Chapter XX: Letter 143: To

1 June, 1809.

It is not unknown to you, that I have employed almost the whole of my Life in acquiring, or endeavouring to acquire, useful Knowledge by Study, Reflection, Observation, and by cultivating the Society of my Superiors in Intellect, both at Home and in foreign Countries. You know too, that at different Periods of my Life I have not only planned, but collected the materials for, many Works on various and important Subjects: so many indeed, that the Number of my unrealized Schemes, and the Mass of my miscellaneous Fragments, have often furnished my Friends with a Subject of Raillery, and sometimes of Regret and Reproof. Waiving the Mention of all private and accidental Hindrances, I am inclined to believe, that this Want of Perseverance has been produced in the Main by an Over-activity of Thought, modified by a constitutional Indolence, which made it more pleasant to me to continue acquiring, than to reduce what I had acquired to a regular Form. Add too, that almost daily throwing off my Notices or Reflections in desultory Fragments, I was still tempted onward by an increasing Sense of the Imperfection of my Knowledge, and by the Conviction, that, in Order fully to comprehend and develope any one Subject, it was necessary that I should make myself Master of some other, which again as regularly involved a third, and so on, with an ever-widening Horizon. Yet one Habit, formed during long Absences from those with whom I could converse with full Sympathy, has been of Advantage to me--that of daily noting down, in my Memorandum or Common-place Books, both Incidents and Observations; whatever had occurred to me from without, and all the Flux and Reflux of my Mind within itself. The Number of these Notices, and their Tendency, miscellaneous as they were, to one common End ("_quid sumus et quid futuri gignimur_," _what we are and what we are born to become; and thus from the End of our Being to deduce its proper Objects_) first encouraged me to undertake the Weekly Essay, of which you will consider this Letter as the Prospectus.

Not only did the plan seem to accord better than any other with the Nature of my own Mind, both in its Strength and in its Weakness; but conscious that, in upholding some Principles both of Taste and Philosophy, adopted by the great Men of Europe from the Middle of the fifteenth till toward the Close of the seventeenth Century, I must run Counter to many Prejudices of many of my readers (_for old Faith is often modern Heresy_) I perceived too in a periodical Essay the most likely Means of winning, instead of forcing my Way. Supposing Truth on my Side, the Shock of the first Day might be so far lessened by Reflections of the succeeding Days, so as to procure for my next Week's Essay a less hostile Reception, than it would have met with, had it been only the next Chapter of a present Volume. I hoped to disarm the Mind of those Feelings, which preclude Conviction by Contempt, and, as it were, fling the Door in the Face of Reasoning by a _Presumption_ of its Absurdity. A Motive too for honourable Ambition was supplied by the Fact, that every periodical Paper of the Kind now attempted, which had been conducted with Zeal and Ability, was not only well received at the Time, but has become permanently, and in the best Sense of the Word, popular. By honourable Ambition I mean the strong Desire to be useful, aided by the Wish to be generally acknowledged to have been so. As I feel myself actuated in no ordinary Degree by this Desire, so the Hope of realizing it appears less and less presumptuous to me, since I have received from Men of highest Rank and established Character in the Republic of Letters, not only strong Encouragements as to my own fitness for the Undertaking, but likewise Promises of Support from their own Stores.

The _Object_ of _The Friend_, briefly and generally expressed, is--to uphold those Truths and those Merits, which are founded in the nobler and permanent Parts of our Nature, against the Caprices of Fashion, and such Pleasures, as either depend on transitory and accidental Causes, or are pursued from less worthy Impulses. The chief _Subjects_ of my own Essays will be:

The true and sole Ground of Morality, or Virtue, as distinguished
from Prudence.

The Origin and Growth of moral Impulses, as distinguished from
external and immediate Motives.

The necessary dependence of Taste on Moral Impulses and Habits: and
the Nature of Taste (relatively to Judgment in general and to
Genius) defined, illustrated, and applied. Under this Head I
comprize the Substance of the Lectures given, and intended to have
been given, at the Royal Institution, on the distinguished English
Poets, in illustration of the general Principles of Poetry;
together with Suggestions concerning the Affinity of the Fine Arts
to each other, and the Principles common to them all:
Architecture; Gardening; Dress; Music; Painting; Poetry.

The opening out of new Objects of just Admiration in our own
Language; and Information of the present State and past History of
Swedish, Danish, German, and Italian Literature (to which, but as
supplied by a Friend, I may add the Spanish, Portuguese and
French) as far as the same has not been already given to English
Readers, or is not to be found in common French Authors.

Characters met with in real Life:--Anecdotes and Results of my own
Life and Travels, etc. etc. as far as they are illustrative of
general moral Laws, and have no immediate Bearing on personal or
immediate Politics.

Education in its widest Sense, private and national.

Sources of Consolation to the afflicted in Misfortune, or Disease,
or Dejection of Mind, from the Exertion and right Application of
the Reason, the Imagination, and the moral Sense; and new Sources
of Enjoyment opened out, or an Attempt (as an Illustrious Friend
once expressed the Thought to me) to add Sunshine to Daylight, by
making the Happy more happy. In the words "Dejection of Mind" I
refer particularly to Doubt or Disbelief of the moral Government
of the World, and the grounds and arguments for the religious
Hopes of Human Nature.[21]