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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge + 1838 + +Author: James Gillman + +Posting Date: April 8, 2014 [EBook #8957] +Release Date: September, 2005 +First Posted: August 20, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE *** + + + + +Produced by Clytie Siddall, Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>The Life<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>of Samuel Taylor Coleridge</i></h1> + +<br> +<br> + +<br> +<br> +<br> + +<b>by<br> +<br> + +James Gillman<br> +<br><br> + +1838</b><br> +<br><br> +<br> + + +<blockquote> +<span style="color: #A82C28;"><b><i> '... But some to higher hopes<br> + Were destined; some within a finer mould<br> + Were wrought, and temper'd with a purer flame:<br> + To these the Sire Omnipotent unfolds<br> + The world's harmonious volume, there to read<br> + The transcript of himself ....'</i></b></span></blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +To Joseph Henry Green, F. R. S.<br> +Professor of Anatomy of the Royal Academy, etc. etc.<br> +The Honoured Faithful and Beloved Friend of<br> +Samuel Taylor Coleridge,<br> +These Volumes<br> +Are Most Respectfully and Affectionately Inscribed.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<p><b><a name="toc">Table of Contents</a></b></p> +<ul> +<li><a href="#introduction">Preface</a></li> +<li><a href="#section1">Chapter I</a><br> +<i>Birth-place of Coleridge + — Slight Sketch of his Parents + — Whimsical Anecdotes he Used to Relate of his Father, &c + — As a Pastor, how Much Beloved + — His Brothers and Sisters Enumerated + — The Death of his Father + — His Entrance at Christ's Hospital + — Lamb's Account of him when at School + — Writes this Account under the Name of Elia + — Lamb's Admission that he Meant Coleridge for the "Friendless Boy" + — The Delicacy of his Stomach + — His First Attempt at Making Verse when a School Boy + — And Continuation of his Sufferings when at School + — His Water Excursions, the Origin of Most of his Subsequent Suffering</i></li> +<li><a href="#section2">Chapter II</a><br> +<i>Coleridge's First Entry at Jesus' College — +His Simplicity and Want of Worldly Tact — +Anecdotes and Different Accounts of Him During his Residence at College — +Intimacy with Middleton — with Southey — +Quits College for Bristol.</i></li> +<li><a href="#section3">Chapter III</a><br> +<i>Leaves the Lakes on Account of his Health for Malta — his Employment in +Malta in 1805 — goes to Syracuse and Rome — Winters at Naples 15th of +December, 1806.</i></li> +<li><a href="#section4">Chapter IV</a><br> +<i>Coleridge's Arrival at Highgate — Publication Of 'Christabel' — 'Biographia +Literaria', &c.</i> +</li> +</ul><br> +<br> +<hr> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="introduction">Preface</a></h2> +<br> +The more frequently we read and contemplate the lives of those eminent +men so beautifully traced by the amiable Izaak Walton, the more we are +impressed with the sweetness and simplicity of the work. Walton was a +man of genius — of simple calling and more simple habits, though best +known perhaps by his book on Angling; yet in the scarcely less +attractive pages of his biographies, like the flowing of the gentle +stream on which he sometimes cast his line, to practise "the all of +treachery he ever learnt," he leads the delighted reader imperceptibly +on, charmed with the natural beauty of his sentiments, and the +unaffected ease and simplicity of his style.<br> +<br> + In his preface to the +Sermons of (that pious poet and divine,) Dr. Donne, so much may be found +applicable to the great and good man whose life the author is now +writing, that he hopes to be pardoned for quoting from one so much more +able to delineate rare virtues and high endowments: + +<blockquote>"And if he shall now +be demanded, as once Pompey's poor bondman was, who art thou that alone +hast the honour to bury the body of Pompey the great?" </blockquote> + +so who is he who +would thus erect a funeral pile to the memory of the honoured dead? ...<br> +<br> +With the writer of this work, during the latter twenty years of his +life, Coleridge had been domesticated; and his intimate knowledge of +that illustrious character induces him to hope that his present +undertaking, "however imperfectly it may set forth the memory he fain +would honour," will yet not be considered presumptuous; inasmuch as he +has had an opportunity of bringing together facts and anecdotes, with +various memoranda never before published, some of which will be found to +have much of deep interest, of piety and of loveliness. <br> +<br> +At the same time he has also been desirous of interweaving such +information as he has been enabled to collect from the early friends of +Coleridge, as well as from those of his after-life. Thus, he trusts, he +has had the means of giving, with truth and correctness, a faithful +portraiture of one whom he so dearly loved, so highly prized. Still he +feels that from various causes, he has laboured under many and great +difficulties.<br> +<br> +First, he never contemplated writing this Memoir, nor would he have made +the attempt, had it not been urged on him as a duty by friends, whom +Coleridge himself most respected and honoured; they, "not doubting that +his intimate knowledge of the author, and dear love to his memory, might +make his diligence useful."<br> +<br> +Secondly, the duties of a laborious profession, rendered still more +arduous by indifferent health — added to many sorrows, and leisure (if +such it might be called,) which permitted only occasional attention to +the subject — and was liable to frequent interruptions; will, he flatters +himself, give him a claim to the candour and kindness of his readers. +And if Coleridge's "glorious spirit, now in heaven, could look down upon +him, he would not disdain this well meant sacrifice to his memory — for +whilst his conversation made him, and many others happy below, his +humility and gentleness were also pre-eminent; — and divines have said, +those virtues that were but sparks upon earth, become great and glorious +flames in heaven."<br> +<br> +<p><a href="#toc">Contents</a></p> +<hr><br><br> + + +<h2><a name="section1">Chapter I</a></h2> +<br> +<h4><i>Birth-place of Coleridge + — Slight Sketch of his Parents + — Whimsical Anecdotes he Used to Relate of his Father, &c + — As a Pastor, how Much Beloved + — His Brothers and Sisters Enumerated + — The Death of his Father + — His Entrance at Christ's Hospital + — Lamb's Account of him when at School + — Writes this Account under the Name of Elia + — Lamb's Admission that he Meant Coleridge for the "Friendless Boy" + — The Delicacy of his Stomach + — His First Attempt at Making Verse when a School Boy + — And Continuation of his Sufferings when at School + — His Water Excursions, the Origin of Most of his Subsequent Suffering.</i> +</h4><br> + + +<b>Samuel Taylor Coleridge</b>, the subject of this memoir, was born at Ottery +St. Mary, Devonshire, the 21st October, 1772. His father, the Rev. John +Coleridge, was vicar of Ottery, and head master of Henry VIII Free +Grammar School, usually termed the King's School; a man of great +learning, and one of the persons who assisted Dr. Kennicott in his +Hebrew Bible. Before his appointment to the school at Ottery he had been +head master of the school at South Molton. <a name="fr1">Some</a> dissertations on the +17th and 18th chapters of the Book of Judges<a href="#f1"><sup>1</sup></a>, and a Latin grammar +for the use of the school at Ottery were published by him. He was an +exceedingly studious man, pious, of primitive manners, and of the most +simple habits: passing events were little heeded by him, and therefore +he was usually characterized as the "absent man".<br> +<br> +Many traditional stories concerning his father had been in circulation +for years before Coleridge came to Highgate. These were related with +mirth in the neighbourhood of Ottery, and varied according to the +humour of the narrator.<br> +<br> +To beguile the winter's hour, which, however, was never dull in his +society, he would recall to memory the past anecdotes of his father, and +repeat them till the tears ran down his face, from the fond recollection +of his beloved parent. The relation of the story usually terminated with +an affectionate sigh, and the observation, "Yes, my friend, he was +indeed an Israelite without guile, and might be compared to Parson +Adams." The same appellation which Coleridge applied to his father will +also, with equal justice, be descriptive of himself. In many respects he +"differed in kind" from his brothers and the rest of his family, but his +resemblance to his father was so strong, that I shall continue this part +of the memoir with a sketch of the parent stock from which he sprung.<br> +<br> +The Rev. John Coleridge had been twice married; his second wife, Anne +Bowdon, by whom he had a large family, was the mother of my friend, and +seems to have been peculiarly fitted for the wife of a clergyman who had +a large family and limited means. Her husband, not possessing that +knowledge usually termed worldly wisdom, she appeared to supply the +place of the friend, which such a man required in his wife. He was +better fitted for the apostolic age, so primitive was he in his manners +and uneducated in the fashions and changing customs surrounding him: his +companions were chiefly his books, and the few scholars he had to +educate. To all around him he was extremely kind and amiable, and +greatly beloved by the flock over whom he presided as pastor. For each +individual, whatever his rank, he had a kindly word of greeting, and in +sickness or distress he was an attentive friend. His richer and more +educated neighbours visited him, and shared the general pleasure and +amusement excited by his simple and peculiarly absent manners.<br> +<br> +It is said of him, that on one occasion, having to breakfast with his +bishop, he went, as was the practice of that day, into a barber's shop +to have his head shaved, wigs being then in common use. Just as the +operation was completed, the clock struck nine, the hour at which the +bishop punctually breakfasted. Roused, as from a reverie, he instantly +left the barber's shop, and in his haste forgetting his wig, appeared at +the breakfast table, where the bishop and his party had assembled. The +bishop, well acquainted with his absent manners, courteously and +playfully requested him to walk into an adjoining room, and give his +opinion of a mirror which had arrived from London a few days previously, +and which disclosed to his astonished guest the consequences of his +haste and forgetfulness. + +On another occasion he dined with the bishop, who had great pleasure and +delight in his society, when the following ludicrous scene took place. +The bishop had a maiden daughter, past the meridian of life, who was +always glad to see and converse with the "dear good old man" (his usual +appellation), and who was also kind enough to remind him of his little +<i>Forgets</i> in society, and rouse him from his absent moods. It not +being the fashion in his day for gentlemen to wear braces, his +small-clothes, receding from his waistcoat, left a space in his black +dress, through which often appeared a portion of his linen. On these +occasions, the good lady would draw his attention to this appearance, by +saying in an under tone, "A little to this side, Mr. Coleridge," or to +that, as the adjustment might require. This hint was as instantly +attended to as his embarrassed manner, produced by a sense of the +kindness, would permit. On the day above alluded to, his kind friend sat +next to him, dressed, as was then the fashion, in a smart party-going +muslin apron. Whilst in earnest conversation with his opposite +neighbour, on the side next the lady appeared the folds of his shirt, +through the hiatus before described, so conspicuously as instantly to +attract her notice. The hint was immediately given: "Mr. Coleridge, a +little on the side next me;" — and was as instantly acknowledged by the +usual reply, "Thank you, ma'am, thank you," and the hand set to work to +replace the shirt; but unfortunately, in his nervous eagerness, he +seized on the lady's apron, and appropriated the greater part of it. <a name="fr2">The</a> +appeal of "Dear Mr. Coleridge, do stop!" only increased his +embarrassment, and also his exertions to dispose, as he thought, of his +shirt; till the lady, to put a stop to the titter of the visitors, and +relieve her own confusion, untied the strings, and thus disengaging +herself, left the room, and her friend in possession of her apron.<a href="#f2"><sup>2</sup></a><br> +<br> +Mrs. Coleridge, the mother of my friend, and of whom I have already +spoken, had naturally a strong mind. She was an uneducated woman, +industriously attentive to her household duties, and devoted to the care +of her husband and family. Possessing none, even of the most common +female accomplishments of her day, she had neither love nor sympathy for +the display of them in others. She disliked, as she would say, "your +harpsichord ladies," and strongly tried to impress on her sons their +little value, in their choice of wives. As a clergyman's wife her +conduct was exemplary; the father of my friend had a fortune in such a +woman, and she found in him, with all his peculiarities, a kind, sweet +tempered, engaging husband. She was, I should add, a very good woman, +though like Martha, over careful in many things, very ambitious for the +advancement of her sons in life, but wanting perhaps that flow of heart +which her husband possessed so largely. But "imperfection cleaves to +mortality." <a name="fr3">Such</a>, as given in this brief sketch, were the parents of the +subject of this memoir.<a href="#f3"><sup>3</sup></a><br> +<br> +I have heard Coleridge relate the following anecdote of his father. The +old gentleman had to take a short journey on some professional business, +which would detain him from home for three or four days: his good wife, +in her care and watchfulness, had packed a few things in a small trunk, +and gave them in charge to her husband, with strong injunctions that he +was to put on a clean shirt every day. On his return home, his wife went +to search for his linen, when, to her dismay, it was not in the trunk. A +closer search, however, discovered that the vicar had strictly obeyed +her injunctions, and had put on daily a clean shirt, but had forgotten +to remove the one underneath. This might have been the pleasantest and +most portable mode of carrying half a dozen shirts in winter, but not so +in the dog-days. <br> +<br> +As a preacher, he was peculiar: it is said, that the +poor idolized, and looked upon him with great reverence; and when death +removed this distinguished and eminent scholar from among them, his +successor had little chance of pleasing to the same extent. In their +great admiration of him, they would often say, "How fine he was in his +discourse, for he gave us the very words the spirit spoke in," viz. the +Hebrew, with which he frequently indulged them in his sermons, and which +seems greatly to have attracted the notice of the agricultural +population, who flocked from the neighbourhood, to the town in which he +resided. Excited and stimulated by curiosity, this class of persons +might attend the church, and in listening for the Hebrew they would +perhaps be more attentive, and carry away some useful portions of the +English from this amiable and accomplished pastor.<br> +<br> +As a schoolmaster his singularities were of the same character, +manifesting the same simplicity and honesty of purpose. <a name="fr4">I</a> have before +stated that he wrote a Latin Grammar for the use of his school, and +instead of the word ablative, in general use, he compounded three or +four Latin words<a href="#f4"><sup>4</sup></a> as explanatory of this case. Whether the mothers +were startled at the repetition of these words, and thought of the +hardships their sons would have to endure in the acquirement of this +grammar, I can only conjecture; but it seems he thought it his duty to +explain to the ladies, in justice to their feelings, his learned reasons +for the alteration he had made in the name of this case.<br> +<br> +I had often pressed him to write some account of his early life, and of +the various circumstances connected with it. But the aversion he had to +read or write any thing about himself was so great, that I never +succeeded, except in obtaining a few notes, rather than a detailed +account. There would be little either useful or interesting in any +account of Coleridge's life, which a stranger to him could give; +therefore, from the best authorities with which I am acquainted, and +from an intimacy of nearly twenty years, is this memoir of my late +lamented friend compiled. He commences one of the notes above alluded +to, with his early childhood. + + <blockquote>"I was," says he, "the last child, the youngest child of ten by the + same mother, that is to say, John, William (who died in infancy), + James, William, Edward, George, Luke, Ann, Francis, and myself, Samuel + Taylor Coleridge, beneficially abridged Esteese <img src="images/CG1.gif" width="91" height="30" alt="Greek: estaesae"> i. + e. S. T. C., and the thirteenth, taking in three sisters by my dear + father's first wife, — Mary, afterwards Mrs. Bradley, — Sarah, who + married a seaman and is lately dead, and Elizabeth, afterwards Mrs. + Phillips — who alone was bred up with us after my birth, and whom alone + of the three I was wont to think of as a sister, though not exactly, + yet I did not know why, the same sort of sister, as my sister Nancy.<br> +<br> + Being the youngest child, I possibly inherited the weakly state of + health of my father, who died at the age of 62, before I had reached + my seventh year; and from certain jealousies of old Molly, my brother + Frank's dotingly fond nurse, (and if ever child by beauty and + loveliness deserved to be doted on, my brother Francis was that + child,) and by the infusions of her jealousy into my brother's mind, I + was in earliest childhood huffed away from the enjoyments of muscular + activity from play, to take refuge at my mother's side, on my little + stool, to read my little book, and to listen to the talk of my elders. + I was driven from life in motion, to life in thought and sensation. <a name="fr5">I</a> + never played except by myself, and then only acting over what I had + been reading or fancying, or half one, half the other, with a stick + cutting down weeds and nettles, as one of the seven champions of + Christendom<a href="#f5"><sup>5</sup></a>. <br> +<br> +Alas! I had all the simplicity, all the docility of + the little child, but none of the child's habits. I never thought as a + child, never had the language of a child. I forget whether it was in + my fifth or sixth year, but I believe the latter, in consequence of + some quarrel between me and my brother, in the first week in October, + I ran away from fear of being whipped, and passed the whole night, a + night of rain and storm, on the bleak side of a hill on the Otter, and + was there found at daybreak, without the power of using my limbs, + about six yards from the naked bank of the river."<br> +<br> +<br> +"In my seventh year, about the same time, if not the very same time, + i.e. Oct. 4th, my most dear, most revered father, died suddenly. O + that I might so pass away, if like him I were an Israelite without + guile. The image of my father, my revered, kind, learned, + simple-hearted father is a religion to me!"</blockquote> + +Judge Buller who had been educated by his father, had always promised to +adopt the son, at least to educate him, foreseeing that Samuel, the +youngest, was likely to be left an orphan early in life. +<br> +<br> +Soon after the +death of the Rev. John Coleridge, the Judge obtained from John Way, +Esq., one of the governors of Christ's Hospital, a presentation to that +school, and young Coleridge was sent by the Judge and placed there on +the 18th July, 1782. "<a name="fr6">O</a>! what a change!"<a href="#f6"><sup>6</sup></a> he goes on in the note above +quoted. + +<blockquote>"Depressed, moping, friendless, poor orphan, half starved; (at that + time the portion of food to the Bluecoats was cruelly insufficient for + those who had no friends to supply them)." + +</blockquote> + +In the late Mr. Charles Lamb's <i>Works</i> published in 1818, there is an +account of the school, entitled <i>Recollections of Christ's Hospital</i>. In +1823 there is a second essay on the same subject by Lamb, under the +assumed title of "Elia," — Elia supposed to be intimate with Lamb and +Coleridge. This second account, entitled <i>Christ's Hospital +five-and-thirty years ago</i>, gave umbrage to some of the "Blues," as they +termed themselves, as differing so much from the first in full praise of +this valuable foundation, and particularly as a school from which he had +benefited so much.<br> +<br> +In the preface to the second series, Elia says, + + <blockquote>"What he (Elia) tells of himself is often true only (historically) of + another; when under the first person he shadows forth the forlorn + state of a country boy placed at a London school far from his friends + and connexions,"</blockquote> + +which is in direct opposition to Lamb's own early history. The second +account, under the personification of Elia, is drawn from the painful +recollections and sufferings of Coleridge while at school, which I have +often heard him relate.<br> +<br> +Lamb told Coleridge one day that the friendless school boy in his +"Elia," (soon after its publication) was intended for him, and taken +from his description of the Blue-coat school. After Coleridge's death, +Lamb related the same circumstance to me, that he had drawn the account +from Coleridge's feelings, sufferings, &c., Lamb having himself been an +indulged boy and peculiarly favoured through the instrumentality of a +friend: + +<blockquote>"I remember," says Elia, "Lamb at school, and can well +recollect that he had some peculiar advantages, which I and others of +his schoolfellows had not. His friends lived in town and were at hand, +and he had the privilege of going to see them almost as often as he +wished, through some invidious distinction which was denied to us. The +present treasurer of the Inner Temple can explain how it happened. He +had his tea and hot rolls in the morning, while we were battening upon +our quarter of penny loaf — our <i>crug</i> moistened with attenuated +small beer in wooden piggins, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it +was poured from. On Monday's milk porritch, blue and tasteless, and the +pease-soup of Saturday, coarse and choking, were enriched for him with a +slice of 'extraordinary bread and butter,' from the hot-loaf of the +Temple. The Wednesday's mess of millet, somewhat less repugnant — (we had +three banyan to four meat-days in the week) — was endeared to his palate +with a lump of double-refined, and a smack of ginger, (to make it go +down the more glibly) or the fragrant cinnamon. In lieu of our +<i>half-pickled</i> Sundays, or <i>quite fresh</i> boiled beef on +Thursdays, (strong as caro equina), with detestable marigolds floating +in the pail to poison the broth — our scanty mutton crags on Fridays — and +rather more savoury, but grudging, portions of the same flesh, +rotten-roasted or rare, on the Tuesdays (the only dish which excited our +appetites, and disappointed our stomachs, in almost equal proportion) he +had his hot plate of roast veal, or the more tempting griskin (exotics +unknown to our palates), cooked in the paternal kitchen.<br> +<br> +"I (Coleridge) was a poor friendless boy, my parents, and those who +should have cared for me, were far away. Those few acquaintances of +their's, which they could reckon upon being kind to me in the great +city, after a little forced notice, which they had the grace to take of +me on my first arrival in town, soon grew tired of my holiday visits. +They seemed to them to recur too often, though I thought them few +enough; one after another, they all failed me, and I felt myself alone +among six hundred playmates — O the cruelty of separating a poor lad +from his early homestead! The yearnings which I used to have towards it +in those unfledged years! How in my dreams would my native town come +back (far in the west) with its churches and trees and faces! To this +late hour of my life, and even to the end of it did Coleridge trace +impressions left by the painful recollection of these friendless +holidays. The long warm days of summer never return but they bring with +them a gloom from the haunting memory of those <i>whole day's leave</i>, +when by some strange arrangement, we were turned out for the live-long +day, upon our own hands whether we had friends to go to or none. I +remember those bathing excursions to the New River, which Lamb recalls +with such relish, better, I think, than he can — for he was a +home-seeking lad, and did not care for such water-parties. How we would +sally forth into the fields; and strip under the first warmth of the +sun; and wanton like young dace in the streams; getting appetites for +the noon; which those of us that were penny less (our scanty morning +crust long since exhausted) had not the means of allaying — while the +cattle, and the birds, and the fishes were at feed about us, and we had +nothing to satisfy our cravings; the very beauty of the day, and the +exercise of the pastime, and the sense of liberty setting a keener edge +upon them! How faint and languid, finally, we would return toward +nightfall to our desired morsel, half-rejoicing, half-reluctant, that +the hours of uneasy liberty had expired.<br> +<br> +"It was worse in the days of winter, to go prowling about the streets +objectless; shivering at cold windows of print-shops, to extract a +little amusement; or haply, as a last resort, in the hope of a little +novelty, to pay a fifty times repeated visit (where our individual faces +would be as well known to the warden as those of his own charges) to the +lions in the Tower, to whose levee, by courtesy immemorial, we had a +prescriptive right of admission."</blockquote> + +In short, nearly the whole of this essay of Elia's is a transcript of +Coleridge's account of the school. 'Never was a friend or schoolfellow +more fondly attached to another than Lamb to Coleridge. The latter from +his own account, as well as from Lamb and others who knew him when at +school, must have been a delicate and suffering boy. His principal +ailments he owed much to the state of his stomach, which was at that +time so delicate, that when compelled to go to a large closet (shoe-bin, +its school name,) containing shoes, to pick out a pair easy to his feet, +which were always tender, and he required shoes so large that he could +walk in them, rather than with them, and the smell, from the number in +this place, used to make him so sick, that I have often seen him +shudder, even in late life, when he gave an account of it. In this note, +continuing an account of himself at school, he says, + + <blockquote>"From eight to fourteen I was a playless day-dreamer, a <i>helluo + librorum</i>, my appetite for which was indulged by a singular + incident: a stranger, who was struck by my conversation, made me free + of a circulating library in King Street, Cheapside."</blockquote> + +The incident, indeed, was singular: going down the Strand, in one of his +day-dreams, fancying himself swimming across the Hellespont, thrusting +his hands before him as in the act of swimming, his hand came in contact +with a gentleman's pocket; the gentleman seized his hand, turning round +and looking at him with some anger, "What! so young, and so wicked?" at +the same time accused him of an attempt to pick his pocket; the +frightened boy sobbed out his denial of the intention, and explained to +him how he thought himself Leander, swimming across the Hellespont. The +gentleman was so struck and delighted with the novelty of the thing, and +with the simplicity and intelligence of the boy, that he subscribed, as +before stated, to the library, in consequence of which Coleridge was +further enabled to indulge his love of reading.<br> +<br> +In his bathing excursions he had greatly injured his health, and reduced +his strength; in one of these bathing exploits he swam across the New +River in his clothes, and dried them in the fields on his back: from +these excursions commenced those bodily sufferings which embittered the +rest of his life, and rendered it truly one of sickness and suffering. +When a boy he had a remarkably delicate, white skin, which was once the +cause of great punishment to him.<br> +<br> +His dame had undertaken to cure him of the itch, with which the boys of +his ward had suffered much; but Coleridge was doomed to suffer more than +his comrades, from the use of sulphur ointment, through the great +sagacity of his dame, who with her extraordinary eyes, aided by the +power of glasses, could see the malady in the skin deep and out of +common vision; and consequently, as often as she employed this +miraculous sight, she found or thought she found fresh reasons for +continuing the friction, to the prolonged suffering and mortification of +her patient. This occurred when he was about eight years of age, and +gave rise to his first attempt at making a verse, as follows: + + <blockquote>"O Lord, have mercy on me!<br> + For I am very sad!<br> + For why, good Lord? I've got the itch,<br> + And eke I've got the <i>tad</i>,"</blockquote> + +the school name for ringworm. <a name="fr7">He</a> was to be found during play-hours often +with the knees of his breeches unbuttoned, and his shoes down at the +heel<a href="#f7"><sup>7</sup></a>, walking to and fro, or sitting on a step, or in a corner, +deeply engaged in some book. This had attracted the notice of Middleton, +at that time a deputy grecian, and going up to him one day, asked what +he was reading; the answer was "Virgil." "Are you then," said M. +"studying your lesson?" "No," said C., "I am reading it for pleasure;" +for he had not yet arrived at Virgil in his class studies. This struck +Middleton as something so peculiar, that he mentioned it to the head +master, as Coleridge was then in the grammar school (which is the lower +part of the classical school), and doing the work of the lower boys. The +Rev. James Bowyer, who was at that time head master, a quick discerning +man, but hasty and severe, sent for the master of the grammar school, +and inquired about Coleridge; from him he learnt that he was a dull and +inapt scholar, and that he could not be made to repeat a single rule of +syntax, although he would give a rule in his own way.<br> +<br> +This brought Coleridge before Bowyer, and to this circumstance may be +attributed the notice which he afterwards took of him: the school and +his scholars were every thing to him, and Coleridge's neglect and +carelessness never went unpunished. I have often heard him say, he was +so ordinary a looking boy, with his black head, that Bowyer generally +gave him at the end of a flogging an extra cut; "for," said he, "you are +such an ugly fellow!"<br> +<br> +When, by the odd accident before mentioned, he was made a subscriber to +the library in King Street, + + <blockquote>"I read," says he, "<i>through</i> the catalogue, folios and all, + whether I understood them, or did not understand them, running all + risks in skulking out to get the two volumes which I was entitled to + have daily. Conceive what I must have been at fourteen; I was in a + continual low fever. My whole being was, with eyes closed to every + object of present sense, to crumple myself up in a sunny corner, and + read, read, read; fancy myself on Robinson Crusoe's island, finding a + mountain of plumb-cake, and eating a room for myself, and then eating + it into the shapes of tables and chairs — hunger and fancy!"</blockquote> + +In his lad-hood he says, + + <blockquote> "My talents and superiority made me for ever at the head in my routine + of study, though utterly without the desire to be so; without a spark + of ambition; and, as to emulation, it had no meaning for me; but the + difference between me and my form-fellows, in our lessons and + exercises, bore no proportion to the measureless difference between me + and them in the wide, wild, wilderness of useless, unarranged + book-knowledge and book-thoughts. Thank Heaven! it was not the age nor + the fashion of getting up prodigies; but at twelve or fourteen I + should have made as pretty a juvenile prodigy as was ever emasculated + and ruined by fond and idle wonderment. Thank Heaven! I was flogged + instead of flattered. However, as I climbed up the school, my lot was + somewhat alleviated." </blockquote> + +When Coleridge arrived at the age of fifteen, he was, from the little +comfort he experienced, very desirous of quitting the school, and, as he +truly said, he had not a spark of ambition. Near the school there +resided a worthy, and, in their rank of life, a respectable middle-aged +couple. The husband kept a little shop, and was a shoemaker, with whom +Coleridge had become intimate. The wife, also, had been kind and +attentive to him, and this was sufficient to captivate his affectionate +nature, which had existed from earliest childhood, and strongly endeared +him to all around him. Coleridge became exceedingly desirous of being +apprenticed to this man, to learn the art of shoemaking; and in due +time, when some of the boys were old enough to leave the school, and be +put to trade, Coleridge, being of the number, tutored his friend Crispin +how to apply to the head master, and not to heed his anger should he +become irate. Accordingly, Crispin applied at the hour proposed to see +Bowyer; who, having heard the proposal to take Coleridge as an +apprentice, and Coleridge's answer and assent to become a shoemaker, +broke forth with his favourite adjuration, "'Ods my life, man, what d'ye +mean?" At the sound of his angry voice, Crispin stood motionless, till +the angry pedagogue becoming infuriate, pushed the intruder out of the +room with such force, that Crispin might have sustained an action at law +against him for an assault. Thus, to Coleridge's mortification and +regret, as he afterwards in joke would say,<br> +<br> + "I lost the opportunity of supplying safeguards to the understandings + of those, who perhaps will never thank me for what I am aiming to do + in exercising their reason." + + <blockquote> "Against my will," says he, "I was chosen by my master as one of those + destined for the university; and about this time my brother Luke, or + 'the Doctor,' so called from his infancy, because being the seventh + son, he had, from his infancy, been dedicated to the medical + profession, came to town to walk the London Hospital, under the care + of Sir William Blizard. Mr. Saumarez, brother of the Admiral Lord + Saumarez, was his intimate friend. Every Saturday I could make or + obtain leave, to the London Hospital trudged I. O the bliss if I was + permitted to hold the plasters, or to attend the dressings. Thirty + years afterwards, Mr. Saumarez retained the liveliest recollections of + the extraordinary, enthusiastic blue-coat boy, and was exceedingly + affected in identifying me with that boy. I became wild to be + apprenticed to a surgeon. English, Latin, yea, Greek books of medicine + read I incessantly. Blanchard's Latin Medical Dictionary I had nearly + by heart. Briefly, it was a wild dream, which gradually blending with, + gradually gave way to a rage for metaphysics, occasioned by the essays + on Liberty and Necessity in Cato's <i>Letters</i>, and more by theology. + After I had read Voltaire's <i>Philosophical Dictionary</i>, I sported + infidel! but my infidel vanity never touched my heart:"</blockquote> + +nor ever with his lips did he for a few months only support the new +light given him by Voltaire. + + <blockquote> "With my heart," says he, "I never did abandon the name of Christ." </blockquote> + +This reached Bowyer's ears, and he sent for him: not to reason with him, +as teachers and parents do too often, and by this means as often +increase the vanity of these tyro-would-be-philosophers; but he took the +surest mode, if not of curing, at least of checking the disease. His +argument was short and forcible. + + <blockquote> "So, sirrah, you are an infidel, are you? then I'll flog your + infidelity out of you;"</blockquote> + +and gave him the severest flogging he had ever received at his hands. +This, as I have often heard Coleridge say, was the only just flogging he +had ever given him: certainly, from all I ever heard of him, Bowyer was +strictly a flogging master. Trollope, in his History of Christ's +Hospital, page 137, says of him, + + <blockquote>"<a name="fr8">His</a> discipline was exact in the extreme, and tinctured, perhaps, with + more than due severity."<a href="#f8"><sup>8</sup></a></blockquote> + +Coleridge, in his <i>Biographia Literaria</i>, after paying a just compliment +to Bowyer as a teacher, says, + + <blockquote>"The reader will, I trust, excuse this tribute of recollection to a + man, whose severities, even now, not seldom furnish the dreams by + which the blind fancy would fain interpret to the mind the painful + sensation of distempered sleep, but neither lessen nor diminish the + deep sense of my moral and intellectual obligations." </blockquote> + +He had his passionate days, which the boys described as the days he wore +his Passy wig (passy abbreviated from passionate). "Sirrah! I'll flog +you," were words so familiar to him, that on one occasion, some female +relation or friend of one of the boys entered his room, when a class +stood before him and inquired for Master — ; master was no school title +with Bowyer. The errand of this lady being to ask a short leave of +absence for some boy, on the sudden appearance in town of his country +cousin, still lingering at the door, after having been abruptly told to +go, Bowyer suddenly exclaimed, "Bring that woman here, and I'll flog +her!"<br> +<br> +<a name="fr9">Coleridge's</a> themes in his fifteenth year<a href="#f9"><sup>9</sup></a>, in verse as well as prose, +marked him as a boy of great talent, but of talent only according to his +own definition of it (vide <i>Friend</i>, vol. iii. edit. 1818). His verse +was good, his prose powerful, and language correct, and beyond his years +in depth of thought, but as yet he had not manifested, according to the +same test, anything of genius. I met among some of his notes, written at +the age of fifty-one, the following critique on one of his schoolboy +themes: + + <blockquote> "This theme was written at the age of fifteen: it does not contain a + line that any schoolboy might not have written, and like most + school-poetry, there is a putting of thoughts into verse. Yet such + verses as a striving of mind and struggles after the intense and + vivid, are a fair promise of better things." </blockquote> + +The same observation might be made in the intense application of his +intellectual powers in search of truth, at the time he called himself an +infidel; in this struggle of mind was the "fair promise of better +things." It was the preparation necessary for such a mind; the breaking +up and tilling of the soil for the successful germination of the seeds +of truth.<br> +<br> +The sleeping powers of thought were roused and excited into action.<br> +<br> +<a name="fr10">Perhaps</a> this may be considered, as entering too early into the history +of his mind in boyhood: to this I reply, that the entire man so to +speak, is to be seen even in the cradle of the child.<a href="#f10"><sup>10</sup></a><br> +<br> +The serious may be startled at the thought of a young man passing +through such an ordeal; but with him it was the exercise of his +strength, in order that he might "fight the good fight," and conquer for +that truth which is permanent, and is the light and the life of every +one who comes into the world, and who is in earnest search of it.<br> +<br> +In his sixteenth year he composed the allegory of "Real and Imaginary +Time," first published in the Sibylline Leaves, having been accidentally +omitted in the Juvenile Poems, — + + <blockquote> "<a name="fr11">On</a> the wide level of a mountain's head,<br> + (I knew not where, but 'twas some fairy place)<br> + Their pinions, ostrich-like, for sails outspread,<br> + Two lovely children run an endless race,<br> + A sister and a brother!<br> + That far outstripped the other;<br> + Yet ever runs she with reverted face,<br> + And looks and listens for the boy behind;<br> + For he, alas! is blind!<br> + O'er rough and smooth with even step he passed,<br> + And knows not whether he be first or last."<a href="#f11"><sup>11</sup></a></blockquote> + +in which may be traced the first dawnings of his genius. He pictures to +himself a boy returning to school after the holidays; in his day-dreams +making plans for the future, and anticipating the pleasure he is to +enjoy on his return home; his vivid thoughts, and sanguine expectations +"far outstripping" the reality of time as marked by the watch or +almanack. Real time is personified as a blind boy steadily pursuing his +path; whilst imaginary time is represented as a fleeting girl, looking +back and listening for her brother whom she has outrun. Perhaps to Mr. +Bowyer's excellent method of instruction may be attributed this early +developement of his genius. Coleridge remarks of him, + + <blockquote>"He was an admirable educer, no less than educator of intellect; he + taught me to leave out as many epithets as would make eight syllable + lines, and then ask if the exercise would not be greatly improved." </blockquote> + +Although in this year he began to indulge in metaphysical speculations, +he was wedded to verse, and many of his early poems were planned; some +of which he finished, and they were published in the "Juvenile Poems," +on his entry into life; but as many more were scattered among his +friends, who had greatly increased in number. About this time he became +acquainted with a widow lady, + + <blockquote>"whose son," says he, "I, as upper boy, had protected, and who + therefore looked up to me, and taught me what it was to have a mother. + I loved her as such. She had three daughters, and of course I fell in + love with the eldest. From this time to my nineteenth year, when I + quitted school for Jesus, Cambridge, was the era of poetry and love."</blockquote> + +It has been observed, that about this sixteenth year, he first developed +genius, and that during this early period of his life, his mind was +incessantly toiling in the pursuit of knowledge. His love of reading +seemed to have increased in proportion to his acquirements, which were +equally great: his representing himself as an infidel was better perhaps +understood by his master, who believed it to be only puerile vanity; and +therefore Coleridge considered the flogging he received on this +occasion, a just and appropriate punishment; and it was so, for as a boy +he had not thought deep enough on an equally important point, viz., what +is Fidelity, and how easily, he particularly might mistake the +genuineness of sincere <i>fidelity</i> for mere outward forms, and the +simple observance of customs. Perhaps I might have been disposed to pass +over this era with a slighter notice, which he in his simplicity of +character thought it right to record. He was always honest in every +thing concerning himself, and never spared self-accusation, often, when +not understood, to his own injury. He never from his boyhood to his +latest life, received kindness without grateful feelings, and, when he +believed it coupled with love, without the deepest sense of its value; +and if the person possessed sensibility and taste, he repaid it tenfold. +This was the experience of nearly twenty years intimate knowledge of his +character.<br> +<br> +His description of his first love was that of a young poet, recording +the first era of the passion, the fleeting dream of his youth — but not +that love which he afterwards records in the <i>Geneviève</i> when he says, + + <blockquote>"All thoughts, all passions, all delights,<br> + Whatever stirs this mortal frame,<br> + All are but ministers of love,<br> + And feed his sacred flame."</blockquote> + +First love, so seldom the mature love of future days, is a flower of +premature growth and developement, on which fancy exercises itself in +castle-building, and is in unison with that age when youth flings his +limbs about in the air, as an exercise to rid himself of the superfluous +volition, the accumulation of which gives him a sensation of uneasiness; +and these simple and unreserved accounts of Coleridge's infidelity, and +also of his first love-fit, should be put down merely as mental +exercises. The lines above quoted, belong, I have said, to the maturer +mind; they are thoughts which, unlike the sportive dace on the surface +of some calm lake, may rather be compared to the inhabitants of the deep +waters beneath. + + <blockquote> "How often will the loving heart and imaginative spirit of a young man + mistake the projected creature of his own moral yearning, seen in the + reflecting surface of the first not repulsive or vulgar female who + treats him affectionately, for the realization of his idea. Reversing + the order of the Genesis, he believes the female the original, and the + outward reality and impressment of the self-constructed <i>image</i>, + of the ideal! He most sincerely supposes himself in love — even in + cases where the mistake might have been suspected by one curious + fact — that his strongest emotions on love, were when absent from the + imagined object. But the time comes, or may come, when the same + feeling exists equally in presence and absence, in health and in + sickness; when he verily <i>is</i> in love. And now he <i>knows</i> + himself to be so, by the <i>so</i> being — he can even prove it to his + own mind by his certainty, his <i>intuition</i> of the essential + difference, as actually as it is uncommunicable, between it and its + previous subjective counterfeits, and anticipations. Even so it is + with friends. — O it is melancholy to think how the very forms and + geniality of my affections, my belief of obligation, consequent + gratitude and anxious sense of duty were wasted on the shadows of + friendship. With few exceptions, I can almost say, that till I came to + H — — , I never <i>found</i> what <b>friends</b> were — and doubtless, in more + than one instance, I sacrificed substances who loved me, for + semblances who were well pleased that I should love <i>them</i>, but + who never loved nor inwardly respected ought but themselves. The + distinction between <i>the</i> friends and <i>the</i> love is, that + the latter we discover by itself to <i>be</i>, alone itself — for it is + in its nature unique and exclusive. (See Improvvisatore in the <i>Amulet</i> + of 1826 or 7).<br> +<br> + "But of the former we discover the genuineness by comparison and + experience — the reason is obvious — in the instances in which the + person imagined himself to <i>be in love</i> with another (I use this + phrase 'be in love with' for the want of any other; for, in fact, from + the absence in our language of any appropriate exponent of the thing + meant), it is a delusion <i>in toto</i>. But, in the other instance, the one + half (i.e. the person's own feelings and sense of duty with acts + accordant) remains the same (ex. gr. S.T.C. could not feel more + deeply, nor from abatement of nervous life by age and sickness so + <i>ardently</i>) he could not feel, think, and act with a <i>more</i> + entire devotion, to I.G. or to H.G. than he did to W.W. and to R.S., + yet the latter were and remain most honourable to his judgment. <a name="fr12">Their</a> + characters, as moral and intellectual beings, give a dignity to his + devotion; and the imperishable consciousness of his devout and almost + enthusiastic attachment to them, still sanctifies their names, and + makes the men holy and revered to him."<a href="#f12"><sup>12</sup></a></blockquote> + +Had Coleridge in early or even in later life paid an insincere, because +undeserved, deference to outward show, and to the surface opinions +counterfeiting depth, so attractive to the superficial observer — added +to which, had he possessed a portion of that self-regarding policy which +frequently aids success — he might have been idolized where he was +neglected, and rewarded, if I might so profane this word, with high +worldly honours in other quarters. But it was otherwise; and could a +crown of gold have been offered him for the crown of glory of which he +was in earnest search, he would have refused the exchange. The +difference between time and eternity had already taken root, and he felt +the mighty import of these words too strongly to have lost sight of +their practical use; all that his health and powers would allow him to +acquire he did acquire, and freely gave all he had for the benefit of +others.<br> +<br> +He says, + +<blockquote>"From the exuberance of my animal spirits, when I had burst +forth from my misery and moping and the indiscretions resulting from +those spirits — ex. gr. swimming over the New River in my clothes, and +remaining in them; — full half the time from seventeen to eighteen was +passed in the sick-ward of Christ's Hospital, afflicted with jaundice +and rheumatic fever."</blockquote> + +From these indiscretions and their consequences +may be dated all his bodily sufferings in future life: in short, +rheumatism sadly afflicting him, while the remedies only slightly +alleviated his sufferings, without hope of a permanent cure; though +confined to his bed, his mind, ever active, still allowed him time to +continue the exercise of his intellectual powers, and afforded him +leisure for contemplation. Medical men are too often called upon to +witness the effects of acute rheumatism in the young subject: in some, +the attack is on the heart, and its consequences are immediate; in +others, it leaves behind bodily sufferings, which may indeed be +palliated, but terminate only in a lingering dissolution.<br> +<br> +I have often heard Coleridge express regret that he had not cultivated +mathematics, which he believed would have been of important use in life, +particularly had he arrived so far as to have mastered the higher +calculus; but he was, by an oversight of the mathematical master, +stopped on the threshold. When he was commencing Euclid, among some of +its first axioms came this: — "A line is length without breadth." "How +can that be?" said the scholar, (Coleridge); "A line must have some +breadth, be it ever so thin." This roused the master's indignation at +the impertinence of the scholar, which was instantly answered by a box +on the ear, and the words, hastily uttered, "Go along, you silly +fellow;" and here ended his first tuition, or lecture. <a name="fr13">His</a> second +efforts afterwards were not more successful; so that he was destined to +remain ignorant of these exercises of the logic of the understanding.<a href="#f13"><sup>13</sup></a><br> +<br> +Indeed his logical powers were so stupendous, from boyhood, as never to +require such drilling. Bowyer, his classical master, was too skilful in +the management of youth, and too much interested in the success of his +scholars to overlook what was best fitted for them. He exercised their +logical powers in acquiring and comparing the different classics. On +him, as a teacher, Coleridge loved to dwell; and, with his grateful +feelings, ever ready to acknowledge the sense of his obligations to him, +particularly those relating to his mental improvement, he has, in his +<i>Biog. Lit</i>. vol. i. p. 7, expressed himself in these words: + + <blockquote>"He early +moulded my taste to the preference of Demosthenes to Cicero, of Homer +and Theocritus to Virgil, and again of Virgil to Ovid. He habituated me +to compare Lucretius, (in such extracts as I then read,) Terence, and, +above all, the chaster poems of Catullus, not only with the Roman poets +of the, so called, silver and brazen ages; but with even those of the +Augustan æra: and, on grounds of plain sense and universal logic, to +see and assert the superiority of the former in the truth and +nativeness, both of their thoughts and diction. At the same time that we +were studying the Greek tragic poets, he made us read Shakespeare and +Milton as lessons; and they were lessons too, which required most time +and trouble to <i>bring up</i> so as to escape his censure. I learnt +from him that Poetry, even that of the loftiest, and, seemingly wildest +odes, had a logic of its own, as severe as that of science; and more +difficult, because more subtle, more complex, and dependent on more, and +more fugitive causes."</blockquote> + +In early life he was remarkably joyous; nature had blessed him with a +buoyancy of spirits, and even when suffering, he deceived the partial +observer. He delighted many of the strangers he met in his saunterings +through the cloisters, arrested and riveted the attention of the passer +by, whom, like his "Ancient Mariner," he held by a spell. His +schoolfellow, Lamb, has mentioned him, when under the influence of this +power, as the delight of his auditors. In the Elia, he says, + + <blockquote>"<a name="fr14">Come</a> back +into memory like as thou wert in the dayspring of thy fancies, with +hope, like a fiery column before thee, the dark pillar not yet +turned ... How have I seen the casual passer through the cloisters stand +still, entranced with admiration, (while he weighed the disproportion +between the <i>speech</i> and the <i>garb</i> of the mirandula,) to hear +thee unfold, in deep and sweet intonations, the mysteries of Iamblichus<a href="#f14"><sup>14</sup></a> or Plotinus, (for even in those years thou waxedst not pale at such +philosophic draughts); or reciting Homer in his Greek, or Pindar, while +the walls of the old Grey-Friars re-echoed to the accents."</blockquote> + +<a name="fr15">Middleton</a> +was not prepared to sympathise in these flights, considering them +subversive of the dignity of a Grecian.<a href="#f15"><sup>15</sup></a> Middleton was then on the +threshold of the College, and lads in this situation seemed called upon, +to preserve with dignity their honours, and with more outward forms than +suited their age. This at the time rendered them stiff and unfamiliar, +so much so, that within the walls, and in the neighbourhood, it was +mistaken for pride, and the words "Proud as a Grecian," were proverbial. These boys had the dignity of +their rising prospects therefore to support — they were the aristocracy +of the school. This was a task ill suited to Coleridge; and his flights +of fancy, as Lamb termed them, would only produce a shrug of Middleton's +shoulders, and a dread at the prospect of the falling dignity of the +school. <a name="fr16">Middleton's</a> Poem, in Mr. Trollope's<a href="#f16"><sup>16</sup></a> History of Christ's +Hospital, and its companion that of Coleridge, characterize the two +youths, and plainly point out that the selection of these poems was +influenced more by a merit belonging purely to talent than from any +display of genius in either. The verses of Middleton are more indicative +of strength than of power; they are the verses of a well-tutored youth, +of commanding talents. Those of Coleridge show more of fancy, but do not +exhibit the power he possessed at that age, which will be seen by +comparing this poem with many written by him at an earlier period, and +now published among his <i>Juvenile Poems</i>. Middleton being older than +Coleridge was elected first, viz. 26th September, 1788, to Pembroke +College, Cambridge. <a name="fr17">Coleridge</a> left Christ's Hospital for Jesus' College, +Cambridge, 7th September, 1790,<a href="#f17"><sup>17</sup></a> taking leave of his school-fellows in the following sonnet: — + +<blockquote>Farewell, parental scenes! a sad farewell!<br> +To you my grateful heart still fondly clings,<br> +Tho' fluttering round on Fancy's burnish'd wings,<br> +Her tales of future joy Hope loves to tell.<br> +Adieu, adieu! ye much loved cloisters pale!<br> +Ah! would those happy days return again,<br> +When 'neath your arches, free from every stain,<br> +I heard of guilt, and wonder'd at the tale!<br> +Dear haunts! where oft my simple lays I sang,<br> +Listening meanwhile the echoings of my feet,<br> +Lingering I quit you, with as great a pang,<br> +As when ere while, my weeping childhood, torn<br> +By early sorrow from my native seat,<br> +Mingled its tears with hers — my widow'd parent lorn.</blockquote> + +<i>Poetical Works</i>, vol. i. p. 31.<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr width="50%" align="left"><br> +<br> +<a name="f1"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 1:</span></a> Bishop Berkeley, in his work (<i>Siris</i>) commences with a +dissertation on Tar Water, and ends with the Trinity. The Rev. John +Coleridge commences his work, entitled "A miscellaneous Dissertation +arising from the 17th and 18th chapters of the Book of Judges," with a +well written preface on the Bible, and ends with an advertisement of his +school, and his method of teaching Latin.<br> +<a href="#fr1">return to footnote mark</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f2"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 2:</span></a> In 1809, the above whimsical stories were related to me by +a gentleman, born in the town of Ottery, and by marriage closely related +to the Rev. John Coleridge. While Coleridge resided at Highgate, he also +repeated the stories which had grown up with him from boyhood as here +related, himself believing them true; but a near relation has lately +assured the writer, that some of these stories are told of another most +respectable clergyman, residing at that time in the neighbourhood, and +<i>he</i> believes that they properly belong to him. It is commonly +remarked that very studious men, either from inattention, or from +ignorance of the conventional forms of society, are regardless of what +passes before them. Paying, perhaps, too much attention to their inward +feelings or thoughts, seemingly day-dreaming — and this may frequently +give rise to the stories to be found in many towns besides Ottery. +Still, however, thoughtful and contemplative persons are often the +quickest observers of the weaknesses of human nature, and yet as they +usually make the greatest allowances for every infirmity, they are often +impartial judges, and judicious counsellors. The Rev. John Coleridge, +though sometimes an absent man, was a most valuable pastor, and on all +fitting occasions a good man of business, having conducted several +difficult matters of controversy for his parish with great satisfaction +to the parties.<br> +<a href="#fr2">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f3"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 3:</span></a> Such at least were the recollections of this extraordinary boy +of seven years of age.<br> +<a href="#fr3">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f4"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 4:</span></a> Quale — quare — quidditive.<br> +<a href="#fr4">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f5"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 5:</span></a> He had, before he was six years old, read three times +through the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, or rather one of the volumes. — See "<i>The +Friend</i>," vol. i. p. 252, ed. 1818.<br> +<a href="#fr5">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f6"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 6:</span></a> I insert a similar observation on his feelings when he +first left home. + +<blockquote>"When I was first plucked up and transplanted from my +birth place and family, at the death of my dear father, whose revered +image has ever survived in my mind, to make me know what the emotions +and affections of a son are, and how ill a father's place is likely to +be supplied by any other relation. Providence (it has often occurred to +me) gave the first intimation, that it was my lot, and that it was best +for me, to make or find my way of life a detached individual, a Terræ +Filius, who was to ask love or service of no one on any more specific +relation than that of being a man, and as such to take my chance for the +free charities of humanity."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr6">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f7"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 7:</span></a> Whatever might have been his habits in boyhood, in manhood +he was <i>scrupulously</i> clean in his person, and especially took +great care of his hands by frequent ablutions. In his dress also he was +as cleanly as the liberal use of snuff would permit, though the +clothes-brush was often in requisition to remove the wasted snuff. +"Snuff," he would facetiously say, "was the final cause of the nose, +though troublesome and expensive in its use.<br> +<a href="#fr7">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f8"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 8:</span></a> "Jemmy Bowyer," as he was familiarly called by Coleridge +and Lamb, might not inaptly be termed the "plagosus orbilius" of +Christ's Hospital.<br> +<a href="#fr8">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f9"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 9:</span></a> In his biographical sketch of his literary life, he informs +us that he had translated the eight Hymns of Synesius from the Greek, +into English Anacreontica, before his fifteenth year.<br> +<a href="#fr9">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f10"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 10:</span></a> + + <blockquote>... the childhood shews the man, + As morning shews the day ...</blockquote> + +<i>Paradise Regained</i>, book iv. v. 220.<br> +<a href="#fr10">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f11"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 11:</span></a> Aldine Edition, Vol. i. p. 6. — Pickering, London, 1834.<br> +<a href="#fr11">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f12"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 12:</span></a> Extract of a note written Dec. 1829.<br> +<a href="#fr12">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f13"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 13:</span></a> + + <blockquote>"<i>Thought</i> and <i>attention</i> very different things. — I never + expected the German (viz. selbst-mühige Erzeugung dessen, wovon meine + Rede war) from the readers of the Friend. — I did expect the latter, + and was disappointed."<br> +<br> + "This is a most important distinction, and in the new light afforded + by it to my mind, I see more plainly why mathematics cannot be a + substitute for Logic, much less for Metaphysics — i.e. transcendental + Logic, and why therefore Cambridge has produced so few men of genius + and original power since the time of Newton. — Not only it does + <i>not</i> call forth the balancing and discriminating powers + (<i>that</i> I saw long ago), but it requires only <i>attention</i>, + not <i>thought</i> or self-production.<br> +<br> + "In a long-brief Dream-life of regretted regrets, I still find a + noticeable space marked out by the Regret of having neglected the + Mathematical Sciences. No <i>week</i>, few <i>days</i> pass unhaunted + by a fresh conviction of the truth involved in the Platonic + Superstition over the Portal of Philosophy,<br> +<br> + <img src="images/CG2.gif" width="251" height="30" alt="Greek: Maedeis age_ométraetos eisít_o"><br> +<br> + But surely Philosophy hath scarcely sustained more detriment by its + alienation from mathematics." </blockquote> + +MS. Note.<br> +<a href="#fr13">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f14"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 14:</span></a> + + <blockquote>"In my friendless wanderings on our leave-days, i.e. the Christ + Hospital phrase, not for holidays altogether, but for those on which + the boys are permitted to go beyond the precincts of the school (for I + was an orphan, and had scarce any connexions in London), highly was I + delighted, if any passenger, especially if he drest in black, would + enter into conversation with me; for soon I found the means of + directing it to my favourite subjects — + + <blockquote>Of Providence, fore-knowledge, will, and fate, + Fix'd fate, free will, fore-knowledge absolute, + And found no end, in wandering mazes lost."</blockquote></blockquote> +<a href="#fr14">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f15"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 15:</span></a> The upper boys of the school selected for the University +are so termed, though wearing the same coloured dress, but made of more +costly materials.<br> +<a href="#fr15">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f16"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 16:</span></a> In a note on the <i>History</i>, p. 192, Mr. Trollope makes the +following observation: + + <blockquote>"From this book" (a book in which the boys were allowed to copy their + verses when considered good) "the verses referred to in the text were + inscribed."</blockquote> + +They will be found in the <i>Literary Remains,</i> vol. i, p.33. Trollope +says, + + <blockquote>"These verses are copied not as one of the best, but of the earliest + productions of the writer."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr16">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f17"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 17:</span></a> Entered at Jesus' College, Feb. 5th, 1791, at the age of +19. — College Books.<br> +<a href="#fr17">return</a><br> +<br> +<p><a href="#toc">Contents</a></p> +<hr><br><br> + +<h3><a name="section2">Chapter II</a></h3> +<br> +<h4><i>Coleridge's First Entry at Jesus' College — +His Simplicity and Want of Worldly Tact — +Anecdotes and Different Accounts of Him During his Residence at College — +Intimacy with Middleton — with Southey — +Quits College for Bristol.</i></h4><br> + +At Cambridge, whither his reputation had travelled before him, high +hopes and fair promises of success were entertained by his young friends +and relations. He was considered by the "Blues," as they are familiarly +termed, one from whom they were to derive great immediate honour, which +for a short period, however, was deferred. Individual genius has a cycle +of its own, and moves only in that path, or by the powers influencing +it. Genius has been properly defined <i>prospective</i>, talent on the +contrary <i>retrospective</i>: genius is creative, and lives much in the +future, and in its passage or progress may make use of the labours of +talent. + + <blockquote> "I have been in the habit," says Coleridge, "of considering the + qualities of intellect, the comparative eminence in which + characterizes individuals and even countries, under four + kinds, — genius, talent, sense, and cleverness. The first I use in the + sense of most general acceptance, as the faculty which adds to the + existing stock of power and knowledge by new views, new combinations, + by discoveries not accidental, but anticipated, or resulting from + anticipation."