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Bodleian Library, MS Eng. Lett. c. 22. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), I, pp. 180–182 [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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In sober sadness my dear friend you deserve a letter as little as any lazy mortal ever yet did — but perhaps there is one waiting for me at Oxford — I will think so at least — it is easy to deceive ourselves when we wish to be deceived — I expect to find one upon my return in acknowledgement of this
my philosophy which has so long been of a kind peculiar to myself neither of the school of Plato Aristotle Westminster
or the Millerit is certainly not in giving pain to a friend by neglect <this I feel the severity
of & blush for> — it is not rejecting Lucan
Yesterday makes one twelvemonth from the day on which I breakfasted with you & brought Dr Vs letter in my pocket — that transaction I begin to look upon as the most fortunate I ever met with — in consequence of it I avoided the society of Ch Ch where according to all the observation I have able to make it would not have been possible to add one to the number of my friends & went to Balliol where I found some deserving of the title. in consequence of it I have visited Worcestershire & shall during the long vacation repeat my visit. how little does man know of good or evil! the affliction of today may produce the happiness of every future hour — the reverse is too often the case. but as the shield has two colours I will turn to the most agreable.
I have long expected your ode Quæqui pii vates & Phœbo digna locuti
I have lately read the Man of Feeling
the age of chivalry is past & my travels have nothing in them any way interesting to one who is not with me — to paint the different spots I have seen & romantic seats I have admird were impossible & to describe the emotions they occasioned — the attempt would be absurd —
you can better imagine rocks of petrifaction — cascades — glens & cottages from your own fancy than from my
description — after all both would fall very short — you must find leisure at some future period to tramp it with me across the
country. I never see a romantic spot without wishing for Charles Collins — tell him he has used me very ill in not writing but you will there keep one another in countenance — evil
communications corrupt good manners — you will study the pure Johannes Secundus & forget the unclassical RS.
I have seen, Bedford some of the most delightful spots that Fancy could possibly have picturd & at a moment when I was in the most delightful mood to enjoy — a certain tinge of melancholy heightens every shade around & disposes the mind more fully to enjoy the awful grandeur of the scene. I feel much disposed to finish this letter there should the weather continue good —
Nescia mens hominis fati sortisq futuræ!
if you have any message to Cambridge that I can carry let me know as in the approaching fortnights vacation Seward & I purpose walking there. on our return I sprained my ancle pretty severely which however did not prevent my walking twenty miles farther that day & twenty more the next. at present I am an invalid for convenience sake — it gives me time to read & write & rests my ancle. on Monday I purpose emerging.
th
Wynn is welcome to laugh at my walking plan — I have no need for were I to fix
upon those parts of my life which I would desire to relive it should be my Worcestershire journey — to one who goes for fashion or to a
fète or to a hunting box it may appear ridiculous but to him whose philosophy proceeds from nature & the heart the case is
different. I was absent but three weeks — yet three ages in this sink of science could not erase the ideas resulting from it (nor were
that possible) supply the vacancy. Evesham Abbey was the only spot memorable from accidental occurrences which I visited — a clear
brook an extensive prospect a woody glen or a rising spring were more frequently the objects of my pilgrimage & where I let my
Fancy stray more at will. I meant to have concluded this letter in a spot the most romantic I ever recollect to have seen — that
intention was never executed & memory must supply the picture. a spring rushing dropping over a
rock which it had made amid the wood — thro a narrow opening in the wood a cascade caused by the dissolving snow — a brook between so
clear so broken by stones! the opposite side a hill almost perpendicular with excellent timber & on the summit as far as sight
would reach (here a very small space) such a house as brings to remembrance Switzerland & St Preux.xxxx. refinement I adore but to me the highest delicacy appears so intimately connected
with it that the union is like body & soul. you will upon xxxxxx most xxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx
xxxx refinements do you yourself think elegance an atonement for licentiousness? if so — Lovelacehandling gilding
poison.