Address panel to "Mr. Pym Nevins / Leeds."
Pim Nevins was a woolen cloth manufacturer and merchant in Leeds and a Quaker.
Date of writing from published letter cited below.
This letter is written on the last two pages of a printed prospectus for the periodical The Friend. Coleridge has made autograph corrections and revisions on the prospectus.
Explaining the delay in publication of his Essays due to a disagreement with his London publisher and printer and explaining the changes he has made to the Prospectus; saying that he hopes the publication will be the second week of February at the latest; asking if he will re-read the Prospectus and note the changes he has made "...so as to leave no doubt as to the religious Tendency of the Work...I was shocked by a Letter from an amiable Quaker, having these words - 'I understand, thou dost not believe the reality of an internal Monitor.' Would, O would! that my whole Being were as clear in listening to, & obeying that Voice within, as my Convictions are clear in it's existence & divine Nature. In several points I disagree with the present Quakers, & would fain tell them so, if a more suitable occasion presented itself than that of the present Work, which is addressed to all men - But when I tell my mind concerning what I deem the errors in belief or practice that seem to exist in your society, I would wish to do it in a private work circulated only among the Fathers of Families;" explaining, in a lengthy postscript, what the act of subscribing means; saying "The act of Subscription binds to nothing. I understand it only as a determination to encourage the work, if it should be found worthy of Encouragement; and for the purpose of making the Proof possible without serious Loss to the Author;" explaining, in detail, the Stamp duties and other taxes levied on a publication and expressing his frustration that it isn't understood when there are objections to the price; adding "While - let the truth of what I say screen me from the charge of speaking boastfully - instead of declaiming the railing on topics and large extracts furnished by the Morning Newspapers, instead of pouring out even such a rude and vehement Comment on the momentary Tidings or Measures, as an angry man might talk at his Breakfast Table while reading a newspaper hostile to his Party - I bring the results of a Life of constant Study and intense Meditation, the Results of personal Toils and Travels, and of heavy unrepayed Expences...But to convey important Truth is my main Object : and I should scorn to receive for myself a single crown in the course of the year from any man, to whom I had not been honestly endeavoring to give knowlege and motive which cannot be bought or payed for with earthly coin, and the wish to seek from above those Impulses, which can be given only from above; and of which all that the highest earthly Eloquence can effect, is to convince the mind of it's Need! Tho' I cannot give the Medicine, yet I shall not have been useless if I have discovered the Disease, and shewn the way to the Physician."