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MS untraced; text is taken from Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850). Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), IV, pp. 85–87.
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 am grieved to learn from Neville that you are distressing yourself about what I could
find in my heart to call these cursed examinations. There are few things of
which I am more thoroughly convinced, than that the system of feeding-up young
men like so many game cocks for a sort of intellectual long-main is every way pernicious.
University honours are like provincial tokens, not current beyond
the narrow limits of the district in which they are coined; and even where they
pass current they are not the only currency, nor the best. Doubtless there are
many men at Cambridge in high repute, who have taken no honours and gained no
prizes: and should you yourself stand for a fellowship or take pupils, you will
find the opinion of what you might have done, will act as
well in your favour as if your acquirements had received the seal and stamp of
approbation in the Senate House. Content yourself with graduating among the
many; and remember that the first duty which you have to perform is that of
keeping yourself, as far as it can depend upon yourself, in sound health of body
and mind, both for your own sake and for the sake of those who are most dear to
you. If I were near you I would rid you of these blue devils. When I was about
eighteen I made Epictetus
Remember that you only want your degree as a passport: content
yourself with simply taking it; and if you are disposed to revenge yourself
after wards by burning your mathematical books and instruments, bring them with
you to Keswick when next you make us a
visit, and I will assist at the auto-da-fè. We will dine by the side of the
Lake, and light our fire with Euclid.
Neville was more fortunate than you
in his excursion to this land of loveliness. He had delightful weather, and he
made the most of it. Never had we a more indefatigable guest, nor one who
enjoyed the country more heartily. Since his return, Neville-like, he has loaded us with
presents; and no children were ever happier than these young ones were when the
expected box made its appearance. I happened to be passing the evening at the
Island with General Peachey when
it arrived, and they one and all laid their injunctions upon their mother not to
tell me what each had received, that they might surprise me with the sight in
the morning. Accordingly, no sooner was my door opened in the morning than the
whole swarm were in an uproar, buzzing about me. In an evil moment I had begun
to shave myself; before the operation was half over, Edith with her
work-box was on one side, Herbert
with his books on the other, – Bertha was displaying one treasure, Kate another, and little Isabel, jigging for delight in the
midst of them, was crying out mine – mine – Mitter White – and holding up a box of
Tunbridge ware.