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National Library of Wales, MS 4813D. ALS; 3p. . Previously published: John Wood Warter (ed.), Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, 4 vols (London, 1856), III, pp. 246–247.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Ian Packer and Lynda Pratt
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Southey's spelling has not been regularized.
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The inclosed refuses an Invitation to dine on the 3d May with the Lit: Fund:
Soc. For the good reason that I intend to dine in Cumberland on that day; – & a request to write verses for the
said dinner, for the equally good reason that I am too busy, & have no talent for occasional poetry.
Another reason not less decisive might have been added, if I had not borne in mind that the least
which is said is the soonest mended, – a maxim which I impress upon my children when they hurt themselves in
infancy, as a charm to stop them crying. That reason is that I if I write Satire, there are few subjects
on which I would lay <on> the Lash with so much severity as this worshipful Society which while it lauds
itself as a Joint Stock Company of Patronage, does in fact nothing more than relieve literary pauperism by
donations of five & of ten pounds, – which just serves to purchase a reprieve from the spunging house, or the
parish,
I could say much more upon this subject, & upon the sort of Society which would really be
beneficial to Literature & to the community. Whatever Dr Johnson may have said, the
Booksellers are not the best patrons of literature.must
consider solely what is likely to sell, not what deserves to be printed. The scheme for an Academy
How much depends upon Austria