Letter from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Bristol, to John Thelwall, 1796 November 19 : autograph manuscript signed.

Sympathizing with Thelwall: "Ah me! literary Adventure is but bread and cheese by chance!"; describing in detail a scheme whereby "Lovers of Freedom" would be able to purchase books they were interested in through Thelwall; asking whether Thelwall has any connections with the Corresponding Society and saying that Robert Southey is one of its benefactors: "Of course, you have read the Joan of Arc [Southey's poem of that name]. Homer is the Poet for the Warrior - Milton for the Religionist - Tasso for Women - Robert Southey for the Patriot;" praising Joan of Arc and remarking "But you, & I, my dear Thelwall! hold different creeds in poetry as well as religion. N'importe;" saying that now he has all of Thelwall's published works except his essay on animal vitality and "your poems which I bought on their first publication, & lost them;" quoting two lines from a poem by Thelwall that he particularly liked and praising the larger narrative as "admirably written - & displays strong Sense animated by Feeling, & illumined by Imagination;" mentioning that two poems of his have appeared in the Monthly Magazine under his name ("indeed, I make it a scruple of conscience never to publish any thing, however trifling, without it"); telling him that "[William Lisle] Bowles (the bard of idolatry) has written a poem lately without plan or meaning - but the component parts are divine. It is entitled - Hope, an allegorical Sketch. I will copy two of the Stanzas, which must be peculiarly interesting to you, virtuous High-Treasonist, & your friends, the other Acquitted Felons!"; including two stanzas from the poem that describe imprisonment and release; saying that Thelwall's portrait of himself interested him: "As to me, my face, unless when animated by immediate eloquence, expresses great Sloth, & great, indeed almost ideotic, good nature. 'Tis a mere carcase of a face : fat, flabby, & expressive chiefly of inexpression;" describing his face, his shape, and his manner of movement ("the Whole man indicates indolence capable of energies"); writing "I am, & ever have been, a great reader - & have read almost every thing - a library-cormorant;" describing what he has read and what he likes to read ("Accounts of all the strange phantasms that ever possessed your philosophy-dreamers"); mentioning his other interests (chemistry, horticulture, farming); continuing "I cannot breathe thro' my nose - so my mouth, with sensual thick lips, is almost always open. In conversation I am impassioned, and oppose what I deem [error] with an eagerness, which is often mistaken for personal asperity - but I am ever so swallowed up in the thing, that I perfectly forget my opponent;" mentioning that he has just received all twelve volumes of C.F. Dupuis's Origine de tous les Cultes, ou Religion universelle and he plans to read one octavo a week, as he reads French slowly; saying that his wife Sara is well and asks to be remembered to Thelwall's wife and children: commenting on Mrs. Thelwall's name: "N.B. Stella (among the Romans) was a Man's name. All the Classics are against you ; but our [Jonathan] Swift, I suppose, is authority for this unsexing;" writing "My little David Hartley Coleridge is marvellously well, & grows fast. - I was at Birmingham when he was born - I returned immediately on receiving the unexpected news (for my Sara had strangely miscalculated) & in the Coach wrote the following Sonnet;" including the sonnet, which begins "Oft of some Unknown Past such fancies roll;" adding an alternate version of the first five lines and asking "[w]hich do you like best?"; including another sonnet about Hartley's birth, which begins "Charles! my slow Heart was only sad, when first / I scann'd that face of feeble Infancy;" saying in a postscript that he has enclosed a five guinea note and including a list of books he would like from the catalogs of various London booksellers; asking whether Thelwall could send the books down with his pamphlets; including and explaining a pun that employs Greek; writing "My dear fellow! I laugh more, & talk more nonsense in a week, than [mo]st other people do in a year;" asking him to confirm that he has received the five pound note.