</blockquote> + + <i>Friend</i>, <a name="fr18">vol</a>. iii. p. 85, edit. 1818<a href="#f18"><sup>1</sup></a>.<br> +<br> +Coleridge left school with great anticipation of success from all who +knew him, for his character for scholarship, and extraordinary accounts +of his genius had preceded him. He carried with him too the same +childlike simplicity which he had from a boy, and which he retained even +to his latest hours. His first step was to involve himself in much +misery, and which followed him in after life, as the sequel will +evidence. On his arrival at College he was accosted by a polite +upholsterer, requesting to be permitted to furnish his rooms. The next +question was, "How would you like to have them furnished?" The answer +was prompt and innocent enough, "Just as you please, Sir!" — thinking the +individual employed by the College. The rooms were therefore furnished +according to the taste of the artizan, and the bill presented to the +astonished Coleridge. Debt was to him at all times a thing he most +dreaded, and he never had the courage to face it. <a name="fr19">I</a> once, and once only, +witnessed a painful scene of this kind, which occurred from mistaking a +letter on ordinary business for an application for money<a href="#f19"><sup>2</sup></a>. Thirty +years afterwards, I heard that these College debts were about one +hundred pounds! Under one hundred pounds I believe to have been the +amount of his sinnings; but report exceeded this to something which +might have taxed his character beyond imprudence, or mere want of +thought. Had he, in addition to his father's simplicity, possessed the +worldly circumspection of his mother, he might have avoided these and +many other vexations; but he went to the University wholly unprepared +for a College life, having hitherto chiefly existed in his own +<i>inward</i> being, and in his poetical imagination, on which he had +fed.<br> +<br> +<a name="fr20">But</a> to proceed. Coleridge's own account is, that while Middleton, +afterwards Bishop of Calcutta, remained at Pembroke, he "worked with him +and was industrious, read hard, and obtained the prize for the Greek +Ode,"<a href="#f20"><sup>3</sup></a> &c. It has been stated, that he was locked up in his room to +write this Ode; but this is not the fact. Many stories were afloat, and +many exaggerations were circulated and believed, of his great want of +attention to College discipline, and of perseverance in his studies, and +every failure, or apparent failure, was attributed to these causes.<br> +<br> +Often has he repeated the following story of Middleton, and perhaps this +story gave birth to the report. They had agreed to read together in the +evening, and were not to hold any conversation. Coleridge went to +Pembroke and found Middleton intent on his book, having on a long pair +of boots reaching to the knees, and beside him, on a chair, next to the +one he was sitting on, a pistol. Coleridge had scarcely sat down before +he was startled by the report of the pistol. "Did you see that?" said +Middleton. "See what?" said Coleridge. "That rat I just sent into its +hole again — did you feel the shot? It was to defend my legs," continued +Middleton, "I put on these boots. I am fighting with these rats for my +books, which, without some prevention, I shall have devoured." <br> +<br> +There is +an anecdote related of Coleridge while at College, and which I have +heard him frequently repeat, when called upon to vouch for its truth. +His fellow students had amused themselves, when he was in attendance at +Lecture, by stealing a portion of the tail of his gown, and which they +had repeated so frequently, as to shorten it to the length of a spencer. +Crossing the quadrangle one day with these remains at his back, and his +appearance not being in collegiate trim, the Master of Jesus' College, +who was ever kind to him, and overlooked all little inattentions to +appearances, accosted him smartly on this occasion — "Mr. Coleridge! Mr. +Coleridge! when will you get rid of that shameful gown?" Coleridge, +turning his head, and casting his eyes over his shoulders, as if +observing its length, or rather want of length, replied in as courteous +a manner as words of such a character would permit, "Why, Sir, I think +I've got rid of the greatest part of it already!" Such were Coleridge's +peculiarities, which were sometimes construed into irregularities; but +through his whole life, attracting notice by his splendid genius, he +fell too often under the observation of men who busied themselves in +magnifying small things, and minifying large ones. <br> +<br> +About this period, +that Volcano, in which all the worst passions of men were collected, and +which had been for some time emitting its black smoke, at length +exploded and rent society asunder. The shock was felt throughout Europe; +each party was over-excited, and their minds enthralled by a new +slavery — the one shouting out the blessings of liberty and equality — the +other execrating them, and prophesying the consequences that were to follow: + +<blockquote>"There's no philosopher but sees<br> + That rage and fear are one disease;<br> + <i>Tho' that may burn, and this may freeze</i>,<br> + They're both alike tho ague."<br><br> + +<i>Mad Ox</i>.</blockquote> + +Combustibles composed of such ardent and evil spirits soon blaze out; +yet the evil does not stop when the blaze has ceased; it leaves an +excitement which is constantly disclosing itself in a restless morbid +vanity, a craving for distinction, and a love of applause, in its way as +dangerous as the thirst of gain, and the worship of the mammon of +unrighteousness.<br> +<br> +Alas! the circulation of such anecdotes as have been here related of +Coleridge when at College, and his inattention to some of the minor +forms of discipline, were sufficient for illnatured persons to transform +into serious offences, particularly when coupled with the disappointed +hopes of zealous friends. At this period, in which all men who were not +senseless, or so indifferent as nearly to be senseless, particularly the +young men of our Universities, all embraced a party, and arranged +themselves under their different banners. When I now look around me, and +see men who have risen to the highest offices of the different +professions, in the church, the law, or in physic, formerly only known +by the name of Citizen John, &c. &c., <i>now</i> my Lord so and so, or +your Grace the — — , it seems like a dream, or at least a world of +fleeting shadows. Sir James Mackintosh, in a letter to Mr. Sharp, states +what he conceived to be the errors of both parties, so far as they arose +from errors of judgment: + + <blockquote> "The opposition mistook the moral character of the revolution; the + ministers mistook its force: and both parties, from pique, resentment, + pride, habit, and obstinacy, persisted in acting on these mistakes + after they were disabused by experience. Mr. Burke alone avoided both + these fatal mistakes. He saw both the malignity and the strength of + the revolution. But where there was wisdom to discover the truth, + there was not power, and perhaps there was not practical skill, to + make that wisdom available for the salvation of Europe. — <i>Diis + aliter visum!</i> My fortune has been in some respects very singular. + <a name="fr21">I</a> have lately read the lives and private correspondence of some of the + most memorable men in different countries of Europe, who are lately + dead.<a href="#f21"><sup>4</sup></a> Klopstock, Kant, Lavater, Alfieri, they were all filled with + joy and hope by the French revolution — they clung to it for a longer + or a shorter time — they were compelled to relinquish their illusions. + The disappointment of all was bitter, but it showed itself in various + modes, according to the variety of their characters. The series of + passions growing out of that disappointment, was the not very remote + cause of the death of Lavater. In the midst of society, Alfieri buried + himself in misanthropic solitude; and the shock, which awakened him + from the dreams of enthusiasm, darkened and shortened his days. In the + mean time the multitude, comprehending not only those who have neither + ardour of sensibility, nor compass of understanding to give weight to + their suffrage, but those also whom accident had not brought into + close and perpetual contact with the events, were insensibly detached + from the revolution; and, before they were well aware that they had + quitted their old <i>position</i>, they found themselves at the + antipodes."</blockquote> + +The excitement which this state of things produced might have been +highly advantageous to some, and even quickened their intellectual +powers, particularly those destined either for the bar or the senate, +but certainly not those intended for the church.<br> +<br> +<a name="fr22">The</a> revolution<a href="#f22"><sup>5</sup></a> and its consequences engrossed the thoughts of all +men too much for the calmer pursuits of life; and the minds of the young +especially were so absorbed by passing temporal events, as to leave but +little time for the contemplation of the deeper and more serious affairs +of futurity. However, Coleridge appears in his political opinions to +have leaned too much to the side of democracy; but this was so prevalent +and so much a fashion, particularly in those filled with enthusiasm, +that it seemed a natural consequence in any young man possessing even +ordinary intellect. Middleton, his friend, passed on without attaching +himself to either party. His manners (as I have before noticed) were +austere and sedate. He steadily persevered, without deviation, in his +studies, though chance did not always favour him, nor crown him with the +success he merited. He was a good and amiable man, and an affectionate +friend; but early want of success in his academical exertions rendering +him melancholy, this by sympathy was soon imparted to his friend. After +Middleton's departure, the keen desire which Coleridge previously felt +for the possession of honours abated, and he became indifferent to +them — he might at this time have been idle, but never vicious. The men +who often appear to be the gayest and lightest of heart, are too +frequently melancholic; and it is a well-known fact, that the best comic +actors are the greatest sufferers from this malady, as if it seemed an +essential qualification for that department of histrionic excellence, in +which the greatest animal spirits are personated and successfully +imitated. Coleridge, at this period, delighted in boyish tricks, which +others were to execute. I remember a fellow-collegiate recalling to his +memory an exploit of which he was the planner, and a late Lord +Chancellor the executor. It was this: a train of gunpowder was to be +laid on two of the neatly shaven lawns of St. John's and Trinity +Colleges, in such a manner, that, when set on fire, the singed grass +would exhibit the ominous words, Liberty and Equality, which, with able +ladlike dexterity, was duly performed.<br> +<br> +The writer of the <i>College Reminiscences</i> in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine,</i> +December, 1834, a first-form boy with Coleridge at Christ's Hospital, +was well acquainted with his habits, and speaks of his having gained the +gold medal in his freshman's year for the Greek Ode, but does not notice +his having been locked up in his room for that purpose. + + <blockquote>"In his second year he stood for the Craven scholarship — a university + scholarship, for which under-graduates of any standing are entitled to + become candidates. This was in the winter of 1792. <a name="fr23">Out</a> of sixteen or + eighteen competitors, a selection of four were to contend for the + prize, and these four were Dr. Butler, late head-master of Shrewsbury, + Dr. Keate, the late head-master of Eton<a href="#f23"><sup>6</sup></a>, Dr. Bethell, the present + Bishop of Bangor, and Coleridge. Dr. Butler was the successful + candidate." </blockquote> + +Coleridge always spoke of this decision as having been in every way +just, and due to Butler's merit as a clever and industrious scholar. + + <blockquote>"But pause a moment," says this writer, "in Coleridge's History, and + think of him at this period! Butler! Keate Bethell! and Coleridge! How + different the career of each in future life! O Coleridge, through what + strange paths did the meteor of genius lead thee! Pause a moment, ye + distinguished men! and deem it not the least bright spot in your + happier career, that you and Coleridge were once rivals, and for a + moment running abreast in the pursuit of honour. I believe that his + disappointment at this crisis damped his ardour. Unfortunately, at + that period, there was no classical tripos; so that, if a person did + not obtain the classical medal, he was thrown back among the totally + undistinguished; and it was not allowable to become a candidate for + the classical medal, unless you had taken a respectable degree in + mathematics. Coleridge had not the least taste for these, and here his + case was hopeless; so that he despaired of a Fellowship, and gave up + what in his heart he coveted — college honours and a college life. He + had seen Middleton (late Bishop of Calcutta) quit Pembroke under + similar circumstances. Not <i>quite</i> similar, because Middleton had + studied mathematics so as to take a respectable degree, and to enable + him to try for the medal; but he failed, and therefore all hopes + failed of a Fellowship — most fortunately, as it proved in after-life, + for Middleton, though he mourned at the time most deeply, and + exclaimed — 'I am Middleton, which is another name for misfortune!' + + <blockquote>'There is a Providence which shapes our ends,<br> + Rough-hew them how we will.'</blockquote> + + That which Middleton deemed a misfortune drew him from the cobwebs of + a college library to the active energies of a useful and honoured + life."</blockquote> + +If, as Shakespeare observes, "there be a providence which shapes our +ends," such words as "fortunate" or "unfortunate," in their customary +use, will be found, on closer attention, and deeper thought, worthless +and full of error. We have each our part allotted to us in the great +drama of life.<br> +<br> +But to return to Coleridge. + + <blockquote>"When he quitted college, which he did before he had taken a degree, + in a moment of mad-cap caprice, and in an inauspicious hour! + + <blockquote>'When,' as Coleridge says, 'I left the friendly cloisters, and the + happy grove of quiet, ever-honoured Jesus' College, Cambridge.' </blockquote> + + Short, but deep and heartfelt reminiscence! In a <i>Literary Life</i> of + himself, this short memorial is all that Coleridge gives of his happy + days at college. Say not that he did not obtain, and did not wish to + obtain, classical honours! <a name="fr24">He</a> did obtain them, and was eagerly + ambitious of them<a href="#f24"><sup>7</sup></a>; but he did not bend to that discipline which + was to qualify him for the whole course. He was very studious, but his + reading was desultory and capricious. He took little exercise merely + for the sake of exercise; but he was ready at any time to unbend his + mind in conversation; and, for the sake of this, his room (the + ground-floor room on the right hand of the staircase facing the great + gate,) was a constant rendezvous of conversation-loving friends; I + will not call them loungers, for they did not call to kill time, but + to enjoy it. What evenings have I spent in those rooms! What little + suppers, or <i>sizings</i>, as they were called, have I enjoyed; when + Æschylus, and Plato, and Thucydides were pushed aside, with a pile of + lexicons, &c. to discuss the pamphlets of the day. Ever and anon, a + pamphlet issued from the pen of Burke. There was no need of having the + book before us. Coleridge had read it in the morning, and in the + evening he would repeat whole pages verbatim." </blockquote> + +<a name="fr25">Then</a> came another disturbing cause, which altered the course of his path +in life, and this was Frend's trial<a href="#f25"><sup>8</sup></a>. + + <blockquote>"During it," to resume the quotation, "pamphlets swarmed from the + press. Coleridge had read them all; and in the evening, with our + negus, we had them <i>vivâ voce</i> gloriously."</blockquote> + +Coleridge has recorded that he was a Socinian till twenty-five. Be not +startled, courteous reader! nor ye who knew him only in his later life, +if the impetuous zeal and ardour of his mind in early youth led him +somewhat wide of those fixed principles which he adopted in riper years.<br> +<br> +To quote his own words, written soon after he left college, and +addressed to the late Rev. George Coleridge, + + <blockquote> "If aught of error or intemperate truth<br> + Should meet thine ear, think thou that riper age<br> + Will calm it down, and let thy love forgive it!"</blockquote> + +There is one incident very characteristic of him, which took place +during this trial. The trial was observed by Coleridge, to be going +against Frend, when some observation or speech was made in his favour; a +dying hope thrown out as it appeared to Coleridge who, in the midst of +the Senate, whilst sitting on one of the benches, extended his hands and +clapped them. The Proctor in a loud voice demanded who had committed +this indecorum. Silence ensued. The Proctor in an elevated tone, said to +a young man sitting near Coleridge, "'Twas you, sir!" The reply was as +prompt as the accusation; for, immediately holding out the stump of his +right arm, it appeared that he had lost his hand, — "I would, sir," said +he, "that I had the power." — That no innocent person should incur blame, +Coleridge went directly afterwards to the Proctor, who told him that he +saw him clap his hands, but fixed on this person who he knew had not the +power. "You have had," said he, "a narrow escape."<br> +<br> +The opinions of youth are often treated too seriously. The matter of +most importance to ascertain when they need correction, is, whether in +these opinions they are <i>sincere</i>; at all events, the outbursts of +youth are not to be visited as veteran decisions; and when they differ +from <i>received</i> opinions, the advice offered should be tempered +with kindliness of feeling and sympathy even with their failings. +Unfortunately for Coleridge, however, he was to be exempted from those +allowances made for others, and was most painfully neglected by those +who ought to have sympathized with, and supported him; he was left "to +chase chance-started friendships."<br> +<br> +Coleridge possessed a mind remarkably sensitive, so much so, as at times +to divest him of that mental courage so necessary in a world full of +vicissitude and painful trial; and this deficiency, though of short +duration, was occasionally observed in early life. <a name="fr26">At</a> the departure of +Middleton<a href="#f26"><sup>9</sup></a>, to whom he had always looked up, whose success he had +considered morally certain, and whose unexpected failure was therefore +the more painful to his feelings, he became desponding, and, in +addition, vexed and fretted by the college debts, he was overtaken by +that inward grief, the product of fear, which he, in after life, so +painfully described in his <i>Ode to Dejection</i>: — + + <blockquote> "A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,<br> + A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,<br> + Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,<br> + In word, or sigh, or tear."</blockquote> + +Such "viper thoughts" did at this time coil around his mind, and were +for him "Reality's dark Dream." In this state of mind he suddenly left +Cambridge for London, and strolled about the streets till night came on, +and then rested himself on the steps of a house in Chancery Lane, in a +reverie of tumultuous feelings, speculating on the future. In this +situation, overwhelmed with his own painful thoughts, and in misery +himself, he had now to contend with the misery of others — for he was +accosted by various kinds of beggars importuning him for money, and +forcing on him their real or pretended sorrows. To these applicants he +emptied his pockets of his remaining cash. Walking along Chancery Lane +in the morning, he noticed a bill posted on the wall, "Wanted a few +smart lads for the 15th, Elliot's Light Dragoons;" — he paused a moment, +and said to himself, + +<blockquote>"Well, I have had all my life a violent antipathy +to soldiers and horses, the sooner I can cure myself of these absurd +prejudices the better, and I will enlist in this regiment." </blockquote> + +Forthwith he went as directed to the place of enlistment. On his +arrival, he was accosted by an old sergeant, with a remarkably +benevolent countenance, to whom he stated his wish. The old man looking +at him attentively, asked him if he had been in bed? On being answered +in the negative, he desired him to take his, made him breakfast, and +bade him rest himself awhile, which he did. This feeling sergeant +finding him refreshed in his body, but still suffering apparently from +melancholy, in kind words begged him to be of good cheer, and consider +well the step he was about to take; gave him half a guinea, which he was +to repay at his convenience, with a desire at the same time that he +would go to the play, and shake off his melancholy, and not return to +him. The first part of the advice Coleridge attended to, but returned +after the play to the quarters he had left. At the sight of him, this +kind-hearted man burst into tears — "Then it must be so," said he. This +sudden and unexpected sympathy from an entire stranger deeply affected +Coleridge, and nearly shook his resolution; still considering the die +was cast, and that he could not in honour even to the sergeant, without +implicating him, retreat, he preserved his secret, and after a short +chat, they retired to rest.<br> +<br> +In the morning, the sergeant, not unmindful of his duty to his +sovereign, mustered his recruits, and Coleridge, with his new comrades, +was marched to Reading. On his arrival at the quarters of the regiment, +the general of the district inspected the recruits, and looking hard at +Coleridge with a military air, enquired, "What's your name, sir?" +"Comberbach," (the name he had assumed.) "What do you come here for, +sir?" as if doubting whether he had any business there. "Sir," said +Coleridge, "for what most other persons come, to be made a soldier." +"Do you think," said the general, "you can run a Frenchman through the +body?" "I do not know," replied Coleridge, "as I never tried, but I'll +let a Frenchman run me through the body before I'll run away." "That +will do," said the general; and Coleridge was turned into the ranks.<br> +<br> +The same amiable and benevolent conduct which was so interwoven in his +nature, soon made him friends, and his new comrades vied with each other +in their endeavours to be useful to him; and being, as before described, +rather helpless, he required the assistance of his fellow-soldiers. They +cleaned his horse, attended particularly to its heels, and to the +accoutrements. At this time he frequently complained of a pain at the +pit of his stomach, accompanied with sickness, which totally prevented +his stooping, and in consequence he could never arrive at the power of +bending his body to rub the heels of his horse, which alone was +sufficient to make him dependent on his comrades; <a name="fr27">but</a> it should be +observed that he on his part was ever willing to assist them by being +their amanuensis when one was required, and wrote all their letters to +their sweethearts and wives.<a href="#f27"><sup>10</sup></a><br> +<br> +It appears that he never advanced beyond the awkward squad, and that the +drill-sergeant had little hope of his progress from the necessary +warnings he gave to the rest of the troop, even to this same squad to +which he belonged; and, though his awkward manoeuvres were well +understood, <a name="fr28">the</a> sergeant would vociferously exclaim, "Take care of that +Comberbach,<a href="#f28"><sup>11</sup></a> take care of him, for he will ride over you," and other +such complimentary warnings. From the notice that one of his officers +took of him, he excited, for a short time, the jealousy of some of his +companions. When in the street, he walked behind this officer as an +orderly, but when out of town they walked abreast, and his comrades not +understanding how a soldier in the awkward squad merited this +distinction, thought it a neglect of themselves, which, for the time, +produced some additional discomfort to Coleridge.<br> +<br> +<a name="fr29">I</a> believe this officer to have been Capt. Ogle,<a href="#f29"><sup>12</sup></a> who I think visited +him in after life at Highgate. It seems that his attention had been +drawn to Coleridge in consequence of discovering the following sentence +in the stables, written in pencil, "Eheu! quam infortunii miserrimum est +fuisse felicem!" but his more immediate discovery arose from a young man +who had left Cambridge for the army, and in his road through Reading to +join his regiment, met Coleridge in the street in his Dragoon's dress, +who was about to pass him, but, said he, + +<blockquote>"No, Coleridge, this will not +do, we have been seeking you these six months; I must and will converse +with you, and have no hesitation in declaring that I shall immediately +inform your friends that I have found you."</blockquote> + +This led to Coleridge's +return to Cambridge. The same story is also related and made the ground +work of some scene in a novel, without the names, by his early friend, +Charles Lloyd — he who was included by Canning in the Anti-jacobin with +Coleridge, Mr. Southey, and Lamb. He returned to Cambridge, but did not +long remain there; and quitted it without taking a degree.<br> +<br> +It has been observed, that men of genius move in orbits of their own; +and seem deprived of that free will which permits the mere man of talent +steadily to pursue the beaten path. Coleridge had very early pictured to +himself many of the advantages of mechanical employment, its immunities +and exemptions from the sufferings consequent on the laborious exercise +of <i>thought</i>; but yet he never shrank from the task apparently +allotted to him; he was made to soar and not to creep; even as a young +man, his acquirements were far beyond the age in which he lived. With +his amiable qualities, and early love of domestic life, he would have +been well content to tread an humbler path, but it was otherwise +ordained!<br> +<br> +However excellent for the many, the system adopted by our universities +was ill suited for a mind like Coleridge's, and there were some who felt +that a College routine was not the kind of education which would best +evolve, cultivate, and bring into training powers so <i>unique</i>. It +has been repeated, <i>ad nauseam</i>, that great minds will not descend +to the industrious accumulation of those acquirements best suited to fit +them for independence. To say that Coleridge would not <i>condescend</i> +would be a calumny, — nay, when his health permitted, he would drudge and +work more laboriously at some of the mechanical parts of literature, +than any man I ever knew. To speak detractingly of great and good men is +frequently the result of malice combined with egotism. Though it would +be injustice not to admit that he has had warm admirers and deeply +affectionate friends, it is much to be regretted that there have been +persons who have strangely maligned Coleridge, and who have attributed +to him vices of which he was innocent. Had these vices existed, they +would not have found any unfair extenuation in this memoir, nor would +they have been passed over without notice. In answer to calumnies at +that time in circulation, (and with sorrow and just indignation it is +added that these reports originated with some who called themselves his +friends; but, alas! most false and hypocritical!) the following minute +from his notes is quoted: + +<blockquote>"My academic adventures and indiscretions must have seemed + unpardonable sins," that is, as they were related by the tale-bearers + and gossips of the day. "I mention these," adds he, "because the only + immoralities that can without the grossest slander be laid to my + charge, were all comprised within the space of the last two years of + my College life. As I went to Cambridge innocent, so I dare affirm, + from the first week of my acquaintance with Robert Southey to this + hour, Southey himself cannot stand more clear of all intention at + violations of the moral law: but, in fact, even during my career at + Jesus, the heaviest of my offences consisted in the folly of assuming + the show of vices, from which I was all but free, and which in the + comparatively few exceptions left loathing and self-disgust on my + mind. <a name="fr30">Were</a> I, indeed, to fix on that week of my existence, in which my + moral being would have presented to a pitying guardian angel the most + interesting spectacle, it would be that very week<a href="#f30"><sup>13</sup></a> in London, in + which I was believed by my family to have abandoned myself to + debauchery of all kinds, and <i>thus</i> to have involved myself in + disreputable pecuniary embarrassments. God knows, so intense was my + mental anguish, that during the whole time I was physically incapable + even of a <i>desire</i>. My whole body seemed stunned and insensate, + from excess of inward suffering — my debts were the <i>cause</i>, not + the effect; but that I know there can be no substitute for a father, I + should say, — surely, surely, the innocence of my whole <i>pre</i> and + <i>post</i> academic life, my early distinction, and even the fact, + that my Cambridge extravagations did not lose me, nor cool for me, the + esteem and regard of a single fellow collegiate, might have obtained + an amnesty from worse transgressions." +</blockquote> + +Coleridge, who had desponded at the fate of Middleton, after the +unsuccessful attempts he made to obtain a fellowship, lost all hope of +procuring an income from the college, and as, through the +instrumentality of Frend, with whom an intimacy had now taken place, he +had been converted to what in these days is called Unitarianism, he was +too conscientious to take orders and enter the Established Church. These +circumstances opened to him new views, and effected a complete change in +his course of life, and thus his former objects and plans were set +aside. The friendship between Coleridge and Southey having greatly +increased, and still continuing to increase, and Coleridge being easily +led by the affection of those he loved, for which he had a constant +yearning, determined to follow literature in future life as a +profession, that appearing to him the only source of obtaining an +honourable livelihood.<br> +<br> +Here there was no "mad caprice," but he calmly decided to leave +Cambridge and join Southey in his plans for the future, and commence the +profession on which they had mutually agreed. He went to Oxford to visit +Mr. Southey, and thence to Wales, and thence to Bristol (Mr. Southey's +native place), at which city they conjointly commenced their career in +authorship, and for the first few months shared the same room.<br> +<br> +The times were still tumultuous; for although the great hurricane of the +revolution ceased abroad, yet, like mighty waters that had been once +agitated by a storm, tranquillity was not restored, nor was there any +prospect of an immediate calm. The <i>Habeas Corpus</i> act was at this +time suspended, and the minister of that day, Mr. Pitt, had struck the +panic of property among the wealthy and affluent. During the time of +danger, when surrounded by government emissaries, these youthful poets +gave lectures on politics, and that with impunity, to crowded audiences. +Coleridge met with one interruption only, and that from a hired partizan +who had assayed a disturbance at one of these lectures, in order to +implicate him and his party, and by this means to effect, if possible, +their incarceration. The gentleman who mentioned this in the presence of +Coleridge (when with me at Highgate) said — He (Coleridge) had commenced +his lecture when this intended disturber of the peace was heard uttering +noisy words at the foot of the stairs, where the fee of admission into +the room was to be paid. The receiver of the money on the alert ascended +the stairs and informed Coleridge of the man's insolence and his +determination not to pay for his admission. In the midst of the lecture +Coleridge stopped, and said loud enough to be heard by the individual, +that before the intruder "kicked up a dust, he would surely down with +the dust," and desired the man to admit him. The individual had not long +been in the room before he began hissing, this was succeeded by loud +claps from Coleridge's party, which continued for a few minutes, but at +last they grew so warm that they began to vociferate, "Turn him +out!" — "Turn him out!" — "Put him out of the window!" Fearing the +consequences of this increasing clamour, the lecturer was compelled to +request silence, and addressed them as follows: "Gentlemen, ours is the +cause of liberty! that gentleman has as much right to hiss as you to +clap, and you to clap as he to hiss; but what is to be expected, +gentlemen, when the cool waters of reason come in contact with red hot +aristocracy but a hiss?" <a name="fr31">When</a> the loud laugh ended, silence ensued, and +the rebuke was treasured and related.<a href="#f31"><sup>14</sup></a><br> +<br> +The terms aristocrat, democrat, and jacobin, were the fashionable +opprobrious epithets of the day; and well do I remember, the man who had +earned by his politics the prefix of jacobin to his name, was completely +shunned in society, whatever might be his moral character: but, as might +be expected, this was merely ephemeral, when parties ran high, and were +guided and governed more by impulses and passion than by principle. + + <blockquote>"Truth I pursued, as Fancy sketch'd the way,<br> + And wiser men than I went worse astray."</blockquote> + +Men of the greatest sense and judgment possessing good hearts are, on +the review of the past, more disposed to think <i>well</i> of the young +men of that day, who, from not exercising their reason, were carried +into the vortex of the revolution. Much has been written on the proposed +scheme of settling in the wilds of America; — the spot chosen was +Susquehannah, — this spot Coleridge has often said was selected, on +account of the name being pretty and metrical, indeed he could never +forbear a smile when relating the story. This day-dream, as he termed +it, (for such it really was) the detail of which as related by him +always gave it rather a sportive than a serious character, was a subject +on which it is doubtful whether he or Mr. Southey were really in earnest +at the time it was planned. The dream was, as is stated in the "Friend," +that the little society to be formed was, in its second generation, to +have combined the innocence of the patriarchal age with the knowledge +and general refinements of European culture, and + +<blockquote>"I dreamt," says he, +"that in the sober evening of my life I should behold colonies of +independence in the undivided dale of industry."</blockquote> + +Strange fancies! <i>and +as vain as strange</i>! This scheme, sportive, however, as it might be, +had its admirers; and there are persons now to be found, who are +desirous of realizing these visions, the past-time in thought and fancy +of these young poets — then about 23 years of age. During this dream, and +about this time, Southey and Coleridge married two sisters of the name +of Fricker, and a third sister was married to an Utopian poet as he has +been called, of the name of Lovel, whose poems were published with Mr. +Southey's. They were, however, too wise to leave Bristol for America, +for the purpose of establishing a genuine system of property — a +Pantisocracy, which was to be their form of government — and under which +they were to realize all their new dreams of happiness. Marriage, at all +events, seems to have sobered them down, and the vision vanished.<br> +<br> +Chimerical as it appeared, the purveyors of amusement for the reading +public were thus furnished with occupation, and some small pecuniary +gain, while it exercised the wit of certain anti-Jacobin writers of the +day, and raised them into notice. Canning had the faculty of satire to +an extraordinary degree, and also that common sense tact, which made his +services at times so very useful to his country; his powers seemed in +their full meridian of splendour when an argument or new doctrine +permitted him rapidly to run down into its consequence, and then +brilliantly and wittily to skew its defects. In this he eminently +excelled. The beauties of the anti-Jacobin are replete with his satire. +He never attempted a display of depth, but his dry sarcasm left a sting +which those he intended to wound carried off <i>in pain and +mortfication</i>. This scheme of Pantisocracy excited a smile among the +kind-hearted and thinking part of mankind; but, among the vain and +restless ignorant would-be-political economists, it met with more +attention; and they, with their microscopic eyes, fancied they beheld in +it what was not quite so visible to the common observer. Though the plan +was soon abandoned, it was thought sufficient for the subject of a +lecture, and afforded some mirth when the minds of the parties concerned +in it arrived at manhood. Coleridge saw, soon after it was broached, +that no scheme of colonizing that was not based on religion could be +permanent. — Left to the disturbing forces of the human passions to which +it would be exposed, it would soon perish; for all government to be +permanent should be influenced by reason, and guided by religion.<br> +<br> +In the year 1795 Coleridge, residing then at Clevedon, a short distance +from Bristol, published his first prose work, with some additions by Mr. +Southey, the <i>Conciones ad Populum.</i> In a short preface he observes, + + <blockquote> "The two following addresses were delivered in the month of February, + 1795, and were followed by six others in defence of natural and + revealed religion. 'There is a time to keep silence,' saith King + Solomon; — but when I proceeded to the first verse of the fourth + chapter of the Ecclesiastes, 'and considered all the oppressions that + are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were + oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their + oppressors there was power,' I concluded this was <i>not</i> the 'time + to keep silence;' for truth should be spoken at all times, but more + especially at those times when to speak truth is dangerous."</blockquote> + +In these addresses he showed that the example of France was a warning to +Great Britain; but, because he did not hold opinions equally violent +with the Jacobin party of that day, he was put down as an anti-Jacobin; +for, he says, "the annals of the French revolution have been recorded in +letters of blood, that the knowledge of the few cannot counteract the +ignorance of the many; that the light of philosophy, when it is confined +to a small minority, points out its possessors as the victims, rather +than the illuminators of the multitude. The patriots of France either +hastened into the dangerous and gigantic error of making certain evils +the means of contingent good, or were sacrificed by the mob, with whose +prejudices and ferocity their unbending virtue forbade them to +assimilate. Like Samson, the people were strong, like Samson, they were +also blind:" and he admonishes them at the end of the third lecture to +do all things in the spirit of love. + + <blockquote> "It is worthy of remark," says he, in a MS. note, "that we may possess + a thing in such fulness as to prevent its possession from being an + object of distinct consciousness. Only as it lessens or dims, we + reflect on it, and learn to value it. This is one main cause why young + men of high and ardent minds find nothing repulsive in the doctrines + of necessity, which, in after years, they (as I have) recoil from. + Thus, too, the faces of friends dearly beloved become distinct in + memory or dream only after long absence." Of the work itself he says, + "Except the two or three pages involving the doctrine of philosophical + necessity and Unitarianism, I see little or nothing in these + 'outbursts' of my 'youthful' zeal to 'retract', and with the exception + of some flame-coloured epithets applied to persons, as to Mr. Pitt and + others, or rather to personifications (for such they really were to + 'me') as little to regret. <a name="fr32">Qualis</a> ab initio <img src="images/CG1.gif" width="91" height="30" alt="Greek: estaesae"> + S.T.C.<a href="#f32"><sup>15</sup></a> When a rifacimento of the <i>Friend</i> took place, [1818] at vol. + ii. p. 240, he states his reasons for reprinting the lecture referred + to, one of the series delivered at Bristol in the year 1794-95, + because, says he, "This very lecture, vide p. 10, has been referred to + in an infamous libel in proof of the author's Jacobinism." +</blockquote> + +When the mind of Coleridge was more matured he did not omit this truth, +which has never been refuted, that the aristocratic system "had its +golden side, for the noblest minds; but I + + <blockquote>"should," continues he, "act +the part of a coward if I disguised my conviction that the errors of the +aristocratic party were as gross, and far less excusable than those of +the Jacobin. Instead of contenting themselves with opposing the real +blessing of English law to the <i>splendid promises of untried +theory</i>, too large a part of those who called themselves +<i>anti-Jacobins</i>, did all in their power to suspend those blessings; +and they furnished <i>new arguments to the advocates of innovation</i>, +when they should have been answering <i>the old ones!</i>"</blockquote> + +But, whatever +were his opinions, they were founded on <i>principle</i>, and with the +exception of the two above alluded to, he ought never to be accused of +changing. Some years since, the late Charles Matthews, the comedian, (or +rather, as Coleridge used to observe, "the comic poet acting his own +poems,") showed me an autograph letter from Mr. Wordsworth to Matthews' +brother, (who was at that time educating for the bar) and with whom he +corresponded. In this letter he made the following observation, +"To-morrow I am going to Bristol to see those two extraordinary young +men, Southey and Coleridge," Mr. Wordsworth then residing at Allfoxden. +They soon afterwards formed an intimacy, which continued (though not +without some little interruption) during his life, as his <i>Biographia +Literaria</i> and his will attest.<br> +<br> +Mr. Coleridge's next work was the <i>Watchman</i> in numbers — a miscellany to +be published every eighth day. The first number appeared on the 5th of +February, 1796. This work was a report of the state of the political +atmosphere, to be interspersed with sketches of character and verse. It +reached the 10th number, and was then dropped; the editor taking leave +of his readers in the following address: + +<blockquote>"This is the last number of the +Watchman. Henceforward I shall cease to cry the state of the political +atmosphere. While I express my gratitude to those friends who exerted +themselves so liberally in the establishment of this miscellany, I may +reasonably be expected to assign some reason for relinquishing it thus +abruptly. The reason is short and satisfactory. The work does not pay +its expences. Part of my subscribers have relinquished it because it did +not contain sufficient original composition, and a still larger because +it contained too much. I have endeavoured to do well; and it must be +attributed to defect of ability, not of inclination or effort, if the +words of the prophet be altogether applicable to me, 'O watchman! thou +hast watched in vain!'"</blockquote> + +Mr. Coleridge has given us in the <i>Biographia +Literaria</i> a very lively account of his opinions, adventures, and state +of feeling during this canvass in quest of subscribers. + +"Towards the close of the first year, that inauspicious hour," (it was, +indeed, and for several reasons an "inauspicious hour" for him,) "when I +left the friendly cloisters, and the happy grove of quiet, ever-honoured +Jesus' College, Cambridge, to set on foot a periodical, entitled the +'Watchman,' that (according to the motto of the work) <i>all might know +the truth, and that truth might make us free!</i> + + <blockquote>"With a flaming prospectus <i>'Knowledge is power,'</i> &c. and to cry the + state of the political atmosphere and so forth, I set off on a tour to + the north, from Bristol to Sheffield, for the purpose of procuring + customers, preaching by the way in most great towns, as a hireless + volunteer, in a blue coat and white waistcoat, that not a rag of the + woman of Babylon might be seen on me; for I was at that time, though a + Trinitarian <i>(i.e. ad normam Platonis)</i> in philosophy, yet a zealous + Unitarian in religion; more accurately, I was a psilanthropist, one of + those who believe our Lord to have been the real son of Joseph, and + who lay the main stress on the resurrection rather than on the + crucifixion. Oh! never can I remember those days with either shame or + regret, for I was most sincere! most disinterested! My opinions were, + indeed, in many and most important points erroneous, but my heart was + single! Wealth, rank, life itself then seemed cheap to me, compared + with the interests of (what I believe to be) the truth and the will of + my Maker. I cannot even accuse myself of having been actuated by + vanity; for, in the expansion of my enthusiasm, I did not think of + myself at all.<br> +<br> + My campaign commenced at Birmingham, and my first attack was on a + rigid Calvinist, a tallow-chandler by trade. He was a tall dingy man, + in whom length was so predominant over breadth, that he might almost + have been borrowed for a foundry poker. O that face! a face, <img src="images/CG3.gif" width="128" height="31" alt="Greek: + kat' emphasin!"> I have it before me at this moment. The lank, black + twine-like hair, pingui-nitescent, cut in a straight line, along the + black stubble of his thin gunpowder eyebrows, that looked like a + scorched aftermath from a last week's shaving. His coat collar behind + in perfect unison, both of colour and lustre, with the coarse, yet + glib cordage that I suppose he called his hair, and which with a + <i>bend</i> inward at the nape of the neck, (the only approach to + flexure in his whole figure) slunk in behind his waistcoat; while the + countenance lank, dark, very <i>hard</i>, and with strong + perpendicular furrows, gave me a dim notion of some one looking at me + through a <i>used</i> gridiron, all soot, grease, and iron! A person + to whom one of my letters of recommendation had been addressed, was my + introducer.<br> +<br> + It was a <i>new event</i> in my life, my first <i>stroke</i> in the + new business I had undertaken of an author; yes, and of an author on + his own account. <a name="fr33">I</a> would address," says Coleridge, "an affectionate + exhortation to the youthful literati on my own experience. It will be + but short; for the beginning, middle, and end converge to one charge. + <b>Never Pursue Literature as a Trade</b>.<a href="#f33"><sup>16</sup></a> My companion," says he, + "after some imperfect sentences, and a multitude of hums and hahs, + abandoned the cause to his client; and I commenced an harangue of half + an hour to Phileleutheros, the tallow-chandler, varying my notes + through the whole gamut of eloquence, from the ratiocinative to the + declamatory, and, in the latter, from the pathetic to the indignant. + My taper man of lights listened with perseverant and praiseworthy + patience, though (as I was afterwards told, in complaining of certain + gales that were not altogether ambrosial,) it was a melting day with + him. And what, sir! (he said, after a short pause,) might the cost be? + only <b>Fourpence</b>, (O! how I felt the anti-climax, the abysmal bathos of + that <b>Fourpence</b>!) <i>only fourpence, sir, each number, to be published + on every eighth day</i>. That comes to a deal of money at the end of a + year; and how much did you say there was to be for the money? + Thirty-two pages, sir! large octavo, closely printed. Thirty and two + pages? Bless me, why except what I does in a family way on the + sabbath, that's more than I ever reads, sir! all the year round. I am + as great a one as any man in Brummagem, sir! for liberty and truth, + and all them sort of things, but as to this, (no offence, I hope, + sir!) I must beg to be excused. So ended my first canvass." <br><br> + + Much the same indifference was shewn him at Manchester, &c., but he + adds: — "From this rememberable tour, I returned nearly a thousand + names on the subscription list of the 'Watchman;' yet more than half + convinced that prudence dictated the abandonment of the scheme; but + for this very reason I persevered in it; for I was at that period of + my life so completely hagridden by the fear of being influenced by + selfish motives, that to know a mode of conduct to be the dictate of + <i>prudence</i>, was a sort of presumptive proof to my feelings, that + the contrary was the dictate of <i>duty</i>. Accordingly, I commenced + the work, which was announced in London by long bills in letters + larger than had ever been seen before, and which (I have been + informed, for I did not see them myself) eclipsed the glories even of + the lottery puffs; but, alas! the publication of the very first number + was delayed beyond the day announced for its appearance. In the second + number, an essay against fast days, with a most censurable application + of a text from Isaiah, for its motto, lost me near five hundred of my + subscribers at one blow.<br> +<br> + In the two following numbers, I made enemies of all my Jacobin and + democratic patrons; for, disgusted by their infidelity and their + adoption of French morals, and French philosophy, and, perhaps, + thinking that charity ought to begin nearest home, instead of abusing + the government and the aristocrats chiefly or entirely, as had been + expected of me, I levelled my attacks at '<i>modern patriotism</i>,' + and even ventured to declare my belief, that whatever the motives of + ministers might have been for the sedition (or as it was then the + fashion to call them) the gagging bills, yet the bills themselves + would produce an effect to be desired by all the true friends of + freedom, as far they should contribute to deter men from openly + declaiming on subjects, the <i>principles of which they had never + bottomed</i>, and from 'pleading <i>to</i> the <i>poor and + ignorant</i>, instead of pleading for them.'<br> +<br> + At the same time I avowed my conviction, that national education, and + a concurring spread of the gospel were the indispensable condition of + any true political amelioration. Thus, by the time the seventh number + was published, I had the mortification (but why should I say this, + when, in truth, I cared too little for any thing that concerned my + worldly interests, to be at all mortified about it?) of seeing the + preceding numbers exposed in sundry old iron shops for a penny a + piece. At the ninth number I dropped the work." He never recovered the + money of his London publisher, and but little from his subscribers, + and as he goes on to say: — "Must have been thrown into jail by my + printer, for a sum between eighty and ninety pounds, if the money had + not been paid for me by a man, by no means affluent, a dear friend who + attached himself to me from my first arrival at Bristol, who continued + my friend with a fidelity unconquered by time, or even by my own + apparent neglect; a friend from whom I never received an advice that + was not gentle and affectionate." (p. 177.) +</blockquote> + +Coleridge's reputation from boyhood quietly increased, not through the +favor, but the censure of reviewers. It was this which, contrary to +their wishes, diffused his name as poet and philosopher. So long as +there are readers to be gratified by calumny, there will always be found +writers eager to furnish a supply; and he had other enemies, +unacquainted with the critical profession, yet morbidly vain, and +because disappointed in their literary hopes, no less malignant.<br> +<br> +Alas! how painful it is to witness at times the operation of some of the +human passions. — Should envy take the lead, her twin sisters, hatred and +malice, follow as auxiliaries in her train, — and, in the struggles for +ascendancy and extension of her power, she subverts those principles +which might impede her path, and then speedily effects the destruction +of all the kindly feelings most honourable to man.<br> +<br> +Coleridge was conscientiously an opponent of the first revolutionary +war, because he abhorred the principles; and it was part of his +political creed, that whoever ceased + + <blockquote> "to act as an <i>individual</i> by making himself a member of any + society not sanctioned by his government, forfeited the rights of a + citizen."</blockquote> + +He was at that time "a vehement anti-ministerialist," but, after the +invasion of Switzerland, a more vehement anti-Gallican, and still more +intensely an anti-Jacobin: + + <blockquote>"I retired," said he, "to a cottage at Stowey, and provided for my + scanty maintenance by writing verses for a London Morning Paper. I saw + plainly, that literature was not a profession by which I could expect + to live; for <i>I could not disguise from myself</i>, that whatever my + talents might or might not be in other respects, yet they were not of + that <i>sort</i> that <i>could enable me to become a popular + writer</i>; and that whatever my opinions might be in themselves, they + were almost equi-distant from all the three opposite parties, the + Pittites, the Foxites, and the democrats. Of the unsaleable nature of + my writings I had an amusing memento one morning from our servant + girl. For happening to rise at an earlier hour than usual, I observed + her putting an extravagant quantity of paper into the grate in order + to light the fire, and mildly checked her for her wastefulness; La, + Sir! (replied poor Nanny) why, it is only <b>Watchmen</b>."<br> +<br> + There was at last a pause, as each party seemed worn out; for, "the + hand of Providence had disciplined <i>all</i> Europe into sobriety, as + men tame wild elephants by alternate blows and caresses: now, that + Englishmen of all classes are restored to their old English notions + and feelings, it will with difficulty be credited, how great an + influence was at that time possessed and exerted by the spirit of + secret defamation (the too constant attendant on party zeal!) during + the restless interim, from 1793 to the commencement of the Addington + administration, or the year before the truce of Amiens." +</blockquote> + +In short, the exhaustion which had followed the great stimulus, disposed +individuals to reconciliation. Both parties found themselves in the +wrong, the one had mistaken the moral character of the revolution, and +the other had miscalculated its physical resources. The experiment was +made at the price of great, we may say, of almost humiliating +sacrifices; and wise men foresaw that it would fail, at least, in its +direct and ostensible object. Yet it was purchased cheaply, and realized +an object of equal value, and, if possible, of more vital importance; +for it brought about a national unanimity, unexampled in our history +since the reign of Elizabeth; and Providence, never failing to do his +part when men have done theirs, soon provided a common focus in the +cause of Spain, which made us all once more Englishmen, by gratifying +and correcting the predilections of each party. The sincere reverers of +the throne felt the cause of loyalty ennobled by its alliance with that +of freedom while the <i>honest</i> zealots of the people could not but +admit that freedom itself assumed a more winning form, humanized by +loyalty, and <i>consecrated</i> by <i>religious principle</i>.<br> +<br> +During this calm and rest, and while the political fever was subsiding, +Coleridge retired, as he informs us, "to a cottage in Somersetshire, at +the foot of Quantock," to devote himself to poetry, and to the study of +ethics and psychology, to direct his thoughts and studies to the +foundations of religion and morals. + + <blockquote>"During my residence here," he says, "I found myself all afloat; + doubts rushed in; broke upon me <i>from the fountains of the great + deep</i>,' and '<i>fell from the windows of Heaven</i>.' The fontal + truths of natural religion and the books of Revelation alike + contributed to the flood; and it was long ere my ark touched on an + Ararat, and rested. The idea (viz. the law evolved in the mind) of the + Supreme Being appeared to me to be as necessarily implied in all + particular modes of being, as the idea, of infinite space in all the + geometrical figures by which space is limited." He goes on to state at + this period, about the latter end of the year 1796, "For a very long + time I could not reconcile personality with infinity; and my head was + with Spinosa, though my whole heart remained with Paul and John. Yet + there had dawned upon me, even before I had met with the Critique of + Pure Reason, a certain guiding light. If <i>the mere intellect</i> + could make no certain discovery of a holy and intelligent first cause, + it might yet supply a demonstration that no legitimate argument could + be drawn from the mere intellect <i>against</i> its truth. <i>And what + is this</i> more than St. Paul's assertion, that by wisdom (more + properly translated by the powers of reasoning) no man ever arrived at + the knowledge of God? Man asks what is wisdom? and whence comes it? In + Job, chap. 28th, it is stated, 'But to man he said, the fear of the + Lord is wisdom for <b>thee</b>! And to avoid evil, that is <i>thy</i> + understanding.'" + </blockquote> + +Such were his philosophical opinions before his final conversion to the +whole truth in Christ. He was contending for principles, and diligently +in search of truth for its own sake; — the one thing only permanent, and +which carries with it its "own exceeding great reward." Such was the +state of his religious feelings and political opinions before his visit +to Germany.<br> +<br> +There is a general observation or experience he has recorded, not only +so applicable to him at that time, but equally to each stage of his +career in life, as not to be lost sight of by his friends and admirers, +when assailed, as he was, by opposing party-spirits, which, like +opposite currents, were contending for the mastery.<br> +<br> +To avoid one party lest he should run on Scylla, he excited and provoked +the jealousy and neglect of the other, who might have wrecked him on +Charybdis. These were well-known dangers; but, as all navigable seas +have their shoals often invisible; in order to avoid the effects of +these jealousies, he selected from each party, men of experience to give +him the soundings, and thus prevent him from wrecking his barque on +rocks and quicksands; for, without such information, there could be +little chance of escape.<br> +<br> +In so doing, be lost his popularity with the many, though these were +evils he might perhaps have conquered (but still speaking figuratively); +his crew (his great inward aid) had differed too seriously among +themselves, and were under the influence of conflicting feelings.<br> +<br> +His whole mind was bent on the search after those truths that alone can +determine fixed principles, and which not long after became to him an +unerring guide. They were for him what the needle is to the mariner.<br> +<br> +The observation alluded to is as follows: + +<blockquote>"All my experience, from my +first entrance into life to the present hour, is in favour of the +warning maxim, that the man who opposes in toto <i>the political or +religious zealots of his age, is safer from their obloquy than he who +differs from them but in one or two points only</i> <b>in degree</b>." </blockquote> + +<a name="fr34">This</a> is +a truth too important to pass lightly over, as in this consisted much of +that feeling which prevented his being popular, (for unless an +individual goes the whole length of the party who may choose to adopt +him, he is discarded, and it is well for him if he is not persecuted and +held up to public ridicule).<a href="#f34"><sup>17</sup></a><br> +<br> +Zealots are usually superficial, but in herds they are found to support +each other, and by their numbers assume an imposing air. — One weak man +cannot stand, but three may. — By this mode of congregating, they are +more easily managed by their leaders, whose impulses they obey, and to +whom they become willing slaves. Men who sacrifice the many to the few, +have been held out by almost every writer, where moral and political +subjects have been introduced, as warnings to those liable to fall into +their snares, but which have seemingly been put forth to little purpose. +The necessity, therefore, for a continuation of instruction on such +important moral truths, is still required; for, in the contending +currents, so much mischief is often produced, that to divert these +conflicting opinions, and to try to bring them into unity, Coleridge +thought it a duty to employ his strength of intellect; he hoped to +preserve a principle which he deemed so useful to mankind. <br> +<br> +<a name="fr35">The</a> foot of +Quantock was to Coleridge a memorable spot; here his studies were +serious and deep; protected by one of the kindest of friends, and +stimulated by the society also of a brother poet, whose lays seemed to +have inspired his song, and also to have chimed in with it; for although +it has been shewn that his poetic genius first dawned in his 16th year, +yet after he left College, and during his residence at this place,<a href="#f35"><sup>18</sup></a> +it seemed suddenly to have arrived at poetic manhood, and to have +reached this developement as early as his 25th year. In his more serious +studies he had greatly advanced, and had already planned and stored up +much for his future life. It will often be repeated, but not too often +for a society so full of sciolists and disbelievers, — men who are so +self-satisfied as not to require teaching, — that Coleridge never was an +idle man; and that, if nothing else remained, the progress he made in +intellectual acquirements during his residence at Stowey and his short +stay in Germany, might be instanced. Before he quitted this country to +embark in fresh studies we have his own statement: + +<blockquote>"I became convinced, that religion, as both the corner-stone and the + key-stone of morality, must have a 'moral' origin; so far, at least, + that the evidence of its doctrines could not, like the truths of + abstract science, be 'wholly' independent of the will.<br> +<br> + It was therefore to be expected, that its <i>fundamental</i> truth + would be such as <b>might</b> be denied, though only by the fool, and even by + the fool from madness of <i>heart</i> alone!<br> +<br> + The question then concerning our faith in the existence of a God, not + only as the ground of the universe by his essence, but by his wisdom + and holy will as its maker and judge, appeared to stand thus: the + sciential reason, the objects of wit are purely theoretical, remains + neutral, as long as its name and semblance are not usurped by the + opponents of the doctrine; but it <i>then</i> becomes an effective + ally by exposing the false show of demonstration, or by evincing the + equal demonstrability of the contrary from premises equally logical. + The <i>understanding</i>, meantime suggests, the analogy of + <i>experience</i> facilitates, the belief. Nature excites and recalls + it, as by a perpetual revelation. Our feelings almost necessitate it; + and the law of conscience peremptorily commands it. The arguments that + all apply to, are in its favor; and there is nothing against it, but + its own sublimity.<br> +<br> + It could not be intellectually more evident without becoming morally + less effective; without counteracting its own end by sacrificing the + <i>life</i> of faith to the cold mechanism of a worthless, because + compulsory assent. The belief of a God and a future state (if a + passive acquiescence may be flattered with the name of <i>belief</i>) + does not, indeed, always beget a good heart; but a good heart so + naturally begets the belief, that the very few exceptions must be + regarded as strange anomalies from strange and unfortunate + circumstances.<br> +<br> + From these premises I proceeded to draw the following + conclusions, — first, that having once fully admitted the existence of + an infinite yet self-conscious Creator, we are not allowed to ground + the irrationality of any other article of faith on arguments which + would equally prove <i>that</i> to be irrational, which we had allowed + to be <i>real</i>. Secondly, that whatever is deducible from the + admission of a <i>self-comprehending</i> and <i>creative</i> spirit, + may be legitimately used in proof of the <i>possibility</i> of any + further mystery concerning the Divine Nature.<br> +<br> + "Possibilitatem mysteriorum (Trinitatis, &c.) contra insultus + infidelium et hereticorum a contradictionibus vindico; haud quidem + veritatem, quæ revelatione sola stabiliri possit;" says Leibnitz, in + a letter to his duke. He then adds the following just and important + remark. "In vain will tradition or texts of Scripture be adduced in + support of a doctrine, 'donec clava impossibilitatis et + contradictionis e manibus horum Herculum extorta fuerit.' For the + heretic will still reply, that texts, the literal sense of which is + not so much above as directly against all reason, must be understood + figuratively, as Herod is a Fox, &c.<br> +<br> + These principles," says he, "I held philosophically, while in respect + of revealed religion, I remained a zealous Unitarian. I considered the + idea of a Trinity a fair scholastic inference from the being of God, + as a creative intelligence; and that it was therefore entitled to the + rank of an esoteric doctrine of natural religion: but seeing in the + same no practical or moral bearing, I confined it to the schools of + philosophy. The admission of the Logos, as hypostasized (i.e. neither + a mere attribute nor a personification), in no respect removed my + doubts concerning the incarnation and the redemption by the cross; + which I could neither reconcile in <i>reason</i> with the + impassiveness of the Divine Being, nor in my moral feelings with the + sacred distinction between things and persons, the vicarious payment + of a debt and the vicarious expiation of guilt.