“. . . . . Besides my letters I write for the Monthly Magazine. This is a new job: you may easily trace me there if it be worth your while. They give five guineas a sheet, but their sheets are sixteen closely printed pages. I manufacture up my old rubbish for them, with a little about Spanish literature. I shall be glad to get rid of all this.
“So you abuse Anna St. Ives, and commend the Pucelle of the detestable Voltaire. Now, Grosvenor, it was not I who said, ‘I have not read that book;’—I said—God be thanked that I did say it, and plague take the boobies who mutilated it in my absence,—I said, ‘I have never been guilty of reading the Pucelle of Voltaire.’ Report speaks it worthy of its author—a man whose wit and genius could only be equalled by his depravity. I will tell you what a man, not particularly nice in his moral opinions, said to me upon the subject of that book,—‘I should think the worse of any man who, having read one canto of it, could proceed to a second.’ . . . . Now, my opinion of Anna St. Ives is diametrically opposed to yours. I think it a book of consummate wisdom, and I shall join my forces to Mrs. Knowles, to whom I desire you would make my fraternal respects.
“How has this letter been neglected! no more delays,
however. I am continually writing or read-
| 284 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 22. |
“So goes the world! There is not a man in it who is not discontented. However, if no man had more reason for discontent than you and I have, it would be already a very good world; for, after all, I believe the worst we complain of is, that we do not find mankind as good as we could wish. . . . . Many of our mental evils—and God knows they are the worst—we make ourselves.
“If a young man had his senses about him when he sets out in life, he should seriously deliberate, whether he had rather never be miserable, or sometimes be happy. I like the up and down road best; but I have learned never to despise any man’s opinion because it is different from my own. Surely, Grosvenor, our restlessness in this world seems to indicate that we are intended for a better. We have all of us a longing after happiness; and surely the Creator will gratify all the natural desires that he has implanted in us. If you die before me, will you visit me? I am half a believer in apparitions, and would purchase conviction at the expense of a tolerable fright.
“George
Burnett’s uncle was for three months ter-
| Ætat. 22. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 285 |
“‘Oh Bedford,
Bedford, If ever thou didst a good story love!’ |
“Now, Bedford, would you not have had that made into a locket? The tale, methinks, is no bad companion for your father’s dream. The exploit of Mr. Burnett is far beyond that of St. Withold—though, by the by, he met the nine foals into the bargain—and they made a bargain.
“I have written you an odd letter, and an ugly one, upon
very execrable paper. By the by, if you have a Prudentius, you may serve me by sending me all he says about a
certain Saint Eulalia, who suffered martyrdom at Merida. I
passed through that city, and should like to see his hymn upon the occasion;
and if there be any good in it, put it in a note.
| 286 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 22. |
“For I have much to tell thee, much to say Of the odd things we saw upon our journey, Much of the dirt and vermin that annoyed us. |
