Coleridge gives only "Saturday Morning" for the date of writing. The letter is postmarked "October 16, 1797" (a Monday) and the Saturday immediately preceding it fell on the 14th. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
No place of writing is given, though the letter has a "Bridgewater" postmark. Based on the contents and Coleridge's movements during this period, it was most likely written in Nether Stowey.
The year "1797" has been added at the start of the letter in red ink in an unknown hand.
This collection, MA 77, is comprised of fifteen letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to John Thelwall, one letter from Coleridge to Susannah (called "Stella") Thelwall, two letters from John Thelwall to Susannah Thelwall, one letter from Peter Crompton to John Thelwall, and one incomplete draft of an article on the death of Queen Charlotte. The letters were written from 1796 to 1803, and the draft may have been written in 1818.
Address panel with postmarks: "Mr John Thelwall / Derby."
Saying that he wishes he could help Thelwall, "but alas! I have neither money or influence - & I suppose, that at last I must become a Unitarian minister as a less evil than starvation - - for I get nothing by literature - & Sara is in the way of repairing the ravages of war, as much as in her lies;" responding to Thelwall's letter: "I can at times feel strongly the beauties, you describe, in themselves, & for themselves - but more frequently all things appear little - all the knowledge, that can be acquired, child's play;" saying that he yearns to "behold & know something great - something one & indivisible - and it is only in the faith of this that rocks or waterfalls, mountains or caverns give me the sense of sublimity or majesty! - But in this faith all things counterfeit infinity!"; quoting seven lines from "This Lime-tree Bower my Prison;" writing further: "It is but seldom that I raise & spiritualize my intellect to this height - & at other times I adopt the Brahman Creed, & say - It is better to sit than to stand, it is better to lie than to sit, it is better to sleep than to wake - but Death is the best of all! - I should much wish, like the Indian Vishna, to float about along an infinite ocean cradled in the flower of the Lotos, & wake once in a million years for a few minutes - just to know that I was going to sleep a million years more;" saying that he has included similiar sentiments in his tragedy Osorio and quoting a soliloquy spoken by the character Alhadra; praising and critiquing Thelwall's poetry; sending him suggestions about lines to change or improve: "A little compression would make it a beautiful poem! Study compression!"; referring to an article in the Courier on the conduct of the Directory; commenting on the news of Elizabeth Evans's marriage and his decision not to settle in Darley; mentioning that Hartley is well, "& will not walk or run, having discovered the art of crawling with wonderful ease & rapidity!"; sending news of the Wordsworths; writing "I want to see your Wife! - God bless her!"; saying that his tragedy Osorio is finished, transcribed and ready to be sent off, "but I have no hopes of it's success - or even of it's being acted."