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National Library of Scotland, MS 42550. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 37–39; Samuel Smiles, A Publisher and His Friends, 2 vols (London, 1891), I, pp. 237-238 [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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Thank you for the Calamities.more suoxxx with its despicable ostentation of patronage; & to build a sort of National Academy in the air, in the hope
that Canning might one day lay its foundations in a more solid manner. – And I could say
something on the other side of the picture, showing, that altho literature in almost all cases is the worst trade to which a man
can possibly betake himself, it is the best & wisest of all pursuits for those whose provision is already made, & of all
amusements for those who have leisure to amuse themselves. It has long been my intention to leave behind me my own Memoirs, as a
post obit for my family, – a wise intention no doubt & one which it is not very prudent to procrastinate.be
a exhibit a case directly in contrast to D’Israelis view of the subject. I chose literature for my own profession, –
with every advantage of education it is true, but under more disadvantages perhaps of every other kind than any of the persons in
his catalogue. I have never regretted the choice. The usual censure ridicule & even calumnies which it has drawn upon me never
gave me a moments pain, – but on the other hand literature has given me friends among the best & wisest & most celebrated
of my contemporaries it has given me distinction, – if I live twenty years longer I do not doubt that it will give me fortune,
& if it pleases God to take me before my family are provided for, I doubt as little that in my names & in my
works they will find a provision.
Blanco’s is an able & interesting article,r Eveleigh & his friends may <will> be pleased with the account of his
sermons,rs Barbauld.having
the Warburtons Index for the xxx erudition which he has brought to bear upon the mysteries, should have
referred to Terrassone Rolandgiven a made the impartial judgement
of the writer more apparent, & I regret the alteration of one word which converts into praise of Mr Pitt a
sentence carefully constructed for the purpose of avoiding any such meaning, without in any degree offending his friends. I wrote
whatever may have been the merits of the pilot, – it stands transcendant as may have
been &c. This is a vexatious alteration.r Pitt. – To them therefore I must enter into a mortifying
explanation, – or be content to lie under the intolerable imputation of having belied my own principles.
I want to give you a Life of Wesley,supply <afford> an opportunity