And may God bless you.

"Robert Southey."

In waging war with the Lake school of poetry, the _Edinburgh Review_ had
dealt harshly with Southey. His poems of "Madoc" and "The Curse of
Kehama" had been rigorously censured, and very shortly before the
appearance of "Roderick," his "Triumphal Ode" for 1814, which was
published separately, had been assailed with a continuance of the same
unmitigated severity. The Shepherd, who knew, notwithstanding the
Laureate's professions of indifference to criticism, that his nature was
sensitive, and who feared that the _Review_ would treat "Roderick" as it
had done Southey's previous productions, ventured to recommend him to
evince a less avowed hostility to Jeffrey, in the hope of subduing the
bitterness of his censure. The letter of Southey, in answer to this
counsel, will prove interesting, in connexion with the literary history
of the period. The Bard of Keswick had hardly advanced to that happy
condition which he fancied he had reached, of being "indulgent toward
others," at least under the influence of strong provocation:--

"Keswick, _24th Dec. 1814._

"Dear Hogg,--I am truly obliged to you for the
solicitude which you express concerning the treatment
'Roderick' may experience in the _Edinburgh Review_,
and truly gratified by it, notwithstanding my perfect
indifference as to the object in question. But you
little know me, if you imagine that any thoughts of
fear or favour would make me abstain from speaking
publicly of Jeffrey as I think, and as he deserves. I
despise his commendation, and I defy his malice. _He_
crush the 'Excursion!!!'[33] Tell him that he might as
easily crush Skiddaw. For myself, _popularity_ is not
the mark I shoot at; if it were, I should not write
such poems as 'Roderick;' and Jeffrey can no more stand
in my way to _fame_, than Tom Thumb could stand in my
way in the street.

"He knows that he has dealt unfairly and maliciously by
me; he knows that the world knows it, that his very
friends know it, and that if he attacks 'Roderick' as
he did 'Madoc' and 'Kehama,' it will be universally
imputed to personal ill-will. On the other hand, he
cannot commend this poem without the most flagrant
inconsistency. This would be confessing that he has
wronged me in the former instances; for no man will
pretend to say that