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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. 30–35; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 182–183 [in part; where it is dated 31 July 1793].
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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Like the wandering Jew, Bedford, you see I am
here there & every where. now tramping it to Worcester, now
peripateticating to Cambridge, & now on saddle equastrian in the land of Cyder. traversing the shores of the Wye &
riding listlessly over the spot where once Ariconium
you will impute this dislike of Hierarchy to my being a re-publican & a
sinner. had any of the Apostles ten thousand a year? what said the saviour of
mankind concerning dignities & wealth? I could proceed much farther but
how this has gone so far I know not. Frends conduct I despise — that of his
persecutors I execrate.
how these very heterodox opinions may coincide with yours I know not. tis best we should differ upon some subjects — but we are nearer upon all than you imagine. not that I am apostatizing — my principles & practice are equally democratic & you are the greatest democrat in your actions that ever gave the lie to his own opinions.
enough of this. is not Gooseberry Pie a more agreable subject.
A Pious Ode.
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a most Horatian ode — ending like him with an heroic tale.
Judge Nares
I have just met with a passage in Rousseau which expresses some
of my religious opinions better than I could do it myself. Je ne trouve point de
plus doux hommage a la divinite, que l’admiration enuette qu’excite la
contemplation de ses œuvres. Je ne puis comprendre comment des campagnards, et
sur-tout des solitaires, peuvent ne pas avoir de foi; comment leur ame ne
s’eleve pas cent fois le jour avec extase a l’auteur des merveilles qui les
frappent. Dans ma chambre je prie plus rarement & séchement, mais a
l’aspect d’un beau paysage, je me sens emu. Une vielle femme, pour toute priere,
ne savoit dire que ô! L’eveque lui dit: Bonne femme continuez de prier ainsi,
votre priere vaut mieux que les notres. — cette meilleure priere est aussi la
mienne. —
as I put yr brothers letter in the office to day I took yours out. my silence
is accounted for & whenever it happened you may depend upon it some
strange occurrence taciturnifies me. silence is not my — fault shall I say or
virtue? three times have I read your letter unable to make head or tail of the
latter part till the third reading & after discovering the sense
(enigmatical as the prophecies of Delphi
sitting in the window at Uley last Wednesday with Mr Shepherd & his sister
she is a most agreable lively girl — with that face which a critic would call
ugly — but of which a Physiognomist would pronounce more favourably — a pair
<of> eyes well illuminated by sense & the same nose that
made such havoc in the seraglio of Soliman.
this journey has deranged my plan of operations for the campaign.
poor Joan
wandering over cathedrals is apt to make me melancholy but when I
tread upon the rotten relics of royalty I feel proud & satisfied. I have
exalted over the tomb of Jack the dentistnd. he is the only man whom capricious cruelty amidst its various
experiments <ever> tried to make a pop gun off
— I forget his name but Gent. was tacked to it so that his crimes & punishments are easily guessed. upon this I mused for ten miles & it may perhaps furnish some future essay.
I have heard from Edmund Seward. the news from Derby which he sends is good & I am more fully satisfied that democracy is but another word for all that is good when I find him equally democratic with myself. I am come to the end of my paper & recollect a thousand things which I wished to have said — it has already been delayed to mention the day of my departure & still it is impossible to fix. you will certainly see me this week but the weighty business of washing mending & marking — cleaning leather breeches —repairing shoes & getting together linen which has mouldered for six months is so intricate that my head is not mathematical enough to measure out a proper portion of time. as soon as this letter is finished I shall begin another & proceed till Times gentle hand unravels the clue.
Seward has revived the battle of
the petticoat by asking whether the German women so celebrated for their virtues
thought long petticoats necessary to decency. the German women are no guides for
us in this matter — we may as well follow the inoffensive manner of
Vaillants
this letter was very near coming in my pocket. I should have departed this evening if I could have found room.