<br> +<br> + A more thorough revolution in my philosophic principles, and a deeper + insight into my own heart were yet wanting. Nevertheless, I cannot + doubt, that the difference of my metaphysical notions from those of + Unitarians in general <i>contributed</i> to my final re-conversion to + the <i>whole truth</i> in <i>Christ;</i> even as according to his own + confession the books of certain Platonic philosophers (Libri quorundam + Platonicorum) commenced the rescue of St. Augustine's faith from the + same error, aggravated by the far darker accompaniment of the + Manichean heresy."</blockquote> + +Perhaps it is right also to state, that no small share of his final +reconversion was attributable to that zeal and powerful genius, and to +his great desire that others should become sharers in his own +acquirements, which he was so desirous to communicate. During his +residence at the foot of Quantock, his thoughts and studies were not +only directed to an enquiry into the great truths of religion, but, +while he stayed at Stowey, he was in the habit of preaching often at the +Unitarian Chapel at Taunton, and was greatly respected by all the better +and educated classes in the neighbourhood.<br> +<br> +He spoke of Stowey with warmth and affection to the latest hours of his +life. Here, as before mentioned, dwelt his friend Mr. Thomas Poole — the +friend (justly so termed) to whom he alludes in his beautiful dedicatory +poem to his brother the Rev. George Coleridge, and in which, when +referring to himself, he says, + + <blockquote>"<a name="fr36">To</a> me the Eternal Wisdom hath dispensed<br> + A different fortune and more different mind — <br> + Me from the spot where first I sprang to light<br> + Too soon transplanted, ere my soul had fix'd<br> + Its first domestic loves; and hence through life<br> + Chasing chance-started friendships. A brief while<br> + Some have preserved me from life's pelting ills;<br> + But, like a tree with leaves of feeble stem,<br> + If the clouds lasted, and a sudden breeze<br> + Ruffled the boughs, they on my head at once<br> + Dropp'd the collected shower; and some most false,<br> + False and fair foliaged as the Manchineel,<br> + Have tempted me to slumber in their shade<br> + E'en mid the storm; then breathing subtlest damps,<br> + Mix'd their own venom with the rain from Heaven,<br> + That I woke poison'd! But, all praise to Him<br> + Who gives us all things, more have yielded me<br> + <i>Permanent shelter</i>; and beside one friend,<a href="#f36"><sup>19</sup></a><br> + Beneath the impervious covert of one oak,<br> + I've raised a lowly shed, and know the names<br> + Of husband and of father; not unhearing<br> + Of that divine and nightly-whispering voice,<br> + Which from my <i>childhood to maturer years</i><br> + Spake to me of predestinated wreaths,<br> + Bright with no fading colours!"</blockquote> + +These beautiful and affecting lines to his brother are dated May 26th, +1797, Nether Stowey, Somerset. In his will, dated Highgate, July 2nd, +1830, he again refers to this friend, and directs his executor to +present a plain gold mourning ring to Thomas Poole, Esq., of Nether +Stowey. + + <blockquote> "<a name="fr37">The</a> Dedicatory Poem to my <i>Juvenile Poems,</i> and my <i>Fears in + Solitude,</i><a href="#f37"><sup>20</sup></a> render it unnecessary to say more than what I then, in + my early manhood, thought and felt, I now, a gray-headed man, still + think and feel."</blockquote> + +In this volume, dedicated to his brother, are to be found several poems +in early youth and upwards, none of later date than 1796. + +<blockquote>The <i>Ode</i>, he +says, <i>on the Departing Year</i>, was written on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of +December, 1796, and published separately on the last day of that year. +<i>The Religious Musings</i> were written as early as Christmas 1794."</blockquote> + +He +then was about to enter his 23rd year. The preface to this volume is a +key to his opinions and feelings at that time, and which the foregoing +part of this memoir is also intended to illustrate. + + <blockquote>"Compositions resembling those of the present volume are not + unfrequently condemned for their querulous egotism. But egotism is to + be condemned only when it offends against time and place, as in a + history or epic poem. To censure it in a monody or sonnet is almost as + absurd as to dislike a circle for being round. Why then write sonnets + or monodies? Because they give me pleasure when, perhaps, nothing else + could. After the more violent emotions of sorrow, the mind demands + amusement, and can find it in employment alone; but full of its late + sufferings, it can endure no employment not in some measure connected + with them. Forcibly to turn away our attention to general subjects is + a painful and most often an unavailing effort." + +<blockquote>'But O! how grateful to a wounded heart<br> +The tale of misery to impart<br> +From others' eyes bid artless sorrows flow,<br> +And raise esteem upon the base of woe.'<br> +<i>Shaw</i>.</blockquote> + + The communicativeness of our nature leads us to describe our own + sorrows; in the endeavour to describe them, intellectual activity is + exerted; and from intellectual activity there results a pleasure, + which is gradually associated, and mingles as a corrective, with the + painful subject of the description. 'True,' (it may be answered) 'but + how are the <b>public</b> interested in your sorrows or your description'?' + We are for ever attributing personal unities to imaginary + aggregates. — What is the <b>public</b>, but a term for a number of scattered + individuals? Of whom as many will be interested in these sorrows, as + have experienced the same or similar. + +<blockquote>'Holy be the lay<br> + Which mourning soothes the mourner on his way.'</blockquote> + +If I could judge of others by myself, I should not hesitate to affirm, + that the most interesting passages in our most interesting poems are + those in which the author developes his own feelings. <a name="fr38">The</a> sweet voice + of Cona<a href="#f38"><sup>21</sup></a> never sounds so sweetly, as when it speaks of itself; and + I should almost suspect that man of an unkindly heart, who could read + the opening of the third book of <i>Paradise Lost </i>without peculiar + emotion. By a law of nature, he, who labours under a strong feeling, + is impelled to seek for sympathy; but a poet's feelings are all + strong. — Quicquid amat valde amat. — Akenside therefore speaks with + philosophical accuracy when he classes love and poetry as producing + the same effects: + + <blockquote>'Love and the wish of poets when their tongue<br> +Would teach to others' bosoms, what so charms<br> +Their own.'<br><br> + +<i>Pleasures of Imagination</i>.</blockquote> + +There is one species of egotism which is truly disgusting; not that + which leads to communicate our feelings to others, but that which + would reduce the feelings of others; to an identity with our own.<br> +<br> + The atheist who exclaims 'pshaw,' when he glances his eye on the + praises of Deity, is an egotist; an old man, when he speaks + contemptuously of love verses is an egotist; and the sleek favourites + of fortune are egotists when they condemn all 'melancholy + discontented' verses. Surely it would be candid not merely to ask + whether the poem pleases ourselves, but to consider whether or no + there may not be others, to whom it is well calculated to give an + innocent pleasure.<br> +<br> + I shall only add, that each of my readers will, I hope, remember, that + these poems on various subjects, which, he reads at one time and under + the influence of one set of feelings, were written at different times + and prompted by very different feelings; and, therefore, that, the + supposed inferiority of one poem to another may sometimes be owing to + the temper of mind in which he happens to peruse it." +</blockquote> + +In the second edition (the second edition was published in conjunction +with his friends Charles Lloyd and Charles Lamb) is added the following: + +<blockquote>"My poems have been rightly charged with a profusion of + double-epithets, and a general turgidness. I have pruned the + double-epithets with no sparing hand; and used my best efforts to tame + the swell and glitter both of thought and diction. This latter fault, + however, had insinuated itself into my <i>Religious Musings</i> with such + intricacy of union, that sometimes I have omitted to disentangle the + weed from the fear of snapping the flower. A third and heavier + accusation has been brought against me, that of obscurity; but not, I + think, with equal justice. An author is obscure, when his conceptions + are dim and imperfect, and his language incorrect, or inappropriate, + or involved. A poem that abounds in allusions, like the <i>Bard</i> of + Gray, or one that impersonates high and abstract truths, like + Collins's <i>Ode on the Poetical Character,</i> claims not to be popular, + but should be acquitted of obscurity. The deficiency is in the reader; + but this is a charge which every poet, whose imagination is warm and + rapid, must expect from his <i>contemporaries</i>. Milton did not + escape it; and it was adduced with virulence against Gray and Collins. + We now hear no more of it, not that their poems are better understood + at present, than they were at their first publication; but their fame + is established; and a critic would accuse him self of frigidity or, + inattention, who should profess not to understand them: but a living + writer is yet <i>sub judice</i>; and if we cannot follow his conceptions or + enter into his feelings, it is more consoling to our pride to consider + him as lost beneath, than as soaring above, us. If any man expect from + my poems the same easiness of style which he admires in a + drinking-song for him, I have not written. <i>Intelligibilia, non + intellectum adfero.</i><br> +<br> + I expect neither profit nor general fame by my writings; and I + consider myself as having been amply repaid without either. Poetry has + been to me its own 'exceeding great reward;' it has soothed my + afflictions; it has multiplied and refined my enjoyments; it has + endeared solitude; and it has given me the habit of wishing to + discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and surrounds + me."</blockquote> + +We seem now to have arrived at that period of Coleridge's life which a +profound student of his poetry, and himself a pleasing and elegant poet, +has considered the period of the "Annus Mirabilis." "The Manhood," he +observes, "of Coleridge's true poetical life was in the year 1797." This +is perfectly true, and at that period he was only twenty-five, as before +stated. He was, as is proved in his earlier poems, highly susceptible +and sensitive, requiring kindness and sympathy, and the support of +something like intellectual friendship. He tells us that he chose his +residence at Stowey, on account of his friend Mr. Poole, who assisted +and enabled him to brave the storm of "Life's pelting ills." Near him, +at Allfoxden, resided Mr. Wordsworth, with whom, he says, + +<blockquote> "Shortly after my settlement there, I became acquainted, and whose + society I found an invaluable blessing, and to whom I looked up with + equal reverence as a poet, a philosopher, or a man. His conversation + extended to almost all subjects except physics and politics; with the + latter he never troubled himself."</blockquote> + +Although Coleridge lived a most retired life, it was not enough to +exempt him from the watchfulness of the spies of government whose +employment required some apparent activity before they could receive the +reward they expected. Nor did he escape the suspicion of being a +dangerous person to the government; which arose partly from his +connexion with Wordsworth, and from the great seclusion of his life. +Coleridge was ever with book, paper, and pencil in hand, making, in the +language of, artists, "Sketches and studies from nature." This +suspicion, accompanied with the usual quantity of obloquy, was not +merely attached to Coleridge, but extended to his friend, "whose perfect +innocence was even adduced as a suspicion of his guilt," by one of these +sapients, who observed that + +<blockquote> "as to Coleridge, there is not much harm in him; for he is a + whirl-brain, that talks whatever comes uppermost; but that Wordsworth! + he is a dark traitor. You never hear <i>him</i> say a syllable on the + subject."</blockquote> + +During this time the brother poets must have been composing or arranging +the <i>Lyrical Ballads</i>, which were published the following year, i. e. 1798. +Coleridge also in 1797 wrote the <i>Remorse</i>, or rather the play he first +called <i>Osorio</i>, the name of the principal character in it, but finding +afterwards that there was a respectable family of that name residing in +London, it was changed for the title of the <i>Remorse</i>, and the principal +character, Osorio, to Ordonio. This play was sent to Sheridan.<br> +<br> +The following remarks were given in Coleridge's <i>Biographia Literaria,</i> +which wholly clears him from the suspicion of being concerned in making +maps of a coast, where a smuggler could not land, and they shew what +really was his employment; and how poets may be mistaken at all times +for other than what they wish to be considered: + +<blockquote>"During the first year that Mr. Wordsworth and I were neighbours, our + conversations turned frequently on the two cardinal points of + poetry, — the power of exciting the sympathy of a reader by a faithful + adherence to the truth of nature, and the power of giving the interest + of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination. The sudden charm + which accidents of light and shade, which moonlight or sunset diffused + over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the + practicability of combining both. These are the poetry of nature. The + thought suggested itself (to which of us I do not recollect) that a + series of poems might be composed of two sorts. In the one the + incidents and agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural; and + the excellence aimed at was to consist in the interesting of the + affections by the dramatic truth of such emotions as would naturally + accompany such situations, supposing them real; and real in + <i>this</i> sense they have been to every human being who, from + whatever source of delusion, has at any time believed himself under + supernatural agency. For the second class, subjects were to be chosen + from ordinary life: the characters and incidents were to be such as + will be found in every village and its vicinity, where there is a + meditative and feeling mind to seek after them, or to notice them when + they present themselves.<br> +<br> + In this idea originated the plan of the <i>Lyrical Ballads,</i> in which it + was agreed that my endeavours should be directed to persons and + characters supernatural, or at least romantic; yet so as to transfer + from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth + sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing + suspension of disbelief for the moment which constitutes poetic faith. + Mr. Wordsworth, on the other hand, was to propose to himself, as his + object, to give the charm of novelty to things of every day, and to + excite a feeling analogous to the supernatural, by awakening the + mind's attention from the lethargy of custom, and directing it to the + loveliness and the wonders of the world before us, — an inexhaustible + treasure; but for which, in consequence of the feeling of familiarity + and selfish solicitude, we have eyes yet see not, ears that hear not, + and hearts that neither feel nor understand.<br> +<br> + With this view I wrote the <i>Ancient Mariner,</i> and was preparing, + among other poems, the <i>Dark Ladie</i> and the <i>Christabel</i>, in which I + should have more nearly realized my ideal than I had done in my first + attempt: but Mr. Wordsworth's industry had proved so much more + successful, and the number of his poems so much greater, that my + compositions, instead of forming a balance, appeared rather an + interpolation of heterogeneous matter.<br> +<br> + Mr. Wordsworth added two or three poems written in his own character, + in the impassioned, lofty, and sustained diction, which is + characteristic of his genius. In this form the <i>Lyrical Ballads</i> were + published, and were presented by him as an <i>experiment</i>, whether + subjects, which from their nature rejected the usual ornaments and + extra-colloquial style of poems in general, might not be so managed, + in the language of ordinary life, as to produce the pleasurable + interest which it is the peculiar business of poetry to impart.<br> +<br> + To the second edition he added a preface of considerable length, in + which, notwithstanding some passages of apparently a contrary import, + he was understood to contend for the extension of the style to poetry + of all kinds, and to reject as vicious and indefensible all phrases + and forms of style that were not included in what he (unfortunately, I + think, adopting an equivocal expression) called the language of + <i>real</i> life. From this preface, prefixed to poems in which it was + impossible to deny the presence of original genius, however mistaken + its direction might be deemed, arose the whole long-continued + controversy. For, from the conjunction of perceived power with + supposed heresy, I explain the inveteracy, and in some instances, I + grieve to say, the acrimonious passions, with which the controversy + has been conducted by the assailants." (Vol. ii. p. 1.)</blockquote> + +There are few incidents in the life of the literary man to make any +narrations of sufficient importance or sufficiently amusing for the +readers, and the readers only of works of amusement. The biography of +such men is supposed to contain the faithful history and growth of their +minds, and the circumstances under which it is developed, and to this it +must be confined.<br> +<br> +What has been done by Coleridge himself, and where he has been his own +biographer, will be carefully noticed and given here, when it falls in +with the intention and purposes of this work; for this reason the +<i>Biographia Literaria</i> has been so frequently quoted. Coleridge had passed +nearly half his life in a retirement almost amounting to solitude, and +this he preferred. First, he was anxious for leisure to pursue those +studies which wholly engrossed his mind; and secondly, his health +permitted him but little change, except when exercise was required; and +during the latter part of his life he became nearly crippled by the +rheumatism. His character will form a part in the Philosophical History +of the Human Mind, which will be placed in the space left for it by his +amiable and most faithful friend and disciple, whose talents, whose +heart and acquirements makes him most fit to describe them, and whose +time was for so many years devoted to this great man. But, to continue +in the order of time, in June, 1797, he was visited by his friend +Charles Lamb and his sister.<br> +<br> +On the morning after their arrival, Coleridge met with an accident which +disabled him from walking during the whole of their stay. One evening, +when they had left him for a few hours, he composed the poem, <i>This +Lime-tree Bower my Prison,</i> in which he refers to his old friend, while +watching him in fancy with his sister, winding and ascending the hills +at a short distance, himself detained as if a prisoner: + + <blockquote> "Yes! they wander on<br> + In gladness all; but thou, methinks, most glad,<br> + My gentle-hearted Charles! for thou hast pined<br> + And hunger'd after nature, many a year;<br> + In the great city pent, winning thy way<br> + With sad yet patient soul, through evil, and pain,<br> + And strange calamity! Ah! slowly sink<br> + Behind the western ridge, thou glorious sun!<br> + Shine in the slant beams of the sinking orb,<br> + Ye purple heath flowers! richlier burn, ye clouds!<br> + Live in the yellow light, ye distant groves!<br> + And kindle, thou blue ocean! So my friend<br> + Struck with deep joy may stand, as I have stood,<br> + Silent with swimming sense; yea, gazing round<br> + On the wide landscape, gaze till all doth seem<br> + Less gross than bodily; and of such hues<br> + As veil the Almighty Spirit, when yet he makes<br> + Spirits perceive his presence."</blockquote> + +During his residence here, Mr. William Hazlitt became acquainted with +him, which is thus vividly recorded in the <i>Liberal</i>: + + <blockquote>"My father was a dissenting minister at Wem, in Shropshire; and in the + year 1798, Mr. Coleridge came to Shrewsbury, to succeed Mr. Rowe in + the spiritual charge of a Unitarian congregation there. He did not + come till late on the Saturday afternoon before he was to preach, and + Mr. Rowe, who himself went down to the coach in a state of anxiety and + expectation, to look for the arrival of his successor, could find no + one at all answering the description, but a round-faced man, in a + short black coat (like a shooting jacket), which hardly seemed to have + been made for him, but who appeared to be talking at a great rate to + his fellow-passengers. Mr. Rowe had scarcely returned to give an + account of his disappointment, when the round-faced man in black + entered, and dissipated all doubts on the subject, by beginning to + talk. <a name="fr39">He</a> did not cease while he stayed, nor has he since that I know + of.<a href="#f39"><sup>22</sup></a><br> +<br> + He held the good town of Shrewsbury in delightful suspense for three + weeks that he remained there, 'fluttering the proud Salopians like an + eagle in a dove-cot;' and the Welsh mountains, that skirt the horizon + with their tempestuous confusion, agree to have heard no such mystic + sounds since the days of + + <blockquote>'High-born Hoel's harp or soft Llewellyn's lyre!'</blockquote> + + My father lived ten miles from Shrewsbury, and was in the habit of + exchanging visits with Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Jenkins of Whitchurch (nine + miles further on), according to the custom of dissenting ministers in + each other's neighbourhood. A line of communication is thus + established, by which the flame of civil and religious liberty is kept + alive, and nourishes its mouldering fire unquenchable, like the fires + in the Agamemnon of Æschylus, placed at different stations, that + waited for ten long years to announce, with their blazing pyramids, + the destruction of Troy.<br> +<br> + Coleridge had agreed to come once to see my father, according to the + courtesy of the country, as Mr. Rowe's probable successor; but in the + meantime I had gone to hear him preach the Sunday after his arrival. A + poet and a philosopher getting up into a Unitarian pulpit to preach + the gospel was a romance in these degenerate days, — which was not to + be resisted.<br> +<br> + It was in January, 1798, that I rose one morning before daylight, to + walk ten miles in the mud, to hear this celebrated person preach. + Never, the longest day I have to live, shall I have such another walk + as this cold, raw, comfortless one, in the winter of the year 1798. + 'Il y a des impressions que ni le tems, ni les circonstances peuvent + effacer. Dussé-je vivre des siècles entiers, le doux tems de ma + jeunesse ne peut renaître pour moi, ni s'effacer jamais dans ma + mémoire.' When I got there, the organ was playing the 100th psalm; + and, when it was done, Mr. Coleridge rose and gave out his text, — 'He + departed again into a mountain <i>himself alone</i>.' As he gave out + this text, his voice 'rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes;' + and when he came to the two last words, which he pronounced loud, + deep, and distinct, it seemed to me, who was then young, as if the + sounds had echoed from the bottom of the human heart, and as if that + prayer might have floated in solemn silence through the universe. The + idea of St. John came into my mind, 'of one crying in the wilderness, + who had his loins girt about, and whose food was locusts and wild + honey.' The preacher then launched into his subject, like an eagle + dallying with the wind. The sermon was upon peace and war — upon church + and state — not their alliance, but their separation — on the spirit of + the world, and the spirit of Christianity, not as the same, but as + opposed to one another. He talked of those who had 'inscribed the + cross of Christ on banners dripping with human gore.' He made a + poetical and pastoral excursion, — and to show the fatal effects of + war, drew a striking contrast between the simple shepherd-boy, driving + his team afield, or sitting under the hawthorn, piping to his flock, + as though he should never be old,' and the same poor country lad, + crimped, kidnapped, brought into town, made drunk at an alehouse, + turned into a wretched drummer-boy, with his hair sticking on end with + powder and pomatum, a long cue at his back, and tricked out in the + finery of the profession of blood: + + <blockquote>'Such were the notes our once loved poet sung;'</blockquote> + + and, for myself, I could not have been more delighted if I had heard + the music of the spheres. Poetry and Philosophy had met together. + Truth and Genius had embraced under the eye and with the sanction of + Religion. This was even beyond my hopes. I returned home well + satisfied. The sun that was still labouring pale and wan through the + sky, obscured by thick mists, seemed an emblem of the <i>good + cause</i>; and the cold dank drops of dew, that hung half melted on + the beard of the thistle, had something genial and refreshing in + them — <br> +<br> + ...<br> +<br> + "On the Tuesday following, the half-inspired speaker came. I was + called down into the room where he was, and went half-hoping, + half-afraid. He received me very graciously, and I listened for a long + time without uttering a word, and did not suffer in his opinion by my + silence. 'For those two hours (he was afterwards pleased to say) he + was conversing with W. H.'s forehead.' His appearance was different + from what I had anticipated from seeing him before. At a distance, and + in the dim light of the chapel, there was to me a strange wildness in + his aspect, a dusky obscurity, and I thought him pitted with the + small-pox. His complexion was at that time clear, and even bright, + + <blockquote>'As are the children of yon azure sheen.'</blockquote> + + His forehead was broad and high, as if built of ivory, with large + projecting eyebrows, and his eyes rolling beneath them like a sea with + darkened lustre. + + <blockquote>'A certain tender bloom his face o'erspread;'</blockquote> + +a purple tinge, as we see it in the pale, thoughtful complexions of the +Spanish portrait painters, Murillo and Velasquez. His mouth was rather +open, his chin good-humoured and round, and his nose small.<br> +<br> +Coleridge in his person was rather above the common size, inclining to +the corpulent. His hair (now, alas! grey, and during the latter years of +his life perfectly white) was then black, and glossy as the raven's +wing, and fell in smooth masses over his forehead. <a name="fr40">This</a> long liberal +hair is peculiar to enthusiasts."<a href="#f40"><sup>23</sup></a> <br> +<br> +(<i>The Liberal</i>, vol. ii. pp. 23-27.) +</blockquote> + +He used, in his hours of relaxation, to relate the state of his +feelings, and his adventures during the short time he was a preacher. +His congregations were large, and if he had the power of attracting one +man of such talents from a distance, it may well be understood how the +many near the chapel flocked to listen to him; in short, if one is to +give credence to current report, he emptied churches and chapels to hear +him. If he had needed any stimulus, this would have been sufficient, but +such a mind so intensely occupied in the search after truth needed no +external excitement.<br> +<br> +He has often said, that one of the effects of preaching was, that it +compelled him to examine the Scriptures with greater care and industry.<br> +<br> +These additional exertions and studies assisted mainly to his final +conversion to the whole truth; for it was still evident that his mind +was perplexed, and that his philosophical opinions would soon yield to +the revealed truth of Scripture.<br> +<br> +He has already pointed out what he felt on this important question, how +much he differed from the generally received opinions of the Unitarians, +confessing that he needed a thorough revolution in his philosophical +doctrines, and that an insight into his own heart was wanting. + +<blockquote>"While my mind was thus perplexed, by a gracious providence," says he, + "for which I can never be sufficiently grateful, the generous and + munificent patronage of Mr. Josiah and Mr. Thomas Wedgewood enabled me + to finish my education in Germany. Instead of troubling others with my + own crude notions, and juvenile compositions, I was thenceforward + better employed in attempting to store my own head with the wisdom of + others. I made the best use of my time and means; and there is + therefore no period of my life on which I can look back with such + unmingled satisfaction."</blockquote> + +He quitted Clevedon and his cottage in the following farewell lines:— + +<blockquote>"Ah! quiet dell! dear cot, and mount sublime!<br> +I was constrain'd to quit you. Was it right,<br> +While my unnumber'd brethren toil'd and bled,<br> +That I should dream away the entrusted hours<br> +On rose-leaf beds, pampering the coward heart<br> +With feelings all too delicate for use?<br> +Sweet is the tear that from some Howard's eye<br> +Drops on the cheeks of one he lifts from earth:<br> +And he that works me good with unmoved face,<br> +Does it but half: he chills me while he aids, — <br> +My benefactor, not my brother man!<br> +Yet even this, this cold beneficence<br> +Praise, praise it, O my Soul! oft as thou scann'st<br> +The Sluggard Pity's vision-weaving tribe!<br> +Who sigh for wretchedness, yet shun the wretched,<br> +Nursing in some delicious solitude<br> +Their slothful loves and dainty sympathies!<br> +I therefore go, and join head, heart, and hand,<br> +Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fight<br> +Of Science, freedom, and the truth in Christ.<br> +Yet oft when after honourable toil<br> +Rests the tired mind, and waking loves to dream,<br> +My spirit shall revisit thee, dear cot!<br> +Thy jasmin and thy window-peeping rose,<br> +And myrtles fearless of the mild sea-air.<br> +And I shall sigh fond wishes — sweet abode!<br> +Ah! had none greater! And that all had such!<br> +It might be so, but, oh! it is not yet.<br> +Speed it, O Father! Let thy Kingdom come."</blockquote> + +He drew his own character when he described that of Satyrane, the +idolocast or breaker of idols, the name he went by among his friends and +familiars. + + <blockquote> "From his earliest youth," says he, "Satyrane had derived his highest + pleasures from the admiration of moral grandeur and intellectual + energy; and during the whole of his life he had a greater and more + heartfelt delight in the superiority of other men to himself than men + in general derive from their belief of their own. His readiness to + imagine a superiority where it did not exist, was for many years his + predominant foible; his pain from the perception of inferiority in + others whom he had heard spoken of with any respect, was unfeigned and + involuntary, and perplexed him as a something which he did not + comprehend. In the child-like simplicity of his nature he talked to + all men as if they were his equals in knowledge and talents, and many + whimsical anecdotes could be related connected with this habit; he was + constantly scattering good seed on unreceiving soils. When he was at + length compelled to see and acknowledge the true state of the morals + and intellect of his contemporaries, his disappointment was severe, + and his mind, always thoughtful, became pensive and sad: — <i>for to + love and sympathize with mankind was a necessity of his nature</i>."</blockquote> + +He sought refuge from his own sensitive nature in abstruse meditations, +and delighted most in those subjects requiring the full exercise of his +intellectual powers, which never seemed fatigued — and in his early life +never did sun shine on a more joyous being! + + <blockquote>"<a name="fr41">There</a> was a time when, though my path was rough,<br> +This joy within me dallied with distress,<br> +And all misfortunes were but as the stuff<br> +Whence fancy made me dreams of happiness:<br> +For hope grew round me, like the twining vine,<br> +And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seem'd mine.<br> +But now afflictions bow me down to earth<br> +Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth,<br> + But oh! each visitation<br> +Suspends what nature gave me at my birth,<br> + My shaping spirit of imagination.<br> +For not to think of what I needs must feel,<br> + But to be still and patient, all I can;<br> +And haply by abstruse research to steal<br> + From my own nature all the natural man — <br> +This was my sole resource, my only plan:<br> +Till that which suits a part infects the whole,<br> +And now is almost grown the habit of my soul."<a href="#f41"><sup>24</sup></a></blockquote> + +It was indeed an inauspicious hour "when he changed his abode from the +happy groves of Jesus' College to Bristol." But it was so ordained! He +sought literature as a trade, — and became an author — + + <blockquote>"whatever," he would say, "I write, that alone which contains the + truth <i>will live, for truth only is permanent</i>. The rest will + deservedly perish." </blockquote> + +He wrote to supply the fountain which was to feed the fertilizing +rills, — to develope the truth was that at which he aimed, and in which +he hoped to find his reward.<br> +<br> +On the 16th of September, 1798, he sailed from Great Yarmouth to +Hamburg, in company with Mr. Wordsworth and his sister in his way to +Germany, and now for the first time beheld "his native land" retiring +from him.<br> +<br> +In a series of letters, published first in the <i>Friend</i>, afterwards in +his <i>Biographia Literaria,</i> is to be found a description of his passage +to Germany, and short tour through that country. His fellow passengers +as described by him were a motley group, suffering from the usual +effects of a rolling sea. One of them, who had caught the customary +antidote to sympathy for suffering, to witness which is usually painful, +began his mirth by not inaptly observing, + + <blockquote>"That Momus might have discovered an easier way to see a man's inside + than by placing a window in his breast. He needed only to have taken a + salt-water trip in a pacquet-boat." </blockquote> + +Coleridge thinks that a + + <blockquote> "pacquet is far superior to a stage-coach, as a means of making men + open out to each other. In the latter the uniformity of posture + disposes to dozing, and the definiteness of the period at which the + company will separate, makes each individual think of those <i>to</i> + whom he is going, rather than of those <i>with</i> whom he is going. + But at sea more curiosity is excited, if only on this account, that + the pleasant or unpleasant qualities of your companions are of greater + importance to you, from the uncertainty how long you may be obliged to + house with them."</blockquote> + +On board was a party of Danes, who, from his appearance in a suit of +black, insisted he was a "Docteur Teology." To relieve himself of any +further questioning on this head, he bowed assent "rather than be +nothing." + + <blockquote>Certes," he says, "We were not of the Stoic school; for we drank, and + talked, and sung altogether; and then we rose and danced on the deck a + set of dances, which, in <i>one</i> sense of the word at least, were + very intelligibly and appropriately entitled reels. The passengers who + lay in the cabin below in all the agonies of sea-sickness, must have + found our bacchanalian merriment + + <blockquote> a tune<br> + Harsh and of dissonant mood for their complaint.</blockquote> + + I thought so at the time; and how closely the greater number of our + virtues are connected with the fear of death, and how little sympathy + we bestow on pain, when there is no danger."</blockquote> + +The Dane soon convinced him of the justice of an old remark, that many a +faithful portrait in our novels and farces, has been rashly censured for +an outrageous caricature, or perhaps nonentity. + + <blockquote>"I had retired to my station in the boat when he came and seated + himself by my side, and appeared not a little tipsy. He commenced the + conversation in the most magnific style, and a sort of pioneering to + his own vanity, he flattered me with <i>such</i> grossness! The + parasites of the old comedy were modest in comparison." +</blockquote> + +After a ludicrous conversation which took place, he passes on to the +description of another passenger, an Englishman, who spoke German +fluently and interpreted many of the jokes of a Prussian who formed one +of the party. + + <blockquote>"The Prussian was a travelling merchant, turned of threescore, a hale, + tall, strong man, and full of stories, gesticulations, and buffoonery, + with the soul as well as the look of a mountebank, who, while he is + making you laugh, picks your pocket. Amid all his droll looks and + droll gestures, there remained one look untouched by laughter; and + that one look was the true face, the others were but its mask. The + Hanoverian (another of the party) was a pale, bloated, young man, + whose father had made a large fortune in London as an army contractor. + He seemed to emulate the manners of young Englishmen of fortune. He + was a good-natured fellow, not without information or literature, but + a most egregious coxcomb. He had been in the habit of attending the + House of Commons; and had once spoken, as he informed me, with great + applause in a debating society. For this he appeared to have qualified + himself with laudable industry; for he was perfect in Walker's + Pronouncing Dictionary, and with an accent that forcibly reminded me + of the Scotchman in Roderick Random, who professed to teach the + English pronunciation; he was constantly <i>deferring</i> to my + superior judgment, whether or no I had pronounced this or that word + with propriety or 'the true delicacy'. When he spoke, though it were + only half a dozen sentences, he always rose; for which I could detect + no other motive, than his partiality to that elegant phrase, so + liberally introduced in the orations of our British legislators, + 'While I am on my legs.'"</blockquote> + +Coleridge continues his description of the party, and relates a quarrel +that ensued between a little German tailor and his wife, by which he was +the gainer of a bed, it being too cold to continue much longer on deck:— + + <blockquote> "In the evening the sea rolling higher, the Dane became worse, and in + consequence increased his remedy, viz. brandy, sugar, and nutmeg, in + proportion to the room left in his stomach. The conversation or + oration 'rather than dialogue, became extravagant beyond all that I + ever heard.' After giving an account of his fortune acquired in the + island of Santa Cruz, 'he expatiated on the style in which he intended + to live in Denmark, and the great undertakings he proposed to himself + to commence, till the brandy aiding his vanity, and his vanity and + garrulity aiding the brandy, he talked like a madman."<br> +<br> +After this drunken apostrophe he changed the conversation, and + commenced an harangue on religion, (mistaking Coleridge for "un + Philosophe" in the continental sense of the word) he talked of the + Deity in a declamatory style very much resembling the devotional rants + of that rude blunderer Mr. Thomas Paine, in his <i>Age of Reason</i>. I dare + aver, that few men have less reason to charge themselves with + indulging in persiflage than myself; I should hate it, if it were only + that it is a Frenchman's vice, and feel a pride in avoiding it, + because our own language is too honest to have a word to express it by.<br> +<br> + At four o'clock I observed a wild duck swimming on the waves, a single + solitary wild duck. It is not easy to conceive, how interesting a + thing it looked in that round objectless desert of waters." </blockquote> + +<a name="fr41a">The</a> cry of 'land' was heard soon afterwards, and in a short time they +dropped anchor at Cuxhaven, and proceeded from thence in a boat to +Hamburg. After this he travelled on to Ratzeburg<a href="#f41a"><sup>25</sup></a>, and then took up +his residence with a pastor for the purpose of acquiring the German +language, but with what success will be presently shown. He soon after +proceeded through Hanover to Göttingen. — Here he informs us he regularly + + <blockquote> "attended lectures in the morning in physiology, in the evening an + natural history under <b>Blumenbach</b>, a name as dear to every Englishman + who has studied at the university, as it is venerable to men of + science throughout Europe! Eichorn's Lectures on the New Testament + were repeated to me from notes by a student from Ratzeburg, a young + man of sound learning and indefatigable industry, who is now I believe + a professor of the oriental languages at Heidelberg."</blockquote> + +Few persons visit Gottingen without ascending the Brocken.<br> +<br> +At the close of one of their academic studies, equivalent to, what in +this country is called a term, it was agreed that the following party +should visit the Hartz Mountains, &c. Namely, Coleridge, the two Parrys +of Bath, Charles and Edward, sons of the celebrated physician of that +name, the son also of Professor Blumenbach, Dr. Carlyon, Mr. Chester, +and Mr. Greenough. Coleridge and the party made the ascent of the +Brocken, on the Hanoverian side of this mountain. During the toil of the +ascent, Coleridge amused his companions with recapitulating some +trifling verses, which he was wont to do some twenty years afterwards to +amuse children of five and six years old, as Miss Mary Rowe, Tity Mouse +Brim, Dr. Daniel Dove, of Doncaster, and his Horse Nobbs. It should, +however, be observed, that these Dr. Carlyon seemed to think worth +notice, while the Christabel and Ancient Mariner were probably but +little to his taste. His dress, a short jacket of coarse material, +though convenient, was not quite classical in a party of philosophical +erratics in quest of novelty. This tale of Dr. Daniel Dove, of +Doncaster, has given a frame and pegs, on which some literary man has +founded a story, and on which he has hung the contents of his scrap +book. The invention is not Coleridge's; and the writer believes the +story itself to be traditional. The following account of his ascent up +the Brocken was written by himself, soon after his return from Germany:<br> +<br> +<h4>Fragment of a Journey over the Brocken, &c. in 1799.</h4> + +<blockquote> "Through roads no way rememberable, we came to Gieloldshausen, over a + bridge, on which was a mitred statue with a great crucifix in its + arms. The village, long and ugly; but the church, like most Catholic + churches, interesting; and this being Whitsun Eve, all were crowding + to it, with their mass-books and rosaries, the little babies commonly + with coral crosses hanging on the breast. Here we took a guide, left + the village, ascended a hill, and now the woods rose up before us in a + verdure which surprised us like a sorcery. The spring had burst forth + with the suddenness of a Russian summer. As we left Göttingen there + were buds, and here and there a tree half green; but here were woods + in full foliage, distinguished from summer only by the exquisite + freshness of their tender green. We entered the wood through a + beautiful mossy path; the moon above us blending with the evening + light, and every now and then a nightingale would invite the others to + sing, and some or other commonly answered, and said, as we suppose, + 'It is yet somewhat too early!' for the song was not continued. We + came to a square piece of greenery, completely walled on all four + sides by the beeches; again entered the wood, and having travelled + about a mile, emerged from it into a grand plain — mountains in the + distance, but ever by our road the skirts of the green woods. A very + rapid river ran by our side; and now the nightingales were all + singing, and the tender verdure grew paler in the moonlight, only the + smooth parts of the river were still deeply purpled with the + reflections from the fiery light in the west. So surrounded and so + impressed, we arrived at Prele, a dear little cluster of houses in the + middle of a semicircle of woody hills; the area of the semicircle + scarcely broader than the breadth of the village.<br> +<br> + ...<br> +<br> + "We afterwards ascended another hill, from the top of which a large + plain opened before us with villages. A little village, Neuhoff, lay + at the foot of it: we reached it, and then turned up through a valley + on the left hand. The hills on both sides the valley were prettily + wooded, and a rapid lively river ran through it.<br> +<br> + So we went for about two miles, and almost at the end of the valley, + or rather of its first turning, we found the village of Lauterberg. + Just at the entrance of the village, two streams come out from two + deep and woody coombs, close by each other, meet, and run into a + third deep woody coomb opposite; before you a wild hill, which seems + the end and barrier of the valley; on the right hand, low hills, now + green with corn, and now wooded; and on the left a most majestic hill + indeed — the effect of whose simple outline painting could not give, + and how poor a thing are words! We pass through this neat little + town — the majestic hill on the left hand soaring over the houses, and + at every interspace you see the whole of it — its beeches, its firs, + its rocks, its scattered cottages, and the one neat little pastor's + house at the foot, embosomed in fruit-trees all in blossom, the noisy + coomb-brook dashing close by it. We leave the valley, or rather, the + first turning on the left, following a stream; and so the vale winds + on, the river still at the foot of the woody hills, with every now and + then other smaller valleys on right and left crossing our vale, and + ever before you the woody hills running like groves one into another. + We turned and turned, and entering the fourth curve of the vale, we + found all at once that we had been ascending. The verdure vanished! + All the beech trees were leafless, and so were the silver birches, + whose boughs always, winter and summer, hang so elegantly. But low + down in the valley, and in little companies on each bank of the river, + a multitude of green conical fir trees, with herds of cattle wandering + about, almost every one with a cylindrical bell around its neck, of no + inconsiderable size, and as they moved — scattered over the narrow + vale, and up among the trees on the hill — the noise was like that of a + great city in the stillness of a sabbath morning, when the bells all + at once are ringing for church. The whole was a melancholy and + romantic scene, that was quite new to me. Again we turned, passed + three smelting houses, which we visited; — a scene of terrible beauty + is a furnace of boiling metal, darting, every moment blue, green, and + scarlet lightning, like serpents' tongues! — and now we ascended a + steep hill, on the top of which was St. Andrias Berg, a town built + wholly of wood.<br> +<br> + "We descended again, to ascend far higher; and now we came to a most + beautiful road, which winded on the breast of the hill, from whence we + looked down into a deep valley, or huge basin, full of pines and firs; + the opposite hills full of pines and firs; and the hill above us, on + whose breast we were winding, likewise full of pines and firs. The + valley, or basin, on our right hand, into which we looked down, is + called the Wald Rauschenbach, that is, the Valley of the Roaring + Brook; and roar it did, indeed, most solemnly! The road on which we + walked was weedy with infant fir-trees, an inch or two high; and now, + on our left hand, came before us a most tremendous precipice of yellow + and black rock, called the Rehberg, that is, the Mountain of the Roe. + Now again is nothing but firs and pines, above, below, around us! How + awful is the deep unison of their undividable murmur; what a one thing + it is — it is a sound that impresses the dim notion of the Omnipresent! + In various parts of the deep vale below us, we beheld little dancing + waterfalls gleaming through the branches, and now, on our left hand, + from the very summit of the hill above us, a powerful stream flung + itself down, leaping and foaming, and now concealed, and now not + concealed, and now half concealed by the fir-trees, till, towards the + road, it became a visible sheet of water, within whose immediate + neighbourhood no pine could have permanent abiding place. The snow lay + every where on the sides of the roads, and glimmered in company with + the waterfall foam, snow patches and waterbreaks glimmering through + the branches in the hill above, the deep basin below, and the hill + opposite. + + Over the high opposite hills, so dark in their pine forests, a far + higher round barren stony mountain looked in upon the prospect from a + distant country. Through this scenery we passed on, till our road was + crossed by a second waterfall; or rather, aggregation of little + dancing waterfalls, one by the side of the other for a considerable + breadth, and all came at once out of the dark wood above, and rolled + over the mossy rock fragments, little firs, growing in islets, + scattered among them. The same scenery continued till we came to the + Oder Seich, a lake, half made by man, and half by nature. It is two + miles in length, and but a few hundred yards in breadth, and winds + between banks, or rather through walls, of pine trees. It has the + appearance of a most calm and majestic river. It crosses the road, + goes into a wood, and there at once plunges itself down into a most + magnificent cascade, and runs into the vale, to which it gives the + name of the 'Vale of the Roaring Brook.' We descended into the vale, + and stood at the bottom of the cascade, and climbed up again by its + side. The rocks over which it plunged were unusually wild in their + shape, giving fantastic resemblances of men and animals, and the + fir-boughs by the side were kept almost in a swing, which unruly + motion contrasted well with the stern quietness of the huge forest-sea + every where else.<br> +<br> + ...<br> +<br> + "In nature all things are individual, but a word is but an arbitrary + character for a whole class of things; so that the same description + may in almost all cases be applied to twenty different appearances; + and in addition to the difficulty of the thing itself, I neither am, + nor ever was, a good hand at description. I see what I write, but, + alas! I cannot write what I see. From the Oder Seich we entered a + second wood; and now the snow met us in large masses, and we walked + for two miles knee-deep in it, with an inexpressible fatigue, till we + came to the mount called Little Brocken; here even the firs deserted + us, or only now and then a patch of them, wind shorn, no higher than + one's knee, matted and cowering to the ground, like our thorn bushes + on the highest sea-hills. The soil was plashy and boggy; we descended + and came to the foot of the Great Brocken without a river — the highest + mountain in all the north of Germany, and the seat of innumerable + superstitions. On the first of May all the witches dance here at + midnight; and those who go may see their own ghosts walking up and + down, with a little billet on the back, giving the names of those who + had wished them there; for 'I wish you on the top of the Brocken,' is + a common curse throughout the whole empire. Well, we ascended — the + soil boggy — and at last reached the height, which is 573 toises above + the level of the sea. We visited the Blocksberg, a sort of + bowling-green, inclosed by huge stones, something like those at + Stonehenge, and this is the witches' ball-room; thence proceeded to + the house on the hill, where we dined; and now we descended. In the + evening about seven we arrived at Elbingerode. At the inn they brought + us an album, or stamm-buch, requesting that we would write our names, + and something or other as a remembrance that we had been there. I + wrote the following lines, which contain a true account of my journey + from the Brocken to Elbingerode + +<blockquote>I stood on Brocken's sovran height, and saw<br> +Woods crowding upon woods, hills over hills;<br> +A surging scene, and only limited<br> +By the blue distance. Wearily my way<br> +Downward I dragged, through fir groves evermore,<br> +Where bright green moss moved in sepulchral forms,<br> +Speckled with sunshine; and, but seldom heard,<br> +The sweet bird's song become a hollow sound;<br> +And the gale murmuring indivisibly,<br> +Reserved its solemn murmur, more distinct<br> +From many a note of many a waterbreak,<br> +And the brook's chatter; on whose islet stones<br> +The dingy kidling, with its tinkling bell,<br> +Leapt frolicksome, or old romantic goat<br> +Sat, his white beard slow waving. I moved on<br> +With low and languid thought, for I had found<br> +That grandest scenes have but imperfect charms<br> +Where the eye vainly wanders, nor beholds<br> +One spot with which the heart associates<br> +Holy remembrances of child or friend,<br> +Or gentle maid, our first and early love,<br> +Or father, or the venerable name<br> +Of our adored country. O thou Queen,<br> +Thou delegated Deity of Earth,<br> +O 'dear, dear' England! how my longing eyes<br> +Turned westward, shaping in the steady clouds<br> +Thy sands and high white cliffs! Sweet native isle,<br> +This heart was proud, yea, mine eyes swam with tears<br> +To think of thee; and all the goodly view<br> +From sovran Brocken, woods and woody hills<br> +Floated away, like a departing dream,<br> +Feeble and dim. Stranger, these impulses<br> +Blame thou not lightly; nor will I profane,<br> +With hasty judgment or injurious doubt,<br> +That man's sublimer spirit, who can feel<br> +That God is every where, the God who framed<br> +Mankind to be one mighty brotherhood,<br> +Himself our Father, and the world our home.</blockquote> + +We left Elbingerode, May 14th, and travelled for half a mile through a +wild country, of bleak stony hills by our side, with several caverns, or +rather mouths of caverns, visible in their breasts; and now we came to +Rubilland, — Oh, it was a lovely scene! Our road was at the foot of low +hills, and here were a few neat cottages; behind us were high hills, +with a few scattered firs, and flocks of goats visible on the topmost +crags. On our right hand a fine shallow river about thirty yards broad, +and beyond the river a crescent hill clothed with firs, that rise one +above another, like spectators in an amphitheatre. We advanced a little +farther, — the crags behind us ceased to be visible, and now the whole +was one and complete. All that could be seen was the cottages at the +foot of the low green hill, (cottages embosomed in fruit trees in +blossom,) the stream, and the little crescent of firs. I lingered here, +and unwillingly lost sight of it for a little while. The firs were so +beautiful, and the masses of rocks, walls, and obelisks started up among +them in the very places where, if they had not been, a painter with a +poet's feeling would have imagined them. Crossed the river (its name +Bodi), entered the sweet wood, and came to the mouth of the cavern, with +the man who shews it. It was a huge place, eight hundred feet in length, +and more in depth, of many different apartments; and the only thing that +distinguished it from other caverns was, that the guide, who was really +a character, had the talent of finding out and seeing uncommon +likenesses in the different forms of the stalactite. Here was a +nun; — this was Solomon's temple; — that was a Roman Catholic +Chapel; — here was a lion's claw, nothing but flesh and blood wanting to +make it completely a claw! This was an organ, and had all the notes of +an organ, &c. &c. &c.; but, alas! with all possible straining of my +eyes, ears, and imagination, I could see nothing but common stalactite, +and heard nothing but the dull ding of common cavern stones. One thing +was really striking; — a huge cone of stalactite hung from the roof of +the largest apartment, and, on being struck, gave perfectly the sound of +a death-bell. I was behind, and heard it repeatedly at some distance, +and the effect was very much in the fairy kind, — gnomes, and things +unseen, that toll mock death-bells for mock funerals. After this, a +little clear well and a black stream pleased me the most; and multiplied +by fifty, and coloured ad libitum, might be well enough to read of in a +novel or poem. We returned, and now before the inn, on the green plat +around the Maypole, the villagers were celebrating Whit-Tuesday. This +Maypole is hung as usual with garlands on the top, and, in these +garlands, spoons, and other little valuables, are placed. The high +smooth round pole is then well greased; and now he who can climb up to +the top may have what he can get, — a very laughable scene as you may +suppose, of awkwardness and agility, and failures on the very brink of +success. Now began a dance. The women danced very well, and, in general, +I have observed throughout Germany that the women in the lower ranks +degenerate far less from the ideal of a woman, than the men from that of +man. The dances were reels and waltzes; but chiefly the latter. This +dance is, in the higher circles, sufficiently voluptuous; but here the +emotions of it were far more faithful interpreters of the passion, +which, doubtless, the dance was intended to shadow; yet, ever after the +giddy round and round is over, they walked to music, the woman laying +her arm, with confident affection, on the man's shoulders, or around his +neck. The first couple at the waltzing was a very fine tall girl, of two +or three and twenty, in the full bloom and growth of limb and feature, +and a fellow with huge whiskers, a long tail, and woollen night-cap; he +was a soldier, and from the more than usual glances of the girl, I +presumed was her lover. He was, beyond compare, the gallant and the +dancer of the party. Next came two boors: one of whom, in the whole +contour of his face and person, and, above all, in the laughably +would-be frolicksome kick out of his heel, irresistibly reminded me of +Shakespeare's Slender, and the other of his Dogberry. Oh! two such +faces, and two such postures! O that I were an Hogarth! What an enviable +gift it is to have a genius in painting! Their partners were pretty +lasses, not so tall as the former, and danced uncommonly light and airy. +The fourth couple was a sweet girl of about seventeen, delicately +slender, and very prettily dressed, with a full-blown rose in the white +ribbon that went round her head, and confined her reddish-brown hair; +and her partner waltzed with a pipe in his mouth, smoking all the while; +and during the whole of this voluptuous dance, his countenance was a +fair personification of true German phlegm. After these, but, I suppose, +not actually belonging to the party, a little ragged girl and ragged +boy, with his stockings about his heels, waltzed and danced; — waltzing +and dancing in the rear most entertainingly. But what most pleased me, +was a little girl of about three or four years old, certainly not more +than four, who had been put to watch a little babe, of not more than a +year old (for one of our party had asked), and who was just beginning to +run away, the girl teaching him to walk, and who was so animated by the +music, that she began to waltz with him, and the two babes whirled round +and round, hugging and kissing each other, as if the music had made them +mad. There were two fiddles and a bass viol. The fiddlers, — above all, +the bass violer, — most Hogarthian phizzes! God love them! I felt far +more affection for them than towards any other set of human beings I +have met with since I have been in Germany, I suppose because they +looked so happy!" + +</blockquote> + +Coleridge and his companions in their tour passed through a district +belonging to the elector of Metz, and he often repeated the following +story, which one of the party has since related in print; that, going +through this district, chiefly inhabited by boors, who were Romanists, +of the lowest form of this persuasion of Christians, the party fatigued +and much exhausted, with the exception of Blumenbach, arrived somewhat +late, though being a summer evening, it was still light, at a Hessian +village, where they had hoped, as in England, to find quarters for the +night. Most of the inhabitants had retired to rest, a few only loitering +about, perhaps surprized at the sight of strangers. They shewed no +inclination to be courteous, but rather eyed them with suspicion and +curiosity. The party, notwithstanding this, entered the village +ale-house, still open, asked for refreshments and a night's lodging, but +no one noticed them. Though hungry, they could not procure any thing for +supper, not even a cup of coffee, nor could they find beds; after some +time, however, they asked for a few bundles of straw, which would +probably have been granted, had not Coleridge, out of patience at seeing +his friends' forlorn situation, imprudently asked one of them, if there +lived any Christians in Hesse Cassel? At this speech, which was soon +echoed by those within the house to the bystanders without, the boors +became instantly so infuriated, that rushing in, the travellers were +immediately driven out, and were glad to save themselves from the +lighted fire-wood on the hearth, which was hurled at them. On this they +went to seek a spot to bivouac for the night. Coleridge lay under the +shelter of a furze-bush, annoyed by the thorns, which, if they did not +disturb his rest, must have rendered it comfortless. Youth and fatigue, +inducing sleep, soon rose above these difficulties. In the ascent of the +Brocken, they despaired of seeing the famous spectre, in search of which +they toiled, it being visible only when the sun is a few degrees above +the horizon. Haué says, he ascended thirty times without seeing it, till +at length he was enabled to witness the effect of this optical delusion. +<a name="fr42">For</a> the best account of it, see the <i>Natural Magic</i> of Sir D. Brewster,<a href="#f42"><sup>26</sup></a> who explains the origin of these spectres, and shews how the mind +is deluded among an ignorant and easily deceived people, and thus traces +the birth of various ghost stories in the neighbourhood, extending as +far in Europe, as such stories find credence.<br> +<br> +<blockquote>"In the course of my repeated tours through the Hartz," Mr. Jordan + says, "I ascended the Brocken twelve different times, but I had the + good fortune only twice (both times about Whitsuntide), to see that + atmospheric phenomenon called the Spectre of the Brocken, which + appears to me worthy of particular attention, as it must, no doubt, be + observed on other high mountains, which have a situation favourable + for producing it. The first time I was deceived by this extraordinary + phenomenon, I had clambered up to the summit of the Brocken, very + early in the morning, in order to wait there for the inexpressibly + beautiful view of the sun rising in the east. The heavens were already + streaked with red: the sun was just appearing above the horizon in + full majesty, and the most perfect serenity prevailed throughout the + surrounding country. When the other Hartz mountains in the south-west, + towards the Worm mountains, lying under the Brocken, began to be + covered by thick clouds; ascending at this moment the granite rocks + called the Teufelskauzel, there appeared before me, though at a great + distance towards the Worm mountains, the gigantic figure of a man, as + if standing on a large pedestal. But scarcely had I discovered it when + it began to disappear; the clouds sank down speedily and expanded, and + I saw the phenomenon no more. The second time, however, I saw the + spectre somewhat more distinctly, a little below the summit of the + Brocken, and near the Heinrichs-höhe, as I was looking at the sun + rising about four o'clock in the morning. The weather was rather + tempestuous, the sky towards the level country was pretty clear, but + the Harz mountains had attracted several thick clouds which had been + hovering around them, and which, beginning to settle on the Brocken, + confined the prospect. In these clouds, soon after the rising of the + sun, I saw my own shadow of a monstrous size, move itself for a couple + of seconds exactly as I moved, but I was soon involved in clouds, and + the phenomenon disappeared."</blockquote> + +It is impossible to see this phenomenon, except when the sun is at such +an altitude as to throw his rays upon the body in a horizontal +direction; for, if he is higher, the shadow is thrown rather under the +body than before it. After visiting the Hartz, Coleridge returned to +Göttingen, and in his note-book in a leave-taking memorial as well as +autograph, the following lines were written by Blumenbach, the son:— + +<blockquote>"Wenn Sie, bester Freund, auch in Jhrer Heimath die<br> +Natur bewundern werden, wie wir beide es auf dem Harze<br> +gethan haben, so erinnern Sie sich des Harzes, und ich darf<br> +dann hoffen, das Sie auch mich nicht vergessen werden.<br><br> + +"Leben Sie wohl, und reisen glücklich,<br><br> + +"Jhr. <b>Blumenbach</b>."<br> +<br><br> + +<i>Translation</i>.<br><br> + +If you perchance, my dearest friend, should still continue<br> +to admire the works of nature at your home, as we have done<br> +together on the Hartz; recall to your recollection the Hartz,<br> +and then I dare hope that you will also think of me.<br><br> + +Farewell, may you have a prosperous voyage.<br><br> + +(Signed) yours, <b>Blumenbach</b>.</blockquote> + + +Coleridge returned to England after an absence of fourteen mouths, and +arrived in London the 27th November, 1799.