“. . . . . The study of the Fathers opens so wide a field, that I, who have long cast a longing eye thitherward, have been afraid to enter it, because it was too late in the day for me; and yet few men can be prepared in mind and inclination for such pursuits early enough to go through with them. Routh, I suppose, has published most of what your friend recommends to you. It is in the early Fathers that you will find least admixture of other than theological matter; their successors offer a mine which has been very imperfectly worked as yet of historical materials; that is, for the history of manners and opinions. Let nothing of this kind escape you. I not unfre-
* To Henry Taylor, Esq., Oct. 23. 1831. |
| Ætat. 57. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 165 |
“In a note of Isaac Reed’s to Dodsley’s Old Plays, he quotes a MS. from ‘a chest of papers formerly belonging to Mr. Powell (Milton’s father-in-law), and then existing at Forest Hill, about four miles from Oxford, where, he says, in all probability, some curiosities of the same kind may remain, the contents of these chests (for I think there are more than one) having never yet been properly examined.’ This note was written fifty years ago, and most likely the papers have now disappeared; but it may be worth while to inquire about them, for the bare possibility of discovering some treasures.
“I am, I hope, settled to my winter’s work, heartily glad to be so, though with darker prospects than at any former time. But I am in good hopes, and trust that, though we are under the worst Ministry that ever misconducted the affairs of a great nation. Providence will preserve us. Even if they succeed in bringing upon themselves the destruction which they deserve, you will live to see a restoration of the Monarchy and the Episcopal church.
“God bless you!
