Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Calne, to Rev. William Money, 1815 November 8 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning his addiction to opium and commenting on theological issues; saying he is unable to leave home due to his ill health; saying "No pleasure however intellectual (& to all but intellectual pleasures I have long been dead : for surely the staving off of Pain is no pleasure) could repay me even for the chance of being again unwell in any House but my own, or with any persons but those accustomed to me. I have a great, a gigantic effort to make & I will go thro' with it or die. Gross have been the calumnies concerning me; but enough remains for Truth to enforce the necessity of considering all other Things as unimportant compared with that of living them down;" referring to a reply William Bowles is writing to "Velvet Cushion;" setting forth his opinion on the issues related to the fallibility of the Scriptures and the Church; adding "If Mr. Bowles were not employed on it, I should have had no objection to have reduced my many Thoughts to order, & have published them, but this might now seem invidious & like Rivalry;" adding, in a postscript, "I have opened this Letter to add, that the greater number, if not the whole, of the arguments used apply only to the Ministers, and not to the members of the Established Church. Some one of our eminent Bishops refused even to take the pastoral office, I believe on account of the Funeral Service & the absolution of the sick - but still it remains to justify schism from the Church membership."