410
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. n. NOV. 19,
SOUTHEY'S 'OMNIANA,' 1812.
(10 th S. ii. 305.)
I HAVE been much interested in COL. PRIDEAUX'S article on this work, a copy of which I have had for some years. The two volumes are beautifully bound in calf in the style prevalent in the early part of last century. The only title they bear is ' Omniana ' on the back of each. It seems to me that if Southey's name had appeared on the copies in boards, it would have been placed on this, and I therefore regard the omission as a proof that the work was pub- lished anonymously, and I am tempted to think that the "back-label" mentioned by COL. PRIDEAUX may have been affixed by a second - hand bookseller. It is scarcely credible that the publishers of ' Omniana ; or, Horse Otiosiores,' labelled the volumes with the name of a writer who had given no clue to his identity on the title-pages. And though Southey bore no little resemblance to Voltaire's Habakkuk, *'qui etait capable de tout," he had good reason for not claiming the collection as his own. He had no right to do such a thing, for he was not the sole author or compiler, but " the editor," as he calls himself on p. 20 of the second volume at the end of an article entitled ' The Soul and its Organs of Sense,' which he was as incapable of writing as of squaring the circle. His words are these : " N.B. The editor scarcely need [sic] observe that the preceding article is taken from his friend's ' volume oi title-pages,' &c., scattered in his memorandum books."
Now to this friend Southey is indebted for nearly one-fifth of the contents oi 4 Omniana.' Out of the 246 papers no fewer than 45 are marked by an asterisk, and, as we are told in a foot-note on p. vi of the "Contents" of vol. i., "are by a different writer." This writer is no other than Samuel Taylor Coleridge, with whose bibliography no one is better acquainted than COL. PRIDEAUX. In my opinion it is the con- tributions of the poet-philosopher which give any value to the work. They are all highly characteristic ; some of them striking ; neither of which epithets can be applied to the odds and ends, two hundred and one in number, brought together by Southey. If any of the comments he occasionally makes show individuality, they only tend to prove that he was in 1812 what Macauiay judged him to be in 1830 and what he remained until the day of his death. " Mr. Southey,"
says the critic, "brings to the task two
'acuities which were never, we believe,
vouchsafed in measure so copious to any
luman being the faculty of believing with-
out a reason, and the faculty of hating
without a provocation." However, notwith-
standing these and other failings, a tribute
must be paid to his amazing literary activity ;
and an examination of the two volumes of
'Omniana' leads one to think how well it
would have been if the genius of Coleridge
had exhibited a tithe of the application
which distinguished the talent of Southey.
My copy of the work corresponds with COL. PRIDEAUX'S in every way except one : the " Contents " of both volumes have been placed at the beginning of the second by the binder, who has so jumbled them together that pp. vii, viii, ix, of the first volume are among the " Contents " of the second. I now rely on the numbers prefixed to the articles. JOHN T. CURRY.
The hypothesis by means of which COL. PRIDEAUX proposes to explain, and in some measure to justify, the description of 4 Omniana' given in the Hollings 'Biblio- graphy ' of 1900 is undoubtedly ingenious ; but, in the absence of all authenticated evidence for the existence of a Gale & Curtis title-page such as he postulates, it would appear to be gratuitous, or at least premature. Has anybody ever seen a copy of ' Omniana ' with the name of the firm Gale & Curtis on the title-page 1 Whenever such a copy turns up, it will be time enough to speculate on the hows and whys. Meantime, it may be observed that COL. PRIDEAUX'S hypothesis derives no support from the Southey letters, in which there are many references to 'Omniana,' extending over the years 1811 and 1812. Southey always speaks of himself ai the responsible editor of the work, and of Coleridge as a contributor merely. It was Southey who carried the sheets through the press, and doubtless it was also he who arranged for its publication. Longman was Southey's publisher. " Has Longman sent you the * Omniana' ?" he writes to a friend, 16 November, 1812. If, as COL. PRIDEAUX suggests, the work was transferred from Gale & Curtis to Longman, this could only have been (as in the case of the 'Lyrical Ballads') after the date of its actual publication by the former firm ; for it is inconceivable that Longman should have been so careless as to suffer any copies with the Gale & Curtis imprint to issue from his house. And if ' Omniana ' was actually published by Gale & Curtis, is it likely that Southey, ordinarily so communicative about such
