The Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part 2: 1798-1803 A Romantic Circles Electronic Edition Southey, Robert, 1774-1843 Lynda Pratt Romantic Circles General Editor, Neil Fraistat General Editor, Steven E. Jones Technical Editor Laura Mandell 2011-08-15 rce433 letterEEd.26.424 Romantic Circles, http://www.rc.umd.edu, University of Maryland College Park, MD August 15, 2011

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Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 298, Series I, Box 1, folder 15. Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 76–78.

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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 NINES categories for Genre and Material Form at http://www.performantsoftware.com/nines_wiki/index.php/Submitting_RDF#.3Cnines:genre.3E on 2009-02-26 Architecture Artifacts Bibliography Collection Criticism Letters Drama Life Writing Politics Folklore Ephemera Fiction History Leisure Manuscript Reference Works Humor Education Music nonfiction Paratext Perodical Philosphy Photograph Citation Family Life Poetry Religion Review Visual Art Translation Travel Book History Law Southey Letters: Biographies Southey Letters: Places Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming after latest corrections Laura Mandell XSLT Transforming Averill Buchanan corrections from proofing Averill Buchanan Part II added
424. Robert Southey to John May, 29 July 1799 Address: To/ John May Esqr/ 4. Tavistock Street/ Bedford Square/ London/ SingleStamped: [illegible]Postmark: [illegible]Endorsement: No 39. 1799/ Robert Southey/ No place 29 July/ recd:2 August/ ansd:3 do MS: Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 298, Series I, Box 1, folder 15Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), I, pp. 76–78. Monday night. 29 July. 99. My dear friend

I write to you from Minehead. we arrived here on Thursday night, I wish I could add after a pleasant journey, but Ediths state of health embittered it & every hour since. Maurice,Possibly Joseph Maurice (dates unknown), an apothecary, based at St Michael’s Hill in Bristol. under whose medical care she is, thought the journey might benefit her, but it has proved otherwise, & unless a speedy amendment take place, we must measure back our way to Bristol, that she may have daily & hourly advice if needful. extreme debility, pains in the back & bowels, & a wasting away, with sleeplessness, & total want of appetite, these are her complaints. I am little able to attend to my usual employments. restless & uneasy I turn from one thing to another & find myself unfitted for all. Danger in her complaint there is not – there is no organic affection no part diseased – but this debility – this atrophy is alarming – I fall into gloomy day dreams; & dread the future while I wish the present were past. her sister is with us. this is fortunate. I get out a little, but the weather is cold & stormy, & I carry with me no chearful thoughts.

It is long since I have heard from you. I saw the marriage of, I suppose, one of your sisters announced in the papers.May’s eldest sister, Maria-Emelia (dates unknown) had married the Revd Jeremiah Awdry (1774-1859), Vicar of Felsted, Essex, on 7 June 1799; see The Oracle, 19 June 1799. at the time I wishd it had been your own. but if the single man be never quite happy, neither can he be ever quite otherwise. in sickness in poverty in death the evil extends not beyond himself, he is prepared for all the contingencies of life, & its close is not embittered by the grief of the survivors whose happiness or welfare depends upon him. it has always been <my wish> to die far from my friends. to crawl like a dog into some corner & expire unseen. I would neither give nor receive unavailing pain.

Of the few books with me I am most engaged by the Koran. it is dull & full of repetitions. but there is an interesting simplicity in the tenets it inculcates. What was Mohammed?Muhammad (570–632), Prophet of Islam. self-deceived, or knowingly a deceiver? if an enthusiast, the question again occurs wherein does real inspiration differ from mistaken? this is a question that puzzles me – because to the individual they are the same, & both effects equally proceed from the first impeller of all motions, who must have ordained whatever he permits. in this train of reasoning I suspect a fallacy, but cannot discover it. but of Mohammed, – there is one fact which in my judgement stamps the imposter – he made too free with the wife of Zeid – & very speedily had a verse of the Koran revealed to allow him to marry her.Muhammad’s adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah (588–629), was briefly married to Zaynab bint Jahsh. After their divorce in 627, the Prophet married her, contrary to tribal custom, which treated such a union as incest. But Muhammad received a revelation (Qu’ran 33: 37) that his marriage had divine sanction. the vice may be attributed to his country & constitution – but the dispensation was the work of a scoundrel imposing upon fools. the huge & monstrous fables of Mohammedanism, his extravagant miracles & the Rabbinical tenets of his followers appear no where in the written book. admit the inspiration of the writer, & there is nothing to shock belief. There is but one God – this is the foundation – Mohammed is his prophet – this is the superstructure.

his followers must have been miserably credulous. they gained a victory over the Koreish with very inferiour numbers & fought lustily for it. yet Mohammed says, & appeals to them for the truth of what he says, that not they beat the Koreish but three thousand Angels won the victory for them.The Battle of Badr in 624 was a key victory for Muhammad over the forces of the Quraish, the dominant tribe in Mecca. Muhammad outlined the divine assistance the Muslims received in Qu’ran 3: 123–125. – the system has been miserably perverted & fatally successful. Bagdad & CordovaSophisticated centres of Muslim culture in Mesopotamia and Spain, especially in the 9th to 12th centuries. had their period of munificence & literature. all else in the history of this religion is brutal ignorance & ferocity. it is now a system of degradation & depopulation whose overthrow is to be desired as one great step to general amelioration.

If you could get me Anquetil Du Perrons ZendavestaAbraham-Hyacinthe Anquetil Du Perron (1731–1805), Zend-Avesta (1771), a translation into French of some of the key sacred writings of Zoroastrianism. I should be very glad. it is not easily met with – but perhaps your bookseller might meet with a copy. if Edith gets better we shall proceed to Ilfracombe in about ten days. if not – we must return. should you receive this soon my direction is at Mr Alloways Minehead.The house of Samuel Allaway (dates unknown), a staymaker. Somersetshire.

God bless you. yrs affectionately R Southey.

Be good enough to remit my Mother what money BurnWilliam Burn (dates unknown), a member of the British Factory, Lisbon. may have for her, directed to Cottles.