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Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Bristol, to Robert Southey, 1795 January 19 : autograph manuscript signed.

BIB_ID
415112
Accession number
MA 1848.16
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
Bristol, England, 1795 January 19.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (4 pages, with address) ; 23.5 x 19.1 cm
Notes
Coleridge gives only "Monday Morning" for the day of writing. However, based on the reference in the postscript to the Lovells' wedding anniversary, the letter was most probably written on January 19, 1795. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
Place of writing from the postmark.
This collection, MA 1848, is comprised of 92 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Robert Southey, written between 1794 and 1819. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1848.1-92).
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 as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel with postmarks: "Robert Southey / No 8 / West gate Buildings / Bath."
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
Addressing Southey's concerns about his commitment to Pantisocracy: "I will not say that you treat me coolly or mysteriously -- yet assuredly you seem to look upon me as a man whom vanity or some other inexplicable Cause have alienated from the System -- On what could you build so injurious a suspicion? -- Wherein when roused to the recollection of my Duty have I shrunk from the performance of it?"; assuring him "I hold my Life & my feebler feelings as ready sacrifices to Justice"; saying that Southey seems to be flagging in his enthusiasm as imperfections appear in the scheme: "Love is an active and humble Principle -- It flies not away from the Couches of Imperfection, because the Patients are fretful or loathsome"; reminding him that the project is a collective one, not just Southey's individual responsibility; raising criticisms about the idea of taking a Welsh farm, both in terms of principle and practical concerns ("How much money will be necessary for furnishing so large a house? How much necessary for the maintenance of so large a family -- 18 people -- for a year at least?"); saying that he has read his objections to Robert Lovell, who has convinced him of the dangers of delaying, regardless of other concerns; telling Southey that "if 300 pound be adequate to the commencement of the System, which I very much doubt -- I am most willing to give up all my other views / and embark immediately with you"; writing "If it be determined that we shall go to Wales -- for which I now give my Vote -- in what time? Mrs Lovell thinks it impossible that we should go in less than three months"; describing what he will do and how he will live in the interim; adding that he is going to walk to Bath tomorrow; relaying their "best loves" from the Lovells and Sara and Edith Fricker; writing in a postscript that tomorrow is the anniversary of the Lovells' wedding and sending his respects to Southey's mother.