Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Malta, to Robert Southey, 1805 February 2 : autograph manuscript signed.

Saying that this letter will be sent in a government parcel with a privateer heading for Gibraltar ("Sir A. Ball trusts his Dispatches, with due precautions, to this unusual mode of conveyance"); describing preparing to write the letter and saying that he has been so busy writing letters on official business that "for once in my life at least, I can with strict truth affirm that I have had no time to write to you / if by time be understood the moments of Life, in which our powers are alive"; saying that his health has been good, up until he heard the news of the possible sale of Greta Hall; exclaiming "My dear Southey! the longer I live, and the more I see, know, and think, the more deeply do I seem to feel your Goodness / and why at this distance may I not allow myself to utter forth my whole thought by adding -- your greatness"; making an elaborate joke about a time when "goodness" and "greatness" will be synonymous and then saying "it will not do! You, my children, the Wordsworths, are at Keswick and Grasmere -- and I am at Malta -- and it is silly hypocrisy to pretend to joke, when I am heavy at heart"; mentioning that he got ahold of a copy of the second volume of the Annual Review and read carefully all the reviews he thought were written by Southey; praising them very highly ("models of good sense, and correct style [...] seldom in my course of reading have I been more deeply impressed than by the sense of the diffused Good, they were likely to effect"); commenting "W. Taylor grows worse and worse" and dismissing Taylor's opinions on political and literary matters; responding to Southey's doubts about his poem "Madoc" and reassuring him "Genius too has it's intoxication, which however divine, leaves it's headaches and it's nauseas"; saying that he has no doubts about the "great and lasting effects" it will have on Southey's reputation; saying that, regarding its effects on Southey's "worldly fortune," it pains him to know that various bureaucrats around him have comfortable salaries while Southey hopes for just a small amount of profit: "But cheerily! what do we complain of? would we be either of those men?"; describing how anxiously he has been waiting for letters and how much he fears bad news about the children or herself from Sara, "for so help me God! most ill-starred as our marriage has been, there is perhaps nothing that would so frightfully affect me as any change respecting her Health or Life"; writing of his shock and concern at hearing that William Jackson is considering selling Greta Hall; mentioning that he is awaiting the arrival of the new Public Secretary, E.T. Chapman, and in the meantime is serving in that capacity; describing what he feels he will have gained over the course of the year (experiences and insights, the chance to pay off his debts, knowledge of languages); mentioning that he intends to leave Malta in March and travel back either by sea or overland, through Europe; commenting on recent military events; discussing France and England as imperial powers in Africa, the Middle East and the Americas; writing "Egypt is eager for France -- only more, far more eager for G. Britain" and describing official documents he has seen that indicate this; concluding "God bless you, Southey! -- I wish earnestly to kiss your child -- and all whom you love, I love, as far as I can, for your sake--".