328. To Thomas Poole Address: Mr. T. Poole [N. Stowey I Bridgewater MS. British Museum. Pub. with omis. Essays on His Own Times, i, p. xci, and Thomas Poole, ii. 7. Friday Night ( 21 March 1800] 3 My dear Poole I received your letter this night, left for me at Stuart's by I know not whom -- Bastone I have not seen. -- By my silence you will conclude, how much I have been occupied -- indeed, I never worked so hard in my Life. In one day I wrote 500 blank Verse Lines, and that character of Pitt, in the same Evening, without previous meditation on it -- / . ____________________ 1 'I think' indicates that Mrs. Coleridge had left London. 2 Coleridge made overtures to Stuart on behalf of Lamb in Mar. 1800 -Coleridge, Lamb wrote to Manning on 17 Mar., 'has lugged me to the brink of engaging to a newspaper' ( Lamb Letters, i. 178). This letter, as the postscript suggests, was written while Coleridge was staying with Lamb, after Mrs. Coleridge's departure. 3 The reference to the famous 'character of Pitt', which appeared in the Morning Post on 19 Mar 1800, dates this letter. See Essays on His Own Times, ii. 319-29. -581- Now for the Business -- I like the Scheme very much, & shall write by the same post with this to my Wife, desiring her, if she thinks it will do, as well as I do, to write you immediately -- the chief objection I see at present, is the use of the Garden -- I suffered so much the last summer for want of Vegetables, that I am determined whatever it cost me in money, to have a Garden -- not that I mean to work in it -- that is out of the Question -- but a Garden I will have -- I shall not be down at Stowey for these two months; but Sara, I suppose, will -- however, if the scheme suit her wishes, she will write you, concerning the Time, &c -- As to money, I am not anxious -- I am sure, if God give me health, to make all even before the End of this year -- & I find that I can without any straining gain 500 guineas a year, if I give up poetry----i.e. original Poetry----. If I had the least love of money, I could make almost sure of 2000£ a year / for Stuart has offered me half shares in the two Papers, the M.P. & Courier, if I would devote myself with him to them -- but I told him, that I would not give up the Country, & the lazy reading of Old Folios for two Thousand Times two thousand Pound -- in short, that beyond 250£ a year, I considered money as a real Evil -- at which he stared; for such Ideas are not animals indigenous in the Longitudes & Latitudes of a Scotchman's Soul. I shall continue to write for him, because three half Evenings in the week will suffice to earn four guineas a week -& I think there are but 2 good ways of writing -- one for immediate, & wide impression, tho' transitory -- the other for permanence -- / Newspapers the first -- the best one can do is the second -- that middle class of translating Books &c is neither the one or the other -- When I have settled myself clear, I shall write nothing for money but for the newspaper. You, of course, will not hint a word to any [one] of Stuart's offer to me. -- He has behaved with th[e] most abundant honor & generosity. -- I would to God, I could get Wordsworth to re-take Alfoxden -the Society of so great a Being is of priceless Value -- but he will never quit the North of England -- his habits are more assimilated with the Inhabitants there -- there he & his Sister are exceedingly beloved, enthusiastically. Such difference do small Sympathies make -- such as Voice, Pronunciation, &c -- for from what other Cause can I account for it --. Certainly, no one, neither you, or the Wedgewoods, altho' you far more than any one else, ever entered into the feeling due to a man like Wordsworth -- of whom I do not hesitate in saying, that since Milton no man has manifested himself equal to him. I am at Lamb's, No/ 86, Chapel Street, Pentonville -- & never receive my papers, but when I go, or send for them -- which is the -582- reason, you have them so irregularly -- You must write -- Mr Lambe, East India House as usual. -- I am very quiet here -- but wish, I were at Stoweyo -- My kind Love to your Mother & to Ward. Your's ever most affectionately, S. T. Coleridge