diff options
Diffstat (limited to '42909-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 42909-0.txt | 16520 |
1 files changed, 16520 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/42909-0.txt b/42909-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b88f0f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/42909-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16520 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42909 *** + +Transcriber's Note + +Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained +except in obvious cases of typographical errors. Italics are shown +thus _italic_ and bold thus =bold= + +The letter o written with a macron (straight line) above is marked +[=o]. + + + + + + DE QUINCEY'S COLLECTED WRITINGS + + VOL. II + + AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LITERARY REMINISCENCES + + + + + THE + COLLECTED WRITINGS + OF + THOMAS + DE QUINCEY + + BY + DAVID MASSON + + EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE + IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH + + VOL. II + + + LONDON + A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE + 1896 + + + + +[Illustration: Samuel Taylor Coleridge. +From a picture by Peter Vandyke in the National Portrait Gallery] + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II + + + + PAGE + EDITOR'S PREFACE 1 + + AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED FROM 1803 TO 1808-- + + CHAP. + I. OXFORD 9 + + II. GERMAN STUDIES AND KANT IN PARTICULAR 81 + + LITERARY AND LAKE REMINISCENCES-- + + CHAP. + I. A MANCHESTER SWEDENBORGIAN AND A LIVERPOOL + LITERARY COTERIE 113 + + II. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 138 + + III. THE LAKE POETS: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 229 + + IV. THE LAKE POETS: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND + ROBERT SOUTHEY 303 + + V. THE LAKE POETS: SOUTHEY, WORDSWORTH, AND + COLERIDGE 335 + + VI. THE SARACEN'S HEAD 348 + + VII. WESTMORELAND AND THE DALESMEN: SOCIETY OF + THE LAKES 360 + + VIII. SOCIETY OF THE LAKES: CHARLES LLOYD 381 + + IX. SOCIETY OF THE LAKES: MISS ELIZABETH SMITH, + THE SYMPSONS, AND THE K---- FAMILY 403 + + X. SOCIETY OF THE LAKES: PROFESSOR WILSON: DEATH + OF LITTLE KATE WORDSWORTH 432 + + XI. RAMBLES FROM THE LAKES: MRS. SIDDONS AND + HANNAH MORE 446 + + + + +EDITOR'S PREFACE + + +The matter of this volume breaks itself into two main divisions, as +follows:-- + + +I.--AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED FROM 1803 TO 1808 + +Although De Quincey's Autobiography, so far as it was revised by +himself in 1853 for the Edinburgh Collective Edition of his writings, +stopped at 1803, when he went to Oxford, he left a continuation of that +Autobiography, accessible to those that might be curious about it, in +two old papers of his in _Tait's Edinburgh Magazine_. One of these, +bearing the continued general title "Sketches of Life and Manners from +the Autobiography of an English Opium-Eater," but with the sub-title +"Oxford," had appeared, in three successive parts, in the numbers of +the magazine for February, June, and August 1835; the other, forming +but a single article, had appeared in the number for June 1836, with +the simple title, "Autobiography of an English Opium-Eater continued," +but without any sub-title, or any indication of its nature except what +might be conveyed by the head-lines,--"The German Language," "The +German Philosophic Literature," and "The Philosophy of Kant,"--at the +tops of the right-hand pages. As the two papers together carry on the +Autobiography from 1803 to 1808, they are reproduced in this volume +from the columns of the magazine as two chapters of De Quincey's +Autobiography additional to the Revised Autobiography contained in +the preceding volume. The first, and much the larger, is sufficiently +described by the title "Oxford," used as a sub-title for it in _Tait's +Magazine_. It is a careful and very readable account of the system +of Oxford life and education during the five years of De Quincey's +connexion with the University, with glimpses of himself, though not +so numerous or continuous as might be wished, as he moved obscurely +through the academic medium. The other chapter will take most readers +aback. Beginning in a popular vein, and even humorously, it turns +itself, through two-thirds of its extent, into a dissertation on Kant's +philosophy which is one of the toughest things that De Quincey ever +wrote. It is probably on this account that the American Collective +Edition of De Quincey, while gladly reprinting his Oxford paper, omits +this one altogether. That, however, is scarcely allowable. Nor is +it allowable to yield to the natural temptation which would suggest +the omission of the paper in the place where De Quincey put it, and +the reservation of it for some other place in the collection of his +writings where it might be in the company of other demons as abstruse +as itself. It belongs vitally to the autobiographic series, and to +that part of the autobiographic series which deals with De Quincey's +Oxford life from 1803 to 1808. It is as if De Quincey had said to his +readers--as, in fact, he does virtually say in the paper--"It was +during those five years that I betook myself to German studies, and +especially to studies in German Philosophy; they had an immense effect +upon me at the time, and a permanent influence afterwards; and, if +you would understand my subsequent life and mind, you must, at the +risk of a headache yourselves, listen at this point to a description +of the exact nature and symptoms of the headache they caused _me_." To +indicate as precisely as possible this autobiographic purport of the +paper, I have ventured, in the absence of any title to it by De Quincey +himself, to entitle it "German Studies and Kant in particular." It will +be of much interest to some readers; and others can skip it if they +choose. + + +II.--LITERARY AND LAKE REMINISCENCES. + +Concurrently with the series of the expressly autobiographic papers +in _Tait's Magazine_, there had appeared in the same magazine another +series of papers by De Quincey, also autobiographic in a general sense, +but in a more indirect fashion. + +Having known a number of remarkable persons in the course of his life, +some of them of great literary celebrity, it had occurred to him that a +series of sketches of these, from his own recollections and impressions +of them, partly in their relations to himself, but not exclusively +so, would be welcome, and might at all events be made instructively +De Quincey-like. He had begun with Coleridge, and had contributed +four papers of Reminiscences of Coleridge to the numbers of _Tait's +Magazine_ for September, October, and November 1834, and January 1835. +These, though necessarily autobiographic to a pretty large extent, +had been interjected into the series of his expressly autobiographic +articles in the magazine. Then, that expressly autobiographic series +having been finished in 1836 in the above-mentioned papers on his +Oxford life and his first German studies, he had ranged back, in an +article in the magazine for February 1837, for a recollection of +certain literary notabilities of Manchester and Liverpool whom he had +known or seen in his schoolboy days. After that, zig-zagging in his +memory for suitable additions, he had brought in,--sometimes under +cover of the standing general magazine title of "Sketches of Life +and Manners from the Autobiography of an English Opium-Eater," but +sometimes under independent titles,--accounts of other acquaintances of +his, either famous to all the world already, or about whom the world +might be inquisitive. Of these our concern in the present volume, for +chronological reasons, is with Wordsworth and his fellow-celebrities +of the Lake district, whether those that were resident there when De +Quincey first visited it in Coleridge's company in 1807, or those that +were resident there from 1809 onwards, when De Quincey had become a +Lakist too, and was domiciled permanently, as it seemed, close to +Wordsworth at Grasmere. To Wordsworth himself,--always De Quincey's +man of men, or at least poet of poets, of his generation,--there were +devoted three articles in _Tait's Magazine_ for January, February, and +April 1839, entitled "Lake Reminiscences: No. I. William Wordsworth, +No. II. William Wordsworth, No. III. William Wordsworth." These were +followed in July of the same year by a No. IV, entitled "William +Wordsworth and Robert Southey," and in August by a No. V, in which +Coleridge came back for some notice, and which was therefore entitled +"Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge." For the minor celebrities of +the Lakes, after these three _dii majorum gentium_, and for sketches +of Lake scenery and society generally, there was a relapse into the +older magazine title "Sketches of Life and Manners" etc.; and the seven +additional articles required for these straggled through the numbers of +_Tait's Magazine_ from September 1839 to August 1840. + +Save that one of the articles so inventoried goes back beyond the Lake +period of De Quincey's life altogether, and that the main set of the +Coleridge articles treats Coleridge generally and apart from his Lakist +connexion, one might designate them collectively by that title of LAKE +REMINISCENCES which De Quincey did use for some of them. As it is, +however, the title LITERARY AND LAKE REMINISCENCES seems, on the whole, +the fittest. + +One question remains. Whence are we to take the text of these LITERARY +AND LAKE REMINISCENCES left by De Quincey? For the largest number of +the included articles there is no option. They were not reprinted by +De Quincey in the Collective Edition of 1853-60, though he must have +contemplated reprinting them some time; and the text of them must +therefore be taken from the pages of _Tait's Magazine_, in which +they originally appeared. But for a portion of the Reminiscences, and +a very important portion, there is an option. De Quincey did reprint +in his Collective Edition the whole of his special set of Coleridge +Recollections, with the exception of the last article of the four, +throwing all the reprinted articles into one block, after somewhat +careful revision; and he reprinted also in the same way the whole set +of the special articles on Wordsworth, without any omission. These +main Coleridge and Wordsworth papers are therefore reproduced in our +present volume from De Quincey's own revised text of them,--with the +restoration, however, in the case of the Coleridge chapter, of that +fourth of the magazine articles on Coleridge which De Quincey omitted. +The omission was unnecessary; and, as the American Collective Edition +contains the omitted article, the present edition is entitled to the +same benefit. What, however, about the two minor papers of the Lake +Reminiscences which appeared as Nos. IV and V in _Tait's Magazine_ +for July and August 1839, under the titles of "William Wordsworth +and Robert Southey," and "Southey, Wordsworth, and Coleridge," +respectively? These also De Quincey reprinted in his Collective +Edition, after a fashion; but it was after a fashion which greatly +impaired their interest. He threw them, or rather parts of them, into +one, under the single title "Robert Southey," omitting a great deal of +what was liveliest and best in the original articles. This may have +been caused merely by his hurry at the time, in consequence of the +pressure of the printers for copy in any form; but possibly it had +another cause. De Quincey's Reminiscences of Coleridge, Wordsworth, and +Southey, on their first appearance in _Tait's Magazine_ between 1834 +and 1840, had provoked a good deal of resentment among those concerned. +Coleridge was then dead; but Wordsworth and Dorothy Wordsworth were +still living; as was also Southey. Little wonder that the surviving +relatives of Coleridge felt aggrieved by the extreme frankness of some +of De Quincey's personal recollections of the dead sage, or that the +Wordsworth and Southey families were annoyed and offended on similar +grounds. Wordsworth, with his massive serenity, seems, indeed, to have +tossed the matter aside easily enough; but not so Southey. Carlyle +tells us that, when he first met Southey in London, Southey was full +of the subject of De Quincey's delinquencies in publishing so many +anecdotes of a confidential kind respecting Wordsworth, Coleridge, +and himself, and spoke on the subject in terms which Carlyle, who had +read the articles, thought needlessly angry and vehement. Something +of all this may have been in De Quincey's mind when, in reproducing +his Lake Reminiscences in 1853 for his Collective Edition, he came +to the two _Tait_ articles in which Southey had principally figured. +Hence, perhaps, though Southey had died in 1843, De Quincey's large +excisions from those articles, and his consolidation of them into one +paper, pleasant enough in the main, but comparatively insipid. It was +an editorial mistake on De Quincey's part, and must not bind us now. +The articles in their original livelier and more extensive magazine +form being irrevocable at any rate, and forming part and parcel of the +American Collective Edition, we have acted accordingly. We revert in +the present edition to the text of _Tait's Magazine_ for the particular +articles in question, and print them as they stood there, with their +separate titles. + + * * * * * + +Respecting the present volume as a whole, it will now be understood +that, while a portion of its contents consists of matter derived from +De Quincey's revised edition of 1853-60, considerably the larger +proportion consists of recovered magazine articles that have been +practically inaccessible hitherto to British readers. So composed, the +volume is certainly one of the richest specimens that could be offered +of De Quincey's general characteristics. There are ups and downs in it, +portions inferior to others in literary merit, and occasional lapses +into what may seem spiteful or in bad taste. All in all, however, it +illustrates most variously and most amusingly the shrewdness of De +Quincey's observations of men and things, the range and readiness +of his erudition, the subtlety and originality of his speculative +intellect, his faculty of poetic imagination, his power of mournful +pathos on the one hand and the most whimsical humour on the other, and +the marvellous versatility and flexibility of his style. + D. M. + + + + + AUTOBIOGRAPHY + (_continued_) + + FROM 1803 TO 1808 + + + + + CHAPTER I + + OXFORD + + I[1] + + [1] From _Tait's Magazine_ for February 1835.--M. + + +It was in winter, and in the wintry weather of the year 1803, that I +first entered Oxford with a view to its vast means of education, or +rather with a view to its vast advantages for study. A ludicrous story +is told of a young candidate for clerical orders--that, being asked by +the bishop's chaplain if he had ever "been to Oxford," as a colloquial +expression for having had an academic education, he replied, "No: +but he had twice been to Abingdon": Abingdon being only seven miles +distant. In the same sense I might say that once before I had been +at Oxford: but _that_ was as a transient visitor with Lord W----,[2] +when we were both children. Now, on the contrary, I approached these +venerable towers in the character of a student, and with the purpose +of a long connexion; personally interested in the constitution of the +University, and obscurely anticipating that in this city, or at least +during the period of my nominal attachment to this academic body, the +remoter parts of my future life would unfold before me. All hearts were +at this time occupied with the public interests of the country. The +"sorrow of the time" was ripening to a second harvest. Napoleon had +commenced his Vandal, or rather Hunnish war with Britain, in the spring +of this year, about eight months before; and profound public interest +it was, into which the very coldest hearts entered, that a little +divided with me the else monopolizing awe attached to the solemn act of +launching myself upon the world. That expression may seem too strong +as applied to one who had already been for many months a houseless +wanderer in Wales, and a solitary roamer in the streets of London. +But in those situations, it must be remembered, I was an unknown, +unacknowledged vagrant; and without money I could hardly run much risk, +except of breaking my neck. The perils, the pains, the pleasures, or +the obligations, of the world, scarcely exist in a proper sense for him +who has no funds. Perfect weakness is often secure: it is by imperfect +power, turned against its master, that men are snared and decoyed. Here +in Oxford I should be called upon to commence a sort of establishment +upon the splendid English scale; here I should share in many duties +and responsibilities, and should become henceforth an object of notice +to a large society. Now first becoming separately and individually +answerable for my conduct, and no longer absorbed into the general unit +of a family, I felt myself, for the first time, burthened with the +anxieties of a man, and a member of the world. + + [2] _I.e._ Lord Westport. Sec vol. i. pp. 161-2 _et seq._--M. + +Oxford, ancient Mother! hoary with ancestral honours, time-honoured, +and, haply, it may be, time-shattered power--I owe thee nothing! Of thy +vast riches I took not a shilling, though living amongst multitudes who +owed to thee their daily bread. Not the less I owe thee justice; for +that is a universal debt. And at this moment, when I see thee called +to thy audit by unjust and malicious accusers--men with the hearts of +inquisitors and the purposes of robbers--I feel towards thee something +of filial reverence and duty. However, I mean not to speak as an +advocate, but as a conscientious witness in the simplicity of truth; +feeling neither hope nor fear of a personal nature, without fee, and +without favour. + +I have been assured from many quarters that the great body of the +public are quite in the dark about the whole manner of living in +our English Universities; and that a considerable portion of that +public, misled by the totally different constitution of Universities +in Scotland, Ireland, and generally on the Continent, as well as by +the different arrangements of collegiate life in those institutions, +are in a state worse than ignorant (that is, more unfavourable to +the truth)--starting, in fact, from prejudices, and absolute errors +of fact, which operate most uncharitably upon their construction +of those insulated statements, which are continually put forward +by designing men. Hence, I can well believe that it will be an +acceptable service, at this particular moment [1835], when the very +constitution of the two English Universities is under the unfriendly +revision of Parliament, when some roving commission may be annually +looked for, under a contingency which I will not utter in words (for +I reverence the doctrine of _[Greek: euphêmismos]_), far worse than +Cromwellian, that is, merely personal, and to winnow the existing +corporation from disaffection to the state--a Henry the Eighth +commission of sequestration, and levelled at the very integrity of +the institution--under such prospects, I can well believe that a true +account of Oxford _as it is_ (which will be valid also for Cambridge) +must be welcome both to friend and foe. And instead of giving this +account didactically, or according to a logical classification of the +various items in the survey, I will give it historically, or according +to the order in which the most important facts of the case opened +themselves before myself, under the accidents of my own personal +inquiry. No situation could be better adapted than my own for eliciting +information; for, whereas most young men come to the University under +circumstances of absolute determination as to the choice of their +particular college, and have, therefore, no cause for search or +inquiry, I, on the contrary, came thither in solitary self-dependence, +and in the loosest state of indetermination. + +Every single point of my future position and connection, to what +college I would attach myself, and in which of the two orders open +to my admission I would enrol myself, was left absolutely to my own +election. My coming at all, in this year, arose out of an accident of +conversation. In the latter half of 1803, I was living with my mother +at the Priory of St. J----, a beautiful place which she had in part +planned, and built, but chiefly repaired out of a very ancient Gothic +monastery; when my uncle, a military man, on a visit to England, after +twenty-five years' absence in India, suddenly remarked, that in my case +he should feel it shameful to be "tied to my mother's apron-string," +for was I not eighteen years old? I answered that certainly I was: but +what could I do? My guardians had the power to control my expenditure +until I should be twenty-one; and they, it was certain, would never +aid my purpose of going to Oxford, having quarrelled with me on +that very point. My uncle, a man of restless activity, spoke to my +mother immediately, I presume, for within one hour I was summoned to +her presence. Among other questions, she put this to me, which is +importantly connected with my future experience at Oxford, and my +coming account of it:--"Your guardians," she prefaced, "still continue +to me your school allowance of £100. To this, for the present, when +your sisters cost me such heavy deductions from my own income, I +cannot undertake to make any addition--that is, you are not to count +upon any. But, of course, you will be free to spend your entire Oxford +vacations, and as much time besides as the rules of your college will +dispense with your attendance, at my house, wherever that may be. On +this understanding, are you willing to undertake an Oxford life, upon +so small an allowance as £100 per annum?" My answer was by a cheerful +and prompt assent. For I felt satisfied, and said as much to my mother, +that, although this might sound, and might really prove, on a common +system of expenditure, ludicrously below the demands of the place, +yet in Oxford, no less than in other cities, it must be possible for +a young man of firm mind to live on a hundred pounds annually, if he +pleased to do so, and to live respectably. I guessed even then how the +matter stood; and so in my own experience I found it. If a young man +were known to be of trivial pursuits, with slight habits of study, and +"strong book-mindedness," naturally enough his college peers who should +happen to be idlers would question his right to court solitude. They +would demand a sight of his warrant of exemption from ordinary usages; +and, finding none, they would see a plain argument of his poverty. +And, doubtless, when this happens to be the sole characteristic point +about a man, and is balanced by no form of personal respectability, it +does so far lead to contempt as to make a man's situation mortifying +and painful; but not more so, I affirm, in Oxford than anywhere else. +Mere defect of power, _as_ such, and where circumstances force it into +violent relief, cannot well be other than a degrading feature in any +man's position. Now, in other cities, the man of £100 a-year never can +be forced into such an invidious insulation--he finds many to keep +him in countenance; but in Oxford he is a sort of monster--he stands +alone in the only class with which he can be compared. So that the +pressure upon Oxford predispositions to contempt is far stronger than +elsewhere; and, consequently, there would be more allowance due, if the +actual contempt were also stronger--which I deny. But, no doubt, in +every climate, and under all meridians, it must be humiliating to be +distinguished by pure defect. Now and for ever, to be weak is in some +sense to be miserable; and simple poverty, without other qualification +or adjunct, is merely defect of power. But, on the other hand, in +Oxford, at least, as much as in any other place I ever knew, talents +and severe habits of study are their own justification. And upon the +strongest possible warrant, viz., my own experience in a college then +recently emerging from habits of riotous dissipation, I can affirm that +a man who pleads known habits of study as his reason for secluding +himself, and for declining the ordinary amusements and wine parties, +will meet with neither molestation nor contempt.[3] + + [3] This paragraph is omitted in the American reprint of the + _Tait_ paper, probably because it repeats information given + already. See the chapter entitled "The Priory, Chester," in Vol. + I, and especially the concluding pages of that chapter. As, + however, the paragraph contains some new particulars, and explains + what follows, I have retained it, the rather because it ought to + be the rule not to tamper with De Quincey's text on any such + occasion.--M. + +For my part, though neither giving nor accepting invitations for +the first two years of my residence, never but once had I reason to +complain of a sneer, or indeed any allusion whatever to habits which +might be understood to express poverty. Perhaps even then I had no +reason to complain, for my own conduct in that instance was unwise; and +the allusion, though a personality, and so far ill-bred, might be meant +in real kindness. The case was this: I neglected my dress in one point +habitually; that is, I wore clothes until they were threadbare--partly +in the belief that my gown would conceal their main defects, but much +more from carelessness and indisposition to spend upon a tailor what +I had destined for a bookseller. At length, an official person, of +some weight in the college, sent me a message on the subject through +a friend. It was couched in these terms: That, let a man possess what +talents or accomplishments he might, it was not possible for him to +maintain his proper station in the public respect, amongst so many +servants and people servile to external impressions, without some +regard to the elegance of his dress. A reproof so courteously prefaced +I could not take offence at; and at that time I resolved to spend some +cost upon decorating my person. But always it happened that some book, +or set of books,--that passion being absolutely endless, and inexorable +as the grave,--stepped between me and my intentions; until one day, +upon arranging my toilet hastily before dinner, I suddenly made the +discovery that I had no waistcoat (or _vest_, as it is now called, +through conceit or provincialism) which was not torn or otherwise +dilapidated; whereupon, buttoning up my coat to the throat, and drawing +my gown as close about me as possible, I went into the public "hall" +(so is called in Oxford the public eating-room) with no misgiving. +However, I was detected; for a grave man, with a superlatively grave +countenance, who happened on that day to sit next me, but whom I did +not personally know, addressing his friend sitting opposite, begged to +know if he had seen the last Gazette, because he understood that it +contained an Order in Council laying an interdict upon the future use +of waistcoats. His friend replied, with the same perfect gravity, that +it was a great satisfaction to his mind that his Majesty's Government +should have issued so sensible an order; which he trusted would be +soon followed up by an interdict on breeches, they being still more +disagreeable to pay for. This said, without the movement on either side +of a single muscle, the two gentlemen passed to other subjects; and +I inferred, upon the whole, that, having detected my manoeuvre, they +wished to put me on my guard in the only way open to them. At any rate, +this was the sole personality, or equivocal allusion of any sort, +which ever met my ear during the years that I asserted my right to be +as poor as chose. And, certainly, my censors were right, whatever were +the temper in which they spoke, kind or unkind; for a little extra +care in the use of clothes will always, under almost any extremity of +poverty, pay for so much extra cost as is essential to neatness and +decorum, if not even to elegance. They were right, and I was wrong, in +a point which cannot be neglected with impunity. + +But, to enter upon my own history, and my sketch of Oxford life.