3796. Robert Southey to Robert Gooch, 8 February 1822

Address: To/ D^r Gooch/ 19. Berners Street/ Oxford Street / London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 11 FE 11/ 1822
Endorsement: Feb^y 8^th 1822
MS: Bodleian Library, MS Don. d. 86. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), V, pp. 111–113 [in part].

My dear Gooch

I will begin by answering the medical part of your letter first. Kate never complains of headache, nor of any pain in her eyes, – but there is a dizziness of sight when the drooping of the lids comes on, – then only. She has no ailment of the stomach, her tongue is clear, & her general health has always been good. Indeed we have looked upon her as the healthiest of our children, tho the least in growth. Upon enquiry from her I find that there is a tendency to constipation, – but the appearance of the stool is natural. She has always been remarkably subject to chilblains.

Your anecdote of Whitfield

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is very characteristic. Is it not strange that not a trace of this talent which he possessed in so eminent a degree should appear in any of his printed works, neither in his letters, nor in the sermons which he published himself, nor in those which were published by his friends?

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In these latter one should think that the fine parts of his discourse would have been surely taken down in short hand, or retained in memory, than the common place matter which any evangelical preacher could utter at any length.

I heard with sorrow of your ill health. It is well that your practice can afford so large a loss. Perhaps you are at this time a happier man than if you were in the enjoyment of vigorous health, & had never known sickness or sorrow. Any price is cheap for religious hope. The evidence for Christianity is as demonstrative as the subject admits: the more it is investigated, the stronger it appears. But the root of belief is in the heart, rather than in the understanding, & when it is rooted there it derives from the understanding nutriment & support. Against atheism, materialism & the mortality of the soul, there is the reductio ad absurdum in full force: & for revealed religion there is the historical evidence, strong beyond the conception of those who have not examined it, – & there is that perfect adaptation to the nature & wants of man, which if such a revelation had not already been made would induce a wise & pious man to expect it, as fully as a Jew expects the Messiah. For many years my belief has not been clouded with the shadow of a doubt.

When we observe what things men will believe, who will not believe Christianity it is impossible not to acknowledge the x how much belief depends upon the will.

I shall have a large share of abuse in the course of this year: – you know Harry has a notion that I like it. In the first place my Book of the Church

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which I am writing con amore

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& with great diligence, will strike both the Catholics & the Puritans harder blows than they have been of late years accustomed to receive, – the Emancipationists

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therefore, & the Dissenters will not be pleased, – & you know the temper of the latter. My history of the war

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smites the Whigs, & will draw upon me sans doubt as much hatred from the Buonapartists

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in France as I have the satisfaction of enjoying from their friends in England. This volume is in great forwardness – more than 500 pages are printed. As for Lord Byron

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& his coadjutors in the Times, Chronicle &c &c, Tag, Rag & Bobtail,

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I shall of course not notice the latter, & deal with his Satanic Lordship

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as he may deserve & as I may feel inclined. I have the better cause & the stronger hand.

Government will not derive much strength from the accession of the Grenvilles

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because upon all great questions they are already with it. It will be very much annoyed by the country gentlemen, a great proportion of whom are not very wise, & stand in some fear of their constituents, – that is they have an eye to the next election. There will probably be a harrassing & noisy session, but no harm done at home, & some good in Ireland, whither we have sent a man capable of setting that country to rights, if any man is, & if they will arm him with sufficient power.

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The agricultural question I do not understand, – & am not disposed to believe implicitly in agricultural distress. This I know that my brother Toms neighbours are taking lands at an advanced price. But the truth is that if trade flourishes, it cannot be long before the farmers will feel the good effects. The worst folly is that of crying out for retrenchment, when liberal expenditure is the thing wanting, – - a war expenditure upon purposes of peace.

God bless you
Yrs affectionately
R Southey.

Keswick. 8 Feb^y. 1822.

Notes

1. George Whitefield (1714–1770; DNB), Anglican clergyman, indefatigable preacher and central figure in the evangelical revival of the eighteenth century. [back]

2. Southey had researched Whitefield’s writings extensively for his The Life of Wesley: and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820). He possessed both An Authentic Memoir of the Life of the Late Rev. G. Whitefield (1803), no. 298 in the sale catalogue of Southey's library, and A Select Collection of Letters of the Late Reverend George Whitefield (1772), no. 3010 in the sale catalogue of his library. Many of Whitefield’s sermons were published during his lifetime and the final two volumes of The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A, 6 vols (1772), were devoted to his sermons. [back]

3. Southey’s The Book of the Church (1824). [back]

4. ‘for love’. [back]

5. Those who argued for full civil and political rights for Roman Catholics. [back]

6. Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832). [back]

7. Supporters of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821; Emperor of the French 1804–1814, 1815). [back]

8. In the ‘Appendix’ to ‘The Two Foscari’, Sardanapulus, A Tragedy. The Two Foscari, A Tragedy. Cain, A Mystery (London, 1821), p. 328, Byron had cautioned: ‘I am not ignorant of Mr. Southey’s calumnies on a different occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his return from Switzerland against me and others.’ Southey had visited Switzerland in his continental tour of May–August 1817. The ‘calumnies’ Byron believed Southey to have later spread were rumours that Byron and Shelley had engaged in a ‘League of Incest’ during their residence in Switzerland in 1816. Southey had responded by writing to the Editor of the Courier, 5 January 1822, Letter 3776. His letter was published in the Courier on 11 January 1822. [back]

9. The Times and the Morning Chronicle (1769–1862) at this time supported the Whig opposition and were generally hostile to Southey. [back]

10. A Vision of Judgement (London, 1821), ‘Preface’, pp. xvii–xxii, where Southey denounced ‘the Satanic School’ of modern poetry without naming any one poet. However, this was clearly a riposte to Byron’s Don Juan (1819), whose suppressed ‘Dedication’, mocking Southey, had circulated widely. [back]

11. The Grenville grouping, including Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, had finally joined the government in January 1822, after separating from the Whig opposition in 1818. [back]

12. Wellesley had been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 8 December 1821. [back]

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Notes

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven