The succeeding post brought me the following letter.
"Keswick, April 18, 1814.
My dear Cottle,
I ought to have slept upon your letter before I answered it. In thinking
over the subject (for you may be assured it was not in my power to get
rid of the thought) the exceeding probability occurred to me....
When you talked, in the proposed letter you sent me, of Coleridge
producing valuable works if his mind were relieved by the certainty of a
present income, you suffered your feelings to overpower your memory.
Coleridge _had_ that income for many years. It was given him expressly
that he might have leisure for literary productions; and to hold out the
expectation that he would perform the same conditions, if a like contract
were renewed, is what experience will not warrant.
You will probably write to Poole on this subject. In that case, state to
him distinctly what my opinion is: that Coleridge should return home to
Keswick, raising a supply for his present exigencies, by lecturing at
Birmingham, and Liverpool, and then, if there be a necessity, as I fear
there _will be_ (arising solely and wholly from his own most culpable
habits of sloth and self-indulgence) of calling on his friends to do that
which _he can_ and _ought to do_,--for _that_ time the humiliating
solicitation should be reserved....
God bless you,