--Late +on a winter's night, in the latter half of December, 1803, when a +snow-storm, and a heavy one, was already gathering in the air, a lazy +Birmingham coach, moving at four and a half miles an hour, brought me +through the long northern suburb of Oxford, to a shabby coach-inn, +situated in the Corn Market. Business was out of the question at that +hour. But the next day I assembled all the acquaintances I had in +the University, or had to my own knowledge; and to them, in council +assembled, propounded my first question: What college would they, +in their superior state of information, recommend to my choice? +This question leads to the first great characteristic of Oxford, as +distinguished from most other Universities. Before me at this moment +lie several newspapers, reporting, at length, the installation in +office (as Chancellor) of the Duke of Wellington. The original Oxford +report, having occasion to mention the particular college from which +the official procession moved, had said, no doubt, that the gates +of University, the halls of University, &c., were at such a point +of time thrown open. But most of the provincial editors, not at all +comprehending that the reference was to an individual college, known by +the name of University College, one of twenty-five such establishments +in Oxford, had regularly corrected it into "gates of _the_ University," +&c. Here is the first misconception of all strangers. And this feature +of Oxford it is which has drawn such exclamations of astonishment from +foreigners. Lipsius, for example, protested with fervour, on first +seeing this vast establishment of Oxford, that one college of this +University was greater in its power and splendour, that it glorified +and illustrated the honours of literature more conspicuously by the +pomps with which it invested the ministers and machinery of education, +than any entire University of the Continent. + +What is a University almost everywhere else? It announces little more, +as respects the academic buildings, than that here is to be found the +place of rendezvous--the exchange, as it were, or, under a different +figure, the _palæstra_ of the various parties connected with the +prosecution of liberal studies. This is their "House of Call," their +general place of muster and parade. Here it is that the professors +and the students converge, with the certainty of meeting each other. +Here, in short, are the lecture-rooms in all the faculties. Well: thus +far we see an arrangement of convenience--that is, of convenience for +one of the parties, namely, the professors. To them it spares the +disagreeable circumstances connected with a private reception of their +students at their own rooms. But to the students it is a pure matter +of indifference. In all this there is certainly no service done to the +cause of good learning which merits a state sanction, or the aid of +national funds. Next, however, comes an academic library, sometimes a +good one; and here commences a real use in giving a national station +to such institutions, because their durable and monumental existence, +liable to no flux or decay from individual caprice, or accidents of +life, and their authentic station, as expressions of the national +grandeur, point them out to the bequests of patriotic citizens. They +fall also under the benefit of another principle--the conservative +feeling of amateurship. Several great collections have been bequeathed +to the British Museum, for instance--not chiefly _as_ a national +institution, and under feelings of nationality, but because, being +such, it was also permanent; and thus the painful labours of collecting +were guaranteed from perishing. Independently of all this, I, for +my part, willingly behold the surplus of national funds dedicated +to the consecration, as it were, of learning, by raising temples to +its honour, even where they answer no purpose of direct use. Next +after the service of religion, I would have the service of learning +externally embellished, recommended to the affections of men, and +hallowed by the votive sculptures, as I may say, of that affection, +gathering in amount from age to age. _Magnificabo apostolatum meum_ +is a language almost as becoming to the missionaries and ministers of +knowledge, as to the ambassadors of religion. It is fit that by pompous +architectural monuments a voice may for ever be sounding audibly in +human ears of homage to these powers, and that even alien feelings may +be compelled into secret submission to their influence. Therefore, +amongst the number of those who value such things upon the scale of +direct proximate utility rank not me: that _arithmetica officina_ is +in my ears abominable. But still I affirm that, in our analysis of an +ordinary university, or "college," as it is provincially called, we +have not yet arrived at any element of service rendered to knowledge or +education, large enough to call for very extensive national aid. Honour +has thus far been rendered to the good cause by a public attestation, +and that is well: but no direct promotion has been given to that cause, +no impulse communicated to its progress, such that it can be held out +as a result commensurate to the name and pretensions of a University. +As yet there is nothing accomplished which is beyond the strength of +any little commercial town. And, as to the library in particular, +besides that in all essential departments it might be bought, to order, +by one day's common subscription of Liverpool or Glasgow merchants, +students very rarely indeed have admission to its free use. + +What other functions remain to a University? For those which I have +mentioned of furnishing a point of rendezvous to the great body of +professors and students, and a point of concentration to the different +establishments of implements and machinery for elaborate researches +(as, for instance, of books and MSS., in the first place; secondly, of +maps, charts, and globes; and, thirdly, perhaps of the costly apparatus +required for such studies as sideral astronomy, galvanic chemistry +or physiology, &c.); all these are uses which cannot be regarded in +a higher light than as conveniences merely incidental and collateral +to the main views of the founders. There are, then, two much loftier +and more commanding ends met by the idea and constitution of such +institutions, and which first rise to a rank of dignity sufficient to +occupy the views of a legislator, or to warrant a national interest. +These ends are involved: 1st, in the practice of conferring _degrees_, +that is, formal attestations and guarantees of competence to give +advice, instruction, or aid, in the three great branches of liberal +knowledge applicable to human life; 2d, in that appropriation of fixed +funds to fixed professorships, by means of which the uninterrupted +succession of public and authorised teachers is sustained in all the +higher branches of knowledge, from generation to generation, and from +century to century. By the latter result it is secured that the great +well-heads of liberal knowledge and of severe science shall never +grow dry. By the former it is secured that this unfailing fountain +shall be continually applied to the production and to the _tasting_ of +fresh labours in endless succession for the public service, and thus, +in effect, that the great national fountain shall not be a stagnant +reservoir, but, by an endless _derivation_ (to speak in a Roman +metaphor), applied to a system of national irrigation. These are the +two great functions and qualifications of a collegiate incorporation: +one providing to each separate generation its own separate rights of +heirship to all the knowledge accumulated by its predecessors, and +converting a mere casual life-annuity into an estate of inheritance--a +mere fleeting [Greek: agônisma] into a [Greek: ktêma es aei]; the other +securing for this eternal dowry as wide a distribution as possible: the +one function regarding the dimension of _length_ in the endless series +of ages through which it propagates its gifts; the other regarding +the dimension of _breadth_ in the large application throughout any +one generation of these gifts to the public service. Here are grand +functions, high purposes; but neither one nor the other demands any +edifices of stone and marble; neither one nor the other presupposes any +edifice at all built with human hands. A collegiate incorporation, the +church militant of knowledge, in its everlasting struggle with darkness +and error, is, in this respect, like the Church of Christ--that is, it +is always and essentially invisible to the fleshly eye. The pillars +of this church are human champions; its weapons are great truths so +shaped as to meet the shifting forms of error; its armouries are +piled and marshalled in human memories; its cohesion lies in human +zeal, in discipline, in childlike docility; and all its triumphs, +its pomps, and glories, must for ever depend upon talent, upon the +energies of the will, and upon the harmonious co-operation of its +several divisions. Thus far, I say, there is no call made out for _any_ +intervention of the architect. + +Let me apply all this to Oxford. Among the four functions commonly +recognised by the founders of Universities are--1st, to find a set of +halls or places of meeting; 2d, to find the implements and accessaries +of study; 3d, to secure the succession of teachers and learners; 4th, +to secure the profitable application of their attainments to the +public service. Of these four, the two highest need no buildings; and +the other two, which are mere collateral functions of convenience, +need only a small one. Wherefore, then, and to what end, are the +vast systems of building, the palaces and towers of Oxford? These +are either altogether superfluous, mere badges of ostentation and +luxurious wealth, or they point to some fifth function not so much +as contemplated by other Universities, and, at present, absolutely +and chimerically beyond their means of attainment. Formerly we used +to hear attacks upon the Oxford discipline as fitted to the true +_intellectual_ purposes of a modern education. Those attacks, weak +and most uninstructed in facts, false as to all that they challenged, +and puerile as to what implicitly they propounded for homage, are +silent. But, of late, the battery has been pointed against the Oxford +discipline in its _moral_ aspects, as fitted for the government and +restraint of young men, or even as at all contemplating any such +control. The Beverleys would have us suppose, not only that the great +body of the students are a licentious crew, acknowledging no discipline +or restraints, but that the grave elders of the University, and those +who wield the nominal authority of the place, passively resign the +very shows of power, and connive at general excesses, even when they +do not absolutely authorize them in their personal examples. Now, when +such representations are made, to what standard of a just discipline +is it that these writers would be understood as appealing? Is it to +some ideal, or to some existing and known reality? Would they have +England suppose that they are here comparing the actual Oxford with +some possible hypothetic or imaginable Oxford,--with some ideal case, +that is to say, about which great discussions would arise as to its +feasibility,--or that they are comparing it with some known standard +of discipline actually realized and sustained for generations, in +Leipsic, suppose, or Edinburgh, or Leyden, or Salamanca? This is the +question of questions, to which we may demand an answer; and, according +to that answer, observe the dilemma into which these furciferous +knaves must drop. If they are comparing Oxford simply with some ideal +and better Oxford, in some ideal and better world, in that case all +they have said--waiving its falsehoods of fact--is no more than a +flourish of rhetoric, and the whole discussion may be referred to +the shadowy combats of scholastic declamation-mongers--those mock +gladiators, and _umbratiles doctores_. But if, on the other hand, they +pretend to take their station upon the known basis of some existing +institution,--if they will pretend that, in this impeachment of +Oxford, they are proceeding upon a silent comparison with Edinburgh, +Glasgow, Jena, Leipsic, Padua, &c.,--then are they self-exposed, as +men not only without truth, but without shame. For now comes in, as +a sudden revelation, and as a sort of _deus ex machina_, for the +vindication of the truth, the simple answer to that question proposed +above, Wherefore, and to what end, are the vast edifices of Oxford? A +University, as Universities are in general, needs not, I have shown, to +be a visible body--a building raised with hands. Wherefore, then, is +the _visible_ Oxford? To what _fifth_ end, refining upon the ordinary +ends of such institutions, is the far-stretching system of Oxford +_hospitia_, or monastic hotels, directed by their founders, or applied +by their present possessors? Hearken, reader, to the answer:-- + +These vast piles are applied to an end absolutely indispensable to any +even tolerable system of discipline, and yet absolutely unattainable +upon any commensurate scale in any other University of Europe. They are +applied to the personal settlement and domestication of the students +within the gates and walls of that college to whose discipline they are +amenable. Everywhere else the young men live _where_ they please and +_as_ they please; necessarily distributed amongst the towns-people; +in any case, therefore, liable to no control or supervision whatever; +and, in those cases where the University forms but a small part of +a vast capital city, as it does in Paris, Edinburgh, Madrid, Vienna, +Berlin, and Petersburg, liable to every mode of positive temptation +and distraction which besiege human life in high-viced and luxurious +communities. Here, therefore, it is a mockery to talk of discipline; +of a nonentity there can be no qualities; and we need not ask for the +description of the discipline in situations where discipline there can +be none. One slight anomaly I have heard of as varying _pro tanto_ +the uniform features of this picture. In Glasgow I have heard of an +arrangement by which young academicians are placed in the family of a +professor. Here, as members of a private household, and that household +under the presiding eye of a conscientious, paternal, and judicious +scholar, doubtless they would enjoy as absolute a shelter from peril +and worldly contagion as parents could wish; but not _more_ absolute, +I affirm, than belongs, unavoidably, to the monastic seclusion of an +Oxford college--the gates of which open to no egress after nine o'clock +at night, nor after eleven to any ingress which is not regularly +reported to a proper officer of the establishment. The two forms of +restraint are, as respects the effectual amount of control, equal; and +were they equally diffused, Glasgow and Oxford would, in this point, +stand upon the same level of discipline. But it happens that the +Glasgow case was a personal accident; personal, both as regarded him +who volunteered the exercise of this control, and those who volunteered +to appropriate its benefits; whereas the Oxford case belongs to the +very system, is coextensive with the body of undergraduates, and, +from the very arrangement of Oxford life, is liable to no decay or +intermission. + +Here, then, the reader apprehends the first great characteristic +distinction of Oxford--that distinction which extorted the rapturous +admiration of Lipsius as an exponent of enormous wealth, but which I +now mention as applying, with ruinous effect, to the late calumnies +upon Oxford, as an inseparable exponent of her meritorious discipline. +She, most truly and severely an "Alma Mater," gathers all the juvenile +part of her flock within her own fold, and beneath her own vigilant +supervision. In Cambridge there is, so far, a laxer administration of +this rule, that, when any college overflows undergraduates are allowed +to lodge at large in the town. But in Oxford this increase of peril and +discretionary power is thrown by preference upon the senior graduates, +who are seldom below the age of twenty-two or twenty-three; and the +college accommodations are reserved, in almost their whole extent, for +the most youthful part of the society. This extent is prodigious. Even +in my time, upwards of two thousand persons were lodged within the +colleges; none having fewer than two rooms, very many having three, and +men of rank, or luxurious habits, having often large suites of rooms. +But that was a time of war, which Oxford experience has shown to have +operated most disproportionably as a drain upon the numbers disposable +for liberal studies; and the total capacity of the University was far +from being exhausted. There are now, I believe, between five and six +thousand names upon the Oxford books; and more than four thousand, +I understand, of constant residents. So that Oxford is well able to +lodge, and on a very sumptuous scale, a small army of men; which +expression of her great splendour I now mention (as I repeat) purely +as applying to the question of her machinery for enforcing discipline. +This part of her machinery, it will be seen, is unique, and absolutely +peculiar to herself. Other Universities, boasting no such enormous +wealth, cannot be expected to act upon her system of seclusion. +Certainly, I make it no reproach to other Universities, that, not +possessing the means of sequestering their young men from worldly +communion, they must abide by the evils of a laxer discipline. It is +their misfortune, and not their criminal neglect, which consents to +so dismal a relaxation of academic habits. But let them not urge this +misfortune in excuse at one time, and at another virtually disavow it. +Never let _them_ take up a stone to throw at Oxford, upon this element +of a wise education; since in them, through that original vice in their +constitution, the defect of all means for secluding and insulating +their society, discipline is abolished by anticipation--being, in fact, +an impossible thing; for the walls of the college are subservient to no +purpose of life, but only to a purpose of convenience; they converge +the students for the hour or two of what is called lecture; which over, +each undergraduate again becomes _sui juris_, is again absorbed into +the crowds of the world, resorts to whatsoever haunts he chooses, and +finally closes his day at ---- if, in any sense, at home--at a home +which is not merely removed from the supervision and control, but +altogether from the bare knowledge, of his academic superiors. How +far this discipline is well administered in other points at Oxford, +will appear from the rest of my account. But, thus far, at least, it +must be conceded, that Oxford, by and through this one unexampled +distinction--her vast disposable fund of accommodations for junior +members within her own private cloisters--possesses an advantage which +she could not forfeit, if she would, towards an effectual knowledge +of each man's daily habits, and a control over him which is all but +absolute. + +This knowledge and this control is much assisted and concentrated by +the division of the University into separate colleges. Here comes +another feature of the Oxford system. Elsewhere the University is a +single college; and this college is the University. But in Oxford the +University expresses, as it were, the army, and the colleges express +the several brigades, or regiments. + +To resume, therefore, my own thread of personal narration. On the +next morning after my arrival in Oxford, I assembled a small council +of friends to assist me in determining at which of the various +separate societies I should enter, and whether as a "commoner," or +as a "gentleman commoner." Under the first question was couched the +following latitude of choice: I give the names of the colleges, and +the numerical account of their numbers, as it stood in January 1832; +for this will express, as well as the list of that day (which I do not +accurately know), the _proportions_ of importance amongst them. + + Mem. + 1. University College 207 + 2. Balliol " 257 + 3. Merton " 124 + 4. Exeter " 299 + 5. Oriel " 293 + 6. Queen's " 351 + 7. New " 157 + 8. Lincoln " 141 + 9. All Souls' " 98 + 10. Magdalene " 165 + 11. Brasenose " 418 + 12. Corpus Christi " 127 + 13. Christ Church " 949 + 14. Trinity " 259 + 15. St. John's " 218 + 16. Jesus " 167 + 17. Wadham " 217 + 18. Pembroke " 189 + 19. Worcester " 231 + +Then, besides these colleges, five _Halls_, as they are technically +called (the term _Hall_ implying chiefly that they are societies not +endowed, or not endowed with fellowships as the colleges are), namely: + + Mem. + 1. St. Mary Hall 83 + 2. Magdalen " 178 + 3. New Inn " 10 + 4. St. Alban " 41 + 5. St. Edmund " 96 + +Such being the names, and general proportions on the scale of local +importance, attached to the different communities, next comes the very +natural question, What are the chief determining motives for guiding +the selection amongst them? These I shall state. First of all, a man +not otherwise interested in the several advantages of the colleges +has, however, in all probability, some choice between a small society +and a large one; and thus far a mere ocular inspection of the list +will serve to fix his preference. For my part, supposing other things +equal, I greatly preferred the most populous college, as being that +in which any single member, who might have reasons for standing aloof +from the general habits of expense, of intervisiting, &c., would have +the best chance of escaping a jealous notice. However, amongst those +"other things" which I presumed equal, one held a high place in my +estimation, which a little inquiry showed to be very far from equal. +All the colleges have chapels, but all have not organs; nor, amongst +those which have, is the same large use made of the organ. Some +preserve the full cathedral service; others do not. Christ Church, +meantime, fulfilled _all_ conditions: for the chapel here happens +to be the cathedral of the diocese; the service, therefore, is full +and ceremonial; the college, also, is far the most splendid, both in +numbers, rank, wealth, and influence. Hither I resolved to go; and +immediately I prepared to call on the head. + +The "head," as he is called generically, of an Oxford college (his +_specific_ appellation varies almost with every college--principal, +provost, master, rector, warden, etc.), is a greater man than the +uninitiated suppose. His situation is generally felt as conferring a +degree of rank not much less than episcopal; and, in fact, the head +of Brasenose at that time, who happened to be the Bishop of Bangor, +was not held to rank much above his brothers in office. Such being the +rank of heads generally, _à fortiori_, that of Christ Church was to be +had in reverence; and this I knew. He is always, _ex officio_, dean +of the diocese; and, in his quality of college head, he only, of all +deans that ever were heard of, is uniformly considered a greater man +than his own diocesan. But it happened that the present dean had even +higher titles to consideration. Dr. Cyril Jackson had been tutor to the +Prince of Wales (George IV); he had repeatedly refused a bishopric; +and _that_, perhaps, is entitled to place a man one degree above him +who has accepted one. He was also supposed to have made a bishop, and +afterwards, at least, it is certain that he made his own brother a +bishop. All things weighed, Dr. Cyril Jackson seemed so very great a +personage that I now felt the value of my long intercourse with great +dons in giving me confidence to face a lion of this magnitude. + +Those who know Oxford are aware of the peculiar feelings which have +gathered about the name and pretensions of Christ Church; feelings of +superiority and leadership in the members of that college, and often +enough of defiance and jealousy on the part of other colleges. Hence +it happens that you rarely find yourself in a shop, or other place +of public resort, with a Christ-Church man, but he takes occasion, +if young and frivolous, to talk loudly of the Dean, as an indirect +expression of his own connection with this splendid college; the title +of _Dean_ being exclusively attached to the headship of Christ Church. +The Dean, as maybe supposed, partakes in this superior dignity of his +"House"; he is officially brought into connection with all orders +of the British aristocracy--often with royal personages; and with +the younger branches of the aristocracy his office places him in a +relation of authority and guardianship--exercised, however, through +inferior ministry, and seldom by direct personal interference. The +reader must understand that, with rare exceptions, all the princes +and nobles of Great Britain who choose to benefit by an academic +education resort either to Christ Church College in Oxford, or to +Trinity College in Cambridge: these are the alternatives. Naturally +enough, my young friends were somewhat startled at my determination to +call upon so great a man; a letter, they fancied, would be a better +mode of application. I, however, who did not adopt the doctrine that +no man is a hero to his valet, was of opinion that very few men indeed +are heroes to themselves. The cloud of external pomp, which invests +them to the eyes of the _attoniti_, cannot exist to their own; they do +not, like Kehama entering the eight gates of Padalon at once, meet and +contemplate their own grandeurs; but, more or less, are conscious of +acting a part. I did not, therefore, feel the tremor which was expected +of a novice, on being ushered into so solemn a presence. + + II[4] + + [4] From _Tait's Magazine_ for June 1835. + +The Dean was sitting in a spacious library or study, elegantly, +if not luxuriously, furnished. Footmen, stationed as repeaters, +as if at some fashionable rout, gave a momentary importance to my +unimportant self, by the thundering tone of their annunciations. All +the machinery of aristocratic life seemed indeed to intrench this +great Don's approaches; and I was really surprised that so very great +a man should condescend to rise on my entrance. But I soon found that, +if the Dean's station and relation to the higher orders had made +him lofty, those same relations had given a peculiar suavity to his +manners. Here, indeed, as on other occasions, I noticed the essential +misconception, as to the demeanour of men of rank, which prevails +amongst those who have no personal access to their presence. In the +fabulous pictures of novels (such novels as once abounded), and in +newspaper reports of conversations, real or pretended, between the King +and inferior persons, we often find the writer expressing _his_ sense +of aristocratic assumption, by making the King address people without +their titles. The Duke of Wellington, for instance, or Lord Liverpool, +figures usually, in such scenes, as "Wellington," or "Arthur," and as +"Liverpool." Now, as to the private talk of George IV in such cases, I +do not pretend to depose; but, speaking generally, I may say that the +practice of the highest classes takes the very opposite course. Nowhere +is a man so sure of his titles or official distinctions as amongst +_them_; for it is upon giving to every man the very extreme punctilio +of his known or supposed claims that they rely for the due observance +of their own. Neglecting no form of courtesy suited to the case, they +seek, in this way, to remind men unceasingly of what they expect; and +the result is what I represent--that people in the highest stations, +and such as bring them continually into contact with inferiors, are, +of all people, the least addicted to insolence or defect of courtesy. +Uniform suavity of manner is indeed rarely found _except_ in men of +high rank. Doubtless this may arise upon a motive of self-interest, +jealous of giving the least opening or invitation to the retorts of +ill-temper or low breeding. But, whatever be its origin, such I believe +to be the fact. In a very long conversation of a general nature upon +the course of my studies, and the present direction of my reading, +Dr. Cyril Jackson treated me just as he would have done his equal in +station and in age. Coming, at length, to the particular purpose of my +visit at this time to himself, he assumed a little more of his official +stateliness. He condescended to say that it would have given him +pleasure to reckon me amongst his flock; "But, sir," he said, in a tone +of some sharpness, "your guardians have acted improperly. It was their +duty to have given me at least one year's notice of their intention to +place you at Christ Church. At present I have not a dog-kennel in my +college untenanted." Upon this, I observed that nothing remained for me +to do but to apologize for having occupied so much of his time; that, +for myself, I now first heard of this preliminary application; and +that, as to my guardians, I was bound to acquit them of all oversight +in this instance, they being no parties to my present scheme. The +Dean expressed his astonishment at this statement. I, on my part, +was just then making my parting bows, and had reached the door, when +a gesture of the Dean's, courteously waving me back to the sofa I had +quitted, invited me to resume my explanations; and I had a conviction +at the moment that the interview would have terminated in the Dean's +suspending his standing rule in my favour. But, just at that moment, +the thundering heralds of the Dean's hall announced some man of high +rank: the sovereign of Christ Church seemed distressed for a moment; +but then, recollecting himself, bowed in a way to indicate that I was +dismissed. And thus it happened that I did not become a member of +Christ Church.