Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, 10 January 1793
Dear Giddy
I know not how to send you any copies of Isaac Jenkins, which is a prodigious favourite in this part of England. I was not sure that he wd find <equal> favour in distant parts because he speaks as provincial a dialect as the standard language wd in any way permit: & because there <are> so many other local peculiarities about him. Two editions (near 5000 copies) have been distributed or sold, or at least are in a fair way of being dispersed. Among the colliers it is a common saying when a man is seen staggering along – He has been at big Martha’s – & I am assured that some people in this neighbourhood have written to their acquaintance <at Ludlow> to go & pay Sarah a visit. Many gentle & all simple folks most seriously believing in her existence –
Rara temporum felicitas says Tacitus, ubi sentire quae velis & quod sentias dicere possis –
Hail, happy times, when free from base controul,
The tongue proclaims the dictates of the soul!
Ce qui me deplait, says Voltaire, c’est que personne n’ose mettre son ame sur le papier ni sur ses levres – In good company I many times wish myself at the angle which the Muskingham makes with the Ohio, in the most delightful of all countries, where the happiest of climates sheds its blessings on the most fertile of soils & Nature has planted every thing pleasant to the eye & grateful to the taste & withheld every thing noxious, except the Creek Indians; & they I believe are no longer dangerous to the infant Colony, which however according to the best accounts is the finest child of its years the world ever saw.
The hundred pounds is indeed an heavy fine! I hope the tin-lode has continued to turn out abundantly – Sadler’s engine is as it was – It is strongly reported that upon a comparative trial Watt’s engine has outworked Hornblower’s. Surely there must have been some strange oversight in the expt – The French ardour has led them into terrible difficulties – they had better have left the Scheldt in chains for a few years & devoted their attention solely to the Rhine & when they agitated their decree of universal fraternity to oppressed nations, they shd have recollected that Charity begins at home – A few years of peace wd have gained <them> the good opinion of mankind. War will estrange it – It seems to me as if all the nations of Europe were about to rush together & toss like the elements in Chaos; whether a more beautiful order will spring from the approaching confusion, I know not, nor do I suppose human sagacity can form any estimate of xxxx calamities that will perhaps close History – They will certainly be dreadful & human blood will be the liquid element in this political Chaos –
Reynolds desires you will immediately send the French papers in your possession by the coach. He wants them for the purpose of having them bound with the rest
Yours sincerely
T. Beddoes
Address: Davies Giddy Esqr / Tredrea / near Marazion / Cornwall // Shifnal Tenth Jany 1793 / Free / T Gilbert
Endorsement: Dr Beddoes / 1793 / Jany the 12th
MS: Cornish Archives MS DG 41/53