4085. Robert Southey to Ebenezer Elliott, 9 November 1823

Address: To/ E. Elliott Esq^re/ Burgess Street/ Sheffield
Stamped: BAKEWELL/ 152
MS: Sheffield Archives, MD2191/28. ALS; 3p.
Previously published: E. R. Seary, ‘Robert Southey and Ebenezer Elliott: Some New Southey Letters’, Review of English Studies, 15 (October 1939), 416–417.

Bakewell. 9 Nov. 1823

I thought so much of you after we parted last night that I will not go to bed again without saying something to you both concerning your son,

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& your own state of mind.

If your sons abilities are above the common standard, & you can rely upon him for diligence & prudence, the best x course which could be chosen for him is to place him at one of the Universities, with a view to his gaining a fellowship. With good abilities & good conduct the way would be plain before him, & if that step were gained, he becomes immediately independent, the means of fortune are within his reach, & his advancement in life would depend less upon accident or patronage than upon his own exertions & desert. What nature has done for him, you are well able to judge, & also to x judge whether his possesses the disposition is such as would lead him to xx employ his talents to the best account. Diligence, regularity, & that spirit of just frugality without which there can be no independence, are indispensable to his success in this career, – as they are indeed to his happiness in any.

The next point is – what are his acquirements? how far has he advanced? & at what school has he been placed. Eighteen is a good age for going to college, – & a great deal may be done in two years. – The choice between Oxford or Cambridge would depend in a great degree upon his aptitude for mathematics.

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– I will enquire at both, find out what helps can be obtained there, & if you determine upon sending him there, I will use my best endeavours to secure something for him in time, – that is, the promise of it. And at either University I will recommend him to some persons who if any good offices should be in their power will gladly render them.

A word now concerning your own state of mind. In the point of difference between you, M^rs E.

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is right. You have past from one extreme to another, & will rest when you are in the right mean between them. Unitarianism is not tenable ground. There are books which would demonstrate this to you, but I am not sure that it is not better & easier for you to discover this yourself, & this you will infallibly do, if you read the scriptures. I will tell <you> what the way of reading them, which I have found most profitable in my own progress, – that of duly taking the psalms & lessons of the day.

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In so doing it is delightful to perceive how the system of revelation unfolds itself. At every fresh perusal you will find & feel the force & importance of some passages & texts which you had not previously observed, – & it cannot be long before you will say with S^t Thomas – My Lord & my God!”

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–

Meantime do not disquiet yourself, nor be disquieted upon this subject. You are in the right way. No one ever yet who sought for the truth with humility & sincerity of heart, failed to find it.

I shall be glad to hear your estimate of your sons character, – & interested in any thing you may tell me concerning your family & yourself. If you write within before Thursday next, direct to me at Sir George Beaumont’s Xxxx Xxxxxxxx Cole Orton Hall, Ashby de la Zouch. – afterwards at N^o 15 Queen Anne Street – Cavendish Square London –

God bless you
Yrs with sincere regard
Robert Southey

Notes

1. Southey and Elliott had met in Sheffield on 7 November and discussed Ebenezer Elliott (1807–1871), eldest son of Ebenezer Elliott. He matriculated at Peterhouse College, Cambridge in 1825 as a sizar (i.e. a student receiving some form of financial assistance) and obtained his BA in 1829. He became a clergyman and was Perpetual Curate of New Mill, Huddersfield 1841–1843 and Lothersdale, near Skipton 1844–1848, later going to St Kitts in the West Indies and serving as Rector of Christ Church, Nichola Town, and St Mary’s, Cayou.[back]

2. The Cambridge BA required at least competence in mathematics.[back]

3. Frances Gartside (b. 1781). She and Ebenezer Elliott had married in 1806 and the couple had thirteen children.[back]

4. The verses of the Bible appointed to be read on each Sunday at Church of England services, according to the Book of Common Prayer (1662).[back]

5. The words spoken at John 20: 28, by the apostle St Thomas, when he recognised the risen Jesus.[back]

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