1551. Robert Southey to William Taylor, 6 December 1808 ⁠* 

Coleridge I understand has ordered some of his Prospectuses [1]  to be sent to you, relying upon me to write to you on the subject. He manages things badly – a letter from me on the blank side of one prospectus would have done without packing off to you a bundle of papers too stiff for any ordinary purpose, – & a few advertisements in newspapers & magazines would have done better than any prospectus at all. – The thing however is done, & that with so little deliberation, tho not till after much delay, – that some of it requires undoing: for should he have many subscribers in the country there will be no mode of regular delivery other than by post, – in that case the numbers must be stamped, & stamps cover only a single sheet. Smaller type & Larger paper will bring it to the same quantity of contents, & the same market value.

Will he go on with this undertaking, – will be your first question. He can do it with little more trouble than that of arranging & putting together fragments already in existence, & yet I will own to you that I have great doubts & misgivings. – I do not like the Prospectus. It is too much like what it pretends to be, too fit for a letter, to be proper for the public. There is an injudicious adulation, as it may almost be called, of his friends, & an overdone xxxxabasement of himself, – on the whole a want of manliness which I cannot away with. But assuredly if he carries it into effect great things will be done; – sounder criticism & sounder philosophy established as well as addressed, than modern ages have seen; great truths upholden, & the axe laid at the root of those great errors which have been for the last century held xxxxxxxxto be the very name & thirty articles of philosophical faith.

When you collect your synonimes you would do well to mark what is the existing use of words, as well as to hunt out their primary meaning. I am almost pleased that you persevere so steadily in this collection, which will form a very valuable book in itself, & be of signal utility to the compilers of a national dictionary, whenever that work shall be undertaken. [2]  I believe I shall withdraw from the Athenæum altogether. Dr Aikin among other rejections has thought proper to suppress an article in the Omniana, for no other imaginable reason than that it called Pitt a babbler [3]  & Buonaparte a barbarian. I do not blame him for rejecting any thing which he thinks dull, because God knows any magazine xxxxwhich he conducts will always have its full complement of dull matter, – but this was a curious collection of facts about the change of climate in the last fifty years, put together more meo, [4]  & his only objection can have been to the that the politicks are not in accord with his own.

What a precious article is that in defence of Polygamy! [5]  the writer did not recollect that the Polyandrian system in Malabar utterly overthrows the physical assertion on which he rests, & that Xtianity originated in a hot climate. The Moravian Missionaries make no difficulty about the matter, – they let a convert keep his wives, following S^t Pauls authority, that it is unjust to put a heathen wife away against her consent, & perceiving the cruelty of giving x our institutions a retroactive effect, in this case. The only difference they make is that a man under such circumstances is not appointed to any office in the church. Thus xx the obstacle to conversion is effectually removed, & they the children being educated Xtians, naturally obey the Xtian ordinances. I am writing a View & Vindication of the existing Protestant missions for an unborn review which has never yet been heard of, & has as yet neither name nor existence, but will <hoist the bloody flag> run along side the Edinburgh & engage her yard arm & yard arm. [6]  What wretched work hads Sidney Smith made of this subject of the Missions! [7]  It were better be a fanatic than such a buffoon as this, for fanaticism implies some feeling, some sincerity, some heart of flesh & blood.

Wordsworth is writing a pamphlet upon the cursed Cintra-Convention, [8]  – it will be in that strain of political morality to which Hutchinson, & Milton, & Sidney [9]  could have set their hands.

My Brazil goes off to press in a few days, [10]  having travelled into Herefordshire [11]  & back for revision & correction. Do not expect a splendid book, – there is no splendour in the materials of which it is composed, – look for an honest one, with that pervading life & soul of free opinion which nothing but free opinion & the love of God & man can give, & you will not be disappointed.

God bless you.

R Southey.

Dec 6. 1808.

Keswick.