<br> +<br> +He went to Germany but little versed in the language, and adopted the +following plan of acquiring it, which he recommends to others + +<blockquote> "To those," says he, "who design to acquire the language of a country + in the country itself, it may be useful, if I mention the incalculable + advantages which I derived from learning all the words that could + possibly be so learnt, with the objects before me, and without the + intermediation of the English terms. It was a regular part of my + morning studies for the first six weeks of my residence at Ratzeburg, + to accompany the good and kind old pastor, with whom I lived, from the + cellar to the roof, through gardens, farm-yards, &c., and to call + every the minutest thing by its German name. Advertisements, farces, + jest-books, and conversation of children while I was at play with + them, contributed their share to a more homelike acquaintance with the + language, than I could have procured from books of polite literature + alone, or even from polite society."</blockquote> + +In support of this plan, he makes a quotation from the massive folios of +Luther — a passage as he calls it of "<i>hearty</i> sound sense," and +gives the "simple, sinewy, idiomatic words of the "original," with a +translation of his own: + +<blockquote> "For one must not ask the letters in the Latin tongue, how one ought + to speak German; but one must ask the mother in the house, the + children in the lanes and alleys, the common man in the market, + concerning this; yea, and look at the <i>moves</i> of their mouths + while they are talking, and thereafter interpret. They understand + then, and mark that one talks German with them."</blockquote> + +Whether he owed his successful acquirement of the language to these +plans adopted by him, or whether to his extraordinary powers of mind, it +must be left to others to judge. To form any thing like an accurate +opinion, it may be necessary to re-state, that during this fourteen +months' residence, he acquired such a knowledge of the German, as +enabled him to make that extraordinary translation of the Wallenstein, +(which will be presently noticed), reading at the same time several +German authors, and storing up for himself the means of becoming +familiar with others, on subjects in which the English language was +deficient. In addition to what in this short period he effected, I may +say that some part of this time was employed in receiving many lessons +from professor Tychsen, in the Gothic of Ulphilas, which, says he, + +<blockquote>"sufficed to make me acquainted with its grammar, and the radical + words of most frequent occurrence; and with the occasional assistance + of the same philosophical linguist, I read through Ottfried's Metrical + Paraphrase of the Gospel, and the most important remains of the + Theotiscan."</blockquote> + +Coleridge's <i>Biographia</i> contains the history and developement of his mind +till 1816, when it was published; he called it his <i>Literary Life</i>, but of +necessity it is intermixed with his biography, as he must have found it +impossible to separate them. He had even half promised himself to write +his own biography, but the want of success in his literary labours, and +the state of his health, caused him to think seriously that his life was +diminishing too fast, to permit him to finish those great works, of +which he had long planned the execution. The conception of these works +was on such a scale, that even his giant intellect, with his great and +continuous powers of application, could not have executed them. But to +continue. — On his return to London, his first literary occupation was +the translation of the <i>Wallenstein</i>, which he effected in six weeks, in a +lodging in Buckingham-street, in the Strand; it was printed and +published in 1800.<br> +<br> +The MS. was purchased by Longman's house under the condition that the +English Version and Schiller's Play in German were to be published at +the same time. The play, as is well known to all German readers, is in +three parts; the first part, the Camp, being considered by Coleridge as +not sufficiently interesting to the British public to translate, it was +not attempted; the second part, the Piccolomini, was translated with the +occasional addition of some lines, in order to make out the thought when +it appeared to require it, particularly in the Horological scene of the +Watch Tower. In the last part the Death of Wallenstein is equally free, +but the liberties taken with this play are those of omission.<br> +<br> +German was not at that time cultivated in England, and the few plays +which were translated, were but bad specimens of German Literature. The +Wallenstein is an historical play, without any of those violent tragic +events which the public expect to find in German plays, and this was one +cause perhaps of disappointment. — It is a play of high +thoughts — ennobling sentiments, and for the reflecting individual with +good feelings, one of those plays, by which, even without reference to +the story, the head and the heart are both benefited. There is no +violent excitement produced, and in quiet thought one can dwell on it +with pleasure. Coleridge truly prophesied its fate, for when translating +it, he said it would fall dead from the press, and indeed but few of the +copies were sold; — his advice to the publishers, whom he had forewarned +of this failure, was to reserve the unsold copies, and wait till it +might become fashionable. They however parted with it as waste paper, +though sixteen years afterwards it was eagerly sought for, and the few +remaining copies doubled their price; but now that the German language +has become more general, and the merit of this translation been +appreciated, it has been reprinted with success.<br> +<br> +Since the visit of these remarkable men to Germany, the taste for German +literature has each year slowly increased, so as to make it almost +appear that they have given the direction to this taste, which in +England has caused a free inquiry into the writings of German authors, +particularly of their poets and philosophers for the one class; and also +into the interesting tales and stories to be found for the many who +require such amusement.<br> +<br> +The edition of Wallenstein, 1800, contains the following preface, which +was afterwards abridged, but is here given as it was originally written; +the first criticism on it was wholly made out of this preface, and these +lines were quoted by the reviewer, in condemnation of the play and the +translation, though it is well known that the critic was ignorant of +German. The date of the MS. by Schiller is September 30th, 1799, the +English is 1800. Coleridge indeed calls it a translation, but had it +been verbatim, it would have required much longer time; take it however +as we will, it displays wonderful powers; and as he noticed in a letter +to a friend, it was executed in the prime of his life and vigour of his +mind. Of the metre of this drama he spoke slightingly, and said +according to his taste, + +<blockquote>"it dragged, like "a fly through a glue-pot." "It was my intention," + he writes, "to have prefixed a life of Wallenstein to this + translation; but I found that it must either have occupied a space + wholly disproportionate to the nature of the publication, or have been + merely a meagre catalogue of events narrated, not more fully than they + already are in the play itself. The recent translation, likewise, of + Schiller's <i>History of the Thirty Years' War</i>, diminished the motives + thereto. In the translation, I have endeavoured to render my author + literally, wherever I was not prevented by absolute differences of + idiom; but I am conscious, that in two or three short passages, I have + been guilty of dilating the original; and, from anxiety to give the + full meaning, have weakened the force. In the metre I have availed + myself of no other liberties, than those which Schiller had permitted + to himself, except the occasional breaking up of the line, by the + substitution of a trochee for an iambus; of which liberty, so frequent + in our tragedies, I find no instance in these dramas.<br> +<br> + The two Dramas, <i>Piccolomini</i>, or the first part of <i>Wallenstein</i>, and + <i>Wallenstein</i>, are introduced in the original manuscript by a prelude in + one act, entitled <i>Wallenstein's camp.</i> This is written in rhyme, and in + nine syllable verse, in the same lilting metre (if that expression may + be permitted) with the second eclogue of Spencer's <i>Shepherd's + Calendar</i>. This prelude possesses a sort of broad humour, and is not + deficient in character, but to have translated it into prose, or into + any other metre than that of the original, would have given a false + idea, both of its style and purport; to have translated it into the + same metre, would have been incompatible with a faithful adherence to + the sense of the German, from the comparative poverty of our language + in rhymes; and it would have been unadvisable, from the incongruity of + those lax verses with the present state of the English public. + Schiller's intention seems to have been merely to have prepared his + reader for the tragedies, by a lively picture of the laxity of + discipline, and the mutinous disposition of Wallenstein's soldiery. It + is not necessary as a preliminary explanation. For these reasons it + has been thought expedient not to translate it.<br> +<br> + The admirers of Schiller, who have abstracted their idea of that + author from the <i>Robbers</i>, and the Cabal and Love plays, in which the + main interest is produced by the excitement of curiosity, and in which + the curiosity is excited by terrible and extraordinary incident, will + not have perused, without some portion of disappointment, the dramas + which it has been my employment to translate. They should, however, + reflect, that these are historical dramas, taken from a popular German + history; that we must therefore judge of them in some measure with the + feelings of Germans, or by analogy with the interest excited in us by + similar dramas in our own language. Few, I trust, would be rash or + ignorant enough, to compare Schiller with Shakspeare, yet, merely as + illustration, I would say, that we should proceed to the perusal of + Wallenstein, not from Lear or Othello, but from Richard the Second, or + the three parts of Henry the Sixth. We scarcely expect rapidity in an + historical drama; and many prolix speeches are pardoned from + characters, whose names and actions have formed the most amusing tales + of our early life. On the other hand, there exist in these plays more + individual beauties, more passages the excellence of which will bear + reflection than in the former productions of Schiller.<br> +<br> + The description of the Astrological Tower, and the reflections of the + young lover, which follow it, form in the original a fine poem, and my + translation must have been wretched indeed, if it can have wholly + overclouded the beauties of the scene in the first act of the first + play, between Questenberg, Max. and Octavio Piccolomini.<br> +<br> + If we except the scene of the setting sun in the <i>Robbers</i>, I know of no + part in Schiller's plays, which equals the whole of the first scene of + the fifth act of the concluding play. It would be unbecoming in me to + be more diffuse on this subject. A translator stands connected with + the original author by a certain law of subordination, which makes it + more decorous to point out excellencies than defects; indeed, he is + not likely to be a fair judge of either. The pleasure or disgust from + his own labour, will mingle with the feelings that arise from an after + view of the original poem; and in the first perusal of a work in any + foreign language, which we understand, we are apt to attribute to it + more excellence than it really possesses, from our own pleasurable + sense of difficulty overcome without effort. Translation of poetry + into poetry is difficult, because the translator must give a + brilliancy to his language without that warmth of original conception, + from which such brilliancy would follow of its own accord. But the + translator of a living author is encumbered with additional + inconveniences. If he render his original faithfully, as to the + <i>sense</i> of each passage, he must necessarily destroy a + considerable portion of the <i>spirit</i>; if he endeavour to give a + work executed according to laws of <i>compensation</i>, he subjects + himself to imputations of vanity, or misrepresentation. I thought it + my duty to remain by the sense of my original, with as few exceptions + as the nature of the language rendered possible."</blockquote> + +About this time, or soon after his return from Germany, the proprietor +of the <i>Morning Post</i>, who was also the editor, engaged Coleridge to +undertake the literary department. In this he promised to assist, +provided the paper was conducted on fixed and announced principles, and +that he should neither be requested nor obliged to deviate from them in +favour of any party or any event. In consequence, that journal became, +and for many years continued, <i>anti-ministerial</i>, yet with a very +qualified approbation of the opposition, and with far greater +earnestness and zeal, both anti-jacobin and anti-gallican. As +contributors to this paper, the editor had the assistance of Mr. +Wordsworth, Mr. Southey, and Mr. Lamb. Mr. Southey, from his extreme +activity and industry, with powers best suited for such employment, with +a rapidity and punctuality which made him invaluable to the proprietor, +was the largest contributor. The others not possessing the same +qualifications, although extremely powerful in their way, were not of +the same value to the proprietor.<br> +<br> +To Coleridge, he continued liberal and kind, and Coleridge appreciated +his talents; often has he been heard to say, if Mr. Stuart "knew as much +of man as he does of men, he would be one of the first characters in +Europe." The world, and even that part of it, who either receive +pleasure, or are benefited by the labours of literary men, often seem to +forget how many there are who being compelled to work during the week +for the provision of the week, are (if not possessed of much bodily +strength) unfit to continue further mental exertions; nor can they find +the leisure and repose necessary to produce any work of importance, +though such efforts must always be found so much more congenial to the +feelings of a man of genius. Whatever his enemies or his more envious +friends may choose to have put forth, it was to him a most painful +thought, particularly as he had made literature his profession, to have +lived in vain. This feeling sometimes haunted him, and when the feelings +are gloomily disposed, they often become in their turn depressing +causes, which frequently ended in a deep and painful sigh, and a renewal +of his laborious and inspiring thoughts as an antidote. The severest of +his critics have not pretended to have found in his compositions +triviality, or traces of a mind that shrank from the toil of thinking.<br> +<br> +A respectable portion of literary talent will secure the success of a +newspaper, provided that it impartially adheres "to a code of +intelligible principles previously announced, and faithfully referred to +in support of every judgment on men and events." Such were the opinions +and feelings by which the contributors to this paper, as well as the +proprietor was influenced during this period; and to these causes, as +well as from the talents of the editor and of the writers, it mainly +owed its success. Papers so conducted do not require the aid of party, +nor of ministerial patronage. Yet a determination to make money by +flattering the envy and cupidity, and the vindictive restlessness of +unthinking men, seems frequently to have succeeded, not confining itself +to the daily press, but diffusing itself into periodicals of a different +stamp. + +<blockquote>"I do derive," says Coleridge, "a gratification from the knowledge, + that my essays have contributed to introduce the practice of placing + the questions and events of the day in a moral point of view. In + Burke's writings, indeed, the germs of all political truths may be + found. But I dare assume to myself the merit of having first + explicitly defined and analysed the nature of Jacobinism; and in + distinguishing the Jacobin from the Republican, the Democrat, and the + mere Demagogue," (<i>vide Friend</i>.)</blockquote> + +Whilst Coleridge retained the opinions of the Unitarians, or rather +preached among them, they hailed him as the rising star of their +society, but when he seceded from them on his change of opinions, many +of them bruited his name in execration. Not so was it with Mr. Estlin +and other amiable and intelligent men, they understood him, and felt he +had acted on the full conviction of his mind, and that he was acting +conscientiously when he declined the opportunity of possessing a fixed +income, of which he stood so much in need. Those who knew him, knew how +much he suffered, and how painful it was for him to have differed with +such a friend as Mr. Estlin, one to whom he had been indebted for many +kind offices: But Coleridge was too sincere a man to dissemble. — There +were however others, who, from motives and feelings not honourable to +them, dissemblers even in Unitarianism, who sought every opportunity of +defaming him, and attempted to strip him of his virtues, and of his +genius, by calumny and detraction. In this, however, they were foiled. +On the other hand, the party more inclined to favour fanaticism, were so +indiscreet in their praise as to become in their turn equally injurious +to his character, and verified the old adage, that indiscreet friends +are too often the worst of enemies; for this party considered his +conversion as nothing less than a special miracle. It was impossible for +a mind so philosophical and so constituted, to remain long in the +trammels of a philosophy like Hartley's, or to continue to adhere to +such a substitute for Christianity as Unitarianism; like the +incarcerated chicken, he would on increase of growth and power, liberate +himself from his imprisonment and breathe unencumbered the vital air, +the pabulum of animal life, which by parallel reasoning, Coleridge was +aiming at in a spiritual life. From such a substitute for Christianity, +that imitation so unvitalizing in its effects, the studiously +industrious and sincere man will recoil; but the vain and superficial +man will find much in it for the display of his egotism, and superficial +knowledge. Often did he remark when conversing on these subjects, there +was a time, when + +<blockquote>"I disbelieved down to Unitarianism, it would have been <i>more + honest</i> to have gone farther, to have denied the existence of a + <b>God</b>! but that my heart would not allow me to do." +</blockquote> + +But to this subject we shall have occasion to return. The mind which +grows with its culture, seeks deeper research, and so was it with his. +Certainly, one of the effects of his visits to Germany, was to root up +whatever remained of the Mechanical Philosophy of Hartley, after whom he +had named his eldest son, and to open to his mind in philosophy new and +higher views, and in religion more established views. But change with +the many, though the result of conviction and the growth of truth, is +still a change; and with the unthinking, it deteriorates from the +character of a man, rather than as it should do elevate him, + +<blockquote> ... unless <i>above</i> himself he can<br> + Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!<br><br> + + <b>Daniel</b>.</blockquote> + +In the years 1783, 1784, and 1786, Bishop Horsley wrote some of the +tracts in controversy with Priestley, upon the historical question of +the belief of the first ages in <b>Our Lord's</b> Divinity, which are collected +in one volume, with large additional notes, dated 1789.<br> +<br> +In a memorandum <i>book</i>, made by Coleridge, it appears that he never +saw nor read this volume, till some time in 1805; therefore his views +were not altered by the bishop's reasoning, but had undergone a great +change previously.<br> +<br> +Horsley's writings carry with them a conviction of their truth. His +clear though concentrated style rivets the attention, and forcibly +impresses the mind, with his depth of learning, and at the same time +inspires the feeling of its practical utility. He was an opponent most +aptly suited to Priestley. The times however greatly favoured the +latter; the discoveries of Lavoisier, led the way to the study of +chemistry, which became fashionable and generally cultivated, and with +its brilliancy dazzled the multitude. Priestley displayed considerable +expertness and fitness for the practical application of the discoveries +of others; and he added also to the new mass of facts, which were daily +presenting themselves, and thus science became enriched, enriching at +the same time the pockets of the manufacturers, exciting national +industry, and adding considerably to the national property. Priestley's +researches and discoveries gave an irresistible weight to his name, and +had an undue influence, as we shall presently see, in the arguments or +opinions he advanced. This, Horsley foresaw, and felt, and therefore +built his arguments on the permanent, in order to subdue the creatures +founded on the impermanent and other worthless idols of the mind's +forming.<br> +<br> +How the world were delighted and wonder-struck by the supposed +discovery, that it was the province of vegetable life to supply the +vital air, which animal life destroyed! Priestley was hailed as the +wonder of his age, and for a while its oracle. He was however no +ordinary being, and even his enemies admitted him to be a kind and moral +man. His intellectual powers will speak for themselves. We have now had +sufficient experience to see how shifting all kind of theory must be +when left to the will and ingenuity of man only — and how unsafe a guide +in questions of importance as the one now referred to. Horsley saw the +weak points of Priestley's argument, and was not to be dazzled and put +aside by Priestley's philosophical display. Horsley fearlessly entered +into this controversy, like a man who felt his own strength, and +particularly the strength of his cause; though he needed not the courage +of a Luther, he was apparently a man who possessed it, if called on. <a name="fr43">He</a> +used the best means to silence his adversary,<a href="#f43"><sup>27</sup></a> with the Bible before +him as his shield, (but at the same time his support as well as +defence,) from behind which he assailed his opponent with his Biblical +learning so powerfully, that his first attack made Priestley feel the +strength of his adversary. In vaunting language, Priestley made the best +defence which he thought he could, but not the most prudent, by +promising to answer his opponent so efficiently, as to make him a +convert to his doctrines. But in this vaunting prediction, that he would +not only answer his opponent satisfactorily, to all who were interested +in the controversy, but convert him to his opinions, it need not be +added he failed, so completely, and at the same time displayed such a +"ridiculous vanity," as to deprive him of that influence which he had so +overrated in himself. <a name="fr44">Horsley's</a> letters seem particularly to have +attracted Coleridge's attention, and to have caused him to make one of +his concise, pithy and powerful notes as a comment on this letter of +Horsley's, entitled, "The Unitarian Doctrine not well calculated for the +conversion of Jews, Mahometans, or Infidels, of any description."<a href="#f44"><sup>28</sup></a> +The following is Coleridge's Comment on the Letter, to which allusion +has been made, and from the date seems to have been written during his +residence at Malta:— + +<blockquote> "February 12, 1805. — <a name="fr45">Thinking</a> during my perusal of Horsley's letters + in reply to Dr. Priestley's objections to the Trinity on the part of + Jews, Mahometans, and Infidels, it burst upon me at once as an awful + truth, what seven or eight years ago I thought of proving with a + <i>hollow faith</i>, and for an <i>ambiguous purpose</i>,<a href="#f45"><sup>29</sup></a> my mind + then wavering in its necessary passage from Unitarianism (which, as I + have often said, is the religion of a man, whose reason would make him + an atheist, but whose heart and common sense will not permit him to be + so) through Spinosism into Plato and St. John. No Christ, no God! This + I now feel with all its needful evidence of the understanding: would + to God my spirit were made conform thereto — that no Trinity, no God! + That Unitarianism in all its forms is idolatry, and that the remark of + Horsley is most accurate; that Dr. Priestley's mode of converting the + Jews and Turks is, in the great essential of religious faith, to give + the name of Christianity to their present idolatry — truly the trick of + Mahomet, who, finding that the mountain would not come to him, went to + the mountain. <a name="fr46">O</a>! that this conviction may work upon me and in me, and + that my mind may be made up as to the character of Jesus, and of + historical Christianity, as clearly as it is of the logos, and + intellectual or spiritual Christianity — that I may be made to know + either their especial and peculiar union, or their absolute disunion + in any peculiar sense.<a href="#f46"><sup>30</sup></a><br> +<br> + With regard to the Unitarians, it has been shamelessly asserted, that + I have denied them to be Christians. God forbid! For how should I know + what the piety of the heart may be, or what quantum of error in the + understanding may consist, with a saving faith in the intentions and + actual dispositions of the whole moral being, in any one individual? + Never will God reject a soul that sincerely loves him, be his + speculative opinions what they may: and whether in any given instance + certain opinions, be they unbelief, or misbelief, are compatible with + a sincere love of God, God only can know. But this I have said, and + shall continue to say, that if the doctrines, the sum of which I + <i>believe</i> to constitute the truth in Christ, <i>be</i> + Christianity, then Unitarian<i>ism</i> is not, and vice versâ: and + that in speaking theologically and <i>impersonally</i>, i. e. of + Psilanthropism and Theanthropism, as schemes of belief — and without + reference to individuals who profess either the one or the other — it + will be absurd to use a different language, as long as it is the + dictate of common sense, that two opposites cannot properly be called + by the same name.<br> +<br> + I should feel no offence if a Unitarian applied the same to me, any + more than if he were to say, that 2 and 2 being 4, 4 and 4 must be 8."<br> +<br> + <i>Biog. Lit.</i> vol. ii. p. 307.</blockquote><br> +<hr width="50%" align="left"><br> +<br> +<a name="f18"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 1:</span></a> In his <i>Literary Life</i>, Mr. Coleridge has made the following +observation regarding talent and genius: + + <blockquote>"For the conceptions of the mind may be so vivid and adequate, as to + preclude that impulse to the realising of them, which is strongest and + most restless in those who possess more than mere <i>talent</i> (or + the faculty of appropriating and applying the knowledge of others,) + yet still want something of the creative and self-sufficing power of + absolute <i>Genius</i>. For this reason, therefore, they are men of + <i>commanding</i> genius. While the former rest content between + thought and reality, as it were in an intermundium of which their own + living spirit supplies the <i>substance</i>, and their imagination the + ever-varying <i>form</i>; the latter must impress their preconceptions + on the world without, in order to present them back to their own view + with the satisfying degree of clearness, distinctness, and + individuality."</blockquote> + +Vol. i. p. 31.<br> +<a href="#fr18">return to footnote mark</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f19"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 2:</span></a> In consequence of various reports traducing Coleridge's +good name, I have thought it an act of justice due to his character, to +notice several mistatements here and elsewhere, which I should otherwise +have gladly passed over.<br> +<a href="#fr19">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f20"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 3:</span></a> Coleridge was always most ready to pass a censure on what +appeared to him a defect in his own composition, of which the +following is a proof: — In his introductory remarks to this Greek +Ode, printed in the <i>Sibylline Leaves</i>, he observes: + + <blockquote>"The Slaves in the West Indies consider Death as a passport to their + native country. This sentiment is expressed in the introduction to the + <i>Greek Ode on the Slave Trade</i>, of which the Ideas are better than the + language in which they are conveyed."</blockquote> + +Certainly this is taking no merit to himself, although the <i>Ode</i> obtained +the Prize.<br> +<a href="#fr20">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f21"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 4:</span></a> + + <blockquote>"At the beginning of the French Revolution, Klopstock wrote odes of + congratulation. He received some honorary presents from the French + Republic (a golden crown, I believe), and, like our Priestley, was + invited to a seat in the legislature, which he declined: but, when + French liberty metamorphosed herself into a fury, he sent back these + presents with a palinodia, declaring his abhorrence of their + proceedings; and since then he has been more perhaps than enough an + Anti-Gallican. I mean, that in his just contempt and detestation of + the crimes and follies of the revolutionists, he suffers himself to + forget that the revolution itself is a process of the Divine + Providence; and that as the folly of men is the wisdom of God, so are + their iniquities instruments of his goodness."</blockquote> + +<i>Biographia Literaria</i>, vol. ii. p. 243.<br> +<a href="#fr21">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f22"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 5:</span></a> Coleridge in the <i>Friend</i>, says: + + <blockquote>"My feelings, however, and imagination did not remain unkindled in + this general conflagration (the French Revolution); and I confess I + should be more inclined to be ashamed than proud of myself if they + had. I was a sharer in the general vortex, though my little world + described the path of its revolution in an orbit of its own. What I + dared not expect from constitutions of government and whole nations, I + hoped from Religion."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr22">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f23"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 6:</span></a> This is a mistake. The candidate was Mr. Bethell, one of +the members for Yorkshire, and not the Bishop of Bangor, as is commonly +supposed. Bishop Bethel himself, not long ago, told me this.<br> +<a href="#fr23">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f24"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 7:</span></a> The writer of the article above quoted followed Coleridge +in the school, and was elected to Trinity College a year after. As I +have before observed, he seems to have been well acquainted with his +habits; yet, with regard to his feelings on certain points, as his +ambition and desire for a college life, I think he must have +misunderstood him. Ambition never formed any part of Coleridge's +character. Honours, titles, and distinctions had no meaning for him. His +affections, so strong and deep, were likely to be his only stimulants in +the pursuit of them.<br> +<a href="#fr24">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f25"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 8:</span></a> Frend's trial took place at Cambridge, in the +Vice-Chancellor's Court, in the year 1793, for sedition and defamation +of the Church of England, in giving utterance to and printing certain +opinions, founded on Unitarian Doctrines, adverse to the established +Church. — <i>Vide</i> State Trials. Sentence of banishment was pronounced +against him: which sentence was confirmed by the Court of Delegates, to +which Mr. Frend had appealed from the Vice-Chancellor's Court. He then +appealed from the decision of the Court of Delegates, protested against +the proceedings, and moved this cause to the Court of King's Bench. This +Court, after an examination of the case, decided, that the proceedings +at Cambridge having been strictly formal, they had no power to +interfere, and therefore the sentence against Frend remained in full +force. Being a Fellow of Jesus' College at the time that Coleridge was a +student, he excited the sympathies of the young and ardent of that day.<br> +<a href="#fr25">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f26"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 9:</span></a> The repetition of Middleton's name, so frequently occurring +may appear to a stranger unnecessary; but Middleton, loving Coleridge so +much, and being his senior in years, as well as in studies, was to him, +while at school and at college, what the Polar Star is to the mariner on +a wide sea without compass, — his guide, and his influential friend and +companion.<br> +<a href="#fr26">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f27"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 10:</span></a> There is another incident which I shall here relate that +raised him in the esteem of his comrades. One of them was seized with +confluent small-pox, and his life was considered in great danger. The +fear of the spread of this had produced such alarm in his quarters, that +the sufferer was nearly deserted. Here Coleridge's reading served him; +and, having a small quantity of medical knowledge in addition to a large +share of kindness, he volunteered his services, and nursed the sick man +night and day for six weeks. His patient recovered, to the joy of +Coleridge and of his comrades. The man was taken ill during a march, and +in consequence of the fears of the persons of the place, he and +Coleridge (who had volunteered to remain with him) were put into an +out-building, and no communication held with them — Coleridge remaining +the whole time in the same room with the man (who, during part of his +illness, was violently delirious) nursing and reading to him, &c.<br> +<a href="#fr27">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f28"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 11:</span></a> In a published letter to a friend is the following +observation: + +<blockquote>"I sometimes compare my own life with that of Steele (yet +oh! how unlike), led to this from having myself also for a brief time +<i>borne arms</i>, and written 'private' after my name, or rather +another name; for being at a loss when suddenly asked my name, I +answered <i>Comberbach</i>, and verily my habits were so little +equestrian, that my horse, I doubt not, was of that opinion."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr28">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f29"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 12:</span></a> Capt. Nathaniel Ogle sold out of the 15th Dragoons, Nov. +19th, 1794.<br> +<br> +Comberbacke enlisted at Reading, Dec. 3rd, 1793, commanded at this time +by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Churchill, who was a Major in the regiment +at the time Comberbacke was discharged at Hounslow, on the 10th of +April, 1794, according to the War-Office books.<br> +<a href="#fr29">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f30"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 13:</span></a> Probably the week in which he enlisted.<br> +<a href="#fr30">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f31"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 14:</span></a> A gentleman much interested in these lectures, who was +also present, has given the following version of the story, and it is so +well done, that I am desirous of inserting it: — + + <blockquote>"In all Mr. Coleridge's lectures he was a steady opposer of Mr. Pitt + and the then existing war; and also an enthusiastic admirer of Fox, + Sheridan, Grey, &c. &c., but his opposition to the reigning politics + discovered little asperity; it chiefly appeared by wit and sarcasm, + and commonly ended in that which was the speaker's chief object, a + laugh. Few attended Mr. C.'s lectures but those whose political views + were similar to his own; but on one occasion, some gentlemen of the + opposite party came into the lecture-room, and at one sentiment they + heard, testified their disapprobation by the only easy and safe way in + their power; namely, by a hiss. The auditors were startled at so + unusual a sound, not knowing to what it might conduct; but their noble + leader soon quieted their fears, by instantly remarking, with great + coolness, 'I am not at all surprised, when the red hot prejudices of + aristocrats are suddenly plunged into the cool waters of reason, that + they should go off with a hiss!' The words were electric. The + assailants felt, as well as testified their confusion, and the whole + company confirmed it by immense applause! There was no more hissing."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr31">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f32"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 15:</span></a> This note was written at Highgate, in a copy of the +<i>Conciones ad Populum</i>.<br> +<a href="#fr32">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f33"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 16:</span></a> + + <blockquote>"With the exception of one extraordinary man, I have never known an + individual, least of all an individual of genius, healthy or happy + without a profession, i.e., some <i>regular</i> employment, which does + not depend on the will of the moment, and which can be carried on so + far <i>mechanically</i>, that an average quantum only of health, + spirits, and intellectual exertion are requisite to its faithful + discharge. Three hours of leisure, unannoyed by any alien anxiety, and + looked forward to with delight as a change and recreation, will + suffice to realize in literature a larger product of what is truly + genial, than weeks of compulsion. Money, and immediate reputation form + only an arbitrary and accidental end of literary labour. The + <i>hope</i> of increasing them by any given exertion will often prove + a stimulant to industry; but the <i>necessity</i> of acquiring them + will, in all works of genius, convert the stimulant into a + <i>narcotic</i>. Motives by excess reverse their very nature, and + instead of exciting, stun and stupify the mind; for it is one + contra-distinction of genius from talent, that its predominant end is + always comprised in the means; and this is one of the many points, + which establish an analogy between genius and virtue. Now, though + talents may exist without genius, yet, as genius cannot exist, + certainly not manifest itself, without talents, I would advise every + scholar, who feels the genial power working within him, so far to make + a division between the two, as that he should devote his + <i>talents</i> to the acquirement of competence in some known trade or + profession, and his genius to objects of his tranquil and unbiassed + choice; while the consciousness of being actuated in both alike by the + sincere desire to perform his duty, will alike ennoble both. "My dear + young friend," (I would say), "suppose yourself established in any + honourable occupation. From the manufactory or counting-house, from + the law-court, or from having visited your last patient, you return at + evening, + + <blockquote> 'Dear tranquil time, when the sweet sense of home<br> + Is sweetest...'</blockquote> + + + to your family, prepared for its social enjoyments, with the very + countenances of your wife and children brightened, and their voice of + welcome made doubly welcome by the knowledge that, as far as + <i>they</i> are concerned, you have satisfied the demands of the day, + by the labour of the day. Then, when you retire into your study, in + the books on your shelves, you revisit so many venerable friends with + whom you can converse. Your own spirit scarcely less free from + personal anxieties than the great minds, that in those books are still + living for you! Even your writing-desk, with its blank paper and all + its other implements, will appear as a chain of flowers, capable of + linking your feelings, as well as thoughts to events, and characters, + past or to come: not a chain of iron which binds you down to think of + the future and the remote, by recalling the claims and feelings of the + peremptory present: but why should I say retire? The habits of active + life and daily intercourse with the stir of the world, will tend to + give you such self command, that the presence of your family will be + no interruption. Nay, the social silence, or undisturbing voices of a + wife or sister will be like a restorative atmosphere, or soft music + which moulds a dream without becoming its object. If facts are + required to prove the possibility of combining weighty performances in + literature with full and independent employment, the works of Cicero + and Xenophon among the ancients; of Sir Thomas Moore, Bacon, Baxter, + or, to refer at once to later and contemporary instances, Darwin and + Roscoe, are at once decisive of the question."</blockquote> + +<i>Biog. Lit.</i><br> +<a href="#fr33">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f34"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 17:</span></a> Tale and novel writing of second-rate order, somewhat +spiced and stimulating, are sure to succeed, and carry 'of course' +popularity with their success, by advertising the writer. Of this there +is an instance in Coleridge's own works. The <i>Zapoyla</i>, entitled a +<i>Christmas Tale</i>, (and which he never sat down to write, but dictated it +while walking up and down the room,) became so immediately popular that +2000 copies were sold in six weeks, while it required two years for the +sale of 1000 copies of the <i>Aids to Reflection</i>, which cost him much +labour, and was the fruit of many years' reflection.<br> +<a href="#fr34">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f35"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 18:</span></a> i.e. Nether Stowey, at the foot of the Quantock Hills.<br> +<a href="#fr35">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f36"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 19:</span></a> Thomas Poole, Esq.<br> +<a href="#fr36">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f37"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 20:</span></a> The following lines are here referred to + + <blockquote>"And now, beloved Stowey! I behold<br> + Thy Church-tower, and, methinks, the four huge elms<br> + Clustering, which mark the mansion of my friend;<br> + And close behind them, hidden from my view,<br> + Is my own lowly cottage, where my babe<br> + And my babe's mother dwell in peace. With light<br> + And quicken'd footsteps thitherward I tend,<br> + Remembering thee, O green and silent dell!<br> + And grateful, that by nature's quietness<br> + And solitary musings, all my heart<br> + Is soften'd, and made worthy to indulge<br> + Love, and the thoughts that yearn for human kind.<br><br> + +Nether Stowey,<br> +April 28th, 1798." </blockquote> +<a href="#fr37">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f38"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 21:</span></a> Ossian.<br> +<a href="#fr38">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f39"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 22:</span></a> This ill-natured remark requires no comment: but I would +fain recommend the reader to peruse the beautiful and faithful portrait +of him in the Preface to the second edition of the <i>Table Talk,</i> Murray, +Albemarle Street.<br> +<a href="#fr39">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f40"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 23:</span></a> He was not an enthusiast in the sense this individual used +the word; in whatever studies he was engaged, he pursued them with great +earnestness, and they were sufficient to excite his powerful and +sensitive intellect, so as to induce an observer not well acquainted +with him to form this opinion. In the character of preacher, he +exhibited more the character of philosopher and poet, never manifesting +that sectarian spirit, which too often narrows the mind, or perhaps is +rather the <i>result</i> of a narrow mind, and which frequently seems to +exclude men from the most substantial forms of Christianity, viz. +"Christian charity and Christian humility." His religion was the very +opposite of a worldly religion, it was at all times the religion of +love.<br> +<br> +This visit to Shrewsbury, as the probable successor of Mr. Rowe, was +undertaken by the advice of Mr. afterwards Dr. Estlin, a Unitarian +dissenter and preacher in Bristol, a man possessed of great kindness and +of great influence among this sect, to whom Coleridge had been indebted +for many kind offices; the result of this visit forms a part of the +sequel.<br> +<a href="#fr40">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f41"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 24:</span></a> <i>Poetical Works,</i> vol. i. p. 238.<br> +<a href="#fr41">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f41a"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 25:</span></a> + + <blockquote> "No little fish thrown back into the water, no fly unimprisoned from a + child's hand, could more buoyantly enjoy its element than I this clear + and peaceful home, with the lovely view of the town, groves, and lake + of Ratzeburg."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr41a">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f42"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 26:</span></a> From the earliest periods of authentic history, the +Brocken has been the seat of the marvellous. On its summits are still +seen huge blocks of granite, called the Sorcerer's Chair and the Altar. +A spring of pure water is known by the name of the Magic Fountain, and +the Anemone of the Brocken is distinguished by the title of the +Sorcerer's Flower. These names are supposed to have originated in the +rites of the great Idol Cortho, whom the Saxons worshipped in secret on +the summit of the Brocken, when Christianity was extending her benignant +sway over the subjacent plains. As the locality of these idolatrous +rites, the Brocken must have been much frequented, and we can scarcely +doubt that the spectre which now so often haunts it at sunrise, must +have been observed from the earliest times; but it is nowhere mentioned +that this phenomenon was in any way associated with the objects of their +idolatrous worship. One of the best accounts of the Spectre of the +Brocken, is that which is given by M. Haué, who saw it on the 23rd May, +1797. After having been on the summit of the mountain no less than +thirty times, he had at last the good fortune of witnessing the object +of his curiosity. The sun rose about four o'clock in the morning through +a serene atmosphere. In the south-west, towards Achtermannshöhe, a brisk +west wind carried before it the transparent vapours, which had yet been +condensed into thick heavy clouds. About a quarter past four he went +towards the inn, and looked round to see whether the atmosphere would +afford him a free prospect towards the south-west, when he observed at a +very great distance, towards Achtermannshöhe, a human figure of a +monstrous size. His hat having been almost carried away by a violent +gust of wind, he suddenly raised his hand to his head, to protect his +hat, and the colossal figure did the same. He immediately made another +movement by bending his body, an action which was repeated by the +spectral figure. M. Haué was desirous of making further experiments, but +the figure disappeared. He remained however in the same position +expecting its return, and in a few minutes it again made its appearance +on the Achtermannshöhe, when it mimicked his gestures as before. He then +called the landlord of the inn, and having both taken the same position +which he had before, they looked towards the Achtermannshöhe, but saw +nothing. In a very short space of time, however, two colossal figures +were formed over the above eminence, and after bending their bodies, and +imitating the gestures of the two spectators, they disappeared. +Retaining their position and keeping their eyes still fixed upon the +same spot, the two gigantic spectres again stood before them, and were +joined by a third. Every movement that they made was imitated by the +three figures, but the effect varied in its intensity, being sometimes +weak and faint, and at other times strong and well defined — — ."<i>Vide</i> +Sir D. Brewster's <i>Natural Magic</i>, p. 128.<br> +<a href="#fr42">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f43"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 27:</span></a> Horseley appears to have been in his way a Christian +Hercules, and well adapted for cleansing even an Augean stable of +apostasy.<br> +<a href="#fr43">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f44"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 28:</span></a> "Letter sixteenth," p. 264. ed. 1789, in Bishop Horsley's +<i>Tracts</i> in controversy with Dr. Priestley.<br> +<a href="#fr44">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f45"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 29:</span></a> This observation, it is presumed, alludes to the time when +he was <i>preaching</i> Unitarianism.<br> +<a href="#fr45">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f46"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 30:</span></a> Written in 1805.<br> +<a href="#fr46">return</a><br> +<br> +<p><a href="#toc">Contents</a></p> +<hr><br><br><br> +<br> +<h2><a name="section3">Chapter III</a></h2> +<br> +<h4><i>Leaves the Lakes on Account of his Health for Malta — his Employment in +Malta in 1805 — goes to Syracuse and Rome — Winters at Naples 15th of +December, 1806.</i></h4><br> + +Mr. Coleridge once met Mrs. Barbauld at an evening party. He had not +long been present, and the recognition of mere acquaintanceship over, +than, walking across the room, she addressed him in these words:— + +<blockquote>"So, Mr. Coleridge, I understand you do not consider Unitarians + Christians."<br> +<br> + "I hope, Madam," said he, "that all persons born in a Christian + country are Christians, and trust they are under the condition of + being saved; but I <i>do</i> contend that Unitarian<i>ism</i> is not + <i>Christianity</i>;"<br> +<br> + to which she replied,<br> +<br> + "I do not understand the distinction."</blockquote> + +This want of knowledge of the difference, is common to many very clever +and very amiable persons of this creed. It is hoped that we are not +always to be tried by our speculative opinions, for man is frequently +constituted higher and better than the principles he sometimes adopts.<br> +<br> +Coleridge frequently observed, + +<blockquote> "I do not so much care for men's religious opinions, — they vary, and + are dependant on that which usually surrounds them-but I regard with + more attention what men <i>are</i>." </blockquote> + +He extended his kindness to all he believed to be good, whatever their +creed, and when in his power, his aid. <a name="fr63">When</a> injured, he immediately +forgave, as he hoped to be forgiven,<a href="#f63"><sup>1</sup></a> and when reviled and +persecuted, he never became <i>persecutor</i>. Of him it may be said, +what he himself observed of the pious Baxter, that "he came a century +before his time." The Western world however seems to have better +appreciated the works of Coleridge, than most of his countrymen: in some +parts of America, his writings are understood and highly valued.<br> +<br> +In 1801, he settled at Keswick, in a house, which if not built, was at +least finished for him, by a then neighbour (a Mr. Jackson,) and for a +time he occupied a part of it. But here his health greatly failed, and +he suffered severe rheumatism from the humidity of a lake country, which +was the main cause of his leaving Keswick for Malta.<br> +<br> +It has been already observed, that when a youth at school, he had, from +imprudent bathing, become a rheumatic subject, and during the rest of +his life, remained liable to most painful affections of that disorder.<br> +<br> +In 1803, the fear of sudden death induced him to insure his life, that +his family might not be left, dependant on his friends. In 1804, his +rheumatic sufferings increasing, he determined on a change of climate, +and accepted an invitation from his friend, Sir John, then Mr. Stoddart, +residing at Malta, where he arrived in May. He soon became acquainted +with the governor of the island, Sir Alexander Ball, who was greatly +attached to Coleridge, and whose character has been so well described by +him in <i>The Friend</i>. <a name="fr64">During</a> a change of secretaries,<a href="#f64"><sup>2</sup></a> Coleridge, at +the request of Sir Alexander, officiated, <i>pro tempore</i>, as public +secretary of that island; and there was found in him — what at that time +was so much required — an able diplomatic writer in this department of +correspondence. The dignities of the office he never attempted to +support: he was greatly annoyed at what he thought its unnecessary +parade, and he petitioned Sir Alexander to be released from the +annoyance. <a name="fr65">There</a> can be no doubt that, to an individual accustomed to +public business, his occupation might appear light, and even agreeable; +but his health, which was the object of this change, not being much +benefited, and the duties of the employment greater than he was equal +to, made it for him an arduous one.<a href="#f65"><sup>3</sup></a> He seemed at this time, <a name="fr66">in</a> +addition to his rheumatism, to have been oppressed in his breathing, +which oppression crept on him imperceptibly to himself without suspicion +of its cause yet so obvious was it, that it was noticed by others "as +laborious;"<a href="#f66"><sup>4</sup></a> and continuing to increase, though with little apparent +advancement, at length terminated in death. + +<blockquote>"Friday afternoon, four o'clock, April 18,1804. The Speedwell dropped + anchor in the harbour of Malta: one of the finest in the world, the + buildings surrounding it on all sides, of a neat ever-new-looking + sand-free-stone. Some unfinished, and in all, the windows placed + backward, looked like Carthage when Æneas visited it-or a <i>burnt + out</i> place.<br> +<br> + Saturday, April 19. — In the after-dinner hour walked out with Mr. and + Mrs. Stoddart, towards the Quarantine harbour. One's first feeling is, + that it is all strange, very strange; and when you begin to understand + a little of the meaning and uses of the massy endless walls and + defiles, then you feel and perceive that it is very wonderful. A city + all of freestone, all the houses looking new like Bath; all with flat + roofs, the streets all strait, and at right angles to each other; but + many of them exceedingly steep, none quite level; of the steep + streets, some, <i>all</i> stepped with a smooth artificial stone, some + having the footpath on each side in stone steps, the middle left for + carriages; lines of fortification, fosses, bastions, curtains, &c. &c. + endless: — with gardens or bowling-grounds below; for it is all height + and depth — you can walk nowhere without having whispers of suicide, + toys of desperation. Expletive cries of Maltese venders shot up, + sudden and violent. The inhabitants very dark, almost black; but + straight, cleanlimbed, lively, active, — cannot speak in praise of + their cleanliness — children very fair — women from the use of the + faldetto, or cloak-hooding their heads, as women in England in a + shower throw over their aprons, and from the use of always holding it + down to one side of the face, all have a continued languishing manner + of holding their heads one way — picturesque enough as expressive of a + transient emotion, but shocking and inelegant in <i>all</i> and + always. The language Arabic, corrupted with Italian, and perhaps with + others. + + Sunday, April 20, 1804. — Went to church, plain chapel with a picture + behind the pulpit, which I was not close enough to see, and at the + other end in a nitch, a <i>cross painted</i>! Was it there before? or + was it in complaisance to Maltese superstitions? — Called on Sir A. + Ball — there I met General Valette, and delivered my letter to him, — a + striking room, very high; 3/4ths of its height from the ground hung + with rich crimson silk or velvet; and the 1/4th above, a mass of + colours, pictures in compartments rudely done and without perspective + or art, but yet very impressively and + imagination-stirringly — representing all the events and exploits of + the Order. — Some fine pictures, one by Correggio, one of a Cain + killing Abel, I do not know by whom.<br> +<br> + Monday, April 21, 1804, Hardkain. — Sir A. Ball called on me, and + introduced me to Mr. Lane, who was formerly his tutor, but now his + chaplain. He invited me to dine with him on Thursday, and made a plan + for me to ride to St. Antonio on Tuesday morning with Mr. Lane, + offering me a horse. Soon after came on thunder and storm, and my + breathing was affected a good deal, but still I was in no discomfort.<br> +<br> + April 22, Tuesday morning, six o'clock, was on horseback, and rode to + St. Antonio. — Fields with walls, to keep the fort from the rain — mere + desolation seemingly, and yet it is fertile. St. Antonio, a pleasant + country-house, with a fine but unheeded garden, save among the low + orange and lemon trees, still thick with fruit on many of the trees, + fruit ripe, blossoms, and the next year's fruit. Pepper-trees very + beautiful, and the locust-tree not amiss. Visited St. John's — O + magnificence!<br> +<br> + Wednesday, April 23. — General Valette I called on at his + country-house, just out of the gates, near the end of the Botanic + Garden, and it is the pleasantest place I have seen here. The + multitude of small gardens and orangeries, among the huge masses of + fortifications, many of them seeming almost as thick as the gardens + inclosed by them are broad. Pomegranate in (beautiful secicle) flower. + Under a bridge over a dry ditch saw the largest prickly pear. Elkhorns + for trunk, and then its leaves — but go and look and look. — (Hard + rain.) We sheltered in the Botanic Garden; yet reached home not + unwetted."</blockquote> + +The simplicity of Coleridge's manners, and entire absence of all show of +business-like habits, amongst men chiefly mercantile, made him an object +of curiosity, and gave rise to the relation of many whimsical stories +about him. But his kindness and benevolence lent a charm to his +behaviour and manners, in whatever he was engaged. From the state of his +own lungs, invalid-like, he was in the habit of attending much to those +about him, and particularly those who had been sent to Malta for +pulmonary disease. He frequently observed how much the invalid, at first +landing, was relieved by the climate and the <i>stimulus</i> of change; +but when the novelty, arising from <i>that</i> change, had ceased, the +monotonous sameness of the blue sky, accompanied by the summer heat of +the climate, acted powerfully as a sedative, ending in speedy +dissolution, — even more speedy than in a colder climate. The effects on +Coleridge seemed to run parallel to this. At first he remarked that he +was relieved, but afterwards speaks of his limbs "as lifeless tools," +and of the violent pains in his bowels, which neither opium, ether, nor +peppermint, separately or combined, could relieve. These several states +he minuted down, from time to time, for after-consideration or +comparison. He most frequently sought relief from bodily suffering in +religious meditations, or in some augmented exercise of his mind: + +<blockquote>"<a name="fr67">Sickness</a>, 'tis true,<br> +Whole years of weary days, besieged him close,<br> +Even to the gates and inlets of his life!<br> +But it is true, no less, that strenuous, firm,<br> +And with a natural gladness, he maintained<br> +The citadel unconquered, and in joy<br> +Was strong to follow the delightful muse." <br><br> + +<i>Tombless Epitaph</i>.<a href="#f67"><sup>5</sup></a></blockquote> + +The citadel did, indeed, remain unconquered even to his <i>last</i> +hour — he found in religious meditation and prayer that solace and +support which, during a life of misery and pain, gave him his +extraordinary patience and resignation. If an ejaculation escaped him, +it was usually followed by some moral or religious reflection, as thus +runs one of his notes:— + +<blockquote>"O me mi serum! Assuredly the doctrine of grace, +atonement, and the spirit of God interceding by groans to the spirit of +God, (Rev. viii. 26.), is founded on constant experience, and even if it +can be ever <i>explained away</i>, it must still remain as the rising +and setting of the sun itself, as the darkness and as the light — it must +needs have the most efficient character of reality, — quod semper, quod +ubique, quod ab omnibus! Deeply do I both know and feel my weakness — God +in his wisdom grant, that my day of visitation may not have been past."</blockquote> + +Lest some <i>will-worshiping</i> individuals, inflated by vanity, and +self-righteousness, should misunderstand or misconstrue him, the +following lines are copied from his poems:— + +<blockquote><b><i>Humility, The Mother Of Charity</i></b><br> +<br> +"Frail creatures are we all! To be the best,<br> + Is but the fewest faults to have: — <br> +Look thou then to thyself, and leave the rest<br> + To God, thy conscience and the grave."<br> +<br> +<i>Poetical Works.</i></blockquote> + +There is not, perhaps, to be found on record a more perfect example of +humility and charity, than that which he exhibited and sustained for so +long a period of suffering and trial. Surely he could not be compared to +the generality of his fellows — to men who, though possessing great +worldly reputation, never gave him their support; but, on the contrary, +were sometimes even ready to whisper down his fair name! + +<blockquote>"For whispering tongues can poison truth; <br> + And constancy lives in realms above."</blockquote><br> + + +<h4>Christobel</h4> + +Some of these might be well meaning enough to believe, that in giving +publicity to what they <i>erroneously</i> considered moral infirmities, +(not possessing the knowledge to discriminate between moral and physical +infirmities), they were performing a religious duty — were displaying a +beacon to deter others from the same course. But in the case of +Coleridge, this was a sad misconception. Neither morally nor physically +was he understood. He did all that in his state duty could exact; and +had he been more favoured in his bodily constitution, he would not have +been censured for frailties which did not attach to him.<br> +<br> +Alas! how little do the many know of the hearts of truly great men! +Least of all could such men as Coleridge be known by modern pharisees. + +<blockquote>"It is no uncommon thing," says an affectionate and kind-hearted + friend, whose genius is rarely equalled, "to see well intentioned men + please themselves with the feeling that they are not as others; that + they are the favorites of Heaven, and washed clean by special + dispensation from the spots of frail mortality; who more-over assume + that they possess the most delicate feelings; but then those feelings + are under such admirable discipline, that they can, with the most + exquisite suffering, cry over their own sentences, shed tears of pity + and blood for their duty, make a merit of the hardness which is + contrary to their nature, and live in perpetual apprehension of being + too tender-hearted. It is wonderful with what ingenuity these people + can reconcile their flexible consciences to acts at which their + inferiors might blush or shudder, and no less fearful to reflect how + many poor wretches, not wholly past hope or reformation, may have been + sent to their last account, with all their imperfections on their + heads, to satisfy the religious or political fears of these pharisees. + The patrons and employers of spies, we may expect to make the greatest + sacrifice to <i>expediency</i>, — a word which every man will explain + after his own way."</blockquote> + +To have written during his life any thing like an eulogy on Coleridge +would have been most painful to him, yet he must have felt, that he +deserved well of his fellow beings; for fame, and fame only, he +observes, is the aim and object of every good and great man, though it +is too often confounded with mere reputation. When a youth, he had +learnt how to value that bubble reputation, its fleeting character, but +the love of which, in some men, is so injurious both to head and heart. +Reputation, "the morrow's meal," the "breakfast only," the furnisher of +the tinsel ornaments, or at most of some of the worldly agreeables, sown +perhaps for future worldly enjoyment. <i>He</i> laboured for riches of +another kind, and <i>stored</i> them, in the hope of receiving a more +permanent reward: + +<blockquote> "<a name="fr68">By</a> fame of course," says Coleridge, "I mean any thing rather than + reputation,<a href="#f68"><sup>6</sup></a> the desire of working in the good and great + permanently, through indefinite ages, the struggle to be promoted into + the rank of God's fellow-labourers. For bold as this expression is, it + is a quotation from Scripture, and therefore justified by God himself, + for which we ought to be grateful, that he has deigned to hold out + such a glory to us! This is however only one consistent part of the + incomprehensible goodness of Deity in taking upon himself man."</blockquote> + +His note-books abound with "his hints and first thoughts; "as he says, +his "Cogitabilia rather than actual cogitata à me," — not always to be +understood as his fixed opinions, but often merely suggestions of the +disquisition, and acts of obedience to the apostolic command of "Try all +things, hold fast that which is good." Among them is the following +characteristic of the man and his feelings, noted down for some future +disquisition. + +<blockquote>"Würde, Worthiness, <b>Virtue</b>, consist in the mastery over the sensuous + and sensual impulses; but Love requires <b>Innocence</b>. Let the lover ask + his heart whether he could endure that his mistress should have + <i>struggled</i> with a sensual impulse for another, though she + overcame it from a sense of duty to him? Women are <b>Less</b> offended with + men, from the vicious habits of men in part, and in part from the + difference of bodily constitution; yet still to a pure and truly + loving woman it must be a painful thought. That he should struggle + with and overcome ambition, desire of fortune, superior beauty, &c. or + with desire objectless, is pleasing; but <i>not</i> that he has + struggled with positive appropriated desire, i.e. desire <i>with</i> + an object. Love in short requires an absolute <i>peace</i> and + <i>harmony</i> between all parts of human nature, such as it is, and + it is offended by any war, though the battle should be decided in + favour of the worthier.