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Beinecke Library, GEN MSS 298, Series I, Box 1, folder 21. Previously published: John Holland and James Everett, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of James Montgomery, 7 vols (London, 1854–1856), II, pp. 295–299. Dating note: The letter is misdated ‘1811’ by Southey. However, the content indicates it belongs to 1812.
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 death of Adam is what it should be, & the apparition at
the close brings with it all the comfort & light & glory that is wanted.
Eves departure is admirably conceived, – I did not expect it, – because I was
chained too much as I went on to expect any thing, – but the event follows so
naturally that it produces an affect like historical truth.unreturning’ in the last line of the first paragraph. The
other is this congenial side. the direct reference to the
rib is perfectly proper, & yet I wish the word breast
could have been used instead of side.
No man who looks into his own heart when he is capable of
understanding it can doubt that there is a disease in human nature, for which
the grace of God is the only remedy. With this belief, – or rather with this sense & this conviction, there can
be no presumption in saying that I regard the first chapter of Genesis not as an
historical narrative but as an allegorical tale invented for this mystery, – a
mystery which has been universally acknowledged among mankind, because it has
been universally felt. If I understood the litera story literally,
then I should read this line in the feeling with which you have written it: –
but that the <formation of Eve> is the only part of this very beautiful
narration which has not the solemnity of the rest is apparent from the
numberless light allusions to which it has given rise, from men who had no
irreverent thought or intention.
I have passed thro many changes of belief as is likely to be the
case with every man of ardent mind who is not early gifted with humility.
Gibbon
Coleridge had at that time
thought little of politics, in morals he was as loose at as men at a
university usually are, but he was a Unitarian. My morals were of the sternest
stoicism, – xx that same feeling which made me a poet kept me pure,
before I laid aside Werter & Rousseau for Epictetus.
For this dream I gave up every other prospect. How painfully
& slowly I was awakened from it, this is not the time to say, for my purpose
is but to show you where I have been upon my Pilgrims Progress, & how far I
have advanced upon the way. I became a Socinian from the reasonableness of the
scheme, & still more so because I was shocked by the consequences of
irreligion, such as they were seen in my daily intercourse with sceptics,
unbelievers & atheists. I remained in it till I learnt & felt
that how vain it is to build up a religion wholly upon historical
proofs, – I learnt that religion could never be a living & quickening
principle, if it was <we only assented to it as> a mere act of
the understanding. Something more was necessary, – an operation of Grace – a
manifestation of the Spirit – an inward revelation, – a recognition of revealed
truth. This drew me towards Quakerism, – yet with too clear a perception of the
errors & follies of the Quakers to be wholly in union with them. – In what
has it <all this> ended xx you will ask? – that I am
still what in old times was called a Seeker, – a sheep
without a fold, but not without a Shepherd; – clinging to all that Christ has
clearly taught, – but shrinking from all attempts at defining by articles of
faith those points which the Gospels have left indefinite. I am of no visible
Church, – but assuredly I feel myself in the communion of Saints.
Hence perhaps it is that wherever I find love & faith &
devotement whether it be in there I am, so far, in communion; I look
to those points which we hold in common, & the overlook the
accidents which accompany them in the individual. Not that I am indifferent to
the differences of belief, – on the contrary no man has a stronger conviction of
the fatal consequences which result from the corruptions of Christianity. You
have seen what I have said of the Inquisition;th Number of the Quarterly, upon the Evangelical
Sects,
Vanderkemps history is the first volume of the Transactions of
the Missionary Society.for the from Mr La Trobe,xx <so>
higher feeli <a> gratification than <as>
to find one of my own ancestors in among Fox’s martyrs;xxxx, & in the sure road
to perdition, – but I verily believe that both parties met that day in Paradise.
– Dear Montgomery, tho you may think me a heretic, you will not rank this among
my heresies. – I would fain say something upon what I
look upon as yours, implied in one mournful sentence, – but
when you speak of experience to your ‘eternal & irreparable cost’ – I hope
& am assured that upon this point also, there can be no
radical difference between you & me, & that in a happier state of bodily
health you would not, & could not have written these words. I long to see
you, & to talk with you of this world & the next. When will you come to
me? From Leeds there is a coach to Kendal, & from Kendal there is one here.
By this letter you have more knowledge of my inner man, than many
half the world would obtain in half their whole lives: for I am one
who shrink in like a snail where I find no sympathy, – but where I do – open
myself like a flower to the morning sun. – God bless you