"Keswick, March 16, 1810.
My dear Cottle,
I cannot express to you how much it has affected me to hear of your
affliction, [a long continued inflammation of the eyes, subdued
ultimately, after bleeding, blistering, and cupping, by Singleton's eye
ointment,] for though I am sure there is no one who would bear any
sufferings with which it should please God to visit him, more patiently
and serenely, than yourself, this nevertheless, is an affliction of the
heaviest kind. It is very far from being the habit of my mind to indulge
in visionary hopes, but from what I recollect of the nature of your
complaint, it is an inveterate inflammation, and this I believe to be
completely within the reach of art...."
In the year 1814, after an hemorrhage from the lungs, and consequent
debility, I relieved my mind by writing a kind, serious, and faithful
letter to my friend Southey, under an apprehension that it might be my
last; to which Mr. Southey returned the following reply.
"Keswick, May 13, 1814.
My dear Cottle,
I have seen so dreadful a case of hemorrhage from the lungs terminate
favorably, that your letter alarms me less than otherwise it would have
done. Basil Montague the younger, continued to bleed at intervals for six
weeks, in January and February last, and he has this day left Keswick
without any dangerous symptoms remaining upon him. Two other instances
have occurred within my knowledge, I will therefore hope for a favorable
termination. Your letter comes upon me when I am like a broken reed, so
deeply has the loss of Danvers wounded me. Were I to lose you also, I
should never have heart to visit Bristol again.
What answer shall I make to your exhortations? We differ, if indeed there
be a difference, more in appearance than reality; more in the form than
in the substance of our belief. I have already so many friends on the
other side of the grave, that a large portion of my thoughts and
affections are in another world, and it is only the certainty of another
life, which could make the changes and insecurity of this life endurable.
May God bless you, and restore you, my dear old friend, is the sincere
prayer of