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wants of others. He said somewhere, and herein I quite agree 
with him, that one of the greatest of earthly pleasures is the | 
correction of proof-sheets. An excellent Quaker, with whom I 
crossed the Atlantic last autumn, told me that Southey had said to 
him, (he was then sixty-five,) “ My motto through life has been zz 
labore requies”—he pointed as he spoke to the sixth volume of the 
“ Acta Sanctorum,” through which he was steadily plodding, and 
added, “ My only sorrow will be when I have reached the end.” 
Let me read to you a few passages from his letters describing 
the best experiences of his life. [The lecturer then read passages 
as referred to below, fromthe “ Life and Correspondence of the late 
Robert Southey,” in 6 vols., edited by his son, the Rev. Charles 
Cuthbert Southey. ] 
Vol. III., page 84.—Boy’s heart and child’s spirit. 
Vol. IV., page 31.—The effect of time on his feelings. 
Vol. IV., page 320.—Effects of Friendship in College Life. 
Vol. IV., page 186.—His mixed joys and sorrows. 
One or two of his higher expressions on Life and Religion :— 
Vol. IV., page 178.—Of natural affections. 
Vol. IV., page 157.—The future destiny of mankind. 
Vol. V., page 12.—The. value of Religion in the widest 
sense. 
Vol. IV. page 75.—‘‘The duties of a Parish Clergyman.” 
I now turn to his writings. Of the style of his prose writings, 
it has been truly said they have ‘every merit except the first.” 
But of their substance, we must acknowledge that the inequality, of 
which I spoke before, here makes itself apparent. But leaving in 
the shade those which are not worth recalling, let us hasten to say 
that there are two which will probably stand as long as the 
English language itself. One is the ‘Life of Nelson.” Even 
Macaulay relaxes in the presence of that charming biography. 
Southey was gratified at being told by Queen Victoria, then a little 
girl of eleven years of age, that she lately read, with pleasure, his 
“Life of Nelson.” Only the other day I received a letter from an 
aged clergyman, who describes the delight with which, when 
confined to a sick room at school with small-pox, he read the “Life 
