“I have behaved very ill in having so long delayed replying to a lady’s letter, and that letter, too, one which deserved a ready and a thankful acknowledgment. Forgive me. I am not wont to be thus discourteous; and in the present instance there is some excuse for it, for your letter arrived at a time of much anxiety. My wife had a three months’ illness after the birth of a son; and during that time it was as much as I could do to force my attention to business which could not be left undone. My heart was not enough at ease to be addressing you.
“The number of unknown correspondents whom I have had in my time does not lessen my desire of seeing you, nor abate that curiosity which men feel as strongly as women; except that they have not the same leisure for thinking of it. . . . .
“You tell me that the whole of your happiness is dependent upon literary pursuits and recreations. It is well that you have these resources; but were we near each other, and were I to like you half as well upon a nearer acquaintance, as it appears to me at this distance that I should do, I think that when I had won your confidence I should venture to tell you that something better than literature is necessary for happiness.
| Ætat. 45. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 345 |
“To confess the truth, one of the causes which have prevented me from writing to you earlier, has been the wish and half intention of touching upon this theme; checked by that sort of hesitation which sometimes, (and that too often) prevents us from doing what we ought for fear of singularity. That you are a woman of talents I know; and I think you would not have given me the preference over more fashionable poets, if there had not been something in the general character of my writings which accorded with your feelings, and which you did not find in theirs. But you have lived in high life; you move in circles of gaiety and fashion; and though you sympathise with me when I express myself in verse, it is more than probable that the direct mention of religion may startle you, as something unwarranted as well as unexpected.
“I am no Methodist, no sectarian, no bigot, no formalist. My natural spirits are buoyant beyond those of any person, man, woman, or child, whom I ever saw or heard of. They have had enough to try them and to sink them, and it is by religion alone that I shall be enabled to pass the remainder of my days In cheerfulness and in hope. Without hope there can be no happiness; and without religion no hope but such as deceives us. Your heart seems to want an object; and this would satisfy it: and if it has been wounded, this, and this only, is the cure.
“Are you displeased with this freedom? Or do you
receive it as a proof that I am disposed to become something more than a mere
literary ac-
| 346 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 45. |
“Scott is very ill. He suffers dreadfully; but bears his sufferings with admirable equanimity, and looks on to the probable termination of them with calmness and well-founded hope. God grant that he may recover! He is a noble and generous-hearted creature, whose like we shall not look upon again.”
