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THE BIRTH OF A FIRST CHILD.

In the September of this year, his first child (to whom he gave, in memory of her grandmother, the name of Margaret,) was born. This was an event ardently wished for and joyfully welcomed. It operated still more strongly upon his domestic feelings, and suggested the propriety of his settling in a permanent abode. Since his return from Portugal he had been wandering from one house to another, from this friend to that friend; and he had only selected Bristol as a temporary place of residence. A desire to be near London, the great centre of business, inclined him to regard Richmond as an eligible spot; but fearing that it was not sufficiently retired, and that its proximity to the metropolis might expose him to the interruption of frequent visitors, he determined to select a more distant home. Accordingly, he entered into negotiations for a house in the Vale of Neath, in Glamorganshire, one of the loveliest spots in Great Britain. Amongst the objects which he proposed to himself in choosing Wales for a place of residence, was the facility it might afford him of acquiring the Welsh language, which he was very desirous to learn. A disagreement, however, arising between himself and the landlord, upon some necessary improvements, the negotiations were broken off, and an idea that had for some time filled his mind with the most pleasurable anticipations remained unrealised.

He was, however, indefatigable in his literary labours, although a weakness in his eyes, which he feared

A MELANCHOLY APPREHENSION.

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might terminate seriously, occasionally checked the energy of his natural enthusiasm. Longman and Hamilton were requiring his prose, whilst an engagement for supplying the "Morning Post" with a regular string of verses was still pending. Yet he found his chief amusement in being employed in literature, and his only regret was that the kind was not of his own choosing. Reviewing he always disliked; but had his path lain through old chronicles, and he himself allowed to compose from a full head at leisure, he would, he tells us, have aspired to no higher happiness.

Fondness for the Past-The "Bibliotheca Britannica"-Death of his Daughter-Resides at Keswick-His CharacterLiterature" Madoc"- Specimens of the Modern English Poets-Thoughts of visiting Portugal-Visit to Scotland -Edinburgh · Ashestiel - Walter Scott Jeffrey and Brougham-Criticism and Reviews.

ETAT. 29-32.

IN his letters to his most intimate friends Southey poured forth his whole undisguised heart, expressed the fulness of his feelings, and told his hopes and disappointments with unrestricted confidence. It is in these that we trace the true features of his character, that we are enabled to arrive at the fountain-head of his sentiments, and pursue the course and current of his opinions. A lingering fondness for the past, for whatever wore the impress or assumed the air of the antique, had peculiar charms for his fancy, and not unfrequently fascinated and overruled his better judgment. " I love," he writes to a friend,* “ old houses best, for the sake of odd closets, and cupboards, and good thick

* Letter to Grosvenor C. Bedford, Esq. April 1803.

walls that do not let the wind blow in; and little outof-the-way polyangular rooms, with great beams running across the ceiling-old heart of oak that has outlasted half-a-score of generations; and chimneypieces with the date of the year carved above them; and huge fireplaces that warmed the shins of Englishmen before the House of Hanover came over. The most delightful associations that ever made me feel, and think, and fall a-dreaming, are excited by old buildings; not absolute ruins, but in a state of decline. . . In truth, I am more disposed to connect myself by sympathy with the ages that are past, and by hope with those that are to come, than to vex and irritate myself by any lively interest about the existing generations." The type and the antitype, the symbol and "the thing signified," are easily confounded in a mind so constituted; nor should we be surprised to find that one who so fondly cherished old feudal and despotic relics should insensibly be averse to change and reformation in the civil and religious institutions of his own country.

In the July of 1803 Southey was again in London. The object of this present visit was to negotiate with Messrs. Longman and Co. the publication, on a very extensive scale, of a history of British literature. The work was to be bibliographical, biographical, and critical, and entitled the Bibliotheca Britannica." One portion was to be devoted to the pure and native productions of the Welsh writers; another to include

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ASSOCIATES IN THE WORK.

English poets and poetry, and prose really poetical, consisting of such great names as have either formed epochs in our taste, or such, at least, as are representations. A third would be dedicated to English prose, considered as to style, as to eloquence, as to general impressiveness; a history of style and manners, their causes, their birthplaces, their parentage, their analysis.* A fourth would contain an account of metaphysics, theology, medicine, alchemy, law, and ethics, from Alfred to the present day. Another would embrace articles on all the separate arts and sciences that have been treated of in books since the Reformation. All these subjects were to be arranged chronologically, and the distribution of the whole-in fact, the entire editing this encyclopædia, was to be intrusted to Southey. Of those who were to be associates in this great literary undertaking, the chief were, the well-known AngloSaxon historiographer Sharon Turner, Messrs. Rickman, Taylor (of Norwich), Duppa, and Coleridge,-men with whom he was well acquainted, and upon whose cooperation in such a work he could confidently depend. The universal panic which seized the nation at this time, however, affected also the interests of literature. The publishers were reluctant to risk their capitals on so extensive an undertaking, and deemed it prudent to wait until a more favourable change had

1 *Letter of Coleridge to Southey : "Life and Correspondence of Southey," vol. ii. p. 218.