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<title type="main">The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 </title>
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<name>Southey, Robert, 1774-1843</name>
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<p>National Library of Wales, MS 4811D.  Not previously published.</p>
<p>These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer</p>
<p>For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare
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<p>A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the
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<div n="298" type="letter">
<head>298. Robert Southey to <ref target="people.html#WynnCharlesWW">Charles Watkin Williams Wynn</ref>, <date when="1798-03-25">[25 March] 1798</date>
<note place="foot" resp="editors" type="headnote">Address: To/ C W Williams Wynn Esq<hi rend="sup">r</hi>/ 5. Stone Buildings/ Lincolns Inn/ London<lb/>Postmarks: FREE MR/ 26/ 98; B/ MR/ 98<lb/>Endorsement: March 25 <del rend="strikethrough">Lady day</del> 1798<lb/>MS: National Library of Wales, MS 4811D<lb/>Unpublished.</note>
</head>
<opener>
<dateline rend="right">
<date when="1798-03-25">Lady day. 98</date>
</dateline>
<salute>My dear Wynn</salute>
</opener>
<p rend="indent1">	I thank you for your list of books. they shall come in succession after I have digested Coke,<note n="1" place="foot" resp="editors">Edward Coke (1552–1643; <title>DNB</title>), <title>Institutes of the Laws of England</title> (1628–1644).</note> a tough dish, &amp; not the more palatable for the notes that season it. I am however dieting upon it to some effect.</p>
<p rend="indent1">	To what you say of marriage I reply not — because my own opinion inclines to yours, &amp; the habit of arguing pro &amp; con, tho perhaps it may be well for a lawyer, is calculated to produce a scepticism <del rend="strikethrough">of mind</del>, an unsettled state of mind, prejudicial to virtue &amp; happiness.</p>
<p rend="indent1">	Our Garden scheme<note n="2" place="foot" resp="editors">John May and Southey’s plan for a convalescent hospital.</note> is, I hope, advancing by this time it is probable that <ref target="people.html#MayJohn">John May</ref> has seen you, &amp; told you what Martin<note n="3" place="foot" resp="editors">Probably Matthew Martin (1748–1838; <title>DNB</title>), secretary to the Society for Bettering the Condition and Improving the Comforts of the Poor.</note> suggested. recollection made me smile when I wrote his name.</p>
<p rend="indent1">	My book<note n="4" place="foot" resp="editors">
<title>Joan of Arc</title> (1798).</note> will soon be finished. I will send it you as soon as possible, &amp; also, if you think it will be right, a copy for Richards.<note n="5" place="foot" resp="editors">Probably Sir Richard Richards (1752–1823; <title>DNB</title>), an eminent lawyer in Chancery.</note>  it will be civil as the large copies are not for sale, &amp; it will be very handsome.<note n="6" place="foot" resp="editors">Cottle printed larger copies of Southey’s works, to be distributed as gifts; see Robert Southey to Joseph Cottle [c. 18 May 1797], <title>The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 1</title>, Letter 217.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent1">	I heard of <ref target="people.html#ButtJohnMarten">Martin Butt</ref> last week. he is a curate, &amp; near the parsonage house on which his father wasted so much money.<note n="7" place="foot" resp="editors">George Butt (1741–1795; <title>DNB</title>), the father of Southey’s schoolmate John Marten Butt, had incurred considerable expense building a new parsonage at Stanford, Worcestershire, where he was Rector.</note> I shall probably see him in the summer, &amp; pass some days in that neighbourhood.</p>
<p rend="indent1">	I see that Lewis has castrated his Monk, greatly to his improvement.<note n="8" place="foot" resp="editors">Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775–1818; <title>DNB</title>) published a fourth, expurgated edition of his controversial novel in 1798, retitling it <title>Ambrosio, or, The Monk</title>.</note> it was a good plan to make his book popular first, &amp; decent afterwards. I think I have added a good motto to my second edition, on the back of the title page. it is from Erasmus. Ut homines, ita libros, indies seipsis meliores fieri oportet.<note n="9" place="foot" resp="editors">The Latin translates as ‘Books are like people: they ought to improve on themselves day by day.’ It was used as an epigraph to <title>Joan of Arc</title> (1798) and is a quotation from the works of Desidirius Erasmus (c. 1476–1536), Dutch scholar.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent1">	You will find a fine anecdote in my notes of the Irish, which will amuse you. a custom of leaving the right arm unchristened, that they might give a more deadly &amp; ungracious blow with it — &amp; then you know the Christian part had not to answer for the sin.<note n="10" place="foot" resp="editors">
<title>Joan of Arc</title>, 2 vols (Bristol, 1798), I, p. 153.</note>
</p>
<p rend="indent1">	Who was it used to thank God for being born a man not a beast — a Greek not a barbarian?<note n="11" place="foot" resp="editors">A saying attributed to various Greek philosophers, including Thales (624–546 BC), Socrates (469–399 BC) and Plato (428–348 BC).</note> as a Hottentot I might have been very well contented — but indeed I am thankful I was not made an Irishman.</p>
<closer>
<salute rend="indent1">	God bless you.</salute>
<salute rend="indent2">		yrs affectionately</salute>
<signed rend="indent3">			R Southey.</signed>
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