4150. Robert Southey to Henry Herbert Southey, 5 March 1824

 

Address: To/ Dr Southey/ 15. Queen Anne Street/ Cavendish Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 8 MR 8/ 1824
Seal: black wax; design illegible
MS: Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MS. Don. d. 4. ALS; 2p. 
Unpublished.

Keswick. 5 March. 1824.
My dear brother

You have had indeed a time of severe affliction since I left you, & of that kind which is not made the lighter by being foreseen. (1) I had hoped for one of those favourable changes which in cases of obscure disease seem always possible, & more especially in so young a subject. The suffering is over now, & Louisa will not be long in feeling that poignant as the sorrow is, it is one of those which pass away. But the use of such afflictions is not transitory. Some old writer has said Nihil eo infelicius infelicius, cui nihil infelix contigit.

(2)

The phrase should read ‘Nihil eo infelicius, cui nihil infelix contingent’ (‘no one is more unfortunate than the man to whom no evil happens’). Southey might be remembering the sense rather than the exact wording of a line in Lucius Annaeus Seneca (AD 4–65), De Providentia (AD 64), Book 3, chapter 3, ‘Nihi mihi videtur infelicitous eo cui nihil umquam evenit adversi’. However, the wording that Southey uses in this letter is also used in John Trapp (1601–1669; DNB), God’s Love Tokens, and the Afflicted Man’s Lessons: Brought to Light and Lay’d Before Him in Two Fruitfull and Seasonable Discours…

I heartily wish we were nearer each other.

Let us hear of Louisa & of xxxxxx yourself, – & of Robert

(3)

Robert Southey, Jnr (b. 1817), Henry Herbert Southey’s eldest son.

also his feverish attack I hope past away too soon to leave any weakness behind it.

God bless you
Yrs affectionately
RS.

Notes

1. Henry Herbert Southey’s daughter, Louisa Mary Southey (1821–1824), had just died.[back]
2. The phrase should read ‘Nihil eo infelicius, cui nihil infelix contingent’ (‘no one is more unfortunate than the man to whom no evil happens’). Southey might be remembering the sense rather than the exact wording of a line in Lucius Annaeus Seneca (AD 4–65), De Providentia (AD 64), Book 3, chapter 3, ‘Nihi mihi videtur infelicitous eo cui nihil umquam evenit adversi’. However, the wording that Southey uses in this letter is also used in John Trapp (1601–1669; DNB), God’s Love Tokens, and the Afflicted Man’s Lessons: Brought to Light and Lay’d Before Him in Two Fruitfull and Seasonable Discourses upon Revel. 3:19. Comforting Under, and Directing Unto a Right Use our Personall, and Publike Crosses and Calamities (London, 1637), p. 77. So the latter may have been Southey’s source.[back]
3. Robert Southey, Jnr (b. 1817), Henry Herbert Southey’s eldest son.[back]
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