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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Ramos (ed.), The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797—1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 25–27; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 315–318 [in part].
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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If you will send Chapelain
Neither the best friends or the bitterest enemies of Chapelain could have felt more curiosity than I do to see his poem. good it cannot be, for tho the habit of writing satire, as indeed the indulgence of any kind of wit, insensibly injures the moral character & disposes it to sacrifice any thing to a good point; yet Boileaubeen felt obliged to simplify as I read & omit most of the similes & apostrophes. they disgusted me & I felt ashamed to pronounce them. Ossian
Have you seen Madame Rolands Appel a l’impartiale Posteritè?
As to what is the cause of the incalculable wretchedness of society & what is the panacea, I have long felt certified in my own mind. the rich are strangely ignorant of the miseries to which the lowest & largest part of mankind are abandoned — & even of those who see & pity & relieve their distresses, you will scarcely find one who has ever felt shocked at the reflection that God has given to the poor mental capabilities that might have infinitely benefited mankind — & given them in vain, — only to be stifled by society. there is not upon this earth one spot where man enjoys “the unfettered use of all the powers which God for use has given.”world civilized world sunk into a depravity dreadful as that which characterized the last ages of Rome seems again about to be renovated by a total renovation <revolution>. it is covered by pestilential fogs which nothing but tempests can scatter. & those tempests are begun.
I have lived much among the friends of Priestleyanother revelation may be granted us, for the obstinacy & wickedness of mankind call for no less a remedy. the necessity of another revelation I do not see myself. what we have had with the right exertion of our own reasoning faculties appears to me sufficient. but in a Millenarian this opinion is not ridiculous, & the many yet unfulfilled prophecies give it an appearance of probability. opinions of this kind may amuse & comfort the solitary speculatist, but something more is required to act upon. were it possible I would immediately retire to try another system — as I cannot do that, all that is left is fully & fearlessly to speak what I believe truth, & point out that system which I am hold myself in readiness to embrace whenever it be possible. much in the mean time may be done. example will leaven all around us, & he who cries aloud & spares not, will at least reap the reward of feeling that he has done his duty.
The Slave Trade has much disheartened me. that this Traffic is supported by the consumption of sugar is demonstrable — I have demonstrated it to above fifty persons with temporary success — & not three of those persons have persevered in rejecting it. this is perfectly astonishing to me — & what can be expected from those who will <not> remedy so horrible an iniquity by so easy an exertion!
The future presents a dreary prospect — but all will end in good & I can contemplate it calmly without suffering it to cloud the present. I may not live to do good to mankind personally — but I will at least leave something behind me to strengthen those feelings & excite those reflections in others, from whence virtue must spring. in writing poetry with this end I hope I am not uselessly employing my leisure hours.
God bless you. we are well & happy.