3

country. You have done something & will I hope do more to write them down, the abuse of them I mean, and I too will lend at least a willing hand. - Why do you dwell so much on all the foolish perversions of religion that have made a noise ❌ for a century past. You will be thought by those who do not discriminate, to dislike all religion. Could you not have let Joanna Southcot alone. I humbly think that most of the letters on these subjects are not happily executed.

xenodochy Will you have the goodness when you see Mr. Wordsworth to thank him in my name for his poems. They arrived at a time when I could not read them. When I was recovering I read them with pleasure tho I confess I was disappointed & greatly disappointed in the expectations I had formed of them. As to the late attack on them, whenever I read it I was strongly impressed with a conviction that Jeffrey was throughout moved by what we lawyers call deadly ill will & malice at the author's disobedience & even defiance of the former critical Bulls which the Review had thundered forth against what the Reviewer calls the new school. By the way can there be a more gross peice of injustice & absurdity than pitching on what he proclaims to be the worst specimen and judging of the school by that worst specimen. But I disgust myself & you too I dare say by reiterating this slang word of his. I suspect he has no passion but ambition. How then can he be a judge of poetry. I have no doubt of the effect which you ascribe to his reviews. What you tell me however of Madoc is incredible.

So you have been settling yourself definitively. Would to God I could say the same thing, and let me add another wish between ourselves, that I were engaged in the same kind of labour for the good opinion of my profession the practice of it is a terrible drudgery. If the present state of my health continues I should be forced to seek a more genial climate than this during half the year. If you should hear of any old fashioned house to let have the goodness to tell me of it. Such kind of houses have often two or three large rooms an advantage & very necessary for an asthmatic person. I fear your neighbourhood is too moist. Is not the country about Penrith warmer & drier too. Mrs. G. is proud of your remembrance. She & I join me in every kind wish to you & your family Remember me most kindly to Wordsworth. My brother I know read his poems. I have got Viegra & have been looking out in vain for an opportunity of sending him to you. Most truly yours I Grahame.

I GRAHAME to ROBERT SOUTHEY, KESWICK. 3<sup>3</sup>pp. 4to.

Edinburgh Der 15

My dear Sir,

Severe illness, business accumulated by inability to overtake it at the
proper time, absence from home and latterly a long continued cold with a hectic
pulse have hitherto prevented me from answering your kind & interesting letter.
I have had besides a terrible depression of spirits caused no doubt by bodily
weakness. I was at one time so sunk as to be unable to do any thing that I was
not compelled to do. Writing verses (that idle trade) was the only occupation
for wch I retained some relish. I am now in tolerable health tho still rather
shadowy.

I know nothing of Boyers' present plans not having heard from him for
several months. I suspect he is whimsical & unsteady, all eagerness at one time
& coldness at another. I think he has some sense and therefore take it for
granted that he will wish to avail himself of what you have written. - I know
Thomas Clarkson tho I have not the honour of his intimacy. He always seemed to
me to abstract himself too much from common things. His favourite pursuit
whatever it was (when it was the abolition his devotion to it was most praise-
worthy) engrossed all his words thoughts & almost his books. When I saw him
last he was completely absorbed or rather estranged in his portraiture
of Quakerism. He is well worthy however of your meditated or rather I should say
half intended strain In my attempt to add my mite of praise to the principal
abolitionists I think I have failed. I was ... & lethargic when I wrote it. The
names are hurried over and I fear the shotness of my encomiums is not
compensated by their pit h

I return you many thanks for Madoc. The interest & delight I felt in reading
it buoyed up my sinking spirits for a whole week. I was a little disconcerted
however on discovering a line which charges me with plagiarism. I cannot hit
upon the passage nor do I remember the words but I recollect you paint the
vlulture as perched on a floating corpse. In the Birds of Scotland I have the
same idea applied to the cormorant and the Birds of Scotland were published
after Madoc. Now altho I think it probable that I had read Madoc before
I had written the line to which I allude I do solemnly assure you that I had
not the slightest conscious recollection of your vluture. There is another
book(ascribed to you) that amused me more than Madoc - The Travels of
a Spaniard in England. It is lively witty and picturesque, aye & full of
sound sense. What a description of Keswick lake. I have heard of pictures
surpassing the original but they must have been portraits. Certain however it is
that the sweet lake is more beautiful in the picture which I saw than it was in
the aspect which I had of it. It was a not a favourable one to be sure. How
my heart thrilled with accord to every word in the latter about Naval and in
the preceding one about military punishments. On this last subject I have
myself been busy. I trust the letters on manufactures (on which subject too
I have been engaged) will open the eyes of thousands. I now utterly abhor
both commerce & manufacture/s as they are generally carried on in this

2

country. You have done something & will I hope do more to write them down,
the abuse of them I mean, and I too will lend at least a willing hand. — Why
do you dwell so much on all the foolish perversions of religion that have made
a noise on for a century past. You will be thought by those who do not
discriminate, to dislike all religion. Could you not have let Joanna Southcot
alone I humbly think that most of the letters on these subjects are not
happily executed.

Will you have the goodness when you see Mr. Wordsworth to
thank him in my name for his poems. They arrived at a time when I could not
read them. When I was recovering I read them with pleasure tho I confess I was
disappointed & greatly disappointed in the expectations I had formed of them.
As to the late attack on them, whenever I read it I was strongly impressed with
a conviction that Jeffrey was throughout moved by what we lawyers call deadly ill
will & malice at the author's disobedience & even defiance of the former
critical Pulls which the Review had thundered forth against what the Reviewer
calls the new school. By the way can there be a more gross peice of injustice
& absurdity than pitching on what he proclaims to be the worst specimen and
judging of the school by that worst specimen. But I disgust myself & you too
I dare say by reiterating this slang word of his. I suspect he has no passion
but ambition. How then can he be a judge of poetry. I have no doubt of the
effect which you ascribe to his reviews. What you tell me however of Madoc is
incredible.

So you have been settling yourself definitively. Would to God I could say
the same thing, and let me add another wish between ourselves, that I were
engaged in the same kind of labour for the country I have a good opinion of my
profession the practice of it is a terrible drudgery. If the present state of
my health continues I should be forced to seek a more genial climate than
this during half the year. If you should hear of any old fashioned house to
let have the goodness to tell me of it. Such kind of houses have often two or
three large rooms an advantage & very necessary for an asthmatic person. I
fear your neighbourhood is too moist. Is not the country about Penrith warmer
& drier too. Mrs. G. is proud of your remembrance. She & I join me in every
kind wish to you & your family. Remember me most kindly to Wordsworth. My
brother I know read his poems. I have got Viegra & have been looking out in
vain for an opportunity of sending him to you. Most truly yours I Grahame.