Dr. Brabant was an English physician in Devizes who also had an interest in German Higher Criticism. Coleridge was a patient of Dr. Brabant during the years he lived in Calne.
This collection, MA 1854, is comprised of ten autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to R.H. Brabant, written from March 10, 1815 through December 5, 1816. It also includes 4 pages of autograph notes and one fragment of an autograph letter signed to Brabant. The fragment is written from Calne but is undated.
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 individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel to "R. Brabant, Esq're / Surgeon / Devizes."
Acknowledging receipt of his "angry letter" and explaining, at length and in detail, a tract he is working on for Gale & Fenner, "...on the present Distresses in the form of a Lay sermon...My only fault was that thinking too much of what I had often done & too little of my then strength, I suffered it to be advertised. Then began the Spell. The stimulant was aggravated into a narcotic - I labored from morning to night, & found myself writing a Volume not a Tract of a single sheet - I erased - and having worked from 9 to 5 on the one day, I sate up the whole night, & continued writing & erasing - The consequence was almost immediate - and soon found that I had to deal with persons incapable of understanding the circumstances....A few days came in the fulfilment of what I had indeed long anticipated but yet in that mood of nerves & thought was not the more prepared for the Blow - Spite of your unkind Letter I cannot but write to you as a Friend - in one word therefore, and to your own eye alone, I mean, the Morgans' Circumstances - the man, who was their Agent, or Employé, was (as it was scarce possible to be otherwise) a sort of rascal - in my opinion, as rascals go, a venial one - and on me, unable to support myself, & the object of the cruellest calumnies which however I deserved from the mental cowardice that has ever made me the Slave of the present Distress before my eyes, on me alone to any effective purpose poor M. hung - but the detail is not for a Letter;" relating the serious illness of Martha Coleridge at Keswick and his visit to her; adding "This was my last effort - on my return to Highgate I sank into compleat outward nothingness. I could think, as before - my inward mind seemed the same - but even to take a pen in my hand, nay, the Post Man's Knock, brought the big Drops not only on my forehead, but all over my Head & Chest - & I longed for Death with an intensity that I have never seen exprest but in the Book of Job - I can write no more. If I was to live, an absolute seclusion became necessary - I left Highgate and am now in a small Cottage at the Sea-shore - but I shall move as soon as I have strength & can command resources enough to procure a Horse - & mean to spend a month in travelling about 10-15 miles a day. I attempted to dictate a something that is coming out; what you will think of it, I cannot conjecture : for I was not able even to look over the copy - It is to be entitled, the Bible considered as containing the Elements of political Wisdom & Foresight. Of the confluent distresses that have rushed in upon me I have here mentioned the most predominant only - the immediate causes - there have been many more -. O Brabant! indeed, indeed, you ought not to have suspected my heart. If I had had less, I could very easily have appeared to have had more - & what motive, in the name of God! could you imagine acting to turn me into a Hypocrite? But it is not in my nature to feel resentment - Grief swallows it up, when the Indifference of Sickness & Despondency does not preclude it. I must particularly request you not to mention to any one my Address - I shall not be here, I hope, above a week - unless I should be, as I still fervently wish, here under ground.- What I ever ever have thought, & felt, respecting you & your's, I have never ceased to think & feel;" adding, in a postscript, "Mr. Gillman came down with me, & Mrs. G. - against my will : for it is no medical Skill that can restore me."