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. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 5–7.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed.
Because of web browser variability, all hyphens have been typed on the U.S. keyboard.
Dashes have been rendered as a variable number of hyphens to give a more exact rendering of their length.
Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
Writing in other hands appearing on these manuscripts has been indicated as such, the content recorded in brackets.
& has been used for the ampersand sign.
£ has been used for £, the pound sign
All other characters, those with accents, non-breaking spaces, etc., have been encoded in HTML entity decimals.
Among the books from Gutch’s Catalogue was a History of Massachussets
Bay.second one. This will be at
least a new character in heroic Poetry, but I am sure I shall make much of him. he is to be the son of Goffe the Regicide,name <word>
for verse, and nothing so likely as that he should have been so christened, & has had a good godfather of the name.
There is but one xxxx difficulty at the outset, which is in determining on the metre. I equally
feel the necessity of blank verse for the higher part, & of rhyme for all those in which it is a lower key is required.
Some irregular form will probably be chosen which may enable me to pass from one to the other.
I have heard the scheme proposed of prosecuting Itinerancy,wilds <savannahs> of America, – when the grass is on fire behind him,
to set fire to it before. Direct <Kindle> the combustible materials yourself & direct them to your own purpose, or
you will be consumed with them. I am never weary of repeating that faith is an appetite of the mind: our establishment starves it the
Catholicks gorge it even to surfeiting & sickness. The most practicable (I fear the only practicable) remedy is by setting up a new
system, an Eclectic church, continuing all that is good in each, yet so philosophically framed that as the world grew wiser it would be
adapted for a Catholick – i-e- a universal faith. If I had had the slightest crack in the upper story I should have done this long ago,
– & perhaps it is only the multiplicity of my employments & the interest which I take in them & the importance that I have
persuaded myself attaches to them, – that has prevented me from being ten times more conspicuous in the world than I ever possibly was
by any other means.
The Establishment has been an infinite blessing to England, – in proof of this [MS obscured] have only to look at Popery & Calvinism from both of which it has preserved us. It still is a blessing because it saves us from persecution; – but its creed will not stand the test of sound criticism. The story of the Fall, the plenary inspiration of the scriptures, & the miracles must be given up, – abandon these, insist upon a diseased moral nature, the necessity & all-sufficiency of grace effecting a moral redemption, – preach the doctrine of a perpetual revelation, appeal to the heart of man for the truth of these doctrines, – & Christianity becomes invincible. The nature of the Fall, & the questions of the Trinity & the super-human nature of Christ may safely be left undefined, for every person to understand according to his judgement. But I have begun upon a subject which it would require a volume to explain.
I shall be exceedingly sorry if I have made the mistake which you xxx xx point out, – x certainly
I understand from G. Taylor that the whole sum was to be x expended in charitable foundations, & in that belief gave the
Bishop the praise which bonâ fide I thought he deserved.
It is unfortunate that you have been obliged to shift your quarters. The sin of brandy is ten fold that of wine, for
drunkenness x differs according to the liquor which occasions it, & that provided by spirits is absolute madness. This
is leading me to some physical speculations which end in a question for the
Doctor – has he tried the effect of smoking stramonium
upon <for> asthma? which several cases in the Monthly Magazine give reason to suppose <it> is a
specific.