<br> +<br> + This is perhaps the final cause of the <i>rarity</i> of true love, and + the efficient and immediate cause of its difficulty. Ours is a life of + probation, we are to contemplate and obey <i>duty</i> for its own + sake, and in order to this we, in our present imperfect state of + being, must see it not merely abstracted from, but in direct + opposition to the <i>wish</i>, the <i>inclination</i>. Having + perfected this, the highest possibility of human nature, he may then + with safety harmonize <i>all</i> his being with it; <i>he may</i> + <b>Love</b>! — To perform duties absolutely from the sense of duty, is the + <i>ideal</i>, which perhaps no human being ever can arrive at, but + which every human being ought to try to draw near unto. This is in the + only wise, and verily, in a most sublime sense to see God face to + face; which, alas! it seems too true, that no man can do and + <i>live</i>, i. e. a <i>human</i> life. It would become incompatible + with his organization, or rather it would <i>transmute</i> it, and the + process of that transmutation to the senses of other men would be + called <i>death</i>. — Even as to caterpillars; in all probability the + caterpillar dies, and he either does not see, which is most probable, + or at all events he does not see the connection between the + caterpillar and the butterfly, the beautiful Psyche of the Greeks.<br> +<br> + Those who in this life <i>love</i> in perfection — if such there be — in + proportion as their love has no struggles, see God darkly and through + a veil: — for when duty and pleasure are absolutely coincident, the + very nature of our organization necessitates that duty, will be + contemplated as the symbol of pleasure, instead of pleasure being (as + in a future life we have faith it will be) the symbol of duty. This + then is the distinction between human and angelic <i>happiness</i>. + Human happiness — humanly happy I call him, who in enjoyment finds his + duty; angelically happy he, who seeks and finds his <i>duty</i> in + enjoyment. Happiness in general may be defined — not the aggregate of + pleasurable sensations, for this is either a dangerous error and the + creed of sensualists, or else a mere translation or wordy + paraphrase — but the state of that person who, in order to enjoy his + nature in its highest manifestations of conscious <i>feeling</i>, has + no need of doing wrong, and who in order to do right is under no + necessity of abstaining from enjoyment."</blockquote> + +On the arrival of the new secretary at Malta, Mr. Coleridge left it, +September 27, 1805, and after a day's voyage, arrived at Syracuse. He +remained in Sicily a short time only, for he was eager to visit the +"eternal city" (Rome,) in which he staid some months. <a name="fr69">The</a> next date +marking his progress, is the 15th December, 1806, Naples, — the usual +place of the residence of travellers during summer.<a href="#f69"><sup>7</sup></a> This gap in his +minutes is partly filled up by his own verbal account, repeated at +various times to the writer of this memoir. While in Rome, he was +actively employed in visiting the great works of art, statues, pictures, +buildings, palaces, &c. &c. observations on which he minuted down for +publication. Here he became acquainted with the eminent literary men at +that time collected there, and here he first saw the great American +painter Alston, for whom he always cherished an unfeigned regard. The +German poet Tieck, he then for the first time also saw, and many others +of celebrity. To one of them he was mainly indebted for his safety, +otherwise he might have terminated his career in the Temple at Paris: +for to Buonaparte, through one of his industrious emissaries, Coleridge +had become obnoxious, in consequence of an article written by him in the +<i>Morning Post</i>. This salutary warning he obtained from the brother of the +celebrated traveller, Humboldt, of whom he had enquired, whether he +could pass through Switzerland and Germany, and return by that route to +England. <a name="fr70">Humboldt</a> then informed Coleridge, that having passed through +Paris on his journey to Rome, he had learnt that he, Coleridge, was a +marked man, and unsafe: when within the reach of Buonaparte he advised +him to be more than usually circumspect, and do, all in his power to +remain unknown.<a href="#f70"><sup>8</sup></a> Rather unexpectedly, he had a visit early one +morning from a noble Benedictine, with a passport signed by the Pope, in +order to facilitate his departure. He left him a carriage, and an +admonition for instant flight, which was promptly obeyed by Coleridge. +Hastening to Leghorn, he discovered an American vessel ready to sail for +England, on board of which he embarked. <a name="fr71">On</a> the voyage she was chased by +a French vessel, which so alarmed the American, that he compelled +Coleridge to throw his papers overboard, and thus to his great regret, +were lost the fruits of his literary labours in Rome.<a href="#f71"><sup>9</sup></a><br> +<br> +In 1806 he returned to England, and took up his residence for a time at +Keswick, but was more generally with his friend Wordsworth, then living +at Grassmere.<br> +<br> +At Grassmere he planned <i>The Friend</i>, for which Mr. Wordsworth +wrote a few contributions; and receiving occasionally some little +assistance from other writers, he was enabled to furnish the quantity of +valuable matter which appeared in that publication. Some of his earnest +admirers, and those too persons best acquainted with his works, are +disposed to give this the preference.<br> +<br> +His friend, Lamb, who is justly considered a man of exquisite taste, +used to say, in his odd and familiar way, "Only now listen to his talk, +it is as fine as an angel's!" and then, by way of a superlative, would +add, "but after all, his best talk is in <i>The Friend</i>."<br> +<br> +To the <i>Lake Edition</i> of this work, as it has been termed, is appended the +following prospectus, addressed to a correspondent + +<blockquote>"It is not unknown to you, that I have employed almost the whole of my + life in acquiring, or endeavouring to acquire, useful knowledge by + study, reflection, observation, and by cultivating the society of my + superiors in intellect, both at home and in foreign countries. You + know too, that at different periods of my life, I have not only + planned, but collected the materials for many works on various and + important subjects: so many indeed, that the number of my unrealized + schemes, and the mass of my miscellaneous fragments, have often + furnished my friends with a subject of raillery, and sometimes of + regret and reproof. Waiving the mention of all private and accidental + hinderances, I am inclined to believe, that this want of perseverance + has been produced in the main by an over-activity of thought, modified + by a constitutional indolence, which made it more pleasant to me to + continue acquiring, than to reduce what I had acquired to a regular + form. Add too, that almost daily throwing off my notices or + reflections in desultory fragments, I was still tempted onward by an + increasing sense of the imperfection of my knowledge, and by the + conviction, that in order fully to comprehend and develope any one + subject, it was necessary that I should make myself master of some + other, which again as regularly involved a third, and so on, with an + ever-widening horizon. Yet one habit, formed during long absences from + those with whom I could converse with full sympathy, has been of + advantage to me — that of daily noting down, in my memorandum or common + place books, both incidents and observations, whatever had occurred to + me from without, and all the flux and reflux of my mind within itself. + The number of these notices and their tendency, miscellaneous as they + were, to one common end ('quid sumus et quid futuri gignimur,' what we + are and what we are born to become; and thus from the end of our being + to deduce its proper objects), first encouraged me to undertake the + weekly essay, of which you will consider this letter as the + prospectus.<br> +<br> + Not only did the plan seem to accord better than any other with the + nature of my own mind, both in its strength and in its weakness; but + conscious that, in upholding some principles both of taste and + philosophy, adopted by the great men of Europe, from the middle of the + fifteenth till toward the close of the seventeenth century. I must run + counter to many prejudices of many of my readers (for old faith is + often modern heresy). I perceived too in a periodical essay, the most + likely means of winning instead of forcing my way. Supposing truth on + my side, the shock of the first day might be so far lessened by + reflections of the succeeding days, as to procure for my next week's + essay a less hostile reception, than it would have met with, had it + been only the next chapter of a present volume. I hoped to disarm the + mind of those feelings, which preclude conviction by contempt, and as + it were, fling the door in the face of reasoning, by a + <i>presumption</i> of its absurdity. A motion too for honourable + ambition was supplied by the fact, that every periodical paper of the + kind now attempted, which had been conducted with zeal and ability, + was not only well received at the time, but has become permanently, + and in the best sense of the word, popular. By honourable ambition, I + mean the strong desire to be useful, aided by the wish to be generally + acknowledged to have been so. As I feel myself actuated in no ordinary + degree by this desire, so the hope of realizing it appears less and + less presumptuous to me, since I have received from men of highest + rank and established character in the republic of letters, not only + strong encouragements as to my own fitness for the undertaking, but + likewise promises of support from their own stores.<br> +<br> + The <i>object</i> of <i>The Friend</i> briefly and generally expressed + is — to uphold those truths and those merits against the caprices of + fashion, and such pleasures, as either depend on transitory and + accidental causes, or are pursued from less worthy impulses. The chief + <i>subjects</i> of my own essays will be: — <br> +<ul type="circle"> + <li>The true and sole ground of morality, or virtue, as distinguished from + prudence.</li> + + <li> The origin and growth of moral impulses, as distinguished from + external and immediate motives.</li> + + <li>The necessary dependence of taste on moral impulses and habits; and + the nature of taste (relatively to judgment in general and to genius) + defined, illustrated and applied. Under this head I comprise the + substance of the Lectures given, and intended to have been given, at + the Royal Institution, on the distinguished English Poets, in + illustration of the general principles of Poetry, together with + suggestions concerning the affinity of the Fine Arts to each other, + and the principles common to them all: Architecture; Gardening; Dress; + Music; Painting; Poetry.</li> + + <li> The opening out of new objects of just admiration in our own language, + and information of the present state and past history of Swedish, + Danish, German and Italian literature, (to which, but as supplied by a + friend, I may add the Spanish, Portuguese and French,) as far as the + same has not been already given to English readers, or is not to be + found in common French authors.</li> + + <li>Characters met with in real life; anecdotes and results of my life and + travels, &c. &c. as far as they are illustrative of general moral + laws, and have no immediate leaning on personal or immediate + politics.</li> + + <li>Education in its widest sense, private and national sources of + consolation to the afflicted in misfortune or disease, or dejection of + mind from the exertion and right application of the reason, the + imagination, and the moral sense; and new sources of enjoyment opened + out, or an attempt (as an illustrious friend once expressed the + thought to me) to add sunshine to daylight, by making the happy more + happy. In the words 'dejection of mind,' I refer particularly to doubt + or disbelief of the moral government of the world, and the grounds and + arguments for the religious hopes of human nature."</li> +</ul></blockquote> + +The first number, printed on stamped paper, was dated June 8th, 1809. He +commences this work with the following motto:— + +<blockquote>"Whenever we improve, it is right to leave room for a further + improvement. It is right to consider, to look about us, to examine the + effect of what we have done. Then we can proceed with confidence, + because we can proceed with intelligence. Whereas, in hot + reformations, is what men more zealous than considerate, call + <i>making clear work</i>, the whole is generally so crude, so harsh, + so indigested; mixed with so much imprudence and so much injustice; so + contrary to the whole course of human nature and human institutions, + that the very people who are most eager for it, are among the first to + grow disgusted at what they have done. Then some part of the abdicated + grievance is recalled from its exile in order to become a corrective + of the correction.<br> +<br> + Then the abuse assumes all the credit and popularity of a reform. The + very idea of purity and disinterestedness in politics falls into + disrepute, and is considered as a vision of hot and inexperienced men; + and thus disorders become incurable, not by the virulence of their own + quality, but by the unapt and violent nature of the remedies."<br> +<br> + (<i>Burke's speech on the 11th of February, 1780</i>.)<br> +<br> +<br> + <b> To My Readers.</b><br> +<br> + "Conscious that I am about to deliver my sentiments on a subject of + the utmost delicacy, I have selected the general motto to all my + political lucubrations, from an authority equally respected by both + parties. I have taken it from an orator, whose eloquence enables + Englishmen to repeat the name of Demosthenes and Cicero, without + humiliation; from a statesman, who has left to our language a bequest + of glory unrivalled and all our own, in the keen-eyed, yet far-sighted + genius, with which he has made the profoundest general principles of + political wisdom, and even the recondite laws of human passions, bear + upon particular measures and passing events. While of the harangues of + Pitt, Fox, and their compeers on the most important occurrences, we + retain a few unsatisfactory fragments alone, the very flies and weeds + of Burke shine to us through the purest amber, imperishably enshrined, + and valuable from the precious material of their embalment. I have + extracted the passage not from that Burke, whose latter exertions have + rendered his works venerable as oracular voices from the sepulchre of + a patriarch, to the upholders of the government and society in their + existing state and order; but from a speech delivered by him while he + was the most beloved, the proudest name with the more anxious friends + of liberty; while he was the darling of those who, believing mankind + to have been improved, are desirous to give to forms of government a + similar progression. From the same anxiety, I have been led to + introduce my opinions on this most hazardous subject, by a preface of + a somewhat personal character. And though the title of my address is + general, yet, I own, I direct myself more particularly to those among + my readers, who, from various printed and unprinted calumnies, have + judged most unfavourably of my political tenets; aid to those whose + favour I have chanced to win in consequence of a similar, though not + equal mistake. To both, I affirm, that the opinions and arguments, I + am about to detail, have been the settled convictions of my mind for + the last ten or twelve years, with some brief intervals of + fluctuation, and those only in lesser points, and known only to the + companions of my fire-side. From both and from all my readers, I + solicit a gracious attention to the following explanations: first, on + the congruity of the following numbers, with the general plan and + object of <i>The Friend</i>; and secondly, on the charge of arrogance or + presumption, which may be adduced against the author for the freedom, + with which in these numbers, and in others that will follow on other + subjects, he presumes to dissent from men of established reputation, + or even to doubt of the justice, with which the public laurel-crown, + as symbolical of the <i>first</i> class of genius and intellect, has + been awarded to sundry writers since the revolution, and permitted to + wither around the brows of our elder benefactors, from Hooker to Sir + P. Sidney, and from Sir P. Sidney, to Jeremy Taylor and Stillingfleet."</blockquote> + +The work ceased at the 27th number, March 15th, 1810. As is usually the +case when authors become their own publishers, there was a pecuniary +loss; but as long as printing lasts, it must remain a record of his +powers.<br> +<br> +Yet the critics, if critics they were worthy to be called, discovered +only feebleness of mind, when in the attempt to make themselves +acquainted with his principles, they professed, either through +ignorance, or indolence, not to understand him. <a name="fr72">When</a> his mental powers +had so far advanced, he felt a conviction of the truth of the Triune +power,<a href="#f72"><sup>10</sup></a> and at once saw that there was no important truth, in which +this Triad was not contained. As ours was a constitutional government, +composed of three great powers (of the three great estates of the realm, +as Queen Elizabeth would say, the church, the nobles, and the +commonalty,) when these, Coleridge observed, were exactly balanced, the +government was in a healthy state, but excess in any one of these +powers, disturbed the balance and produced disorder, which was attended +by dissatisfaction and discord. <a name="fr73">A</a> political writer, he laboured to +maintain this balance; and when either power was threatened by any +disturbance, threw in a counterweight, sometimes on one side and +sometimes on another, as he, according to his philosophical opinions, +thought they deserved either censure or praise.<a href="#f73"><sup>11</sup></a> For this +<i>apparent</i> fluctuation he was termed, by those men who never +understood his principles, vacillating and inconsistent: but he cast his +"bread upon the waters," and in due time it returned to him.<br> +<br> +There must come a time when the works of Coleridge will be fairly +weighed against the agreeable time-killing publications of our day; +works for which their frivolous authors have reaped an abundant harvest +while this giant in literature gained scarcely a dwarf's portion. But +Truth, though perhaps slowly, must finally prevail. Mr. Coleridge +remarks, that for his own guidance he was greatly benefited by a +resolve, which, in the antithetic and allowed quaintness of an adage or +maxim he had been accustomed to word thus — + +<blockquote>"until you <i>understand a +writer's ignorance</i>, presume yourself <i>ignorant of his +understanding</i>."</blockquote> + +This was for him a golden rule, and which, when he +read the philosophical works of others, he applied most carefully to +himself. If an unlearned individual takes up a book, and, on opening it, +finds by certain characters that it is a book on Algebra, he modestly +puts, it down with perhaps an equally modest observation. "I never +learned the Mathematics, and am ignorant of them: they are not suited to +my taste, and I do not require them." But if perchance, he should take +up a philosophical work, this modesty is not exercised: though he does +not comprehend it, he will not acknowledge the fact; he is piqued +however, and not satisfied with a mere slighting observation, but often +ends, as disappointed vanity usually does, in shallow abuse. The +political, the critical, the philosophical views of Coleridge, were all +grand, and from his philosophical views he never deviated; all +fluctuating opinions rolled by him, not indeed unheeded, but observed +with sympathy and with regret, when not founded on those permanent +principles which were to benefit and give good government to man.<br> +<br> +Coleridge, it is well known, was no adept in matters of business, and so +little skilled in ephemeral literature as not to be able to profit by +any weekly publication. The first edition of <i>The Friend</i> was published +weekly, on paper with the government stamp, and that reached, as before +related, its twenty-seventh number.<br> +<br> +Such a work was not suited to his genius: in fact, no periodical which +required rapid writing on slight amusing subjects, with punctuality in +publication, which demanded steadiness of health, and the absence of +those sedative causes arising, in part, from his benevolent heart and +sensitive nature, ever would have suited him. To write like a +novelist — to charm ennui — is that which is required of a modern author +who expects pecuniary recompense. Although he needed such recompense, +the character of his genius unfitted him for the attainment of it; and +had he continued the work, the expenditure would have ended in still +greater pecuniary loss. <a name="fr74">One</a> of his last political essays is that taken +from the <i>Morning Post</i>, of March 19, 1800, on the character of Pitt.<a href="#f74"><sup>12</sup></a> +These Essays were soon forgotten, though this, at the time, was much +read and admired as part of the history of the man and his political +feelings. It was the effect which Buonaparte believed to have been +produced by these on the public mind that tempted him to try to +incarcerate Coleridge. Some time after, Otto, the French ambassador at +our Court, was ready with a bribe, in the hope to obtain from Coleridge +a complimentary essay to his sovereign. The offer of the bribe would +have deterred him from writing any more on the subject. Had he been +willing to sell himself — to write a flattering character of the great +hero — to raise that hero in the estimation of Europe, he would have been +amply recompensed.<br> +<br> +In his <i>Biographia Literaria</i>, he says, + +<blockquote> "But I do derive a gratification from the knowledge, that my essays + have contributed to introduce the practice of placing the questions + and events of the day in a moral point of view, in giving dignity to + particular measures by tracing their policy or impolicy to permanent + principles, and an interest to principles by the application of them + to individual measures. In Mr. Burke's writings, indeed, the germs of + almost all political truths may be found. But I dare assume to myself + the merit of having first explicitly defined and analysed the nature + of Jacobinism; and that in distinguishing the jacobin from the + republican, the democrat and the mere demagogue, I both rescued the + word from remaining a mere term of abuse, and put on their guard many + honest minds, who even in their heat of zeal against jacobinism, + admitted or supported principles from which the worst part of that + system may be legitimately deduced."</blockquote> + +With this view the following Essays and Observations have been +republished here, — as illustrative of his early opinions to be compared +with those of his more advanced life, — to shew the injustice of his +political opponents, who never seemed to have troubled themselves about +principle, — and the necessary growth of intellectual power giving deeper +insight, with the additional value of experience and its consequences.<br> + + +<blockquote><h4>Pitt</h4><br> + + +From the <i>Morning Post</i>, March 19, 1800. + + "Plutarch, in his comparative biography of Rome and Greece, has + generally chosen for each pair of lives the two contemporaries who + most nearly resembled each other. His work would perhaps have been + more interesting, if he had adopted the contrary arrangement, and + selected those rather who had attained to the possession of similar + influence, or similar fame, by means, actions, and talents the most + dissimilar. For power is the sole object of philosophical attention in + man, as in inanimate nature; and in the one equally as in the other, + we understand it more intimately, the more diverse the circumstances + are with which we have observed it co-exist. In our days, the two + persons who appear to have influenced the interests and actions of men + the most deeply, and the most diffusively, are beyond doubt the Chief + Consul of France and the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and in these + two are prerented to us similar situations, with the greatest + dissimilitude of characters.<br> +<br> + William Pitt was the younger son of Lord Chatham; a fact of no + ordinary importance in the solution of his character, of no mean + significance in the heraldry of morals and intellect. His father's + rank, fame, political connections, and parental ambition, were his + mould; he was cast, rather than grew.<br> +<br> + A palpable election, a conscious predestination controlled the free + agency, and transfigured the individuality of his mind; and that, + which he <i>might have been</i>, was compered into that, which he + <i>was to be</i>. From his early childhood it was his father's custom + to make him stand up on a chair, and declaim before a large company; + by which exercise, practised so frequently, and continued for so many + years, he acquired a premature and unnatural dexterity in the + combination of words, which must of necessity have diverted his + attention from present objects, obscured his impressions, and deadened + his genuine feelings. Not the <i>thing</i> on which he was speaking, + but the praises to be gained, were present to his intuition; hence he + associated all the operations of his faculties with words, and his + pleasures with the surprise excited by them.<br> +<br> + But an inconceivably large portion of human knowledge and human power + is involved in the science and management of <i>words</i>; and an + education of words, though it destroys genius, will often create, and + always foster, talent. The young Pitt was conspicuous far beyond his + fellows, both at school and at college. He was always full grown: he + had neither the promise nor the awkwardness of a growing intellect. + Vanity, early satiated, formed and elevated itself into a love of + power; and in losing this colloquial vanity, he lost one of the prime + links that connect the individual with the species, too early for the + affections, though not too early for the understanding. At college he + was a severe student; his mind was founded and elemented in words and + generalities, and these two formed all the superstructure. That + revelry and that debauchery, which are so often fatal to the powers of + intellect, would probably have been serviceable to him; they would + have given him a closer communion with realities, they would have + induced a greater presentness to present objects. But Mr. Pitt's + conduct was correct, unimpressibly correct. His after-discipline in + the special pleader's office, and at the bar, carried on the scheme of + his education with unbroken uniformity. His first political + connections were with the reformers; but those who accuse him of + sympathising or coalescing with their intemperate or visionary plans, + misunderstand his character, and are ignorant of the historical facts.<br> +<br> + Imaginary situations in an imaginary state of things rise up in minds + that possess a power and facility in combining images. Mr. Pitt's + ambition was conversant with old situations in the old state of + things, which furnish nothing to the imagination, though much to the + wishes. In his endeavours to realise his father's plan of reform, he + was probably as sincere as a being, who had derived so little + knowledge from actual impressions, could be. But his sincerity had no + living root of affection; while it was propped up by his love of + praise and immediate power, so long it stood erect and no longer. He + became a member of the Parliament, supported the popular opinions, and + in a few years, by the influence of the popular party, was placed in + the high and awful rank in which he now is. The fortunes of his + country, we had almost said the fates of the world, were placed in his + wardship — we sink in prostration before the inscrutable dispensations + of Providence, when we reflect in whose wardship the fates of the + world were placed!<br> +<br> + The influencer of his country and of his species was a young man, the + creature of another's predetermination, sheltered and weather-fended + from all the elements of experience; a young man, whose feet had never + wandered; whose very eye had never turned to the right or to the left; + whose whole track had been as curveless as the motion of a fascinated + reptile! It was a young man, whose heart was solitary, because he had + existed always amid objects of futurity, and whose imagination too was + unpopulous, because those objects of hope to which his habitual wishes + had transferred, and as it were <i>projected</i>, his existence, were + all familiar and long-established objects! A plant sown and reared in + a hot-house, for whom the very air, that surrounded him, had been + regulated by the thermometer of previous purpose; to whom the light of + nature had penetrated only through glasses and covers; who had had the + sun without the breeze; whom no storm had shaken; on whom no rain had + pattered; on whom the dews of Heaven had not fallen! A being who had + had no feelings connected with man or nature, no spontaneous impulses, + no unbiassed and desultory studies, no genuine science, nothing that + constitutes individuality in intellect, nothing that teaches + brotherhood in affection! Such was the man — such, and so denaturalized + the spirit, on whose wisdom and philanthropy the lives and living + enjoyments of so many millions of human beings were made unavoidably + dependent.<br> +<br> + From this time a real enlargement of mind became almost impossible. + Pre-occupations, intrigue, the undue passion and anxiety, with which + all facts must be surveyed; the crowd and confusion of those facts, + none of them seen, but all communicated, and by that very + circumstance, and by the necessity of perpetually classifying them, + transmuted into words and generalities; pride; flattery; irritation; + artificial power; these, and circumstances resembling these, + necessarily render the heights of office barren heights; which command + indeed a vast and extensive prospect, but attract so many clouds and + vapours, that most often all prospect is precluded. Still, however, + Mr. Pitt's situation, however inauspicious for his real being, was + favourable to his fame. He heaped period on period; persuaded himself + and the nation, that extemporaneous arrangement of sentences was + eloquence; and that eloquence implied wisdom.<br> +<br> + His father's struggles for freedom, and his own attempts, gave him an + almost unexampled popularity; and his office necessarily associated + with his name all the great events that happened during his + administration. There were not however wanting men who saw through + this delusion: and refusing to attribute the industry, integrity, and + enterprising spirit of our merchants, the agricultural improvements of + our landholders, the great inventions of our manufacturers, or the + valour and skilfulness of our sailors, to the merits of a minister, + they have continued to decide on his character from those acts and + those merits, which belong to him, and to him alone. Judging him by + this standard, they have been able to discover in him no one proof or + symptom of a commanding genius. They have discovered him never + controlling, never creating, events, but always yielding to them with + rapid change, and sheltering himself from inconsistency by perpetual + indefiniteness. In the Russian war, they saw him abandoning meanly + what he had planned weakly, and threatened insolently. In the debates + on the Regency, they detected the laxity of his constitutional + principles, and received proofs that his eloquence consisted not in + the ready application of a general system to particular questions, but + in the facility of arguing for or against any question by specious + generalities, without reference to any system. In these debates he + combined what is most dangerous in democracy with all that is most + degrading in the old superstitions of monarchy; and taught an + inherency of the office in the person, in order to make the office + itself a nullity, and the premiership, with its accompanying majority, + the sole and permanent power of the state. And now came the French + Revolution. This was a new event: the old routine of reasoning, the + common trade of politics, were to become obsolete. He appeared wholly + unprepared for it: half favouring, half condemning, ignorant of what + he favoured, and why he condemned, he neither displayed the honest + enthusiasm and fixed principle of Mr. Fox, nor the intimate + acquaintance with the general nature of man, and the consequent + <i>prescience</i> of Mr. Burke.<br> +<br> + After the declaration of war, long did he continue in the common cant + of office, in declamation about the Scheld and Holland, and all the + vulgar causes of common contests! and when at least the immense genius + of his new supporter had beat him out of these <i>words</i> (words + signifying <i>places</i> and <i>dead objects</i>, and signifying + nothing more), he adopted other words in their places, other + generalities — Atheism and Jacobinism — phrases, which he learnt from + Mr. Burke, but without learning the philosophical definitions and + involved consequences, with which that great man accompanied those + words: Since the death of Mr. Burke the forms, and the sentiments, and + the tone of the French have undergone many and important changes: how, + indeed, is it possible that it should be otherwise, while man is the + creature of experience! But still Mr. Pitt proceeds in an endless + repetition of the same <i>general phrases</i>. This is his element: + deprive him of general and abstract phrases, and you reduce him to + silence; but you cannot deprive him of them. Press him to specify an + <i>individual</i> fact of advantage to be derived from a war, and he + answers, Security! Call upon him to particularize a crime, and he + exclaims — Jacobinism! Abstractions defined by abstractions; + generalities defined by generalities! As a minister of finance he is + still, as ever, the words of abstractions. Figures, custom-house + reports, imports and exports, commerce and revenue — all flourishing, + all splendid! Never was such a prosperous country as England under his + administration! Let it be objected, that the agriculture of the + country is, by the overbalance of commerce, and by various and complex + causes, in such a state, that the country hangs as a pensioner for + bread on its neighbours, and a bad season uniformly threatens us with + famine. This (it is replied) is owing to our <b>Prosperity</b>, — all + <i>prosperous</i> nations are in great distress for food! — Still + <b>Prosperity</b>, still <b>General Phrases</b>, unenforced by one single image, one + <i>single fact</i> of real national amelioration; of any one comfort + enjoyed, where it was not before enjoyed; of any one class of society + becoming healthier, or wiser, or happier. These are <i>things</i>, + these are realities, and these Mr. Pitt has neither the imagination to + body forth, or the sensibility to feel for. Once, indeed, in an evil + hour, intriguing for popularity, he suffered himself to be persuaded + to evince a talent for the real, the individual; and he brought in his + <b>Poor Bill</b>!! When we hear the minister's talents for finance so loudly + trumpeted, we turn involuntarily to his <b>Poor Bill</b> — to that + acknowledged abortion — that unanswerable evidence of his ignorance + respecting all the fundamental relations and actions of property, and + of the social union!<br> +<br> + As his reasonings, even so is his eloquence. One character pervades + his whole being: words on words, finely arranged, and so dexterously + consequent, that the whole bears the semblance of argument, and still + keeps awake a sense of surprise; but when all is done, nothing + rememberable has been said, no one philosophical remark, no one image, + not even a pointed aphorism. Not a sentence of Mr. Pitt's has ever + been quoted, or formed the favourite phrase of the day, a thing + unexampled in any man of equal reputation; but while he speaks, the + effect varies according to the character of his auditor. The man of no + talent is swallowed up in surprise; and when the speech is ended, he + remembers his feelings, but nothing distinct of that which produced + them: (how opposite an effect to that of nature and genius, from whose + works the idea still remains, when the feeling is passed away, remains + to connect itself with the other feelings, and combine with new + impressions!) The mere man of talent hears him with admiration; the + mere man of genius with contempt; the philosopher neither admires nor + contemns, but listens to him with a deep and solemn interest, tracing + in the effects of his eloquence the power of words and phrases, and + that peculiar constitution of human affairs in their present state, + which so eminently favours this power.<br> +<br> + Such appears to us to be the prime minister of Great Britain, whether + we consider him as a statesman or an orator. The same character + betrays itself in his private life; the same coldness to realities, to + images of realities, and to all whose excellence relates to reality: + he has patronized no science, he has raised no man of genius from + obscurity, he counts no one prime work of God among his friends. From + the same source, he has no attachment to female society, no fondness + for children, no perceptions of beauty in natural scenery; but he is + fond of convivial indulgences, of that stimulation, which, keeping up + the glow of self-importance, and the sense of internal power, gives + feelings without the mediation of ideas.<br> +<br> + These are the elements of his mind; the accidents of his fortune, the + circumstances that enabled such a mind to acquire and retain such a + power, would form the subject of a philosophical history, and that too + of no scanty size. We can scarcely furnish the chapter of contents to + a work, which would comprise subjects so important and delicate as the + causes of the diffusion and intensity of secret influence; the + machinery and state intrigue of marriages; the overbalance of the + commercial interest; the panic of property struck by the late + revolution; the short-sightedness of the careful; the carelessness of + the far-sighted; and all those many and various events which have + given to a decorous profession of religion, and a seemliness of + private morals, such an unwonted weight in the attainment and + preservation of public power. We are unable to determine whether it be + more consolatory or humiliating to human nature, that so many + complexities of event, situation, character, age, and country, should + be necessary in order to the production of a Mr. Pitt."</blockquote> + + On the day following the editor promised the character of Buonaparte, + but the surmise of a visit from the French minister, then at our + court, was sufficient to put a stop to its publication; accordingly it + <i>never appeared</i>. Coleridge was requested by the proprietor and + editor to report a speech of Pitt's, which at this time was expected + to be one of great éclat.<br> +<br> + Accordingly, early in the morning off Coleridge set, carrying with him + his supplies for the campaign: those who are acquainted with the + gallery of the house on a press night, when a man can scarcely find + elbow room, will better understand how incompetent Coleridge was for + such an undertaking; he, however, started by seven in the morning, but + was exhausted long before night. Mr. Pitt, for the first quarter of an + hour spoke fluently, and in his usual manner, and sufficiently to give + a notion of his best style; this was followed by a repetition of + words, and words only; he appeared to "talk against time," as the + phrase is. <a name="fr75">Coleridge</a> fell asleep, and listened occasionally only to + the speeches<a href="#f75"><sup>13</sup></a> that followed. On his return, the proprietor being + anxious for the report, Coleridge informed him of the result, and + finding his anxiety great, immediately <i>volunteered</i> a speech for + Mr. Pitt, which he wrote off hand, and which answered the purpose + exceedingly well: it is here presented. The following day, and for + days after the publication, the proprietor received complimentary + letters announcing the pleasure received at the report, and wishing to + know who was the reporter. The secret was, however, kept, and the real + author of the speech concealed; but one day Mr. Canning calling on + business, made similar inquiries, and received the same answer. + Canning replied, "It does more credit to the author's head than to his + memory. + + <blockquote><a href="#f76"><sup>14</sup></a> The honourable <a name="fr76">gentleman</a> calls upon ministers to state the object + of the war in one sentence. I can state it in one word: it is + Security. I can state it in one word, though it is not to be explained + but in many. The object of the war is security: security against a + danger, the greatest that ever threatened this country; the greatest + that ever threatened mankind; a danger the more terrible, because it + is unexampled and novel. It is a danger which has more than menaced + the safety and independence of all nations; it is a danger which has + attacked the property and peace of all individuals; a danger which + Europe has strained all its sinews to repel; and which no nation has + repelled so successfully as the British; because no nation has acted + so energetically, so sincerely, so uniformly on the broad basis of + principle; because no other nation has perceived with equal clearness + and decision the necessity, not only of combating the evil abroad, but + of stifling it at home; because no nation has breasted with so firm a + constancy the tide of jacobinical power; because no nation has pierced + with so steadfast an eye, through the disguises of jacobinical + hypocrisy; but now, it seems, we are at once to remit our zeal and our + suspicion; that Jacobinism, which alarmed us under the stumbling and + drunken tyranny of Robespierre; that Jacobinism, which insulted and + roused us under the short-sighted ambition of the five Directors; that + Jacobinism, to which we have sworn enmity through every shifting of + every bloody scene, through all those abhorred mockeries which have + profaned the name of liberty to all the varieties of usurpation; to + this Jacobinism we are now to reconcile ourselves, because all its + arts and all its energies are united under one person, the child and + the champion of Jacobinism, who has been reared in its principles, who + has fought its battles, who has systematised its ambition, at once the + fiercest instrument of its fanaticism, and the gaudiest puppet of its + folly!<br> +<br> + The honourable gentleman has discovered, that the danger of French + power and French principles is at an end, because they are concentred, + and because to uniformity of design is added an unity of direction; he + has discovered that all the objects of French ambition are + relinquished, because France has sacrificed even the + <i>appearances</i> of freedom to the best means of realising them; in + short that now, for the first time, Jacobinism is not to be dreaded, + because now, for the first time, it has superadded to itself the + compactness of despotism. But the honourable gentleman presses hard, + and requires me to be definite and explicit. What, says he, do you + mean by destroying the power of Jacobinism? Will, you persevere in the + war, until you have received evidence that it is extinct in this + country, extinct in France, extinct in the mind of every man? No! I am + not so shamefully ignorant of the laws that regulate the soul of man. + The mind once tainted with Jacobinism can never be wholly free from + the taint; I know no means of purification; when it does not break out + on the surface, it still lurks in the vitals; no antidote can approach + the subtlety of the venom, no length of quarantine secure us against + the obstinacy of the pestilence.<br> +<br> + Those who are now telling us, that all danger from revolutionary + principles is now passed by, are yet endeavouring to call up again the + very arguments which they used at the commencement of the war, in the + youth and rampancy of Jacobinism; and repeat the same language, with + which they then attempted to lull the nation into security, combined + with the same acts of popular irritation. They are telling us, that + ministers disregard peace; that they are prodigal of blood; insensible + to the miseries, and enemies to the liberties of mankind; that the + extinction of Jacobinism is their pretext, but that personal ambition + is their motive; and that we have squandered two hundred millions on + an object, unattainable were it desirable, and were it not + unattainable, yet still to be deprecated. Sir, will men be governed by + mere words without application? This country, Sir, will not. It knows + that to this war it owes its prosperity, its constitution, whatever is + fair or useful in public or domestic life, the majesty of her laws, + the freedom of her worship, and the sacredness of our firesides. For + these it has spent two hundred millions, for these it would spend two + hundred millions more; and, should it be necessary, Sir, I doubt not + that I could find those two hundred millions, and still preserve her + resources unimpaired. The only way to make it not necessary is to + avail ourselves of the hearty co-operation of our allies, and to + secure and invigorate that co-operation by the firmness and vigour of + our own conduct. The honourable gentleman then comes back upon me, and + presses me upon the supposed dissonance between our views and those of + our allies. But surely there may allowably exist in the minds of + different men different means of arriving at the same security. This + difference may, without breaking the ties of effective union, exist + even in this house; how much more then in different kingdoms? The + Emperor of Russia may have announced the restoration of monarchy, as + exclusively his object. This is not considered as the ultimate object + by this country, but as the best means and most reliable pledge of a + higher object, viz. our own security, and that of Europe; but we do + not confine ourselves to this, as the only possible means.<br> +<br> + From this shade of difference we are required to infer the + impossibility of cordial co-operation! But here the honourable + gentleman falls into a strange contradiction. He affirms the + restoration of monarchy an unjust object of the war, and refuses + expressly and repeatedly to vote a single farthing on such a ground; + and yet the supposed secession of Russia from the allied powers, the + secession of that government, whose <i>exclusive</i> object is the + restoration of monarchy, is adduced by him as another and equal ground + for his refusal. Had the Emperor of Russia persevered in directing his + utmost forces to the attainment of that object, to which Austria will + not pledge herself, and which the honourable gentleman considers as an + unjust object, then the honourable gentleman would have been + satisfied. But I will not press too hard on the honourable gentleman, + or lay an undue weight on an inadvertence. I will deal most fairly + with him if I did believe, which I do not, that Austria saw no + advantages in the restoration of monarchy, yet still I would avail + myself of her efforts, without changing my own object. Should the + security of Britain and Europe result from the exertions of Austria, + or be aided by her influence, I should think it my duty to advise his + Majesty to lend the Emperor every financial assistance, however those + exertions and that influence might spring from principles not in + unison with our own.<br> +<br> + If the honourable gentleman will tell me, that the object of Austria + is to regain the Netherlands, and to reconquer all she may leave lost + in Germany and Italy, so far from feeling this as a cause of distress, + I feel it a ground of consolation, as giving us the strongest + assurance of his sincerity, added to that right which we possess of + believing Austria sincere, from our experience that Austria, above + all, must know the insecurity of peace with Jacobins. This, Sir, would + be a ground of consolation and confident hope; and though we should go + farther than the Emperor of Germany, and stop short of Russia, still, + however, we should all travel in the same road. Yet even were less + justifiable objects to animate our ally, were ambition her inspiring + motive, yet even on that ground I contend that her arms and victories + would conduce to our security. If it tend to strip France of territory + and influence, the aggrandisement of Austria is elevated by comparison + into a blessing devoutly to be wished! The aggrandisement of Austria, + founded on the ruins of Jacobinism, I contend, Sir, to be a truly + British object. But, Sir, the honourable gentleman says, he thinks the + war neither just nor necessary, and calls upon me, without the + qualifying reservations and circuitous distinctions of a special + pleader; in short, without <b>buts</b> or <b>ifs</b>, to state the real object; and + affirms that in spite of these buts and ifs, the restoration of + monarchy in France is the real and sole object of ministers, and that + all else contained in the official notes are unmeaning words and + distinctions fallacious, and perhaps meant to deceive. Is it, Sir, to + be treated as a fallacious distinction, that the restoration of + monarchy is not my sole or ultimate object; that my ultimate object is + security, that I think no pledge for that security so unequivocal as + the restoration of monarchy, and no means so natural and so effectual? + <i>but</i> if you can present any other mode, that mode I will adopt. + I am unwilling to accept an inadequate security; but the nature of the + security which it may be our interest to demand, must depend on the + relative and comparative dangers of continuing the war, or concluding + a peace. And <i>if</i> the danger of the war should be greater than + that of a peace, and <i>if</i> you can shew to me that there is no + chance of diminishing Jacobinism by the war, and <i>if</i> you can + evince that we are exhausting our means more than our enemies are + exhausting theirs, then I am ready to conclude a peace without the + restoration of monarchy.<br> +<br> + These are the <i>ifs</i> and the <i>buts</i>, which I shall continue + to introduce, not the insidious and confounding subtleties of special + pleading, but the just and necessary distinctions of intelligible + prudence; I am conscious of sincere and honest intentions in the use + of them, and I desire to be tried by no other than God and my country. + But are we not weakening ourselves? Let any man calmly, and with the + mind of an Englishman, look round on the state of our manufactures, + our commerce, on all that forms and feeds the sources of national + wealth, and to that man I can confidently leave the following + questions to be answered. From the negotiations at Lisle to the + present moment has England or France weakened itself in the greater + degree? Whether, at the end of this campaign, France is not more + likely to suffer the feebleness ensuing on exhausted finance than + England?<br> +<br> + If Jacobinism, enthroned in Buonaparte, should resist both the + pressure of foreign attack, and its own inherent tendencies to + self-destruction, whether it must not derive such power of resistance + from the use of such revolutionary and convulsive efforts, as involve, + and almost imply a consequent state of feebleness? And whether + therefore, if any unexpected reverse of fortune should make it + expedient or necessary for us to compromise with Jacobinism, it would + not be better for us to compromise with it at the end of the campaign, + than at present? And by parity of reasoning, whether it be not true + (even on the supposition that Jacobinism is not to be routed, + disarmed, and fettered); yet, that even on this supposition, the + longer we defer a peace, the safer that peace will be!<br> +<br> + Sir, we have been told that Jacobinism is extinct, or at least dying. + We have been asked too, what we mean by Jacobinism? Sir, to employ + arguments solely to the purposes of popular irritation is a branch of + Jacobinism? It is with pain, Sir, that I have heard arguments + manifestly of this tendency, and having heard them, I hear with + redoubled suspicion of the assertions, that Jacobinism is extinct. By + what softer name shall we characterise the attempts to connect the war + by false facts and false reasoning with accidental scarcity? By what + softer name shall we characterise appeals to the people on a subject + which touches their feelings, and precludes their reasoning? It is + this, Sir, which makes me say, that those whose eyes are now open to + the horrors and absurdities of Jacobinism are nevertheless still + influenced by their early partiality to it. A somewhat of the + <i>feeling</i> lurks behind, even when all the <i>principle</i> has + been sincerely abjured. If this be the case with mere spectators, who + have but sympathised in the distance, and have caught disease only by + <i>looking on</i>, how much more must this hold good of the actors? + And with what increased caution and jealousy ought we not to listen to + the affirmation, that Jacobinism is obsolete even in France? The + honourable gentleman next charges me with an unbeseeming haughtiness + of tone, in deeming that the House had pledged itself to the present + measure by their late vote for the continuance of the war. This is not + accurate. I did not deem the House pledged: I only assigned reasons of + <i>probability</i>, that having voted for the continuance of war, they + would deem themselves inconsistent if they refused assent to those + measures by which the objects of the war were most likely to be + realised. My argument was, not that the House had pledged itself to + this measure directly, but only as far as they must perceive it to be + a means of bringing the war to that conclusion to which they have + pledged themselves: for unless gendemen will tell me, that though they + cannot prevent votes in favour of the war, they will yet endeavour to + palsy the arm of the country in the conduct of it; and though they + cannot stifle the vast majority of suffrages to the plan, they will + yet endeavour to way-lay it in its execution; unless the gentlemen + will tell me so themselves, I will not impute it to them. (Here Mr. + Pitt made a short reply to some observations of Mr. Bouverie in the + early part of the debate, and then proceeded.) It was said of himself + and friends (and often said) by a gentleman who does not now commonly + honour us with his presence here, 'We are the minority who represent + the opinions of the country.' In my opinion a state of universal + suffrage, formal or virtual, in which, nevertheless, the few represent + the many, is a true picture of Jacobinism. But, however this may be, + if smallness of number is to become a mark and pledge of genuine + representation, that gentleman's friends must acquire the + representative character in a continual progression; for the party has + been constantly decreasing in number, and both here and out of this + House, they are at present fewer than they ever were before. But they + vote for peace, and the people wish for peace; and therefore they + represent the opinions of the people. The people wish for peace — so do + I! But for what peace? Not for a peace that is made to-day and will be + broken to-morrow! Not for a peace that is more insecure and hazardous + than war. Why did I wish for peace at Lisle? Because war was then more + hazardous than peace; because it was necessary to give to the people a + palpable proof of the necessity of the war, in order to their cordial + concurrence with that system of finance, without which the war could + not be successfully carried on; because our allies were then but + imperfectly lessoned by experience; and finally, because the state of + parties then in France was less Jacobinical than at any time since + that era. But will it follow that I was then insincere in negotiating + for peace, when peace was less insecure, and war more hazardous; + because now with decreased advantages of peace, and increased means of + war, I advise against a peace? As to the other arguments, it is of + less consequence to insist upon them, because the opposition implied + in them holds not against this measure in particular, but against the + general principle of carrying on the war with vigour. Much has been + said of the defection of Russia, and every attempt made to deduce from + this circumstance so misnamed causes of despair or diminished hope. It + is true that Russia has withdrawn herself from confident co-operation + with Austria, but she has not withdrawn herself from concert with this + country. Has it never occurred, that France, compelled to make head + against armies pressing on the whole of her frontiers, will be + weakened and distracted in her efforts, by a moveable maritime force? + What may be the ultimate extent of the Russian forces engaged in this + diversion, we cannot be expected to know, cut off as we are from the + continent, by the season and the weather. If the Russians, acting in + maritime diversion on the coast of France, and increased by our own + forces, should draw the French forces from Switzerland and Italy, it + does not follow that the Russians may be greatly, and perhaps equally + useful to the objects of the campaign, although they will cease to act + on the eastern side of France. I do not pretend to know precisely the + number and state of the French armies, but reason only on + probabilities; and chiefly with the view of solving the honourable + gentleman's difficulty, how the Russians can be useful, if not on the + continent. It is unnecessary to occupy the time and attention of the + House with a serious answer to objections, which it is indeed + difficult to repeat with the same gravity with which they were + originally stated.<br> +<br> + It was affirmed, gravely affirmed, that £12,000,000 would be wanted + for corn! I should be happy, if, in the present scarcity, corn could + be procured from any, and all parts of the world, to one-third of that + amount. It will not be by such arguments as these, that the country + will be induced to cease a war for security, in order to procure corn + for subsistence. I do object, that there is unfairness both in these + arguments in themselves, and in the spirit which produces them. The + war is now reviled as unjust and unnecessary; and in order to prove it + so, appeals are made to circumstances of accidental scarcity from the + visitation of the seasons. The fallacy of these reasonings is equal to + their mischief. It is not true that you could procure corn more easily + if peace were to be made to-morrow. If this war be unjust, it ought to + be stopped on its own account; but if it be indeed a war of principle + and of necessity, it were useless and abject to relinquish it from + terrors like these. As well might a fortress, sure of being put to the + sword, surrender for want of provision. But that man, Sir, does not + act wisely, if, feeling like a good citizen, he use these arguments + which favour the enemy. God forbid, that an opposition in opinion + among ourselves should make us forget the high and absolute duty of + opposition to the enemies of our country. Sir, in the present times, + it is more than ever the bounden duty of every wise and good man to + use more than ordinary caution in abstaining from all arguments that + appeal to passions, not facts; above all, from arguments that tend to + excite popular irritation on a subject and on an occasion, on which + the people can with difficulty be reasoned with, but are irritated + most easily. To speak incautiously on such subjects, is an offence of + no venial order; but deliberately and wilfully to connect the words, + war and scarcity, were infamous, a treachery to our country, and in a + peculiar degree cruel to those whom alone it can delude, the lower + uneducated classes. I will not enlarge upon that subject, but retire + with a firm conviction that no new facts have occurred which can have + altered the opinion of this House on the necessity of the war, or the + suitableness of similar measures to the present to the effectual + carrying of it on, and that the opinion of the House will not be + altered but by experience and the evidence of facts."</blockquote> + +The following paragraph is extracted from private memoranda, and was +intended for publication ten years afterwards, in the <i>Courier</i> Newspaper, +in which he wrote a series of <i>Essays to Judge Fletcher</i>, which were at +that time acknowledged by the most able judges to be prophetic. But it +must be remembered he never wrote for party purposes. His views were +grounded on Platonic principles keeping the balance of the powers, and +throwing his weight into the scale that needed assistance.<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>Of the Profanation of the Sacred Word "The People."</h4><br> + +<blockquote>"Every brutal mob, assembled on some drunken St. Monday of faction, is +'<i>the People</i>' forsooth, and now each leprous ragamuffin, like a +circle in geometry, is at once one and all, and calls his own brutal +self 'us the People.' And who are the friends of the People? Not those +who would wish to elevate each of them, or at least, the child who is to +take his place in the flux of life and death, into something worthy of +esteem, and capable of freedom, but those who flatter and infuriate them +as they do. A contradiction in the very thought. For if really they are +good and wise, virtuous and well-informed, how weak must be the motives +of discontent to a truly moral being! — but if the contrary, and the +motives for discontent proportionally strong, how without guilt and +absurdity appeal to them as judges and arbiters! He alone is entitled to +a share in the government of all, who has learnt to govern +himself — there is but one possible ground of a right to freedom, viz. to +understand and revere its duties."</blockquote><br> + + +As specimens of his political writings I select the following, and leave +party men to criticise them — Coleridge being of no party, but guided, as +will sufficiently appear to those who have read his works with +attention, solely by philosophical principles, from which he never +swerved. Nor did he desire the praise of men, merely because they were +in power; still less that of the multitude. For this reason, I repeat, +these fragments are given, as illustrative of Coleridge's political +views, and to shew how easily the harmony of the constitutional balance +may be disturbed by party zeal. His opinions were often misunderstood +even sometimes by kindly-disposed individuals, when <i>theirs</i> were +not founded on certain data, because their principles were not derived +from permanent sources. The doctrine of expediency was one he highly +censured, and it had existed long enough to prove to him that it was +worthless. What one set of well-intentioned men may effect, and which +for a time may have produced good, another set of men by the same +doctrine, <i>i.e.</i> of expediency may effect, and then produce +incalculable mischief, and, therefore, Coleridge thought there was +neither guide nor safety, but in the permanent and uncontrovertible +truths of the sacred writings, so that the extent of this utility will +depend on faith in these truths, and with these truths, his name must +<i>live or perish</i>. But some part of Coleridge's writings requiring +too much effort of thought to be at once thoroughly understood, may +therefore have been found distasteful, and consequently have exposed his +name to ridicule, in some cases even to contempt; but the application +Coleridge has made of these truths to the duties and various +circumstances of life will surely be found an inestimable blessing. They +were truly his rock of support, and formed the basis of the building he +was endeavouring to raise.<br> +<br> +In the year 1807, he wrote those weekly <i>Essays of the Friend</i>, which were +published about this time, and thus gave to the world some of his rich +intellectual stores. The following letter, which he addressed to Mr. +Cottle, will shew the progress of his mind from Socinian to Trinitarian +belief at that period of his life:— + +<blockquote> "Bristol, 1807.<br> +<br> + <b>Dear Cottle</b>,<br> +<br> + To pursue our last conversation. Christians expect no outward or + sensible miracles from prayer. Its effects, and its fruitions are + spiritual, and accompanied, says that true Divine, Archbishop + Leighton, 'not by reasons and arguments but by an inexpressible kind + of evidence, which they only know who have it.'<br> +<br> + To this I would add, that even those who, like me I fear, have not + attained it, may yet presume it. First, because reason itself, or + rather mere human nature, in any dispassionate moment, feels the + necessity of religion, but if this be not true there is no religion, + no religation, or binding over again; nothing added to reason, and + therefore Socinianism (misnamed Unitarianism) is not only not + Christianity, it is not even <i>religion</i>, it does not religate; + does not bind anew. The first outward and sensible result of prayer, + is, a penitent resolution, joined with a consciousness of weakness in + effecting it, yea even a dread, too well grounded, lest by breaking + and falsifying it, the soul should add guilt to guilt; by the very + means it has taken to escape from guilt; so pitiable is the state of + unregenerate man.