Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London, to Sara Coleridge, 1804 February 19 : autograph manuscript.

Beginning the letter with an eleven-line poem later published as "Hexameter Lines to Mrs. Coleridge;" saying he only received her letter the previous afternoon "...owing to Poole's neglect and forgetfulness. But Poole is one of those men who have one good quality, namely, that they always do one thing at a time, but who likewise have one defect, that they can seldom think but of one thing at a time...My mind is in general of the contrary make / I too often do nothing in consequence of being impressed all at once (or so rapidly consecutive as to appear all at once) by a variety of Impressions. If there are a dozen people at Table, I hear & cannot help giving some attention, to what each one says - even tho' there should be 3 or 4 talking at once. - The Detail of the Good & the Bad of the two different Makes of Mind would form a not uninteresting Brace of essays in a Spectator or Guardian; asking her to immediately repay Southey and to pay Jackson "the whole year's rent up to July next - and tell him, that you shall not want the £20, which you have lent him, till the beginning of May...It gave me pain & a feeling of anxious concern, on our own account as well as on Mr. Jackson's, to find him so distressed for money. I fear, that he will be soon induced to sell the House;" commenting on the possibility of Hartley attending the Town School and saying he might only agree to it if another young boy, whom they might pay, would accompany Hartley and sit by him in class; adding that then he would not object to his attending the school and "... making a fair Trial of it;" saying he wishes there were a drawing instructor for Hartley in Keswick; saying that he is sending them "Spillekins (Spielchen, or Gamelet, I suppose) a German Refinement on our Jack Straw;" asking that she or her sisters play with Hartley and Derwent and extolling the virtues of what the game could teach the boys; saying "It is certainly an excellent Game to teach children steadiness of Hand & Quickness of eye, & a good opportunity to impress upon them the beauty of strict Truth, when it is against their own Interest, & to give them a pride in it, & habits of it;" relating the rule and strategy of the game; relating the details of his social engagements for the next few days in London and his possible travel to Dunmow to see Sir George & Lady Beaumont; adding "I cannot express to you how very very affectionate the Behaviour of these people has been to me ; & how they seem to love by anticipation those very few whom I love;" asking her to ask Southey for permission to "...copy that divine passage of his Madoc, respecting the Harp of the Welch Bard & it's imagined Divinity with the two Savages - or any other detachable Passage - or to transcribe his Kehama / I will pledge myself, that Sir George Beaumont & Lady B. will never suffer a single Individual to hear or see a single Line, you saying, that it is to be kept sacred to them, & not to be seen by any one else - you would be paying them..." [The concluding lines of the letter are missing].