – & my profits as a writer would have been at least quadrupled. On the other hand bad as these times are, they are better than those which are coming.

At Bristol I met with the man of all others whom I was most desirous of meeting; – the only man living of whose praise I was ambitious, – or whose censure would have humbled me. You will be curious to know who this could be. – Savage Landor, the author of Gebir, [3]  – a poem which unless you have heard me speak of it, you have probably never heard of at all. I never saw any one more unlike myself in every prominent part of human character – nor any one with whom I agree more who so cordially & instinctively agreed with me on so many of the most important subjects. I have often said before I xxx I had seen him <we met> that I would walk forty miles to see him, & having seen him, I would gladly walk fourscore to see him again. He talked of Thalaba, [4]  & I told him of the series of mythological poems which I had planned, mentioned some of the leading incidents on which they were to have been formed, & also told him for what reason the plan had been laid aside, in plain English that I could not afford to write them. Landors reply was, go on with them, & I will pay for printing them, as many as you will write, & as many copies of each as you please. – I had reconciled myself to my abdication, (if the phrase may be allowable) & am not sure that this princely offer has not done me mischief. For it has wakened in me old dreams, & hopes which had been laid aside; & a struggling desire to go on, for the sake of showing him poem after poem, & saying, I need not accept your offer, – but I have done this because you made it. – It is something to be praised by ones peers: ordinary praise I regard as little as ordinary censure abuse, – neither goes nearer my heart than my breeches pocket.

A world of business has accumulated upon me during my long absence – I have not yet cleared off the letters which must be written, – as you may guess by not having heard from me sooner. How are your father & mother? how are you yourself?

God bless you

RS.

April. 26. 1808