“Your letter gave me the first detail of the great
news. A passage of four days made it as fresh as possible, and we are here
cursing winds and water
| 132 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
“Decidedly as my own principles lead to toleration, I yet think in the sufferance of converts and proselytism it has been carried too far. You might as well let a fire burn or a pestilence spread, as suffer the propagation of popery. I hate and abhor it from the bottom of my soul, and the only antidote is poison. Voltaire and such writers cut up the wheat with the tares. The monastic establishments in England ought to be dissolved; as for the priests, they will, for the most part, find their way into France; they who remain should not be suffered to recruit, and would soon die away in peace. I half fear a breach of the Union, perhaps another rebellion, in that wretched country.
“I do not purpose returning till the year of my
house-rent be complete, and shall then leave Lisbon with regret, in spite of
English-house comforts, and the all-in-all happiness of living among old
friends and familiar faces. This climate so completely changes my whole animal
being, that I would ex-
| Ætat. 26. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 133 |
“On my History no labour shall be spared. Now, I only heap marble: the edifice must be erected in England; but I must return again to the quarry. You will find my style plain and short, and of condensed meaning,—plain as a Doric building, and, I trust, of eternal durability. The notes will drain off all quaintness. I have no doubt of making a work by which I shall be honourably remembered. You shall see it, and Elmsly if he will take the trouble, before publication. Of profit I must not be sanguine; yet, if it attain the reputation of Robertson, than whom it will not be worse, or of Roscoe and Gibbon, it will procure me something more substantial than fame. My price for Thalaba was, for 1000 copies, 115l., twelve copies being allowed me; the booksellers would have bargained for a quarto edition also, but it would have been ill-judged to have glutted the public.
“I expect, in the ensuing winter, to be ready with my
first volume: to hurry it would be injudicious, and. historic labour will be
relieved by employing myself in correcting Madoc. My intention is therefore to journey
through North Wales next summer to the Lakes, where Coleridge is settled, and to pass the autumn (their summer)
there. For a Welsh map of the roads, and what is to be seen, you must be my
director; perhaps, too, you might in another way assist Madoc, by pointing out what manners or
| 134 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 26. |
“Thalaba is now a whole and unembarrassed story; the introduction of Laila is not an episode, it is so connected with the murder of Hodeirah and the after actions of Thalaba, as to be essentially part of the tale. Thalaba has certainly and inevitably the fault of Samson Agonistes,—its parts might change place; but, in a romance, epic laws may be dispensed with; its faults now are verbal: such as it is, I know no poem which can claim a place between it and the Orlando. Let it be weighed with the Oberon; perhaps, were I to speak out, I should not dread a trial with Ariosto. My proportion of ore to dross is greater: perhaps the Anti-Jacobin criticasters may spare Thalaba; it is so utterly innocent of all good drift; it may pass through the world like Richard Cromwell, notwithstanding the sweet savour of his father’s name. Do you know that they have caricatured me between Fox and Norfolk—worshipping Bonaparte? Poor me—at Lisbon—who have certainly molested nothing but Portuguese spiders! Amen! I am only afraid my company will be ashamed of me; one at least,—he is too good for me; and, upon my soul, I think myself too good for the other.
| Ætat. 26. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 135 |
“The Spanish ambassador trundled off for Madrid this morning—he is a bad imitation of a hogshead in make: all is alarm here; and I sweat in dreadfully cold weather for my books, creditors, alas for many a six-and-thirty! We have two allies, more faithful than Austria the honest or Paul the magnanimous,—famine and the yellow fever; but the American gentleman is asleep till summer, and, as for famine, she is as busy in England as here. I rejoice in the eventual effects of scarcity—the cultivation of the wastes; the population bills you probably know to be Rickman’s, for which he has long been soliciting Rose, and the management is his of course and compliment. It is of important utility.
“Of the red wines I spoke in my last. Will you have Bucellas as it can be got? It should be kept rather in a garret than a cellar, a place dry and warm; but ample directions shall be sent with it. You may, perhaps, get old now, when so just an alarm prevails; new is better than none, because it will improve even in ideal value, should Portugal be closed to England; its price will little, if at all, differ from Port or Lisbon; it is your vile taxes that make the expense; and, by the by, I must vent a monstrous oath against the duty upon foreign books. Sixpence per pound weight if bound; it is abominable!