[5] + + [5] Among the students in Christ Church at this time was Charles + Kirkpatrick Sharpe, afterwards so well known as a fellow-resident + with De Quincey in Edinburgh. He was De Quincey's senior by four + years, and had entered Christ Church in 1798. Among his + acquaintances and fellow-students were Lord Gower, afterwards Duke + of Sutherland, Lord Newtown, Elijah Impey (son of the famous + Indian judge of that name), and others of high name and rank. In + the _Memoirs and Correspondence of Kirkpatrick Sharpe_ (published + 1888) there are descriptions of the society of the college, with + sketches of Dean Cyril Jackson, &c., from Sharpe's cynical + pen.--M. + +A few days passed in thoughtless indecision. At the end of that time, +a trivial difficulty arose to settle my determination. I had brought +about fifty guineas to Oxford; but the expenses of an Oxford inn, with +almost daily entertainments to young friends, had made such inroads +upon this sum, that, after allowing for the contingencies incident to +a college initiation, enough would not remain to meet the usual demand +for what is called "caution money." This is a small sum, properly +enough demanded of every student, when matriculated, as a pledge for +meeting any loss from unsettled arrears, such as his sudden death or +his unannounced departure might else continually be inflicting upon +his college. By releasing the college, therefore, from all necessity +for degrading vigilance or persecution, this demand does, in effect, +operate beneficially to the feelings of all parties. In most colleges +it amounts to twenty-five pounds: in one only it was considerably less. +And this trifling consideration it was, concurring with a reputation +_at that time_ for relaxed discipline, which finally determined me +in preferring W---- College[6] to all others. This college had the +capital disadvantage, in my eyes, that its chapel possessed no organ, +and no musical service. But any other choice would have driven me to +an instant call for more money--a measure which, as too flagrantly +in contradiction to the whole terms on which I had volunteered to +undertake an Oxford life, I could not find nerves to face. + + [6] It was Worcester College; and we shall use the full name, + instead of the blank W., in the sequel.--M. + +At Worcester College, therefore, I entered: and here arises the proper +occasion for stating the true costs of an Oxford education. First +comes the question of _lodging_. This item varies, as may be supposed; +but my own case will place on record the two extremes of cost in one +particular college, nowadays differing, I believe, from the general +standard. The first rooms assigned me, being small and ill-lighted, +as part of an old Gothic building, were charged at four guineas a +year. These I soon exchanged for others a little better, and for them +I paid six guineas. Finally, by privilege of seniority, I obtained a +handsome set of well-proportioned rooms, in a modern section of the +college, charged at ten guineas a year. This set was composed of three +rooms; namely, an airy bed-room, a study, and a spacious room for +receiving visitors. This range of accommodation is pretty general in +Oxford, and, upon the whole, may be taken perhaps as representing the +average amount of luxury in this respect, and at the average amount +of cost. The furniture and the fittings up of these rooms cost me +about twenty-five guineas; for the Oxford rule is, that if you take +the rooms (which is at your own option), in that case, you _third_ the +furniture and the embellishments--that is, you succeed to the total +cost diminished by one third. You pay, therefore, two guineas out of +each three to your _immediate_ predecessor. But, as he also may have +succeeded to the furniture upon the same terms, whenever there happens +to have been a rapid succession of occupants, the original cost to +a remote predecessor is sometimes brought down, by this process of +diminution, to a mere fraction of the true value; and yet no individual +occupant can complain of any heavy loss. Whilst upon this subject, I +may observe that, in the seventeenth century, in Milton's time, for +example (about 1624), and for more than sixty years after that era, the +practice of _chumship_ prevailed: every set of chambers was possessed +by two co-occupants; they had generally the same bed-room, and a common +study; and they were called _chums_. This practice, once all but +universal, is now entirely extinct; and the extinction serves to mark +the advance of the country, not so much in luxury as in refinement. + +The next item which I shall notice is that which in college bills is +expressed by the word _Tutorage_. This is the same in all colleges, +I believe: viz., ten guineas per annum. And this head suggests an +explanation which is most important to the reputation of Oxford, and +fitted to clear up a very extensive delusion. Some years ago, a most +elaborate statement was circulated of the number and costly endowment +of the Oxford Professorships. Some thirty or more there were, it +was alleged, and five or six only which were not held as absolute +sinecures. Now, this is a charge which I am not here meaning to +discuss. Whether defensible or not, I do not now inquire. It is the +practical interpretation and construction of this charge which I here +wish to rectify. In most Universities, except those of England, the +Professors are the body on whom devolves the whole duty and burthen of +teaching; they compose the sole fountains of instruction; and if these +fountains fail, the fair inference is, that the one great purpose of +the institution is defeated. But this inference, valid for all other +places, is not so for Oxford and Cambridge. And here, again, the +difference arises out of the peculiar distribution of these bodies +into separate and independent colleges. Each college takes upon itself +the regular instruction of its separate inmates--of these and of no +others; and for this office it appoints, after careful selection, +trial, and probation, the best qualified amongst those of its senior +members who choose to undertake a trust of such heavy responsibility. +These officers are called Tutors; and they are connected by duties +and by accountability, not with the University at all, but with their +own private colleges. The Professors, on the other hand, are _public_ +functionaries, not connected (as respects the exercise of their +duties) with any college whatsoever--not even with their own--but +altogether and exclusively with the whole University. Besides the +public tutors appointed in each college, on the scale of one to each +dozen or score of students, there are also tutors strictly private, +who attend any students in search of special and extraordinary aid, +on terms settled privately by themselves. Of these persons, or their +existence, the college takes no cognisance; but between the two classes +of tutors, the most studious young men--those who would be most likely +to avail themselves of the lectures read by the professors--have their +whole time pretty severely occupied: and the inference from all this +is, not only that the course of Oxford education would suffer little if +no Professors at all existed, but also that, if the existing Professors +were _ex abundanti_ to volunteer the most exemplary spirit of exertion, +however much this spectacle of conscientious dealing might edify the +University, it would contribute but little to the promotion of academic +purposes. The establishment of Professors is, in fact, a thing of +ornament and pomp. Elsewhere, they are the working servants; but, in +Oxford, the ministers corresponding to them bear another name,--they +are called _Tutors_. These are the working agents in the Oxford system; +and the Professors, with salaries in many cases merely nominal, +are persons sequestered, and properly sequestered, to the solitary +cultivation and advancement of knowledge which a different order of men +is appointed to communicate. + +Here let us pause for one moment, to notice another peculiarity in +the Oxford system, upon the tendency of which I shall confidently +make my appeal to the good sense of all unprejudiced readers. I have +said that the _Tutors_ of Oxford correspond to the _Professors_ of +other Universities. But this correspondence, which is absolute and +unquestionable as regards the point then at issue,--viz., where we +are to look for that limb of the establishment on which rests the +main teaching agency,--is liable to considerable qualification, +when we examine the mode of their teaching. In both cases, this is +conveyed by what is termed "lecturing";--but what is the meaning +of a lecture in Oxford and elsewhere? Elsewhere, it means a solemn +dissertation, read, or sometimes histrionically declaimed, by the +Professor. In Oxford, it means an exercise performed orally by the +students, occasionally assisted by the tutor, and subject, in its +whole course, to his corrections, and what may be called his scholia, +or collateral suggestions and improvements. Now, differ as men may as +to other features of the Oxford, compared with the hostile system, +here I conceive that there is no room for doubt or demur. An Oxford +lecture imposes a real _bona fide_ task upon the student; it will not +suffer him to fall asleep, either literally or in the energies of his +understanding; it is a real drill, under the excitement, perhaps, of +personal competition, and under the review of a superior scholar. But, +in Germany, under the declamations of the Professor, the young men are +often literally sleeping; nor is it easy to see how the attention can +be kept from wandering, on this plan, which subjects the auditor to +no risk of sudden question or personal appeal. As to the prizes given +for essays, etc., by the Professors, these have the effect of drawing +forth latent talent, but they can yield no criterion of the attention +paid to the Professor; not to say that the competition for these prizes +is a matter of choice. Sometimes it is true that examinations take +place; but the Oxford lecture is a daily examination; and, waiving +_that_, what chance is there (I would ask) for searching examinations, +for examinations conducted with the requisite _auctoritas_ (or weight +of influence derived from personal qualities), if--which may Heaven +prevent!--the German tenure of Professorships were substituted for +our British one: that is, if for independent and liberal teachers +were substituted poor mercenary haberdashers of knowledge--cap in +hand to opulent students--servile to their caprices--and, at one +blow, degrading the science they profess, the teacher, and the pupil? +Yet I hear that such advice was given to a Royal Commission, sent to +investigate one or more of the Scottish Universities. In the German +Universities, every Professor holds his situation, not on his good +behaviour, but on the capricious pleasure of the young men who resort +to his market. He opens a shop, in fact: others, without limit, +generally men of no credit or known respectability, are allowed to +open rival shops; and the result is, sometimes, that the whole kennel +of scoundrel Professors ruin one another; each standing with his +mouth open, to leap at any bone thrown amongst them from the table of +the "Burschen"; all hating, fighting, calumniating each other, until +the land is sick of its base knowledge-mongers, and would vomit the +loathsome crew, were any natural channel open to their instincts of +abhorrence. The most important of the Scottish Professorships--those +which are fundamentally morticed to the moral institutions of the +land--are upon the footing of Oxford tutorships, as regards emoluments; +that is, they are not suffered to keep up a precarious mendicant +existence, upon the alms of the students, or upon their fickle +admirations. It is made imperative upon a candidate for admission into +the ministry of the Scottish Kirk, that he shall show a certificate of +attendance through a given number of seasons at given lectures. + +The next item in the quarterly (or, technically, the _term_) bills of +Oxford is for servants. This, in my college, and, I believe, in all +others, amounted, nominally, to two guineas a year. That sum, however, +was paid to a principal servant, whom, perhaps, you seldom or never +saw; the actual attendance upon yourself being performed by one of +his deputies; and to this deputy--who is, in effect, a _factotum_, +combining in his single person all the functions of chamber-maid, +valet, waiter at meals, and porter or errand-boy--by the custom of the +place and your own sense of propriety, you cannot but give something +or other in the shape of perquisites. I was told, on entering, that +half a guinea a quarter was the customary allowance,--the same sum, in +fact, as was levied by the college for his principal; but I gave mine a +guinea a quarter, thinking that little enough for the many services he +performed; and others, who were richer than myself, I dare say, often +gave much more. Yet, sometimes, it struck me, from the gratitude which +his looks testified, on my punctual payment of this guinea,--for it +was the only bill with regard to which I troubled myself to practise +any severe punctuality,--that perhaps some thoughtless young man +might give him less, or might even forget to give anything; and, at +all events, I have reason to believe that half that sum would have +contented him. These minutiæ I record purposely; my immediate object +being to give a rigorous statement of the real expenses incident to +an English university education, partly as a guide to the calculations +of parents, and partly as an answer to the somewhat libellous +exaggerations which are current on this subject, in times like these, +when even the truth itself, and received in a spirit of candour the +most indulgent, may be all too little to defend these venerable seats +of learning from the ruin which seems brooding over them. Yet, no! +Abominable is the language of despair even in a desperate situation. +And, therefore, Oxford, ancient mother! and thou, Cambridge, twin-light +of England! be vigilant and erect, for the enemy stands at all your +gates! Two centuries almost have passed since the boar was within +your vineyards, laying waste and desolating your heritage. Yet that +storm was not final, nor that eclipse total. May this also prove but +a trial and a shadow of affliction! which affliction, may it prove to +you, mighty incorporations, what, sometimes, it is to us, poor, frail +_homunculi_--a process of purification, a solemn and oracular warning! +And, when that cloud is overpast, then, rise, ancient powers, wiser and +better--ready, like the [Greek: lampadêphoroi] of old, to enter upon +a second _stadium_, and to transmit the sacred torch through a second +period of twice[7] five hundred years. So prays a loyal _alumnus_, +whose presumption, if any be, in taking upon himself a monitory tone, +is privileged by zeal and filial anxiety. + + [7] Oxford may confessedly claim a duration of that extent; and + the pretensions of Cambridge, in that respect, if less aspiring, + are, however, as I believe, less accurately determined. + +To return, however, into the track from which I have digressed. The +reader will understand that any student is at liberty to have private +servants of his own, as many and of what denomination he pleases. +This point, as many others of a merely personal bearing, when they +happen to stand in no relation to public discipline, neither the +University nor the particular college of the student feels summoned +or even authorized to deal with. Neither, in fact, does any other +University in Europe; and why, then, notice the case? Simply thus: if +the Oxford discipline, in this particular chapter, has nothing special +or peculiar about it, yet the case to which it applies _has_, and +is almost exclusively found in our Universities. On the Continent +it happens most rarely that a student has any funds disposable for +luxuries so eminently such as grooms or footmen; but at Oxford and +Cambridge the case occurs often enough to attract notice from the +least vigilant eye. And thus we find set down to the credit account of +other Universities the non-existence of luxury in this or other modes, +whilst, meantime, it is well known to the fair inquirer that each or +all are indulgences not at all or so much as in idea proscribed by +the sumptuary edicts of those Universities, but, simply, by the lower +scale of their general revenues. And this lower scale, it will be +said--how do you account for that? I answer, not so much by the general +inferiority of Continental Europe to Great Britain in _diffusive_ +wealth (though that argument goes for something, it being notorious +that, whilst immoderate wealth, concentrated in a small number of +hands, exists in various continental states upon a larger scale than +with us, moderately large estates, on the other hand, are, with them, +as one to two hundred, or even two hundred and fifty, in comparison +with ours), but chiefly upon this fact, which is too much overlooked, +that the foreign Universities are not peopled from the wealthiest +classes, which are the classes either already noble, or wishing to +become such. And why is that? Purely from the vicious constitution of +society on the Continent, where all the fountains of honour lie in +the military profession or in the diplomatic. We English, haters and +revilers of ourselves beyond all precedent, disparagers of our own +eminent advantages beyond all sufferance of honour or good sense, and +daily playing into the hands of foreign enemies, who hate us out of +mere envy or shame, have amongst us some hundreds of writers who will +die or suffer martyrdom upon this proposition--that aristocracy, and +the spirit and prejudices of aristocracy, are more operative (more +effectually and more extensively operative) amongst ourselves than in +any other known society of men. Now, I, who believe all errors to arise +in some narrow, partial, or angular view of truth, am seldom disposed +to meet any sincere affirmation by a blank, unmodified denial. Knowing, +therefore, that some acute observers do really believe this doctrine as +to the aristocratic forces, and the way in which they mould English +society, I cannot but suppose that some symptoms do really exist of +such a phenomenon; and the only remark I shall here make on the case +is this, that, very often, where any force or influence reposes upon +deep realities, and upon undisturbed foundations, _there_ will be the +least heard of loquacious and noisy expressions of its power; which +expressions arise most, not where the current is most violent, but +where (being possibly the weakest) it is most fretted with resistance. + +In England, the very reason why the aristocratic feeling makes +itself so sensibly felt and so distinctly an object of notice to the +censorious observer is, because it maintains a troubled existence +amongst counter and adverse influences, so many and so potent. This +might be illustrated abundantly. But, as respects the particular +question before me, it will be sufficient to say this: With us the +profession and exercise of knowledge, as a means of livelihood, is +honourable; on the Continent it is not so. The knowledge, for instance, +which is embodied in the three learned professions, does, with us, lead +to distinction and civil importance; no man can pretend to deny this; +nor, by consequence, that the Professors personally take rank with the +highest order of gentlemen. Are they not, I demand, everywhere with us +on the same footing, in point of rank and consideration, as those who +bear the king's commission in the army and navy? Can this be affirmed +of the Continent, either generally, or, indeed, partially? I say, +_no_. Let us take Germany as an illustration. Many towns (for anything +I know, all) present us with a regular bisection of the resident +_notables_, or wealthier class, into two distinct (often hostile) +coteries: one being composed of those who are "_noble_"; the other, +of families equally well educated and accomplished, but _not_, in the +continental sense, "noble." The meaning and value of the word is so +entirely misapprehended by the best English writers,--being, in fact, +derived from our own way of applying it,--that it becomes important to +ascertain its true value. A "nobility" which is numerous enough to fill +a separate ball-room in every sixth-rate town, it needs no argument to +show, cannot be a nobility in any English sense. In fact, an _edelmann_ +or nobleman, in the German sense, is strictly what we mean by a _born +gentleman_; with this one only difference, that, whereas, with us, the +rank which denominates a man such passes off by shades so insensible, +and almost infinite, into the ranks below, that it becomes impossible +to assign it any strict demarkation or lines of separation, on the +contrary, the Continental noble points to certain fixed barriers, in +the shape of privileges, which divide him, _per saltum_, from those who +are below his own order. But, were it not for this one legal benefit +of accurate circumscription and slight favour, the Continental noble, +whether Baron of Germany, Count of France, or Prince of Sicily and +of Russia, is simply on a level with the common landed _esquire_ of +Britain, and _not_ on a level in very numerous cases. Such being the +case, how paramount must be the spirit of aristocracy in Continental +society! Our _haute noblesse_--our genuine nobility, who are such +in the general feeling of their compatriots--will do _that_ which +the phantom of nobility of the Continent will not: the spurious +nobles of Germany will not mix, on equal terms, with their untitled +fellow-citizens living in the same city and in the same style as +themselves; they will not meet them in the same ball or concert-room. +Our great territorial nobility, though sometimes forming exclusive +circles (but not, however, upon any principle of high birth), do +so daily. They mix as equal partakers in the same amusements of +races, balls, musical assemblies, with the baronets (or _élite_ of +the gentry); with the landed esquires (or middle gentry); with the +superior order of tradesmen (who, in Germany, are absolute ciphers, for +political weight, or social consideration, but, with us, constitute +the lower and broader stratum of the _nobilitas_,[8] or gentry). The +obscure baronage of Germany, it is undeniable, insist upon having +"an atmosphere of their own"; whilst the Howards, the Stanleys, the +Talbots, of England, the Hamiltons, the Douglases, the Gordons, of +Scotland, are content to acknowledge a sympathy with the liberal part +of their untitled countrymen, in that point which most searchingly +tries the principle of aristocratic pride, viz., in their pleasures. +To have the same pursuits of business with another may be a result of +accident or position; to have the same pleasures, being a matter of +choice, argues a community of nature in the _moral_ sensibilities, in +that part of our constitution which differences one man from another in +the capacities of greatness and elevation. + + [8] It may be necessary to inform some readers that the word + _noble_, by which so large a system of imposition and fraud, as to + the composition of foreign society, has long been practised upon + the credulity of the British, corresponds to our word + _gentlemanly_ (or, rather, to the vulgar word _genteel_, if that + word were ever used legally, or _extra gradum_), not merely upon + the argument of its _virtual_ and operative value in the general + estimate of men (that is, upon the argument that a count, baron, + &c., does not, _qua_ such, command any deeper feeling of respect + or homage than a British esquire), but also upon the fact, that, + originally, in all English registers, as, for instance, in the + Oxford matriculation registers, all the upper gentry (knights, + esquires, &c.) are technically designated by the word + _nobiles_.--_See Chamberlayne, &c._ + +As with their amusements, so with their graver employments; the same +mutual repulsion continues to divide the two orders through life. +The nobles either live in gloomy seclusion upon their private funds, +wherever the privilege of primogeniture has enabled them to do so; +or, having no funds at all (the case of ninety-nine in one hundred), +they go into the army; that profession, the profession of arms, being +regarded as the only one compatible with an _edelmann's_ pretensions. +Such was once the feeling in England; such is still the feeling on the +Continent. It is a prejudice naturally clinging to a semi-barbarous +(because growing out of a barbarous) state, and, in its degree, +clinging to every stage of imperfect civilization; and, were there no +other argument, this would be a sufficient one, that England, under +free institutions, has outrun the Continent, in real civilization, by a +century; a fact which is concealed by the forms of luxurious refinement +in a few exclusive classes, too often usurping the name and honours of +radical civilization. + +From the super-appreciation of the military profession arises a +corresponding contempt of all other professions whatsoever _paid by +fellow-citizens_, and not by the King or the State. The clerical +profession is in the most abject degradation throughout Southern +Germany; and the reason why this forces itself less imperiously upon +the public notice is, that, in rural situations, from the absence of a +resident gentry (speaking generally), the pastor is brought into rare +collision with those who style themselves _noble_; whilst, in towns, +the clergy find people enough to countenance those who, being in the +same circumstances as to comfort and liberal education, are also +under the same ban of rejection from the "nobility," or born gentry. +The legal profession is equally degraded; even a barrister or advocate +holds a place in the public esteem little differing from that of an +Old Bailey attorney of the worst class. And this result is the less +liable to modification from personal qualities, inasmuch as there is no +great theatre (as with us) for individual display. Forensic eloquence +is unknown in Germany, as it is too generally on the Continent, from +the defect of all popular or open judicatures. A similar defect of +deliberative assemblies--such, at least, as represent any popular +influences and debate with open doors--intercepts the very possibility +of senatorial eloquence.