Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleorton, to Derwent Coleridge, 1807 February 7 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
211683
Accession number
MA 1855.8
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Coleorton, England, 1807 February 7.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 32.1 x 20.2 cm
Notes
This collection, MA 1855, is comprised of thirteen autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients, written from August 5, 1794 through March 1, 1832. The recipients include Derwent and Hartley Coleridge, William Hart Coleridge, Henry Nelson Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Thomas Poole and Dorothy Wordsworth.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel to "Mr. Derwent Coleridge / Greta Hall / Keswick / Cumberland", with a notation above the address, possibly in the hand of Ernest Hartley Coleridge, "Letter from STC to his little son Derwent - 6 years old."
Written on "Saturday Night, Feb. 7. 1807. Coleorton."
The top of pages 1 and 2 has been cut away. According to an introductory note to the published letter cited below, "The part of the manuscript 'cut off from' Derwent's letter, then, contained a letter of inquiry, now no longer extant, to Mrs. Coleridge concerning Southey's plans."
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Writing of his affection for Derwent, the love and respect Derwent should have for his mother, and the importance of telling the truth; saying, "It will be many times the number of years, you have already lived, before you can know and feel thoroughly, how very much your dear Father wishes and longs to have you on his knees, and in his Arms. Your Brother, Hartley, too whirls about, and wrings his hands, at the thought of meeting you again : he counts the days and hours, and makes sums of arithmetic of the time, when he is again to play with you, and your sweet Squirrel of a Sister. He dreams of you, and has more than once hugged me between sleeping and waking, fancying it to be you or Sara : and he talks of you before his eyes are fully open in the morning, and while he is closing them at Night. And this is very right : for nothing can be more pleasing to God Almighty and to all good people, than that Brothers and Sisters should love each other, and try to make each other happy; but it is impossible to be happy without being good - and the beginning and A.B.C. of Goodness is to be dutiful and affectionate to their Parents;" discussing the many ways in which his mother has shown her love for him and the importance of telling the truth; saying "The next good Thing, and that without which you cannot either honor any person, or be esteemed by any one, is - always to tell the Truth. For God gave you a Tongue to tell the Truth; and to tell a Lie with it is as silly, as to try to walk on your Head instead of your Feet; besides, it is such a base, hateful, and wicked Thing, that when good men describe all wickedness put together in one wicked mind, they call it the Devil, which is Greek for a malicious Liar; and the Bibles names him a Liar from the beginning, and the Father of Lies. Never, never, tell a Lie - even tho' you should escape a whipping by it : for the Pain of a whipp[ing] does not last above a few minutes; but the Thought of having told a Lie will make you miserable for days - unless, indeed, you are hardened in wickedness, and then you must be miserable for ever! - But you are a dear Boy, and will scorn such a vile thing; and whenever you happen to do any thing amiss, which will happen now and then, you will say to yourself - 'Well! whatever comes of it, I will tell the Truth; both for it's own sake, and because my dear Father wrote so to me about it;" adding that he is very pleased he wants to continue with his Greek lessons and he will "...finish this Letter with a short Lesson of Greek;" adding, in a postscript, a small Greek grammar and vocabulary lesson.