paid my marriage fees, was supplied by you. It was with your sisters
that I left my Edith, during my six months' absence; and for the six
months after my return, it was from you that I received, week by
week, the little on which we lived, till I was enabled to live by
other means. It is not the settling of our cash account that can
cancel obligations like these. You are in the habit of preserving
your letters, and if you were not, _I would entreat you to preserve
this, that it might be seen hereafter_. Sure I am, that there never
was a more generous, nor a kinder heart than yours, and you will
believe me when I add, that there does not live that man upon earth,
whom I remember with more gratitude, and more affection. My heart
throbs, and my eyes burn with these recollections. Good night my dear
old friend and benefactor.

Robert Southey."

Gratitude is a plant indigenous to Heaven. Specimens are rarely found on
Earth. This is one.

Mr. Southey, on previous occasions had advised me to write my
"Recollections of Persons and Things," and it having been understood that
I was about to prepare a memoir of Mr. Coleridge, (1836) Mr. S. renewed
his solicitation, as will appear by the following extracts.

"Keswick, April 14, 1836.

My dear Cottle,

There is I hope, time enough for you to make a very interesting book
of your own 'Recollections,' a book which will be of no little value