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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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I have forgotten Duppas number in Newman Street. do send him on the enclosed. it is concerning the frontispiece,in it some lines which you have not seen. if
Loutherbourg
Drydens denunciation of Time & Space
Sunday Morning
it is now nearly two years since I sojournd at Brixton. during this period how
strange an alteration is there in all my views of life! I am afraid Grosvenor it is with xx life as with a days journey. the prospect looks lovely in the morning
— every object glitters in the sun & the birds sing cheerily, as the traveller advances the rough road wearies him & when the
evenings mists shadow over the solitary landscape. he comforts himself with the reflection that he
shall soon be at the journeys end. but when <of> the companions of our journey some strike off into different paths & some
die by the way — when the noon is comfortless & cloudy & the traveller scarcely sees a step forwards — it is better to
contemplate the white side of the shield.
I shall soon be with you. perhaps I never spent three months happier than at Brixton — tis a period I love to think of. the wasps — Mr Coytein
which <when> I wrote Joan of Arc. — therefore Grosvenor
is it a misfortune to love — because he who loves is restless in every company but that of one — oh I could
xxxxxxxxxx however I mean to leave care behind me at Bristol — or if I carry the burthen with it will drop off like Christians
in the Pilgrims Progress
Whatever the Lady might say (was it Mrs D?) in opposition to
early marriages I see but little danger arising. either from the chance of inconsistency — the false judgment of youth — or the want of
knowledge of the world. affection is gained by the wish to gain it — & how marriage that ought to strengthen that wish can possibly
destroy it is perfectly paradoxical to a mind regulated like mine. — by the by I am teaching my Edith — Greek. you will not laugh at me & yet the idea will raise a smile. it is in my
opinion better to learn Greek before Latin — if the Lexicon was in English — however a walking Lexicon will remove that difficulty. a
man of the world would stare could he hear us tete a tete — αγαθος — αγαθη — αγαθον.
Your receipt for melancholy — probatum est.
how wonderfully must the brain be organized to form all these sensations in a twentieth part of the time I wrote them
in. how can motion be thought? & yet how can thought be any thing else? is it not as difficult to conceive colour as nothing but
motion — & this is demonstrated by Darwin.
I have desired Duppa to get a vignette designed from Elinor.
farewell. remember me to your father & mother affectionately — & give my love to Harry.
write to me. I never hear either of or from Horace.