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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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Horace — I rise from the perusal of your letters — powerfully have they affected me — I asked my own heart “why have I been estranged from this man?” I know not what changes Time may have produced in you, but if you are what you was — you will be as embarrassed as myself in answering the same question.
We have seen each other Horace but a very few hours since I spent so many weeks at Brixton. & <during> those few hours my heart was preoccupied <engrossed> by many feelings. since that period I have been driven into the foremost ranks — I have experienced much of the villainy of mankind — but I have discovered virtues enough to set the balance even. & if the falshood of a bosom friend sometimes induced a passing thought of misanthropy, the benevolence of others soon made me reconciled me to human nature.
After all the trash of metaphysics our characters are born with us. for if they were totally formed by circumstances — how is it that mine has remained the same thro so many a vicissitude?
Horace let our correspondence be renewed. it can last but a few months — & then we will communicate as much viva voce, as John Doe & Richard Roe
this is the shortest letter you ever have received from me — or ever will. tell me if it be the least welcome?
direct to Cottles.