4028. Robert Southey to [John Taylor], 7 June 1823

MS: Beinecke Library, Osborn MSS File ‘S’, Folder 14176. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 7 June 1823

Sir

According to M^r Julius Hares desire I forward to you the Dialogue which I this day received from him. –

A section of Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).

I do not believe that Landor himself would argue seriously against prayer. He has only made Middleton speak in character,

⁽²⁾

Dialogue XVIII in Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 345–362, between Conyers Middleton (1683–1750; DNB), a clergyman widely suspected of unorthodox views, and Antonio di Marco Magliabechi (1633–1714), bibliophile and librarian to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, 1673–1714. At his death, Conyers left a manuscript on the ‘inefficacy of prayer’, which Landor used as the starting point for a discussion on the subject between his characters.

& chosen the topic for the sake of introducing what he has heard in Italy. – I have drawn a pencil thro two passages which might give offence.

⁽³⁾

It is not clear which passages Southey deleted.

The rest will provoke a smile at Italian superstition, – but it will shake the reasonable faith of no man.

I am very glad these Dialogues have found a publisher who appreciates their worth. It is not to the credit of this generation that Landor who will hereafter be regarded as one of its brightest ornaments should be so little known & honoured among his contemporaries.

I remain Sir
Yrs obediently
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. A section of Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen (1824).[back]

2. Dialogue XVIII in Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 345–362, between Conyers Middleton (1683–1750; DNB), a clergyman widely suspected of unorthodox views, and Antonio di Marco Magliabechi (1633–1714), bibliophile and librarian to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, 1673–1714. At his death, Conyers left a manuscript on the ‘inefficacy of prayer’, which Landor used as the starting point for a discussion on the subject between his characters.[back]

The Collected Letters of Robert Southey: Part Seven

Lynda Pratt, Ian Packer