This is the age of revolutions, and a huge one we have had on
the College Green. Poor Shadrack is left there, in the burning
fiery furnace of her displeasure, and a prime hot berth has he
got of it: he saw me depart with astonishment. 'Why, sir, you
be'nt going to Bath at this time of night, and in this weather!
Do let me see you sometimes, and hear from you, and send for me
when you are going.'
We are all well, and all eager to depart. March will soon
arrive, and I hope you will be with us before that time.
Why should the man who acts from conviction of rectitude,
grieve because the prejudiced are offended? For me, I am fully
possessed by the great cause to which I have devoted myself: my
conduct has been open, sincere, and just; and though the world
were to scorn and neglect me, I should bear their contempt with
calmness. Fare thee well.
Yours in brotherly affection,
ROBERT SOUTHEY."
"It might have been hoped," continues the editor, "that this storm
would have blown over; and that, when Pantisocracy had died a natural
death, and the marriage had taken place, Miss Tyler's angry feelings
might have softened down; but it was not so--the aunt and nephew never
met again!"
To describe this "natural death of Pantisocracy" is hardly necessary.
When the expense of a passage to America presented itself as a serious
obstacle, the scene of the experiment was shifted to Wales, evidently a
mere stage in the natural process of dissolution. Brought from America
to Wales, the scheme looked even still more hopeless, and was finally
abandoned. Mr Cuthbert Southey, in the preface to his work, says,
speaking of his father--"the even tenor of his life, during its greater
portion, affords but little matter for pure biography." That portion of
his father's life with which he was personally acquainted, exhibited,
no doubt, this even tenor; but there are few men whose lives will, upon
the whole, afford more striking materials for the future biographer.
He who passed the day so evenly and uniformly at Keswick, amongst his
books, and with his ever-busy pen, had experienced some of the most
startling vicissitudes of life, and could recall scenes in which the
very strongest passions of our nature must have been called into play.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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