Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Keswick, to Robert Southey, 1802 July 29 : autograph manuscript signed.

Writing of his joy at hearing that the Southeys are expecting a baby ("a minor Robert: for that it will be a boy, one always takes for granted"), saying that he never knew a man that "better deserved to be a Father by right of virtues that eminently belonged to him, than yourself" and he hopes that, with the child, "Edith will be born again -- & be a healthy woman"; telling Southey that, on the death of Lord Lonsdale, the Wordsworths are expected to receive £5000, which will make William and Dorothy "quite independent"; commenting on the news in Southey's letter of "Wade's Failure"; speculating on whether a recent publication of John Prior Estlin's sermons will be a success and saying that he thinks Estlin has erred in publishing single sermons (of the "apologetical & ecclesiastico-historical" kind) rather than a volume; saying that he is thinking of publishing a work on Granville Sharp's remarks about the uses of the definitive article in the Greek text of the New Testament and Reverend Christopher Wordsworth's defense of Sharp; discussing other book projects he has in mind and saying that he has become very fond of history; describing a projected two-volume work on "Poetry, & the characteristic Merits of the Poets, our Contemporaries," one volume consisting of essays, the other of poetry; listing the poets that would be included, among them "Bloomfield, Burns, Bowles, Cowper, Campbell, Darwin, Hayley, Rogers, C. Smith, Southey, Woolcot, Wordsworth [...] Pye & his Dative Case Plural, Pybus, Cottle &c &c"; saying "The object is not to examine what is good in each writer, but what has ipso facto pleased, & to what faculties or passions or habits of the mind they may be supposed to have given pleasure" and that Erasmus Darwin and Wordsworth would be given precedence; describing Wordsworth's Preface as "half a child of my own Brain"; describing the length and quantity of poems that Wordsworth has written recently, "the greater number of these to my feelings very excellent Compositions / but here & there a daring Humbleness of Language & Versification, and a strict adherence to matter of fact, even prolixity, that startled me"; writing that he suspects that "some where or other there is a radical Difference in our theoretical opinions respecting Poetry"; saying that he would like to explore this further and lay down "some plain, & perspicuous, tho' not superficial, Canons of Criticism respecting Poetry"; quoting Milton's definition of poetry; recommending the appendix in the new edition of Lyrical Ballads and the additions made to the Preface; criticizing part of the Preface for obscurity and saying that "the extreme elaboration & almost constrainedness of the Diction contrasted (to my feelings) somewhat harshly with the general style of the Poems"; including Sara's opinion on this matter; saying that he is glad Southey's work on a history of Portugal is going well and commenting on various aspects of Portuguese history; urging him, however, to "not let Madoc go to Sleep" and praising "Madoc" highly; writing of his own poetry: "all my poetic Genius, if ever I really possessed any Genius, & it was not rather a mere general aptitude of Talent, & quickness in Imitation / is gone -- and I have been fool enough to suffer deeply in my mind, regretting the loss -- which I attribute to my long & exceedingly severe Metaphysical Investigations -- & these partly to Ill-health, and partly to private afflictions which rendered any subject, immediately connected with Feeling, a source of pain & disquiet to me"; including eighteen lines of verse beginning "There was a Time when, tho' my Path was rough"; writing about his marriage, saying that he had made up his mind to leave Sara, that he told her this and the shock of it made her willing to change her behavior ("Mrs Coleridge was made serious -- and for the first time since our marriage she felt and acted, as beseemed a Wife & a Mother to a Husband, & the Father of her children"); describing her character at length and explaining why they are so ill-suited to each other ("Our virtues & our vices are exact antitheses"); saying that they are both now trying to change their ways and he is hopeful that "this happy Revolution in our domestic affairs will be permanent, & that this external Conformity will gradually generate a greater inward Likeness of thoughts, & attachments, than has hitherto existed between us"; describing the floor plan of Greta Hall in great detail and discussing how the two families might divide it between them; writing "I should be glad, no doubt, if you thought that your Health & Happiness would find a home under the same Roof with me [...] but if you decline it altogether, I shall know that you have good reasons for so doing"; telling him of all the libraries he would have access to; sending news of Sara and the children and love to Edith and Mary Lovell; promising to be a "regular Correspondent."