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Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Previously published: Kenneth Curry (ed.), New Letters of Robert Southey, 2 vols (London and New York, 1965), II, pp. 97–98 [dated April 1814]; Joseph Cottle, Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey (London, 1847), pp. 373–375 [in part; dated April 1814].Dating note: though endorsed by Cottle as ‘Ap 14 1814’ this letter contains Southey’s response to Cottle’s letter of 27 April 1814.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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Southey’s spelling has not been regularized.
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You may imagine with what feelings I have read your correspondence with C.
xx while acknowledging the guilt of the habit, he
imputes it still to morbid bodily causes, whereas after every possible allowance is made for these, every person who has witnessed his
habits, knows that for the greater & infinitely the greater part, – inclination & indulgence are the motives. Xx It
seems dreadful to say this with his expressions before me, but it is so & I know it to be so, from my own observations & that
of all who with whom he has lived. The Morgansdid break him of the habit, at a time when his
ordinary consumption of laudanum was from two quarts a week to a pint a day. He suffered dreadfully during the xxx first
abstinence so much so as to say it was better to die than to endure his present feelings. Mrs Morgan resolutely replied it was indeed better that he should die, than that he should continue to live as he had been
living. It angered him at the time, but the effort was persevered in. To what then was the relapse owing? I believe to this cause, –
that no use was made of recovered health & spirits, – that time past on in idleness, till the lapse of time brought with it a sense
of neglected duties, & then xxxx relief was again sought for a self accusing mind, in bodily feelings which when the
stimulus ceased to act, added only to the load of self accusation. This Cottle is
an insanity of that species which none but the Souls physician can cure. Unquestionably restraint would do for him as much as it did
when the Morgans tried it, but I do not see the slightest reason for thinking it would be more permanent. – This too I ought to say,
that all the medical men to whom C. has made his confession, have
uniformly ascribed the evil not to bodily ailments, but to indulgence.
The restraint which would effectually cure him is that which no person can impose upon him. Could he be compelled to a
certain quantity of labour for his family every day, – the pleasure of having done it would make his heart glad, & the sane mind
would make the body sane. I see nothing so advisable for him as that he should come here. My advice would be that he should go
to <visit> Poole for two or three weeks to freshen himself, &
recover spirits, which new scenes never fail to give him. While there he may consult his friends at Birmingham & Liverpool on the
fitness of lecturing at those places, at each of which he has friends, & would I should think beyond all doubt, be succesful. He
must be very unfortunate if he did not raise from 50 to 100£ at the two! But whether he can do this or not, here it is that he ought to
be. He knows in what manner he will be received – by his children with joy, – by his
wife, not with tears if she can controul them, – certainly not with reproaches, – by me only with encouragements. He has
sources of direct emolument open to him in the Courier,xxxx supporting Hartley at College. Three months pleasurable exertion would effect this. Of some
such fit <of> industry I by no means despair. Of any thing more than fits I am afraid I do. But this of
course I shall never say to him; – from me he shall never hear any thing but chearful encouragement, & the language of hope.
You ask me if you did wrong in writing to him such a letter. A man with your feelings & principles my dear Cottle never does wrong. There are parts which I should <would>
have <been> expunged had I been at your elbow, – but in all & every part it is strictly applicable.
I hope your next will tell me that he is going to Stowey. Edith desires her kindest love to you & her sisters.