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Having fewer errors to plead guilty to, he is less lenient to those of others. He was born an age too late. Had he lived a century or two ago, he would have been a happy as well as blameless character. But the distraction of the time has unsettled him, and the multiplicity of his pretensions have jostled with each other. No man in our day (at least no man of genius) has led so uniformly and entirely the life of a scholar from boyhood to the present hour, devoting himself to learning with the enthusiasm of an early love, with the sincerity and constancy of a religious vow-and well would it have been for him if he had confined himself to this, and not undertaken to pull down or to patch up the State! However irregular in his opinions, Mr Southey is constant, unremitting, mechanical in his studies, and the performance of his duties. There is nothing Pindaric or Shandean here. In all the relations and charities of private life, he is correct, exemplary, generous, just. We never heard a single impropriety laid to his charge; and if he has many enemies, few men can boast more numerous or stauncher friends.

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The variety and piquancy of his writings form a striking contrast to the mode in which they are produced. He rises early, and writes or reads till near breakfast-time. He writes or reads after breakfast till dinner, after dinner till tea, and from tea till bed-time

And follows so the ever-running year,
With profitable labour to his grave-

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The inveteracy with which Lord Byron satirised Mr Southey is a matter of equal regret and notoriety: we believe that the only answer Southey ever made to these criticisms, was in a letter addressed to the Editor of the Courier newspaper, which, with the provocatory remarks of his Lordship, we give here:- Mr Southey, too, in his pious preface to a poem whose blasphemy is as harmless as the sedition of Wat Tyler, because it is equally absurd with that sincere production, calls upon the legislature to look to it,' as the toleration of such writings led to the French Revolution: not such writings as Wat Tyler, but as those of the 'Satanic School.' This is not true, and Mr Southey knows it to be not true. Every French writer of any freedom was persecuted; Voltaire and Rousseau were exiles; Marmontel and Diderot were sent to the Bastille; and a perpetual war was waged with the whole class by the existing despotism. In the next place, the French Revolution was not occasioned by any writings whatsoever, but must have occurred had no such writings ever existed. It is the fashion to attribute every thing to the French Revolution, and the French Revolution to every thing but its real cause. That cause is obvious-the government exacted too much, and the people could neither give nor bear more. Without this, the Encyclopedists might have written their fingers off without the occurrence of a single alteration. And the English Revolution (the first, I mean)-what was it occasioned by? The Puritans were surely as pious and moral as Wesley or his biographer. Acts-acts on the part of government, and not

on Derwent's banks, beneath the foot of Skiddaw. Study serves him for business, exercise, recreation. He passes from verse to prose, from his-writings against them, have caused the past contory to poetry, from reading to writing, by a stop-watch. He writes a fair hand, without blots, sitting upright in his chair, leaves off when he comes to the bottom of the page, and changes the subject for another, as opposite as the antipodes. His mind is after all rather the recipient and transmitter of knowledge, than the originator of it. He has hardly grasp of thought enough to arrive at any great leading truth. His passions do not amount to more than irritability. With some gall in his pen, and coldness in his manner, he has a great deal of kindness in his heart. Rash in his opinions, he is steady in his attachments-and is a man in many particulars admirable, in all respectable-his political inconsistency alone excepted!»

Such is the homage that even a political as well as a critical opponent of Robert Southey found himself constrained to pay to his exemplary and irreproachable private character-to his good and guileless heart:

Incoctum generoso pectus honesto.

vulsions, and are tending to the future. I look upon such as inevitable, though no revolutionist: I wish to see the English constitution restored, and not destroyed. Born an aristocrat, and naturally one by temper, with the greater part of my present property in the funds, what have to gain by a revolution? Perhaps I have more to lose in every way than Mr Southey, with all his places and presents for panegyrics and abuse into the bargain. But that a revolution is inevitable, I repeat. The government may exult over the repression of petty tumults; these are the receding waves repulsed and broken for a moment on the shore, while the great tide is still rolling on and gaining with every breaker. Mr Southey accuses us of attacking the religion of the country; and is he abetting it by writing lives of Wesley? One mode of worship is merely destroyed by another. There never was, nor ever will be, a country without a religion. We shall be told of France again, but it was only Paris and a frantic party, which for a moment upheld

