LETTER 79. TO COTTLE
(14 Apl., 1798.)
My dear Cottle,
I never involved you in bickering, and never suspected you, in any one action of your life, of practising guile against any human being, except yourself.
Your letter supplied only one in a link of circumstances, that informed me of some things, and perhaps deceived me in others. I shall write to-day to Lloyd. I do not think I shall come to Bristol for these lectures of which you speak.[1] I ardently wish for the knowledge, but Mrs. Coleridge is within a month of her confinement, and I cannot, I ought not to leave her; especially as her surgeon is not a John Hunter, nor my house likely to perish from a plethora of comforts. Besides, there are other things that might disturb that evenness of benevolent feeling, which I wish to cultivate.
I am much better, and at present at Allfoxden, and my new and tender health is all over me like a voluptuous feeling. God bless you,