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Huntington Library, HM 4826 . Previously published: J. W. Robberds (ed.), A Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late William Taylor of Norwich, 2 vols (London, 1843), I, pp. 322–327.
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 thank you for your Eclogue.such the
placing a verb like “batter” at the end of one line & the “down” at the beginning of the next – as it is almost splitting a word:
but in this place the effect is rather good than otherwise. I think you estimate rightly the powers of this metre. perhaps no other is
so well adapted for the sort of domestic poetry, if the term be understandable, in which I believe Voss has written his Luise.
The second Anthology
Harry is much improved in manners & in mind since my visit to
Yarmouth. I am however uneasy lest he should contract habits of expensiveness, <of> which it will be difficult to divest himself,
& which if indulged must be subversive of independance & perhaps integrity. my attempts to correct this are rather by example,
than by precept. you have considerable influence <over him,> & I say this to you that you may bear in mind his failing &
his danger. make but independance his pride, & he will do well. you will perhaps smile to hear that the first book that ever
seriously influenced my opinions & my conduct was the Manual of Epictetus.there him. Do
you approve the plan of sending him to a German University after x previous studies chemical &
anatomical in England?
I am seriously thinking of quitting England in search of health. either to wait till Autumn & then revisit Lisbon,
or to employ the summer in xxxx travelling thro Vienna to Trieste. something I must do lest habits of
sickliness affect my mind as well as body. I use stimulants enough – from porter to the gaseous oxyd,
To return to the hexameters – the structure which Klopstock disapprovesare anomalies a preface must plead excuse & demand acquittal. I sent you all that I have written
& you must not forget that they are the apprencticeship-verses. it is evident that their perceptible harmony is obtained by no
forced accent or unnatural construction of language. they would very soon become as easy to me & as wieldable as blank verse. &
when Thalaba is finished I shall certainly give them the trial of a long and important poem. Whether Mohammed be a hero likely to blast
a poem in a Christian country is doubtful. my Mohammed will be, what I believe the Arabian was in the beginning of his career, sincere
in enthusiasm – & it would puzzle a casuist to distinguish between the belief of inspiration & the actual impulse. from Coleridge I am promised the half, & we divided the books according as
their subjects suited us – but I expect to have nearly the whole work. his ardour is not lasting, & the only inconvenience that his
dereliction can occasion will be that I shall write the poem in fragments & have to seam them together at last. the action ends
with the capture of Mecca. the mob of his wives are kept out of sight – & only[MS torn] the Egyptian
I should have been glad of your Dr Faustus.
You probably learnt from Coleridges letter the rascally
conduct of Sheridan about your Norwich riots.by
<in> breathing pure oxygen, less oxygen is absorbed than in breathing common air. I wish you knew the young man – I never saw one
who promised so much, who possessed so compleatly the power powers which make a great man.
Another campaign – & another expedition!sanity <make> the people
of England sane.