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Berg Collection, New York Public Library. ALS; 3p. . Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
All quotation marks and apostrophes have been changed: " for “," for ”, ' for ‘, and ' for ’.
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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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Ever since I heard of your affliction
I had been married six years before I had a child. At
the age of twelve months that child, who had till then been as beautiful, & in all respects as promising a creature as a parents
heart could desire, was taken from me by the same dreadful & hopeless diseasewhom I had – a boy too
whose equal could hardly have been found, upon whom I had bestowed five years of careful instruction, & whose attainments were as
much the wonder of all who knew him, as his disposition & manners & genius & happy nature were their delight. I
had been his playfellow as well as his teacher: he was the constant companion of my walks. When absent from home I was never so
chearfully employed as in writing to him, never so happily as when devising means for his present gratification or future advantage. My
hopes were centered in him. I saw in him all that was good in myself. I thought it would be possible to prove in his person what might
be done with the most promising nature by <under> the most favourable circumstances by the most diligent cultivation. The
proudest & dearest thought of my heart was that I should have a son to succeed me, who would take up the pursuits which I should
leave unfinished, & start from the point at which my career had ended: —a son who loved me with his whole heart & soul &
strength, – as I loved him, & <for I> almost lived in his existence. If any grief could have killed me it would have
been this deprivation: & had it not been for the sake of those whose well being depends upon my life, I should at that time
earnestly have desired & prayed for death.
But in the freshness of that grief, as of those which preceded it, I felt the uses of affliction, & by God’s
blessing I continue to feel them. Gibbonxxxxx of
piety which no sophistry could shake, & very xx soon took refuge from xxxx infidelity in the creed of the
Socinians.xxxx
perceived their error, nor have understood how much more than they teach is necessary for the heart & soul of man, if God had not
chastened me by these severe but merciful dispensations. I sought for consolation in religion, — & more than consolation was given
me: — strength & hope & assurance, —the peace which passeth all understanding,
What the state of your mind may have been upon the most important of all subjects I know not. Perhaps you have been too
much in the world & of it, to think seriously of that which is to come. Perhaps you have
not wholly escaped (for who can?) from those “sturdy doubts & boisterous objections” which Sir Thomas Brown tells us he used to
“conquer, not in a martial position, but upon his knees.”xx at a time xx when you must inevitably feel the unspeakable value of a firm & lively
faith.
Among the many evils which are done by canting & trading professors of religion, it is not the least that they make
us keep our best & wisest & holiest feelings to ourselves, lest we should be thought to resemble them. Under an apprehension of
this kind I have sometimes been silent, when my heart would have led me to speak, & when perhaps the hearts of others have been
open. I could hardly xx say to you what I have here written. Philosophy may teach us to bear affliction
bravely, —but religion converts afflictions into blessings. When we attain the middle stage of life years pass away more rapidly then
weeks in youth. The separations which death makes are only for a season, & it is no light benefit that they bind our feelings to
our faith; — that they make us regard the termination of our mortal existence, not with distrust & unwillingness, but with hope
& with desire. This is my state of mind, & I am thankful for the afflictions which have brought me to it. May yours be blest
& sanctified as mine have been.