“. . . . . You cannot hold the Bullion Question in
greater abhorrence than I do. It is the worst plague that ever came out of
Pandora’s Scotch mull. I cannot but think that Government is altogether
wrong in abolishing small notes; they should allow of none
| 244 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 51. |
“Do you remember my buying a Dutch grammar in the
‘cool May’ of 1799, and how we were amused at Brixton with the
Dutch grammarian who pitied himself, and loved his good and rich brother? That
grammar is in use now; and Cuthbert and
I have begun upon Jacob Cats; who in
spite of his name, and of the ill-looking and not-much-better-sounding language
in which he wrote, I verily believe to have been the most useful poet that any
country ever produced. In Bilderdijk’s youth, Jacob Cats was
to be found in every respectable house throughout Holland, lying beside the
hall Bible. One of his longer poems, which describes the course of female life,
and female duties, from childhood to the grave, was in such estimation, that an
ornamented edition of it was printed solely for bridal presents. He is, in the
best sense of the word, a domestic poet; intelligible to the humblest of his
readers, while the dexterity and felicity of his diction make him the
admiration of those who are best able to appreciate the merits of his style.
And for useful practical morals, maxims for every-day life, lessons that find
their way through the understanding to the heart, and fix themselves
| Ætat. 51. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 245 |
“I believe you know (which is not yet to be made known) that I have engaged to continue Warton’s History of English Poetry, and bring it down to the close of the last century; that is, I mean to conclude with Hayley, Cowper, and Darwin, and stop just where my own time begins. It is to be in three or four octavo volumes, as the subject may require, for which I am to have 500l. each, paid as each is finished. What leads me to speak of this is, that you may understand how I am led from history and polemics to the humaner study of Jacob Cats. My plan, like Warton’s, includes and requires excursive views of the literature of other countries. How far these commercial storms may extend, there is no foreseeing; but as I am not to begin printing before the beginning of next year, it is likely that things will go on smoothly again by that time. . . . .
“God bless you!
