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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), I, pp. 112–115.
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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Why is your letter delayed? I am anxious & apprehensive. it is nearly a week since you told me to expect it in four & twenty hours.
Allen is at the Hot Wells with his wife who is consumptive. she understands French & Italian — & has the manners of the world — but her physiognomy is not good & whether or no she may be pleasing in health, I cannot determine in sickness. to me — she never would. Allen is the same as when I left him, except that he is now a confirmed Atheist, & to my great surprize tells me Carlisle is so.
I am sorry for this, not that I think any error in judgment criminal, nor do I think the Atheist necessarily a fool & necessarily unhappy. I am a very tolerant man, even to indifference. but certainly he loses the highest source of happiness.
tell me Grosvenor the state of your mind upon religion. but tell me the state of your body first.
Allen agrees with me that Man is a Beast. he verges towards misanthropy & says that a years crusade to benefit mankind will cure any man of his prejudices in their favor. so say I — for I have been a Crusader. & so say you who have the benefit of my experience.
but of Carlisle.
you have given me a very good opinion of him, for your applause is a ticket of
admission to mine. NOW I do not like him a whit
the less for his Atheism, but I have forsworn all metaphysics, from my soul
abhorring so barren a study. now if the majority of your club are necessarians
materialists & atheists (as I believe they are) I, who am neither the
one or the other, have no inclination to be in a state of continual
argumentation. to tell you the truth, I dislike periodical engagements. I love
to pass my evenings at home with Edith, & methinks no other company can make me happier or
better. besides I am become a very reserved man, never unbending except to those
whom I love, consequently to any but my friends I am not an agreable
companion.
Grosvenor I despise the
world. I hate the mob — I do not love the soi-disant Philosophers — & I
have a thorough contempt for the aristocratical part. I shall mingle in the
world, but it will be only with the view of enabling myself to get out of it. I
must pass a very dirty road to get into the path of quiet life. now with these
intentions — being without ambition, & alike indifferent to applause or
abuse — why should I make acquaintance? I have a few friends but they xxxxx <are> enough. you &
Wynn — & your brother & Robert Allen. then I will have Elmsley for my philosopher. xxx
Carlisle may be my surgeon. &
Allen is to be my physician
& I shall be my own lawyer. now I want only an apothecary — &
then what the Devil do I want to make more acquaintance for?
as for Charles
Collins my opinion of him is settled. & his opinion of me will be determind by my success in life,
& the his conduct by my appearance. he
is one of the many men of whom I have thought too well. but he has no heart.
no Grosvenor when I come to London I will live to myself & to you. I will enter into no clubs, no literary societies — I will use no literary arts. when I have done with the world I will give Madoc to posterity. I shall get the applause of the present generation which I care not for — but I believe that I may benefit the future.
things will be better in another world. tell me Grosvenor is there not more real pleasure in that belief — more consolation in that little sentence <than> in all the systems & maxims of Philosophy?
I am become melancholy in writing upon this subject. for to own
the truth tho I laugh at all systematizers, when I look at the world I am more
inclined to cry with Heraclitus.
Tom desires to be remembered to you
& Miles.
I saw five or six men on Sunday stoning a dog to death — & I heard the dog’s cries — & I wishd I had been the Exterminating Angel. alas — how are we hurried into vice by the indignation of virtue!
I cannot tell how I got here. for certainly I am made of very
different stuff from the mob of ma human beings.
perhaps I was created in some better planet & kicked out for sedition.
this I am very sure of — that I feel out of my element in this.
Now I must give <you> a few very beautiful lines,
translated from the Spanish. they were uttered by Luis de Leon when after an
unjust imprisonment of five years in the inquisition, he was releasd.
Grosvenor I shall never
like Richard Roeever <half> so well as Luis de
Leon!
I like no trade because in all of them you must mingle too much
with this cursed race. I like no profession. the church is the best — but to me
Perjury is the porter. physic requires study that I am afraid — hardens the
heart. Grosvenor I now
think so. as for Law — cætera desunt.
hiatus valde lacrymabilis!
What a comfort it is that you & I can keep one another in countenance —
& “throw meta-physics to the dogs” tho no doubt
Σνιφελthe <your> conclusion better. Poor
Σνιφελ
did not like physic when I was at Brixton.
Were we not very very happy then Grosvenor? &
shall w[MS torn] as happy again?
Would I had time to finish my sheet. but [MS torn] going out to dinner — & I must not lose this post — for indeed I am very anxious for your answer.
God bless you
remember me to all “your good family.