[9] That of the pulpit only remains. But even +of this--whether it be from want of the excitement and contagious +emulation from the other fields of oratory, or from the peculiar genius +of Lutheranism--no models have yet arisen that could, for one moment, +sustain a comparison with those of England or France. The highest names +in this department would not, to a foreign ear, carry with them any +of that significance or promise which surrounds the names of Jeremy +Taylor or Barrow, Bossuet or Bourdaloue, to those even who have no +personal acquaintance with their works. This absence of all fields for +gathering public distinctions co-operates, in a very powerful way, +with the contempt of the born gentry, to degrade these professions; +and this double agency is, a third time, reinforced by those political +arrangements which deny every form of state honour or conspicuous +promotion to the very highest description of excellence, whether of +the bar, the pulpit, or the civic council. Not "the fluent Murray," +or the accomplished Erskine, from the English bar--not Pericles or +Demosthenes, from the fierce democracies of Greece--not Paul preaching +at Athens--could snatch a wreath from public homage, nor a distinction +from the state, nor found an influence, nor leave behind them an +operative model, in Germany, as now constituted. Other walks of +emolument are still more despised. Alfieri, a Continental "noble," that +is, a born gentleman, speaks of bankers as we in England should of a +Jewish usurer, or tricking money-changer. The liberal trades, such as +those which minister to literature or the fine arts, which, with us, +confer the station of gentleman upon those who exercise them, are, in +the estimate of a Continental "noble," fitted to assign a certain rank +or place in the train and equipage of a gentleman, but not to entitle +their most eminent professors to sit down, except by sufferance, in +his presence. And, upon this point, let not the reader derive his +notions from the German books: the vast majority of German authors are +not "noble"; and, of those who are, nine tenths are liberal in this +respect, and speak the language of liberality, not by sympathy with +their own order, or as representing _their_ feelings, but in virtue of +democratic or revolutionary politics. + + [9] The subject is amusingly illustrated by an anecdote of Goethe, + recorded by himself in his autobiography. Some physiognomist, or + phrenologist, had found out, in Goethe's structure of head, the + sure promise of a great orator. "Strange infatuation of nature!" + observes Goethe, on this assurance, "to endow me so richly and + liberally for that particular destination which only the + institutions of my country render impossible. Music for the deaf! + Eloquence without an audience!" + +Such as the rank is, and the public estimation of the leading +professions, such is the natural condition of the Universities which +rear them. The "nobles" going generally into the army, or leading lives +of indolence, the majority by far of those who resort to Universities +do so as a means of future livelihood. Few seek an academic life in +Germany who have either money to throw away on superfluities and +external show, or who have such a rank to support as might stimulate +their pride to expenses beyond their means. Parsimony is, therefore, in +these places, the governing law; and pleasure, not less fervently wooed +than at Oxford or at Cambridge, putting off her robes of elegance and +ceremony, descends to grossness, and not seldom to abject brutality. + +The sum of my argument is--that, because, in comparison of the army, no +other civil profession is, in itself, held of sufficient dignity, and +not less, perhaps, because, under governments essentially unpopular, +none of these professions has been so dignified artificially by the +state, or so attached to any ulterior promotion, either through the +state or in the state, as to meet the demands of aristocratic pride, +none of them is cultivated as a means of distinction, but originally +as a means of livelihood; that the Universities, as the nurseries of +these unhonoured professions, share naturally in _their_ degradation, +and that, from this double depreciation of the place and its final +objects, few or none resort thither who can be supposed to bring +any extra funds for supporting a system of luxury; that the general +temperance, or sobriety of demeanour, is far enough, however, from +keeping pace with the absence of costly show; and that, for this +absence even, we are to thank their poverty rather than their will. +It is to the great honour, in my opinion, of our own country, that +those often resort to her fountains who have no motive but that of +disinterested reverence for knowledge; seeking, as all men perceive, +neither emolument directly from University funds, nor knowledge as the +means of emolument. Doubtless, it is neither dishonourable, nor, on +a large scale, possible to be otherwise, that students should pursue +their academic career chiefly as ministerial to their capital object of +a future livelihood. But still I contend that it is for the interest +of science and good letters that a considerable body of volunteers +should gather about their banners without pay or hopes of preferment. +This takes place on a larger scale at Oxford and Cambridge than +elsewhere; and it is but a trivial concession in return, on the part +of the University, that she should allow, even if she had the right +to withhold, the privilege of living within her walls as they would +have lived at their fathers' seats; with one only reserve, applied to +all modes of expense that are, in themselves, immoral excesses, or +occasions of scandal, or of a nature to interfere too much with the +natural hours of study, or specially fitted to tempt others of narrower +means to ruinous emulation. + +Upon these principles, as it seems to me, the discipline of the +University is founded. The keeping of hunters, for example, is +unstatutable. Yet, on the other hand, it is felt to be inevitable that +young men of high spirit, familiar with this amusement, will find +means to pursue it in defiance of all the powers, however exerted, +that can properly be lodged in the hands of academic officers. The +range of the proctor's jurisdiction is limited by positive law; and +what should hinder a young man, bent upon his pleasure, from fixing +the station of his hunter a few miles out of Oxford, and riding to +cover on a hack, unamenable to any censure? For, surely, in this age, +no man could propose so absurd a thing as a general interdiction of +riding. How, in fact, does the University proceed? She discountenances +the practice; and, if forced upon her notice, she visits it with +censure, and that sort of punishment which lies within her means. But +she takes no pains to search out a trespass, which, by the mere act +of seeking to evade public display in the streets of the University, +already tends to limit itself; and which, besides, from its costliness, +can never become a prominent nuisance. This I mention as illustrating +the spirit of her legislation; and, even in this case, the reader +must carry along with him the peculiar distinction which I have +pressed with regard to English Universities, in the existence of a +large volunteer order of students seeking only the liberalization, +and not the profits, of academic life. In arguing upon their case, +it is not the fair logic to say, These pursuits taint the decorum of +the studious character; it is not fair to calculate how much is lost +to the man of letters by such addiction to fox-hunting, but, on the +contrary, what is gained to the fox-hunter, who would, at any rate, be +such, by so considerable a homage paid to letters, and so inevitable +a commerce with men of learning. Anything whatsoever attained in this +direction is probably so much more than would have been attained under +a system of less toleration. _Lucro ponamus_, we say, of the very least +success in such a case. But, in speaking of toleration as applied to +acts or habits positively against the statutes, I limit my meaning +to those which, in their own nature, are morally indifferent, and +are discountenanced simply as indirectly injurious, or as peculiarly +open to excess. Because, on graver offences (as gambling, &c.), the +malicious impeachers of Oxford must well have known that no toleration +whatsoever is practised or thought of. Once brought under the eye of +the University in a clear case and on clear evidence, it would be +punished in the most exemplary way open to a limited authority; by +_rustication_, at least--that is, banishment for a certain number +of terms, and consequent loss of these terms--supposing the utmost +palliation of circumstances; and, in an aggravated case, or on a second +offence, most certainly by final expulsion. But it is no part of duty +to serve the cause even of good morals by impure means; and it is as +difficult beforehand to prevent the existence of vicious practices so +long as men have, and ought to have, the means of seclusion liable to +no violation, as it is afterwards difficult, without breach of honour, +to obtain proof of their existence. Gambling has been known to exist +in some dissenting institutions; and, in my opinion, with no blame to +the presiding authorities. As to Oxford in particular, no such habit +was generally prevalent in my time; it is not an English vice; nor did +I ever hear of any great losses sustained in this way. But, were it +otherwise, I must hold, that, considering the numbers, rank, and great +opulence, of the students, such a habit would impeach the spirit and +temper of the age rather than the vigilance or magisterial fidelity +of the Oxford authorities. They are limited, like other magistrates, +by honour and circumstances, in a thousand ways; and if a knot of +students will choose to meet for purposes of gaming, they must always +have it in their power to baffle every honourable or becoming attempt +at detecting them. But upon this subject I shall make two statements, +which may have some effect in moderating the uncharitable judgments +upon Oxford discipline. The first respects the age of those who are +the objects of this discipline; on which point a very grave error +prevails. In the last Parliament, not once, but many times over, Lord +Brougham and others assumed that the students of Oxford were chiefly +_boys_; and this, not idly or casually, but pointedly, and with a +view to an ulterior argument; for instance, by way of proving how +little they were entitled to judge of those thirty-nine articles to +which their assent was demanded. Now, this argued a very extraordinary +ignorance; and the origin of the error showed the levity in which their +legislation was conducted. These noble lords had drawn their ideas of +a University exclusively from Glasgow. Here, it is well known, and I +mention it neither for praise nor blame, that students are in the habit +of coming at the early age of fourteen. These may allowably be styled +_boys_. But, with regard to Oxford, eighteen is about the _earliest_ +age at which young men begin their residence: twenty and upwards is, +therefore, the age of the majority; that is, twenty is the _minimum_ +of age for the vast majority, as there must always be more men of +three years' standing than of two or of one. Apply this fact to the +question of discipline: young men beyond twenty, generally,--that +is to say, of the age which qualifies men for seats in the national +council,--can hardly, with decency, either be called or treated as +boys; and many things become impossible as applied to _them_, which +might be of easy imposition upon an assemblage _really_ childish. In +mere justice, therefore, when speculating upon this whole subject of +Oxford discipline, the reader must carry along with him, at every +step, the recollection of that signal difference as to age which I +have now stated between Oxonians and those students whom the hostile +party contemplate in their arguments.[10] Meantime, to show that, +even under every obstacle presented by this difference of age, the +Oxford authorities do, nevertheless, administer their discipline with +fidelity, with intrepidity, and with indifference as respects the high +and the low, I shall select from a crowd of similar recollections two +anecdotes, which are but trifles in themselves, and yet are not such to +him who recognizes them as expressions of a uniform system of dealing. + + [10] Whilst I am writing, a debate of the present Parliament, + reported on Saturday, March 7, 1835, presents us with a + determinate repetition of the error which I have been exposing; + and, again, as in the last Parliament, this error is not _inert_, + but is used for a hostile (apparently a malicious) purpose; nay, + which is remarkable, it is the _sole_ basis upon which the + following argument reposes. Lord Radnor again assumes that the + students of Oxford are "boys"; he is again supported in this + misrepresentation by Lord Brougham; and again the + misrepresentation is applied to a purpose of assault upon the + English Universities, but especially upon Oxford. And the nature + of the assault does not allow any latitude in construing the word + _boys_, nor any room for evasion as respects the total charge, + except what goes the length of a total retraction. The charge is, + that, in a requisition made at the very threshold of academic + life, upon the understanding and the honour of the students, the + University burdens their consciences to an extent which, in after + life, when reflection has enlightened them to the meaning of their + engagements, proves either a snare to those who trifle with their + engagements, or an insupportable burden to those who do not. For + the inculpation of the party imposing such oaths, it is essential + that the party taking them should be in a childish condition of + the moral sense, and the sense of responsibility; whereas, amongst + the Oxonian _under_-graduates, I will venture to say that the + number is larger of those who rise above than of those who fall + below twenty; and, as to sixteen (assumed as the representative + age by Lord Radnor), in my time, I heard of only one student, + amongst, perhaps, sixteen hundred, who was so young. I grieve to + see that the learned prelate who replied to the assailants was so + much taken by surprise; the defence might have been made + triumphant. With regard to oaths incompatible with the spirit of + modern manners, and yet formally unrepealed--_that_ is a case of + neglect and indolent oversight. But the _gravamen_ of that + reproach does not press exclusively upon Oxford; all the ancient + institutions of Europe are tainted in the same way, more + especially the monastic orders of the Romish church. + +A great Whig Lord (Earl C----) happened (it may be ten years ago) to +present himself one day at Trinity (the leading college of Cambridge), +for the purpose of introducing Lord F----ch, his son, as a future +member of that splendid society. Possibly it mortified his aristocratic +feelings to hear the head of the college, even whilst welcoming the +young nobleman in courteous terms, yet suggesting, with some solemnity, +that, before taking any final resolution in the matter, his lordship +would do well to consider whether he were fully prepared to submit +himself to college discipline; for that, otherwise, it became his +own duty frankly to declare that the college would not look upon his +accession to their society as any advantage. This language arose out +of some recent experience of refractory and turbulent conduct upon +the part of various young men of rank; but it is very possible that +the noble Earl, in his surprise at a salutation so uncourtly, might +regard it, in a Tory mouth, as having some lurking reference to his +own Whig politics. If so, he must have been still more surprised to +hear of another case, which would meet him before he left Cambridge, +and which involved some frank dealing as well as frank speaking, when +a privilege of exception might have been presumed, if Tory politics, +or services the most memorable, could ever create such a privilege. +The Duke of W---- had two sons at Oxford. The affair is now long past; +and it cannot injure either of them to say, that one of the brothers +trespassed against the college discipline, in some way which compelled +(or was thought to compel) the presiding authorities into a solemn +notice of his conduct. Expulsion appeared to be the appropriate penalty +of his offences: but, at this point, a just hesitation arose. Not in +any servile spirit, but under a proper feeling of consideration for +so eminent a public benefactor as this young nobleman's father. The +rulers paused--and at length signified to him that he was at liberty +to withdraw himself privately from the college, but also, and at the +same time, from the University. He did so, and his brother, conceiving +him to have been harshly treated, withdrew also; and both transferred +themselves to Cambridge. That could not be prevented: but there they +were received with marked reserve. One was _not_ received, I believe, +in a technical sense; and the other was received conditionally; and +such restrictions were imposed upon his future conduct as served most +amply, and in a case of great notoriety, to vindicate the claims of +discipline, and, in an extreme case, a case so eminently an extreme one +that none like it is ever likely to recur, to proclaim the footing upon +which the very highest rank is received at the English Universities. +Is that footing peculiar _to them_? I willingly believe that it is +not; and, with respect to Edinburgh and Glasgow, I am persuaded that +their weight of dignity is quite sufficient, and would be exerted to +secure the same subordination from men of rank, if circumstances should +ever bring as large a number of that class within their gates, and if +their discipline were equally applicable to the habits of students not +domiciled within their walls. But, as to the smaller institutions for +education within the pale of dissent, I feel warranted in asserting, +from the spirit of the anecdotes which have reached me, that they have +not the _auctoritas_ requisite for adequately maintaining their dignity. + +So much for the aristocracy of our English Universities: their glory +is, and the happiest application of their vast influence, that they +have the power to be republican, as respects their internal condition. +Literature, by substituting a different standard of rank, tends to +republican equality; and, as one instance of this, properly belonging +to the chapter of _servants_, which originally led to this discussion, +it ought to be known that the class of "servitors," once a large +body in Oxford, have gradually become practically extinct under the +growing liberality of the age. They carried in their academic dress a +mark of their inferiority; they waited at dinner on those of higher +rank, and performed other menial services, humiliating to themselves, +and latterly felt as no less humiliating to the general name and +interests of learning. The better taste, or rather the relaxing +pressure of aristocratic prejudice, arising from the vast diffusion +of trade and the higher branches of mechanic art, have gradually +caused these functions of the order (even where the law would not +permit the extinction of the order) to become obsolete. In my time, +I was acquainted with two servitors: but one of them was rapidly +pushed forward into a higher station; and the other complained of no +degradation, beyond the grievous one of exposing himself to the notice +of young women in the streets with an untasselled cap; but this he +contrived to evade, by generally going abroad without his academic +dress. The _servitors_ of Oxford are the _sizars_ of Cambridge; and I +believe the same changes[11] have taken place in both. + + [11] These changes have been accomplished, according to my + imperfect knowledge of the case, in two ways: first, by dispensing + with the services whenever that could be done; and, secondly, by a + wise discontinuance of the order itself in those colleges which + were left to their own choice in this matter. + +One only account with the college remains to be noticed; but this is +the main one. It is expressed in the bills by the word _battels_, +derived from the old monkish word _patella_ (or batella), a plate; +and it comprehends whatsoever is furnished for dinner and for supper, +including malt liquor, but not wine, as well as the materials for +breakfast, or for any casual refreshment to country visitors, excepting +only groceries. These, together with coals and faggots, candles, +wine, fruit, and other more trifling _extras_, which are matters of +personal choice, form so many private accounts against your name, and +are usually furnished by tradesmen living near to the college, and +sending their servants daily to receive orders. Supper, as a meal +not universally taken, in many colleges is served privately in the +student's own room; though some colleges still retain the ancient +custom of a public supper. But dinner is, in all colleges, a public +meal, taken in the refectory or "hall" of the society; which, with the +chapel and library, compose the essential public _suite_ belonging to +every college alike. No absence is allowed, except to the sick, or to +those who have formally applied for permission to give a dinner-party. +A fine is imposed on all other cases of absence. Wine is not generally +allowed in the public hall, except to the "high table," that is, +the table at which the fellows and some other privileged persons are +entitled to dine. The head of the college rarely dines in public. +The other tables, and, after dinner, the high table, usually adjourn +to their wine, either upon invitations to private parties, or to +what are called the "common rooms" of the several orders--graduates +and undergraduates, &c. The dinners are always plain, and without +pretensions--those, I mean, in the public hall; indeed, nothing _can_ +be plainer in most colleges--a simple choice between two or three sorts +of animal food, and the common vegetables. No fish, even as a regular +part of the fare; no soups, no game; nor, except on some very rare +festivity, did I ever see a variation from this plain fare at Oxford. +This, indeed, is proved sufficiently by the average amount of the +_battels_. Many men "battel" at the rate of a guinea a week: I did so +for years: that is, at the rate of three shillings a day for everything +connected with meals, excepting only tea, sugar, milk, and wine. It is +true that wealthier men, more expensive men, and more careless men, +often "battelled" much higher; but, if they persisted in this excess, +they incurred censures, more and more urgent, from the head of the +college. + +Now, let us sum up; promising that the extreme duration of residence +in any college at Oxford amounts to something under thirty weeks. It +is possible to keep "short terms," as the phrase is, by a residence of +thirteen weeks, or ninety-one days; but, as this abridged residence is +not allowed, except in here and there a college, I shall assume--as +something beyond the strict _maximum_ of residence--thirty weeks as my +basis. The account will then stand thus: + + 1. Rooms £10 10 0 + 2. Tutorage 10 10 0 + 3. Servants (subject to the explanations made above), + say 5 5 0 + 4. Battels (allowing one shilling a day beyond what + I and others spent in much dearer times; that + is, allowing twenty-eight shillings weekly), for + thirty weeks 40 4 0 + --------- + £66 9 0 + +This will be a liberal calculation for the college bill. What remains? +1. Candles, which the reader will best calculate upon the standard +of his own general usage in this particular. 2. Coals, which are +remarkably dear at Oxford--dearer, perhaps, than anywhere else in +the island; say, three times as dear as at Edinburgh. 3. Groceries. +4. Wine. 5. Washing. This last article was, in my time, regulated by +the college, as there were certain privileged washerwomen, between +whom and the students it was but fair that some proper authority +should interfere to prevent extortion, in return for the monopoly +granted. Six guineas was the regulated sum; but this paid for +everything,--table-linen, &c., as well as for wearing apparel; and +it was understood to cover the whole twenty-eight or thirty weeks. +However, it was open to every man to make his own arrangements, +by insisting on a separate charge for each separate article. All +other expenses of a merely personal nature, such as postage, public +amusements, books, clothes, &c., as they have no special connection +with Oxford, but would, probably, be balanced by corresponding, if +not the very same, expenses in any other place or situation, I do not +calculate. What I have specified are the expenses which would accrue +to a student in consequence of leaving his father's house. The rest +would, in these days, be the same, perhaps, everywhere. How much, then, +shall we assume as the total charge on account of Oxford? Candles, +considering the quantity of long days amongst the thirty weeks, may +be had for one shilling and sixpence a week; for few students--unless +they have lived in India, after which a physical change occurs in the +sensibility of the nostrils--are finical enough to burn wax-lights. +This will amount to two pounds five shillings. Coals, say sixpence a +day; for three-pence a day will amply feed one grate in Edinburgh; and +there are many weeks in the thirty which will demand no fire at all. +Groceries and wine, which are all that remain, I cannot calculate. But +suppose we allow for the first a shilling a day, which will be exactly +ten guineas for thirty weeks; and for the second, nothing at all. Then +the extras, in addition to the college bills, will stand thus: + + Washing for thirty weeks, at the privileged rate £6 6 0 + Candles 2 5 0 + Fire 5 5 0 + Groceries 10 10 0 + ----------- + £24 6 0 + +The college bills, therefore, will be £66: 9s.; the extras, not +furnished by the college, will be about £24: 6s.,--making a total +amount of £90: 15s. And for this sum, annually, a man may defray +_every_ expense incident to an Oxford life, through a period of weeks +(viz., thirty) something more than he will be permitted to reside. It +is true, that, for the _first_ year, there will be, in addition to +this, his outfit: and for _every_ year there will be his journeys. +There will also be twenty-two weeks uncovered by this estimate; but for +these it is not my business to provide, who deal only with Oxford. + +That this estimate is true, I know too feelingly. Would that it were +_not_! would that it were false! Were it so, I might the better justify +to myself that commerce with fraudulent Jews which led me so early +to commence the dilapidation of my small fortune. It _is_ true; and +true for a period (1804-8) far dearer than this. And to any man who +questions its accuracy I address this particular request--that he will +lay his hand upon the special item which he disputes. I anticipate that +he will answer thus: "I dispute none: it is not by positive things +that your estimate errs, but by negations. It is the absence of all +allowance for indispensable items that vitiates the calculation." Very +well: but to this, as to other things, we may apply the words of Dr. +Johnson--"Sir, the reason I drink no wine, is because I can practise +abstinence, but not temperance." Yes: in all things, abstinence is +easier than temperance; for a little enjoyment has invariably the +effect of awaking the sense of enjoyment, irritating it, and setting +it on edge. I, therefore, recollecting my own case, have allowed for +_no_ wine-parties. Let our friend, the abstraction we are speaking +of, give breakfast-parties, if he chooses to give any; and certainly +to give none at all, unless he were dedicated to study, would seem +very churlish. Nobody can be less a friend than myself to monkish and +ascetic seclusion, unless it were for twenty-three hours out of the +twenty-four. + +But, however this be settled, let no mistake be made; nor let that be +charged against the system which is due to the habits of individuals. +Early in the last century, Dr. Newton, the head of a college in Oxford, +wrote a large book against the Oxford system, as ruinously expensive. +But then, as now, the real expense was due to no cause over which the +colleges could exercise any effectual control. It is due exclusively to +the habits of social intercourse amongst the young men; from which _he_ +may abstain who chooses. But, for any academic authorities to interfere +by sumptuary laws with the private expenditure of grown men, many of +them, in a legal sense, _of age_, and all near it, must appear romantic +and extravagant, for this (or, indeed, any) stage of society. A tutor +being required, about 1810, to fix the amount of allowance for a young +man of small fortune, nearly related to myself, pronounced three +hundred and twenty pounds little enough. He had this allowance, and was +ruined in consequence of the credit which it procured for him, and the +society it connected him with. The majority have two hundred pounds a +year: but my estimate stands good, for all that. + +Having stated, generally, the expenses of the Oxford system, I am +bound, in candour, to mention one variety in the mode of carrying +this system into effect, open to every man's adoption, which confers +certain privileges, but, at the same time (by what exact mode, I know +not), considerably increases the cost, and in that degree disturbs +my calculation. The great body of undergraduates, or students, are +divided into two classes--_Commoners_, and _Gentlemen Commoners_. +Perhaps nineteen out of twenty belong to the former class; and it is +for that class, as having been my own, that I have made my estimate. +The other class of _Gentlemen Commoners_ (who, at Cambridge, bear +the name of _Fellow Commoners_) wear a peculiar dress, and have some +privileges which naturally imply some corresponding increase of cost; +but why this increase should go to the extent of doubling the total +expense, as it is generally thought to do, or how it _can_ go to +that extent, I am unable to explain. The differences which attach +to the rank of "Gentlemen Commoners" are these: At his entrance he +pays double "caution money"; that is, whilst Commoners in general +pay about twenty-five guineas, he pays fifty; but this can occur +only once; and, besides, in strict point of right, this sum is only +a deposit, and is liable to be withdrawn on leaving the University, +though it is commonly enough finally presented to the college in the +shape of plate. The next difference is, that, by comparison with the +Commoner, he wears a much more costly dress. The Commoner's gown is +made of what is called _prince's stuff_, and, together with the cap, +costs about five guineas. But the Gentleman Commoner has two gowns--an +undress for the morning, and a full dress-gown for the evening; both +are made of silk, and the latter is very elaborately ornamented. The +cap also is more costly, being covered with velvet instead of cloth. +At Cambridge, again, the tassel is made of gold fringe or bullion, +which, in Oxford, is peculiar to the caps of noblemen; and there +are many other varieties in that University, where the dress for +"pensioners" (that is, the Oxford "Commoners") is specially varied in +almost every college; the object being, perhaps, to give a ready means +to the academic officers for ascertaining, at a glance, not merely the +general fact that such or such a delinquent is a gownsman (which is all +that can be ascertained at Oxford), but also the particular college +to which he belongs. Allowance being made for these two items of +"dress" and "caution-money," both of which apply only to the original +outfit, I know of no others in which the expenditure of a Gentleman +Commoner ought to exceed, or could with propriety exceed, that of a +Commoner. He has, indeed, a privilege as regards the choice of rooms; +he chooses first, and probably chooses those rooms which, being best, +are dearest; that is, they are on a level with the best; but usually +there are many sets almost equally good; and of these the majority +will be occupied by Commoners. So far, there is little opening for +a difference. More often, again, it will happen that a man of this +aristocratic class keeps a private servant; yet this happens also to +Commoners, and is, besides, no properly college expense. Tutorage is +charged double to a Gentleman Commoner--namely, twenty guineas a year: +this is done upon a fiction (as it sometimes turns out) of separate +attention, or aid given in a private way to his scholastic pursuits. +Finally, there arises naturally another and peculiar source of expense +to the "Gentleman Commoner," from a fact implied in his Cambridge +designation of "_Fellow_ Commoner," _commensalis_--viz., that he +associates at meals with the "fellows" and other authorities of the +college. Yet this again expresses rather the particular shape which +his expenditure assumes than any absolute increase in its amount. He +subscribes to a regular mess, and pays, therefore, whether present or +not; but so, in a partial sense, does the Commoner, by his forfeits +for "absent commons." He subscribes also to a regular fund for wine; +and, therefore, he does not enjoy that immunity from wine-drinking +which is open to the Commoner. Yet, again, as the Commoner does but +rarely avail himself of this immunity, as he drinks no less wine than +the Gentleman Commoner, and, generally speaking, wine not worse in +quality, it is difficult to see any ground for a regular assumption +of higher expenditure in the one class than the other. However, the +universal impression favours that assumption. All people believe that +the rank of Gentleman Commoner imposes an expensive burden, though +few people ever ask why. As a matter of fact, I believe it to be true +that Gentlemen Commoners spend more by a third, or a half, than any +equal number of Commoners, taken without selection. And the reason is +obvious: those who become Gentlemen Commoners are usually determined +to that course by the accident of having very large funds; they are +eldest sons, or only sons, or men already in possession of estates, or +else (which is as common a case as all the rest put together) they are +the heirs of newly-acquired wealth--sons of the _nouveaux riches_--a +class which often requires a generation or two to rub off the insolence +of a too conscious superiority. I have called them an "aristocratic" +class; but, in strictness, they are not such; they form a privileged +class, indeed, but their privileges are few and trifling, not to add +that these very privileges are connected with one or two burdens, more +than outweighing them in the estimate of many; and, upon the whole, the +chief distinction they enjoy is that of advertising themselves to the +public as men of great wealth, or great expectations, and, therefore, +as subjects peculiarly adapted to fraudulent attempts. Accordingly, it +is not found that the sons of the nobility are much inclined to enter +this order: these, if they happen to be the eldest sons of earls, +or of any peers above the rank of viscount, so as to enjoy a title +themselves by the courtesy of England, have special privileges in both +Universities as to length of residence, degrees, &c.; and their rank +is ascertained by a special dress. These privileges it is not usual to +forgo; though sometimes that happens, as, in my time, in the instance +of Lord George Grenville (now Lord Nugent); he neither entered at the +aristocratic college (Christ Church), nor wore the dress of a nobleman. +Generally, however, an elder son appears in his true character of +nobleman; but the younger sons rarely enter the class of Gentlemen +Commoners. They enter either as "Commoners," or under some of those +various designations ("_scholars_," "_demies_," "_students_," "_junior +fellows_") which imply that they stand upon the foundation of the +college to which they belong, and are aspirants for academic emoluments. + +Upon the whole, I am disposed to regard this order of Gentlemen +Commoners as a standing temptation held out by authority to expensive +habits, and a very unbecoming proclamation of honour paid to the +aristocracy of wealth. And I know that many thoughtful men regard +it in the same light with myself, and regret deeply that any such +distribution of ranks should be authorized, as a stain upon the +simplicity and general manliness of the English academic laws. It is +an open profession of homage and indulgence to wealth, _as_ wealth--to +wealth disconnected from everything that might ally it to the ancestral +honours and heraldries of the land. It is also an invitation, or rather +a challenge, to profuse expenditure. Regularly, and by law, a Gentleman +Commoner is liable to little heavier burdens than a Commoner; but, to +meet the expectations of those around him, and to act up to the part +he has assumed, he must spend more, and he must be more careless in +controlling his expenditure, than a moderate and prudent Commoner. In +every light, therefore, I condemn the institution, and give it up to +the censures of the judicious. So much in candour I concede. But, to +show equal candour on the other side, it must be remembered that this +institution descends to us from ancient times, when wealth was not so +often divided from territorial or civic honours, conferring a real +precedency. + + III[12] + + [12] From _Tait's Magazine_ for August 1835 + +There was one reason why I sought solitude at that early age, and +sought it in a morbid excess, which must naturally have conferred +upon my character some degree of that interest which belongs to all +extremes. My eye had been couched into a secondary power of vision, +by misery, by solitude, by sympathy with life in all its modes, by +experience too early won, and by the sense of danger critically +escaped. Suppose the case of a man suspended by some colossal arm over +an unfathomed abyss,--suspended, but finally and slowly withdrawn,--it +is probable that he would not smile for years. That was my case: for +I have not mentioned in the "Opium Confessions" a thousandth part of +the sufferings I underwent in London and in Wales; partly because +the misery was too monotonous, and, in that respect, unfitted for +description; but still more because there is a mysterious sensibility +connected with real suffering, which recoils from circumstantial +rehearsal or delineation, as from violation offered to something +sacred, and which is, or should be, dedicated to privacy. Grief does +not parade its pangs, nor the anguish of despairing hunger willingly +count again its groans or its humiliations. Hence it was that Ledyard, +the traveller, speaking of his Russian experiences, used to say that +some of his miseries were such that he never _would_ reveal them. +Besides all which, I really was not at liberty to speak, without many +reserves, on this chapter of my life, at a period (1821) not twenty +years removed from the actual occurrences, unless I desired to court +the risk of crossing at every step the existing law of libel, so full +of snares and man-traps, to the careless equally with the conscientious +writer. This is a consideration which some of my critics have lost +sight of in a degree which surprises me. One, for example, puts it to +his readers whether any house such as I describe as the abode of my +money-lending friend could exist "_in_ Oxford-street"; and, at the +same time, he states, as circumstances drawn from my description, but, +in fact, pure coinages of his own, certain romantic impossibilities, +which, doubtless, could as little attach to a house in Oxford-street +as they could to a house in any other quarter of London. Meantime, I +had sufficiently indicated that, whatsoever street _was_ concerned in +that affair, Oxford-street was _not_: and it is remarkable enough, as +illustrating this amiable reviewer's veracity, that no one street in +London was absolutely excluded _but_ one, and that one, Oxford-street. +For I happened to mention that, on such a day (my birth-day), I had +turned aside _from_ Oxford-street to look at the house in question. I +will now add that this house was in Greek-street: so much it may be +safe to say. But every candid reader will see that both prudential +restraints, and also disinterested regard to the feelings of possibly +amiable descendants from a vicious man, would operate with any +thoughtful writer, in such a case, to impose reserve upon his pen. +Had my guardians, had my money-lending friend of Jewry, and others +concerned in my memoirs, been so many shadows, bodiless abstractions, +and without earthly connections, I might readily have given my own +names to my own creations, and have treated them as unceremoniously as +I pleased. Not so under the real circumstances of the case. My chief +guardian, for instance, though obstinate to a degree which risked the +happiness and the life of his ward, was an upright man otherwise; and +his children are entitled to value his memory. Again, my Greek-street +[Greek: trapezitês], the "_foenerator Alpheus_," who delighted to +reap where he had not sown, and too often (I fear) allowed himself in +practices which not impossibly have long since been found to qualify +him for distant climates and "Botanic" regions,--even he, though I +might truly describe him as a mere highwayman whenever he happened +to be aware that I had received a friendly loan, yet, like other +highwaymen of repute, and "gentle thieves," was not inexorable to the +petitions of his victim: he would sometimes toss back what was required +for some instant necessity of the road; and at _his_ breakfast-table +it was, after all, as elsewhere recorded, that I contrived to support +life; barely, indeed, and most slenderly, but still with the final +result of escaping absolute starvation. With that recollection before +me, I could not allow myself to probe his frailties too severely, +had it even been certainly safe to do so. But enough; the reader +will understand that a year spent either in the valleys of Wales, +or upon the streets of London, by a wanderer too often houseless +in both situations, might naturally have peopled the mind of one +constitutionally disposed to solemn contemplations with memorials of +human sorrow and strife too profound to pass away for years. + +Thus, then, it was. Past experience of a very peculiar kind, the +agitations of many lives crowded into the compass of a year or two, in +combination with a peculiar structure of mind, offered one explanation +of the very remarkable and unsocial habits which I adopted at college; +but there was another not less powerful, and not less unusual. In +stating this, I shall seem, to some persons, covertly designing an +affront to Oxford. But that is far from my intention. It is noways +peculiar to Oxford, but will, doubtless, be found in every University +throughout the world, that the younger part of the members--the +undergraduates, I mean, generally, whose chief business must have +lain amongst the great writers of Greece and Rome--cannot have found +leisure to cultivate extensively their own domestic literature. +Not so much that time will have been wanting; but that the whole +energy of the mind, and the main course of the subsidiary studies +and researches, will naturally have been directed to those difficult +languages amongst which lie their daily tasks. I make it no subject +of complaint or scorn, therefore, but simply state it as a fact, that +few or none of the Oxford undergraduates, with whom parity of standing +threw me into collision at my first outset, knew anything at all of +English Literature. The _Spectator_ seemed to me the only English +book of a classical rank which they had read; and even this less for +its inimitable delicacy, humour, and refined pleasantry in dealing +with manners and characters, than for its insipid and meagre essays, +ethical or critical. This was no fault of theirs: they had been sent +to the book chiefly as a subject for Latin translations, or of other +exercises; and, in such a view, the vague generalities of superficial +morality were more useful and more manageable than sketches of manner +or character, steeped in national peculiarities. To translate the +terms of Whig politics into classical Latin would be as difficult as +it might be for a Whig himself to give a consistent account of those +politics from the year 1688. Natural, however, and excusable, as this +ignorance might be, to myself it was intolerable and incomprehensible. +Already, at fifteen, I had made myself familiar with the great English +poets. About sixteen, or not long after, my interest in the story +of Chatterton had carried me over the whole ground of the Rowley +controversy; and that controversy, by a necessary consequence, had so +familiarised me with the "Black Letter" that I had begun to find an +unaffected pleasure in the ancient English metrical romances; and in +Chaucer, though acquainted as yet only with part of his works, I had +perceived and had felt profoundly those divine qualities which, even +at this day, are so languidly acknowledged by his unjust countrymen. +With this knowledge, and this enthusiastic knowledge of the elder +poets--of those most remote from easy access--I could not well be a +stranger in other walks of our literature, more on a level with the +general taste, and nearer to modern diction, and, therefore, more +extensively multiplied by the press. Yet, after all--as one proof how +much more commanding is that part of a literature which speaks to the +elementary affections of men than that which is founded on the mutable +aspects of manners--it is a fact that, even in our elaborate system +of society, where an undue value is unavoidably given to the whole +science of social intercourse, and a continual irritation applied to +the sensibilities which point in that direction, still, under all these +advantages, Pope himself is less read, less quoted, less thought of, +than the elder and graver section of our literature. It is a great +calamity for an author such as Pope, that, generally speaking, it +requires so much experience of life to enjoy his peculiar felicities +as must argue an age likely to have impaired the general capacity for +enjoyment. For my part, I had myself a very slender acquaintance with +this chapter of our literature; and what little I had was generally, +at that period of my life, as with most men it continues to be to +the end of life, a reflex knowledge, acquired through those pleasant +miscellanies, half gossip, half criticism--such as Warton's _Essay on +Pope_, Boswell's _Johnson_, Mathias's _Pursuits of Literature_, and +many scores besides of the same indeterminate class: a class, however, +which do a real service to literature, by diffusing an indirect +knowledge of fine writers in their most effective passages, where +else, in a direct shape, it would often never extend. + +In some parts, then, having even a profound knowledge of our +literature, in all parts having some, I felt it to be impossible that I +should familiarly associate with those who had none at all; not so much +as a mere historical knowledge of the literature in its capital names +and their chronological succession. Do I mention this in disparagement +of Oxford? By no means. Among the undergraduates of higher standing, +and occasionally, perhaps, of my own, I have since learned that many +might have been found eminently accomplished in this particular. But +seniors do not seek after juniors; they must be sought; and, with my +previous bias to solitude, a bias equally composed of impulses and +motives, I had no disposition to take trouble in seeking any man for +any purpose. + +But, on this subject, a fact still remains to be told, of which I +am justly proud; and it will serve, beyond anything else that I can +say, to measure the degree of my intellectual development. On coming +to Oxford, I had taken up one position in advance of my age by full +thirty years: that appreciation of Wordsworth, which it has taken full +thirty years to establish amongst the public, I had already made, and +had made operative to my own intellectual culture, in the same year +when I clandestinely quitted school. Already, in 1802, I had addressed +a letter of fervent admiration to Mr. Wordsworth. I did not send it +until the spring of 1803; and, from misdirection, it did not come into +his hands for some months. But I had an answer from Mr. Wordsworth +before I was eighteen; and that my letter was thought to express the +homage of an enlightened admirer may be inferred from the fact that his +answer was long and full. On this anecdote I do not mean to dwell; but +I cannot allow the reader to overlook the circumstances of the case. +At this day [1835] it is true, no journal can be taken up which does +not habitually speak of Mr. Wordsworth as of _a_ great, if not _the_ +great, poet of the age. Mr. Bulwer, living in the intensest pressure of +the world, and though recoiling continually from the judgments of the +world, yet never in any violent degree ascribes to Mr. Wordsworth (in +his _England and the English_, p. 308) "an influence of a more noble +and purely intellectual character than _any_ writer of our age or +nation has exercised." Such is the opinion held of this great poet in +1835; but what were those of 1805-15,--nay, of 1825? For twenty years +after the date of that letter to Mr. Wordsworth above referred to, +language was exhausted, ingenuity was put on the rack, in the search +after images and expressions vile enough, insolent enough, to convey +the unutterable contempt avowed for all that he had written by the +fashionable critics. One critic--who still, I believe, edits a rather +popular journal, and who belongs to that class, feeble, fluttering, +ingenious, who make it their highest ambition not to lead, but, with +a slave's adulation, to obey and to follow all the caprices of the +public mind--described Mr. Wordsworth as resembling, in the quality +of his mind, an old nurse babbling in her paralytic dotage to sucking +babies. If this insult was peculiarly felt by Mr. Wordsworth, it was on +a consideration of the unusual imbecility of him who offered it, and +not because in itself it was baser or more insolent than the language +held by the majority of journalists who then echoed the public voice. +_Blackwood's Magazine_ (1817) first accustomed the public ear to the +language of admiration coupled with the name of Wordsworth. This began +with Professor Wilson; and well I remember--nay, the proofs are still +easy to hunt up--that, for eight or ten years, this singularity of +opinion, having no countenance from other journals, was treated as a +whim, a paradox, a bold extravagance, of the _Blackwood_ critics. Mr. +Wordsworth's neighbours in Westmoreland, who had (generally speaking) a +profound contempt for him, used to rebut the testimony of _Blackwood_ +by one constant reply--"Ay, _Blackwood_ praises Wordsworth, but who +else praises him?" In short, up to 1820, the name of Wordsworth was +trampled under foot; from 1820 to 1830, it was militant; from 1830 to +1835, it has been triumphant. In 1803, when I entered at Oxford, that +name was absolutely unknown; and the finger of scorn, pointed at it in +1802 by the first or second number of the _Edinburgh Review_, failed to +reach its mark from absolute defect of knowledge in the public mind. +Some fifty besides myself knew who was meant by "that poet who had +cautioned his friend against growing double," etc.; to all others it +was a profound secret. + +These things must be known and understood properly to value the +prophetic eye and the intrepidity of two persons, like Professor Wilson +and myself, who, in 1802-3, attached themselves to a banner not yet +raised and planted; who outran, in fact, their contemporaries by one +entire generation, and did _that_ about 1802 which the rest of the +world are doing in chorus about 1832. + +Professor Wilson's period at Oxford exactly coincided with my own; yet, +in that large world, we never met. I know, therefore, but little of his +policy in regard to such opinions or feelings as tended to dissociate +him from the mass of his coëvals. This only I know, that he lived as +it were in public, and must, therefore, I presume, have practised a +studied reserve as to his deepest admirations; and, perhaps, at that +day (1803-8) the occasions would be rare in which much dissimulation +would be needed. Until Lord Byron had begun to pilfer from Wordsworth +and to abuse him, allusions to Wordsworth were not frequent in +conversations; and it was chiefly on occasions of some question +arising about poetry in general, or about the poets of the day, that +it became difficult to dissemble. For my part, hating the necessity +for dissimulation as much as the dissimulation itself, I drew from +this peculiarity also of my own mind a fresh reinforcement of my other +motives for sequestering myself; and, for the first two years of my +residence in Oxford, I compute that I did not utter one hundred words. + +I remember distinctly the first (which happened also to be the last) +conversation that I ever held with my tutor. It consisted of three +sentences, two of which fell to his share, one to mine. On a fine +morning, he met me in the Quadrangle, and, having then no guess of the +nature of my pretensions, he determined (I suppose) to probe them. +Accordingly, he asked me, "What I had been lately reading?" Now, the +fact was that I, at that time immersed in metaphysics, had really been +reading and studying very closely the _Parmenides_, of which obscure +work some Oxford man, early in the last century, published a separate +edition. Yet, so profound was the benignity of my nature that, in +those days, I could not bear to witness, far less to cause, the least +pain or mortification to any human being. I recoiled, indeed, from +the society of most men, but not with any feelings of dislike. On the +contrary, in order that I _might_ like all men, I wished to associate +with none. Now, then, to have mentioned the _Parmenides_ to one who, +fifty thousand to one, was a perfect stranger to its whole drift and +purpose, looked too _méchant_, too like a trick of malice, in an age +when such reading was so very unusual. I felt that it would be taken +for an express stratagem for stopping my tutor's mouth. All this +passing rapidly through my mind, I replied, without hesitation, that I +had been reading Paley. My tutor's rejoinder I have never forgotten: +"Ah! an excellent author; excellent for his matter; only you must be +on your guard as to his style; he is very vicious _there_." Such was +the colloquy; we bowed, parted, and never more (I apprehend) exchanged +one word. Now, trivial and trite as this comment on Paley may appear +to the reader, it struck me forcibly that more falsehood, or more +absolute falsehood, or more direct inversion of the truth, could +not, by any artifice or ingenuity, have been crowded into one short +sentence. Paley, as a philosopher, is a jest, the disgrace of the age; +and, as regards the two Universities, and the enormous responsibility +they undertake for the books which they sanction by their official +examinations for degrees, the name of Paley is their great opprobrium. +But, on the other hand, for style, Paley is a master. Homely, racy, +vernacular English, the rustic vigour of a style which intentionally +forgoes the graces of polish on the one hand, and of scholastic +precision on the other--that quality of merit has never been attained +in a degree so eminent. This first interchange of thought upon a +topic of literature did not tend to slacken my previous disposition +to retreat into solitude; a solitude, however, which at no time was +tainted with either the moroseness or the pride of a cynic. + +Neither must the reader suppose that, even in that day, I belonged +to the party who disparage the classical writers, or the classical +training of the great English schools. The Greek drama I loved and +revered. But, to deal frankly, because it is a subject which I shall +hereafter bring before the public, I made great distinctions. I was +not that indiscriminate admirer of Greek and Roman literature which +those too generally are who admire it at all. This protesting spirit +against a false and blind idolatry was with me, at that time, a matter +of enthusiasm--almost of bigotry. I was a bigot against bigots. Let +us take the Greek oratory, for example:--What section of the Greek +literature is more fanatically exalted, and studiously in depreciation +of our own? Let us judge of the sincerity at the base of these hollow +affectations, by the downright facts and the producible records. +To admire, in any sense which can give weight and value to your +admiration, pre-supposes, I presume, some acquaintance with its object. +As the earliest title to an opinion, one way or other, of the Greek +eloquence, we ought to have studied some of its most distinguished +artists; or, say _one_, at least; and this one, we may be sure, will +be, as it ought to be, Demosthenes. Now, it is a fact, that all the +copies of Demosthenes sold within the last hundred years would not +meet the demand of one considerable town, were that orator a subject +of study amongst even classical scholars. I doubt whether, at this +day, there exist twenty men in Europe who can be said to have even +once read Demosthenes; and, therefore, it was that, when Mr. Mitford, +in his "History of Greece," took a new view of this orator's political +administration--a view which lowered his character for integrity--he +found an unresisting acceder to his doctrines in a public having no +previous opinion upon the subject, and, therefore, open to any casual +impression of malice or rash judgment. Had there been any acquaintance +with the large remains which we still possess of this famous orator, +no such wrong could have been done. I, from my childhood, had been a +reader, nay, a student, of Demosthenes; and simply for this reason, +that, having meditated profoundly on the true laws and philosophy +of diction, and of what is vaguely denominated style, and finding +nothing of any value in modern writers upon this subject, and not much +as regards the grounds and ultimate principles even in the ancient +rhetoricians, I have been reduced to collect my opinions from the great +artists and practitioners, rather than from the theorists; and, among +those artists, in the most plastic of languages, I hold Demosthenes to +have been the greatest. + +The Greek is, beyond comparison, the most plastic of languages. It +was a material which bent to the purposes of him who used it beyond +the material of other languages; it was an instrument for a larger +compass of modulations; and it happens that the peculiar theme of +an orator imposes the very largest which is consistent with a prose +diction. One step further in passion, and the orator would become a +poet. An orator can exhaust the capacities of a language--an historian, +never. Moreover, the age of Demosthenes was, in my judgment, the age +of highest development for arts dependent upon social refinement. +That generation had fixed and ascertained the use of words; whereas +the previous generation of Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, &c., was a +transitional period: the language was still moving, and tending to +a meridian not yet attained; and the public eye had been directed +consciously upon language, as in and for