Thomas Beddoes to William Reynolds, August or September 1796
[Stock notes that:] In a letter to his friend Reynolds, the date of which nearly corresponds with that of Mr. Donne's publication, [Beddoes] enters more fully into the detail of it. His intention was to begin with the plough, ‘which,’ he observes, ‘would afford an opportunity of introducing a vast train of ideas belonging to natural history, chemistry, and other branches of science.’ The first manufacture which he intended to take up, was the iron trade; with the details of which, probably, few speculative men were so well acquainted. The subscription to this projected scheme would have been considerable; as each share would have amounted to one hundred pounds. He had engaged an artist to execute his models, and an engraver to copy the designs when executed; and announces his intention of employing the whole sum subscribed, without any deduction, in the execution of the scheme. ‘I have made the subscription,’ he remarks, ‘a kind of favor, as it in fact will be; for I propose to myself no other recompence than the satisfaction of setting on foot a scheme of boundless utility.’ This plan, however, did not succeed; probably from its being attempted on too extensive a scale; it was not, however, as will be seen in a subsequent part of this volume, finally abandoned.
Published: Stock, p. 130