Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, place not specified, to Mrs. J. J. Morgan, 1808 February 10 : autograph manuscript signed.

Expressing his deep concern that he has not heard from her or Mr. Morgan and his anxiety that he may have offended them; explaining that since he delivered his most recent Lecture he has been ill and confined to his bed and saying "O it is a sad thing to be at once ill and friendless;" complaining about a recent letter from Mrs. Coleridge in which she said she was in need of money; saying "but this complaint occupied only the first 5 lines of her Letter. It was of three sides close writing - I preserve it as a curiosity - literally, there was not one sentence in it (excepting the last - 'I remain your Well-wisher, S. Coleridge') that did not contain a sorrow, a complaint, or an expression of misery...But between that and a letter of to Day I wrote her 3 letters, the last of them, almost a farewell to her & to my Children - written with great effort during Pain and desperate weakness, in which I assured her of my forgiveness & begged her's in return for whatever pain I had wilfully caused her - in short, I will venture to say, that that letter would draw tears down the face of your Servant - this day I received the answer. From beginning to end it is in a strain of dancing, frisking high spirits...quite the letter of a gay woman writing to some female acquaintance in an hour of mirth - and she notices my illness, the particulars of which and the strong & fearful suspicions entertained of the Stone, in these words - neither more nor less - 'Lord! how often you are ill! You must me more careful about Colds!' I shall preserve both Letters, and when I die bequeath them with some other curiosities to some married man who has an amiable wife (at least a woman with a woman's Heart) to make him bless himself! Not a word respecting my tender & tearful advice to her about the Children...no! not one simple expression, that she was sorry that I was obliged to work and lecture while I was so ill - not one word of thanks for my earnest prayer that I might recover enough of my healthy Looks, as to be able this spring to assure to her an additional 1000£ - O shocking! it is too clear, that she is glad that her Children are about to be fatherless!;" apologizing for having to "...purchase a poor relief by inflicting pain on you? A nd then again my uneasy thoughts, lest something or other of a painful nature should have happened among you - O folly of human nature! then when we are most overwhelmed with sad realities, then are we the most inclined to conjure up fantoms and fancies of Evil;" signing the letter and then continuing "Another & another Day - & the Post is come in - & no Letter. O surely either something is the matter - or else - yet how can I have given offence? - Did I write with too presuming a familiarity?...But it seemed a measureless depth, a strange indefinite mass of Time - Time out of all account, or reckonable divisions, of Time - it seemed - tho' scarce a fortnight - like a Life of it's self - & no doubt involved in the dim yet deep sensation the whole of my Confinement. There is a sublimity in this, if i could develope it!;" adding that he was just sealing the letter when a parcel from her was brought up to him; saying "I am so fluttered that I cannot open it. But it will give me spirits to get up, & I hope to sit up for the whole Evening - I will however send this off - whatever related to yourselves, consider as the mere Gloom of a sick Chamber."