<br> +<br> + Are you familiar with Leighton's <i>Works</i>? He resigned his + archbishoprick, and retired to voluntary poverty on account of the + persecution of the Presbyterians, saying, 'I should not dare to + introduce Christianity itself with such cruelties, how much less for a + surplice, and the name of a bishop.' If there could be an intermediate + space between inspired, and uninspired writings, that space would be + occupied by Leighton. No show of learning, no appearance, or + ostentatious display of eloquence; and yet both may be shown in him, + conspicuously and holily. <a name="fr77">There</a> is in him something that must be felt, + even as the scriptures must be felt.<a href="#f77"><sup>15</sup></a><br> +<br> + You ask me my views of the <i>Trinity</i>. I accept the doctrine, not + as deduced from human reason, in its grovelling capacity for + comprehending spiritual things, but as the clear revelation of + Scripture. But perhaps it may be said, the <i>Socinians</i> do not + admit this doctrine as being taught in the Bible. I know enough of + their shifts and quibbles, with their dexterity at explaining away all + they dislike, (and that is not a little) but though beguiled once by + them, I happily, for my own peace of mind, escaped from their + sophistries, and now, hesitate not to affirm, that Socinians would + lose all character for honesty, if they were to explain their + neighbour's will with the same latitude of interpretation, which they + do the Scriptures.<br> +<br> + I have in my head some floating ideas on the <i>Logos</i>, which I + hope, hereafter, to mould into a consistent form; but it is a gross + perversion of the truth, in <i>Socinians</i>, to declare that we + believe in <i>Three Gods</i>, and they know it to be false. They + might, with equal justice, affirm that we believe in <i>three + suns</i>. The meanest peasant, who has acquired the first rudiments of + Christianity, would shrink back from a thought so monstrous. Still the + Trinity has its difficulties. It would be strange if otherwise. A + <i>Revelation</i> that revealed nothing, not within the grasp of human + reason! — no religation, no binding over again, as before said: but + these difficulties are shadows, contrasted with the substantive, and + insurmountable obstacles with which they contend who admit the + <i>Divine authority of Scripture</i>, with the <i>superlative + excellence of Christ</i>, and yet undertake to prove that these + Scriptures teach, and that Christ taught, his own <i>pure + humanity!</i><br> +<br> + If Jesus Christ was merely a Man, — if he was not God as well as Man, + be it considered, he could not have been even a <i>good man</i>. There + is no medium. The <b>Saviour</b> <i>in that case</i> was absolutely <i>a + deceiver!</i> one, transcendently <i>unrighteous!</i> in advancing + pretensions to miracles, by the 'Finger of God,' which he never + performed; and by asserting claims, (as a man) in the most aggravated + sense, blasphemous!<br> +<br> + These consequences, Socinians, to be consistent, must allow, and which + impious arrogation of Divinity in Christ, (according to their faith,) + as well as his false assumption of a community of 'glory' with the + Father, 'before the world was,' even they will be necessitated to + admit, completely exonerated the Jews, according to their law, in + crucifying one, who 'being a man,' 'made himself God!' But, in the + Christian, rather than in the <i>Socinian</i>, or <i>Pharisaic</i> + view, all these objections vanish, and harmony succeeds to + inexplicable confusion. If Socinians hesitate in ascribing + <i>unrighteousness</i> to Christ, the inevitable result of their + principles, they tremble, as well they might, at their avowed creed, + and virtually renounce what they profess to uphold.<br> +<br> + The Trinity, as Bishop Leighton has well remarked, is, 'a doctrine of + faith, not of demonstration,' except in a <i>moral</i> sense. If the + New Testament declare it, not in an insulated passage, but through the + whole breadth of its pages, rendering, with any other admission, the + Book, which is the Christian's anchor-hold of hope, dark and + contradictory, then it is not to be rejected, but on a penalty that + reduces to an atom, all the sufferings this earth can inflict.<br> +<br> + Let the grand question be determined; Is, or is not the Bible + <i>inspired?</i> No one Book has ever been subjected to so rigid an + investigation as the Bible, by minds the most capacious, and, in the + result, which has so triumphantly repelled all the assaults of + Infidels. In the extensive intercourse which I have had with this + class of men, I have seen their prejudices surpassed only by their + ignorance. This I found conspicuously the case in Dr. D. (Vol. i. p. + 167) the prince of their fraternity. Without, therefore, stopping to + contend on what all dispassionate men must deem, undebatable ground, I + may assume inspiration as admitted; and, equally so, that it would be + an insult to man's understanding to suppose any other Revelation from + God than the Christian Scriptures. If these Scriptures, impregnable in + their strength; sustained in their pretensions by undeniable + prophecies and miracles; and by the experience of the <i>inner + man</i>, in all ages, as well as by a concatenation of arguments, all + bearing upon one point, and extending, with miraculous consistency, + through a series of fifteen hundred years; if all this combined proof + does not establish their validity, nothing can be proved under the + sun; but the world and man must be abandoned, with all its + consequences to one universal scepticism! Under such sanctions, + therefore, if these Scriptures, as a fundamental truth, <i>do</i> + inculcate the doctrine of the <i>Trinity;</i> however surpassing human + comprehension; then I say, we are bound to admit it on the strength of + <i>moral demonstration</i>.<br> +<br> + The supreme Governor of the world, and the Father of our spirits, has + seen fit to disclose to us, much of his will, and the whole of his + natural and moral perfections. In some instances he has given his + <i>word</i> only, and demanded our <i>faith</i>; while, on other + momentous subjects, instead of bestowing a full revelation; like the + <i>Via Lactea</i>, he has furnished a glimpse only, through either the + medium of inspiration, or by the exercise of those rational faculties + with which he has endowed us. I consider the Trinity as substantially + resting on the first proposition, yet deriving support from the last.<br> +<br> + I recollect when I stood on the summit of Etna, and darted my gaze + down the crater; the immediate vicinity was discernible, till, lower + down, obscurity gradually terminated in total darkness. Such figures + exemplify many truths revealed in the Bible. We pursue them, until, + from the imperfection of our faculties, we are lost in impenetrable + night. All truths, however, that are essential to faith, + <i>honestly</i> interpreted; all that are important to human conduct, + under every diversity of circumstance, are manifest as a blazing star. + The promises also of felicity to the righteous, in the future world, + though the precise nature of that felicity may not be defined, are + illustrated by every image that can swell the imagination: while the + misery of the <i>lost</i>, in its unutterable intensity, though the + language that describes it is all necessarily figurative, is there + exhibited as resulting chiefly, if not wholly, from the withdrawment + of the <i>light of God's countenance</i>, and a banishment from his + <i>presence!</i> — best comprehended in this world, by reflecting on + the desolations which would instantly follow the loss of the sun's + vivifying and universally diffused <i>warmth</i>.<br> +<br> + You, or rather <i>all</i>, should remember, that some truths, from + their nature, surpass the scope of man's limited powers, and stand as + the criteria of <i>faith</i>, determining, by their rejection, or + admission, who among the sons of men can confide in the veracity of + heaven. Those more ethereal truths, of which the Trinity is + conspicuously the chief, without being circumstantially explained, may + be faintly illustrated by material objects. — The eye of man cannot + discern the satellites of Jupiter, nor become sensible of the + multitudinous stars, the rays of which have never reached our planet, + and, consequently, garnish not the canopy of night; yet, are they the + less <i>real</i>, because their existence lies beyond man's unassisted + gaze? The tube of the philosopher, and the <i>celestial + telescope</i>, — the unclouded visions of heaven, will confirm the one + class of truths, and irradiate the other.<br> +<br> + The <i>Trinity</i> is a subject on which analogical reasoning may + advantageously be admitted, as furnishing, at least, a glimpse of + light, and with this, for the present, we must be satisfied. Infinite + Wisdom deemed clearer manifestations inexpedient; and is man to + dictate to his Maker? I may further remark, that where we cannot + behold a desirable object distinctly, we must take the best view we + can; and I think you, and every candid and inquiring mind, may derive + assistance from such reflections as the following.<br> +<br> + Notwithstanding the arguments of Spinosa, and Descartes, and other + advocates of the <i>Material system</i>, (or, in more appropriate + language, the <i>Atheistical system!</i>) it is admitted by all men + not prejudiced, not biassed by sceptical prepossessions, that + <i>mind</i> is distinct from <i>matter</i>. The mind of man, however, + is involved in inscrutable darkness, (as the profoundest + metaphysicians well know) and is to be estimated, (if at all) alone, + by an inductive process; that is, by its <i>effects</i>. Without + entering on the question, whether an extremely circumscribed portion + of the mental process, surpassing instinct, may, or may not, be + extended to quadrupeds, it is universally acknowledged, that the mind + of man, alone, regulates all the voluntary actions of his corporeal + frame. Mind, therefore, may be regarded as a distinct genus, in the + scale ascending above brutes, and including the whole of intellectual + existences; advancing from <i>thought</i>, (that mysterious thing!) in + its lowest form, through all the gradations of sentient and rational + beings, till it arrives at a Bacon, a Newton, and then, when + unincumbered by matter, extending its illimitable sway through Seraph + and Archangel, till we are lost in the <b>Great Infinite</b>!<br> +<br> + Is it not deserving of notice, as an especial subject of meditation, + that our <i>limbs</i>, in all they do, or can accomplish, implicitly + obey the dictation of the <i>mind</i>? that this operating power, + whatever its name, under certain limitations, exercises a sovereign + dominion, not only over our limbs, but over all our intellectual + pursuits? The mind of every man is evidently the moving force, which + alike regulates all his limbs and actions; and in which example, we + find a strong illustration of the subordinate nature of mere + <i>matter</i>. That alone which gives direction to the organic parts + of our nature, is wholly <i>mind</i>; and one mind, if placed over a + thousand limbs, could, with undiminished ease, control and regulate + the whole.<br> +<br> + This idea is advanced on the supposition, that <i>one mind</i> could + command an unlimited direction over any given number of <i>limbs</i>, + provided they were all connected by <i>joint</i> and <i>sinew</i>. But + suppose, through some occult and inconceivable means, these limbs were + dis-associated, as to all material connexion; suppose, for instance, + one mind, with unlimited authority, governed the operations of + <i>two</i> separate persons, would not this, substantially, be only + <i>one person</i>, seeing the directing principle was one? If the + truth, here contended for, be admitted, that <i>two persons</i>, + governed by <i>one mind</i>, is incontestably <i>one person</i>; the + same conclusion would be arrived at, and the proposition equally be + justified, which affirmed that, <i>three</i>, or, otherwise, + <i>four</i> persons, owning also necessary and essential subjection to + <i>one mind</i>, would only be so many diversities, or modifications + of that <i>one mind</i>, and therefore the component parts, virtually + collapsing into <i>one whole</i>, the person would be <i>one</i>. Let + any man ask himself, whose understanding can both reason, and become + the depository of truth, whether, if <i>one mind</i> thus regulated, + with absolute authority, <i>three</i>, or, otherwise, <i>four</i> + persons, with all their congeries of material parts, would not these + parts, inert in themselves, when subjected to one predominant mind, + be, in the most logical sense, <i>one person</i>? <a name="fr78">Are</a> ligament and + exterior combination indispensable pre-requisites to the sovereign + influence of mind over mind? or mind over matter?<a href="#f78"><sup>16</sup></a><br> +<br> + But perhaps it may be said, we have no instance of one mind governing + more than one body. This may be, but the argument remains the same. + With a proud spirit, that forgets its own contracted range of thought, + and circumscribed knowledge, who is to limit the sway of Omnipotence? + or, presumptuously to deny the possibility of <i>that</i> Being, who + called light out of darkness, so to exalt the dominion of <i>one + mind</i>, as to give it absolute sway over other dependent minds, or + (indifferently) over detached, or combined portions of organized + matter? But if this superinduced quality be conferable on any order of + created beings, it is blasphemy to limit the power of <b>God</b>, and to deny + <i>his</i> capacity to transfuse <i>his own</i> Spirit, when, and to + whom he will.<br> +<br> + This reasoning may now be applied in illustration of the Trinity. We + are too much in the habit of viewing our Saviour Jesus Christ, through + the medium of his body. 'A body was prepared for him,' but this body + was mere matter; as insensible in itself, as every human frame when + deserted by the soul. If therefore the Spirit that was in Christ, was + the Spirit of the Father: if no thought, no vibration, no spiritual + communication, or miraculous display, existed in, or proceeded from + Christ, not immediately and consubstantially identified with <b>Jehovah</b>, + the Great First cause; if all these operating principles were thus + derived, in consistency alone with the conjoint divine attributes; of + this Spirit of the Father ruled and reigned in Christ as his own + manifestation, then, in the strictest sense, Christ exhibited 'the + God-head bodily,' and was undeniably '<i>one</i> with the Father;' + confirmatory of the Saviour's words; 'Of myself,' (my body) 'I can do + nothing, the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.'<br> +<br> + But though I speak of the body, as inert in itself, and necessarily + allied to matter, yet this declaration must not be understood as + militating against the Christian doctrine of the <i>resurrection of + the body</i>. In its grosser form, the thought is not to be admitted, + for, 'flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,' but, that + the body, without losing its consciousness, and individuality, may be + subjected, by the illimitable power of Omnipotence, to a sublimating + process, so as to be rendered compatible with spiritual association, + is not opposed to reason, in its severe abstract exercises, while in + attestation of this <i>exhilarating belief</i>, there are many remote + analogies in nature exemplifying the same truth, while it is in the + strictest accordance with that final dispensation, which must, as + Christians, regulate all our speculations. I proceed now to say, that:<br> +<br> + If the postulate be thus admitted, that one mind influencing two + bodies, would only involve a diversity of operations, but in reality + be one in essence; or otherwise, (as an hypothetical argument, + illustrative of truth) if one preeminent mind, or spiritual + subsistence, unconnected with matter, possessed an undivided and + sovereign dominion over two or more disembodied minds, so as to become + the exclusive source of all their subtlest volitions and exercises, + the <i>unity</i>, however complex the modus of its manifestation, + would be fully established; and this principle extends to <b>Deity</b> + itself, and shows the true sense, as I conceive, in which Christ and + the Father are one.<br> +<br> + In continuation of this reasoning, if God who is light, the Sun of the + Moral World, should in his union of Infinite Wisdom, Power, and + Goodness, and from all Eternity, have ordained that an emanation from + himself (for aught we know, an essential emanation, as light is + inseparable from the luminary of day) should not only have existed in + his Son, in the fulness of time to be united to a mortal body, but + that a like emanation from himself (also perhaps essential) should + have constituted the Holy Spirit, who, without losing his ubiquity, + was more especially sent to this lower earth, <i>by</i> the <b>Son</b>, + <i>at</i> the impulse of the Father, then, in the most comprehensive + sense, God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are <b>One</b>. + 'Three Persons in one God,' and thus form the true Trinity in Unity.<br> +<br> + To suppose that more than <b>One</b> Independent Power, or Governing mind + exists in the whole universe, is absolute Polytheism, against which + the denunciations of all the Jewish, and Christian Canonical books + were directed. And if there be but <b>One</b> directing <b>Mind</b>, that Mind is + <b>God</b>! — operating, however, in Three Persons, according to the direct + and uniform declarations of that inspiration which 'brought life and + immortality to light.' Yet this divine doctrine of the Trinity is to + be received, not because it is, or can be clear to finite + apprehension, but, (in reiteration of the argument) because the + Scriptures, in their unsophisticated interpretation expressly state + it. The Trinity, therefore, from its important aspects, and Biblical + prominence, is the grand article of faith, and the foundation of the + whole Christian system.<br> +<br> + <a name="fr79">Who</a> can say, as Christ<a href="#f79"><sup>17</sup></a> and the Holy Ghost proceeded from, and are + still one with the Father, and as all the disciples of Christ derive + their fulness from him, and, in spirit, are inviolately united to him + as a branch is to the vine, who can say, but that, in one view, what + was once mysteriously separated, may, as mysteriously, be recombined, + and, (without interfering with the everlasting Trinity, and the + individuality of the spiritual and seraphic orders) the Son, at the + consummation of all things, deliver up his mediatorial kingdom to the + Father, and God, in some peculiar, and infinitely sublime sense, + become All <i>in</i> All!<br> +<br> + <a name="fr80">God</a> love you,<br> +<br> + <b> S. T. Coleridge</b>."<a href="#f80"><sup>18</sup></a></blockquote><br> + + +Those who are acquainted with Mr. Coleridge's maturer view of the +doctrine of the Trinity, will not need to be informed that this letter +does not convey his later conviction in regard to this awful mystery, +and will know that his philosophic meditations rested essentially in the +same faith that dictated the Article of the Church of England on this +subject.<br> +<br> +Mr. De Quincey has made several mistatements in a memoir on Mr. +Coleridge, which he wrote in <i>Tait's Magazine</i>; but it may be only fair +first to quote a few interesting remarks, with which he begins: + +<blockquote>"In the +summer season of 1807 I first saw this illustrious man, the largest and +most spacious intellect in my judgment that has ever yet existed amongst +men. My knowledge of his works as a most original genius began about the +year 1799."</blockquote> + +A little before that time, Wordsworth published the <i>Lyrical +Ballads,</i> in which was the <i>Ancient Mariner</i> of Coleridge, and to which +Mr. De Quincey attributes the unfolding of his own mind; this confession +is by no means humiliating, for many persons of the highest reputation +have made similar acknowledgments, and some there are still living who +have the courage and integrity to do so now. + +<blockquote>"I found (says this +gentleman) that Professor Wilson, as well as myself, saw in these poems +'the ray of a new morning;' — and to these names may be added that of the +celebrated Sir Walter Scott."</blockquote> + +The admiration of Mr. De Quincey was so +great that inquiring where Coleridge was to be found, and learning that +he was in Malta, he contemplated an immediate visit to that island, but +the fear of a French prison reconciled him to remaining in England. When +on a visit in 1807 (to a relation), at the Hot Wells, he learnt that +Coleridge was staying with a friend not far from Bristol. This friend +was Mr. Poole of Nether Stowey, and thither he bent his steps. In this +house Mr. De Quincey spent two days, and gives, from his own knowledge, +a sketch of Mr. Poole's person and character very descriptive of the +original. Coleridge often remarked that he was the best "ideal for a +useful member of parliament he ever knew;" + +<blockquote>"a plain dressed man leading a bachelor life," as Mr. De Quincey + observes, "in a rustic old fashioned house, amply furnished with + modern luxuries, and a good library. Mr. Poole had travelled + extensively, and had so entirely dedicated himself to his humble + fellow countrymen, who resided in his neighbourhood, that for many + miles round he was the general arbiter of their disputes, the guide + and counsellor of their daily life; besides being appointed executor + and guardian to his children by every third man who died in or about + the town of Nether Stowey." </blockquote> + +<a name="fr81">Such</a> in few words was the individual whom Coleridge, in his social hours +and in the full warmth of friendship, would most eloquently and +feelingly describe.<a href="#f81"><sup>19</sup></a><br> +<br> +Mr. De Quincey having been informed that Coleridge was at Bridgewater, +left Nether Stowey for that place, in search of him. The meeting and the +description recall him forcibly to the minds of those who twenty years +after were so intimately acquainted with him: + +<blockquote>"In Bridgewater I noticed a gateway, standing under which was a man + corresponding to the description given me of Coleridge whom I shall + presently describe. In height he seemed to be five feet eight inches, + (he was in reality about an inch and a half taller,) though in the + latter part of life, from a lateral curvature in the spine, he + shortened gradually from two to three inches. His person was broad and + full, and tended even to corpulence; his complexion was fair, though + not what painters technically style fair, because it was associated + with black hair; his eyes were large and soft in their expression, and + it was by the peculiar appearance of haze or dreaminess which mixed + with their light that I recognized my object. This was Coleridge; I + examined him steadily for a moment or more, and it struck me he + neither saw myself, nor any other object in the street. He was in a + deep reverie; for I had dismounted, made two or three trifling + arrangements at the inn door, and advanced close to him, before he + seemed apparently conscious of my presence. The sound of my voice + announcing my name first awoke him; he started, and for a moment + seemed at a loss to understand my purpose, or his own situation, for + he repeated rapidly a number of words which had no relation to either + of us; very likely trying a metre, or making verse, a frequent + practice of his, and of Mr. Wordsworth's. There was no mauvaise + haute in his manner, but simple perplexity, and an apparent + difficulty in recovering his position amongst daylight realities. This + little scene over, he received me with a kindness of manner so marked, + that it might be called gracious. The hospitable family, with whom he + was domesticated, were distinguished for their amiable manners, and + enlightened understandings; they were descendants from Chubb, the + philosophic writer, and bore the same name. For Coleridge they all + testified deep affection and esteem, sentiments which the whole town + of Bridgewater seemed to share, for in the evening, when the heat of + the day had declined, <a name="fr82">I</a> walked out with him; and rarely, perhaps + never, have I seen a person so much interrupted in one hour's space as + Coleridge on this occasion, by the courteous attentions of young and + old."<a href="#f82"><sup>20</sup></a> </blockquote> + +This appears so faithful a portraiture of Coleridge that it is +impossible to read it without once more beholding him as in a mirror. +Continuing his description, he speaks again of his extreme courtesy, and +of his easy and gentlemanly manner of receiving strangers. A friend of +mine seldom speaks of the past in connexion with Coleridge's name, but +he reminds me of a visit he once made to me during my absence at the sea +shore, and of the courteous grace he displayed in doing the honours of +the house.<br> +<br> +In every thing wherein the comfort or happiness of others were +concerned, Coleridge ever evinced how entirely he could devote himself +to those he loved or who might require his sympathy: + +<blockquote>His own fair countenance, his kingly forehead,<br> +His tender smiles, love's day-dawn on his lips — <br> +The sense, the spirit, and the light divine,<br> +At the same moment in his steadfast eye<br> +Were virtue's native crest, the innocent soul's<br> +Unconscious meek self-heraldry — to man<br> +Genial, and pleasant to his guardian angel!<br> +He suffered, nor complained; though oft with tears<br> +He mourned the oppression of his helpless brethren;<br> +Yea with a deeper and yet holier grief<br> +Mourned for th' oppressor; but this<br> +In sabbath hours — a solemn grief,<br> +Most like a cloud at sunset,<br> +Was but the veil of purest meditation,<br> +Pierced through and saturate with the intellectual rays<br> +It softened. <br> +<br> +<i>Literary Remains</i>, vol. i. 277.</blockquote> + +These were characteristic beauties, that shone forth in Coleridge, and +were deeply felt by all who were attached to him.<br> +<br> +With regard to the charge made by Mr. De Quincey, of Coleridge's so +borrowing the property of other writers as to be guilty of 'petty +larceny'; with equal justice might we accuse the bee which flies from +flower to flower in quest of food, and which, by means of the instinct +bestowed upon it by the all-wise Creator, extracts its nourishment from +the field and the garden, but <i>digests</i> and <i>elaborates</i> it by +its own <i>native</i> powers.<br> +<br> +Coleridge <i>began</i> the use of opium from bodily pain (rheumatism), +and for the same reason <i>continued</i> it, till he had acquired a +habit too difficult under his own management to control. To him it was +the thorn in the flesh, which will be seen in the following notes + +<blockquote> "I have never loved evil for its own sake: no! nor ever sought + pleasure for its own sake, but only as the means of escaping from + pains that coiled around my mental powers, as a serpent around the + body and wings of an eagle! My sole sensuality was <i>not</i> to be in + pain." + + <i>Note from Pocket Book, "The History of my own mind for my own + improvement," Dec. 23, 1804.</i><br> +<br> +<br> + "<a name="fr83">I</a> wrote a few stanzas<a href="#f83"><sup>21</sup></a> three and twenty years ago, soon after my + eyes had been opened to the true nature of the habit into which I had + been ignorantly deluded by the seeming magic effects of opium, in the + sudden removal of a supposed rheumatic affection, attended with + swellings in my knees, and palpitations of the heart, and pains all + over me, by which I had been bed-ridden for nearly six months. + Unhappily, among my neighbour's and landlord's books were a large + parcel of medical reviews and magazines. I had always a fondness (a + common case, but most mischievous turn with reading men who are at all + dyspeptic) for dabbling in medical writings; and in one of these + reviews I met a case, which I fancied very like my own, in which a + cure had been effected by the Kendal Black Drop. In an evil hour I + procured it: — it worked miracles — the swellings disappeared, the pains + vanished; I was all alive, and all around me being as ignorant as + myself, nothing could exceed my triumph. I talked of nothing else, + prescribed the newly-discovered panacea for all complaints, and + carried a bottle about with me, not to lose any opportunity of + administering 'instant relief and speedy cure' to all complainers, + stranger or friend, gentle or simple. Need I say that my own apparent + convalescence was of no long continuance; but what then? — the remedy + was at hand and infallible. Alas! it is with a bitter smile, a laugh + of gall and bitterness, that I recall this period of unsuspecting + delusion, and how I first became aware of the Maelstrom, the fatal + whirlpool, to which I was drawing just when the current was already + beyond my strength to stem. The state of my mind is truly portrayed in + the following effusion, for God knows! that from that moment I was the + victim of pain and terror, nor had I at any time taken the flattering + poison as a stimulus, or for any craving after pleasurable sensations. + I needed none; and oh! with what unutterable sorrow did I read the + <i>Confessions of an Opium-eater,</i> in which the writer with morbid + vanity, makes a boast of what was my misfortune, for he had been + faithfully and with an agony of zeal warned of the gulf, and yet + wilfully struck into the current! — Heaven be merciful to + him!"<br> +<br> + <i>April, 1826</i>.<br> +<br><br> + + "Oh! (will a vain imagination whisper) that in the outset of life I + could have <i>felt</i> as well as known the consequences of sin and + error before their tyranny had commenced! Though, compared with the + average of my fellow men, not a sinful man, yet I feel enough to be + assured that few indeed are there who might not from their sins or + sinful infirmities gain a tongue of flame, wherewith to warn men of + the deadly poison of all, even the least offence. Of all divines, + Luther felt most deeply the terrors of the <b>Law</b>; and for that reason, + the unutterable goodness and love of the dispensation of grace! — To be + one with God the Father — an awful thought beyond all utterance of the + awe which it inspires, but by no means wild or mystical. On the + contrary, all our experience moves in this direction. In reason, in + science, who shall set bounds to the possible progress of man, as long + as he is no longer in himself, but in the truth and power of truth. + The moment that disease reduces himself to himself, the sage who was + able to weigh the planets, and foresee their movements centuries and + millenniums to come, trembles in his ignorance of the next five + minutes, whether it shall be pain and terror, or relief and respite, + and in spirit falls on his knees and prays. Prayer is the mediation, + or rather the effort to connect the misery of self with the + blessedness of God; and its voice is — Mercy! mercy! for Christ's sake, + in whom thou hast opened out the fountain of mercy to sinful man. It + is a sore evil to be, and not in God; but it is a still more dreadful + evil and misery to will to be other than in God; and yet in every act, + in which the gratification of the sensual life is the <i>ultimate + end</i>, is the manifestation of such a will. Imagine a — — , first in + his noblest hours, in the laboratory or the observatory — an unfolder + and discoverer — and then on a sick bed, from the consequences of his + own indiscretions. Place both states of the same man, that of the + spirit and that of the self-seeking self, clearly and in detail before + your mind: — if you can do this, you need no more."<br> +<br> + <i>January 7, 1830</i>.<br> +<br> +<br> + "There is a passage in the <i>Samson Agonistes</i>, in which Milton is + supposed on sufficient grounds to have referred to himself, that in + which the chorus speaks of strictly temperate man 'causelessly + suffering' the pains and penances of inordinate days. O! what would I + not give to be able to utter with truth this complaint! O! if he had + or rather if he <i>could</i> have presented to himself truly and + vividly the aggravation of those pains, which the conscience of their + having originated in errors and weaknesses of his own. I do not say + that he would not have complained of his sufferings, for who can be in + those most trying sufferances of miserable sensations and not complain + of them, but his groans for the pain would have been blended with + thanksgivings to the sanctifying Spirit. Even under the direful yoke + of the necessity of daily poisoning by narcotics it is somewhat less + horrible, through the knowledge that it was not from any craving for + pleasurable animal excitement, but from pain, delusion, error, of the + worst ignorance, medical sciolism, and when (alas! too late the plea + of error was removed from my eyes,) from terror and utter perplexity + and infirmity; — sinful infirmity, indeed, but yet not a wilful + sinfulness that I brought my neck under it. Oh, may the God to whom I + look for mercy through Christ, show mercy on the author of the + <i>Confessions of an Opium Eater,</i> if, as I have too strong reason to + believe, his book has been the occasion of seducing others into this + withering vice through wantonness. From this aggravation I have, I + humbly trust, been free, as far as acts of my free will and intention + are concerned; even to the author of that work I pleaded with flowing + tears, and with an agony of forewarning. He utterly denied it, but I + fear that I had even then to <i>deter</i> perhaps not to forewarn. <a name="fr84">My</a> + own contrasted feelings soon after I saw the Maelstrom to which the + current was absorbing me, are written in one of my paper + books."<a href="#f84"><sup>22</sup></a><br> +<br> + <i>Jan. 7, 1830</i>.</blockquote> + +Having referred to the accusations of plagiarism brought against +Coleridge, it will not, I trust, be deemed inappropriate, to introduce +from the <i>British Magazine</i>, No. 37, the concluding part of a critique +ably written by the Rev. Julius Hare, who has selected with great +discrimination several passages from the <i>Friend</i>, which must come home +to the heart of every good man, and this I feel the more impelled to do, +as it is a moral lesson to biographers — perhaps to us all: + +<blockquote>An inquisitiveness into the minutest circumstances and casual sayings + of eminent contemporaries is indeed quite natural: but so are all our + follies: and the more natural they are the more caution should we + exert in guarding against them. To scribble trifles, even on the + perishable glass of an inn window, is the mark of an idler: but to + engrave them on the marble monument sacred to the memory of the + departed great, is something worse than idleness. The spirit of + genuine biography is in nothing more conspicuous than in the firmness + with which it withstands the cravings of worthless curiosity, as + distinguished from the thirst after useful knowledge. For in the first + place, such anecdotes as derive their whole and sole interest from the + great name of the person concerning whom they are related, and neither + illustrate his general character nor his particular actions, would + scarcely have been noticed or remembered, except by men of weak minds. + It is not unlikely, therefore, that they were misapprehended at the + time; and it is most probable that they have been related as + incorrectly, as they were noticed injudiciously. Nor are the + consequences of such garrulous biography merely negative. For as + insignificant stories can derive no real respectability from the + eminence of the person who happens to be the subject of them, but + rather an additional deformity of disproportion, they are apt to have + their insipidity seasoned by the same bad passions that accompany the + habit of gossiping in general: and the misapprehensions of weak men, + meeting with the misinterpretations of malignant men, have not seldom + formed the ground work of the most grievous calamities. In the second + place, those trifles are subversive of the great end of biography, + which is to fix the attention and to interest the feelings of men on + those qualities and actions which have made a particular life worthy + of being recorded. It is no doubt the duty of an honest biographer to + portray the prominent imperfections as well as excellencies of his + hero. But I am at a loss to conceive how this can be deemed an excuse + for heaping together a multitude of particulars, which can prove + nothing of any man, that might not be safely taken for granted of all + men. In the present age — emphatically the age of personality — there + are more than ordinary motives for withholding all encouragement from + the mania of busying ourselves with the names of others, which is + still more alarming as a symptom, than it is troublesome as a disease. + The reader must be still less acquainted with contemporary literature + than myself, if he needs me to inform him that there are men who, + trading in the silliest anecdotes, in unprovoked abuse and senseless + eulogy, think themselves nevertheless employed both worthily and + honourably if only all this be done in good set terms, and from the + press, and of public characters, — a class which has increased so + rapidly of late, that it becomes difficult to discover what characters + are to be considered as private. Alas! if these wretched misusers of + language and the means of giving wings to thought, and of multiplying + the presence of an individual mind, had ever known how great a thing + the possession of any one simple truth is, and how mean a thing a mere + fact is, except as seen in the light of some comprehensive truth — if + they had but once experienced the unborrowed complacency, the inward + independence, the homebred strength, with which every clear conception + of the reason is accompanied, — they would shrink from their own pages + as at the remembrance of a crime. — For a crime it is (and the man who + hesitates in pronouncing it such, must be ignorant of what mankind owe + to books, what he himself owes to them in spite of his ignorance) thus + to introduce the spirit of vulgar scandal, and personal inquietude + into the closet and the library, environing with evil passions the + very sanctuaries to which we should flee for refuge from them. For to + what do these publications appeal, whether they present themselves as + biography or as anonymous criticism, but to the same feelings which + the scandal bearers, and time-killers of ordinary life seem to gratify + in themselves and their listeners; and both the authors and admirers + of such publications, in what respect are they less truants and + deserters from their own hearts, and from their appointed task of + understanding and amending them, than the most garrulous female + chronicler of the goings-on of yesterday in the families of her + neighbours and townsfolk?<br> +<br> + 'As to my own attempt to record the life and character of the late Sir + Alexander Ball, I consider myself deterred from all circumstances not + pertaining to his conduct or character as a public functionary, that + involve the names of the living for good or for evil. Whatever facts + and incidents I relate of a private nature must, for the most part, + concern Sir Alexander Ball exclusively, and as an insulated + individual. But I needed not this restraint. It will be enough for me, + as I write, to recollect the form and character of Sir Alexander Ball + himself, to represent to my own feelings the inward contempt with + which he would have abstracted his mind from worthless anecdotes and + petty personalities; a contempt rising into indignation if ever an + illustrious name were used as a thread to string them upon. If this + recollection be my Socratic Demon, to warn and to check me, I shall, + on the other hand, derive encouragement from the remembrance of the + tender patience, the sweet gentleness, with which he was wont to + tolerate the tediousness of well meaning men; and the inexhaustible + attention, the unfeigned interest, with which he would listen for + hours, when the conversation appealed to reason, and like the bee, + made honey, while it murmured.' + + I have transcribed this passage from the original edition of the + Friend, No. 21, and not from the reprint, where it stands in vol. ii. + pp. 303-307; because in the latter, the last paragraph, in itself a + beautiful one, and to our present purpose particularly appropriate, is + left out. For if Coleridge could imagine 'the inward contempt with + which Sir Alexander Ball would have abstracted his mind from worthless + anecdotes and petty personalities, — a contempt rising into + indignation, if ever an illustrious name was used as a thread to + string them on,' well may those who knew Coleridge conceive the grief, + the grief and pity, he would have felt, at seeing eminent powers and + knowledge employed in ministering to the wretched love of + gossip — retailing paltry anecdotes in dispraise of others, + intermingled with outflowings of self-praise — and creeping into the + secret chambers of great men's houses to filch out materials for + tattle — at seeing great powers wasting and debasing themselves in such + an ignoble task — <a name="fr85">above</a> all, at seeing that the person who thus wasted + and debased them was a scholar, and a philosopher whose talents he + admired, with whom he had lived familiarly, and whom he had honoured + with his friendship."<a href="#f85"><sup>23</sup></a></blockquote> + +There is one part of Coleridge's character not to be passed by, although +so overlaid by his genius as rarely to be noticed, namely, his love of +humour and of wit, of which he possessed so large a share. As punsters, +his dear friend Lamb and himself were inimitable. Lamb's puns had +oftener more effect, from the impediment in his speech their force +seemed to be increased by the pause of stuttering, and to shoot forth +like an arrow from a strong bow — but being never poisoned nor envenomed, +they left no pain behind. Coleridge was more humorous than witty in +making puns — and in repartee, he was, according to modern phraseology, +"smart and clever." Staying a few days with two friends at a farm-house, +they agreed to visit a race-course in the neighbourhood. The farmer +brought from his stud a horse low in stature, and still lower in +flesh — a bridle corresponding in respectability of appearance, with a +saddle equally suitable — stirrups once bright, but now deeply +discoloured by rust. All this was the contrivance of the farmer, and +prudently intended for his safety. He had heard previously of +Coleridge's want of skill in riding, and had therefore provided him with +a beast not likely to throw him. On this Rosinante the poet mounted, in +his accustomed dress, namely, a black coat, black breeches, with black +silk stockings and shoes. His friends being trusted with more active +steeds, soon outstripped him. Jogging on leisurely he was met by a +long-nosed knowing-looking man, attired in a <i>sporting</i> dress, and +an excellent equestrian. Seeing this whimsical horseman in shoes, he +writhed, as Coleridge observed, his lithe proboscis, and thus accosted +him:<br> +<br> +Pray, sir, did you meet a tailor along the road?"<br> +<br> +"A tailor?" answered Coleridge; "yes!"<br> +<br> +"Do you see, sir! he rode just such a horse as you ride! and for all the +world was just like you!"<br> +<br> +"Oh! oh!" answered Coleridge, "I did meet a person answering such a +description, who told me he had dropped his goose, that if I rode a +little farther I should find it; and I guess by the arch-fellow's looks, +he must have meant you."<br> +<br> +"Caught a tartar!" replied the man, and suddenly spurring his horse, +left him to pursue his road. At length Coleridge reached the +race-course, when threading his way through the crowd, he arrived at the +spot of attraction to which all were hastening. Here he confronted a +barouche and four, filled with smart ladies and attendant gentlemen. In +it was also seated a baronet of sporting celebrity, steward of the +course, and member of the House of Commons, well known as having been +bought and sold in several parliaments. The baronet eyed the figure of +Coleridge as he slowly passed the door of the barouche, and thus +accosted him:<br> +<br> + "A pretty piece of blood, sir, you have there?" <br> +<br> +"Yes!" answered Coleridge.<br> +<br> +"Rare paces, I have no doubt, sir!" <br> +<br> +"Yes," said Coleridge he brought me here a matter of four miles an hour." <br> +<br> +He was at no loss to perceive the honourable member's drift, who wished +to shew off before the ladies: so he quietly waited the opportunity of a +suitable reply.<br> +<br> +"What a fore-hand he has!" continued Nimrod, "how finely he carries his +tail! Bridle and saddle well suited! and appropriately appointed!"<br> +<br> +"Yes," said Coleridge.<br> +<br> +"Will you sell him?" asked the sporting baronet. <br> +<br> +"Yes!" was the answer, "if I can have my price."<br> +<br> +"Name your price, then, putting the rider into the bargain!"<br> +<br> +This was too pointed to be passed over by a simple answer, and Coleridge +was ready. <br> +<br> +"My price for the <i>horse, sir</i>, if I sell him, is <i>one +hundred</i> guineas, — as to the <i>rider</i>, never having been in +parliament, and never intending to go, <i>his</i> price is not yet +fixed." <br> +<br> +The baronet sat down more suddenly than he had risen — the ladies began +to titter — while Coleridge quietly left him to his chagrin, and them to +the enjoyment of their mirth.<br> +<br><br> + +We are now arrived at that period of Coleridge's life, in which it may +be said, he received his first great warning of approaching danger. But +it will be necessary to review his previous state of health. From +childhood he discovered strong symptoms of a feeble stomach. As observed +in the account of his school experience, when compelled to turn over the +shoes in the shoe closet, exhausted by the fatigue, and overpowered by +the scent, he suffered so much, that in after years the very remembrance +almost made him shudder. Then his frequent bathing in the New River was +an imprudence so injurious in its consequences, as to place him for +nearly twelve months in the sick ward in the hospital of the school, +with rheumatism connected with jaundice. These, to a youthful +constitution, were matters of so serious a nature, as to explain to +those acquainted with disease the origin and cause of his subsequent +bodily sufferings. His sensitiveness was consequent on these, and so was +his frequent incapability of continuous sedentary employment — an +employment requiring far stronger health in an individual whose +intellectual powers were ever at work. When overwhelmed at College, by +that irresistible alarm and despondency which caused him to leave it, +and to enlist as a soldier in the army, he continued in such a state of +bodily ailment as to be deprived of the power of stooping, so that +<i>Cumberback</i>, — a thing unheard of before, — was compelled to depute +another to perform this part of his duty. On his voyage to Malta, he had +complained of suffering from shortness of breath; and on returning to +his residence at the Lakes, his difficulty of breathing and his +rheumatism increased to a great degree. About the year 1809, ascending +Skiddaw with his younger son, he was suddenly seized in the chest, and +so overpowered as to attract the notice of the child. After the relation +of these circumstances to some medical friend, he was advised by him not +to bathe in the sea. The love, however, which he had from a boy, for +going into the water, he retained till a late period of life. Strongly +impressed with this feeling, he seems to have written the poem, entitled +<i><a name="fr86">On</a> Revisiting the Sea Shore:</i> + +<blockquote>"Dissuading spake the mild physician,<br> + Those briny waves for thee are death,<br> + But my soul fulfilled her mission,<br> + And lo! I breathe untroubled breath."<a href="#f86"><sup>24</sup></a></blockquote> + +In the year 1810, he left the Lakes, in company with Mr. Basil Montagu, +whose affectionate regard for Mr. Coleridge, though manifested upon +every occasion, was more particularly shown in seasons of difficulty and +affliction. By Coleridge, Mr. Montagu's friendship was deeply felt, — and +his gentle manners and unremitted kindness had the most soothing effect +upon the sensitive and grateful mind of Coleridge. He remained for some +time at Mr. Montagu's house. He afterwards resided at Hammersmith, with +an amiable and common friend of his and Mr. Southey's, — Mr. Morgan, with +whom they had formed an intimacy in Bristol. Whilst here he delivered a +course of lectures at the London Philosophical Society. The prospectus +was as follows:— + +<blockquote>"Mr. Coleridge will commence, on Monday, November 18, 1811, a Course + of Lectures on Shakspeare and Milton, in illustration of the + principles of poetry, and their application, as grounds of criticism, + to the most popular works of later English Poets, those of the living + included. After an introductory lecture on False Criticism (especially + in poetry), and on its causes; two thirds of the remaining course will + be assigned,<br> +<br> + <b>1st</b>, to a philosophical analysis, and explanation of all the principal + <i>characters</i> of our great dramatist, as Othello, Falstaff, + Richard the Third, Iago, Hamlet, &c.; and<br> +<br> + <b>2nd</b>, to a critical <i>comparison</i> of Shakspeare, in respect of + diction, imagery, management of the passions, judgment in the + construction of his dramas, in short, of all that belongs to him as a + poet, and as a dramatic poet, with his contemporaries or immediate + successors, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Ford, Massinger, &c. in the + endeavour to determine what of Shakspeare's merits and defects are + common to him, with other writers of the same age, and what remain + peculiar to his own genius.<br> +<br> + The course will extend to fifteen lectures, which will be given on + Monday and Thursday evenings successively."</blockquote> + +Mr. Coleridge afterwards delivered another course of lectures at the +Royal Institution. <a name="fr87">Dr</a>. Dibdin, one of his auditors, gives the following +account of the lecturer:<a href="#f87"><sup>25</sup></a> + +<blockquote>"<a name="fr88">It</a> was during my constant and familiar intercourse with Sir T. + Bernard, while 'The Director' was going on, that I met the celebrated + Mr. Coleridge — himself a lecturer. He was not a <i>constant</i> + lecturer — not in constant harness like others for the business of the + day. Indisposition was generally preying upon him,<a href="#f88"><sup>26</sup></a> and habitual + indolence would now and then frustrate the performance of his own + better wishes. I once came from Kensington in a snow-storm, to hear + him lecture upon Shakspeare. I might have sat as wisely and more + comfortably by my own fire-side — for no Coleridge appeared. And this I + think occurred more than once at the Royal Institution. I shall never + forget the effect his conversation made upon me at the first meeting. + It struck me as something not only quite out of the ordinary course of + things, but as an intellectual exhibition altogether matchless. The + viands were unusually costly, and the banquet was at once rich and + varied; but there seemed to be no dish like Coleridge's conversation + to feed upon — and no information so varied and so instructive as his + own. The orator rolled himself up, as it were, in his chair, and gave + the most unrestrained indulgence to his speech, and how fraught with + acuteness and originality was that speech, and in what copious and + eloquent periods did it flow! The auditors seemed to be rapt in wonder + and delight, as one conversation, more profound or clothed in more + forcible language than another, fell from his tongue. A great part of + the subject discussed at the first time of my meeting Mr. Coleridge, + was the connexion between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. The speaker + had been secretary to Sir Alexander Ball, governor of Malta — and a + copious field was here afforded for the exercise of his colloquial + eloquence. For nearly two hours he spoke with unhesitating and + uninterrupted fluency. As I retired homewards (to Kensington), I + thought a second Johnson had visited the earth, to make wise the sons + of men; and regretted that I could not exercise the powers of a second + Boswell, to record the wisdom and the eloquence which had that evening + flowed from the orator's lips. It haunted me as I retired to rest. It + drove away slumber: or if I lapsed into sleep, there was + Coleridge — his snuffbox, and his 'kerchief before my eyes! — his mildly + beaming looks — his occasionally deep tone of voice — and the excited + features of his physiognomy. — The manner of Coleridge was rather + emphatic than dogmatic, and thus he was generally and satisfactorily + listened to. It might be said of Coleridge, as Cowper has so happily + said of Sir Philip Sidney, that he was 'the warbler of poetic prose.' + + There was always <i>this</i> characteristic feature in his + multifarious conversation — it was delicate, reverend, and courteous. + The chastest ear could drink in no startling sound; the most serious + believer never had his bosom ruffled by one sceptical or reckless + assertion. Coleridge was eminently simple in his manner. Thinking and + speaking were his delight; and he would sometimes seem, during the + more fervid movements of discourse, to be abstracted from all and + every thing around and about him, and to be basking in the sunny + warmth of his own radiant imagination."</blockquote> + +The manuscript of <i>The Remorse</i> was sent to Mr. Sheridan, who did +not even acknowledge the receipt of the letter which accompanied the +drama; he however observed to a friend, that he had received a play from +Coleridge, but that there was one extraordinary line in the Cave Scene, +<i>drip, drip</i> — which he could not understand: "in short," said he, +"it is all dripping." This was the only notice he took of the play; but +the comment was at length repeated to the author, through the medium of +a third party. The theatre falling afterwards into the hands of Lord +Byron and Mr. Whitbread, his Lordship sent for Coleridge, was very kind +to his brother poet, and requested that the play might be represented: +this desire was complied with, and it received his support. <a name="fr89">Although</a> Mr. +Whitbread<a href="#f89"><sup>27</sup></a> did not give it the advantage of a single new scene, yet +the popularity of the play was such, that the principal actor, who had +performed in it with great success, made choice of it for his +benefit-night, and it brought an overflowing house.<a href="#f90"><sup>28</sup></a><br> +<br> +In consequence of the interest Lord Byron took in the success of this +tragedy, Coleridge was frequently in his company, and on one occasion, +in my presence, his Lordship said, "Coleridge, there is one passage in +your poems, I have parodied fifty times, and I hope to live long enough +to parody it five hundred." That passage I do not remember; but it may +strike some reader.<br> +<br> +In a letter of Coleridge's to a friend, written April 10th, 1816, he +thus speaks of Byron: + +<blockquote>"If you had seen Lord Byron, you could scarcely disbelieve him — so + beautiful a countenance I scarcely ever saw — his teeth so many + stationary smiles — his eyes the open portals of the sun — things of + light, and for light — and his forehead so ample, and yet so flexible, + passing from marble smoothness into a hundred wreathes and lines and + dimples correspondent to the feelings and sentiments he is uttering." +</blockquote> + +Coleridge, in the preface to <i>The Remorse</i>, states that the + +<blockquote>"tragedy was written in the summer and autumn of the year 1797, at +Nether Stowey, in the county of Somerset. By whose recommendation, and +of the manner in which both the play and the author were treated by the +recommender, let me be permitted to relate: that I knew of its having +been received only from a third person; that I could procure neither +answer nor the manuscript; and that but for an accident, I should have +had no copy of the work itself. That such treatment would damp a young +man's exertions may be easily conceived: there was no need of +after-misrepresentation and calumny, as an additional sedative."</blockquote> + +Coleridge contributed many pieces to Southey's <i>Omniana</i>, (all +marked with an asterisk,) and was engaged in other literary pursuits; he +had notwithstanding much bodily suffering. The <i>cause</i> of this was +the organic change slowly and gradually taking place in the structure of +the heart itself. <a name="fr91">But</a> it was so masked by other sufferings, though at +times creating despondency, and was so generally overpowered by the +excitement of animated conversation, as to leave its real cause +undiscovered.<a href="#f91"><sup>29</sup></a> Notwithstanding this sad state, he rolled forth +volumes from a mind ever active — at times intensely so, — still he +required the support of those sympathies which "free the hollow heart +from paining."<br> +<br> +Soon after the performance of <i>The Remorse</i>, he retired with his +kind friend, Mr. Morgan, to the village of Calne, partly to be near the +Rev. W.L. Bowles, whose sonnets so much attracted his attention in early +life. While residing here, he opened a communication with Mr. Gutch, a +bookseller, at Bristol, and in consequence, he collected the poems +published by the title of <i>The Sibylline Leaves</i>, and also composed +the greater part of the <i>Biographia Literaria</i>. Here he likewise +dictated to his friend, Mr. Morgan, the <i>Zapolya</i>, which was +submitted to Mr. Douglas Kinnaird, who was then the critic for Drury +Lane. — Mr. Kinnaird rejected the play, assigning some ludicrous +objections to the metaphysics. The subject is alluded to by Coleridge at +the end of the Biographia Literaria, and with that allusion I close the +present chapter: + +<blockquote>O we are querulous creatures! Little less<br> +Than all things can suffice to make us happy:<br> +And little more than nothing is enough<br> +To make us wretched.</blockquote><br> +<br> +<hr width="50%" align="left"><br> +<br> +<a name="f63"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 1:</span></a> + + <blockquote> Alas! for myself at least I know and feel, that wherever there is a + wrong not to be forgiven, there is a grief that admits neither of cure + nor comforting.</blockquote> + +<i>Private Record, 1806.</i><br> +<a href="#fr63">return to footnote mark</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f64"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 2:</span></a> It appears that Mr. Alexander Macauley, the secretary, an +honest and amiable man, died suddenly, without "moan or motion," and +Coleridge filled his situation till the arrival of a new secretary, +appointed and confirmed by the ministers in England.<br> +<a href="#fr64">return</a> <br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f65"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 3:</span></a> 1805. + + <blockquote> "For months past so incessantly employed in official tasks, + subscribing, examining, administering oaths, auditing," &c.</blockquote> +<a href="#fr65">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f66"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 4:</span></a> April 22, 1804. + + <blockquote> "I was reading when I was taken ill, and felt an oppression of my + breathing, and convulsive snatching in my stomach and limbs. Mrs. + Ireland noticed this laborious breathing."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr66">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f67"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 5:</span></a> I would fain request the reader to peruse the poem, +entitled <i>A Tombless Epitaph,</i> to be found in Coleridge's <i>Poetical +Works</i>, 1834, page 200.<br> +<a href="#fr67">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f68"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 6:</span></a> Coleridge when asked what was the difference between fame +and reputation, would familiarly reply, "Fame is the fiat of the good +and wise," and then with energy would quote the following beautiful +lines from Milton: — + + <blockquote>Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,<br> + Nor in the glistering foil<br> + Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies:<br> + But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,<br> + And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;<br> + As he pronounces lastly on each deed,<br> + Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed.</blockquote> + + <i>Lycidas</i>.<br> +<a href="#fr68">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f69"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 7:</span></a> "The following memoranda written in pencil, and apparently +as he journeyed along, but now scarcely legible, may perhaps have an +interest for some readers: — + + <blockquote>"Sunday, December 15th, 1805.<br> +<br> + "Naples, view of Vesuvius, the Hail-mist — Torre del Greco — bright amid + darkness — the mountains above it flashing here and there from their + snows; but Vesuvius, it had not thinned as I have seen at Keswick, but + the air so consolidated with the massy cloud curtain, that it appeared + like a mountain in basso relievo, in an interminable wall of some + pantheon."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr69">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f70"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 8:</span></a> The order for Coleridge's arrest had already been sent +from Paris, but his escape was so contrived by the good old Pope, as to +defeat the intended indulgence of the Tyrant's vindictive appetite, +which would have preyed equally on a Duc D'Enghien, and a contributor to +a public journal. In consequence of Mr. Fox having asserted in the House +of Commons, that the rupture of the Truce of Amiens had its origin in +certain essays written in the <i>Morning Post</i>, which were soon known to +have been Coleridge's, and that he was at Rome within reach, the ire of +Buonaparte was immediately excited.<br> +<a href="#fr70">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f71"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 9:</span></a> Though his Note Books are full of memoranda, not an entry +or date of his arrival at Rome is to be found. To Rome itself and its +magnificence, he would often refer in conversation. Unfortunately there +is not a single document to recall the beautiful images he would place +before your mind in perspective, when inspired by the remembrance of its +wonder-striking and splendid objects. He however preserved some short +essays, which he wrote when in Malta, Observations on Sicily, Cairo, &c. +&c. political and statistical, which will probably form part of the +literary remains in train of publication.<br> +<br> +Malta, on a first view of the subject, seemed to present a situation so +well fitted for a landing place, that it was intended to have adopted +this mode, as in <i>The Friend,</i> of dividing the present memoir; but +this loss of MS. and the breaches of continuity, render it +impracticable.<br> +<a href="#fr71">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f72"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 10:</span></a> At this time all his writings were strongly tinctured with +Platonism.<br> +<a href="#fr72">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f73"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 11:</span></a> Each party claimed him as their own; for party without +principles must ever be shifting, and therefore they found his opinions +sometimes in accordance with their own, and sometimes at variance. But +he was of no party — his views were purely philosophical.<br> +<a href="#fr73">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f74"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 12:</span></a> The character of Buonaparte was announced in the same +paper.<br> +<a href="#fr74">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f75"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 13:</span></a> Those who spoke after Pitt were Wilberforce, Tierney, +Sheridan, &c.<br> +<a href="#fr75">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f76"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 14:</span></a> This speech of Mr. Pitt's is extracted from the <i>Morning +Post,</i> February 18th, 1800.<br> +<a href="#fr75">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f77"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 15:</span></a> The following exquisite image on Leighton was found in one +of Coleridge's note books, and is also inserted in his <i>Literary +Remains</i>: + + <blockquote>"Next to the inspired Scriptures, yea, and as the vibration of that + once struck hour remaining on the air, stands Archbishop Leighton's + commentary on the first epistle of Peter."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr77">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f78"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 16:</span></a> In his later days, Mr. Coleridge would have renounced the +opinions and the incorrect reasoning of this letter.<br> +<a href="#fr78">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f79"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 17:</span></a> Article ii: + + <blockquote> The Son which is the word of the Father, <i>begotten</i> from + Everlasting of the Father, &c.</blockquote> + +Art. v: + + <blockquote> The Holy Ghost <i>proceeding</i> from the Father and the Son, &c.</blockquote> +<a href="#fr79">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f80"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 18:</span></a> It was a favourite citation with Mr. Coleridge, + + <blockquote>"I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one."</blockquote> + +<i>Vide</i> St. John, xvii. 2.<br> +<a href="#fr80">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f81"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 19:</span></a> At Mr. Poole's house, Mr. De Quincey remained two days. Of +his visit he gives a full account; at the same time charging Coleridge +with the meanness of plagiarism, but which charges since their +publication have been ably refuted in an article in the <i>British +Magazine</i>, signed J. C. H. <i>Vide</i> No. 37, page 15.<br> +<a href="#fr81">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f82"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 20:</span></a> <i>Vide Tait's Magazine</i>, No. 8.