Gebir,' whose friendship for Robert Southey will, it seems, 'be an honour to him when the ephemeral disputes and ephemeral reputations of the day are forgotten.' I for one neither envy him

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MR SOUTHEY'S REPLY

their dogmatic nonsense of theophilanthropy. | note from a work of a Mr Landor, the author of The Church of England, if overthrown, will be swept away by the sectarians, and not by the sceptics. People are too wise, too well informed, too certain of their own immense importance in the realms of space, ever to submit to the impiety' the friendship,' nor the glory in reversion which of doubt. There may be a few such diffident spe- is to accrue from it, like Mr Thelluson's fortune, culators, like water in the pale sunbeam of hu- in the third and fourth generation. This friendman reason, but they are very few; and their ship will probably be as memorable as his own opinions, without enthusiasm or appeal to the epics, which (as I quoted to him ten or twelve passions, can never gain proselytes-unless, in- years ago in 'English Bards') Porson said 'would deed, they are persecuted-that, to be sure, will be remembered when Homer and Virgil are forincrease any thing. Mr S., with a cowardly fero-gotten, and not till then.' For the present, I city, exults over the anticipated 'death-bed re- leave him. pentance' of the objects of his dislike; and indulges himself in a pleasant 'Vision of Judg. ment,' in prose as well as verse, full of impious impudence. What Mr S.'s sensations or ours may be in the awful moment of leaving this state of existence, neither he nor we can pretend to decide. In common, I presume, with most men of any reflection, I have not waited for a 'death- | bed' to repent of many of my actions, notwithstanding the diabolical pride' which this pitiful renegade in his rancour would impute to those who scorn him. Whether, upon the whole, the good or evil of my deeds may preponderate, it is not for me to ascertain; but, as my means and opportunities have been greater, I shall limit my present defence to an assertion (easily proved, if necessary), that I, in my degree,' have done more real good in any one given year, since I was twenty, than Mr Southey in the whole course of his shifting and turncoat existence. There are several actions to which I can look back with an honest pride, not to be damped by the calumnies of a hireling. There are others to which I recur with sorrow and repentance; but the only act of my life of which Mr Southey can have any real knowledge, as it was one which brought me in contact with a near connexion of his own, did no dishonour to that connexion, nor to me. am not ignorant of Mr Southey's calumnies on a different occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his return from Switzerland against me and others: they have done him no good in this world; and if his creed be the right one, they will do him less in the What his death-bed' may be, it is not my province to predicate: let him settle it with his Maker, as I must do with mine. There is something at once ludicrous and blasphemous in this arrogant scribbler of all work sitting down to deal damnation and destruction upon his fellow-creatures, with Wat Tyler, the Apotheosis of George the Third, and the Elegy on Marten the regicide, all shuffled together in his writing-desk. One of his consolations appears to be a Latin

next.

« HAVING seen in the newspapers a note relating to myself, extracted from a recent publication of Lord Byron's,' I request permission to reply through the medium of your journal. I come at once to his Lordship's charge against me, blowing away the abuse with which it is frothed, and evaporating a strong acid in which it is suspended. The residuum then appears to be, that Mr Southey, on his return from Switzerland (in 1817), scattered abroad calumnies, knowing them to be such, against Lord Byron and others.' To this I reply with a direct and positive denial. If I had been told in that country that Lord Byron had turned Turk, or monk of La Trappe,—that he had furnished a haram, or endowed an hospital, I might have thought the account, whichever it had been, possible, and repeated it accordingly; passing it, as it had been taken in the small change of conversation, for no more than what it was worth. In this manner I might have spoken of him, as of Baron Gerambe, the Green Man, the Indian Jugglers, or any other figurante of the time being. There was no reason for any partiIcular delicacy on my part in speaking of his Lordship; and, indeed, I should have thought any thing which might be reported of him, would have injured his character as little as the story which so greatly annoyed Lord Keeper Guildford, that he had ridden a rhinoceros. He may ride a rhinoceros: and though every bo 'y would stare, no one would wonder.

