“It is right that you should clearly understand what you have to reckon on for your ways and means. Two hundred a year will be a liberal allowance, probably above the average at Queen’s, which has not the disadvantage of being an expensive college. Whether I live or die, this is provided for you. If I live and do well, my current occupations will supply it. In any other event, there is Dr. Bell’s Legacy in the French Funds, even if the Cowperage should not be forthcoming.
“It is an uncomfortable thing to be straitened in your
situation; but for most undergraduates it is far more injurious to have too
much. If you can save from your income I shall be glad; and I have confidence
enough in you to believe that you would have much more satisfaction in saving
from it, than you could derive from any needless expenditure. I do not mean
that you should receive less from me, if you find that you can do with less;
but that you should lay by the surplus for your own use. Next to moral and
religious habits, habits of frugality are
| 364 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 64. |
“I dwell upon this, not as supposing you need any
exhortation. upon the subject, for I have the most perfect confidence in you;
no father ever had less apprehension for a son in sending him to the
University. But frugality is a virtue which will contribute continually and
most essentially to your comfort; without it it is impossible that you should
do well, and you know not how much nor how soon it may be needed. It is far
from my intention, if I should live till you take your degree, to hurry you
into the world* and bid you shift for yourself as soon as you can. On the
contrary, there is nothing on which I could look forward with so much hope, as
to directing your studies after you have finished your collegiate course, and
training you to build upon my foundations. That object is one which it would be
worth wishing to live for. But when you take your degree, I, if I should then
be living, shall be hard upon three score and ten. My whole income dies with
me. In its stead there would be (at this time) about 8000l. immediately, from the Insurance, and this is all that there will
be (except 2 or 300l. for current expenses) till my
papers and copyrights can be made available. At first, therefore, great
frugality
| Ætat. 64. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 365 |
“It is fitting that you should bear all this in mind; but not for discouragement. Your prospects, God be thanked, are better than if you were heir to a large estate,—far better for your moral and intellectual nature, your real welfare, your happiness here and hereafter.
“God bless you, my dear Cuthbert!
