MY dear Sir—I have read quite through the ponderous
folio of G. F. I think
Sewell has been judicious in
omitting certain parts, as for instance where G.
F. has revealed to him the natures of
all the creatures in their names, as Adam had. He luckily turns aside from that
compendious study of natural history, which might have superseded Buffon, to his proper spiritual pursuits, only
just hinting what a philosopher he might have been. The ominous passage is near
the beginning of the Book. It is clear he means a physical knowledge, without
trope or figure. Also, pretences to miraculous healing and the like are more
frequent than I should have suspected from the epitome in
Sewell. He is nevertheless a great spiritual man, and
I feel very much obliged by your procuring me the Loan of it. How I like the
Quaker phrases—though I think they were hardly completed till Woolman. A pretty little manual of Quaker
language (with an endeavour to explain them) might be gathered out of his Book.
Could not you do it? I have read through G. F. without
finding any explanation of the term first volume in the
title page. It takes in all, both his life and his death. Are there more Last
words of him? Pray, how may I venture to return it to Mr.
Shewell at Ipswich? I fear to send such a Treasure by a Stage
Coach. Not that I am afraid of the Coachman or the Guard reading it. But it might be lost. Can you put me in a way of sending
it in safety? The kind hearted owner trusted it to me for six months. I think I
was about as many days in getting through it, and I do not think that I skipt a
word of it. I have quoted G. F. in my Quaker’s meeting, as having said he
was “lifted up in spirit” (which I felt at the time to be not a
Quaker phrase), “and the Judge and Jury were as dead men under his
feet.” I find no such words in his Journal, and I did not get them from
Sewell, and the latter sentence I am sure I did not
mean to invent. I must have put some other Quaker’s words into his mouth.
Is it a fatality in me, that every thing I touch turns into a Lye? I once
quoted two Lines from a translation of Dante, which Hazlitt very
greatly admired, and quoted in a Book as proof of the stupendous power of that
poet, but no such lines are to be found in the translation, which has been
searched for the purpose. I must have dreamed them, for I am quite certain I
did not forge them knowingly. What a misfortune to have a Lying
| 1823 | SARA COLERIDGE | 599 |
