413. To Daniel Stuart Address: D. Stuart Esq. | No/ 885 | Strand | London MS. British Museum. Pub. Letters from the Lake Poets, 19. Postmark: 22 September 1801. Stamped: Keswick. Saturday Evening, Sept. 19. 1801 Dear Stuart I have received your very kind Letter (with the half of the 30£ note.) Meaning, what I do, by these words I need not expatiate on your liberality &c. Southey, I am certain, never thought otherwise than that you had behaved very handsomely with him; & will, I know, be more pleased with the 13 guineas, as an instance of generosity in the thing itself, than for the particular result to him. -- I will assuredly make the attempt to write some good prose for you; but I must first give the Poetics a compleat Jog. 1 I shall certainly labor to make the poems in general suited to a daily morning Paper -- every short poem, that has any merit at all, must be suitable in it's turn, whatever kind it may [be] of -- but some kinds ought to recur more frequently than others -- and these of course, temporary & political. What I have been doing, since I first wrote, has been this: -- to get together a fair stock in hand of poems, serious & ludicrous, tales &c -- & to send these off as things always to be had -- & then, as the event, or occasion, or thought rises to send you from time to time something of the day & for the day. -- Southey & I do well together in this Line; for I have always 50 subjects with all the ideas thereunto appertaining, but it is always a struggle with me to execute -- and this Southey performs not only with rapidity, but takes great pleasure in doing it. Have you seen the Thalaba? -- It is not altogether a poem exactly to my Taste; there are however three uncommonly fine passages in it. The first in Volume 1st beginning (p. 130) at the words 'It was the Wisdom & the Will of Heaven' continued to the end of the third Line, p. 184. then omitting the intermediate pages, pass on to page 147. & recommence with the words Their Father is their Priest -- to the last line of p. 166. -- concluding with the words Of Thalaba went by. 2 This would be a really good extract, & I am sure, none of the Reviews will have either feeling or Taste to select. You will see when you see the book, that the pages are almost entirely filled up with notes, so that the number of Lines is not great. Should it however be too great, you may begin it at p. 150, and entitle it THE LOVE OF ONEIZA FOR THALABA extracted &c. -- ____________________ 1 Coleridge contributed five poems to the Morning Post in Sept 1801. 2 Cf. Thalaba, Book III, lines 229-370. -759- The next extract is in Volume the second, p. 126. beginning at the words All Waste! no sign of Life &c -- to p. 131, ending with the words She clapt her hands for Joy. 1 The third passage is very short, & uncommonly lyrical -- indeed, in versification & conception superior to any thing I have ever seen of Southey's -- It must begin at the 3rd line of p. 142, Volume the second -- and be entitled Khawla, or the enchantress's Incantation 'Go out, ye lights!' quoth Khawla &c and go on to the last words of p. 143. 2 -- There should be a little note saying, that Eblis is the Mahometan Name for the Evil Spirit. ---- These three passages are excellently suited for a Paper, & would doubtless be of service to the Book. -- Longman will, of course, gladly send you the Books. -- I feel myself much affected by the wish, you express, that I had applied to you in my pecuniary Distresses. Pinched we have been, no doubt; for Sickness increased my outgoings, while it cut off [a]ll the resources that depended on my own Industry. But the evil day is gone by & I have found that a little wi[ll go] a good way if there is an absolute necessity for it. -- As to you, dear Stuart! I already consider myself independently of this our new engagement, as your Debtor; for I am not so blinded by Authorship, as to believe that what I have done is at all adequate to the money, I, have received. But it is however something in a world like this to have a man really attached to your Interest for your sake as well as his own -- & that man, believe me, Stuart! you have in me. I have a favor to ask of you, which I am almost ashamed to ask too -- it is this -- Wordsworth & myself have one very dear Friend to whom the pleasure of seeing a paper during the time I wrote in it would be greater, than you can easily imagine. Would you send a paper for this next Quarter to her? Wordsworth will feel himself excited by his affections to do something -- & whatever he does I shall conscientiously add & not substitute, as a sort of acknowlegement for this new Debt. The paper must be directed -- Miss S. Hutchinson, Bishops Middleham, Rushiford, Durham. My children are both well, & their Mother. We expect Southey in a fortnight. Mrs Southey is with us. -- I am so much better that I begin to hope, that I may be well enough to pass the winter near you -- Your's sincerely S. T. Coleridge ____________________ 1 Thalaba, Book VIII, lines 287-390. 2 Ibid., Book IX, lines 49 fol. -760-