My dear Friend,
Mr. and Mrs. Gillman’s kind love, and we beg that the good lady’s late remembering that (as often the very fullness and vividness of the purpose and intention to do a thing imposes on the mind a sort of counterfeit feeling of quiet, similar to the satisfaction which the having done it would produce) you had not been written to, will not prejudice the present attempt at “better late than never.” We have a party to-morrow, in which, because we believed it would interest you, you stood included. In addition to a neighbour Robert Sutton, and ourselves, and Mrs. Gillman’s most un-Mrs. Gillmanly sister (but n. b. this is a secret to all who are both blind and deaf), there will be the Mathews (Mr. and Mrs.) at home, Mathews I mean, and Charles and Mary Lamb.
Of myself the best thing that I can say is that, in the belief of those well qualified to judge, I am not so ill as I fancy myself. Be this as it may,
I am always, my dearest friend,
With highest esteem and regard,
Your affectionate friend,
S. T. Coleridge.
T. Allsop, Esq.
“Of this day and the one following,” Allsop says, “I have a few notes, which appear to me of interest. It must be borne constantly in mind, that much of what is preserved has relation to positions enforced by others, which Coleridge held to be untenable on the particular grounds urged, not as being untrue in themselves.”