<br> +<a href="#fr82">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f83"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 21:</span></a> These have not been found.<br> +<a href="#fr83">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f84"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 22:</span></a> This little Paper Book has not yet been found.<br> +<a href="#fr84">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f85"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 23:</span></a> In the <i>Quarterly Review</i> for July, 1837, will be +found an able article on the <i>Literary Remains of S.T. Coleridge,</i> +and on "Mr. Cottle's Early Recollections," in which are extracted these +very paragraphs from the <i>Friend</i>, but which had been sent to the press +before this number appeared.<br> +<a href="#fr85">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f86"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 24:</span></a> This poem is supposed to have been written in 1813, when +on a visit to some friends at Bexhill, Sussex.<br> +<a href="#fr86">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f87"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 25:</span></a> <i>Reminiscences of a Literary Life</i>, Vol. i. p. 253.<br> +<a href="#fr87">return to footnote mark</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f88"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 26:</span></a> If "indisposition were generally preying upon him," as at +this time was indeed the fact, could this occasional failure in the +delivery of a lecture (though naturally very disappointing to his +audience,) be fairly attributed to indolence?<br> +<a href="#fr88">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f89"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 27:</span></a> About this time, when party spirit was running high, +Coleridge was known to be the author of the following Jeu d'Esprit, + + <blockquote>"Dregs half way up and froth half way down, form Whitbread's Entire."</blockquote> +<a href="#fr89">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f90"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 28:</span></a> It was Mr. Rae who took it for his benefit, some time +after Mr. Coleridge's residence at Highgate.<br> +<a href="#fr89">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f91"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 29:</span></a> + + <blockquote>"<i>My heart</i>, or <i>some part</i> about it, seems breaking, as if + a weight were suspended from it that stretches it, such is the + <i>bodily feeling</i>, as far as I can express it by words."</blockquote> + +Letter addressed to Mr. Morgan.<br> +<a href="#fr91">return</a><br> +<br> +<p><a href="#toc">Contents</a></p> +<hr><br><br> + +<h2><a name="section4">Chapter IV</a></h2> +<br> +<h4><i>Coleridge's Arrival at Highgate — Publication of 'Christabel' — 'Biographia +Literaria', &c.</i> +</h4><br> + +I now approach one of the most eventful epochs in the <i>Life</i> of Coleridge, +and, I may well add, of my own.<br> +<br> +<a name="fr92">In</a> the year 1816, the following letter was addressed to me by a +physician<a href="#f92"><sup>1</sup></a>: + +<blockquote> Hatton Garden, 9th April, 1816.<br> +<br> + <b>Dear Sir</b>, + + A very learned, but in one respect an unfortunate gentleman, has + applied to me on a singular occasion. He has for several years been in + the habit of taking large quantities of opium. For some time past, he + has been in vain endeavouring to break himself off it. It is + apprehended his friends are not firm enough, from a dread, lest he + should suffer by suddenly leaving it off, though he is conscious of + the contrary; and has proposed to me to submit himself to any regimen, + however severe. With this view, he wishes to fix himself in the house + of some medical gentleman, who will have courage to refuse him any + laudanum, and under whose assistance, should he be the worse for it, + he may be relieved. As he is desirous of retirement, and a garden, I + could think of no one so readily as yourself. Be so good as to inform + me, whether such a proposal is absolutely inconsistent with your + family arrangements. I should not have proposed it, but on account of + the great importance of the character, as a literary man. His + communicative temper will make his society very interesting, as well + as useful. Have the goodness to favour me with an immediate answer; + and believe me, dear sir, your faithful humble servant,<br> +<br> + <b> Joseph Adams</b>. +</blockquote> + +I had seen the writer of this letter but twice in my life, and had no +intention of receiving an inmate into my house. I however determined on +seeing Dr. Adams, for whether the person referred to had taken opium +from choice or necessity, to me he was equally an object of +commiseration and interest. Dr. Adams informed me that the patient had +been warned of the danger of discontinuing opium by several eminent +medical men, who, at the same time, represented the frightful +consequences that would most probably ensue. I had heard of the failure +of Mr. Wilberforce's case, under an eminent physician at Bath, in +addition to which, the doctor gave me an account of several others +within his own knowledge. After some further conversation it was agreed +that Dr. Adams should drive Coleridge to Highgate the following evening. +On the following evening came Coleridge <i>himself</i> and alone. An old +gentleman, of more than ordinary acquirements, was sitting by the +fireside when he entered. — We met, indeed, for the first time, but as +friends long since parted, and who had now the happiness to see each +other again. Coleridge took his seat — his manner, his appearance, and +above all, his conversation were captivating. We listened with delight, +and upon the first pause, when courtesy permitted, my visitor withdrew, +saying in a low voice, "I see by your manners, an old friend has +arrived, and I shall therefore retire." Coleridge proposed to come the +following evening, but he <i>first</i> informed me of the painful +opinion which he had received concerning his case, especially from one +medical man of celebrity. The tale was sad, and the opinion given +unprofessional and cruel — sufficient to have deterred most men so +afflicted from making the attempt Coleridge was contemplating, and in +which his whole soul was so deeply and so earnestly engaged. In the +course of our conversation, he repeated some exquisite but desponding +lines of his own. It was an evening of painful and pleasurable feeling, +which I can never forget. We parted with each other, understanding in a +few minutes what perhaps under different circumstances, would have cost +many hours to arrange; and I looked with impatience for the morrow, +still wondering at the apparent chance that had brought him under my +roof. I felt indeed almost spell-bound, without the desire of release. +My situation was new, and there was something affecting in the thought, +that one of such amiable manners, and at the same time so highly gifted, +should seek comfort and medical aid in our quiet home. Deeply +interested, I began to reflect seriously on the duties imposed upon me, +and with anxiety to expect the approaching day. It brought me the +following letter: + +<blockquote> 42, Norfolk Street, Strand, Saturday Noon.<br> +<br> + [April 13, 1816.]<br> +<br> + "<b>My Dear Sir</b>,<br> +<br> + The first half hour I was with you convinced me that I should owe my + reception into your family exclusively to motives not less flattering + to me than honourable to yourself. I trust we shall ever in matters of + intellect be reciprocally serviceable to each other. Men of sense + generally come to the same conclusions; but they are likely to + contribute to each other's enlargement of view, in proportion to the + distance or even opposition of the points from which they set out. + Travel and the strange variety of situations and employments on which + chance has thrown me, in the course of my life, might have made me a + mere man of <i>observation</i>, if pain and sorrow and + self-miscomplacence had not forced my mind in on itself, and so formed + habits of <i>meditation</i>. It is now as much my nature to evolve the + fact from the law, as that of a practical man to deduce the law from + the fact.<br> +<br> + With respect to pecuniary remuneration, allow me to say, I must not at + least be suffered to make any addition to your family expences — + though I cannot offer any thing that would be in any way adequate to + my sense of the service; for that indeed there could not be a + compensation, as it must be returned in kind, by esteem and grateful + affection.<br> +<br> + And now of myself. My ever wakeful reason, and the keenness of my + moral feelings, will secure you from all unpleasant circumstances + connected with me save only one, viz. the evasion of a specific + madness. You will never <i>hear</i> any thing but truth from + me: — prior habits render it out of my power to tell an untruth, but + unless carefully observed, I dare not promise that I should not, with + regard to this detested poison, be capable of acting one. No sixty + hours have yet passed without my having taken laudanum, though for the + last week comparatively trifling doses. I have full belief that your + anxiety need not be extended beyond the first week, and for the first + week, I shall not, I must not be permitted to leave your house, unless + with you. Delicately or indelicately, this must be done, and both the + servants and the assistant must receive absolute commands from you. + The stimulus of conversation suspends the terror that haunts my mind; + but when I am alone, the horrors I have suffered from laudanum, the + degradation, the blighted utility, almost overwhelm me. <a name="fr93">If</a> (as I feel + for the <i>first time</i> a soothing confidence it will prove) I + should leave you restored to my moral and bodily health, it is not + myself only that will love and honour you; every friend I have, (and + thank God! in spite of this wretched vice<a href="#f93"><sup>2</sup></a> I have many and warm + ones, who were friends of my youth, and have never deserted me,) will + thank you with reverence. I have taken no notice of your kind + apologies. If I could not be comfortable in your house, and with your + family, I should deserve to be miserable. If you could make it + convenient, I should wish to be with you by Monday evening, as it + would prevent the necessity of taking fresh lodgings in town.<br> +<br> + With respectful compliments to Mrs. Gillman and her sister, I remain, + dear sir,<br> +<br> + Your much obliged,<br> +<br> + <b>S. T. Coleridge</b>." +</blockquote> + +On the evening appointed, Coleridge came, bringing in his hand the proof +sheets of <i>Christabel</i>, which was now for the first time printed. +The fragment in manuscript was already known to many, for to many had +Coleridge read it, who had listened to it with delight — a delight so +marked that its success seemed certain. But the approbation of those +whom, in the worldly acceptation of the term, we call <i>friends</i>, is +not always to be relied upon. Among the most plausible connexions, there +is often a rivalship, both political and literary, which constrains the +sacrifice of sincerity, and substitutes secret for open censure. Of this +melancholy fact Coleridge had seen proof. The Fragment had not long been +published before he was informed, that an individual had been selected +(who was in truth a great admirer of his writings; and whose very life +had been saved through the exertions of Coleridge and Mr. Southey,) to +"<i>cut up</i>" Christabel in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>. The subject being +afterwards mentioned in conversation, the reviewer confessed that he was +the writer of the article, but observed, that as he wrote for the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, he was compelled to write in accordance with the +character and tone of that periodical. This confession took place after +he had been extolling the Christabel as the finest poem of its kind in +the language, and ridiculing the public for their want of taste and +discrimination in not admiring it. — Truly has it been said, + +<blockquote>"Critics upon all writers there are many,<br> + Planters of truth or knowledge scarcely any."</blockquote> + +Sir Walter Scott always spoke in high praise of the <i>Christabel</i>, and more +than once of his obligations to Coleridge; of this we have proof in his +<i>Ivanhoe</i>, in which the lines by Coleridge, entitled <i>The Knight's Tomb,</i> +were quoted by Scott before they were published, from which +circumstance, Coleridge was convinced that Sir Walter was the author of +the <i>Waverly</i> Novels. The lines were composed as an experiment for a +metre, and repeated by him to a mutual friend — this gentleman the +following day dined in company with Sir Walter Scott, and spoke of his +visit to Highgate, repeating Coleridge's lines to Scott, and observing +at the same time, that they might be acceptable to the author of +<i>Waverley</i>. + +<blockquote>Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn?<br> +Where may the grave of that good man be? — <br> +By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,<br> +Under the twigs of a young birch tree!<br> +The Oak that in summer was sweet to hear,<br> +And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year;<br> +And whistled and roar'd in the winter alone,<br> +Is gone, — and the birch in its stead is grown. — <br> +The Knight's bones are dust,<br> +And his good sword rust; — <br> +His soul is with the saints, I trust.<br><br> + +<i>Poetical Works</i>, Vol. ii. p. 64.</blockquote> + +The late Mr. Sotheby informed me, that, at his house in a large party, +Sir Walter made the following remark: + +<blockquote> "I am indebted to Coleridge for the mode of telling a tale by question + and answer. This was a new light to me, and I was greatly struck by + it."</blockquote> + +Yet when Sir Walter said this, he must surely have forgotten many of our +ancient and most beautiful ballads, in which the questions are so +significant, and are made to develope the progress of the fable more +clearly than could be affected by the ordinary course of narration. In +fact every lover of our old poetry will recollect a hundred pieces in +which the same form of evolution is observed. Thus in <i>Johnie of +Breadis Lee</i>: + +<blockquote>"What news, what news, ye grey-headed carle,<br> + What news bring ye to me?"</blockquote> + +And in <i>Halbert the Grim</i>: + +<blockquote> "There is pity in many, — <br> + Is there any in him?<br> + No! ruth is a strange guest<br> + To Halbert the Grim."</blockquote> + +Scott particularly admired Coleridge's management of the supernatural. +The "flesh and blood reality," given to Geraldine, the life, the power +of appearing and disappearing equally by day as by night, constitutes +the peculiar merit of the <i>Christabel</i>: and those poets who admire, and +have reflected much on the supernatural, have ever considered it one of +the greatest efforts of genius. But the effect has ever been degraded by +unnatural combinations. Thus on the stage, where such creations are the +most frequent, it has been the custom for stage-managers to choose +<i>male</i> actors for the female parts. In <i>Macbeth</i>, men are +called on to stir the caldron and other witcheries requiring muscular +power. Again, when Macbeth listens to those extraordinary beings, who, +with muttering spells, with charms, foreknowledge and incantations +imperfectly announced to him his fate; he, with an air of command, says, +"Speak!" &c. They shew their power, and give their best answer by +disappearing. The manner of representing this is unnatural, as exhibited +by our managers. <a name="fr94">Coleridge</a> observed, that it would be better to withdraw +the light from the stage, than to exhibit these miserable attempts at +vanishing<a href="#f94"><sup>3</sup></a>, though could the thought have been well executed, he +considered it a master-stroke of Shakspeare's. <a name="fr95">Yet</a> it should be noticed, +that Coleridge's opinion was, that some of the plays of our +"myriad-minded" bard ought never to be acted, but looked on as poems to +be read, and contemplated; and so fully was he impressed with this +feeling, that in his gayer moments he would often say, "There should be +an Act of Parliament to prohibit their representation."<a href="#f95"><sup>4</sup></a> Here +<i>he</i> excelled: he has no incongruities, no gross illusions. In the +management of the supernatural, the only successful poets among our own +countrymen have been Shakspeare and Coleridge. Scott has treated it well +in the <i>Bride of Lammermoor</i>, and in one or two other works.<br> +<br> +Of the <i>Christabel</i>, as now published, Coleridge says, "The first part was +composed in 1797." This was the <i>Annus Mirabilis</i> of this great man; in it +he was in his best and strongest health. He returned from Germany in +1799, and in the year following wrote the <i>second</i> part, in the +preface to which he observes, "Till very lately my poetic powers have +been in a state of suspended animation." The subject indeed remained +present to his mind, though from bad health and other causes, it was +left as a mere fragment of his poetic power. When in health he sometimes +said, "This poem comes upon me with all the loveliness of a vision;" and +he declared, that though contrary to the advice of his friends, he +should finish it: At other times when his bodily powers failed him, he +would then say, "I am reserved for other works than making verse."<br> +<br> +In the preface to the <i>Christabel</i>, he makes the following observation: + +<blockquote>"It is probable," he says, "that if the poem had been finished at + either of the former periods, <i>i.e</i>. 1797 and 1800, or if even + the first and second part of this fragment had been published in the + year 1800, the impression of its originality would have been much + greater than I dare at present expect. But for this, I have only my + own indolence to blame. The dates are mentioned for the exclusive + purpose of precluding charges of plagiarism or servile imitation from + myself. For there is among us a set of critics who seem to hold, that + every possible thought and image is traditional; who have no notion + that there are such things as fountains in the world, small as well as + great; and who would therefore charitably derive every rill, they + behold flowing, from a perforation made in some other man's tank. I am + confident, however, that as far as the present poem is concerned, the + celebrated poets whose writings I might be suspected of having + imitated, either in particular passages, or in the tone and the spirit + of the whole, would be among the first to vindicate me from the + charge, and who, on any striking coincidence, would permit me to + address them in this dogged version of two monkish Latin hexameters: + +<blockquote>'Tis mine and it is likewise your's,<br> +But an if this will not do;<br> +Let it be mine, good friend! for I<br> +Am the poorer of the two."</blockquote> + + I have only to add, that the metre of the <i>Christabel</i> is not, properly + speaking, irregular, though it may seem so from its being founded on a + new principle; namely, that of counting in each line the accents, not + the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in + each line the accents will be found to be only four. Nevertheless, + this occasional variation in the number of syllables is not introduced + wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence + with some transition in the nature of the imagery or passion." +</blockquote> + +In conversation many of his brother poets would, like the reviewer, echo +his praises, while in secret, they were trying to deprive him of his +fair fame. + +It has been said, that "Coleridge never explained the story of +Christabel." <a name="fr96">To</a> his friends he did explain it; and in the <i>Biographia +Literaria</i>, he has given an account of its origin<a href="#f96"><sup>5</sup></a>.<br> +<br> +The story of the <i>Christabel</i> is partly founded on the notion, that the +virtuous of this world save the wicked. The pious and good Christabel +suffers and prays for + +<blockquote>"The weal of her lover that is far away,"</blockquote> + +exposed to various temptations in a foreign land; and she thus defeats +the power of evil represented in the person of Geraldine. This is one +main object of the tale.<br> +<br> +At the opening of the poem all nature is laid under a spell:— + +<blockquote>'Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,<br> +And the owls have awak'ned the crowing cock;<br> +Tu-whit! — Tu-whoo!<br> +And hark, again! The crowing cock,<br> +How drowsily it crew — <br><br> + +Sir Leoline, the Baron rich,<br> +Hath a toothless mastiff-bitch,<br> +From her kennel beneath the rock<br> +Maketh answer to the clock,<br> +Four for the quarters, and twelve for the hour;<br> +Ever and aye, by shine and shower,<br> +Sixteen short howls, not over loud;<br> +Some say, she sees my lady's shroud.<br><br> + +Is the night chilly and dark?<br> +The night is chilly, but not dark.<br> +The thin gray cloud is spread on high,<br> +It covers but not hides the sky.<br> +The moon is behind, and at the full;<br> +And yet she looks both small and dull.<br> +The night is chill, the cloud is gray:<br> +'Tis a month before the month of May,<br> +And the Spring comes slowly up this way. +</blockquote> + +The spell is laid by an evil being, not of this world, with whom +Christabel, the heroine, is about to become connected; and who in the +darkness of the forest is meditating the wreck of all her hopes + +<blockquote>The lovely lady, Christabel,<br> +Whom her father loves so well,<br> +What makes her in the wood so late,<br> +A furlong from the castle gate?<br> +She had dreams all yesternight<br> +Of her own betrothed knight;<br> +And she in the midnight wood will pray<br> +For the weal of her lover that's far away.<br><br> + +She stole along, she nothing spoke,<br> +The sighs she heaved were soft and low,<br> +And naught was green upon the oak,<br> +But moss and rarest misletoe:<br> +She kneels beneath the huge oak tree,<br> +And in silence prayeth she.</blockquote> + +There are persons who have considered the description of Christabel in +the act of praying, so far from the baron's castle, too great a poetical +license. He was fully aware that all baronial castles had their chapels +and oratories attached to them, — and that in these lawless times, for +such were the middle ages, the young lady who ventured unattended beyond +the precincts of the castle, would have endangered her reputation. But +to such an imaginative mind, it would have been scarcely possible to +pass by the interesting image of Christabel, presenting itself before +him, praying by moonlight at the old oak tree. But to proceed: + +<blockquote>The lady sprang up suddenly,<br> +The lovely lady Christabel!<br> +It moaned as near, as near can be,<br> +But what it is, she cannot tell. — <br> +On the other side it seems to be,<br> +Of the huge, broad-breasted, old oak tree.<br> +The night is chill; the forest bare;<br> +Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?<br> +There is not wind enough in the air<br> +To move away the ringlet curl<br> +From the lovely lady's cheek — <br> +There is not wind enough to twirl<br> +The one red leaf, the last of its clan,<br> +That dances as often as dance it can,<br> +Hanging so light, and hanging so high,<br> +On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.<br> +Hush, beating heart of Christabel!<br> +Jesu, Maria, shield her well!<br> +She folded her arms beneath her cloak,<br> +And stole to the other side of the oak.<br> + What sees she there?<br> +There she sees a damsel bright,<br> +Drest in a silken robe of white,<br> +That shadowy in the moonlight shone:<br> +The neck that made that white robe wan,<br> +Her stately neck and arms were bare;<br> +Her blue-veined feet unsandal'd were.<br> +And wildly glittered here and there<br> +The gems entangled in her hair.<br> +I guess, 'twas frightful there to see<br> +A lady so richly clad as she — <br> + Beautiful exceedingly!</blockquote> + +This description is exquisite. Now for the mystic demon's tale of art: + +<blockquote>Mary mother, save me now!<br> +(Said Christabel,) And who art thou?<br> +The lady strange made answer meet,<br> +And her voice was faint and sweet: — <br> +Have pity on my sore distress,<br> +I scarce can speak for weariness:<br> +Stretch forth thy hand, and have no fear!<br> +Said Christabel, How camest thou here?<br> +And the lady, whose voice was faint and sweet,<br> +Did thus pursue her answer meet: — <br><br> + +My sire is of a noble line,<br> +And my name is Geraldine:<br> +Five warriors seized me yestermorn,<br> +Me, even me, a maid forlorn:<br> +They chok'd my cries with force and fright,<br> +And tied me on a palfrey white.<br> +The palfrey was as fleet as wind,<br> +And they rode furiously behind.<br> +They spurred amain, their steeds were white:<br> +And once we crossed the shade of night.<br> +As sure as Heaven shall rescue me,<br> +I have no thought what men they be;<br> +Nor do I know how long it is<br> +(For I have lain entranced I wis)<br> +Since one, the tallest of the five,<br> +Took me from the palfrey's back,<br> +A weary woman, scarce alive.<br> +Some muttered words his comrades spoke<br> +He placed me underneath this oak,<br> +He swore they would return with haste;<br> +Whither they went I cannot tell — <br> +I thought I heard, some minutes past,<br> +Sounds as of a castle bell.<br> +Stretch forth thy hand (thus ended she)<br> +And help a wretched maid to flee.<br><br> + +Then Christabel stretched forth her hand<br> + And comforted fair Geraldine:<br> +O well, bright dame! may you command<br> + The service of Sir Leoline;<br> + And gladly our stout chivalry<br> +Will he send forth and friends withal,<br> + To guide and guard you safe and free<br> +Home to your noble father's hall.<br> +She rose: and forth with steps they passed<br> +That strove to be, and were not, fast.<br> + Her gracious stars the lady blest<br> + And thus spake on sweet Christabel:<br> + All our household are at rest,<br> +The hall as silent as the cell;<br> + Sir Leoline is weak in health,<br> +And may not well awakened be,<br> + But we will move as if in stealth,<br> +And I beseech your courtesy,<br> +This night, to share your couch with me.<br><br> + +They crossed the moat, and Christabel<br> +Took the key that fitted well;<br> +A little door she opened straight,<br> +All in the middle of the gate;<br> +The gate that was ironed within and without,<br> +Where an army in battle array had marched out.<br> +The lady sank, belike through pain,<br> +And Christabel with might and main<br> +Lifted her up, a weary weight,<br> +Over the threshold of the gate:<br> +Then the lady rose again,<br> +And moved, as she were not in pain.<br><br> + +So free from danger, free from fear,<br> +They crossed the court: right glad they were.</blockquote> + +Following the popular superstition that dogs are supposed to see ghosts, +and therefore see the supernatural, the mastiff yells, when Geraldine +appears:— + +<blockquote>Outside her kennell, the mastiff old<br> +Lay fast asleep, in moonshine cold.<br> +The mastiff old did not awake,<br> +Yet she an angry moan did make!<br> +And what can ail the mastiff bitch?<br> +Never till now she uttered yell,<br> +Beneath the eye of Christabel.</blockquote> + +Geraldine had already worked upon the kindness of Christabel, so that +she had lifted her over the threshold of the gate, which Geraldine's +fallen power had prevented her passing of herself, the place being holy +and under the influence of the Virgin. + +<blockquote>"Praise we the Virgin all divine,<br> +Who hath rescued thee from thy distress,<br> +Alas! Alas! said Geraldine,<br> +I cannot speak for weariness.<br> +They pass the hall that echoes still,<br> +Pass as lightly as you will!<br> +The brands were flat, the brands were dying,<br> +Amid their own white ashes lying;<br> +But when the lady passed there came<br> +A tongue of light, a fit of flame;<br> +And Christabel saw the lady's eye,<br> +And nothing else saw she thereby<br> +Save the boss of the shield of Sir Leoline tall,<br> +Which hung in a murky old nitch in the wall.<br> +O! softly tread, said Christabel,<br> +My father seldom sleepeth well."</blockquote> + +Geraldine, who affects to be weary, arrives at the chamber of +Christabel — this room is beautifully ornamented, + +<blockquote>"Carved with figures strange and sweet,<br> +All made out of the carver's brain,<br> +For a lady's chamber meet<br> +The lamp with twofold silver chain<br> +Is fasten'd to an angel's feet." +</blockquote> + +Such is the mysterious movement of this supernatural lady, that all this +is visible, and when she passed the dying brands, there came a fit of +flame, and Christabel saw the lady's eye. + +<blockquote>The silver lamp burns dead and dim;<br> +But Christabel the lamp will trim.<br> +She trimm'd the lamp and made it bright,<br> +And left it swinging to and fro,<br> +While Geraldine, in wretched plight,<br> +Sank down upon the floor below.<br> +O weary lady Geraldine,<br> +I pray you drink this cordial wine,<br> +It is a wine of virtuous powers;<br> +My mother made it of wild flowers.<br> +And will your mother pity me,<br> +Who am a maiden most forlorn?<br> +Christabel answer'd — Woe is me!<br> +She died the hour that I was born,<br> +I have heard the grey-hair'd friar tell,<br> +How on her death-bed she did say,<br> +That she should hear the castle bell<br> +Strike twelve upon my wedding-day.<br> +O mother dear! that thou wert here!<br> +I would, said Geraldine, she were!</blockquote> + +The poet now introduces the real object of the supernatural +transformation: the spirit of evil struggles with the deceased and +sainted mother of Christabel for the possession of the lady. To render +the scene more impressive, the mother instantly appears, though she is +invisible to her daughter. Geraldine exclaims in a commanding voice + +<blockquote>"Off, wandering mother! Peak and pine!<br> +I have power to bid thee flee?"<br> +Alas! what ails poor Geraldine?<br> +Why stares she with unsettled eye<br> +Can she the bodiless dead espy?<br> +And why with hollow voice cries she,<br> +"Off, woman, off! this hour is mine — <br> +Though thou her guardian spirit be,<br> +"Off, woman, off! 'tis given to me."</blockquote> + +Here, Geraldine seems to be struggling with the spirit of Christabel's +mother, over which for a time she obtains the mastery. + +<blockquote>Then Christabel knelt by the lady's side,<br> +And rais'd to heaven her eyes so blue — <br> +Alas! said she, this ghastly ride — <br> +Dear lady! it hath wilder'd you!<br> +The lady wiped her moist cold brow,<br> +And faintly said, "'Tis over now!"<br><br> + +Again the wild-flower wine she drank,<br> +Her fair large eyes 'gan glitter bright,<br> +And from the floor whereon she sank,<br> +The lofty lady stood upright<br> +She was most beautiful to see,<br> +Like a lady of a far countrée.<br><br> + +And thus the lofty lady spake — <br> +All they who live in the upper sky,<br> +Do love you, holy Christabel!<br> +And you love them, and for their sake<br> +And for the good which me befell,<br> +Even I in my degree will try,<br> +Fair maiden to requite you well.<br> +But now unrobe yourself: for I<br> +Must pray, ere yet in bed I lie.<br><br> + +Quoth Christabel, so let it be!<br> +And as the lady bade, did she.<br> +Her gentle limbs did she undress,<br> +And lay down in her loveliness.</blockquote> + +But all this had given rise to so many different thoughts and feelings, +that she could not compose herself for sleep, so she sits up in her bed +to look at Geraldine who drew in her breath aloud, and unbound her +cincture. Her silken robe and inner vest then drop to her feet, and she +discovers her hideous form: + +<blockquote>A sight to dream of, not to tell!<br> +O shield her, shield sweet Christabel!<br> +Yet Geraldine nor speaks — nor stirs;<br> +Ah! what a stricken look was hers! +</blockquote> + +She then lies down by the side of Christabel, and takes her to her arms, +saying in a low voice these words:— + +<blockquote>In the touch of this bosom there worketh a spell,<br> +Which is lord of thy utterance, Christabel!<br> +Thou knowest to-night, and wilt know to-morrow,<br> +This mark of my shame, this seal of my sorrow;<br> +But vainly thou warrest,<br> +For this is alone in<br> +Thy power to declare,<br> +That in the dim forest<br> +Thou heardst a low moaning,<br> +And found'st a bright lady, surpassingly fair<br> +And didst bring her home with thee in love and in charity,<br> +To shield her and shelter her from the damp air. +</blockquote> + +The conclusion to part the first is a beautiful and well drawn picture, +slightly recapitulating some of the circumstances of the opening of the +poem.<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>The Conclusion to Part the First.</h4> + +<blockquote>It was a lovely sight to see,<br> +The lady Christabel, when she<br> +Was praying at the old oak tree.<br> +Amid the jagged shadows<br> +Of mossy leafless boughs,<br> +Kneeling in the moonlight,<br> +To make her gentle vows;<br> +Her slender palms together prest,<br> +Heaving sometimes on her breast;<br> +Her face resigned to bliss or bale — <br> +Her face, oh call it fair, not pale,<br> +And both blue eyes more bright than clear,<br> +Each about to have a tear.<br><br> + +With open eyes (ah woe is me!)<br> +Asleep and dreaming fearfully,<br> +Fearfully dreaming, yet I wis,<br> +Dreaming that alone which is — <br> +O sorrow and shame! Can this be she,<br> +The lady who knelt at the old oak tree?<br> +And lo! the worker of these harms,<br> +That holds the maiden in her arms,<br> +Seems to slumber still and mild<br> +As a mother with her child.<br><br> + +A star hath set, a star hath risen,<br> +O Geraldine! since arms of thine<br> +Have been the lovely lady's prison.<br> +O Geraldine! one hour was thine — <br> +Thou'st had thy will! By tairn and rill,<br> +The night-birds all that hour were still.</blockquote> + +At the ceasing of the spell, the joyousness of the birds is described, +and also the awakening of Christabel as from a trance. — During this rest +(her mother) the guardian angel is supposed to have been watching over +her. But these passages could not escape coarse minded critics, who put +a construction on them which never entered the mind of the author of +Christabel, whose poems are marked by delicacy.<br> +<br> +The effects of the apparition of her mother, supposed to be seen by +Christabel in a vision, are thus described: + +<blockquote>What if her guardian spirit 'twere,<br> +What if she knew her mother near?<br> +But this she knows, in joys and woes,<br> +That saints will aid if men will call:<br> +For the blue sky bends over all! +</blockquote> + +Here terminates the first canto.<br> +<br> +The passage from this sleep and the reappearance by day-light of +Geraldine, has always been considered a master-piece.<br> +<br> +The second part begins with a moral reflection, and introduces Sir +Leoline, the father of Christabel, with the following observation, on +his rising in the morning: + +<blockquote>Each matin bell, the Baron saith!<br> +Knells us back to a world of death.<br> +These words Sir Leoline first said<br> +When he rose and found his lady dead.<br> +These words Sir Leoline will say<br> +Many a morn to his dying day.</blockquote> + +After a popular custom of the country, the old bard Bracy is introduced. +Geraldine rises, puts on her silken vestments — tricks her hair, and not +doubting her spell, she awakens Christabel, + +<blockquote>"Sleep you, sweet lady Christabel?<br> +I trust that you have rested well."<br> +And Christabel awoke and spied<br> +The same who lay down by her side — <br> +O rather say, the same whom she<br> +Rais'd up beneath the old oak tree!<br> +Nay fairer yet, and yet more fair!<br> +For she belike hath drunken deep<br> +Of all the blessedness of sleep!<br> +And while she spake, her looks, her air<br> +Such gentle thankfulness declare;<br> +That (so it seem'd) her girded vests<br> +Grew tight beneath her heaving breasts.<br> +"Sure I have sinn'd!" said Christabel,<br> +"Now heaven be prais'd if all be well!"<br> +And in low faultering tones, yet sweet,<br> +Did she the lofty lady greet;<br> +With such perplexity of mind<br> +As dreams too lively leave behind.</blockquote> + +Christabel then leaves her couch, and having offered up her prayers, she +leads fair Geraldine to meet the Baron. — They enter his presence room, +when her father rises, and while pressing his daughter to his breast, he +espies the lady Geraldine, to whom he gives such welcome as + +<blockquote>"Might beseem so bright a dame!"</blockquote> + +But when the Baron hears her tale, and her father's name, the poet +enquires feelingly:— + +<blockquote>Why wax'd Sir Leoline so pale,<br> +Murmuring o'er the name again,<br> +Lord Roland de Vaux of Tryermaine?<br><br> + +Alas! they had been friends in youth;<br> +But whispering tongues can poison truth;<br> +And constancy lives in realms above;<br> +And life is thorny; and youth is vain;<br> +And to be wroth with one we love,<br> +Doth work like madness in the brain.<br> +And thus it chanc'd, as I divine,<br> +With Roland and Sir Leoline.<br> +Each spake words of high disdain<br> +And insult to his heart's best brother:<br> +They parted — never to meet again!<br> +But never either found another<br> +To free the hollow heart from paining — <br> +They stood aloof, the scars remaining,<br> +Like cliffs which had been rent asunder;<br> +A dreary sea now flows between; — <br> +But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,<br> +Shall wholly do away, I ween,<br> +The marks of that which once hath been.</blockquote> + +Sir Leoline gazed for a moment on the face of Geraldine, and the +youthful Lord of Tryermaine again came back upon his heart. He is then +described as forgetting his age, and his noble heart swells with +indignation.<br> +<br> +He then affectionately takes Geraldine in his arms, who meets the +embrace:— + +<blockquote>"Prolonging it with joyous look,<br> +Which when she viewed, a vision fell<br> +Upon the soul of Christabel,<br> +The vision of fear, the touch and pain!<br> +She shrunk and shudder'd and saw again<br> +(Ah woe is me! Was it for thee,<br> +Thou gentle maid! such sights to see?)</blockquote> + +Geraldine then appears to her in her real character, (<i>half</i> human +only,) the sight of which alarms Christabel. The Baron mistakes for +jealousy this alarm in his daughter, which was induced by fear of +Geraldine, and had been the sole cause of her unconsciously imitating +the "hissing sound:" + +<blockquote>Whereat the Knight turn'd wildly round,<br> +And nothing saw, but his own sweet maid<br> +With eyes uprais'd, as one that pray'd.</blockquote> + +This touch, this sight passed away, and left in its stead the vision of +her guardian angel (her mother) which had comforted her after rest, and +having sought consolation in prayer, her countenance resumes its natural +serenity and sweetness. The Baron surprised at these sudden transitions, +exclaims, + +<blockquote>"What ails then my beloved child?"</blockquote> + +Christabel makes answer:— + + +<blockquote> "All will yet be well!"<br> +I ween, she had no power to tell<br> +Aught else: so mighty was the spell.</blockquote> + +Yet the Baron seemed so captivated by Geraldine, as to "deem her a thing +divine." She pretended much sorrow, and feared she might have offended +Christabel, praying with humility to be sent home immediately. + +<blockquote> "Nay!<br> +Nay — by my soul!" said Leoline.<br> +"Ho! — Bracy, the bard, the charge be thine!<br> +Go thou with music sweet and loud<br> +And take two steeds with trappings proud;<br> +And take the youth whom thou lov'st best<br> +To bear thy harp and learn thy song,<br> +And clothe you both in solemn vest<br> +And over the mountains haste along.</blockquote> + +He is desired to continue his way to the castle of Tryermaine. Bracy is +thus made to act in a double capacity, as bard and herald: in the first, +he is to announce to Lord Roland the safety of his daughter in Langdale +Hall; in the second as herald to the Baron, he is to convey an apology +according to the custom of that day, + +<blockquote>"He bids thee come without delay,<br> +With all thy numerous array;<br> +And take thy lovely daughter home,<br> +And he will meet thee on the way,<br> +With all his numerous array;<br> +White with their panting palfrey's foam,<br> +And by mine honour! I will say,<br> +That I repent me of the day;<br> +When I spake words of fierce disdain,<br> +To Roland de Vaux of Tryermaine! — <br> +For since that evil hour hath flown,<br> +Many a summer's sun hath shone;<br> +Yet ne'er found I a friend again<br> +Like Roland de Vaux of Tryermaine."<br> +The lady fell, and clasped his knees,<br> +Her face upraised, her eyes o'erflowing,<br> +And Bracy replied, with faltering voice,<br> +His gracious hail on all bestowing: — <br> +Thy words, thou sire of Christabel,<br> +Are sweeter than my harp can tell.<br> +Yet might I gain a boon of thee,<br> +This day my journey should not be,<br> +So strange a dream hath come to me:<br> +That I had vow'd with music loud<br> +To clear yon wood from thing unblest,<br> +Warn'd by a vision in my rest!</blockquote> + +The dream is then related by Bracy; it is an outline of the past, and a +prophecy of the future. — The Baron listens with a smile, turns round, +and looks at Geraldine, + +<blockquote>"His eyes made up of wonder and love;<br> +And said in courtly accents fine,<br> +Sweet maid, Lord Roland's beauteous dove,<br> +With arms more strong than harp or song,<br> +Thy sire and I will crush the snake!"<br> +He kissed her forehead as he spake,<br> +And Geraldine in maiden wise,<br> +Casting down her large bright eyes;<br> +With blushing cheek and courtesy fine,<br> +She turn'd her from Sir Leoline;<br> +Softly gathering up her train,<br> +That o'er her right arm fell again;<br> +And folded her arms across her chest,<br> +And couch'd her head upon her breast.<br> +And look'd askance at Christabel — <br> +Jesu, Maria, shield her well!</blockquote> + +Then takes place that extraordinary change which, being read in a party +at Lord Byron's, is said to have caused Shelley to faint:— + +<blockquote>A snake's small eye blinks dull and shy,<br> +And the lady's eyes, they shrunk in her head,<br> +Each shrunk up to a serpent's eye,<br> +And with somewhat of malice, and more of dread<br> +At Christabel she looked askance! — <br> +One moment, — and the sight was fled!<br> +But Christabel in dizzy trance,<br> +Stumbling on the unsteady ground — <br> +Shudder'd aloud, with a hissing sound;<br> +And Geraldine again turn'd round,<br> +And like a thing, that sought relief,<br> +Full of wonder and full of grief;<br> +She roll'd her large bright eyes divine,<br> +Wildly on Sir Leoline.<br><br> + +The maid, alas! her thoughts are gone,<br> +She nothing sees — no sight but one!</blockquote> + +The look, those shrunken serpent eyes, had made such a deep impression +on Christabel, + +<blockquote>That all her features were resign'd<br> +To the sole image in her mind:<br> +And passively did imitate<br> +That look of dull and treacherous hate.<br> +And thus she stood in dizzy trance,<br> +Still picturing that look askance.<br><br> + +But when the trance was o'er, the maid<br> +Paus'd awhile and inly pray'd,<br> +"By my mother's soul do I entreat<br> +That thou this woman send away!"<br> +She said, and more she could not say,<br> +For what she knew she could not tell<br> +O'er master'd by the mighty spell.</blockquote> + +The poet now describes the Baron as suffering under the confused +emotions of love for Christabel, and anger at her apparent jealousy, and +the insult offered to the daughter of his friend, which so wrought upon +him that, + +<blockquote>He roll'd his eye with stern regard<br> +Upon the gentle minstrel bard,<br> +And said in tones abrupt, austere — <br> +"Why, Bracy? dost thou loiter here?<br> +"I bade thee hence!" The bard obey'd,<br> +And turning from his own sweet maid,<br> +The aged knight, Sir Leoline<br> +Led forth the lady Geraldine!</blockquote> + +Here ends the second canto.<br> +<br> +In the conclusion to the second canto, he speaks of a child and its +father's fondness, so often expressed by "you little rogue," " you +little rascal," with an endearing kiss, says:— + +<blockquote>A little child, a limber elf,<br> + Singing, dancing to itself;<br> + A fairy thing with red round cheeks,<br> + That always finds and never seeks;<br> + Makes such a vision to the sight,<br> + As fills a father's eyes with light;<br> + And pleasures flow in so thick and fast<br> + Upon his heart, that he at last<br> + Must needs express his love's excess,<br> + With words of unmeant bitterness.</blockquote> + +The following relation was to have occupied a third and fourth canto, +and to have closed the tale.<br> +<br> +Over the mountains, the Bard, as directed by Sir Leoline, "hastes" with +his disciple; but in consequence of one of those inundations supposed to +be common to this country, the spot only where the castle once stood is +discovered, — the edifice itself being washed away. He determines to +return. Geraldine being acquainted with all that is passing, like the +Weird Sisters in Macbeth, vanishes. Re-appearing, however, she waits the +return of the Bard, exciting in the mean time, by her wily arts, all the +anger she could rouse in the Baron's breast, as well as that jealousy of +which he is described to have been susceptible. The old Bard and the +youth at length arrive, and therefore she can no longer personate the +character of Geraldine, the daughter of Lord Roland de Vaux, but changes +her appearance to that of the accepted though absent lover of +Christabel. Next ensues a courtship most distressing to Christabel, who +feels — she knows not why — great disgust for her once favoured knight. +This coldness is very painful to the Baron, who has no more conception +than herself of the supernatural transformation. She at last yields to +her father's entreaties, and consents to approach the altar with this +hated suitor. The real lover returning, enters at this moment, and +produces the ring which she had once given him in sign of her +betrothment. Thus defeated, the supernatural being Geraldine disappears. +As predicted, the castle bell tolls, the mother's voice is heard, and to +the exceeding great joy of the parties, the rightful marriage takes +place, after which follows a reconciliation and explanation between the +father and daughter.<br> +<br> +Lamb, who visited us soon after Coleridge's death, and not long before +his own, talking of the <i>Christabel</i>, observed, "I was very angry with +Coleridge, when I first heard that he had written a second canto, and +that he intended to finish it; but when I read the beautiful apostrophe +to the two friends, it calmed me." He was one of those who strongly +recommended Coleridge to leave as a fragment what he had so beautifully +begun. With the first edition of the <i>Christabel</i> was given <i>Kubla Khan</i>, +the dream within a dream, written in harmonious and fluent rhythm. +<i>The Pains of Sleep</i> was also added. <a name="fr97">This</a> is a poem communicating a +portion of his personal sufferings<a href="#f97"><sup>6</sup></a>. All these were published in 1816.<br> +<br> +In the introduction to <i>The Lay of the last Minstrel</i>, 1830, Sir +Walter says, + +<blockquote>"Were I ever to take the unbecoming freedom of censuring a +man of Mr. Coleridge's extraordinary talents, it would be on account of +the caprice and indolence with which he has thrown from him, as in mere +wantonness, those unfinished scraps of poetry, which, like the Tasso of +antiquity, defied the skill of his poetical brethren to complete them. +The charming fragments which the author abandons to their fate, are +surely too valuable to be treated like the proofs of careless engravers, +the sweepings of whose studies often make the fortune of some +pains-taking collector. And in a note to the Abbot, alluding to +Coleridge's beautiful and tantalizing fragment of Christabel, he adds, +Has not our own imaginative poet cause to fear that future ages will +desire to summon him from his place of rest, as Milton longed + +<blockquote>'To call up him who left half told<br> + The story of Cambuscam bold.'"</blockquote></blockquote> + +Since writing the preceding pages, I have met with a critique on the +Christabel, written immediately after it was published, from which I +select a few passages, in the hope that they may further interest the +admirers of this poem: + +<blockquote>"The publication of <i>Christabel</i> cannot be an indifferent circumstance + to any true lover of poetry — it is a singular monument of genius, and + we doubt whether the fragmental beauty that it now possesses can be + advantageously exchanged for the wholeness of a finished narrative. In + its present form it lays irresistible hold of the imagination. It + interests even by what it leaves untold. — The story is like a dream of + lovely forms, mixed with strange and indescribable terrors. The scene, + the personages, are those of old romantic superstition; but we feel + intimate with them, as if they were of our own day, and of our own + neighbourhood. It is impossible not to suppose that we have known + "sweet Christabel," from the time when she was "a fairy thing, with + red round cheeks," till she had grown up, through all the engaging + prettinesses of childhood, and the increasing charms of youth, to be + the pure and dignified creature, which we find her at the opening of + the poem. The scene is laid at midnight, in the yet leafless wood, a + furlong from the castle-gate of the rich Baron Sir Leoline, whose + daughter, "the lovely Lady Christabel," has come, in consequence of a + vow, to pray at the old oak tree, "for the weal of her lover that's + far away." In the midst of her orisons she is suddenly alarmed by a + moaning near her, which turns out to be the complaint of the Lady + Geraldine, who relates, that she had been carried off by warriors, and + brought to this wild wood, where they had left her with intent quickly + to return. This story of Geraldine's easily obtains credence from the + unsuspecting Christabel, who conducts her secretly to a chamber in the + castle. There the mild and beautiful Geraldine seems transformed in + language and appearance to a sorceress, contending with the spirit of + Christabel's deceased mother for the mastery over her daughter; but + Christabel's lips are sealed by a spell. What she knows she cannot + utter; and scarcely can she herself believe that she knows it.<br> +<br> + On the return of morning, Geraldine, in all her pristine beauty, + accompanies the innocent but perplexed Christabel to the presence of + the Baron, who is delighted when he learns that she is the daughter of + his once loved friend, Sir Roland de Vaux, of Tryermaine. — We shall + not pursue the distress of Christabel, the mysterious warnings of + Bracy the Bard, the assumed sorrow of Geraldine, or the indignation of + Sir Leoline, at his daughter's seemingly causeless jealousy — what we + have principally to remark with respect to the tale is, that, wild and + romantic and visionary as it is, it has a truth of its own, which + seizes on and masters the imagination from the beginning to the end. + The poet unveils with exquisite skill the finer ties of imagination + and feeling by which they are linked to the human heart.<br> +<br> + The elements of our sensibility, to all that concerns fair + Christabel, are of the purest texture; they are not formally announced + in a set description, but they accompany and mark her every movement + throughout the piece — Incessu patuit Dea. — She is the support of her + noble father's declining age — sanctified by the blessing of her + departed mother — the beloved of a valorous and absent knight — the + delight and admiration of an inspired bard — she is a being made up of + tenderness, affection, sweetness, piety! There is a fine + discrimination in the descriptions of Christabel and Geraldine, + between the lovely and the merely beautiful. There is a moral + sensitiveness about Christabel, which none but a true poet could + seize. It would be difficult to find a more delicate touch of this + kind in any writer, than her anxious exclamation when, in passing the + hall with Geraldine, a gleam bursts from the dying embers.<br> +<br> + Next in point of merit to the power which Mr. Coleridge has displayed, + in interesting us by the moral beauty of his heroine, comes the skill + with which he has wrought the feelings and fictions of superstition + into shape. The witchlike Geraldine lying down by the side of + Christabel, and uttering the spell over her, makes the reader thrill + with indefinable horror.<br> +<br> + <a name="fr98">We</a> find another striking excellence of this poem, and which powerfully + affects every reader, by placing, as it were before his eyes, a + distinct picture of the events narrated, with all their appendages of + sight and sound — the dim forest — the massive castle-gate — the angry + moan of the sleeping mastiff — the sudden flash of the dying + embers — the echoing hall — the carved chamber, with its curious + lamp — in short, all that enriches and adorns this tale, with a + luxuriance of imagination seldom equalled."<a href="#f98"><sup>7</sup></a></blockquote> + +Whilst in the full enjoyment of his creative powers, Coleridge wrote in +a letter to a friend the following critique on the <i>Hymn before Sunrise +in the Vale of Chamouni,</i> which is supposed to have been composed about +the time of the <i>Christabel</i>, though not published till 1816, in the +<i>Sibylline Leaves</i>. It will serve to shew how freely he assented to the +opinions of his friends, and with what candour he criticised his own +poems, recording his opinions whether of censure or of praise:— + +<blockquote> "In a copy of verses, entitled <i>a Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of + Chamouni,</i> I describe myself under the influence of strong devotional + feelings, gazing on the mountain, till as if it had been a shape + emanating from and sensibly representing her own essence, my soul had + become diffused through the mighty vision and there, + +<blockquote>'As in her natural form, swell'd vast to Heaven.'</blockquote> + + Mr. Wordsworth, I remember, censured the passage as strained and + unnatural, and condemned the hymn in toto, (which, nevertheless, I + ventured to publish in my <i>Sibylline Leaves,'</i> as a specimen of the + mock sublime. It may be so for others, but it is impossible that I + should myself find it unnatural, being conscious that it was the image + and utterance of thoughts and emotions in which there was no mockery. + Yet, on the other hand, I could readily believe that the mood and + habit of mind out of which the hymn rose, that differs from Milton's + and Thomson's and from the psalms, the source of all three, in the + author's addressing himself to <i>individual</i> objects actually + present to his senses, while his great predecessors apostrophize + <i>classes</i> of things presented by the memory, and generalized by + the understanding; — I can readily believe, I say, that in this there + may be too much of what our learned <i>med'ciners</i> call the + <i>idiosyncratic</i> for true poetry. — For, from my very childhood, I + have been accustomed to <i>abstract</i>, and as it were, unrealize + whatever of more than common interest my eyes dwelt on, and then by a + sort of transfusion and transmission of my consciousness to identify + myself with the object; and I have often thought within the last five + or six years, that if ever I should feel once again the genial warmth + and stir of the poetic impulse, and refer to my own experiences, I + should venture on a yet stranger and wilder allegory than of + yore — that I would allegorize myself as a rock, with its summit just + raised above the surface of some bay or strait in the Arctic Sea, + 'while yet the stern and solitary night brooked no alternate + sway' — all around me fixed and firm, methought, as my own substance, + and near me lofty masses, that might have seemed to 'hold the moon and + stars in fee,' and often in such wild play with meteoric lights, or + with the quiet shine from above, which they made rebound in sparkles, + or dispand in off-shoot, and splinters, and iridiscent needle shafts + of keenest glitter, that it was a pride and a place of healing to lie, + as in an apostle's shadow, within the eclipse and deep + substance-seeming gloom of 'these dread ambassadors from earth to + heaven, great hierarchs!' And though obscured, yet to think myself + obscured by consubstantial forms, based in the same foundation as my + own. I grieved not to serve them — yea, lovingly and with gladsomeness + I abased myself in their presence: for they are my brothers, I said, + and the mastery is theirs by right of older birth, and by right of the + mightier strivings of the hidden fire that uplifted them above me." +</blockquote> + +This poem has excited much discussion, and many individuals have +expressed different opinions as to its origin. Some assert that it is +borrowed from our own great poets; whilst German readers say, that it is +little more than a free translation from a poem of Frederica Brun. That +it is founded on Frederica Brun's poem cannot be doubted; but those who +compare the two poems must at once feel, that to call Coleridge's a +translation, containing as it does new thoughts, exciting different +feelings, and being in fact a new birth, a glorification of the +original, would be a misuse of words. I insert the following note of +Coleridge's, which appears applicable to the subject:— + +<blockquote>In looking at objects of nature, while I am thinking, as at yonder + moon dim-glimmering through the dewy window-pane, I seem rather to be + seeking, as it were <i>asking</i>, a symbolical language for something + within me that already and for ever exists, than observing any thing + new. Even when that latter is the case, yet still I have always an + obscure feeling, as if that new phoenomenon were the dim awaking of a + forgotten or hidden truth of my inner nature. — It is still interesting + as a word, a symbol! It is the <img src="images/CG4.gif" width="72" height="30" alt="Greek: logos"> the Creator! and the + Evolver! What is the right, the virtuous feeling and consequent + action, when a man having long meditated and perceived a certain truth + finds another, a foreign writer, who has handled the same with an + approximation to the truth, as he had previously conceived it? Joy! + Let truth make her voice audible! While I was preparing the pen to + write this remark I lost the train of thought which had led me to it. + I meant to have asked something else, now forgotten for the above + answers itself — it needed no new answer, I trust, in my heart."<br> +<br> + <i>15th April, 1805</i>. </blockquote> + +Coleridge, who was an honest man, was equally honest in literature; and +had he thought himself indebted to any other author, he would have +acknowledged the same.<br> +<br> +Born a poet, and a philosopher, by reflection, the mysterious depths of +nature and the enquiry into these depths were among his chief delights. +And from boyhood he had felt that it was the business of this life, to +prepare for that which is to come. His schoolfellow, Lamb, also +observed, that from his youth upward, "he hungered for eternity," +sincerely and fervently praying to be so enlightened as to attain it.<br> +<br> +Though usually described "as doing nothing," — "an idler," "a dreamer," +and by many such epithets — he sent forth works which, though they had +cost him years of thought, never brought him any suitable return. In a +note written in 1825, speaking of himself, he says, + +<blockquote> "A man of letters, friendless, because of no faction: repeatedly, and + in strong language inculpated of hiding his light under a bushel, yet + destined to see publication after publication abused by the <i>Edinburgh + Review</i>, as the representative of one party, and not even noticed by + the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, as the representative of the other — and to + receive as the meed of his labours for the cause of freedom against + despotism and jacobinism, of the church against infidelity and schism; + and of principle against fashion and sciolism, slander, loss, and + embarrassment."</blockquote> + + If, however, we were to collect the epithets applied + to Milton in his time, they would now appear incredible; — so when the + misconceptions arising from slander shall have ceased, the name of + Coleridge will be enrolled among those of our most illustrious men. + The poet has said of Gay, "in wit, a <i>man</i>; simplicity, a + <i>child</i>." <br> +<br> +But such was the extent and grasp of Coleridge's intellectual powers, +that of him it may be said, "In wit, a giant; in simplicity, a very +child." Though conscious of his own powers, with other men, he walked +most humbly, and whatever their station or acquirements, he would talk +to them as equals. He seemed but slightly connected with the things of +the world, for which, save the love of those dear to him, he cared but +little, living in this affection for his friends, and always feeling and +acting in the spirit of that humility he has so beautifully described. +"That humility which is the mother of charity," and which was in-woven +in his being, revealing itself in all his intercourse throughout the +day — for he looked on man as God's creature. All that he thought and +taught was put forth in the same spirit and with the strongest sense of +duty, so that they might learn of him with pleasure. Whatever be +considered the faulty part of his own character, he freely acknowledged +to others, with an admonition to avoid the like. His sensitive nature +induced a too great proneness to a self-accusing spirit; yet in this was +there no affected humility, though it might unfortunately dispose some +to think evil of him where little or none existed, or form an excuse to +others for their neglect of him. With respect to other men, however, all +his feelings and judgments ever gave proof of the very reverse. The +natural piety of his mind, led him most frequently to dwell on the +thought of time and eternity, and was the cause of his discussions +<i>ending</i> generally with theology.<br> +<br> +During the first week of his residence at Highgate, he conversed +frequently on the Trinity and on Unitarianism, and in one of these +conversations, his eye being attracted by a large cowry, very handsomely +spotted: + +<blockquote> "Observe," said he, "this shell, and the beauty of its exterior here + pourtrayed. Reverse it and place it to your ear, you will find it + empty, and a hollow murmuring sound issuing from the cavity in which + the animal once resided. This shell, with all its beautiful spots, was + secreted by the creature when living within it, but being plucked out, + nothing remains save the hollow sound for the ear. Such is + Unitarianism; it owes any beauty it may have left to the Christianity + from which it separated itself. <a name="fr99">The</a> teachers of Unitarianism have + severed from <i>their</i> Christianity its <i>Life</i><a href="#f99"><sup>8</sup></a>, by + removing the doctrine of St. John; and thus mutilated, <i>they</i> + call the residue the religion of Christ, implying the whole of the + system, but omitting in their teaching the doctrine of redemption." </blockquote> + +This illustration reminds me of what took place between two men well +known in the literary world, who were at a dinner party together, both +dissenters, — one a Unitarian. In the evening, tea was brought on a large +silver waiter. They were popular writers of the day. One of them +observing the salver facetiously cried out, "See how we authors swim." +"Read the inscription on it," said the kindhearted Unitarian: his friend +did so, and seeing that it had been presented in token of satisfaction +for his friend's labours in the "Improved Version of the New Testament," +emphatically exclaimed, "Take it away! I am a Unitarian, because I am a +Trinitarian; you have hitherto at least adopted a misnomer." Twenty-five +years since the Unitarians were of two creeds; one class materialists, +the other immaterialists, but both agreeing that Christ was only an +inspired <i>man</i>. If I am rightly informed, they are not more +orthodox at the present day.<br> +<br> +When Coleridge was among the Unitarians, his deeper course of reasoning +had not yet commenced. During his school education he became a Socinian; +the personality of the Trinity had staggered him, and he in consequence +preached for a short time at different Unitarian meetings; but in the +course of examination, he found that the doctrines he had to deliver +were mere moral truths, while he was "craving for a <i>faith</i>," his +heart being with Paul and John, though his head was with Spinoza. In +after life, speaking of his conversion to Christianity, he often +repeated — He did not believe in the Trinity, because to him at that +time, the belief seemed contradictory to reason and scripture. "What +care I," said he, "for Rabbi Paul, or Rabbi John, if they be opposed to +moral sense." This was going a step beyond the Socinians, but this step +was the means of his being reclaimed from error, for having by his +course of reasoning gradually diminished "even this faith," that which +remained with him was so small, that it altogether sank into unbelief; +and he then felt compelled to retrace his steps from the point whence he +had started. Led by further enquiries after truth, deeper meditation +revealed to him the true value of the scriptures; and at the same time +his philosophic views enlarging, he found that the doctrine of the +Trinity was not contrary to reason — to reason in its highest sense; and +he then discovered how far he had misbelieved, or had been, as he +stated, puffed up by Socinian views. On quitting Shrewsbury and +returning to Bristol, he seceded from the Unitarians, and observed, that +if they had attempted to play the same tricks with a neighbour's will, +which they had done with the New Testament, they would deserve to be put +in the pillory. <a name="fr100">He</a> continued attached to the writings of St. John and +St. Paul, for thirty-four years of his life<a href="#f100"><sup>9</sup></a>, and having grown in +strength with increase of years, he died in the faith of these apostles. +And yet but lately did it appear in print, that "he was ever shifting +his opinions."