itself an organ of +intellectual delight, for too short a time to have mastered the whole +art of managing its resources. All these were reasons for studying +Demosthenes, as the one great model and standard of Attic prose; and +studied him I _had_, more than any other prose writer whatever. _Pari +passu_, I had become sensible that others had _not_ studied him. One +monotonous song of applause I found raised on every side; something +about being "like a torrent, that carries everything before it." This +original image is all we get in the shape of criticism, and never any +attempt even at illustrating what is greatest in him, or characterising +what is most peculiar. The same persons who discovered that Lord +Brougham was the modern Bacon have also complimented him with the title +of the English Demosthenes. Upon this hint, Lord Brougham, in his +address to the Glasgow students, has deluged the great Athenian with +wordy admiration. There is an obvious prudence in lodging your praise +upon an object from which you count upon a rebound to yourself. But +here, as everywhere else, you look in vain for any marks or indications +of a personal and _direct_ acquaintance with the original orations. +The praise is built rather upon the popular idea of Demosthenes than +upon the real Demosthenes. And not only so, but even upon style itself, +and upon the art of composition _in abstracto_, Lord Brougham does not +seem to have formed any clear conceptions,--principles he has none. +Now, it is useless to judge of an artist until you have some principles +on the art. The two capital secrets in the art of prose composition +are these: 1st, The philosophy of transition and connection, or the +art by which one step in an evolution of thought is made to arise +out of another: all fluent and effective composition depends on the +_connections_;--2dly, The way in which sentences are made to modify +each other; for the most powerful effects in written eloquence arise +out of this reverberation, as it were, from each other in a rapid +succession of sentences; and, because some limitation is necessary +to the length and complexity of sentences, in order to make this +interdependency felt: hence it is that the Germans have no eloquence. +The construction of German prose tends to such immoderate length of +sentences that no effect of intermodification can ever be apparent. +Each sentence, stuffed with innumerable clauses of restriction, and +other parenthetical circumstances, becomes a separate section--an +independent whole. But, without insisting on Lord Brougham's +oversights, or errors of defect, I will digress a moment to one +positive caution of his, which will measure the value of his philosophy +on this subject. He lays it down for a rule of indefinite application +that the Saxon part of our English idiom is to be favoured at the +expense of that part which has so happily coalesced with the language +from the Latin or Greek. This fancy, often patronized by other writers, +and even acted upon, resembles that restraint which some metrical +writers have imposed upon themselves--of writing a long copy of verses +from which some particular letter, or from each line of which some +different letter, should be carefully excluded. What followed? Was the +reader sensible, in the practical effect upon his ear, of any beauty +attained? By no means; all the difference, sensibly perceived, lay in +the occasional constraints and affectations to which the writer had +been driven by his self-imposed necessities. The same chimera exists +in Germany; and so much further is it carried that one great puritan +in this heresy (Wolf) has published a vast dictionary, the rival of +Adelung's, for the purpose of expelling every word of foreign origin +and composition out of the language, by assigning some equivalent term +spun out from pure native Teutonic materials. _Bayonet_, for example, +is patriotically rejected, because a word may be readily compounded +tantamount to _musket-dirk_; and this sort of composition thrives +showily in the German, as a language running into composition with +a fusibility only surpassed by the Greek. But what good purpose is +attained by such caprices? In three sentences the sum of the philosophy +may be stated. It has been computed (see _Duclos_) that the Italian +opera has not above six hundred words in its whole vocabulary: so +narrow is the range of its emotions, and so little are these emotions +disposed to expand themselves into any variety of thinking. The same +remark applies to that class of simple, household, homely passion, +which belongs to the early ballad poetry. Their passion is of a quality +more venerable, it is true, and deeper than that of the opera, because +more permanent and coextensive with human life; but it is not much +wider in its sphere, nor more apt to coalesce with contemplative or +philosophic thinking. Pass from these narrow fields of the intellect, +where the relations of the objects are so few and simple, and the +whole prospect so bounded, to the immeasurable and sea-like arena +upon which Shakspeare careers--co-infinite with life itself--yes, and +with something more than life. Here is the other pole, the opposite +extreme. And what is the choice of diction? What is the _lexis_? Is +it Saxon exclusively, or is it Saxon by preference? So far from that, +the Latinity is intense--not, indeed, in his construction, but in his +choice of words; and so continually are these Latin words used with a +critical respect to their earliest (and, where _that_ happens to have +existed, to their unfigurative) meaning, that, upon this one argument I +would rely for upsetting the else impregnable thesis of Dr. Farmer as +to Shakspeare's learning. Nay, I will affirm that, out of this regard +to the Latin acceptation of Latin words, may be absolutely explained +the Shakspearian meaning of certain words which has hitherto baffled +all his critics. For instance, the word _modern_, of which Dr. Johnson +professes himself unable to explain the _rationale_ or principle +regulating its Shakspearian use, though he felt its value, it is to +be deduced thus: First of all, change the pronunciation a little, by +substituting for the short o, as we pronounce it in _modern_, the long +_o_, as heard in _modish_, and you will then, perhaps, perceive the +process of analogy by which it passed into the Shakspearian use. The +_matter_ or substance of a thing is, usually, so much more important +than its fashion or _manner_, that we have hence adopted, as one way +for expressing what is important as opposed to what is trivial, the +word _material_. Now, by parity of reason, we are entitled to invert +this order, and to express what is unimportant by some word indicating +the mere fashion or external manner of an object as opposed to its +substance. This is effected by the word _modal_ or _m[=o]dern_, as +the adjective from _modus_, a fashion or manner; and in that sense +Shakspeare employs the word. Thus, Cleopatra, undervaluing to Cæsar's +agent the bijouterie which she has kept back from inventory, and which +her treacherous steward had betrayed, describes them as mere trifles-- + + "Such gifts as we greet modern friends withal"; + +where all commentators have _felt_ that modern must from the position +mean slight and inconsiderable, though perplexed to say how it came +by such a meaning. A _modern_ friend is, in the Shakspearian sense, +with relation to a real and serviceable friend, that which the fashion +of a thing is by comparison with its substance. But a still better +illustration may be taken from a common line, quoted every day, and +ludicrously misinterpreted. In the famous picture of life--"All the +world's a stage"--the justice of the peace is described as + + "Full of wise saws and modern instances"; + +which (_horrendum dictu!_) has been explained, and, I verily believe, +is generally understood to mean, _full of wise sayings and modern +illustrations_. The true meaning is--full of proverbial maxims of +conduct and of trivial arguments; that is, of petty distinctions, or +verbal disputes, such as never touch the point at issue. The word +_modern_ I have already deduced; the word _instances_ is equally Latin, +and equally used by Shakspeare in its Latin sense. It is originally +the word _instantia_, which, by the monkish and scholastic writers, +is uniformly used in the sense of an argument, and originally of an +argument urged in objection to some previous argument.[13] + + [13] I cannot for a moment believe that the original and most + eloquent critic in _Blackwood_ is himself the dupe of an argument + which he has alleged against this passage, under too open a hatred + of Shakspeare, as though it involved a contradiction to common + sense, by representing _all_ human beings of such an age as + school-boys, all of such another age as soldiers, of such another + as magistrates, &c. Evidently the logic of the famous passage is + this,--that, whereas every age has its peculiar and appropriate + temper, that profession or employment is selected for the + exemplification which seems best fitted, in each case, to embody + the characteristic or predominating quality. Thus, because + impetuosity, self-esteem, and animal or irreflective courage, are + qualities most intense in youth, next it is considered in what + profession those qualities find their most unlimited range; and, + because that is obviously the military profession, therefore it is + that the soldier is selected as the representative of young men. + For the same reason, as best embodying the peculiar temper of + garrulous old age, the magistrate comes forward as supporting the + part of that age. Not that old men are not also soldiers; but that + the military profession, so far from strengthening, moderates and + tempers the characteristic temper of old age. + +I affirm, therefore, that Lord Brougham's counsel to the Glasgow +students is not only bad counsel,--and bad counsel for the result, as +well as for the grounds, which are either capricious or nugatory,--but +also that, in the exact proportion in which the range of thought +expands, it is an impossible counsel, an impracticable counsel--a +counsel having for its purpose to embarrass and lay the mind in +fetters, where even its utmost freedom and its largest resources will +be found all too little for the growing necessities of the intellect. +"Long-tailed words in _osity_ and _ation_!" What does _that_ describe? +Exactly the Latin part of our language. Now, those very terminations +speak for themselves:--All high abstractions end in _ation_; that +is, they are Latin; and, just in proportion as the abstracting power +extends and widens, do the circles of thought widen, and the horizon or +boundary (contradicting its own Grecian name) melts into the infinite. +On this account it was that Coleridge (_Biographia Literaria_) remarks +on Wordsworth's philosophical poetry, that, in proportion as it goes +into the profound of passion and of thought, do the words increase +which are vulgarly called "_dictionary_ words." Now, these words, +these "dictionary" words, what are they? Simply words of Latin or +Greek origin: no other words, no Saxon words, are ever called by +illiterate persons dictionary words. And these dictionary words are +indispensable to a writer, not only in the proportion by which he +transcends other writers as to extent and as to subtlety of thinking, +but also as to elevation and sublimity. Milton was not an extensive +or discursive thinker, as Shakspeare was; for the motions of his mind +were slow, solemn, sequacious, like those of the planets; not agile +and assimilative; not attracting all things within its own sphere; not +multiform: repulsion was the law of his intellect--he moved in solitary +grandeur. Yet, merely from this quality of grandeur, unapproachable +grandeur, his intellect demanded a larger infusion of Latinity into his +diction. For the same reason (and without such aids he would have had +no proper element in which to move his wings) he enriched his diction +with Hellenisms and with Hebraisms[14]; but never, as could be easy to +show, without a full justification in the result. Two things may be +asserted of all his exotic idioms--1st, That they express what could +not have been expressed by any native idiom; 2d, That they harmonize +with the English language, and give a colouring of the antique, but not +any sense of strangeness, to the diction. Thus, in the double negative, +"Nor did they not perceive," &c., which is classed as a Hebraism--if +any man fancy that it expresses no more than the simple affirmative, +he shows that he does not understand its force; and, at the same time, +it is a form of thought so natural and universal that I have heard +English people, under corresponding circumstances, spontaneously +fall into it. In short, whether a man differ from others by greater +profundity or by greater sublimity, and whether he write as a poet +or as a philosopher, in any case, he feels, in due proportion to the +necessities of his intellect, an increasing dependence upon the Latin +section of the English language; and the true reason why Lord Brougham +failed to perceive this, or found the Saxon equal to his wants, is one +which I shall not scruple to assign, inasmuch as it does not reflect +personally on Lord Brougham, or, at least, on him exclusively, but +on the whole body to which he belongs. That thing which he and they +call by the pompous name of statesmanship, but which is, in fact, +_statescraft_--the art of political intrigue--deals (like the opera) +with ideas so few in number, and so little adapted to associate +themselves with other ideas, that, possibly, in the one case equally +as in the other, six hundred words are sufficient to meet all their +demands. + + [14] The diction of Milton is a case absolutely unique in + literature: of many writers it has been said, but of him only + with truth, that he created a peculiar language. The value must be + tried by the result, not by inferences from _a priori_ principles; + such inferences might lead us to anticipate an unfortunate result; + whereas, in fact, the diction of Milton is such that no other + could have supported his majestic style of thinking. The final + result is a _transcendent_ answer to all adverse criticism; but + still it is to be lamented that no man properly qualified has + undertaken the examination of the Miltonic diction as a separate + problem. Listen to a popular author of this day (Mr. Bulwer). He, + speaking on this subject, asserts (_England and the English_, p. + 329) that "_there is scarcely an English idiom which Milton has + not violated, or a foreign one which he has not borrowed_." Now, + in answer to this extravagant assertion, I will venture to say + that the two following are the sole cases of questionable idiom + throughout Milton:--1st, "Yet virgin of Proserpina from Jove"; + and, in this case, the same thing might be urged in apology which + Aristotle urges in another argument, namely, that [Greek: anônumon + to pathos], the case is unprovided with _any_ suitable expression. + How would it be possible to convey in good English the + circumstances here indicated: viz. that Ceres was yet in those + days of maiden innocence, when she had borne no daughter to Jove? + 2d, I will cite a case which, so far as I remember, has been + noticed by no commentator; and, probably, because they have failed + to understand it. The case occurs in the "Paradise Regained"; but + where I do not at this moment remember. "Will they _transact_ with + God?" [The only case of the use of the word _transact_ by Milton + registered in the Verbal Indexes is in _Par. Lost_, vi. 286, where + Satan says, "Easier to transact with me."--M.] This is the + passage; and a most flagrant instance it offers of pure Latinism. + _Transigere_, in the language of the civil law, means to make a + compromise; and the word _transact_ is here used in that sense--a + sense utterly unknown to the English language. This is the worst + case in Milton; and I do not know that it has been ever noticed. + Yet even here it may be doubted whether Milton is not defensible; + asking if they proposed to terminate their difference with God + after the fashion in use amongst courts of law, he points properly + enough to these worldly settlements by the technical term which + designated them. Thus might a divine say: Will he arrest the + judgments of God by a _demurrer_? Thus, again, Hamlet + apostrophises the lawyer's skull by the technical terms used in + actions for assault, &c. Besides, what proper term is there in + English for expressing a compromise? Edmund Burke, and other much + older authors, express the idea by the word _temperament_; but + that word, though a good one, was at one time considered an exotic + term--equally a Gallicism and a Latinism. + +I have used my privilege of discursiveness to step aside from +Demosthenes to another subject, no otherwise connected with the +Attic orator than, first, by the common reference of both subjects +to rhetoric; but, secondly, by the accident of having been jointly +discussed by Lord Brougham in a paper which (though now forgotten) +obtained, at the moment, most undue celebrity. For it is one of the +infirmities of the public mind with us, that whatever is said or done +by a public man,--any opinion given by a member of Parliament, however +much out of his own proper jurisdiction and range of inquiry,--commands +an attention not conceded even to those who speak under the known +privilege of professional knowledge. Thus, Cowper was not discovered +to be a poet worthy of any general notice until Charles Fox, a most +slender critic, had vouchsafed to quote a few lines, and that not so +much with a view to the poetry as to its party application. But now, +returning to Demosthenes, I affirm that his case is the case of nearly +all the classical writers,--at least, of all the prose writers. It is, +I admit, an extreme one; that is, it is the general case in a more +intense degree. Raised almost to divine honours, never mentioned but +with affected rapture, the classics of Greece and Rome are seldom read, +most of them never; are they, indeed, the closet companions of any man? +Surely it is time that these follies were at an end; that our practice +were made to square a little better with our professions, and that our +pleasures were sincerely drawn from those sources in which we pretend +that they lie. + +The Greek language, mastered in any eminent degree, is the very rarest +of all accomplishments, and precisely because it is unspeakably the +most difficult. Let not the reader dupe himself by popular cant. To +be an accomplished Grecian demands a very peculiar quality of talent; +and it is almost inevitable that one who is such should be vain of a +distinction which represents so much labour and difficulty overcome. +For myself, having, as a school-boy, attained to a very unusual mastery +over this language, and (though as yet little familiar with the +elaborate science of Greek metre) moving through all the obstacles and +resistances of a Greek book with the same celerity and ease as through +those of the French and Latin, I had, in vanquishing the difficulties +of the language, lost the main stimulus to its cultivation. Still, I +read Greek daily; but any slight vanity which I might connect with a +power so rarely attained, and which, under ordinary circumstances, so +readily transmutes itself into a disproportionate admiration of the +author, in me was absolutely swallowed up in the tremendous hold taken +of my entire sensibilities at this time by our own literature. With +what fury would I often exclaim: He who loveth not his brother whom he +hath seen, how shall he love God whom he hath not seen? You, Mr. A, L, +M, O, you who care not for Milton, and value not the dark sublimities +which rest ultimately (as we all feel) upon dread realities, how +can you seriously thrill in sympathy with the spurious and fanciful +sublimities of the classical poetry--with the nod of the Olympian +Jove, or the seven-league strides of Neptune? Flying Childers had the +most prodigious stride of any horse on record; and at Newmarket that +is justly held to be a great merit; but it is hardly a qualification +for a Pantheon. The parting of Hector and Andromache--that is tender, +doubtless; but how many passages of far deeper, far diviner tenderness, +are to be found in Chaucer! Yet in these cases we give our antagonist +the benefit of an appeal to what is really best and most effective in +the ancient literature. For, if we should go to Pindar, and some other +great names, what a revelation of hypocrisy as respects the _fade_ +enthusiasts for the Greek poetry! + +Still, in the Greek tragedy, however otherwise embittered against +ancient literature by the dismal affectations current in the scenical +poetry, at least I felt the presence of a great and original power. +It might be a power inferior, upon the whole, to that which presides +in the English tragedy; I believed that it was; but it was equal and +appealed equally to real and deep sensibilities in our nature. Yet, +also, I felt that the two powers at work in the two forms of the +drama were essentially different; and, without having read a line of +German at that time, or knowing of any such controversy, I began to +meditate on the elementary grounds of difference between the Pagan +and the Christian forms of poetry. The dispute has since been carried +on extensively in France, not less than in Germany, as between the +_classical_ and the _romantic_. But I will venture to assert that not +one step in advance has been made, up to this day. The shape into which +I threw the question it may be well to state; because I am persuaded +that out of that one idea, properly pursued, might be evolved the whole +separate characteristics of the Christian and the Antique. Why is it, +I asked, that the Christian idea of _sin_ is an idea utterly unknown +to the Pagan mind? The Greeks and Romans had a clear conception of a +moral ideal, as we have; but this they estimated by a reference to the +will; and they called it virtue, and the antithesis they called vice. +The _lacheté_ or relaxed energy of the will, by which it yielded to +the seductions of sensual pleasure, that was vice; and the braced-up +tone by which it resisted these seductions was virtue. But the idea +of holiness, and the antithetic idea of sin, as a violation of this +awful and unimaginable sanctity, was so utterly undeveloped in the +Pagan mind, that no word exists in classical Greek or classical Latin +which approaches either pole of this synthesis; neither the idea of +_holiness_, nor of its correlate, _sin_, could be so expressed in Latin +as at once to satisfy Cicero and a scientific Christian. Again (but +this was some years after), I found Schiller and Goethe applauding +the better taste of the ancients, in symbolizing the idea of death by +a beautiful youth, with a torch inverted, &c., as compared with the +Christian types of a skeleton and hourglasses, &c. And much surprised +I was to hear Mr. Coleridge approving of this German sentiment. Yet, +here again, I felt, the peculiar genius of Christianity was covertly +at work moving upon a different road, and under opposite ideas, to a +just result, in which the harsh and austere expression yet pointed to +a dark reality, whilst the beautiful Greek adumbration was, in fact, +a veil and a disguise. The corruptions and the other "dishonours" of +the grave, and whatsoever composes the sting of death in the Christian +view, is traced up to sin as its ultimate cause. Hence, besides the +expression of Christian humility, in thus nakedly exhibiting the wrecks +and ruins made by sin, there is also a latent profession indicated +of Christian hope. For the Christian contemplates steadfastly, though +with trembling awe, the lowest point of his descent; since, for him, +that point, the last of his fall, is also the first of his re-ascent, +and serves, besides, as an exponent of its infinity; the infinite +depth becoming, in the rebound, a measure of the infinite re-ascent. +Whereas, on the contrary, with the gloomy uncertainties of a Pagan +on the question of his final restoration, and also (which must not +be overlooked) with his utter perplexity as to the nature of his +restoration, if any were by accident in reserve, whether in a condition +tending downwards or upwards, it was the natural resource to consult +the general feeling of anxiety and distrust, by throwing a thick +curtain and a veil of beauty over the whole too painful subject. To +place the horrors in high relief could here have answered no purpose +but that of wanton cruelty; whereas, with the Christian hopes, the +very saddest memorials of the havocks made by death are antagonist +prefigurations of great victories in the rear. + +These speculations, at that time, I pursued earnestly; and I then +believed myself, as I yet do, to have ascertained the two great and +opposite laws under which the Grecian and the English tragedy has each +separately developed itself. Whether wrong or right in that belief, +sure I am that those in Germany who have treated the case of Classical +and Romantic are not entitled to credit for any discovery at all. The +Schlegels, who were the hollowest of men, the windiest and wordiest (at +least, Frederick was so), pointed to the distinction; barely indicated +it; and that was already some service done, because a presumption +arose that the antique and the modern literatures, having clearly some +essential differences, might, perhaps, rest on foundations originally +distinct, and obey different laws. And hence it occurred that many +disputes, as about the unities, &c., might originate in a confusion +of these laws. This checks the presumption of the shallow criticism, +and points to deeper investigations. Beyond this, neither the German +nor the French disputers on the subject have talked to any profitable +purpose. + +I have mentioned Paley as accidentally connected with my _début_ in +literary conversation; and I have taken occasion to say how much I +admired his style and its unstudied graces, how profoundly I despised +his philosophy. I shall here say a word or two more on that subject. As +respects his style, though secretly despising the opinion avowed by my +tutor (which was, however, a natural opinion for a stiff lover of the +artificial and the pompous), I would just as unwillingly be supposed +to adopt the extravagant opinions, in the other extreme, of Dr. Parr +and Mr. Coleridge. These two gentlemen, who privately hated Paley, +and, perhaps, traduced him, have hung like bees over one particular +paragraph in his Evidences, as though it were a flower transplanted +from Hymettus. Dr. Parr pronounced it the finest sentence in the +English language. It is a period (that is, a cluster of sentences) +moderately well, but not _too_ well, constructed, as the German +nurses are accustomed to say. Its felicity depends on a trick easily +imitated--on a balance happily placed (namely, "_in which the wisest +of mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts and rest to +their inquiries_)." As a _bravura_, or _tour de force_, in the dazzling +fence of rhetoric, it is surpassed by many hundreds of passages which +might be produced from rhetoricians; or, to confine myself to Paley's +contemporaries, it is very far surpassed by a particular passage in +Burke's letter upon the Duke of Bedford's base attack upon him in +the House of Lords; which passage I shall elsewhere produce, because +I happen to know, on the authority of Burke's executors, that Burke +himself considered it the finest period which he had ever written. +At present, I will only make one remark, viz. that it is always +injudicious, in the highest degree, to cite for admiration that which +is not a _representative_ specimen of the author's manner. In reading +Lucian, I once stumbled on a passage of German pathos, and of German +effect. Would it have been wise, or would it have been intellectually +just, to quote this as the text of an eulogium on Lucian? What +false criticism it would have suggested to every reader! what false +anticipations! To quote a formal and periodic pile of sentences was to +give the feeling that Paley was what the regular rhetorical artists +designate as a periodic writer, when, in fact, no one conceivable +character of style more pointedly contradicted the true description of +his merits. + +But, leaving the style of Paley, I must confess that I agree with Mr. +Bulwer (_England and the English_) in thinking it shocking and almost +damnatory to an English University, the great well-heads of creeds, +moral and evangelical, that authors such in respect of doctrine as +Paley and Locke should hold that high and influential station as +teachers, or rather oracles of truth, which has been conceded to them. +As