“You will probably, ere this, have given up all expectation of receiving an answer to your letter of December 29. I was on the borders of Cornwall when that letter was written; it found me a fortnight afterwards in Hampshire. During my subsequent movements in different parts of the country, and a tarriance of three busy weeks in London, I had no leisure for replying to it; and now that I am once more at home, and am clearing off the arrears of business which had accumulated during a long absence, it has lain unanswered till the last of a numerous file, not from disrespect or indifference to its contents, but because, in truth, it is not an easy task to answer it, nor a pleasant one to cast a damp over the high spirits and the generous desires of youth.
“What you are I can only infer from your letter, which appears to be written in sincerity; though I may suspect that you have used a fictitious signature. Be that as it may, the letter and the verses bear the same stamp; and I can well understand the state of mind which they indicate. What I am you might have learnt by such of my publications as have come into your hands; and had you happened to be acquainted with me, a little personal knowledge would have tempered your enthusiasm. You might have
* The lady to whom this and the next letter are addressed, is now well known as a prose writer of no common powers. |
| 328 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 63. |
“It is not my advice that you have asked as to the direction of your talents, but my opinion of them; and yet the opinion may be worth little, and the advice much. You evidently possess, and in no inconsiderable degree, what Wordsworth calls ‘the faculty of verse.’ I am not depreciating it when I say, that in these times it is not rare. Many volumes of poems are now published every year without attracting public attention, any one of which, if it had appeared half a century ago, would have obtained a high reputation for its author. Whoever, therefore, is ambitious of distinction in this way, ought to be prepared for disappointment.
“But it is not with a view to distinction that you
should cultivate this talent, if you consult your own happiness. I, who have
made literature my profession, and devoted my life to it, and have never for a
moment repented of the deliberate choice, think myself nevertheless bound in
duty to caution every young man who applies as an aspirant to me for
encouragement and advice, against taking so perilous a course. You will say,
that a woman has no need of such a caution: there can be no peril in it for
her. In a certain sense this is true; but there is a danger of which I would,
with all kindness and all earnestness, warn you. The day dreams in which you
| Ætat. 63. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 329 |
“But do not suppose that I disparage the gift which you possess; nor that I would discourage you from exercising it. I only exhort you so to think of it, and so to use it, as to render it conducive to your own permanent good. Write poetry for its own sake; not in a spirit of emulation, and not with a view to celebrity: the less you aim at that, the more likely you will be to deserve, and finally to obtain it. So written, it is wholesome both for the heart and soul; it may be made the surest means, next to religion, of soothing the mind, and elevating it. You may embody in it your best thoughts and your wisest feelings, and in so doing discipline and strengthen them.
“Farewell, Madam. It is not because I have forgotten
that I was once young myself, that I write to you in this strain; but because I
remember it. You
| 330 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 63. |
