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Huntington Library, RS 49. Previously published: Charles Cuthbert Southey (ed.), Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, 6 vols (London, 1849–1850), II, pp. 250–252 [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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It is curious enough that I should form a juster opinion of the Polynesians than Capt Burney who has been among themmaterial a moralist & metaphysician like all surgeons for that practise does harden the heart & deaden the
feelings. but he has a strong head. he told me that most Bedlamites were Methodists, & made mad by Methodism, a fact on which I
have laid some stress in an article for the next Annual – the best by far that I have ever written – upon the History of
Methodism.
Last week I was two days at Sir Wilfred Lawsons,by coach, for as Lord Strangford (who has got an appointment which I should have liked)
Arthur Aikin writes me that 1200 of the Annual Review have sold, of 2000 which
were printed, & that the demand continues unabated. he is in high spirits at its success, & wishes me to come near London –
looking upon me I suppose as one of his staff officers – as in fact William
Taylor & I constitute his main strength. it is clear enough that if, like him, I regarded pen-&-ink-manship solely as
a trade I might soon give in an income of double the <present> amount, but I am looking forward to something better & will
not be tempted from the pursuit in which I have so long so steadily persevered. You are right about xxxxx subscriptions
This vile reviewing still bird limes me. I do it slower than any thing else yawning over tiresome work, & parcel
comes down after parcel, so that I have already twice whoopd – before I was out of the wood. yesterday Malthus received – I trust in
Gods mercy – a mortal wound from my hand.xx the
knuckles with Mr Malthus. These things keep me from better employment, but they whet the desire for it, & I
shall return to my Portugueze society with doubled zest.
In the dark ages medicine was in the hand of the Jews. why was this? am I right in supposing it was because they
travelled & brought with them the wisdom & experience – as well as folly – of the East? Xtians could not travel safely. but
Hebrew like Arabic was a passport, for synagogue & mosque were everywhere. A decree of the Lateran Councilfirst presented to the sick seems levelled against Jew physicians. another which forbade all
unchristian remedies I interpret not against fornication, but against such remedies as human blood &c., a list of which will
elucidate not the history of medical science, but the growth of superstition & the inevitable effects of ignorance.
Of what could the Malabar
Have you read the Institutes of Menu translated by Sir W Jones?sects, not of religions, & how so ridiculous a religion should have been so blended with astronomy, how
allegory should put on so cursedly ugly a mask is a puzzle.
Coleridge is on his way to London, if indeed he be not there. Of Edward no news since my introductory letter. he is I suppose with his precious
Aunt – & as I cannot check the chariot wheels of destiny, all I can do
is to keep out of their way. Poor Tom is on his way to the West-Indies