23 JANUARY 1904, Page 19

Sra,—I think the writer of the article thus headed in

the Spectator of January 9th is in error when he attributes to Southey that statement which called forth the Quaker lady's searching question. Surely it was S. T. Coleridge who was relating how many languages he studied every day, among them "Portuguese, which he learned while he was shaving," a state of mind which seems to me to indicate restless and morbid activity far more than "listlessness."—I am, Sir, &c., F. S. H.

AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT.