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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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Aristodemus
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The Messenians during their struggle with Lacedæmon applied to the Delphian oracle. The Pythoness declared that a virgin of the blood of Apytus must be sacrificed to the infernal deities. lots were cast & the daughter of Lyciscus was the destind victim. Lyciscus however bribed a priest to declare the child suppositious & taking advantage of the confusion deserted with her to Sparta. upon this Aristodemus “a man in whom superstition or ambition or perhaps both together had stifled paternal tenderness, voluntarily offered his own daughter for the victim. the virgin was betrothed to a young Messenian of highest rank & estimation. he insisted that the daughter of Aristodemus now belonged to him, & when this plea was overuled, declared that she could no longer answer the demand of the oracle, for she was pregnant by him. Aristodemus was enraged to madness — to confute this falshood he immediately slew his daughter & caused the body to be dissected. his ambition was gratified by the crown. but after the interval of some years his despair & remorse made him kill himself upon his daughters tomb.
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Scene a cypress grove. a sepulchre. Time — Night.
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when shall I see you? the sooner you come the more agreable to me & possibly to yourself — for Lightfoot departs in a fortnight unless you arrive. your arrival will retard his departure. I shall write to Horace this day if possible & ask him to accompany you. do bring down my unhappy great coat & boots with you.
I envy you the company of Dr Sayers.r Sayers. an author whose merit tho it precludes emulation may justify imitation”.
all actions must be voluntary or involuntary — & we know that there are both kinds. choice cannot be attributed to an involuntary action & the very idea of a voluntary action is that of an action which you perform because you have motives for doing it. you act in obedience to motive — you are necessitated so to do — & it little matters to say that you chuse the motive from Free Will — as there must have been motive for the choice & if you add link to link ad infinitum still you <must> make motive the beginning of the chain. — ponder this well. tis an abstruse subject. but of the utmost importance. upon this rests the propriety or impropriety of revenge & punishment. “the doctrine of Necessity once establishd destroys the existence of Virtue & Vice”.
tis needless to point out the difference between Necessity & Predestination. you own reflection will mark it.
how like you the abstruse field of metaphysics? I have been pretty deep in it of late. it requires abstraction & sometimes fatigues the mind. but mind like body is strengthened by habital exercise. —
I have been bathing since I laid down the pen. the clear waters of Isis may tempt you to visit Oxford shortly. tis needless to say how glad I shall be to receive you. you will find me the same as usual. perhaps taller & perhaps a little thinner. let me hear from you soon, & in your next fix the time of coming. tis probable that when I next see London it will be to fix my residence there in some capacity or other. in spite of my dislike to the place tis expedient to be there — & after all there is nothing in place. Pone me nigris ubi nulla &c
the time will hardly permit of my writing to Horace by this post. I shall however attempt it. CC is well & in many points improved. Wynn is under purgation. for me I have no ailments. one day passes like another without even the variety of a dose of physic.
by the by I have not got the verses you gave me on my last birthday. & Horace has got our imperfect commentary on the Nasty Cook. both of these if you will bring with you I shall be glad to transcribe. Farewell. my respectful remembrances to Mrs D. I am obliged by her letter. your father & mother are well I hope. remember me to Harry.