Chapter XC: Letter 202: To Allsop

April 18th, 1822.

My dearest Friend,

There was neither self nor unself in the flash or jet of pleasurable ----- | T P | --- --- sensation with which I saw the old | PALL MALL | tea-canister top | 3 | ----------- surmounting my own name, but a mere unreflecting gladness, a sally of inward welcoming, on finding you near to me again. I am indebted to it, however, for this, and the dear and affectionate letter that sustained and substantiated it, like a gleam of sunshine ushering in a genial south-west, and setting all the birds a singing; while the joy at the recall of the old, dry, _scathy_, viceroy of the discouraged spring, the Tartar laird from the north-east, augments yet loses itself in the delight at the arrival of the long-wished-for successor to his native realm, gave a sudden spur and kindly sting to my spirits, the restorative effects of which I felt on rising this morning, as soon after, at least, as the pain which always greets me on awaking, and never fails to be my Valentine for every day in the year, had taken its leave.

Charles and Mary Lamb are to dine with us on Sunday next, and I hope it will be both pleasant and possible for you and Mrs. Allsop to complete the party; and if so, I will take care to be quite _free_ to enjoy your society from the moment of your arrival, and I hope that Mrs. Allsop will not be too much tired for me to show her some of our best views and walks; and perhaps the nightingales may commence their ditties on or by that day, for I have daily expected them.

Need I say what thoughts rush into my mind when I read a letter from you, or think of your love towards me.

God bless you, my dear, dear friend,
S. T. COLERIDGE.
T. Allsop, Esq.]

FOOTNOTES:

[119] Let it always be borne in mind, that this and other
expressions in these pages were the opinions which he ever
expressed _to me_, and are not to be taken as evidences of
doubt generally, but of disbelief in the corruptions of the
vulgar Christianity in vogue. [ALLSOP.]

[120] In after years he excepted Elliot, the smith, though he held
his judgment in very slight estimation. [ALLSOP.]

[121] [This letter is followed in _Blackwood_ by the two letters to
a Junior Soph, at Cambridge, republished by T. Ashe in
_Miscellanies, Authentic and Literary_, Bohn Library, pp.
244-260. As these are rather Essays than Letters they are not
reproduced in this work.]

[122] Thus in original letter, (Allsop).

[123] Mercury, the god of lucre and selfish ends, patron god of
thieves, tradesmen, stock-jobbers, diplomatists, pimps,
harlots and go-betweens; the soothing, pacifying god.

[124] [Letter CCXXX follows 198.]

[125] [_Letter to a Young Lady on the Choice of a Husband_ reprinted
in _Miscellanies, Aesthetic and Literary_, p. 229.]