God bless you. S. T. COLERIDGE. T. Allsop, Esq.
We are quite sure that you would not allow yourself to fancy any rightful ground, cause, or occasion for not coming here, but the wish, the duty, or the propriety of going elsewhere or staying at home. When the Needle of your Thoughts begins to be magnetic, you may be certain that my _Pole_ is at that moment attracting you by the spiritual magic of strong wishing for your arrival. N.B. My _Pole_ includes in this instance _both the Poles_ of Mr. and eke of Mrs. Gillman, _i.e._, the head and the heart.
But seriously--I am a little anxious--so give my blest sisterly Friend a few lines by return of post--just to let us know that you are and have been well, and that nothing of a painful nature has deprived us of the expected pleasure; a pleasure which, believe me, stands a good many degrees above _moderate_ in the cordi or hedonometer of,
Yours most _cordi_ally, S. T. COLERIDGE. T. Allsop, Esq.
I cannot rest until I have answered your last letter. I have contemplated your character, affectionately indeed, but through a clear medium. No film of passion, no glittering mist of outward advantages, has arisen between the sight and the object: I had no other prepossession than the esteem which my knowledge of your sentiments and conduct could not but secure for you. I soon learnt to esteem you; and in esteeming, became attached to you. I began by loving the man on account of his conduct, but I ended in valuing the actions chiefly as so many looks and attitudes of the same person. "_Hast_ thou any thing? Share it with me, and I will pay thee an equivalent. _Art_ thou any thing? O then we will exchange souls."
We can none of us, not the wisest of us, brood over any source of affliction inwardly, keeping it back, and as it were pressing it in on ourselves; but we must MAGNIFY it. We cannot see it clearly, much less distinctly; and as the object enlarges beyond its real proportions, so it becomes vivid; and the feelings that blend with it assume a proportionate undue intensity. So the one acts on the other, and what at first was effect, in its turn becomes a cause; and when at length we have taken heart, and given the whole thing, with all its several parts, the proper distance from our mind's eye, by confiding it to a true friend, we are ourselves surprised to find what a dwarf the giant shrinks into, as soon as it steps out of the mist into clear sunlight.