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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. . Not previously published.
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.
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I should have written to you immediately upon the receipt of Mr. Mays
letter, if a hope had not been held out that an exhibition of £50 a year might be obtained by Hartley if he went for six months to Haversham School,Oxford <Cambridge> pledged in like manner six deep. – Things
therefore are as they were when I first wrote to our excellent friend Mr May.
The task of addressing you upon this subject Sir, is a painful one. It would be more so if I did not verily believe that your brother labours under a species of insanity. His intellect is as powerful as it ever was, & perfectly unclouded, – but all moral strength is paralyzed in him; & when any thing comes before him in the form of duty, it seems to take away from him not merely the inclination but even the power of performing it. It would scarcely be speaking too strongly were I to say that he has abandoned his family to chance & charity. He never writes to them; & it is in vain to importune him with letters when by chance we learn the place of his abode; for it has very long been his custom never to open any letter which he thinks may by possibility contain any thing that he does not wish to hear, or relate to any thing of which he does not chuse to be reminded.
All that Mrs S. Coleridge receives for the maintenance of herself
& her three children is an annuity of £75 which was left to your brother by Mr Thomas Wedgwood; – an equal sum which was for many years granted by Mr Josiah Wedgwood
Hartley is now eighteen years of age. His talents are extraordinary,
& wherever he has been, he has been remarkably fortunate in making friends. But he is not one of those fortunate persons whose
talents are convertible to any course, – in any other pursuit than that of letters, (the army perhaps excepted) he would be helpless.
His father has just so far interfered with his education as to derange it: in consequence of which while he was a well-taught Grecian,
he acquired for a long time no x other Latin than what was accidentally picked up. His Greek however will more than cover
his defects, & from his acquirements, his talents & his application, he must (in my judgement) infallibly succeed at the
University, if he takes the right course. It is, I am well aware, an expensive course of life to propose for one who must be indebted
to the bounty of relations who know him not, for the chief means of his support. But no other course could so soon, or so surely enable
him to obtain a provision for himself; – & I know not what alternative could be proposed suggested.
Lady Beaumont has offered for this purpose 30£ a year, – an act of great
& [MS torn]cited kindness. Mr Poole, who is his godfather has pr[MS torn] £10
more. The duty & the absolute, imperious, necessity of strict frugality must be impressed upon him. He will be able to practise it,
because under whatever circumstances he may appear, his acquirements & his understanding will command attention & respect;
& I trust that feeling the duty & the necessity he will practice it. It is so long since I left college that I am little able
to estimate what the inevitable expences at this time would be. Should Cambridge be preferred for him he must go as a Sizar,
I have written so fully concerning Hartley, the
immediate & pressing object being to provide for him – that there is scarcely room to say anything of the other two children. Derwent who is in his 14th year, is an excellent boy, quick
at every branch of learning, & fond of mathematics: he has no eccentricities (in this respect unlike his brother) & his temper
& talents & steadiness will ensure his success in any way of life. The little girl is uncommonly clever. At the age of 12 she is a good Italian
scholar, a tolerable one in French & in Latin. She is at this time learning music, & if her health fail her not, will be
admirably qualified for a Governess. I consider it as peculiarly unfortunate that these interesting children should be totally unknown
to all their fathers family: if however their present state of abandonment should lead to a renewal of that connection which ought
never to have been interrupted, good will arise from evil.