December 2nd, ’43.
My dear Mr. Justice Coleridge,
The first line would certainly have more spirit by reading “your” as you suggest. I had previously considered that; but decided in favour of “the,” as “your,” I thought, would clog the sentence in sound, there being “ye” thrice repeated, and followed by “you” at the close of the 4th line. I also thought that “your” would interfere with the application of “you” at the end of the fourth line, to the whole of the particular previous images as I intended it to do. But I don’t trouble you with this Letter on that account, but merely to ask you whether the couplet now standing:—
Large were his aims, yet in no human breast
Could private feelings find a holier nest,
would not be better thus
Could private feelings meet in holier rest.
This alteration does not quite satisfy me, but I can do no better. The word “nest” both in itself and in conjunction with “holier” seems to me somewhat bold and rather startling for marble, particularly in a Church. I should not have thought of any alteration in a merely printed poem, but this makes a difference. If you think the proposed alteration better, don’t trouble yourself to answer this; if not, pray be so kind as to tell me so by a single line. I would not on any account have trespassed on your time but for this public occasion. We are sorry to hear of Lady Coleridge’s indisposition; pray present to her our kind regards and best wishes for her recovery, united with the greetings of the season both for her and yourself, and believe me faithfully,
Your obliged,