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University of Sheffield Library MS 25 (5). Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 52–54 [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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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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I was on Monday last summoned to Bath in consequence of an
alarming increase in my Mothers
illness. She had taken fresh cold, & tho I found her somewhat amended by
bleeding still her state of health appears both to myself & the Physician
who attends her,
Edith also is very unwell. she has now good advice, & air as good as this country can furnish. these are unpleasant subjects, & I have said enough.
Wynn tells me he has seen you,
& that you agree with him in thinking a house fit for the purpose may be
found ready built. I doubt whether you can find one with land enough annexed,
& well situated for our purpose. it is however worth trying. Mr Martin has
opened a wide field for enquiry by proposing to appropriate the useless funds of
charity to new institutions.
There is no reason why the House of Commons should not do this.
but I have the example of the Slave Trade before my eyes, & have ceased to
expect any thing good from that quarter.
Rousseau’s Confessions are like his Heloise:wholly <almost> useless; or develope
such parts of his character as need not be known. they show us the cravings of a
heart that wanted & deserved an equal companion, & which when plunging
into sensuality felt its own degradation & the emptiness of sensual
enjoyment. There seemd a perpetual struggle between his soul & body. I do
not look upon Rousseau with blind admiration, he was a miserable man & I
think of him with feelings of regret & compassion that make him the more
interesting. Read his Levite of Ephraim, with the exception of two similes, it
is in my judgement a perfect poem.
Lloyds novel is finished, &
will be published early in the next week.the many of the Letters equal the eloquence of Rousseau. I have taken
some steps in the affair between him & Sophia, & am now satisfied
that if it be not renewed, the fault will be wholly his, & in my eyes, an
inexcuseable one. I hope & believe it will be well settled.
My book
I should like to send Osterveld
My brother goes on well at Yarmouth, & tho he knew not the
Greek Alphabet when he went there, now toils successfully thro Xenophon.
Remember me to Carlisle.