The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to Neville White, 10 October 1809
“Keswick, October 10. 1809.
“Thank you for the books; they arrived yesterday, and
I have gone through about three-fourths of Dr.
Collyer’s lectures. I have more respect for the
Independents than for any other body of Christians, the Quakers excepted. . . .
. Their English history is without a blot. Their American has, unhappily, some
bloody ones, which you will see noticed in the next number of the Quarterly, if
my reviewal of Holmes’s American Annals should appear there in an
unmutilated state. Dr. Collyer’s is, certainly, an
able book; yet he is better calculated to produce effect from the pulpit than
in the study. Those parts of his Lectures which are most ornamental ![]()
| Ætat. 35. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 257 |
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and, doubtless, the most popular in delivery, are
usually extraneous to the main subject in hand. All his congregations would
fairly say ‘What a fine discourse!’ to every sermon; but, when the
whole are read collectively, they do not exhibit that clear and connected view
of prophecy which is what he should have aimed at. There is, perhaps, hardly
any subject which requires so much erudition, and so constant an exertion of
sound judgment. The Doctor’s learning is not extensive; he quotes from
books of little authority, and never refers to those which are of most
importance. Indeed, he does not appear to know what the Germans have done in
Biblical criticism.
“. . . . . It has occurred to me that it would add to
the interest of the Remains, if the name under the portrait were made a fac-simile of
Henry’s handwriting. Since I
wrote to you, I fell in with Dr. Milner,
the Dean of Carlisle, who talked to me about Henry; how
little he had known of him, and how much he regretted that he should not have
known him more. I told him what you were doing with James, expressing a hope that he might find friends at
Cambridge, for his brother’s sake as well as his own, which he thought
would certainly be the case. . . . .
“We thank you for Miss
Smith’s book, a very, very interesting one. There are better translations
of some of Klopstock’s odes in the
Monthly Magazine, where, also,
is to be found a full account of the Messiah, with extracts translated by my very able ![]()
| 258 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 35. |
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and excellent friend, William Taylor, of Norwich. Coleridge and Wordsworth
visited Klopstock in the year 1797: he wore a great wig.
Klopstock in a wig, they said, was something like
Mr. Milton.
His Life will always retain its interest; his fame as a poet will not be
lasting. . . . . In Germany, his day of reputation is already passing away.
There is no other country where the principle of criticism is so well
understood. But one loves Klopstock as well as if he had
been really the poet that his admirers believe him to be; and his wife was as
much an angel as she could be while on earth. . . . .
“God bless you!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)
English poet and philosopher who projected
Lyrical Ballads (1798)
with William Wordsworth; author of
Biographia Literaria (1817),
On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other
works.
William Bengo Collyer (1782-1854)
Congregational minister at the Hanover Chapel and author of sermons and tracts.
Abiel Holmes (1763-1837)
Congregationalist minister, the father of Oliver Wendell Holmes; he published
American Annals (1805).
Isaac Milner (1750-1820)
He was professor of natural philosophy at Cambridge (1783-92), FRS, president of Queen's
College (1788-1820), dean of Carlisle (1791), vice-chancellor (1792, 1809) and a friend of
William Wilberforce.
John Milton (1608-1674)
English poet and controversialist; author of
Comus (1634),
Lycidas (1638),
Areopagitica (1644),
Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.
Elizabeth Smith (1776-1806)
The daughter of George Smith; she was a poet and polymath whose piety and evangelical
connections carried her posthumous volume, edited by her friend Harriet Bowdler, through
many editions.
William Taylor of Norwich (1765-1836)
Translator, poet, and essayist; he was a pupil of Anna Letitia Barbauld and correspondent
of Robert Southey who contributed to the
Monthly Magazine, the
Monthly Review, the
Critical Review, and
other periodicals.
Henry Kirke White (1785-1806)
Originally a stocking-weaver; trained for the law at Cambridge where he was a
contemporary of Byron; after his early death his poetical
Remains
were edited by Robert Southey (2 vols, 1807) with a biography that made the poet
famous.
James White (1793 c.-1885)
The younger brother of Henry Kirke White; educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, he was
curate of St George's Manchester (1826-42), rector of Stalham, Norfolk (1846-52) and Sloley
Norfolk (1852-85).
John Neville White (1785 c.-1845)
The elder brother of Henry Kirke White; after working in medicine he was educated at
Peterhouse College, Cambridge, and was rector of Rushall (1828) and Tivetshall in Norfolk
(1832-45). The rumor that he died a suicide was denied in the
Gentleman's
Magazine.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
The Monthly Magazine. (1796-1843). The original editor of this liberal-leaning periodical was John Aikin (1747-1822); later
editors included Sir Richard Phillips (1767-1840), the poet John Abraham Heraud
(1779-1887), and Benson Earle Hill (1795-45).
