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: "Mr Southey / Burton / near / Ringwood / Hampshire / Single Sheet."
Discussing fads in international philosophical discussions ("so philosophisms fly to and fro -- in serieses of imitated Imitations -- Shadows of shadows of shadows of a farthing Candle placed between two Looking-glasses"); saying that he is suffering from rheumatism "but when the Pain intermits, it leaves my sensitive Frame so sensitive! My enjoyments are so deep, of the fire, of the Candle, of the Thought I am thinking, of the old Folio I am reading -- and the silence of the silent House is so most & very delightful -- that upon my soul! Rheumatism is no such bad thing as people make for"; saying that he spent several days at Upcott (the residence of Josiah Wedgwood); referring to reports that the ship on which Southey's brother Thomas was serving had been captured and saying he hopes Thomas returns home safe; crowing over André Masséna's victory in a battle against the Russians and exclaiming "Buonaparte --! Buonaparte! dear dear dear Buonaparte!"; saying how satisfying it would be to hear this paragraph read aloud by the Clerk of the Privy Council to William Pitt; discussing allusively Thomas Poole's discovery of "why the newspapers had become so indifferent to him"; calling William Jackson "a bad man" and musing "Why is it, if it be -- and I fear, it is -- why is it that the studies of Music & Painting are so unfavorable to the human heart? Painters have been commonly very clever men -- which is not so generally the case with Musicians -- but both alike are almost uniformly Debauchees"; saying that Southey's account of John Bampfylde interested him very much and commenting on Bampfylde's genius; discussing various acquaintances and schoolfriends; mentioning that if he is well enough, he and his wife Sara will go to Bristol in a few days; conferring with him about contributions to the Annual Anthology and saying that he will get to work on "Christabel," but he does not think it would be a "fit opening Poem"; speculating about the identity of the author of an "Essay on a Jesuitic Conspiracy & about the Russians"; asking whether Southey has seen Bishop Pretyman's Elements of Christian Theology; describing the revenge a literary rival is attempting to take on Coleridge by loudly abusing what he wrongly believes to be articles by Coleridge in coffee houses; commenting on Charles Lloyd's motives for having been christened and recounting an anecdote about Christopher Wordsworth's uncle warning him against associating too closely with Lloyd; writing "[t]hat Charles Lloyd has a bad Heart, I do not even think; but I venture to say & that openly, that he has not a good one" and criticizing Lloyd generally; saying that he has "a great affection for Lamb / but I have likewise a perfect Lloyd-and-Lambophobia!"; criticizing their letters, adding that "their Prose comes so damn'd dear" and saying that he has received so many letters from them in the last quarter "that with the Postage I might have bought Birch's Milton"; saying that Sara will write soon, sending love to Edith and Southey's mother, and adding that he may go to London after Bristol but regardless he will write and tell Southey where he is.