Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, London?, to Robert Southey, 1808 February 13 : autograph manuscript signed.

Saying that he cannot sleep and "had better sit up and look at something, than enfever my head and eyes either by keeping my eyelids closed, or staring at the Curtains"; describing the weather and his health; saying that it has been difficult for him to deliver his lectures, and that he has not left his bedroom since returning from the last lecture; mentioning Dr. Peter Compton and his visits, and writing affectionately of Compton; saying that he had a visit on Wednesday from an old school-friend, Thomas Middleton, who has just published a book, The Doctrine of the Greek Article...; describing the format, design and paper of the book, praising its contents ("the ablest philological support of the Trinity, in existence; and is of almost equal interest to the general Greek Scholar"); adding that there are several points on which he disagrees with Middleton and would propose a different theory, but he has received "great & various Instruction from it, and see my own Scheme in a fuller light"; saying Dr. Estlin recently described him in the following words: "His Intellect is all gone, Sir! all his genius is lost, quite lost -- he is a mere superstitious Calvinist"; telling an anecdote about having "cockpecked [Dr. Stock] into an opinion of Wordsworth's merit as a Poet" and hearing complaints the following day from Charles Danvers about his conduct; writing of Danvers and Stock; saying that he was very pleased with John Morgan, and reflecting on the impression Southey had made on him years earlier; writing at length of Morgan's intelligence and personality; saying that he has been spending time with Joseph Cottle, who had explained some past misunderstandings; adding that when Cottle's work "Cambria, or the Conquest of Edward I" is published, he would like to write a "gratifying Review" of it; praising various aspects of the poem; writing of himself "If I can but get about again, my mind was never more active nor more inclined to steady work. Indeed, I daily do more than I ought to do"; asking for advice about studying Portuguese and Spanish, including recommendations for dictionaries; asking about Southey's progress on his history of Brazil and saying that he was alarmed to see an advertisement bearing the name of a man who had access to the same materials as Southey; mentioning that he has read Thomas Clarkson's History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament and commenting on its style and contents; mentioning the idea of emigrating and asking whether Southey and his wife could "endure to spend 5 or 10 years in Rio de Janeiro? I have a notion, that is a divine Country, in point of Climate & Landscape"; admonishing Sara Coleridge for not taking "the possible Deterioration of Dervy's [Derwent] dear Eyes" seriously and describing his qualms about using belladonna to treat it; asking whether it is too late for him to send a philological or theological article in for the Annual Review; adding in a postcript comments about German prepositional compounds.