to Locke, I, when a boy, had made a discovery of one blunder full +of laughter and of fun, which, had it been published and explained +in Locke's lifetime, would have tainted his whole philosophy with +suspicion. It relates to the Aristotelian doctrine of syllogism, +which Locke undertook to ridicule. Now, a flaw, a hideous flaw, in +the _soi-disant_ detecter of flaws, a ridicule in the exposer of the +ridiculous--_that_ is fatal; and I am surprised that Lee, who wrote a +folio against Locke in his lifetime, and other examiners, should have +failed in detecting this. I shall expose it elsewhere; and, perhaps, +one or two other exposures of the same kind will give an impetus to +the descent of this falling philosophy. With respect to Paley, and +the naked _prudentialism_ of his system, it is true that in a longish +note Paley disclaims that consequence. But to this we may reply, with +Cicero, _Non quæro quid neget Epicurus, sed quid congruenter neget_. +Meantime, waiving all this as too notorious, and too frequently +denounced, I wish to recur to this trite subject, by way of stating +an objection made to the Paleyan morality in my seventeenth year, and +which I have never since seen reason to withdraw. It is this:--I affirm +that the whole work, from first to last, proceeds upon that sort of +error which the logicians call _ignoratio elenchi_, that is, ignorance +of the very question concerned--of the point at issue. For, mark, in +the very vestibule of ethics, two questions arise--two different and +disconnected questions, A and B; and Paley has answered the wrong one. +Thinking that he was answering A, and meaning to answer A, he has, +in fact, answered B. One question arises thus: Justice is a virtue; +temperance is a virtue; and so forth. Now, what is the common principle +which ranks these several species under the same genus? What, in the +language of logicians, is the common differential principle which +determines these various aspects of moral obligation to a common +genus? Another question, and a more interesting question to men in +general, is this,--What is the motive to virtue? By what impulse, law, +or motive, am I impelled to be virtuous rather than vicious? Whence +is the motive derived which should impel me to one line of conduct in +preference to the other? This, which is a practical question, and, +therefore, more interesting than the other, which is a pure question +of speculation, was that which Paley believed himself to be answering. +And his answer was,--that utility, a perception of the resulting +benefit, was the true determining motive. Meantime, it was objected +that often the most obvious results from a virtuous action were far +otherwise than beneficial. Upon which, Paley, in the long note referred +to above, distinguished thus: that, whereas actions have many results, +some proximate, some remote, just as a stone thrown into the water +produces many concentric circles, be it known that he, Dr. Paley, in +what he says of utility, contemplates only the final result, the very +outermost circle; inasmuch as he acknowledges a possibility that the +first, second, third, including the penultimate circle, may all happen +to clash with utility; but then, says he, the outermost circle of all +will never fail to coincide with the absolute maximum of utility. +Hence, in the first place, it appears that you cannot apply this test +of utility in a practical sense; you cannot say, This is useful, +_ergo_, it is virtuous; but, in the inverse order, you must say, This +is virtuous, _ergo_, it is useful. You do not rely on its usefulness +to satisfy yourself of its being virtuous; but, on the contrary, you +rely on its virtuousness, previously ascertained, in order to satisfy +yourself of its usefulness. And thus the whole practical value of this +test disappears, though in that view it was first introduced; and a +vicious circle arises in the argument; as you must have ascertained +the virtuousness of an act, in order to apply the test of its being +virtuous. But, _secondly_, it now comes out that Paley was answering a +very different question from that which he supposed himself answering. +Not any practical question as to the motive or impelling force in +being virtuous, rather than vicious,--that is, to the _sanctions_ +of virtue,--but a purely speculative question, as to the essence of +virtue, or the common _vinculum_ amongst the several modes or species +of virtue (justice, temperance, &c.)--this was the real question +which he was answering. I have often remarked that the largest and +most subtle source of error in philosophic speculations has been the +confounding of the two great principles so much insisted on by the +Leibnitzians, viz., the _ratio cognoscendi_ and the _ratio essendi_. +Paley believed himself to be assigning--it was his full purpose to +assign--the _ratio cognoscendi_; but, instead of that, unconsciously +and surreptitiously, he has actually assigned the _ratio essendi_, and, +after all, a false and imaginary _ratio essendi_. + + + APPENDED NOTE + +As De Quincey's long and interesting Chapter on Oxford from 1803 to +1808 leaves the incidents of his own passage through the University +rather hazy, the following condensation of particulars on the subject +may not be unwelcome. They are partly from one of his own conversations +in 1821 with Richard Woodhouse (the notes of which conversations are +appended to Mr. Garnett's edition in 1885 of the _Confessions of +an English Opium-Eater_), partly from an article in the _Quarterly +Review_ for July 1861 containing information supplied by Dr. Cotton of +Worcester College, and partly from information collected by Mr. Page +for his _Life of De Quincey_:--Admitted into Worcester College on the +17th of December 1803, he did for the first two years of his residence +lead, as he tells us, a very solitary life, withdrawing himself from +wine-parties, and frequenting chiefly the society of a German named +Schwartzburg. Even then, however, he had the reputation with some in +the college of being, though of shy and quaint ways, a man of uncommon +genius and erudition; and, latterly, as this reputation spread in the +college, and some inevitable appearances of his in college declamations +and the like confirmed it, he became the object of more general +attention, and was urged to go up for honours in taking his degree. He +did attend the first examination for B.A. honours at Michaelmas in the +year 1808, with the result that Dr. Goodenough of Christ Church, who +was one of the examiners, is said to have told one of the Worcester +College dons, "You have sent us to-day the cleverest man I ever met +with; if his _vivâ voce_ examination to-morrow correspond with what he +has done in writing, he will carry everything before him." De Quincey's +own account to Mr. Woodhouse was that the examination was an oral one +and in Latin; which agrees more with the possibility of such a report +from Dr. Goodenough on the same day. De Quincey further adds that this +examination was on a Saturday, and that the remaining examination, +which was to follow on Monday, was to be in Greek. He had been looking +forward to this examination with much interest, his Greek readings +having been of wide range and in many directions out of the ordinary +academic track; and his interest had been increased by the regulation +that the answers to the questions were to be wholly or largely in the +Greek tongue itself. The fact that this rule had been altered at the +last moment had, however, disgusted him; and this, together with "his +contempt for his examiners" and the thought that the examination would +be of a kind that would leave his real resources untested, had such +an effect upon him that, "when the time came, he was _non inventus_." +Mr. Woodhouse's report from himself is that "on the Sunday morning +he left Oxford"; the Worcester College tradition, which is equally +precise as to the main fact that he "packed up his things and walked +away from Oxford," makes the flight occur in the night following the +first examination. Whatever other causes there may have been for the +break-down, the opium-eating habit must have been chiefly responsible. +That habit had been formed by De Quincey in 1804 in one of those +visits of his to London which, with visits to other places, are to be +understood as having varied the monotony of his Oxford residence. The +habit had grown upon him in his solitude in his college rooms; and part +of the college tradition respecting his break-down is that, having +taken a large dose of the drug to stimulate him sufficiently for the +first day's examination, he was wrecked by the reaction. He took no +University degree; and, though his name remained on the college books +to as late as 15th December 1810, his real connexion with Oxford ceased +in 1808.--D. M. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + GERMAN STUDIES AND KANT IN PARTICULAR[15] + + [15] From _Tait's Magazine_ for June 1836. See _ante_, Preface, + pp. 1, 2.--M. + + +Using a New Testament, of which (in the narrative parts at least) +any one word being given will suggest most of what is immediately +consecutive, you evade the most irksome of the penalties annexed to the +first breaking ground in a new language: you evade the necessity of +hunting up and down a dictionary. Your own memory, and the inevitable +suggestions of the context, furnish a dictionary _pro hac vice_. And +afterwards, upon advancing to other books, where you are obliged to +forgo such aids, and to swim without corks, you find yourself already +in possession of the particles for expressing addition, succession, +exception, inference--in short, of all the forms by which transition +or connexion is effected (_if_, _but_, _and_, _therefore_, _however_, +_notwithstanding_), together with all those adverbs for modifying +or restraining the extent of a subject or a predicate, which in all +languages alike compose the essential frame-work or _extra-linear_ +machinery of human thought. The filling-up--the _matter_ (in a +scholastic sense)--may differ infinitely; but the _form_, the +periphery, the determining moulds into which this matter is fused--all +this is the same for ever: and so wonderfully limited in its extent is +this frame-work, so narrow and rapidly revolving is the clock-work of +connexions among human thoughts, that a dozen pages of almost any book +suffice to exhaust all the [Greek: epea pteroenta][16] which express +them. To have mastered these [Greek: epea pteroenta] is in effect to +have mastered seven-tenths, at the least, of any language; and the +benefit of using a New Testament, or the familiar parts of an Old +Testament, in this preliminary drill, is, that your own memory is thus +made to operate as a perpetual dictionary or nomenclator. I have heard +Mr. Southey say that, by carrying in his pocket a Dutch, Swedish, or +other Testament, on occasion of a long journey performed in "_muggy_" +weather, and in the inside of some venerable "old heavy"--such as used +to bestow their tediousness upon our respectable fathers some thirty +or forty years ago--he had more than once turned to so valuable an +account the doziness or the dulness of his fellow-travellers, that, +whereas he had "booked" himself at the coach-office utterly [Greek: +analphabêtos], unacquainted with the first rudiments of the given +language, he had made his parting bows to his coach brethren (secretly +returning thanks to them for their stupidity) in a condition for +grappling with any common book in that dialect. One of the polyglot Old +or New Testaments published by Bagster would be a perfect Encyclopædia, +or _Panorganon_, for such a scheme of coach discipline, upon dull roads +and in dull company. As respects the German language in particular, I +shall give one caution from my own experience to the self-instructor: +it is a caution which applies to the German language exclusively, or +to that more than to any other, because the embarrassment which it +is meant to meet grows out of a defect of taste characteristic of +the German mind. It is this: elsewhere, you would naturally, as a +beginner, resort to _prose_ authors, since the license and audacity of +poetic thinking, and the large freedom of a poetic treatment, cannot +fail to superadd difficulties of individual creation to the general +difficulties of a strange dialect. But this rule, good for every +other case, is _not_ good for the literature of Germany. Difficulties +there certainly are, and perhaps in more than the usual proportion, +from the German peculiarities of poetic treatment; but even these are +overbalanced in the result by the single advantage of being limited +in the extent by the metre, or (as it may happen) by the particular +stanza. To German poetry there is a known, fixed, calculable limit. +Infinity, absolute infinity, is impracticable in any German metre. Not +so with German prose. Style, in any sense, is an inconceivable idea +to a German intellect. Take the word in the limited sense of what the +Greeks called [Greek: Synthesis onomatôn]--_i.e._, the construction +of sentences--I affirm that a German (unless it were here and there a +Lessing) cannot admit such an idea. Books there are in German, and, +in other respects, very good books too, which consist of one or two +enormous sentences. A German sentence describes an arch between the +rising and the setting sun. Take Kant for illustration: he has actually +been complimented by the cloud-spinner, Frederick Schlegel, who is now +in Hades, as a most original artist in the matter of style. "Original" +Heaven knows he was! His idea of a sentence was as follows:--We have +all seen, or read of, an old family coach, and the process of packing +it for a journey to London some seventy or eighty years ago. Night and +day, for a week at least, sate the housekeeper, the lady's maid, the +butler, the gentleman's gentlemen, &c., packing the huge ark in all +its recesses, its "imperials," its "wells," its "Salisbury boots," +its "sword-cases," its front pockets, side pockets, rear pockets, its +"hammer-cloth cellars" (which a lady explains to me as a corruption +from _hamper-cloth_, as originally a cloth for hiding a hamper, stored +with _viaticum_), until all the uses and needs of man, and of human +life, savage or civilized, were met with separate provision by the +infinite chaos. Pretty nearly upon the model of such an old family +coach packing did Kant institute and pursue the packing and stuffing of +one of his regular sentences. Everything that could ever be needed in +the way of explanation, illustration, restraint, inference, by-clause, +or indirect comment, was to be crammed, according to this German +philosopher's taste, into the front pockets, side pockets, or rear +pockets, of the one original sentence. Hence it is that a sentence will +last in reading whilst a man + + "Might reap an acre of his neighbour's corn." + +Nor is this any peculiarity of Kant's. It is common to the whole family +of prose-writers of Germany, unless when they happen to have studied +French models, who cultivate the opposite extreme. As a caution, +therefore, practically applied to this particular anomaly in German +prose-writing, I advise all beginners to choose between two classes +of composition--ballad poetry, or comedy--as their earliest school +of exercise: ballad poetry, because the form of the stanza (usually +a quatrain) prescribes a very narrow range to the sentences; comedy, +because the form of dialogue, and the imitation of daily life in its +ordinary tone of conversation, and the spirit of comedy, naturally +suggesting a brisk interchange of speech, all tend to short sentences. +These rules I soon drew from my own experience and observation. And +the one sole purpose towards which I either sought or wished for aid +respected the pronunciation; not so much for attaining a just one +(which I was satisfied could not be realized out of Germany, or, at +least, out of a daily intercourse with Germans) as for preventing +the formation, unawares, of a radically false one. The guttural and +palatine sounds of the _ch_, and some other German peculiarities, +cannot be acquired without constant practice. But the false Westphalian +or Jewish pronunciation of the vowels, diphthongs, &c., may easily +be forestalled, though the true delicacy of Meissen should happen to +be missed. Thus much guidance I purchased, with a very few guineas, +from my young Dresden tutor, who was most anxious for permission to +extend his assistance; but this I would not hear of: and, in the spirit +of fierce (perhaps foolish) independence, which governed most of my +actions at that time of life, I did all the rest for myself. + + "It was a banner broad unfurl'd, + The picture of that western world." + +These, or words like these, in which Wordsworth conveys the sudden +apocalypse, as by an apparition, to an ardent and sympathising +spirit, of the stupendous world of America, rising, at once, like an +exhalation, with all its shadowy forests, its endless savannas, and +its pomp of solitary waters--well and truly might I have applied to my +first launching upon that vast billowy ocean of the German literature. +As a past literature, as a literature of inheritance and tradition, the +German was nothing. Ancestral titles it had none; or none comparable to +those of England, Spain, or even Italy; and there, also, it resembled +America, as contrasted with the ancient world of Asia, Europe, and +North Africa.[17] But, if its inheritance were nothing, its prospects, +and the scale of its present development, were in the amplest style of +American grandeur. _Ten thousand_ new books, we are assured by Menzel, +an author of high reputation--a _literal myriad_--is considerably below +the number annually poured from all quarters of Germany into the vast +reservoir of Leipsic: spawn infinite, no doubt, of crazy dotage, of +dreaming imbecility, of wickedness, of frenzy, through every phasis of +Babylonian confusion; yet, also, teeming and heaving with life and the +instincts of truth--of truth hunting and chasing in the broad daylight, +or of truth groping in the chambers of darkness; sometimes seen as it +displays its cornucopia of tropical fruitage; sometimes heard dimly, +and in promise, working its way through diamond mines. Not the tropics, +not the ocean, not life itself, is such a type of variety, of infinite +forms, or of creative power, as the German literature in its recent +motions (say for the last twenty years), gathering, like the Danube, a +fresh volume of power at every stage of its advance. A banner it was, +indeed, to me of miraculous promise, and suddenly unfurled. It seemed, +in those days, an El Dorado as true and undeceiving as it was evidently +inexhaustible. And the central object in this interminable wilderness +of what then seemed imperishable bloom and verdure--the very tree of +knowledge in the midst of this Eden--was the new or transcendental +philosophy of Immanuel Kant. + + [16] 2 [Greek: Epea pteroenta] literally _winged words_. To + explain the use and origin of this phrase to non-classical + readers, it must be understood that, originally, it was used by + Homer to express the few, rapid, and significant words which + conveyed some hasty order, counsel, or notice, suited to any + sudden occasion or emergency: _e.g._ "To him flying from the field + the hero addressed these winged words--'Stop, coward, or I will + transfix thee with my spear.'" But by Horne Tooke the phrase was + adopted on the title-page of his _Diversions of Purley_, as a + pleasant symbolic expression for all the non-significant + particles, the _articuli_ or joints of language, which in his + well-known theory are resolved into abbreviations or compendious + forms (and therefore rapid, flying, _winged_ forms), substituted + for significant forms of greater length. Thus, _if_ is a + non-significant particle, but it is an abbreviated form of an + imperative in the second person--substituted for gif, or give, or + grant the case--put the case that. All other particles are shewn + by Horne Tooke to be equally short-hand (or _winged_) + substitutions. + + [17] It has been rather too much forgotten that Africa, from the + northern margin of Bilidulgerid and the Great Desert, + southwards--everywhere, in short, beyond Egypt, Cyrene, and the + modern Barbary States--belongs, as much as America, to the New + World, the world unknown to the ancients. + +I have described the gorgeousness of my expectations in those early +days of my prelusive acquaintance with German literature. I have a +little lingered in painting that glad aurora of my first pilgrimage to +the fountains of the Rhine and of the Danube, in order adequately to +shadow out the gloom and blight which soon afterwards settled upon the +hopes of that golden dawn. In Kant, I had been taught to believe, were +the keys of a new and a creative philosophy. Either "_ejus ductu_," or +"_ejus auspiciis_"--that is, either directly under his guidance, or +indirectly under any influence remotely derived from his principles--I +looked confidingly to see the great vistas and avenues of truth laid +open to the philosophic inquirer. Alas! all was a dream. Six weeks' +study was sufficient to close my hopes in that quarter for ever. The +philosophy of Kant--so famous, so commanding in Germany from about +the period of the French Revolution--already, in 1805, I had found to +be a philosophy of destruction, and scarcely in any one chapter so +much as _tending_ to a philosophy of reconstruction. It destroys by +wholesale, and it substitutes nothing. Perhaps, in the whole history of +man, it is an unexampled case that such a scheme of speculation--which +offers nothing seducing to human aspirations, nothing splendid to the +human imagination, nothing even positive and affirmative to the human +understanding--should have been able to found an interest so broad and +deep among thirty-five millions of cultivated men. The English reader +who supposes this interest to have been confined to academic bowers, +or the halls of philosophic societies, is most inadequately alive to +the case. Sects, heresies, schisms, by hundreds, have arisen out of +this philosophy; many thousands of books have been written by way of +teaching it, discussing it, extending it, opposing it. And yet it is a +fact that all its doctrines are negative--teaching, in no case, what +we _are_, but simply what we are _not_, to believe--and that all its +truths are barren. Such being its unpopular character, I cannot but +imagine that the German people have received it with so much ardour +from profound incomprehension of its meaning, and utter blindness to +its drift: a solution which may seem extravagant, but is not so; for, +even amongst those who have expressly commented on this philosophy, +not one of the many hundreds whom I have myself read but has retracted +from every attempt to explain its dark places. In these dark places +lies, indeed, the secret of its attraction. Were light poured into +them, it would be seen that they are _culs-de-sac_, passages that +lead to nothing; but, so long as they continue dark, it is not known +whither they lead, how far, in what direction, and whether, in fact, +they may not issue into paths connected directly with the positive +and the infinite. Were it known that upon every path a barrier faces +you insurmountable to human steps--like the barriers which fence in +the Abyssinian valley of Rasselas--the popularity of this philosophy +would expire at once; for no popular interest can long be sustained +by speculations which, in every aspect, are known to be essentially +negative and essentially finite. Man's nature has something of infinity +within itself, which requires a corresponding infinity in its objects. +We are told, indeed, by Mr. Bulwer, that the Kantian system has ceased +to be of any authority in Germany--that it is defunct, in fact--and +that we have first begun to import it into England after its root +had withered, or begun to wither, in its native soil. But Mr. Bulwer +is mistaken. The philosophy has never withered in Germany. It cannot +even be said that its fortunes have retrograded: they have oscillated: +accidents of taste and ability in particular professors, or caprices of +fashion, have given a momentary fluctuation to this or that new form +of Kantianism--an ascendency, for a period, to various, and, in some +respects, conflicting modifications of the transcendental system; but +all alike have derived their power mediately from Kant. No weapons, +even if employed as hostile weapons, are now forged in any armoury but +that of Kant; and, to repeat a Roman figure which I used above, all +the modern polemic tactics of what is called metaphysics are trained +and made to move either _ejus ductu_ or _ejus auspiciis_. Not one of +the new systems affects to call back the Leibnitzian philosophy, the +Cartesian, or any other of earlier or later date, as adequate to the +purposes of the intellect in this day, or as capable of yielding +even a sufficient terminology. Let this last fact decide the question +of Kant's vitality. _Qui bene distinguit bene docet._ This is an old +adage. Now, he who imposes new names upon all the acts, the functions, +and the objects of the philosophic understanding must be presumed +to have distinguished most sharply, and to have ascertained with +most precision, their general relations--_so long as his terminology +continues to be adopted_. This test, applied to Kant, will show that +his spirit yet survives in Germany. Frederick Schlegel, it is true, +twenty years ago, in his lectures upon Literature, assures us that +even the disciples of the great philosopher have agreed to abandon his +philosophic nomenclature. But the German philosophic literature, since +that date, tells another tale. Mr. Bulwer is, therefore, wrong; and, +without going to Germany, looking only to France, he will see cause to +revise his sentence. Cousin--the philosophic Cousin, the only great +name in philosophy for modern France--familiar as he is with North +Germany, can hardly be presumed unacquainted with a fact so striking, +if it _were_ a fact, as the extinction of a system once so triumphantly +supreme as that of Kant; and yet Mr. Bulwer, admiring Cousin as he +does, cannot but have noticed his efforts to naturalize Kant in France. +Meantime, if it were even true that transcendentalism had lost its +hold of the public mind in Germany, _prima facie_, this would prove +little more than the fickleness of that public which must have been +wrong in one of the two cases--either when adopting the system, or when +rejecting it. Whatever there may be of truth and value in the system +will remain unimpeached by such caprices, whether of an individual or +of a great nation; and England would still be in the right to import +the philosophy, however late in the day, if it were true even (which I +doubt greatly) that she _is_ importing it. + +Both truth and value there certainly _is_ in one part of the Kantian +philosophy; and that part is its foundation. I had intended, at this +point, to introduce an outline of the transcendental philosophy--not, +perhaps, as entering by logical claim of right into any biographical +sketch, but as a very allowable digression in the record of that man's +life to whom, in the way of hope and of profound disappointment, +it had been so memorable an object. For two or three years before I +mastered the language of Kant,[18] it had been a pole-star to my hopes, +and _in hypothesi_, agreeably to the uncertain plans of uncertain +knowledge, the luminous guide to my future life--as a life dedicated +and set apart to philosophy. Such it was some years _before_ I knew +it: for at least ten long years _after_ I came into a condition of +valuing its true pretensions and measuring its capacities, this same +philosophy shed the gloom of something like misanthropy upon my views +and estimates of human nature; for man was an abject animal if the +limitations which Kant assigned to the motions of his speculative +reason were as absolute and hopeless as, under _his_ scheme of the +understanding and _his_ genesis of its powers, too evidently they were. +I belonged to a reptile race, if the wings by which we had sometimes +_seemed_ to mount, and the buoyancy which had _seemed_ to support our +flight, were indeed the fantastic delusions which he represented them. +Such, and so deep and so abiding in its influence upon my life, having +been the influence of this German philosophy, according to all logic of +proportions, in selecting the objects of my notice, I might be excused +for setting before the reader, in its full array, the analysis of its +capital sections. However, in any memorial of a life which professes to +keep in view (though but as a secondary purpose) any regard to popular +taste, the logic of proportions must bend, after all, to