<br> +<br> +When at Cambridge, his acquaintance with Mr. Frend led him to study the +philosophy of Hartley, and he became one of his disciples. Perhaps the +love of Coleridge for his college, "the ever honoured Jesus," might have +had some share in the cause of his early predilection in favour of +Hartley. He too was the son of a clergyman, was admitted to Jesus at the +age of fifteen, and became a fellow in 1705. According to the account +given of him by his biographer, Coleridge in several respects seems to +have resembled him. All his early studies were intended to fit him for +the church, but scruples arose in his mind, because he could not +conscientiously subscribe to the thirty-nine articles: he therefore gave +up all thoughts of the clerical profession, and entered the medical, for +which, as Coleridge himself states, he also had had the most ardent +desire. Hartley, when he had taken his degree, practised physic; and his +knowledge, his general acquirements, his sensibility, and his +benevolence, made him an ornament to the profession. In this profession +too, Coleridge, had circumstances allowed him to enter it, must have +been pre-eminent. Hartley, like Coleridge, was formed for sympathy and +all the charities of life — his countenance was benign — his manners were +gentle — and his eloquence pathetic and commanding. He first practised at +Newark, and afterwards removed to Bury St. Edmonds, where he ended his +career, dying in 1757, at the age of fifty-two. He was much afflicted +with stone, and was in part the means of procuring from the government +five thousand pounds for Mrs. Stevens, as a reward for the secret of +preparing the solvent, sold and advertised in her name. In 1740, he +published the work on which his fame rests, under the title of +<i>Observations on Man, his frame, his duty, and his expectations.</i> In it +he expounded his doctrine of vibrations, and attempted by reasoning to +explain the origin and propagation of sensation, built on gratuitous +assumption of certain vibrations of the brain and nerves, coupled by +association. Coleridge on his visit to Germany, soon made himself master +of this subject. In his <i>Biographia Literaria</i>, he devotes a chapter to +the examination of the work, and having seen the hollowness of the +argument, abandoned it. While in Germany, Coleridge also studied Des +Cartes, and saw the source of Locke's <i>Theory</i>, from which he entirely +differed. He next turned his attention to Spinoza, but with a mind so +logically formed, and so energetic in the search after truth, it was +impossible for him to dwell long on a philosophy thus constructed — and +Coleridge was still left to yearn for a resting place on which to base +his faith. After he had successively studied in the schools of Locke, +Berkeley, Leibnitz, and Hartley, and could find in one of them an +abiding place for his reason; + +<blockquote>"I began," says he, "to ask myself, Is a +system of philosophy, as differing from mere history and classification, +possible? If possible, what are its necessary conditions? I was for a +while disposed to answer the first question in the negative, and to +admit that the sole practicable employment for the human mind was to +observe, to recollect, and to classify. <a name="fr101">Christianity</a> however is not a +theory, or a speculation, but a life — not a philosophy of life, but a +life and a living process."<a href="#f101"><sup>10</sup></a></blockquote> + +Spinoza being one of the writers which Coleridge, in his passage from +Socinianism to Christianity, had studied, the reader will probably be +interested with the following note, written by himself on the subject: + +<blockquote> "Paradoxical, as it assuredly is, I am convinced that Spinoza's + innocence and virtue, guarded and matured into invincible habit of + being, by a life of constant meditation and of intellectual pursuit, + were the conditions or temptations, <i>sine quibus non</i> of his + forming and maintaining a system subversive of all virtue. He saw so + clearly the <i>folly</i> and <i>absurdity</i> of wickedness, and felt + so weakly and languidly the passions tempting to it, that he + concluded, that nothing was wanting to a course of well-doing, but + clear conceptions and the <i>fortitudo intellectualis</i>; while his + very modesty, a prominent feature in his character, rendered him, as + it did Hartley, less averse to the system of necessity. Add to these + causes his profound admiration of pure mathematics, and the vast + progress made in it so unspeakably beneficial to mankind, their bodies + as well as souls, and souls as well as bodies; the reflection that the + essence of mathematical science consists in discovering the absolute + properties of forms and proportions, and how pernicious a bewilderment + was produced in this <i>sublime</i> science by the wild attempt of the + Platonists, especially the later (though Plato himself is far from + blameless in this respect,) to explain the <i>final</i> cause of + mathematical <i>figures</i> and of numbers, so as to subordinate them + to a principle of origination out of themselves; and the further + comparison of the progress of this <b>Science</b>, (<i>pura Mathesis</i>) + which excludes all consideration of final cause, with the unequal and + equivocal progress of those branches of literature which rest on, or + refer to final causes; and that the uncertainty and mixture with + error, appeared in proportion to such reference — and if I mistake not, + we shall have the most important parts of the history of Spinoza's + mind. It is a duty which we owe to truth, to distinguish Spinoza from + the Voltaires, Humes, and the whole nest of <i>popular</i> infidels, + to make manifest how precious a thing is the sincere thirst of truth + for the sake of truth undebased by vanity, appetite, and the ambition + of forming a sect of <i>arguescents</i> and trumpeters — and that it is + capable, to a wonderful degree, of rendering innoxious the poisonous + pangs of the worst errors — nay, heaven educing good out of the very + evil — the important advantages that have been derived from such men. + Wise and good men would never have seen the true basis and bulwark of + the right cause, if they had not been made to know and understand the + whole weight and possible force of the wrong cause; nor would have + even purified their own system from these admissions, on which the + whole of Spinozism is built, and which admissions were common to all + parties, and therefore fairly belonging to Spinoza. — Now I affirm that + none but an eminently pure and benevolent mind could have constructed + and perfected such a system as that of the ethics of Spinoza. Bad + hearted men always <i>hate</i> the religion and morality which they + attack — but hatred dims and <i>inturbidates</i> the logical faculties. + There is likewise a sort of lurking terror in such a heart, which + renders it far too painful to keep a steady gaze on the being of God + and the existence of immortality — they dare only attack it as Tartars, + a hot valiant inroad, and then they scour off again. Equally painful + is self-examination, for if the wretch be <i>callous</i>, the + <i>facts</i> of psychology will not present themselves — if not, who + could go on year after year in a perpetual process of deliberate + self-torture and shame. The very torment of the process would furnish + facts subversive of the system, for which the process was instituted. + The mind would at length be unable to disguise from itself the + unequivocal <i>fact</i> of its own shame and remorse, and this once + felt and distinctly acknowledged, Spinozism is blown up as by a mine."</blockquote> + +Coleridge had a great abhorrence of vice, and Spinoza having, in his +writings, strongly marked its debasing effects, he was from sympathy on +these points led to study his philosophy: but when on further research, +he discovered that his ethics led to Pantheism and ended in the denial +of the Deity — he abandoned these views, and gave up the study of +Spinoza. Perhaps the contemplation of such writers led him to compose +the following lines:— + +<blockquote>But some there are who deem themselves most free,<br> +When they within this gross and visible sphere<br> +Chain down the winged thought, scoffing ascent,<br> +Proud in their meanness: and themselves they cheat<br> +With noisy emptiness of learned phrase,<br> +Their subtle fluids, impacts, essences,<br> +Self-working tools, uncaused effects, and all<br> +Those blind Omniscients, those Almighty slaves,<br> +Untenanting creation of its <b>God</b>.<br> + <br> +<b>Sibylline Leaves</b> — (<i>Destiny of Nations</i>.)</blockquote> + +The errors of this writer, however, as before observed, produced this +great advantage; he recommenced his studies with greater care and +increased ardour, and in the Gospel of St. John, discovered the +truth — the truth, as Wordsworth powerfully sings, + +<blockquote>"That flashed upon that inward eye,<br> + Which is the bliss of solitude."</blockquote> + +Having now discovered in the Scriptures this truth, to him at that time +new and important, he pursued his philosophical researches — continually +finding what he sought for in the one, borne out and elucidated by the +other.<br> +<br> +<a name="fr102">After</a> he had corrected the proof sheets of the <i>Christabel</i>, the <i>Sibylline +Leaves</i>, and the <i>Biographia Literaria</i>; they were brought to London, and +published by Rest Fenner, Paternoster Row.<a href="#f102"><sup>11</sup></a><br> +<br> +One of those periodical distresses, which usually visit this country +about once in nine years, took place about this time, 1816, — and he was +in consequence requested by his publisher to write on the subject. He +therefore composed two Lay Sermons, addressed to the higher and to the +middle classes of society, and had the intention of addressing a third +to the lower classes. The first sermon he named "the Statesman's Manual, +or the Bible the best guide to political skill and foresight." The +pamphlet was as might have been expected, "cut up." He was an unpopular +writer on an unpopular subject. Time was, when reviews directed the +taste of the reading public, now, on the contrary, they judge it +expedient to follow it.<br> +<br> +But it may be well to place before the reader the expression of +Coleridge's own feelings, written after these several attacks, it may +also serve to show the persecution to which he was liable: + +<blockquote> "<a name="fr103">I</a> published a work a large portion of which was professedly + metaphysical. (First Lay Sermon.)<a href="#f103"><sup>12</sup></a><br> +<br> + A delay," said he, "occurred between its first annunciation and its + appearance; and it was reviewed by anticipation with a malignity, so + avowedly and so exclusively personal, as is, I believe, unprecedented + even in the present contempt of all common humanity that disgraces and + endangers the liberty of the press. <i>After</i> its appearance the + author of this lampoon was chosen to review it in the <i>Edinburgh + Review</i>: and under the single condition, that he should have written + what he himself really thought, and have criticised the work as he + would have done had its author been indifferent to him, I should have + chosen that man myself, both from the vigour and the originality of + his mind, and from his particular acuteness in speculative reasoning, + before all others. But I can truly say, that the grief with which I + read this rhapsody of predetermined insult, had the rhapsodist himself + for its whole and sole object: and that the indignant contempt which + it excited in me was as exclusively confined to his employer and + suborner. I refer to this <i>Review</i> at present, in consequence of + information having been given me, that the innuendo of my 'potential + infidelity,' grounded on one passage of my first Lay Sermon, has been + received and propagated with a degree of credence, of which I can + safely acquit the originator of the calumny. I give the sentences as + they stand in the Sermon, premising only that I was speaking + exclusively of miracles worked for the outward senses of men. It was + only to overthrow the usurpation exercised in and through the senses, + that the senses were miraculously appealed to. <b>Reason and Religion are + Their Own Evidence</b>. The natural sun is in this respect a symbol of the + spiritual: Ere he is fully arisen, and while his glories are still + under veil, he calls up the breeze to chase away the usurping vapours + of the night season, and thus converts the air itself into the + minister of its own purification: not surely in proof or elucidation + of the light from heaven, but to prevent its interception. Wherever, + therefore, similar circumstances coexist with the same moral causes, + the principles revealed, and the examples recorded, in the inspired + writings, render miracles superfluous: and if we neglect to apply + truths in the expectation of wonders, or under pretext of the + cessation of the latter, we tempt God and merit the same reply which + our Lord gave to the Pharisees on a like occasion.'<br> +<br> + In the sermon and the notes both the historical truth and the + necessity of the miracles are strongly and frequently asserted. 'The + testimony of books of history (namely, relatively to the signs and + wonders with which Christ came,) is one of the strong and stately + <i>pillars</i> of the church; but it is not the <i>foundation</i>.' + Instead, therefore, of defending myself, which I could easily effect + by a series of passages, expressing the same opinion, from the fathers + and the most eminent protestant divines, from the Reformation to the + Revolution, I shall merely state what my belief is, concerning the + true evidences of Christianity. +<ol type="1"> +<li>Its consistency with right reason, I consider as the outer court + of the temple, the common area within which it stands.</li> + +<li>The miracles, with and through which the religion was first + revealed and attested, I regard as the steps, the vestibule, the + portal of the temple.</li> + +<li>The sense, the inward feeling, in the soul of each believer, of + its exceeding <i>desirableness</i> — the experience, that he + <i>needs</i> something, joined with the strong foretokening, that the + redemption and the graces propounded to us in Christ are <i>what</i> + he needs — this I hold to be the true foundation of the spiritual + edifice.<br> +<br> + With the strong <i>a priori</i> probability that flows in from 1 and + 3, on the correspondent historical evidence of 2, no man can refuse or + neglect to make the experiment without guilt. But,</li> + +<li>it is the experience derived from a practical conformity to the + conditions of the gospel — it is the opening eye; the dawning light; + the terrors and the promises of spiritual growth; the blessedness of + loving God as God, the nascent sense of sin hated as sin, and of the + incapability of attaining to either without Christ; it is the sorrow + that still rises up from beneath, and the consolation that meets it + from above; the bosom treacheries of the principal in the warfare, and + the exceeding faithfulness and long-suffering of the uninterested + ally; — in a word, it is the actual <i> trial </i> of the faith in Christ, + with its accompaniments and results, that must form the arched roof, + and the faith itself is the completing keystone. In order to an + efficient belief in Christianity, a man must have been a Christian, + and this is the seeming <i>argumentum in circulo</i>, incident to all + spiritual truths, to every subject not presentable under the forms of + time and space, as long as we attempt to master by the reflex acts of + the understanding, what we can only <i>know</i> by the act of + <i>becoming</i>. 'Do the will of my Father, and ye shall know whether + I am of God.'</li> +</ol> + These four evidences I believe to have been, and still + to be, for the world, for the whole church, all necessary, all equally + necessary; but that at present, and for the majority of Christians + born in Christian countries, I believe the third and the fourth + evidences to be the most operative, not as superseding, but as + involving a glad undoubting faith in the two former. <i>Credidi, ideóque + intellexi</i>, appears to me the dictate equally of philosophy and + religion, even as I believe redemption to be the antecedent of + sanctification, and not its consequent. All spiritual predicates may + be construed indifferently as modes of action, or as states of being. + Thus holiness and blessedness are the same idea, now seen in relation + to act, and now to existence."<br> +<br> + <i>Biog. Liter</i>. Vol. ii. p. 303.</blockquote> + +His next publication was the <i>Zapolya,</i> which had a rapid sale, and +he then began a second edition of the <i>Friend</i> — if, indeed, as he +observes, + +<blockquote>"a work, the greatest part of which is new in substance, and the whole + in form and arrangement, can be described as an edition of the former." +</blockquote> + +At the end of the autumn of 1817, Coleridge issued the following +prospectus, and hoped by delivering the proposed lectures to increase +his utility; they required efforts indeed which he considered it a duty +to make, notwithstanding his great bodily infirmities, and the heartfelt +sorrow by which he had, from early life, been more or less oppressed:— + +<blockquote> "There are few families, at present, in the higher and middle classes + of English society, in which literary topics and the productions of + the Fine Arts, in some one or other of their various forms, do not + occasionally take their turn in contributing to the entertainment of + the social board, and the amusement of the circle at the fire-side. + The acquisitions and attainments of the intellect ought, indeed, to + hold a very inferior rank in our estimation, opposed to moral worth, + or even to professional and specific skill, prudence, and industry. + But why should they be opposed, when they may be made subservient + merely by being subordinated? It can rarely happen that a man of + social disposition; altogether a stranger to subjects of taste (almost + the only ones on which persons of both sexes can converse with a + common interest), should pass through the world without at times + feeling dissatisfied with himself. The best proof of this is to be + found in the marked anxiety which men, who have succeeded in life + without the aid of these accomplishments, shew in securing them to + their children. A young man of ingenuous mind will not wilfully + deprive himself of any species of respect. He will wish to feel + himself on a level with the average of the society in which he lives, + though he may be ambitious of <i>distinguishing</i> himself only in + his own immediate pursuit or occupation.<br><br> + + Under this conviction, the following Course of Lectures was planned. + The several titles will best explain the particular subjects and + purposes of each; but the main objects proposed, as the result of all, + are the two following:—</blockquote> +<ol type="I"> +<li>To convey, in a form best fitted to render them impressive at the + time, and remembered afterwards, rules and principles of sound + judgment, with a kind and degree of connected information, such as the + hearers, generally speaking, cannot be supposed likely to form, + collect, and arrange for themselves, by their own unassisted studies. + It might be presumption to say, that any important part of these + Lectures could not be derived from books; but none, I trust, in + supposing, that the same information could not be so surely or + conveniently acquired from such books as are of commonest occurrence, + or with that quantity of time and attention which can be reasonably + expected, or even wisely desired, of men engaged in business and the + active duties of the world.</li> + +<li>Under a strong persuasion that little of real value is derived by + persons in general from a wide and various reading; but still more + deeply convinced as to the actual <i> mischief </i> of unconnected and + promiscuous reading, and that it is sure, in a greater or less degree, + to enervate even where it does not likewise inflate; I hope to satisfy + many an ingenuous mind, seriously interested in its own development + and cultivation, how moderate a number of volumes, if only they be + judiciously chosen, will suffice for the attainment of every wise and + desirable purpose: that is, <i>in addition</i> to those which he + studies for specific and professional purposes. It is saying less than + the truth to affirm, that an excellent book (and the remark holds + almost equally good of a Raphael as of a Milton) is like a well-chosen + and well-tended fruit-tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. + With the due and natural intervals, we may recur to it year after + year, and it will supply the same nourishment and the same + gratification, if only we ourselves return with the same healthful + appetite.</li> +</ol> +<blockquote> + The subjects of the Lectures are indeed very <i>different</i>, but not + (in the strict sense of the term) <i>diverse</i>: they are + <i>various</i>, rather than <i>miscellaneous</i>. There is this bond + of connexion common to them all, — that the mental pleasure which they + are calculated to excite is not dependant on accidents of fashion, + place or age, or the events or the customs of the day; but + commensurate with the good sense, taste, and feeling, to the + cultivation of which they themselves so largely contribute, as being + all in <i>kind</i>, though not all in the same <i>degree</i>, + productions of <b>Genius</b>.<br> +<br> + What it would be arrogant to promise, I may yet be permitted to + hope, — that the execution will prove correspondent and adequate to the + plan. Assuredly my best efforts have not been wanting so to select and + prepare the materials, that, at the conclusion of the Lectures, an + attentive auditor, who should consent to aid his future recollection + by a few notes taken either during each Lecture or soon after, would + rarely feel himself, for the time to come, excluded from taking an + intelligent interest in any general conversation likely to occur in + mixed society.<br> +<br> + <b>S.T. Coleridge</b>.<br> +<br> +<br> + <i><b>Syllabus Of The Course.</b></i><br> +<br> + <b>Lecture I.</b> Tuesday Evening, January 27, 1818. — On the manners, + morals, literature, philosophy, religion, and the state of society in + general, in European Christendom, from the eighth to the fifteenth + century (that is, from A.D. 700 to A.D. 1400), more particularly in + reference to England, France, Italy, and Germany: in other words, a + portrait of the (so called) dark ages of Europe.<br> +<br> + <b>II</b>. On the tales and metrical romances common, for the most part, to + England, Germany, and the North of France; and on the English songs + and ballads; continued to the reign of Charles the First. — A few + selections will be made from the Swedish, Danish, and German + languages, translated for the purpose by the Lecturer.<br> +<br> + <b>III</b>. Chaucer and Spenser; of Petrarch; of Ariosto, Pulci, and Boiardo.<br> +<br> + <b>IV. V. and VI</b>. On the Dramatic Works of <b>Shakspeare</b>. In these Lectures + will be comprised the substance of Mr. Coleridge's former Courses on + the same subject, enlarged and varied by subsequent study and + reflection.<br> +<br> + <b>VII</b>. On Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger; with the + probable causes of the cessation of Dramatic 'Poetry' in England with + Shirley and Otway, soon after the Restoration of Charles the Second.<br> +<br> + <b>VIII</b>. Of the <i>Life</i> and <i>all</i> the <i>Works</i> of <b>Cervantes</b>, but chiefly of his + <i>Don Quixote</i>. The Ridicule of Knight-Errantry shewn to have been but a + secondary object in the mind of the Author, and not the principal + Cause of the Delight which the Work continues to give in all Nations, + and under all the Revolutions of Manners and Opinions.<br> +<br> + <b>IX</b>. On Rabelais, Swift, and Sterne: on the Nature and Constituents of + genuine Humour, and on the Distinctions of the Humorous from the + Witty, the Fanciful, the Droll, the Odd, &c.<br> +<br> + <b>X</b>. Of Donne, Dante, and Milton.<br> +<br> + <b>XI</b>. On the <i>Arabian Nights Entertainments</i>, and on the <i>romantic</i> + use of + the supernatural in Poetry, and in works of fiction not poetical. On + the conditions and regulations under which such Books may be employed + advantageously in the earlier Periods of Education.<br> +<br> + <b>XII</b>. On tales of witches, apparitions, &c. as distinguished from the + magic and magicians of asiatic origin. The probable sources of the + former, and of the belief in them in certain ages and classes of men. + Criteria by which mistaken and exaggerated facts may be distinguished + from absolute falsehood and imposture. Lastly, the causes of the + terror and interest which stories of ghosts and witches inspire, in + early life at least, whether believed or not.<br> +<br> + <b>XIII</b>. On colour, sound, and form, in nature, as connected with <b>Poesy</b>: + the word, 'Poesy' used as the 'generic' or class term, including + poetry, music, painting, statuary, and ideal architecture, as its + species. The reciprocal relations of poetry and philosophy to each + other; and of both to religion, and the moral sense.<br> +<br> + <b>XIV</b>. On the corruptions of the English language since the reign of + Queen Anne, in our style of writing prose. A few easy rules for the + attainment of a manly, unaffected, and pure language, in our genuine + mother-tongue, whether for the purposes of writing, oratory, or + conversation. Concluding Address."</blockquote> + +These lectures, from his own account, were the most profitable of any he +had before given, though delivered in an unfavorable situation; but +being near the Temple, many of the students were his auditors. It was +the first time I had ever heard him in public. He lectured from notes, +which he had carefully made; yet it was obvious, that his audience was +more delighted when, putting his notes aside, he spoke extempore; — many +of these notes were preserved, and have lately been printed in the +<i>Literary Remains</i>. In his lectures he was brilliant, fluent, and rapid; +his words seemed to flow as from a person repeating with grace and +energy some delightful poem. If, however, he sometimes paused, it was +not for the want of words, but that he was seeking the most appropriate, +or their most logical arrangement.<br> +<br> +The attempts to copy his lectures verbatim have failed, they are but +comments. Scarcely in anything could he be said to be a mannerist, his +mode of lecturing was his own. Coleridge's eloquence, when he gave +utterance to his rich thoughts, flowing like some great river, which +winds its way majestically at its own "sweet will," though occasionally +slightly impeded by a dam formed from its crumbling banks, but over +which the accumulated waters pass onward with increased force, so +arrested his listeners, as at times to make them feel almost breathless. +Such seemed the movement of Coleridge's words in lecture or in earnest +discourse, and his countenance retained the same charms of benignity, +gentleness, and intelligence, though this expression varied with the +thoughts he uttered, and was much modified by his sensitive nature. His +quotations from the poets, of high character, were most feelingly and +most luminously given, as by one inspired with the subject. In my early +intimacy with this great man, I was especially struck with the store of +knowledge he possessed, and on which I ever found one might safely rely. +I begged him to inform me by what means the human mind could retain so +much, to which he always gave the following answer: + +<blockquote>"The memory is of two kinds," (a division I have ever found useful), + "the one kind I designate the passive memory, the other the creative, + with the first I retain the names of <i>things</i>, <i>figures</i>, + and <i>numbers</i>, &c. and this in myself I believe to be very + defective. With the other I recall facts, and theories, &c. by means + of their law or their principle, and in tracing these, the images or + facts present themselves to me."</blockquote> + +Coleridge, as a motto to the first essay in <i>The Friend,</i> quotes +the following observation from the life of Petrarch: + +<blockquote> "Believe me," says this writer, "it requires no little confidence to + promise help to the struggling, counsel to the doubtful, light to the + blind, hope to the desponding, refreshment to the weary; these are + great things if they are accomplished, trifles if they exist but in + promise. I, however, aim not so much to prescribe a law for others, as + to set forth the law of my own mind." At this Coleridge always aimed, + and continuing the quotation from Petrarch, "Let the man who shall + approve of it, abide, and let him to whom it shall appear not + reasonable, reject it. 'Tis my earnest wish, I confess, to employ my + understanding and acquirements in that mode and direction in which I + may be able to benefit the largest number possible of my + fellow-creatures." </blockquote> + +Such was Coleridge's wish, and with this view, and with this end, he +constantly employed his time.<br> +<br> +His mind was occupied with serious thoughts — thoughts connected with the +deep truths he was endeavouring to inculcate. His heart was from his +early youth full of sympathy and love, and so remained till his latest +hour. To his friend, when in trouble or sorrow, this sympathy and solace +were freely given; and when he received, or thought he received, a +benefit, or a kindness, his heart overflowed with gratitude — even slight +services were sometimes over-valued by him. I have selected the +following from among many letters written at different periods, as +characteristic of the man, and evincing those religious, grateful, and +affectionate feelings which are so strongly marked in all he has ever +written, for, from his youth upward, he was wedded to the lovely and the +beautiful. In his letters, these feelings were occasionally expressed +with much liveliness, terseness, and originality.<br> +<br> +In doing this, I believe, I must anticipate some of the incidents of his +life; the first letter written was addressed to a friend, who was in +great anguish of mind from the sudden death of his mother, and was +written thirty years before his decease:— + +<blockquote> "Your letter, my friend, struck me with a mighty horror. It rushed + upon me and stupified my feelings. You bid me write you a religious + letter; I am not a man who would attempt to insult the greatness of + your anguish by any other consolation. Heaven knows that in the + easiest fortunes there is much dissatisfaction and weariness of + spirit; much that calls for the exercise of patience and resignation; + but in storms, like these, that shake the dwelling and make the heart + tremble, there is no middle way between despair and the yielding up of + the whole spirit unto the guidance of faith. And surely it is a matter + of joy, that your faith in Jesus has been preserved; the Comforter + that should relieve you is not far from you. <a name="fr104">But</a> as you are a + Christian, in the name of that Saviour, who was filled with bitterness + and made drunken with wormwood, I conjure you to have recourse in + frequent prayer to 'his God and your God,'<a href="#f104"><sup>13</sup></a> the God of mercies, + and father of all comfort. Your poor father is, I hope, almost + senseless of the calamity; the unconscious instrument of Divine + Providence knows it not, and your mother is in heaven. It is sweet to + be roused from a frightful dream by the song of birds, and the + gladsome rays of the morning. Ah, how infinitely more sweet to be + awakened from the blackness and amazement of a sudden horror, by the + glories of God manifest, and the hallelujahs of angels.<br> +<br> + As to what regards yourself, I approve altogether of your abandoning + what you justly call vanities. I look upon you as a man, called by + sorrow and anguish and a strange desolation of hopes into quietness, + and a soul set apart and made peculiar to God; we cannot arrive at any + portion of heavenly bliss without in some measure imitating Christ. + And they arrive at the largest inheritance who imitate the most + difficult parts of his character, and bowed down and crushed under + foot, cry in fulness of faith, 'Father, thy will be done.'<br> +<br> + I wish above measure to have you for a little while here — no visitants + shall blow on the nakedness of your feelings — you shall be quiet, and + your spirit may be healed. I see no possible objection, unless your + father's helplessness prevent you, and unless you are necessary to + him. If this be not the case, I charge you write me that you will + come.<br> +<br> + I charge you, my dearest friend, not to dare to encourage gloom or + despair — you are a temporary sharer in human miseries, that you may be + an eternal partaker of the Divine nature. I charge you, if by any + means it be possible, come to me. I remain, your affectionate,<br> +<br> + <b>S. T. Coleridge</b>."<br> +<br> +<hr width="50%" align="left"> +<br><br> + + "<b>My Dear Sir</b>,<br> +<br> + Accept my thanks for your kind remembrance of me, and for the proof of + it in the present of your tribute of friendship, I have read it with + uninterrupted interest, and with satisfaction scarcely less + continuous. In adding the three last words, I am taking the word + satisfaction in its strictest sense: for had I written pleasure, there + would have been no ground for the limitation. Indeed as it was, it is + a being scrupulous over much. <a name="fr105">For</a> at the two only passages at which I + made a moment's <i>halt</i> (viz. p. 3,<a href="#f105"><sup>14</sup></a> and p. 53, last line but + five,) she had seldom — oppressive awe, my not <i>objection</i> but + <i>stoppage</i> at the latter amounted only to a doubt, a + <i>quære</i>, whether the trait of character here given should not + have been followed by some little comment, as for instance, that such + a state of feeling, though not desirable in a regenerate person, in + whom belief had wrought love, and love obedience, must yet be ranked + amongst those constitutional differences that may exist between the + best and wisest Christians, without any corresponding difference in + their spiritual progress. One saint fixes his eyes on the <i>palm</i>, + another saint thinks of the previous <i>conflict</i>, and closes them + in prayer. Both are waters of the same fountain — <i>this</i> the + basin, <i>that</i> the salient column, both equally dear to God, and + both may be used as examples for men, the one to invite the + thoughtless sceptic, the other to alarm the reckless believer. You + will see, therefore, that I do not object to the sentence itself; but + as a matter of <i>feeling</i>, it met me too singly and suddenly. I + had not anticipated such a trait, and the surprise counterfeited the + sensation of perplexity for a moment or two. On as little objection to + any thing you have said, did the <i>desiderium</i> the sense of not + being quite satisfied, proceed in regard to the 44. p. 3. In the + particular instance in the application of the sentiment, I found + nothing to question or qualify. It was the rule or principle which a + certain class of your readers might be inclined to deduce from it, it + was the possible generalization of the particular instance that made + me pause. I am jealous of the disposition to turn Christianity or + Religion into a particular <i>business</i> or line. + +<blockquote>'Well, Miss, how + does your pencil go on, I was delighted with your last landscape.'<br> +<br> + 'Oh, sir, I have quite given <i>up</i> that, I have got into the + religious line.'</blockquote> + +Now, my dear sir, the rule which I have deduced from + the writings of St. Paul and St. John, and (permit me also to add) of + Luther, would be this. Form and endeavour to strengthen into an + habitual and instinct-like feeling, the sense of the utter + incompatibility of Christianity with every thing wrong or unseemly, + with whatever betrays or fosters the mind of flesh, the predominence + of the <i>animal</i> within us, by having habitually present to the + mind, the full and lively conviction of its perfect compatibility with + whatever is innocent of its harmony, with whatever + contra-distinguishes the <b>Human</b> from the animal; of its sympathy and + coalescence with the cultivation of the faculties, affections, and + fruitions, which God hath made <i>peculiar</i> to <i>man</i>, either + wholly or in their ordained <i>combination</i> with what is peculiar + to humanity, the blurred, but not obliterated signatures of our + original title deed, (and God said, man will we make in our own + image.) What? — shall Christianity exclude or alienate us from those + powers, acquisitions, and attainments, which Christianity is so + pre-eminently calculated to elevate and enliven and sanctify?<br> +<br> + Far, very far, am I from suspecting in you, my dear sir, any + participation in these prejudices of a shrivelled proselyting and + censorious religionist. But a numerous and stirring faction there is, + in the so called Religious Public, whose actual and actuating + principles, with whatever vehemence they may disclaim it in words, is, + that redemption is a something not yet effected — that there is neither + sense nor force in our baptism — and that instead of the Apostolic + command, <i>Rejoice, and again I say unto you, rejoice</i>; baptized + Christians are to be put on sackcloth and ashes, and try, by torturing + themselves and others, to procure a rescue from the devil. Again, let + me thank you for your remembrance of me, and believe me from the hour + we first met at Bristol, with esteem and regard,<br> +<br> + Your sincere friend,<br> +<br> + <b>S. T. Coleridge</b>."<br> +<br> +<hr width="25%" align="left"><br> +<br> + Ramsgate, 28th Oct. 1822.<br> +<br> + <b>Dear Friend</b>,<br> +<br> + Words I know are not wanted between you and me. But there are + occasions so awful, there may be instances and manifestations of + friendship so affecting, and drawing up with them so long a train from + behind, so many folds of recollection as they come onward on one's + mind, that it seems but a mere act of justice to oneself, a debt we + owe to the dignity of our moral nature to give them some record; a + relief which the spirit of man asks and demands to contemplate in some + outward symbol, what it is inwardly solemnizing. I am still too much + under the cloud of past misgivings, too much of the stun and stupor + from the recent peals and thunder-crush still remains, to permit me to + anticipate others than by wishes and prayers. What the effect of your + unwearied kindness may be on poor M.'s mind and conduct, I pray + fervently, and I feel a cheerful trust that I do not pray in vain, + that on my own mind and spring of action, it will be proved not to + have been wasted. I do inwardly believe, that I shall yet do something + to thank you, my dear — in the way in which you would wish to be + thanked — by doing myself honour. — Dear friend and brother of my soul, + God only knows how truly, and in the depth, you are loved and prized + by your affectionate friend,<br> +<br> + <b>S. T. Coleridge</b>."</blockquote> + +During the first lecture of the course in 1817, a young man of modest +demeanor sent him a letter, and afterwards introduced himself, stating +ti that he was a student in literature, and from his conversation, he +struck Coleridge as one much more attached to the better part of our +nature than to the love of gain. An intimacy consequently took place, +and Coleridge addressed many letters to him, from which will be selected +such as are critical or autobiographical. Fortunately they have been +preserved, and are too valuable not to form a part of this volume.<br> +<br> +The following is an answer to the first letter Coleridge received from +him:— + +<blockquote> "Wednesday Morning, Jan. 28th, 1818.<br> +<br> + <b>Dear Sir</b>,<br> +<br> + Your friendly letter was first delivered to me at the lecture-room + door on yesterday evening, ten minutes before the lecture, and my + spirits were so sadly depressed by the circumstance of my hoarseness, + that I was literally incapable of reading it. I now express my + acknowledgments, and with them the regret that I had not received the + letter in time to have availed myself of it.<br> +<br> + When I was young I used to laugh at flattery, as, on account of its + absurdity, I now abhor it, from my repeated observations of its + mischievous effects. Amongst these, not the least is, that it renders + honourable natures more slow and reluctant in expressing their real + feelings in praise of the deserving, than, for the interests of truth + and virtue, might be desired. For the weakness of our moral and + intellectual being, of which the comparatively strongest are often the + most, and the most painfully, conscious, needs the confirmation + derived from the coincidence and sympathy of the friend, as much as + the voice of honour within us denounces the pretences of the + flatterer. Be assured, then, that I write as I think, when I tell you + that, from the style and thoughts of your letter, I should have drawn + a very different conclusion from that which you appear to have done, + concerning both your talents and the cultivation which they have + received. Both the matter and manner are manly, simple, and correct.<br> +<br> + Had I the time in my own power, compatibly with the performance of + duties of immediate urgency, I would endeavour to give you, by letter, + the most satisfactory answer to your questions that my reflections and + the experience of my own fortunes could supply. But, at all events, I + will not omit to avail myself of your judicious suggestion in my last + lecture, in which it will form a consistent part of the subject and + purpose of the discourse. Meantime, believe me, with great respect,<br> +<br> + Your obliged fellow-student of the true and the beseeming<br> +<br> + <b>S. T. Coleridge</b>."<br> +<br> +<hr width="50%" align="left"><br> +<br> +Sept. 20th, 1818.<br> +<br> + <b>Dear Sir</b>,<br> +<br> + Those who have hitherto chosen to take notice of me, as known to them + only by my public character, have for the greater part taken out, not, + indeed, a poetical, but a critical, license to make game of me, + instead of sending game to me. Thank heaven! I am in this respect more + tough than tender. But, to be serious, I heartily thank you for your + polite remembrance; and, though my feeble health and valetudinarian + stomach force me to attach no little value to the present itself, I + feel still more obliged by the kindness that prompted it.<br> +<br> + I trust that you will not come within the purlieus of Highgate without + giving me the opportunity of assuring you personally that I am, with + sincere respect,<br> +<br> + Your obliged,<br> +<br> + <b>S. T. Coleridge</b>."</blockquote> + +Following the chronological order I proposed, I am led to speak again of +Lamb, who having at this time collected many little poems and essays, +scattered in different publications, he reprinted and published them in +two small volumes, which he dedicated to Coleridge; and those of my +readers who have not seen this work will, doubtless, find it +interesting. The simplicity of this dedication, and above all the +biographical portion of it, seem to render it appropriate to this work, +and it is therefore subjoined.<br> +<br> +<blockquote> <b>To S. T. Coleridge</b>, Esq.<br> +<br> + <b>My Dear Coleridge</b>,<br> +<br> + You will smile to see the slender labors of your friend designated by + the title of <i>Works</i>; but such was the wish of the gentlemen who + have kindly undertaken the trouble of collecting them, and from their + judgment could be no appeal.<br> +<br> + It would be a kind of disloyalty to offer to any one but yourself, a + volume containing the <i>early pieces</i> which were first published + among your poems, and were fairly derivatives from you and them. My + friend Lloyd and myself came into our first battle (authorship is a + sort of warfare) under cover of the greater Ajax. How this + association, which shall always be a dear and proud recollection to + me, came to be broken; — who snapped the three-fold cord, — whether + yourself (but I know that was not the case,) grew ashamed of your + former companions, — or whether (which is by much the more probable) + some ungracious bookseller was author of the separation, I cannot + tell; — but wanting the support of your friendly elm, (I speak for + myself,) my vine has, since that time, put forth few or no fruits; the + sap (if ever it had any) has become in a manner dried up and extinct: + and you will find your old associate in his second volume, dwindled + into prose and criticism. Am I right in assuming this as the cause? or + is it that, as years come upon us, (except with some more + healthy-happy spirits,) life itself loses much of its poetry for us? + we transcribe but what we read in the great volume of Nature: and, as + the characters grow dim, we turn of and look another way. You, + yourself, write no <i>Christabels</i>, nor <i>Ancient Marriners</i>, now. Some of + the Sonnets, which shall be carelessly turned over by the general + reader, may happily awaken in you remembrances, which I should be + sorry should be ever totally extinct — the memory + + <blockquote>Of summer days and of delightful years.</blockquote> + + Even so far back as to those old suppers at our old —— Inn, when + life was fresh, and topics exhaustless, — and you first kindled in me, + if not the power, yet the love of poetry, and beauty and kindliness, + + <blockquote>What words have I heard Spoke at the Mermaid?</blockquote> + + The world has given you many a shrewd nip and gird since that time, + but either my eyes are grown dimmer, or my old friend is the same, who + stood before me three-and-twenty years ago — his hair a little + confessing the hand of time, but still shrouding the same capacious + brain, — his heart not altered, scarcely where it "alteration finds."<br> +<br> + One piece, Coleridge, I have ventured to publish in its original form, + though I have heard you complain of a certain over-imitation of the + antique in the style. If I could see any way of getting rid of the + objection, without re-writing it entirely, I would make some + sacrifices. But when I wrote <i>John Woodville</i>, I never proposed to + myself any distinct deviation from common English. I had been newly + initiated in the writings of our elder dramatists; Beaumont, and + Fletcher, and Massinger, were then a <i>first love</i>; and from what + I was so freshly conversant in, what wonder if my language + imperceptibly took a tinge? The very <i>time</i>, which I had chosen + for my story, that which immediately followed the Restoration, seemed + to require in an English play, that the English should be of rather an + older cast, than that of the precise year in which it happened to be + written. I wish it had not some faults which I can less vindicate than + the language.<br> +<br> + I remain, my dear Coleridge, Yours, with unabated esteem, <br> +<br> +<b>C. Lamb</b>. +</blockquote> + +In Feb. 1819, application was made to Mr. Coleridge to give a course of +lectures at the Russell Institution, to which he sent the following +reply, addressed to Mr. Britton:— + +<blockquote> Highgate, 28th Feb., 1819.<br> +<br> + <b>Dear Sir,</b><br> +<br> + First permit me to remove a very natural, indeed almost inevitable, + mistake, relative to my lectures; namely, that I <i>have</i> them, or + that the lectures of one place or season are in any way repeated in + another. So far from it, that on any point that I had ever studied + (and on no other should I dare discourse — I mean, that I would not + lecture on any subject for which I had to <i>acquire</i> the main + knowledge, even though a month's or three months' previous time were + allowed me; on no subject that had not employed my thoughts for a + large portion of my life since earliest manhood, free of all outward + and particular purpose) — on any point within my habit of thought, I + should greatly prefer a subject I had never lectured on, to one which + I had repeatedly given; and those who have attended me for any two + seasons successively will bear witness, that the lecture given at the + London Philosophical Society, on the <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, for + instance, was as different from that given at the Crown and Anchor, as + if they had been by two individuals who, without any communication + with each other, had only mastered the same principles of + philosophical criticism. This was most strikingly evidenced in the + coincidence between my lectures and those of Schlegel; such, and so + close, that it was fortunate for my moral reputation that I had not + only from five to seven hundred ear witnesses that the passages had + been given by me at the Royal Institution two years before Schlegel + commenced his lectures at Vienna, but that notes had been taken of + these by several men and ladies of high rank. The fact is this; during + a course of lectures, I faithfully employ all the intervening days in + collecting and digesting the materials, whether I have or have not + lectured on the same subject before, making no difference.<br> +<br> + The day of the lecture, till the hour of commencement, I devote to the + consideration, what of the mass before me is best fitted to answer the + purposes of a lecture, that is, to keep the audience awake and + interested during the delivery, and to leave a sting behind, that is, + a disposition to study the subject anew, under the light of a new + principle. Several times, however, partly from apprehension respecting + my health and animal spirits, partly from the wish to possess copies + that might afterwards be marketable among the publishers, I have + previously written the lecture; but before I had proceeded twenty + minutes, I have been obliged to push the MS. away, and give the + subject a new turn. Nay, this was so notorious, that many of my + auditors used to threaten me, when they saw any number of written + papers on my desk, to steal them away; declaring they never felt so + secure of a good lecture as when they perceived that I had not a + single scrap of writing before me. I take far, far more pains than + would go to the set composition of a lecture, both by varied reading + and by meditation; but for the words, illustrations, &c., I know + almost as little as any one of the audience (that is, those of + anything like the same education with myself) what they will be five + minutes before the lecture begins. Such is my way, for such is my + nature; and in attempting any other, I should only torment myself in + order to disappoint my auditors — torment myself during the delivery, I + mean; for in all other respects it would be a much shorter and easier + task to deliver them from writing. I am anxious to preclude any + semblance of affectation; and have therefore troubled you with this + lengthy preface before I have the hardihood to assure you, that you + might as well ask me what my dreams were in the year 1814, as what my + course of lectures was at the Surrey Institution. <i>Fuimus + Troes</i>."</blockquote> + + The following anecdote will convey to my readers a more accurate + notion of Coleridge's powers, when called upon to lecture, even + without previous notice. Early one morning he received two letters, + which he sent me to read; one to inform him that he was + <i>expected</i> that same evening to deliver a lecture at the rooms of + the London Philosophical Society, where it was supposed that four or + five hundred persons would be present: the other contained a list of + the gentlemen who had already given a lecture in the course; to which + was added, the subject on which each had addressed the audience. I + well knew that Coleridge, not expecting this sudden appeal, would be + agitated, as he was always excited before delivering a lecture, and + that this would probably bring on a return of his inward suffering. + After consulting together, we determined to go to town at seven + o'clock in the evening, to make some enquiries respecting this + unexpected application, and arrived at the house of the gentleman who + had written the letter. His servant informed us that he was not at + home, but would return at eight o'clock, the hour fixed for the + commencement of the lecture. We then proceeded to the society's room, + which we found empty. It was a long one, partitioned off by a pole, + the ends of which were fastened to the side-walls, and from this pole + was nailed a length of baize which reached the floor, and in the + centre was fixed a square piece of board to form a desk. We passed + under this baize curtain to observe the other arrangements, from + whence we could easily discern the audience as they entered. When we + looked over the pole which formed the partition, we saw rows of + benches across the room, prepared for about four or five hundred + persons — on the side were some short ones, one above the other, + intended for the committee. The preparations looked formidable — and + Coleridge was anxiously waiting to be informed of the subject on which + he was to lecture. At length the committee entered, taking their + seats — from the centre of this party Mr. President arose, and put on a + president's hat, which so disfigured him that we could scarcely + refrain from laughter. He thus addressed the company: — "This evening, + Mr. Coleridge will deliver a lecture on the 'Growth of the Individual + Mind.'" Coleridge at first seemed startled, and turning round to me + whispered, "a pretty stiff subject they have chosen for me." He + instantly mounted his standing-place, and began without hesitation; + previously requesting me to observe the effect of his lecture on the + audience. It was agreed, that, should he appear to fail, I was to + clasp his ancle, but that he was to continue for an hour if the + countenances of his auditors indicated satisfaction. If I rightly + remember his words, he thus began his address: + +<blockquote>"The lecture I am + about to give this evening is purely extempore. Should you find a + nominative case looking out for a verb — or a fatherless verb for a + nominative case, you must excuse it. It is purely extempore, though I + have thought and read much on this subject."</blockquote> + +I could see the company + begin to smile, and this at once seemed to inspire him with + confidence. This beginning appeared to me a sort of mental curvetting, + while preparing his thoughts for one of his eagle flights, as if with + an eagle's eye he could steadily look at the mid-day sun. He was most + brilliant, eloquent, and logically consecutive. The time moved on so + swiftly, that on looking at my watch, I found an hour and a half had + passed away, and therefore waiting only a desirable moment (to use his + own playful words;) I prepared myself to punctuate his oration. As + previously agreed, I pressed his ancle, and thus gave hire the hint he + had requested-when bowing graciously, and with a benevolent and + smiling countenance he presently descended.<br> +<br> + The lecture was quite new to me, and I believe quite new to himself, + at least so far as the arrangement of his words were concerned. The + floating thoughts were most beautifully arranged, and delivered on the + spur of the moment. What accident gave rise to the singular request, + that he should deliver this lecture impromptu, I never learnt; nor did + it signify, as it afforded a happy opportunity to many of witnessing + in part the extent of his reading, and the extraordinary strength of + his powers.<br> +<br> + At this time an intimate and highly accomplished friend of my wife's, + who was also a very sensible woman, a fine musician, and considered + one of the best private performers in the country, came on a visit. + The conversation turned on music, and Coleridge, speaking of himself, + observed, "I believe I have no ear for music, but have a taste for + it." He then explained the delight he received from Mozart, and how + greatly he enjoyed the dithyrambic movement of Beethoven; but could + never find pleasure in the fashionable modern composers. It seemed to + him "playing tricks with music — like nonsense verses — music to please + me," added he, "must have a subject." Our friend appeared struck with + this observation, "I understand you, sir," she replied, and + immediately seated herself at the piano. "Have the kindness to listen + to the three following airs, which I played on a certain occasion + extempore, as substitutes for words. Will you try to guess the meaning + I wished to convey, and I shall then ascertain the extent of my + success." She instantly gave us the first air, — his reply was + immediate. "That is clear, it is solicitation." — "When I played this + air," observed the lady, "to a dear friend whom you know, she turned + to me, saying, 'what do you want?' — I told her the purport of my air + was to draw her attention to her dress, as she was going out with me + to take a drive by the seashore without her cloak." Our visitor then + called Coleridge's attention to her second air; it was short and + expressive. To this he answered, "that is easily told — it is + remonstrance." "Yes," replied she, "for my friend again shewing the + same inattention, I played this second extemporaneous air, in order to + remonstrate with her." We now listened to the third and last air. He + requested her to repeat it, which she did. — "That," said he, "I cannot + understand." To this she replied, — "it is I believe a failure," naming + at the same time the subject she had wished to convey. Coleridge's + answer was — "That is a sentiment, and cannot be well expressed in + music."<br> +<br> + The evening before our friend left us, Coleridge had a long + conversation with her on serious and religious subjects. Fearing, + however, that he might not have been clearly understood, he the next + morning brought down the following paper, written before he had + retired to rest: + +<blockquote> <i>S. T. Coleridge's confession of belief; with respect to the true + grounds of Christian morality</i>, 1817.</blockquote> +<ol type="1"> +<li>I sincerely profess the Christian faith, and regard the <i>New + Testament</i> as containing all its articles, and I interpret the words + not only in the obvious, but in the <i>literal</i> sense, unless + where common reason, and the authority of the Church of England join + in commanding them to be understood <b>Figuratively</b>: as for instance, + 'Herod is a Fox.'</li> + +<li>Next to the Holy Scriptures, I revere the Liturgy, Articles, and + Homilies of the Established Church, and hold the doctrines therein + expressly contained.</li> + + <li>I reject as erroneous, and deprecate as <i>most</i> dangerous, + the notion, that our <i>feelings</i> are to be the ground and guide + of our actions. I believe the feelings themselves to be among the + things that are to be grounded and guided. The feelings are effects, + not causes, a part of the <i>instruments</i> of action, but never + can without serious injury be perverted into the <i>principles</i> + of action. Under <i>feelings</i>, I include all that goes by the + names of <i>sentiment</i>, sensibility, &c. &c. These, however + pleasing, may be made and often are made the instruments of vice and + guilt, though under proper discipline, they are fitted to be both + aids and ornaments of virtue. They are to virtue what beauty is to + health.</li> + +<li> All men, the good as well as the bad, and the bad as well as the + good, act with motives. But what is motive to one person is no + motive at all to another. The pomps and vanities of the world supply + <i>mighty</i> motives to an ambitious man; but are so far from being + a <i>motive</i> to a humble Christian, that he rather wonders how + they can be even a temptation to any man in his senses, who believes + himself to have an immortal soul. Therefore that a title, or the + power of gratifying sensual luxury, is the motive with which A. + acts, and no motive at all to B. — must arise from the different + state of the moral being in A. and in B. — consequently motives too, + as well as <i>feelings</i> are <i>effects</i>; and they become + causes only in a secondary or derivative sense.</li> + +<li>Among the motives of a probationary Christian, the practical + conviction that all his intentional acts have consequences in a + future state; that as he sows here, he must reap hereafter; in plain + words, that according as he does, or does not, avail himself of the + light and helps given by God through Christ, he must go either to + heaven or hell; is the <i>most</i> impressive, were it only from + pity to his own soul, as an everlasting sentient being.</li> + +<li> But that this is a motive, and the most impressive of motives to + any given person, arises from, and supposes, a commencing state of + regeneration in that person's mind and heart. That therefore which + <i>constitutes</i> a regenerate <b>State</b> is the true <b>Principle On</b> + which, or with a <i>view</i> to which, actions, feelings, and + motives ought to be grounded.</li> + +<li>The different <i>operations</i> of this radical principle, (which + principle is called in Scripture sometimes faith, and in other + places love,) I have been accustomed to call good impulses because + they are the powers that impel us to do what we ought to do.</li> + +<li> The impulses of a full grown Christian are +<li style="list-style: none"><ol type="i"> + +<li>Love of God.</li> + <li> Love of our neighbour for the love of God.</li> +<li>An undefiled + conscience, which prizes above every comprehensible advantage + <i>that peace</i> of God which passeth all understanding.</li> +</ol> + +<li>Every consideration, whether of hope or of fear, which is, and + which <i>is adopted</i> by <i>us</i>, poor imperfect creatures! in + our present state of probation, as <b>Means</b> of <i>producing</i> such + impulses in our hearts, is so far a right and <i>desirable</i> + consideration. He that is weak must take the medicine which is + suitable to his existing weakness; but then he ought to know that it + is a <i>medicine</i>, the object of which is to remove the disease, + not to feed and perpetuate it.</li> + +<li>Lastly, I hold that there are two grievous mistakes, — both of + which as <i>extremes</i> equally opposite to truth and the + Gospel, — I equally reject and deprecate. The first is, that of Stoic + pride, which would snatch away his crutches from a curable cripple + before he can walk without them. The second is, that of those + worldly and temporizing preachers, who would disguise from such a + cripple the necessary truth that crutches are not legs, but only + temporary aids and substitutes."</li> +</ol><br> +<br> +<hr width="50%" align="left"><br> +<br> +<a name="f92"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 1:</span></a> I give the letter as I received it, — of course it was never +intended for the public eye.<br> +<a href="#fr92">return to footnote mark</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f93"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 2:</span></a> This is too strong an expression. It was not idleness, it +was not sensual indulgence, that led Coleridge to contract this habit. +No, it was latent disease, of which sufficient proof is given in this +memoir.<br> +<a href="#fr93">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f94"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 3:</span></a> Those who have witnessed the witches scampering off the +stage, cannot forget the ludicrous appearance they make.<br> +<a href="#fr94">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f95"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 4:</span></a> Of the historical plays, he observes: + + <blockquote>It would be a fine national custom to act such a series of dramatic + histories in orderly succession, in the yearly Christmas holidays, and + could not but tend to counteract that mock cosmopolitism, which, under + a positive term, really implies nothing but a negation of, or + indifference to, the particular love of our country."</blockquote> + +<i>Literary Remains</i>, Vol. ii. p. 161.<br> +<a href="#fr95">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f96"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 5:</span></a> <i>Vide</i> Vol. ii. p. 1. — Also p. 103 of this work.<br> +<a href="#fr96">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f97"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 6:</span></a> He had long been greatly afflicted with nightmare; and, +when residing with us, was frequently roused from this painful sleep by +any one of the family who might hear him.<br> +<a href="#fr97">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f98"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 7:</span></a> From an anonymous criticism published soon after the +<i>Christabel</i>.<br> +<a href="#fr98">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f99"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 8:</span></a> In the "Improved Version of the New Testament," the spirit +of this Evangelist is perverted.<br> +<a href="#fr99">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f100"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 9:</span></a> He used to say, in St. John is the philosophy of +Christianity; in St. Paul, the moral reflex.<br> +<a href="#fr100">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f101"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 10:</span></a> The last lines are in the <i>Aids to Reflection</i>. The +former six lines are from a note written from his conversation.<br> +<a href="#fr101">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f102"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 11:</span></a> The <i>Christabel</i> was published by Murray, but the +<i>Sibylline Leaves</i> and the <i>Biog. Liter.</i> by Rest Fenner.<br> +<a href="#fr102">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f103"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 12:</span></a> The first was published in 1816, and the second in 1817.<br> +<a href="#fr103">return</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="f104"><span style="color: #FF0000;">Footnote 13:</span></a> <i>Vide</i> St. John, ch. xx. ver. 17.<br> +<a href="#fr104">return</a><br> +<br> +<p><a href="#toc">Contents</a></p> +<hr><br><br> +<br> +<br> +<b><i>end of text</i></b> +<br> +<br> +<hr><br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, by +James Gillman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE *** + +***** This file should be named 8957-h.htm or 8957-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/9/5/8957/ + +Produced by Clytie Siddall, Stan Goodman, and Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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