The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey
Robert Southey to John May, 26 June 1797
“. . . . . Neither the best friends or the bitterest
enemies of Chapelain could have felt
more curiosity than I do ![]()
| 316 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 23. |
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to see his poem: good it cannot
be, for though the habit of writing satire, as, indeed, the indulgence of any
kind of wit, insensibly influences the moral character, and disposes it to
sacrifice anything to a good point; yet Boileau must have had some reason for the extreme contempt in
which he held this unfortunate production. I am inclined to think it better,
however, than it has always been represented. Chapelain
stood high in poetical reputation when he published this, the work on which he
meant to build his fame. He is said to have written good odes; certainly, then,
his epic labours cannot be wholly void of merit; and for its characteristic
fault, extreme harshness, it is very probable that a man of genius writing in
so unmanly a language should become harsh by attempting to be strong. The
French never can have a good epic poem till they have republicanised their
language. It appears to me a thing impossible in their metre; and for the prose
of Fenelon, Florian, and Betaube, I
find it peculiarly unpleasant. I have sometimes read the works of
Florian aloud: his stories are very interesting and
well conducted; but in reading them I have felt obliged to simplify as I read,
and omit most of the similes and apostrophes; they disgusted me, and I felt
ashamed to pronounce them. Ossian is the only book bearable in this style; there is a
melancholy obscurity in the history of Ossian, and of almost all his heroes, that must please.
Ninety-nine readers in a hundred cannot understand Ossian, and therefore they like the book. I read it always with
renewed pleasure.
“Have you read Madame
Roland’s Appel a l’im-![]()
| Ætat. 23. | OF ROBERT SOUTHEY. | 317 |
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partiale Posterite? It is
one of those books that make me love individuals, and yet dread, detest, and
despise mankind in a mass. There was a time when I believed in the
persuadibility of man, and had the mania of man-mending. Experience has taught
me better. After a certain age the organs of voice cannot accommodate
themselves to the utterance of a foreign pronunciation; so it is with the mind,
it grows stiff and unyielding, like our sinews, as we grow older. The ablest
physician can do little in the great lazar house of society; it is a pest-house
that infects all within its atmosphere. He acts the wisest part who retires
from the contagion; nor is that part either a selfish or a cowardly one; it is
ascending the ark, like Noah, to preserve a remnant which
may become the whole. As to what is the cause, of the incalculable wretchedness
of society, and what is the panacea, I have long felt certified in my own mind.
The rich are strangely ignorant of the miseries to which the lower and largest
part of mankind are abandoned. . . . . The savage and civilised states are
alike unnatural, alike unworthy of the origin and end of man. Hence the
prevalence of scepticism and atheism, which, from being the effect, becomes the
cause of vice. . . . .
“I have lived much among the friends of Priestley, and learnt from them many peculiar
opinions of that man, who speaks all he thinks. No man has studied Christianity
more, or believes it more sincerely; he thinks it not improbable that another revelation may be granted us, for the obstinacy
and wickedness of mankind call for no less a remedy. The necessity of another
revelation I do not see myself. What we ![]()
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have, read with
the right use of our own reasoning faculties, appears to me sufficient; but in
a Millenarian this opinion is not ridiculous, and the many yet unfulfilled
prophecies give it an appearance of probability. . . . .
“The slave trade has much disheartened me. That their
traffic is supported by the consumption of sugar is demonstrable: I have
demonstrated it to above fifty persons with temporary success; and not three of
those persons have persevered in rejecting it. This is perfectly astonishing to
me; and what can be expected from those, who will not remedy so horrible an
iniquity, by so easy an exertion? The future presents a dreary prospect; but
all will end in good, and I can contemplate it calmly without suffering it to
cloud the present. I may not live to do good to mankind personally; but I will
at least leave something behind me to strengthen those feelings and excite
those reflections in others, from whence virtue must spring. In writing poetry
with this end, I hope I am not uselessly employing my leisure hours. God bless
you. . . . .
Affectionately yours,
Robert Southey.”
Paul Jérémie Bitaubé (1732-1808)
French Protestant clergyman, poet, and translator, the author of
Joseph. A Poem. In Nine Books (1783).
Jean Chapelain (1595-1674)
French neoclassical poet and critic, author of the epic
La Pucelle
(1656).
François Fénelon (1651-1715)
Archbishop of Cambray, the author of the didactic prose epic,
Telemaque (1699).
Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794)
French poet and novelist elected to the Académie Française in 1788; he died in prison
during the Revolution.
Ossian (250 fl.)
Legendary blind bard of Gaelic story to whom James Macpherson attributed his poems
Fingal and
Temora.
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804)
Dissenting theologian, schoolmaster, and scientist; he was author of
The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments
(1767).
Madame Roland (1754-1793)
An early supporter of the French Revolution, she was guillotined with other leaders of
the Girondist faction.
