Chapter XCVI: Letter 207: To Allsop

Dec. 26th, 1822.

My very dear Friend,

I might with strict truth assign the not only day after day, but hour after hour employment, if not through the whole period of my waking time, yet through the whole of my writing power, as the cause of my not having written to you with my own hand; but then I ought to add that it was enforced and kept up by the expectation of seeing you. There are two ways of giving you pleasure and comfort; would to God I could have made the one _compossible_ with the other and done both! The first, the having finished the Logic in its three main divisions,--as the Canon, or that which prescribes the rule and form of all _conclusion_ or conclusive reasoning; second, as the Criterion, or that which teaches to distinguish truth from falsehood, containing all the sorts, forms, and sources of error, and means of deceiving or being deceived; third, as the Organ, or positive instrument for discovering truth, together with the general introduction to the whole.

The second was to come to town, and pass a week with you and Mrs. Allsop. The latter I could not have done, and yet have been able to send you the present good tidings that with regard to the former we are in sight of land; that Mr. Stutfield will give three days in the week for the next fortnight; and that I have no doubt, notwithstanding Mrs. Coleridge and my little Sara's expected arrival on Friday next, that by the end of January the whole book will not only have been finished, for _that_ I expect will be the case next Sunday fortnight, but ready for the press. In reality, I have _now_ little else but to transcribe, and even this would in part only be necessary, but that I must of course dictate the sentences to Mr. Stutfield and Mr. Watson, and shall therefore avail myself of the opportunity for occasional correction and improvement. When this is done, and can be offered as _a whole_ to Murray or other Publisher, I shall have the Logical Exercises, or the Logic exemplified and applied in a critique on--1. Condillac; 2. Paley; 3. The French Chemistry and Philosophy, with other miscellaneous matters from the present Fashions of the age, moral and political, ready to go to the press with by the time the other is printed off; and this without interrupting the greater work on Religion, of which the first Half, containing the Philosophy or ideal Truth, possibility, and _a priori_ probability of the articles of Christian Faith, was completed on Sunday last.

Let but these works be once done, and the responsibility off my conscience, and I have no doubt or dread of afterwards obtaining an honourable sufficiency, were it only by school books, and compilations from my own memorandum volumes. The publication of my Shakspeare and other similar lectures, sheet per sheet, in _Blackwood_, with the aid of Mr. Frere's short-hand copies, and those on the History of Philosophy in one volume, would nearly suffice.

I was unspeakably delighted to see Mrs. Allsop look so _charmingly_ well. My affectionate regards to her, and a heart-uttered Happy, Happy, Happy Christmas to you both, one for each, and the third for the little girl, who (Mr. Watson assures me) has now the ground work and necessary pre-condition of thriving, though it may be some time before a notable change in the appearances may take place for the general eye.

God bless you, and your friend,
S. T. COLERIDGE.[131]

T. Allsop, Esq.

The Shakespeare Lectures as arranged for _Blackwood_ were probably written out by one of Coleridge's friends. The History of Philosophy consisted of the Lectures commenced 14th December 1818. The Logic is still in MS. (Dykes Campbell, _Life_, 251, note).

Mrs. Coleridge and Sara came to Highgate and remained till the end of February (_Ainger_, ii, 65, 71). Mrs. Coleridge wrote that "our visits to Highgate have been productive of the greatest satisfaction to all parties." It was at this time that Sara and her cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge, first met.