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« But making no inquiry concerning him when was abroad, because I felt no curiosity, I heard nothing, and had nothing to repeat. When I spoke of wonders to my friends and acquaintance on my return, it was of the flying-tree at Alpuacht, and the eleven thousand virgins at Cologne not of Lord Byron. I sought for no staler sub

'The Two Foscari.

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satisfaction as I shall always do upon what is there said of that flagitious school. Many persons, and parents especially, have expressed their gratitude to me for having applied the branding.

ject than St Ursula. Once, and only once, in connexion with Switzerland, I have alluded to his Lordship; and as the passage was curtailed in the press, I take this opportunity of restoring it. In the Quarterly Review, speaking inciden-iron where it was so richly deserved. The Edintally of the Jungfrau, I said, 'It was the scene burgh Reviewer, indeed, with that honourable where Lord Byron's Manfred met the Devil and feeling by which his criticisms are so peculiarly bullied him-though the Devil must have won distinguished, suppressing the remarks them, his cause before any tribunal in this world or the selves, has imputed them wholly to envy on my next, if he had not pleaded more feebly for him- part. I give him, in this instance, full credit for self, than his advocate, in a cause of canoniza- sincerity: I believe he was equally incapable of tion, ever pleaded for him.' With regard to the comprehending a worthier motive, or of invent→ 'others,' whom his Lordship accuses me of ca- ing a worse; and as I have never condescended to lumniating, I suppose he alludes to a party of expose, in any instance, his pitiful malevolence, his friends, whose names I found written in the I thank him for having in this stript it bare him→ Album at Mont Auvert, with an avowal of atheism self, and exhibited it in its bald, naked, and unannexed in Greek, and an indignant comment in disguised deformity. Lord Byron, like his encothe same language underneath it. Those names, miast, has not ventured to bring the matter of with that avowal and the comment, I transcribed those animadversions into view. He conceals in my note-book, and spoke of the circumstance the fact, that they are directed against the auon my return. If I had published it, the gentle-thors of blasphemous and lascivious books,— man in question would not have thought himself slandered, by having that recorded of him which he has so often recorded of himself. The many opprobrious appellations which Lord Byron has bestowed upon me, I leave as I find them, with the praises which he has bestowed upon himself. How easily is a noble spirit discern'd

From harsh and sulphurous matter, that flies out
In contumelies, makes a noise, and stinks!
B. JOHNSON.

But I am accustomed to such things; and so far
from irritating me are the enemies who use such
weapons, that, when I hear of their attacks, it is
some satisfaction to think they have thus em-
ployed the malignity which must have been em-
ployed somewhere, and could not have been di-
rected against any person whom it could proba-
bly molest or injure less. The viper, however
venomous in purpose, is harmless in effect while
it is biting at the file. It is seldom, indeed, that
I waste a word or a thought upon those who are
perpetually assailing me. But abhorring, as I
do, the personalities which disgrace our current
literature, and averse from controversy as I am,
both by principle and inclination, I make no pro-
fession of non-resistance. When the offence and
the offender are such as to call for the whip and
the branding-iron, it has been both seen and felt
that I can inflict them. Lord Byron's present
exacerbation is evidently produced by an inflic-
tion of this kind-not by hear-say reports of my
conversation four years ago, transmitted him from
England. The cause may be found in certain
remarks upon the Satanic School of poetry, con-
tained in my preface to the Vision of Judgment.

