“It is, between ourselves, a matter of surprise to me that this bodily machine of mine should have continued its operations with so few derangements, knowing, as I well do, its excessive susceptibility to many deranging causes. The nitrous oxyde approaches nearer to the notion of a neurometer than anything which perhaps could be devised; and I was acted upon by a far smaller dose than any person upon whom it had ever been tried, when I was in the habit of taking it. If I did not vary my pursuits and carry on many works of a totally different kind at once, I should soon be incapable of proceeding with any, so surely does it disturb my sleep and affect my dreams if I dwell upon one with any continuous attention. The truth is, that though some persons, whose knowledge of me is scarcely skin-deep, suppose I have no nerves, because I have great self-
| 328 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 45. |
“Thank God I am well at present, and well employed: Brazil and Wesley both at the press; a paper for the Quarterly Review in hand, and Oliver Newman now seriously resumed; while for light reading I am going through South’s Sermons and the whole British and Irish part of the Acta Sanctorum.
“In the MSS. of Wesley, which passed through Gifford’s hands while you were absent, there was a chapter which I wished you to have seen, because both in matter and manner it is among the best things I have written. It contained a view of our religious history down to the accession of the present family; not the facts but the spirit of the history. You will be pleased to see how I have relieved and diversified this book, which will be as elaborate as a Dutchman’s work and as entertaining as a Frenchman’s.
“I want now to provide against that inability which may
any day or any moment overtake me. You are not mistaken in thinking that the
last three years have considerably changed me; the outside remains pretty much
the same, but it is far otherwise within. If hitherto the day has been
sufficient for the labour, as well as the labour for the day, I now feel that
it cannot always, and possibly may not
| Ætat. 45. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 329 |
“God bless you!
