3900. Robert Southey to John Taylor Coleridge, 2 October 1822
Address: To/ John Taylor Coleridge Esqre / 2. Pump Court / Temple / London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 5 OC 5/ 1822
Endorsement: 1822/ Octr 5th/ R. Southey. Keswick
MS: British Library, Add MS 47553. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: W. Braekman, ‘Letters by Robert Southey to Sir John Taylor Coleridge’, Studia Germanica Gandensia, 6 (1964), 123–125.
I have heard from Gifford upon the subject on which our good friend John May communicated with you.
He says Heber is the only person except myself to whom he had mentioned his thought of retiring: Heber spoke of it to Copleston, & Copleston mentioned Whately,
a man whom he (Gifford) considers as totally out of the question. – I will transcribe what he says in reply to my suggestion – “Your young friend had not occurred to me; – indeed I thought that he was fully given up to law, – the young men of his standing have often mentioned him to me as one in whom they saw the future Judge. I know him to be all that you say & more. I wish I dared to hint to him, that latterly I have remarked, or fancied I remarked a slight tendency in his writings to what we call the Saints, – the language as it were of the Christian Observer,
– but basta!”
– He goes on to state what the chief difficulty will be for whoever may chance to succeed him; you will easily divine where it lies. Then he proceeds thus – “I do not meditate an immediate retirement; but my life, & the possession of the faculties which are yet spared me, seem to partake so much of the nature of a miracle, that I doubt their existence from day to day. Hence a good deal of my anxiety. I cannot describe to you my weakness, nor the scantiness of my breath; & yet, such is the goodness of the Almighty, my spirits do not seem to flag, nor my love of reading of abate.”
From this it seems likely, as Heber & Canning had said to me, that Gifford will probably continue to keep the journal in his own hands, as long as he is able to conduct it. It is plain that he has no successor in his eye; – & when he is compelled to think of one, it is my opinion that you will be uppermost in his thoughts, as a person possessing “all the moral & intellectual qualifications required for such an office”. – these were the words dxx which I had used to him.
It would give me the greatest satisfaction to see the Review under your direction. At present it has no fixed principles upon points of taste, & upon many other points it is as often wrong as right, saying & unsaying with pitiable inconsistency. Many articles are in a vile spirit; those which relate to America are very mischievous; & it has also heavy sins of omission. I know that you see these things in the same light as I do; & I am sure that if it were steadily carried on in the tone which you would give it, its influence would be increased tenfold, for there would be nothing to subtract from it. I hope & think that this may come to pass but the contingency on which it depends, is of such a nature that it cannot influence your arrangements in any other way, than in inducing you, perhaps, rather to strengthen what hold you have in the journal, than to relax it.
My brother Henry left me this morning, – & such separations however they make act upon the heart are but bad cordials for the spirits. We have <had> a fortnights thorough enjoyment, within doors & without, & have gone over some of the ground which we first explored together some eighteen years ago with no sensible diminution of strength, & with a pleasure higher perhaps in degree & in kind. One magnificent day we had upon Saddleback, where I would have given much to have had John May with us. Charles Kennaway was of the party, – this is the third season that he has past at Keswick, & I took to him from the first the more readily perhaps because he reminds me very strongly of what my old friend Bedford was at his age. My guests have done me essential service by leading me into a course of brisk exercise, which has put me in excellent condition. Henry orders me to keep it up thro the winter, as much as is compatible with my necessary pursuits at the desk: & this I shall endeavour to do – for my tenement was more out of repair this summer than I ever remember it to have been.
I intend to visit London in the latter end of February, or the beginning of March, so as to make some promised visits in points as widely distant as Crediton, & Norwich, & return to Keswick by the time the leaves are beginning to open.
Meantime I have to make up for three months of idleness & the first fruits of this renewed application will be the completion of the Book of the Church,
– six sheets of which are printed.
Sara & her mother are well, & would desire to be remembered if they knew to whom I was writing. My own family, thank God, are as I could wish them to be, & I am urged to take my eldest daughter to town with me in the spring, but I rather apprehend that this will not suit with our domestic arrangements. – I am glad to hear good accounts of your young household, & should be more so to learn that Mrs C.s state of health were improved
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God bless you
Yrs truly
Robert Southey
