Beschreibung:

COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). Autograph letter signed ('S.T. Coleridge'), to his brother Revd George Coleridge, [Keswick], 30 November 1806, 4 pages, 4to, integral address leaf (seal tear affecting text and signature, small tears and one affecting text, folds weak, patches of light browning).
COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). Autograph letter signed ('S.T. Coleridge'), to his brother Revd George Coleridge, [Keswick], 30 November 1806, 4 pages, 4to, integral address leaf (seal tear affecting text and signature, small tears and one affecting text, folds weak, patches of light browning). Coleridge recounts his adventures in Europe. He reflects on his own state of mind and quotes seven verses of poetry ('For not to think of what I needs must feel '). He describes the offer he was made to act as private secretary to the governor of Malta, Sir Alexander Ball, for whom he had 'great affection, and respect', but conveys the sense of 'utter dreariness' he experienced on 'that white rock' bereft of his books and familiar faces; he recounts his travels to Sicily, Naples, Rome and Florence ('just in time to escape an arrest from the French') and his embarkation on an American vessel 'and after 55 days of literal Horror, almost daily expecting and wishing to die, I at last trod again on my native Land'. After a reference to recent unfortunate news of their brother Edward, Coleridge reflects on the nature of the moral faculty in man ('... it seems to me, as if the goodness of God had occasionally added it to our nature, as an intermediate or connecting Link between that nature and a state of Grace').