We offer petitions, not as supposing we influence the Immutable; but because to petition the Supreme Being, is the way most suited to our nature, to stir up the benevolent affections in our hearts. Christ positively commands it, and in St. Paul you will find unnumbered instances of prayer for individual blessings; for kings, rulers, etc. etc. We indeed should all join to our petitions: "But thy will be done, Omniscient, All-loving Immortal God!"
Believe [1] me to have towards you, the inward and spiritual gratitude and affection, though I am not always an adept in the outward and visible signs.
[Footnote 1: "My respects to your good mother, and to your father and believe me," etc.--"Early Recollections".]
The next letter refers to the second edition of the poems, and must have been written early in January, 1797.
If you delay the press it will give me the opportunity I so much wish, of sending my "Visions of the Maid of Arc" to Wordsworth, who lives [1] not above twenty miles from this place; and to Charles Lamb, whose taste and judgment, I see reason to think more correct and philosophical than my own, which yet I place pretty high. * *
*We arrived safe. Our house is set to rights. We are all--wife, bratling, and self, remarkably well. Mrs. Coleridge likes Stowey, and loves Thomas Poole and his mother, who love her. A communication has been made from our orchard into T. Poole's garden, and from thence to Cruikshank's, a friend of mine, and a young married man, whose wife is very amiable, and she and Sara are already on the most cordial terms; from all this you will conclude we are happy. By-the-bye, what a delightful poem, is Southey's "Musings on a Landscape of Caspar Poussin". I love it almost better than his "Hymn to the Penates". In his volume of poems, the following, namely,
"The Six Sonnets on the Slave Trade.--The Ode to the Genius of Africa.--To my own Miniature Picture.--The Eight Inscriptions.--Elinor, Botany-bay Eclogue.--Frederick", ditto.--"The Ten Sonnets". (pp. 107-116.) "On the death of an Old Spaniel.--The Soldier's Wife, Dactylics,--The Widow, Sapphics.--The Chapel Bell.--The Race of Banco.--"Rudiger".
All these Poems are worthy the Author of "Joan of Arc". And