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. Previously published: S. T. Coleridge, The Friend, ed. Barbara E. Rooke, 2 vols (London and Princeton NJ, 1969), II, 495–497.
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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The Porter kept your letter, manuring it in his Pocket till Tuesday, & it then found its way to me at such an hour
that as soon as I could get pen in hand to answer it news came that the carriers were going. – I will endeavour to do what you desire
so as to send it on Saturday.
The Friend is faulty in nothing but its mode of publication, which certes is the most unsuitable that xxxx
has could possibly be xxxxx chosen for matter of close reasoning & high philosophy. The mischief however is
only temporary, – & the objection applying only to these Essays while they are appearing in weekly sheets,
not & ceasing as soon as they are in a collected form. It would be better to intersperse numbers of amusement, –
indeed t give three four or five in succession – so as to put the great children who read it in good humour
<humour>; give them sugar plumbs so that they may be ready with open mouth to swallow a tonic bolus – every now & then before
they are aware of what is coming. At present they expect physic & make up their mouths accordingly, & what is worse, their
stomachs too. Any dislocation of the logical order of the Essays is an inferior consideration, that can be remedied in reprinting them.
At present the one thing needful is to amuse the readers for a while & give them something that they can talk
about, – Heaven help us – it is for this end only that the precious ‘Public’ condescend to read.
You told me you had proved those madx scenes in Jeronymo to be Shakesperes. I have no doubt they are so.
xxx make this the subject of an early number
Will you have an Essay upon the Spanish Ballads – showing how much worse they are than the English, & introducing
three or four specimens of the different kinds which happen to be lying by me? I do not propose this as any thing striking, tho it may
turn out better than the subject promises, – but merely because I know not what else to offer.
G. Coleridges conduct exemplifies the precious consequences of substituting
faith for good works, & talking about religion till you cease to feel it.When xxxx xx should xxxxxx In general men degrade their intellects by corrupting their hearts: he has gone thro the opposite
process which is rather the worst of the two. – What do you mean about Stuart, –
that was the most unpleasant part of your letter, – the rest related to light vexations & evils all removable.
I have undertaken the whole historical part of Ballantynes New
Register, at unreasonable notice & ill prepared for the task, – but he was in distress, having been disappointed in the sample he
received from the person originally engaged – (– whom I suspect to have been Wm Rose, old Georges son) – & he
made me an offer which it would became me to accept.
I have asked Sir G Beaumont to use his influence with Lord
Mulgrave
Your 8th No. was very interesting. I did not venture being no German to alter
the name of Munster,Muncer,
– & I was in hopes you would have said more of him, he being one of my Worthies of the World.such slight second-hand notices, – nor
is there any account of Wesley except those we <which> have been written by his disciples.
Poor Mrs Fricker is released at last, – a great blessing for herself & for poor Martha –
th
Mrs C expected to hear that the Applethwaite was received, which was sent in a
letter by young Benson.