Thursday. Sept 8.
Bro left home at 7 this morning, for the purpose of going down the Wye; but we hear that the rain has kept him shooting at Mr. Biddulphs— I dare say he will go tomorrow. I hope so, if it will give him pleasure. For my part, I should like to go down the Wye, but I wd. choose my company, & not choose the cold formal commonplace Miss Biddulphs, who have no sympathy in their voice countenance or conversation, with the wild graceful varrying excellences of nature. Mr. Martin is a clever man naturally; but I wdnt go with him; he is rugged & unpoetical. Mrs. Martin has some sensitiveness as well as sense; but I wdnt go with her—because … because, we dont amalgammate. Mr. de Marizet is a clever agreable man,—&, I hear, admiresme, which is a sign of abundant judgement—but he is French, & essentially unpoetical I dare say. At least as I know nothing to the contrary, I am reasonable in believing so—so I wdnt go with him. Mr. Boyd!— Yes. I shd. like that very very much—if he cd. see!!—
I think I shd. like to go down the Wye with that fair Damsel who accompanied Thalaba on his last voyage—and then as
Our little boat fell rapidly
Adown the river-stream,
if she said to me with her “melancholy smile”
“Wilt thou go on with me?”
my answer shd. still be “I will go on with thee”—[1]
What dreaming all this is!— Well! after all, I am as likely to go down the Wye with Thalaba’s Damsel, as to go down the Wye at all!---
Poor Bro & the King! How it does rain!—[2] Was it a fine day on the last corronation?[3] If it were, I wish Fate had changed the days. Never mind! Our patriotic monarch has sunshine within; which the “other sceptered thing” could not have had!— A letter from Mrs. Boyd to answer mine to Mr. Boyd, & desire me to write to Bohn.
Dawes was born to plague me, as well as Bentley.[4] He has just arrived from Eaton, & may go back again if Eaton will take him; for Dominic announces that the lost book is found!— Eighteen shillings for nothing—except for the consciousness of having deserved to lose them!
I have been hard at work all day, reading & meditating on the first eleven chapters of Romans. Dr. Adam Clarke is wrong, I think, about “the whole creation”, & wrong about “who shall separate us from the love of Christ.”[5]
The close of the 5th. chapter, strikes me strongly as it has done before, as favoring the doctrine of general redemption. Why should any body of Christians struggle to deny it? Is it not enough, that redemption is by free grace,—& only of God who showeth mercy? I cannot believe that the christian church will ever have a united opinion on some passages of Romans; and if my opinion of those passages shd. ever become clearer & more decided than it now is, I could not look upon Christians who differed from me, less as brethren than I now do.
Guitaring in the evening, for Bummy. I have sighed to go to Malvern tomorrow. It wont do!—Lane wants the carriage, that he may consult Dr. Garlick![6]—and the clouds besides!!— I wrote to Mr. Bohn.
1. Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, 2 vols. (London, 1801), II, 290–292.
2. This was the day appointed for the coronation of King William IV. The Literary Beacon, 17 September 1831, pp. 44–46, in an eye-witness account, said of the weather: “Bless my heart! what a shower! what a soaker for the thousands of jackets, exposed at this moment, to its pitiless pelting! … I wonder what part of the ceremony is going forward, the national anthem I should think, and the people must be shouting ‘On us be pleased to pour—long may it reign.’”
3. That of King George IV on 19 July 1821. The Times, 20 July 1821, stated: “add to all this, that the weather had become settled, the sun rose in unclouded majesty, nor was it possible to select any day more favourable for any national commemoration or rejoicing.”
4. Presumably the Bentley of Worcester who conducted the auction of the Hope End crops, and who provided the ticket of admission for the Walls’ party, whose visit so much angered E.B.B.
5. In The Holy Bible, … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Designed as a Help to a Better Understanding of the Sacred Writings, by Adam Clarke, LL.D., 8 vols, (London, 1810–25). His commentary on the interpretation of Romans viii.19–25 and 35 was very lengthy. In brief, he held that the restoration of creation to a state of happiness, the subject of verses 19–25, related only to the Gentiles, rather than to a general redemption. Verse 35 he interpreted as relating to the severance of Man’s love of Christ, rather than vice versa.
6. Dr. William Bennett Garlike (1756?–1841), of Melton House, Great Malvern, described as “a physician of great eminence” in A Description of Malvern [by Mary Southall], (Malvern, 1822), p. 10.