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Well would it be for Lord Byron if he could look back upon any of his writings with as much

against men who, not content with indulging their own vices, labour to make others the slaves of sensuality like themselves,-against public panders, who, mingling impiety with dewdness, seek at once to destroy the cement of social or der, and to carry profanation and pollution into private families, and into the hearts of individuals.

* His Lordship has thought it not unbecoming in him to call me a scribbler of all work. Let the word scribbler pass; it is not an appellation which will stick, like that of the Satanic School. But if a scribbler, how am I one of all work? I will tell Lord Byron what I have not scribbled,-what kind of work I have not done. I have never published libels upon my friends and acquaintance, expressed my sorrow for those libels, and called them in during a mood of better mind,-and then re-issued them, when the Evil Spirit, which for a time has been cast out, had returned and taken possession, with seven others more wicked than himself. I have never abused the power, of which every author is in some degree possessed, to wound the character of a man, or the heart of a woman. I have never sent into the world a book to which I did not dare affix my name, or which I feared to claim in a Court of Justice, if it were pirated by a knavish bookseller. I have never manufactured furniture for the brothel. None of these things have I done; none of the foul work by which literature is perverted to the injury of mankind. My hands are clean; there is no 'damned spot' upon them-no taint, which all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten.' Of the work which I have done, it becomes me not here to speak, save only as relates to the Satanic School, and its Coryphæus, the author of Don Juan. I have held up that school to

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public detestation, as enemies to the religion, the institutions, and the domestic morals of the country. I have given them a designation to which their founder and leader answers. I have sent a stone from my sling, which has smitten their Goliah in the forehead. I have fastened his name upon the gibbet for reproach and ignominy as long as it shall endure. Take it down who can!-One word of advice to Lord Byron before I conclude. When he attacks me again, let it be in rhyme. For one who has so little command of himself, it will be a great advantage that his temper should be obliged to keep tune. And while he may still indulge in the same rankness and virulence of insult, the metre will, in some degree, seem to lessen its vulgarity.

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and acquirements entitle him: he is more often a listener than a talker. In this respect he dif fers from Wordsworth and Coleridge, who are remarkable for the nervous and overwhelming eloquence of their language. But the character of Mr Southey can only be fully estimated by those who are intimately acquainted with him, in the domestic circle,—in those winter evenings so beautifully sketched by Cowper; then how delightful it is to hear him!

It was this love of retirement, and distaste for the hurry and fever of public life, that induced Mr Southey to refuse the unsolicited offer of a seat in the House of Commons, to which he had been previously elected. A similar feeling in duced him to fix his residence in a country in which alike the Poet finds inexhaustible food for his imagination, and the Philosopher for reflection

He, on his own green banks, in solitude,
By his soft murmuring lake, wanders along;
And to his mountains, and his forests rude,
Chaunts in sweet melody his classic song;
He makes our northern wilds a paradise,
Since spirits all sublime inhabit there;
For at his magic call what phantoms rise,
And in his voice what music floats the air!
So heavenly soothing and so softly wild,
The

-We shall now conclude our brief, and, we fear, very inadequate sketch, by introducing the following interesting particulars, the accuracy and authenticity of which may be fully relied on. * After Mr Southey had left college, he devoted himself principally to poetry. The facility and rapidity with which he composes is perhaps unequalled. Southey had burnt more verses bepeasant deems it more than mortal lay;, The grey old hermit, and the rustic child," tween the age of twenty and thirty than any With beating heart, and timid footsteps stray other poet of the present day has written during To catch the notes the zephyr wafts away.' the course of his whole life. Another remarkable feature in his character is the pliability and But though Mr Southey lives at such a distance from the theatre of public affairs, yet few, very versatility of his talents. His time is strictly economized, and every part of the day has its apfew persons in England have had such an influpropriate employment. It is very seldom that ence over its tastes and opinions as he has. Opihe has not several literary undertakings in hand nions may differ as to the tendency of the Quarat the same time; and as soon as the hour allot-terly Review, but no one will question its efficacy; ted to one of them has elapsed, he transfers his attention, at pleasure, to that which succeeds it, and without any of that difficulty which men of genius generally experience in escaping from "the domination of their glorious themes," and diverting their attention from the train of imagery which their own imagination has conjured

up.

