Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Gloucester, to Robert Southey, 1794 July 6 : autograph manuscript signed.

Greeting Southey with the exclamation "Health & Republicanism!"; saying that because Southey is averse to "Gratitudinarian Flourishes," he will not thank him directly, but "I will thank my Stars" for his hospitality; mentioning that he does not like Oxford or its inhabitants; comparing Southey to "the Matin Lark" and writing "thy Nest is in a blighted Cornfield, where the sleepy Poppy nods it's red-cowled head, and the weak-eyed Mole plies his dark work -- but thy soaring is even unto heaven"; adding that his "Appetite for Similies is truly canine at this moment"; describing the journey from Oxford to Wales ("intolerably fatiguing from the heat and whiteness of the Roads"); characterizing Gloucester as "a nothing-to-be-said-about Town -- the Women have almost all of them sharp Noses"; describing an incident on the Severn in which men who were swimming naked harassed a woman in a boat and she responded by "abus[ing] them with great perseverance & elocution"; writing "I stared -- for she was elegantly dressed -- and not a Prostitute. Doubtless, the citadel of her chastity is so impregnably strong, that it needs not the ornamental Out-works of Modesty"; ironically describing a girl begging and how her presence upsets a group of gentlemen dining; describing his traveling companion, Joseph Hucks, as "a man of cultivated, tho' not vigorous, understanding -- his feelings are all on the side of humanity -- yet such are the unfeeling Remarks, which the lingering Remains of Aristocracy occasionally prompt"; looking forward to Pantisocracy and the changes it will bring; using the word "aspheterized" and commenting on the novelty of it; exclaiming "Similies forever! Hurra!"; saying that he has bought "a little Blank Book, and portable Ink horn" in order to record "the wild Flowers of Poesy"; including two lines of poetry; referring to the mythical figure of the cockatrice and writing "The Cockatrice is emblematic of Monarchy -- a monster generated by Ingratitude on Absurdity"; including ten lines of poetry, which he introduces as "Description of Heat from a Poem I am manufacturing -- the Title 'Perspiration, a Travelling Eclogue"; asking Southey to write with news of himself and George Burnett; promising that his next letter will be a "more sober & chastised Epistle -- but you see I was in the humour for Metaphors -- and to tell thee the Truth, I have so often serious reasons to quarrel with my Inclination, that I do not chuse to contradict it for Trifles"; sending "Fraternity & civic Remembrances" to Robert Lovell, as well as "Hucks' Compliments!"