Henry Crabb Robinson, 30 Russell Square, London, to the Rev. John Miller, [Bockleton], 14 January 1853.

London

30 Russell Square

14 Jan: 1853.

My dear Sir,

     Many thanks for your gratifying letter It begins with a few remarks on the theory of letter writing – We agree in this – To answer a letter by return of post habitually would wear out any patience, even of the most fond of correspondents – Do you recollect one of the most endurable sayings of one of the most odious of French classics – Rochefoucault? “on est plus proche d’armer ceux qui nous haissent, que ceux qui nous arment trop[”] – You will make the application – The only expedient – not to fall into the opposite evil, of sitting down to answer & having forgotten the first & most just impression is – To write the answer – and kept ^keep^ it by you till the fittest time for forwarding – Did I not say this before? This reminds me that we old men are proverbially nuisances in company because we are ever repeating our often repeated tales – Is it not so in our letters? I cannot sit down to write to you on the few subjects on which we have a common interest without an apprehension that my letter will be but a repetition – If it be so (what I am now writing may be an instance) – Forgive it – Or rather half smile at it – half-sigh over it And whisper to your self “The senility towards which we are all advancing” –

    I am resolved however that it shall not apply to the better half of this letter – which consists of a copy and remarks on the most marvellous poems I have met with of late years – And which I send you in the hope that you may not have seen it – I was making a copy of it the other day to send to my old friend Mrs Clarkson paralytic And scarcely able to relish such things when it occurred to me that perhaps you might not have seen it And therefore I desired her to send it me back which she has done – I do not wish you to trouble yourself to send it me back, but if you think it will do harm at Bockleton ^Walkeringham,^ on the contrary give pleasure, pray send it there I should be afraid: unable to foresee how what I love & admire may be felt there. Of all the men of Genius I ever knew, Charles Lamb was the one I most intensely loved – my love proves nothing, but he was loved with equal warmth coupled with like admiration by Thomas Clarkson And his wife my dear friend – by Southey, Coleridge, Wordsworth – &c &c &c That a young lady should say she feels more compassion than admiration only makes me smile And she being a person I am much pleased with. I am quite sure that she will have wider sympathies twenty years hence – And I regret having ever related the anecdote to any one who knows her lest others may not as I do consider this as the inevitable one-sidedness of youth – But that your excellent brother should say that the perusal of his ^L’s^ works has disappointed him And that he has been “pained by the total insight” this makes me regret having sent the works, almost as if it were a Sin to be reported to my confessor if it belonged to a Church that claimed this act of submission to its authority –

     Of course as far as the opinion of ^concerning^ L: is a matter of taste and of taste only I neither expect nor wish for a correspondence in our judgements I was not annoyed by the unfavorable opinion you expressed of the Prelude – tho’ I do not wish to rank you among the Edinburg parodists of the great poet – I did not answer your brothers painful letter ^at length^ till two days ago And have purposely written ^to you ^ before I can have an answer that I am may preserve distinct the several communications with the two places I continually confound – as I have done in this letter – How dull I am in guessing at a joke! To need the illustration of M. A. D. to comprehend S. A. M. as Initial letters –

     But I was not so forgetful of my youthful pleasure in Blue-Beard As not to know that the Blue Chamber is the seat of hideous phantoms! And should not have dared to use the image I willingly admit for fear of dangerous applications I shall only be too happy to see J. K. M. or S. A. M. or any member of the Miller race – seen or unseen forgotten or recollected who may condescend to look in at Russ: Square And flattering myself that you would, if ever in London, allow me to make your personal acquaintance, if you could do so without an unreasonable sacrifice of invaluable time

     I vowed to myself not to inflict on you more than two of my closely written sheets And therefore leave passages of your obliging letter unnoticed which I should otherwise have referred to

     So with most respectful rememberances to all who may not unwillingly hear of me within your reach

                 I am with sincere regard

                             &c &c &c

                                     H. C. Robinson

Revd John Miller –

Text: WLL/2000.24.2.4, Wordsworth Trust and Museum, Grasmere. Robinson writes in his diary on 14 January 1853: ‘... finished a letter to Jno Miller in which I included a copy of Hoods Bridge of Sighs. I gave a short accot of my late letter to his brother J.K.M. that J.M. might be aware of the probable result.’