4033. Robert Southey to Charles Swan, 22 June 1823
Address: To/ The Reverend Charles Swan/ 3 Waterloo Place/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 25 JU 25/ 1823
Seal: red wax; design illegible
MS: Cornell University Library. ALS; 2p.
Unpublished.
Accept my thanks for your volume of Sermons,
& the obliging note accompanying it, which I have this day received. Tho I have as yet done little more than glance at the pages as I cut them open, I perceive that the manner is, as it ought to be, attractive, & likely to be remembered as well as attended to. Dull & vapid sermons are worse than unprofitable; they act as narcotics upon the devotional feelings, & this in no trifling degree counteract the purport of social worship. On the other hand there is no situation from which a man with lively feelings & a well stored mind can enforce sound principles with so much effect as from the pulpit. You will I hope continue so to do, both to the public advantage & your own
believe me Dear Sir
with many thanks
yours obediently
Robert Southey.
