“Here’s a row! here’s a kick up! here’s a pretty commence! we have had a revolution in the College
* Bath, October 14. 1794. |
| Ætat. 20. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 223 |
“Well, Tom, here I am. My aunt has declared she will never see my face again, or open a letter of my writing.—So be it; I do my duty, and will continue to do it, be the consequences what they may. You are unpleasantly situated, so is my mother, so were we all till this grand scheme of Pantisocracy flashed upon our minds, and now all is perfectly delightful.
“Open war—declared hostilities! the children are to come here on Wednesday, and I meet them at the Long Coach on that evening. My aunt abuses poor Lovell most unmercifully, and attributes the whole scheme to him; you know it was concerted between Burnett and me. But of all the whole catalogue of enormities, nothing enrages my aunt so much, as my intended marriage with Mrs. Lovell’s sister Edith; this will hardly take place till we arrive in America; it rouses all the whole army of prejudices in my aunt’s breast. Pride leads the fiery host, and a pretty kick up they must make there.
| 224 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 20. |
“I expect some money in a few days, and then you shall not want; yet, as this is not quite certain, I cannot authorise you to draw on me. Lovell is in London, he will return on Tuesday or Wednesday, and I hope will bring with him some ten or twenty pounds; he will likewise examine the wills at Doctors’ Commons, and see what is to be done in the reversion way.—Every thing is in the fairest train. Favell and Le Grice, two young Pantisocrats of nineteen, join us; they possess great genius and energy. I have seen neither of them, yet correspond with both. You may, perhaps, like this sonnet on the subject of our emigration, by Favell:—
No more my visionary soul shall dwell On joys that were; no more endure to weigh The shame and anguish of the evil day. Wisely forgetful! O’er the ocean swell, Sublime of Hope, I seek the cottag’d dell Where Virtue calm with careless step may stray, And, dancing to the moonlight roundelay, The wizard passion wears a holy spell. Eyes that have ach’d with anguish! ye shall weep Tears of doubt-mingled joy, as those who start From precipices of distemper’d sleep, On which the fierce-ey’d fiends their revels keep, And see the rising sun, and feel it dart New rays of pleasure trembling to the heart. |
“This is a very beautiful piece of poetry; and we may form a very fair opinion of Favell from it. Scott, a brother of your acquaintance, goes with us. So much for news relative to our private politics.
“This is the age of revolutions, and a huge one we have
had on the College Green. Poor Shadrack
is left there, in the burning fiery furnace of her displeasure, and a prime hot
birth has he got of it; he saw me depart with
astonishment.—‘Why, Sir, you
| Ætat. 20. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 225 |
“We are all well, and all eager to depart. March will soon arrive, and I hope you will be with us before that time.
“Why should the man who acts from conviction of rectitude grieve because the prejudiced are offended? For me, I am fully possessed by the great cause to which I have devoted myself; my conduct has been open, sincere, and just; and though the world were to scorn and neglect me, I should bear their contempt with calmness.
