Chapter CVII: Letter 218: To Allsop

(-- 1825.)

My dearest Friend,

The person to whom I alluded in my last is a Mr. T...,[140] who, within the last two or three years, has held a situation in the Colonial Office, but _what_, I do not know. From his age and comparatively recent initiation into the office, it is probably not a very influensive one; and, on the other hand, from the rank and character of his friends, he has occasionally brought up with him to our Thursday evening _conver_-, or, to mint a more appropriate term, _one_-versazione, it must be a respectable one. Mr. T... is _Southey's friend_, and more than a literary acquaintance to _me_, only in consequence of my having had some friendly intercourse with his uncle during my abode in the north. Of _him_ personally I know little more than that he is a remarkably handsome fashionable-looking young man, a little _too deep_ or _hollow mouthed_ and important in his enunciation, but clever and well read; and I have no reason to doubt that he would receive any one whom I had introduced to him as a friend of mine in whose welfare I felt anxious interest, with kindness and a disposition to forward his object should it be in his power.

But again, my dearest Friend, you must allow me to express my regret that I am acting in the dark, without any conviction on my mind that your present proceeding is not the result of wearied and still agitated spirits, an impetus of despondency, _that_ fever which accompanies exhaustion. I can too well sympathise with you; and bitterly do I feel the unluckiness of my being in such a deplorable state of health just at the time when for your sake I should be most desirous to have the use of all my faculties. May God bless you, and your little-able but most sincere friend,

S. T. COLERIDGE.[141]

T. Allsop, Esq.]

FOOTNOTES:

[135] The particulars of this instance of Star Chamber tyranny I
read in Aikman's _Life of Archbishop Laud_, prefixed to his
works. It is said that when he was taken out of the wretched
cell in Newgate in which he was confined before his sentence,
"_the skin and hair had almost wholly come off his body_."
This was for writing against _Prelacy_, not against
Christianity. Any man may do the like now and not a hair of
his head can be touched; yet _moral_ offences, public or
private, have far less chance of escaping with impunity than
they had then. [S. C.]

[136] Clarendon, _passim_, especially his summary of Laud's
character. [S. C.]

[137] [Hyman Hurwitz, see Aldine Edition of the _Poems_, ii, 248.]

[138] [Letter CCXXXIX follows letter 214.]

[139] [The Essay for the R.S.L. referred to in letter 215 is the
_Disquisition on the Prometheus of Aeschylus_ delivered before
the Royal Society of Literature on 18th May, 1825. It is one
of the most mystical of all Coleridge's productions.]

[140] [Sir Henry Taylor.]

[141] [Letters CCXL-CCLIX follow 218.]