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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. 56–58; Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, p. 210 [in part; 1 paragraph, where it is dated 12 June 1794].Dating note: The letter is probably written over several days in June 1794.
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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Your last letter is now with Wynn, he purposes answering it
himself, but whether or no that purpose is yet accomplished I am ignorant. I
wish much to see you. cannot you contrive to come speedily to Oxford? we leave
it very early in July — about the 4th or fifth, &
time lags sadly till that period. I could explain more fully why this college
life is so irksome to me, were you here, & more clearly convince you of
the propriety of my wishes. your last was calculated to raise my hopes tis a tormenting phantom which I fear to
indulge.
my poor trullibubs are empty. a dose of salts yesterday & another this morning has been scouring out my tripes. this may possibly remove indisposition for a little while, but I am not fool enough to hope it will remove the cause. continual anxiety will wear out a stronger frame than mine — oh that gripe —
one week has elapsed since my letter was so unpleasantly
interrupted. in the interim the salts have worked & your last arrived.
at present my situation my situation resembles
that of a poor devil executing for high treason, at the interval when he is cut
down from the gallows to have his heart torn out — for I am delaying the
pickling of my tripes again till the departure of a Cantab one whom I very
much esteem & admire tho two thirds of our conversation be spent in
disputing on metaphysical subjects. the latter part of your letter leads to a
wide & interesting subject — I am as far from pleading the cause of
incontinence as you. yet the philosopher should pardon in another what he would
not pardon in himself. the passions are not vicious — tis society makes the
indulgence of them so. they resemble an assemblage of waters destructive if they
run wildly over the country, but the source of abundance if properly guided.
Wynn has started an objection to
the plan on which I presumed too much. — they will enquire & find me a
Republican. right. they ought to enquire & they must know. perish every
hope of life rather than <that> I should forfeit my integrity. I
am a Republican & thxx did wrong in even
thinking of the situation. twas a fallacious reasoning that said — there is no
criminality in accepting a situation where for a certain salary I give up a
certain portion of time. — the false hopes which deceived me are gone &
it is but turning adventurer at last. or be villain enough to take orders
& grow fat in ease indolence & iniquity. blessed be God that my
principles are notorious enough to keep me necessarily in integrity. who can
answer for his perseverance in rectitude when every passion of the human heart
prompts him to dissimulation?
they will enquire & find me a Republican. even at the moment of disappointment — when every delightful hope melted away like the shadows of a dream — I exulted in the reflection. my practice flows from my principle. if the one be wrong the other must be so. if my first principles are vicious the actions resulting from them must be vicious likewise — & where is the being who shall throw the first stone? I am already too much the victim of affection — my heart is too often consulted where the head should have determined, & it is better to sacrifice happiness than integrity. had my situation been like yours tis more than probable that my theoretical principles had been the same. but I am too notorious to be tempted — & when from the triumph of affections over honesty I had placed myself in the way of temptation — the character of Republican man saved me the trial.
So be it. I will hasten nothing. as I am I may yet remain two years — should any thing devolve to me then it will be well. & if not why the same world will still lie before me, & whether I linger out existence in England in America or among the convicts of New Holland is a matter of indifference. thus much (& too much) for self.
Lightfoot is gone, AB. I have
quarrelld with J Collins so my
Balliol friends are reduced to
George Burnett. but he is
worth an hundred. Allen is with us daily & his friend from Cambridge —
Coleridge whose poems
you will oblige me by subscribing to either at Hookhams or Edwards’s.good friend. to me he is similar in every respect. from
you he differs only where I differ. the constant society of Allen has rendered many hours
delightful which would otherwise have passed in the destructive day dreams of
solitude. him I lose from Oxford when I depart but tis my wish never to reside
again & I shall grasp at any situation of independance during the next
six months. were not the vacation so near — I would try the press &
print my Botany Bay Eclogues with my name in the title page.
what attaches you to King?
why Esquire one who loathes titles? my name needs no addition.
Horace is very
indolent. tell him to write. my remembrances to your friends. particularly
Harry.