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Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. Previously published: Charles Ramos, The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 75-77.
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 with the bank-post bill of £40 for Danvers arrived safely & the
money has been paid. the first part of your letter gave me great pleasure. what
relates to Harry is every
way unpleasant, – what William
Taylor palliates as only an imprudence I feel to be a very serious
& a very dangerous fault. Harry’s allowance is surely a sufficient one. my dress, including
every article, costs me upon the average not more than £15 a year, set down 5
more for the indulgence of a pardonable pride of appearance – & Harry ought to be contented.
he must after his washing & other little necessary expences be paid have a
clear ten pounds for his yearly pleasures. xx
his journey to Paris did not break in upon his allowance. Wm Taylor you
know bore his expences there, conditioning that he should pay for his own
journey, x & Harry said he had his
unencumbered quarterly sum for that – but I gave him ten guineas for the
occasion. The mischief is that prodigality is in his nature & in the nature
of all my brothers. he must write to Lisbon now – the act of writing will give
him some pain, & the very gentle reproof which he will receive from <in> my Uncles answer ought to give
more <him> more – for he knows how
my Uncle, who would else be
an opulent xxx man, has been & is still kept
needy by spendthrift connections. I will write to Wm Taylor. I do
not like that substitution of honour for steady principle, which he is disposed
to make. Harrys prospects
are as good as he could wish if he did not mar them by his own folly. let him
keep out of debt & about four years hence, he is almost secure of xxx xxxxx a good practise in Norwich & he
will probably marry well – ambition will make him prudent the in that instance. he will do well in the
world – but I have no expectation of his doing good in the world. he has great
talents, but no genius. videri might be his motto. I should
chuse esse to be mine.
I shall perhaps see you in the course of the summer. it was my
design to go to London for the purpose of getting materials in the Museumwhere that so compels me to great exercise as London. the
complaint is diabetes with a disposition in the kidneys to manufacture lime calculus matter, which I hope has been
discovered in time to prevent the bladder from becoming a lime-kiln. soda is the
peculiar medicine needful – aided by the red sulphat of iron, which is certainly
the most powerful general tonic that has yet been discovered. I know <not>
how I can take so much exercise with so little expence & so much little loss of time as by passing a
fortnight with Rickman in London,
& on resting myself for two hours at midday in the Museum.
I must have expressed myself
<meaning> improperly in my last if you understood that I considered the
present period, upon the general average of good & evil, as worse than older
times. On the contrary it appears to me very far the best, as being the most
enlightened. it is the best for the best men, virtues & talents which would
have been blasted formerly can grow up & flourish now. what I meant to
express was that the condition of the greater part of society – of the poor, is
more uniformly miserable now than it ever has been in any former period, &
that, in consequence xxxx of the inevitable
effects of our commercial system. they were exposed to sudden calamities
formerly from which we are now tolerably secure – war we have not at home – nor
pestilence, nor actual famine. but when neither of these ravages <visitations> happened to be let
loose the peasantry & labourers of England in old times enjoyed a degree of
comfort & plenty which they now never can attain. their morals & their
health were not poisoned by the soul-&-body-murdering plan of herding
together in large & unwholesome manufactories. the aggregate of human wisdom
& human virtue is greater now. but the aggregate of human misery is
increased also. Upon my view of the moral government of the world, these
progressive steps have all been needful – a state of innocence is necessarily insecure. the Tree of Knowledgewisdom.
In the gospel – in the express words of Christ I find the
distinctions of rank & riches expressly forbidden to his disciples.this rule xxx the xxxxxxx xxxxx xxx xxxxxxx
xxxx. now the institutions of society directly counteract the main
precepts of Christ. he forbids rank & riches & worldly ambition – to
renounce them is not merely difficult now – it is actually impossible – but
either the way of the world or the way of the gospel must be wrong.
––––
Is not the time past when they nominate the boys for Christ
Hospital?
Your letter could not be answered by return of post because
letters are not delivered here till after the post returns. our respects to Mrs May