do.' At length, one, more accommodating than the rest, condescended to
receive my MS. poems, and, after a deliberate inspection, offered me for
the copy-right, six guineas, which sum, poor as I was, I refused to
accept." "Well," said I, "to encourage you, I will give you twenty
guineas." It was very pleasant to observe the joy that instantly diffused
itself over his countenance. "Nay," I continued, "others publish for
themselves, I will chiefly remember you. Instead of giving you twenty
guineas, I will extend it to thirty, and without waiting for the
completion of the work, to make you easy you may have the money as your
occasions require." The silence and the grasped hand, showed that at that
moment one person was happy.

Every incident connected with the lives of literary men, especially at
the commencement of their career, always excites interest. I have been,
therefore, the more particular in detailing this circumstance, (except
for its connexion, of no consequence) and proceed further to state, that
now, meeting Mr. Southey, I said to him, "I have engaged to give Mr.
Coleridge thirty guineas for a volume of his poems; you have poems equal
to a volume, and if you approve of it, I will give you the same." He
cordially thanked me, and instantly acceded to my proposal.

I then said to him, "you have read me several books of your 'Joan of Arc'
which Poem I perceive has great merit. If it meet with your concurrence,
I will give you fifty guineas for this work, and publish it in quarto,
when I will give you, in addition, fifty copies to dispose of amongst
your friends." Without a moment's hesitation, to this proposal also he
acceded.

I could say much of Mr. Southey at this time; of his constitutional
cheerfulness; of the polish of his manners; of his dignified, and at the