195. To Joseph Cottle Address: Mr Cottle | Bookseller | High Street | Bristol MS. Harvard College Lib. Pub. with omis. Chambers, Life, 77. Cottle mangled this letter 'even beyond his wont', making a separate letter of two parts, printing another section as a postscript to Letter 301 of this edition, and transferring the names of C. Lamb, Wordsworth, and Dr. Parr to Letter 118 of this edition. See Early Rec. i.161, 252, and 256. Stamped: Bridgewater. [Circa 8 July 1797] 1 My dear friend These are the errors, 2 or the alterations -- Now, I conceive, that as the volumes are bound, you might employ a boy for sixpence or a shilling to go thro' them & with a fine pen, and dainty ink, make the alterations in each volume -- I am confident, it would not cost more than printing the errata, -- and then the Errata may remain, as it is now already printed. 3 -- I wish, it could be so: for really, nobody scarcely does look at the table of Errata ---- the Volume is a most beautiful one ---- you have determined that the three Bards shall walk up Parnassus, or the Hill of Fame, in their best Bib & Tucker. Give my Love to your Brother Amos -- I condole with him -- but it is the fortune of War -- the finest poem, I ever wrote, lost the prize 4 -- & that which gained it, was contemptible -- but an ode may sometimes be too bad for the prize; but VERY OFTEN too good. Wordsworth & his exquisite Sister are with me -- She is a woman indeed! -- in mind, I mean, & heart -- for her person is such, that if you expected to see a pretty woman, you would think her ordinary -- if you expected to find an ordinary woman, you would think her pretty! -- But her manners are simple, ardent, impressive --. In every motion her most innocent soul Outbeams so brightly, that who saw would say, Guilt was a thing impossible in her. 5 -- Her information various -- her eye watchful in minutest observation ____________________ 1 Arriving from Racedown on 28 June, Coleridge almost immediately returned there, bringing the Wordsworths back to Stowey on 2 July. Since he does not mention the accidental scalding of his foot, which occurred on 4 July, or Charles Lamb, who arrived on 7 July, this letter was probably written on 3 July. See Chambers, Life, 77, and Letter 197. 2 See end of letter for the Errata. 3 'According to an Advertisment in The Morning Post the book was published on October 28th, 1797.' Wise, Bibliography, 39. 4 Coleridge apparently refers to his Greek Ode on Astronomy, which failed to win a Browne Medal in 1793. See Letter 28. 5 For these lines, descriptive of Joan of Arc, see Destiny of Nations, 173-5. -330- of nature -- and her taste a perfect electrometer -- it bends, protrudes, and draws in, at subtlest beauties & most recondite faults. ---- She with her Brother desire their kindest respects to you -- If you can pick up a Hamlet, an Othello, & a Romeo & Juliet, separately, in numbers, or an odd volume -- Wordsworth would thank you to get it for him ---- T. Poole will be collecting the names of the persons, who want my poems here -- when I have got them, I will send the Number & you will put it to Poole's account -- For myself I want one, for C. Lamb one, for Wordsworth in your name one, for my Brother one, and one I shall send with a sonnet to Dr Parr -- God love you | & your ever affectionate S. T. Coleridge Errata 1 P. 22. For 'light-flashing' read 'light-flushing' P. 52. The Man of Ross is altogether misprinted; and cannot be made intelligible in these Errata. P. 78. Line 8. for 'blissful' read 'happy' & for 'anguish'd' read 'mournful'. Line 9 for 'thy margin's willowy maze' read 'thy marge with willows grey'. Line 11. place a full stop after 'transparence' -and instead of 'to the gaze' read 'on my way' and Line 7. for 'blaze' read 'ray' P. 87. Line 11. Omit the full stop. P. 92. Line 10. For the colon put a comma. P. 97. Scratch out these three lines 'Where melodies round honey-dropping flowers 'Footless & wild like birds of Paradise 'Nor pause nor perch hovering on untamed wing['] and put a full stop instead of a Comma at 'Fairy-land.' -- P. 105. Line 7. omit the comma at 'sad' & Line 8. for 'gale' read 'Gale'. P. 109. Scratch out the 9th & 10th lines. Religious Musings Line 71. alter to 'Fear, a wild-visaged Man with starting eye'. Alter Lines 77 and 78 to these 'While Faith's whole armour girds his limbs! And thus 'Transfigur'd, with a deep and dreadless awe, 'A solemn hush of spirit, he beholds['] ____________________ 1 In the manuscript these errata, which are in Dorothy Wordsworth's handwriting, precede the letter. See Wise, Bibliography, 89, for a description of the errata slip inserted in some copies of the 1797 Poems. See also Poems, 1797, p. 278. -331- P. 145 -- There is a line omitted; after 876 it ought to have been 'Up the fine fibres thro' the sentient brain 'Roll subtly-surging. Pressing on his steps Lo! PRIESTLEY there &c -- and a colon instead of a comma at the word 'Sage'. P. 180. For 'When I this performed' read 'When I had this perform'd' P. 186. Line 9. after 'boundeth' insert the word 'on'