293. To George Coleridge Address: Revd G. Coleridge | Ottery St Mary | near | Honiton | Devon MS. Lady Cave. Hitherto unpublished. Stamped: Bridgewater. Sunday, 29th Sept. 1799 Dear Brother The little parcel may be put into the box of my books up at my mother's, & go when they go. -- At Mr Hart's are two folio volumes, Sennerti opera, 2 standing by themselves on the chest in the back part of his Book-golgotha -- / say when you see him that he would much oblige me by letting me have them at the price of their Weight. -- Be so kind as not to forget this -- for there are facts in Sennertus which I mean to cite in a future Work. -- These too may be packed with the others in the Box -- there is ample room for them / & I should be glad to borrow the four books which I have not read, & which lie in our bedroom under the table (there are 5, ____________________ 1 As early as 1 Sept. Coleridge and Southey had planned a poem in hexameters on Mahomet; and though only 14 lines by Coleridge ( Poems, i. 329) and 109 lines by Southey ( Oliver Newman, 1845, p. 118) were actually written, a rather ambitious plan was evolved. In the Mitchell Library, Sydney, Aus. tralia, there is an unpublished manuscript, mainly in Coleridge's handwriting but with corrections and additions by Southey; it gives a bare outline of this proposed poem in eight books. 2 Daniel Sennertus, Opera omnia, 2 vols., 1656. -531- but Morice's Coena quasi κοινη 1 I read, & of course do not want --) I pledge myself to bring them back on my next visit. -- If this can be done, the Box will then be full & I will beg you, or rather Brother Edward as having less to do, to have the said Box well corded, & sent by the Carrier to Exeter to the place where the Taunton Waggon or the Waggon which goes thro' Taunton sets off -- Mr Hart can tell him where it is / the Box, he sent, has arrived safely -- Pray, return my best Thanks to him for his Kindness & Trouble. The address must be -- Mr T. Poole at the Old Angel | Bridgewater. | for Mr Coleridge Oh -- I left the Annual Anthology behind! -- Save, O save it from Edward's papyrologiophagous Cacodaemony! -- It can come with the rest. -- As to the Commemoration Sermon I know but one person now resident at Cambridge -- he is not a Clergyman, and I have not written these 5 years to him. -- But if it would give you any pleasure, I remember very well what Commemoration Sermons are, & will write one with great willingness & without an hour's procrastination -- but I do not know Mr Sparrow's Address, or how I am to convey it. 2 -- I rejoice that young Brimstonello has not proved himself a member of the Propagandi Society / --he seems indeed totally freed. -- But alas! we have reason to suspect that in his fall down the stairs at Exeter he seriously injured the bone -- & poor little Lamb! this morning as his Mother was pushing the door to, he put his little arm in, & bruised it severely. -- We were talking of Hexameters while with you. I will for want of something better fill up the paper with a translation of one of my favourite Psalms into that metre, which allowing trochees for Spondees as the nature of our Language demands, you will find pretty accurate in Scansion. 3 Sink in the Swell of the Ocean! God is our Strength & our Refuge. ____________________ 1 William Morice, Coena quasi κοινη, 1657. 2 Using the Wisdom of Solomon iv. 16 as his text, Coleridge prepared a Commemoration Sermon. He thus describes it: 'The original of a discourse Written for whom I neither know or care as a College Commemoration Sermon -- Oct. 6th 1799. N.B. The one Side is all too hugely beangel'd, the other all too desperately bedevil'd: yet spite of the Flattery, and spite of the Caricature both are Likenesses. Sic de suo opere cogitabat S. T. Coleridge Oct. 8. 1799. Stowey.' [MS. British Museum.] 3 Poems, i. 326. The paraphrase is of Psalm xlvi. -532- There is a River, the Flowing whereof shall gladden the City, Hallelujah! the City of God! Jehova shall help her. The Idolaters raged, the Kingdoms were moving in fury -But He utter'd his Voice: Earth melted away from beneath them. Halleluja! th' Eternal is with us, Almighty Jehova! Fearful the works of the Lord, yea, fearful his Desolations -But He maketh the Battle to cease, he burneth the Spear & the Chariot. Hallelujal th' Eternal is with us, the God of our Fathers! -- God bless you -- We desire love to all. -- Your affectionate S. T. Coleridge