and to this the pen of Mr Southey has mainly contributed. For years his articles, on an infinite variety of subjects, have instructed and amused the British nation: and he has not only proved himself a Theologian, an Historian, a Politician, and a Poet, but he has also evinced cities.-There is no person who collects so much himself a master in each of these different capafrom reading with so little labour as Southey. His skill in picking out the wheat from the chaff, and in arranging and digesting what is valuable,

Other persons read, and forget: - - what Mr Southey has read may be said to belong to him, and to constitute a part of himself. This may probably arise from his habit of making extracts from books during their perusal; and we may cite his example against the assertion of Gibbon, that what is twice read, is better remembered than what is once written.» We may also add that his neat and careful handwriting may have contributed something to the adoption and uti-pass of his knowledge upon all subjects. lity of his practice.

is perfectly wonderful. While others are obliged

In large and mixed societies Mr Southey does not often assume the place to which his talents

of any value, he, without any effort, and perto dig and wade through a book to select what is heart of a book, of which he scarcely appears haps half asleep upon his sofa, tears out the to skim the surface. Hence the wonderful com

1 The above lines were written, and addressed to Mr

Southey, some years ago, by an English lady, of considerable taste and talent, resident in France.

Mr Southey's library, though not extensive, is very curious, which may account in some degree for his antiquarian knowledge. His acquaintance with modern languages is extensive, but not accurate, as might be inferred from his manner of reading.

It has been made matter of accusation against our author, that his opinions on political subjects were formerly very different from what they are at present.' While we admit the truth of the statement, we cannot acknowledge the justice of the charge. Whether he was right formerly, and wrong now, or whether the contrary is the case,—is a question in which we have no wish to interfere. But he has a right to claim from his adversaries, that they convict him of some motive, by which he was, and ought not to have been, influenced,—some dream of ambition, some avenue to aggrandisement. Until they can do this, they may regret, but they cannot blame his determination.2

The progress of the French revolution, with the intoxicating and visionary hopes which attended its commencement, and the violent re-action produced on his own mind by the rapid and shifting succession of events, have been powerfully sketched by Mr Wordsworth, in the third and fourth books of the «Excursion,» and in them, also, we may trace the causes which produced the change in the political principles of his friend, Mr Southey.

On this subject we cannot but refer to Mr Southey's spirited and eloquent letter to William Smith, Esq., M. P. for the city of Norwich.

Mr Southey's income proceeds almost entirely from the productions of his pen. He writes both for the Quarterly Review and the Foreign Quarterly, and receives a hundred pounds for every article in each. It is a fact, which our feelings will not allow us to suppress, that Mrs Coleridge, her daughter, and Mrs Lovel rely entirely upon him for support. His kindness towards them does him the highest honour, and can only be appreciated by those who know him.-His residence is on the banks of the Greta, and about a quarter of a mile from the beautiful and picturesque Derwentwater.' Here he resides nearly all the year, except during the Spring, when an annual attack of asthma frequently obliges him to suspend his literary labours, and sometimes to take refuge in Holland. Mr Southey and Mr. Wordsworth have continued an uninterrupted friendship since they were young men; and, as their houses are within twelve miles of each other, the intercourse between the two families is constant.

As a friend and a neighbour universally be→ loved; accessible and courteous to the many strangers who are attracted to Keswick by the celebrity of his name; there exists not a man who, with all the greatness of genius, has fewer of its frailties than ROBERT SOUTHEY.

Here he may often be seen in his small skiff, rowed by the fair hands of his two daughters.

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