Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Keswick, to William Godwin, 1800 September 22 : autograph manuscript signed.

Saying that he received his letter and the £10 note, and promising to pay him back on the first of October; writing in detail of his feelings about the news that Godwin's play Antonio would be performed at Christmas; wishing him success; confirming what Godwin had learned from Charles Lamb about theatrical efforts by himself and Wordsworth: "Mr [Richard Brinsley] Sheridan sent thro' the medium of Stewart [Daniel Stuart] a request to Wordsworth to present a Tragedy to his stage, & to me a declaration that the failure of my piece was owing to my obstinacy in refusing any alteration. I laughed & Wordsworth smiled ; but my Tragedy will remain at Keswick, and Wordsworth's is not likely to emigrate from Grasmere;" discussing the problems with the two plays; saying that Godwin's feelings about baptism are similar to his own; adding that in one mood, he finds himself in favor of baptism: "But then another fit of moody philosophy attacks me - I look at my doted-on Hartley - he moves, he lives, he finds impulses from within & without - he is the darling of the Sun and of the Breeze! [...] Solemn Looks & solemn Words have been hitherto connected in his mind with great & magnificent objects only - with lightning, with thunder, with the waterfall blazing in the Sunset - / - then I say, Shall I suffer the Toad of Priesthood to spurt out his foul juice in this Babe's Face? Shall I suffer him to see grave countenances & hear grave accents, while his face is sprinkled, & while the fat paw of a Parson crosses his Forehead? - Shall I be grave myself, & tell a lie to him? Or shall I laugh, and teach him to insult the feelings of his fellow-men? Besides, are we not all in this present hour fainting beneath the duty of Hope? From such thoughts I start up, & vow a book of severe analysis, in which I will tell all I believe to be Truth in the nakedest Language in which it can be told;" saying that Sara has recovered from childbirth and inviting Godwin to come visit them; adding that he urges this because he has been thinking in depth about issues Godwin has written on in the past and he hopes that, much as he wishes that his play will be successful, Godwin will not "cease to appear as a bold moral thinker. I wish you to write a book on the power of words, and the processes by which human feelings form affinities with them - in short, I wish you to philosophize [John] Horn Tooke's System, and to solve the great Questions - whether there be reason to hold, that an action bearing all the semblance of a pre-designing Consciousness may yet be simply organic, & whether a series of such actions are possible - and close on the heels of this question would follow the old 'Is Logic the Essence of Thinking?' in other words - Is thinking impossible without arbitrary signs [...] In something of this order I would endeavor to destroy the old antithesis of Words & Things, elevating, as it were, words into Things, & living Things too;" adding "If what I have here written appear nonsense to you, or commonplace thoughts in a harlequinade of outré expressions, suspend your judgement till we see each other;" mentioning in a postscript that his translation of Wallenstein has been published and "[Thomas Norton] Longman sent me down half a dozen - the carriage back the book was not worth -."