The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John Rickman, 15 January 1806
“Before I speak of myself, let me say something upon a
more important subject. Nature has given offensive
armour for two reasons; in the first place, it is defensive because it serves
to intimidate; a better reason is, that claws and teeth are the tools with
which animals must get their living; and that the general system of one
creature eating another is a benevolent one, needs little proof; there must be
death, and what can be wiser than to make death subservient to life. As for a
state of nature, the phrase, as applied to man, is stark naked nonsense. Savage
man is a degenerated animal. My own belief is, that the present human race is
not much more than six thousand years old, according to the concurrent
testimony of all rational history. The Indian records are good for nothing. But
add as many millenniums as you will, the question, ‘How came they here at
first?’ still occurs. The infinite series is an infinite absurdity; and
to suppose them growing like mushrooms or maggots in mud, is as bad. Man must
have been made here, or placed here with
* J. R. to
R. S., Jan. 9. 1806. |
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| Ætat. 32. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 17 |
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sufficient powers, bodily and mental, for his own
support. I think the most reasonable opinion is, that the first men had a
knowledge of language and of religion; in short, that the accounts of a golden
or patriarchal age are, in their foundation, true. How soon the civilised being
degenerates under unfavourable circumstances, has been enough proved by
history. Freewill, God, and final retribution solve all difficulties. That
Deity cannot be understood, is a stupid objection; without one we can
understand nothing. I cannot put down my thoughts methodically without much
revision and re-arrangement; but you may see what I would be at; it is no
difficult matter to harpoon the Leviathan, and wound him mortally. . . . . You
may account by other means for the spread of the Mexican religion than by the
love of blood. Man is by nature a religious animal; and if the elements of
religion were not innate in him, as I am convinced they are, sickness would
make him so. You will find that all savages connect superstition with
disease,—some cause, which they can neither comprehend nor control,
affects them painfully, and the remedy always is to appease an offended Spirit,
or drive away a malignant one. Even in enlightened societies, you will find
that men more readily believe what they fear than what
they hope: . . . . religions, therefore, which impose privations and
self-torture have always been more popular than any other. How many of our
boys’ amusements consist in bearing pain?—grown children like to do the
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| 18 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 32. |
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same from a different motive. You will more easily
persuade a man to wear hair-cloth drawers, to flog himself, or swing upon a
hook, than to conform to the plain rules of morality and common sense. I shall
have occasion to look into this subject when writing of the spirit of
Catholicism, which furnishes as good an illustration as the practices of the
Hindoos. Here, in England, Calvinism is the popular faith. . . . . Beyond all
doubt, the religion of the Mexicans is the most diabolical that has ever
existed. It is not, however, by any means, so mischievous as the Brahminical
system of caste, which, wherever it exists, has put a total stop to the
amelioration of society. The Mexicans were rapidly advancing. Were you more at
leisure, I should urge you to bestow a week’s study upon the Spanish
language, for the sake of the mass of information contained in their travellers
and historians. . . . .
“God bless you!
John Rickman (1771-1840)
Educated at Magdalen Hall and Lincoln College, Oxford, he was statistician and clerk to
the House of Commons and an early friend of Charles Lamb and Robert Southey.
