4058. Robert Southey to John Taylor, 9 September 1823

Address: To/ John Taylor Esq^re/ Waterloo Place/ Pall Mall/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 12 SE 12/ 1823
MS: Robert H. Taylor Collection, Princeton University Library. ALS; 3p.
Unpublished.

Keswick. 9 Sep^t. 1823

Sir

The impression which that dialogue between Middleton & Magliabechi has left upon me is, that its tendency would be to expose the superstitious xxxx of abuse of prayer in idolatrous countries, rather than to weaken a Christians trust in it.

⁽¹⁾

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), a 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.

The cause is plainly betrayed by the advocate for it. And I have no doubt that the conversation was written for the purpose of exposing such abuses, tho the writer has xxxxxxxed <revealed> an unhappy error of mind, in which I hope & think he will not always continue.

If Landor were deceased, & this dialogue had come into my hands with his other papers, I should have felt no scruples about publishing it, tho I should have deemed it my duty to annex a note showing, as briefly & as strongly as I could, the duty, & the necessity & the advantages of prayer.

I have however no hesitation in saying, after the trouble you have taken with the work, & in deference to a sense of duty which is no where more needed than in it is your profession, that I had much rather have the dialogue omitted, than transfer the volume to another publisher.

I remain Sir
yours faithfully
Robert Southey.

Notes

1. 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), a 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