the law of +the occasion--to the proprieties of time and place. For the present, +therefore, I shall restrict myself to the few sentences in which it +may be proper to gratify the curiosity of _some_ readers, the two or +three in a hundred, as to the peculiar distinctions of this philosophy. +Even to these two or three out of each hundred I shall not venture +to ascribe a larger curiosity than with respect to the most general +"whereabouts" of its position--from what point it starts, whence and +from what aspect it surveys the ground, and by what links from this +starting point it contrives to connect itself with the main objects of +philosophic inquiry. + + [18] I might have mastered the philosophy of Kant without waiting + for the German language, in which all his capital works are + written; for there is a Latin version of the whole by Born, and a + most admirable digest of the cardinal work (admirable for its + fidelity and the skill by which that fidelity is attained) in the + same language by Rhiseldek, a Danish professor. But this fact, + such was the slight knowledge of all things connected with Kant in + England, I did not learn for some years. + +Immanuel Kant was originally a dogmatist in the school of Leibnitz +and Wolf; that is, according to his trisection of all philosophy +into dogmatic, sceptical, and critical, he was, upon all questions +disposed to a strong _affirmative_ creed, without courting any +particular examination into the grounds of this creed, or into its +assailable points. From this slumber, as it is called by himself, he +was suddenly aroused by the Humian doctrine of cause and effect. This +celebrated essay on the nature of necessary connexion--so thoroughly +misapprehended at the date of its first publication to the world by +its _soi-disant_ opponents, Oswald, Beattie, &c., and so imperfectly +comprehended since then by various _soi-disant_ defenders--became in +effect the "occasional cause" (in the phrase of the logicians) of the +entire subsequent philosophic scheme of Kant; every section of which +arose upon the accidental opening made to analogical trains of thought +by this memorable effort of scepticism applied by Hume to one capital +phenomenon among the necessities of the human understanding. What is +the nature of Hume's scepticism as applied to this phenomenon? What is +the main thesis of his celebrated Essay on Cause and Effect? For few, +indeed, are they who really know anything about it. If a man really +understands it, a very few words will avail to explain the _nodus_. +Let us try. It is a necessity of the _human_ understanding (very +probably not a necessity of a higher order of intelligences) to connect +its experiences by means of the idea of _cause_ and its correlate, +_effect_: and, when Beattie, Oswald, Reid, &c., were exhausting +themselves in proofs of the indispensableness of this idea, they were +fighting with shadows; for no man had ever questioned the practical +necessity for such an idea to the coherency of human thinking. Not the +practical necessity, but the internal consistency of this notion, and +the original right to such a notion, was the point of inquisition. For, +attend, courteous reader, and three separate propositions will set +before your eyes the difficulty. _First Prop._, which, for the sake of +greater precision, permit me to throw into Latin:--_Non datur aliquid_ +[A] _quo posito ponitur aliud_ [B] _a priori_; that is, in other words, +You cannot lay your hands upon that one object or phenomenon [A] in the +whole circle of natural existences, which, being assumed, will entitle +you to assume _a priori_, any other object whatsoever [B] as succeeding +it. You could not, I say, of any object or phenomenon whatever, assume +this succession _a priori_--that is, _previously to experience_. +_Second Prop._ But, if the succession of B to A be made known to you, +not _a priori_ (by the involution of B in the idea of A), but by +experience, then you cannot ascribe _necessity_ to the succession: +the connection between them is not necessary but contingent. For the +very widest experience--an experience which should stretch over all +ages, from the beginning to the end of time--can never establish a +_nexus_ having the least approximation to necessity; no more than a +rope of sand could gain the cohesion of adamant by repeating its links +through a billion of successions. _Prop. Third._ Hence (_i.e._ from +the two preceding propositions), it appears that no instance or case +of _nexus_ that ever can have been offered to the notice of any human +understanding has in it, or by possibility could have had, anything +of necessity. Had the _nexus_ been necessary, you would have seen +it beforehand; whereas, by Prop. 1, _Non datur aliquid, quo posito +ponitur aliud a priori_. This being so, now comes the startling fact, +that the notion of a _cause_ includes the notion of necessity. For, +if A (the cause) be connected with B (the effect) only in a casual +or accidental way, you do not feel warranted in calling it a cause. +If heat, applied to ice (A) were sometimes followed by a tendency to +liquefaction (B) and sometimes not, you would not consider A connected +with B as a cause, but only as some variable accompaniment of the true +and unknown cause, which might allowably be present or be absent. +This, then, is the startling and mysterious phenomenon of the human +understanding--that, in a certain notion, which is indispensable to the +coherency of our whole experience, indispensable to the establishing +any _nexus_ between the different parts and successions of our whole +train of notions, we include an accessary notion of necessity, which +yet has no justification or warrant, no assignable derivation from +any known or possible case of human experience. We have one idea at +least--viz. the idea of causation--which transcends our possible +experience by one important element, the element of _necessity_, that +never can have been derived from the only source of ideas recognised +by the philosophy of this day. A Lockian never can find his way out of +this dilemma. The experience (whether it be the experience of sensation +or the experience of reflection) which he adopts for his master-key +never will unlock this case; for the sum total of human experience, +collected from all ages, can avail only to tell us what _is_, but never +what _must be_. The idea of necessity is absolutely transcendent to +experience, _per se_, and must be derived from some other source. From +what source? Could Hume tell us? No: he, who had started the game so +acutely (for, with every allowance for the detection made in Thomas +Aquinas of the original suggestion, as recorded in the _Biographia +Literaria_ of Coleridge, we must still allow great merit of a secondary +kind to Hume for his modern revival and restatement of the doctrine), +this same acute philosopher broke down confessedly in his attempt to +hunt the game down. His solution is worthless. + +Kant, however, having caught the original scent from Hume, was +more fortunate. He saw, at a glance, that here was a test applied +to the Lockian philosophy, which showed, at the very least, +its _insufficiency_. If it were good even for so much as it +explained--which Burke is disposed to receive as a sufficient warrant +for the favourable reception of a new hypothesis--at any rate, it now +appeared that there was something which it could _not_ explain. But, +next, Kant took a large step in advance _proprio marte_. Reflecting +upon the one idea adduced by Hume as transcending the ordinary source +of ideas, he began to ask himself whether it were likely that this idea +should stand alone? Were there not other ideas in the same predicament; +other ideas including the same element of necessity, and, therefore, +equally disowning the parentage assigned by Locke? Upon investigation, +he found that there were: he found that there were eleven others in +exactly the same circumstances. The entire twelve he denominated +categories; and the mode by which he ascertained their number--that +there were so many and no more--is of itself so remarkable as to +merit notice in the most superficial sketch. But, in fact, this one +explanation will put the reader in possession of Kant's system, so +far as he could understand it without an express and toilsome study. +With this explanation, therefore, of the famous categories, I shall +close my slight sketch of the system. Has the reader ever considered +the meaning of the term _Category_--a term so ancient and so venerable +from its connexion with the most domineering philosophy that has yet +appeared amongst men? The doctrine of the Categories (or, in its +Roman appellation, of the _Predicaments_) is one of the few wrecks +from the Peripatetic philosophy which still survives as a doctrine +taught by public authority in the most ancient academic institutions +of Europe.[19] It continues to form a section in the code of public +instruction; and perhaps under favour of a pure accident. For, though, +strictly speaking, a _metaphysical_ speculation, it has always been +prefixed as a sort of preface to the Organon (or _logical_ treatises) +of Aristotle, and has thus accidentally shared in the immortality +conceded to that most perfect of human works. Far enough were the +Categories from meriting such distinction. Kant was well aware of this: +he was aware that the Aristotelian Categories were a useless piece +of scholastic lumber: unsound in their first conception; and, though +illustrated through long centuries by the schoolmen, and by still +earlier Grecian philosophers, never in any one known instance turned +to a profitable account. Why, then, being aware that even in idea they +were false, besides being practically unsuitable, did Kant adopt or +borrow a name laden with this superfetation of reproach--all that is +false in theory superadded to all that is useless in practice? He did +so for a remarkable reason: he felt, according to his own explanation, +that Aristotle had been _groping_ (the German word expressive of his +blind procedure is _herumtappen_)--groping in the dark, but under a +semi-conscious instinct of truth. Here is a most remarkable case or +situation of the human intellect, happening alike to individuals +and to entire generations--in the situation of yearning or craving, +as it were, for a great idea as yet unknown, but dimly and uneasily +prefigured. + + [19] De Quincey was so fastidious in the matter of grammatical + correctness that he would have been shocked to find that he had + let this sentence go forth in print.--M. + +Sometimes the very brink, as it may be called, of such an idea is +approached; sometimes it is even imperfectly discovered; but with marks +in the very midst of its imperfections which serve as indications to a +person coming better armed for ascertaining the sub-conscious thought +which had governed their tentative motions. As it stands in Aristotle's +scheme, the idea of a category is a mere lifeless abstraction. +Rising through a succession of species to genera, and from these to +still higher genera, you arrive finally at a highest genus--a naked +abstraction, beyond which no farther regress is possible. This highest +genus, this _genus generalissimum_, is, in peripatetic language, a +category; and no purpose or use has ever been assigned to any one of +these categories, of which ten were enumerated at first, beyond that +of classification--_i.e._ a purpose of mere convenience. Even for as +trivial a purpose as this, it gave room for suspecting a failure, +when it was afterwards found that the original ten categories did +not exhaust the possibilities of the case; that other supplementary +categories (_post-proedicamenta_) became necessary. And, perhaps, +"more last words" might even yet be added, supplementary supplements, +and so forth, by a hair-splitting intellect. Failures as gross as +these, revisals still open to revision, and amendments calling for +amendments, were at once a broad confession that here there was no +falling in with any great law of nature. The paths of nature may +sometimes be arrived at in a tentative way; but they are broad and +determinate; and, when found, vindicate themselves. Still, in all this +erroneous subtilisation, and these abortive efforts, Kant perceived a +grasping at some real idea--fugitive indeed and coy, which had for the +present absolutely escaped; but he caught glimpses of it continually +in the rear; he felt its necessity to any account of the human +understanding that could be satisfactory to one who had meditated on +Locke's theory as probed and searched by Leibnitz. And in this uneasy +state--half sceptical, half creative, rejecting and substituting, +pulling down and building up--what was, in sum and finally, the course +which he took for bringing his trials and essays to a crisis? He +states this himself, somewhere in the Introduction to his _Critik der +reinen Vernunft_; and the passage is a memorable one. Fifteen years +at the least have passed since I read it; and, therefore, I cannot +pretend to produce the words; but the substance I shall give; and I +appeal to the candour of all his readers whether they have been able +to apprehend his meaning. I certainly did not for years. But, now +that I do, the passage places his procedure in a most striking and +edifying light. Astronomers, says Kant, had gone on for ages, assuming +that the earth was the central body of our system; and insuperable +were the difficulties which attended that assumption. At length, it +occurred to try what would result from inverting the assumption. Let +the earth, instead of offering a fixed centre for the revolving motions +of other heavenly bodies, be supposed itself to revolve about some +one of these, as the sun. That supposition was tried, and gradually +all the phenomena which, before, had been incoherent, anomalous, +or contradictory, began to express themselves as parts of a most +harmonious system. "Something," he goes on to say, "analogous to this +I have practised with regard to the subject of my inquiry--the human +understanding. All others had sought their central principle of the +intellectual phenomena out of the understanding, in something external +to the mind. I first turned my inquiries upon the mind itself. I first +applied my examination to the very analysis of the understanding." In +words not precisely these, but pretty nearly equivalent to them, does +Kant state, by contradistinction, the value and the nature of his own +procedure. He first, according to his own representation, thought of +applying his investigation to the mind itself. Here was a passage which +for years (I may say) continued to stagger and confound me. What! he, +Kant, in the latter end of the 18th century, about the year 1787--he +the first who had investigated the mind! This was not arrogance so +much as it was insanity. Had he said--I, first, upon just principles, +or with a fortunate result, investigated the human understanding, he +would have said no more than every fresh theorist is bound to suppose, +as his preliminary apology for claiming the attention of a busy world. +Indeed, if a writer, on any part of knowledge, does _not_ hold himself +superior to all his predecessors, we are entitled to say--Then, why do +you presume to trouble us? It may _look_ like modesty, but _is_, in +effect, downright effrontery, for you to think yourself no better than +other critics; you were at liberty to think so whilst no claimant of +public notice--as being so, it is most arrogant in you to be modest. +This would be the criticism applied justly to a man who, in Kant's +situation, as the author of a new system, should use a language of +unseasonable modesty or deprecation. To have spoken boldly of himself +was a duty; we could not tolerate his doing otherwise. But to speak of +himself in the exclusive terms I have described does certainly seem, +and for years did seem to myself, little short of insanity. Of this I +am sure,--that no student of Kant, having the passage before him, can +have known heretofore what consistent, what rational interpretation +to give it; and, in candour, he ought to own himself my debtor for +the light he will now receive. Yet, so easy is it to imagine, after a +meaning is once pointed out, and the station given from which it shows +itself _as_ the meaning--so easy, under these circumstances, is it +to imagine that one has, or that one could have, found it for one's +self--that I have little expectation of reaping much gratitude for +my explanation. I say this, not as of much importance one way or the +other in a single case of the kind, but because a general consideration +of this nature has sometimes operated to make me more indifferent or +careless as to the publication of commentaries on difficult systems +when I had found myself able to throw much light on the difficulties. +The very success with which I should have accomplished the task--the +perfect removal of the obstacles in the student's path--were the very +grounds of my assurance that the service would be little valued. For +I have found what it was occasionally, in conversation, to be too +luminous--to have explained, for instance, too clearly a dark place +in Ricardo. In such a case, I have known a man of the very greatest +powers mistake the intellectual effort he had put forth to apprehend my +elucidation, and to meet it half way, for his own unassisted conquest +over the difficulties; and, within an hour or two after, I have had, +perhaps, to stand, as an attack upon myself, arguments entirely and +recently furnished by myself. No case is more possible: even to +apprehend complex explanation, a man cannot be passive; he must exert +considerable energy of mind; and, in the fresh consciousness of this +energy, it is the most natural mistake in the world for him to feel +the argument which he has by considerable effort appropriated to be an +argument which he has originated. Kant is the most unhappy champion of +his own doctrines, the most infelicitous expounder of his own meaning, +that has ever existed. Neither has any other commentator succeeded in +throwing a moonlight radiance upon his philosophy. Yet certain I am +that, were I, or any man, to disperse all his darkness, exactly in +that proportion in which we did so--exactly in the proportion in which +we smoothed all hindrances--exactly in that proportion would it cease +to be known or felt that there had ever been any hindrances to be +smoothed. This, however, is digression, to which I have been tempted +by the interesting nature of the grievance. In a jesting way, this +grievance is obliquely noticed in the celebrated couplet-- + + "Had you seen but these roads before they were made, + You'd lift up your hands and bless Marshal Wade." + +The pleasant bull here committed conceals a most melancholy truth, +and one of large extent. Innumerable are the services to truth, to +justice, or society, which never _can_ be adequately valued by those +who reap their benefits, simply because the transition from the early +and bad state to the final or improved state cannot be retraced or kept +alive before the eyes. The record perishes. The last point gained is +seen; but the starting point, the point _from_ which it was gained, +is forgotten. And the traveller never _can_ know the true amount of +his obligations to Marshal Wade, because, though seeing the roads +which the Marshal has created, he can only guess at those which he +superseded. Now, returning to this impenetrable passage of Kant, I will +briefly inform the reader that he may read it into sense by connecting +it with a part of Kant's system from which it is in his own delivery +entirely dislocated. Going forwards some thirty or forty pages, he +will find Kant's development of his own categories. And, by placing +in juxtaposition with that development this blind sentence, he will +find a reciprocal light arising. All philosophers, worthy of that +name, have found it necessary to allow of some great cardinal ideas +that transcended all the Lockian origination--ideas that were larger +in their compass than any possible notices of sense or any reflex +notices of the understanding; and those who have denied such ideas +will be found invariably to have supported their denial by a _vitium +subreptionis_, and to have deduced their pretended genealogies of +such ideas by means of a _petitio principii_--silently and stealthily +putting _into_ some step of their _leger-de-main_ process everything +that they would pretend to have extracted _from_ it. But, previously +to Kant, it is certain that all philosophers had left the origin of +these higher or transcendent ideas unexplained. Whence came they? In +the systems to which Locke replies they had been called _innate_ or +_connate._ These were the Cartesian systems. Cudworth, again, who +maintained certain "_immutable ideas_" of morality, had said nothing +about their origin; and Plato had supposed them to be reminiscences +from some higher mode of existence. Kant first attempted to assign them +an origin within the mind itself, though not in any Lockian fashion of +reflection upon sensible impressions. And this is doubtless what he +means by saying that he first had investigated the mind--that is, he +first for such a purpose. + +Where, then, is it, in what act or function of the mind, that Kant +finds the matrix of these transcendent ideas? Simply in the logical +forms of the understanding. Every power exerts its agency under some +_laws_--that is, in the language of Kant, by certain _forms_. We +leap by certain laws--viz., of equilibrium, of muscular motion, of +gravitation. We dance by certain laws. So also we reason by certain +laws. These laws, or _formal_ principles, under a particular condition, +become the categories. + +Here, then, is a short derivation, in a very few words, of those +ideas transcending sense which all philosophy, the earliest, has been +unable to dispense with, and yet none could account for. Thus, for +example, every act of reasoning must, in the first place, express +itself in distinct propositions; that is, in such as contain a subject +(or that concerning which you affirm or deny something), a predicate +(that which you affirm or deny), and a copula, which connects them. +These propositions must have what is technically called, in logic, a +certain _quantity_, or compass (viz., must be universal, particular, +or singular); and again they must have what is called _quality_ (that +is, must be affirmative, or negative, or infinite): and thus arises a +ground for certain corresponding ideas, which are Kant's categories of +quantity and quality. + +But, to take an illustration more appropriately from the very idea +which first aroused Kant to the sense of a vast hiatus in the received +philosophies--the idea of _cause_, which had been thrown as an apple +of discord amongst the schools by Hume. How did Kant deduce this? +Simply thus: it is a doctrine of universal logic that there are three +varieties of syllogism--viz., 1st, Categoric, or directly declarative +[_A is B_]; 2d, Hypothetic, or conditionally declarative [_If C is D, +then A is B_]; 3d, Disjunctive, or declarative by means of a choice +which exhausts the possible cases [_A is either B, or C, or D; but not +C or D, ergo B_]. Now, the idea of _causation,_ or, in Kant's language, +the category of Cause and Effect, is deduced immediately, and most +naturally, as the reader will acknowledge on examination, from the 2d +or hypothetic form of syllogism, when the relation of dependency is +the same as in the idea of causation, and the _necessary_ connexion a +direct type of that which takes place between a cause and its effect. + +Thus, then, without going one step further, the reader will find +grounds enough for reflection, and for reverence towards Kant, +in these two great results: 1st, That an order of ideas has been +established which all deep philosophy has demanded, even when it +could not make good its claim. This postulate is fulfilled. 2dly, The +postulate is fulfilled without mysticism or Platonic reveries. Ideas, +however indispensable to human needs, and even to the connexion of +our thoughts, which came to us from nobody knew whence must for ever +have been suspicious; and, as in the memorable instance cited from +Hume, must have been liable for ever to a question of validity. But, +deduced as they now are from a matrix within our own minds, they cannot +reasonably fear any assaults of scepticism. + +Here I shall stop. A reader new to these inquiries may think all this +a trifle. But he who reflects a little will see that, even thus far, +and going no step beyond this point, the Kantian doctrine of the +Categories answers a standing question hanging aloft as a challenge +to human philosophy, fills up a _lacuna_ pointed out from the era of +Plato. It solves a problem which has startled and perplexed every age: +viz. this--that man is in possession, nay, in the hourly exercise, of +ideas larger than he can show any title to. And, in another way, the +reader may measure the extent of this doctrine, by reflecting that, +even so far as now stated, it is precisely coextensive with the famous +scheme of Locke. For what is the capital thesis of that scheme? Simply +this--that all necessity for supposing immediate impressions made +upon our understandings by God, or other supernatural, or antenatal, +or connatal, agencies, is idle and romantic; for that, upon examining +the furniture of our minds, nothing will be found there which cannot +adequately be explained out of our daily experience; and, until we find +something that cannot be solved by this explanation, it is childish +to go in quest of higher causes. Thus says Locke: and his whole work, +upon its first plan, is no more than a continual pleading of this +single thesis, pursuing it through all the plausible objections. +Being, therefore, as large in its extent as Locke, the reader must +not complain of the transcendental scheme as too narrow, even in that +limited section of it here brought under his notice. + +For the purpose of repelling it, he must do one of two things: either +he must shew that these categories or transcendent notions are not +susceptible of the derivation and genesis here assigned to them--that +is, from the forms of the _logos_ or formal understanding; or, if +content to abide by that derivation, he must allege that there are +other categories besides those enumerated, and unprovided with any +similar parentage. + +Thus much in reply to him who complains of the doctrine here stated +as, 1st, Too narrow, or, 2d, As insufficiently established. But, 3d, +in reply to him who wishes to see it further pursued or applied, I say +that the possible applications are perhaps infinite. With respect to +those made by Kant himself, they are chiefly contained in his main and +elementary work, the _Critik der reinen Vernunft_; and they are of a +nature to make any man melancholy. Indeed, let a man consider merely +this one notion of _causation_; let him reflect on its origin; let him +remember that, agreeably to this origin, it follows that we have no +right to view anything _in rerum naturâ_ as objectively, or in itself, +a cause; that, when, upon the fullest philosophic proof, we call A +the cause of B, we do in fact only subsume A under the notion of a +cause--we invest it with that function under that relation; that the +whole proceeding is merely with respect to a _human_ understanding, and +by way of indispensable _nexus_ to the several parts of our experience; +finally, that there is the greatest reason to doubt whether the idea +of _causation_ is at all applicable to any other world than this, or +any other than a human experience. Let a man meditate but a little on +this or other aspects of this transcendental philosophy, and he will +find the steadfast earth itself rocking as it were beneath his feet; +a world about him which is in some sense a world of deception; and a +world before him which seems to promise a world of confusion, or "_a +world not realised_." All this he might deduce for himself without +further aid from Kant. However, the particular purposes to which Kant +applies his philosophy, from the difficulties which beset them, are +unfitted for anything below a regular treatise. Suffice it to say here, +that, difficult as these speculations are from one or two embarrassing +doctrines on the Transcendental Consciousness, and depressing as they +are from their general tendency, they are yet painfully irritating to +the curiosity, and especially so from a sort of _experimentum crucis_ +which they yield in the progress of their development on behalf of the +entire doctrine of Kant--a test which, up to this hour, has offered +defiance to any hostile hand. The test or defiance which I speak +of takes the shape of certain _antinomies_ (so they are termed), +severe adamantine arguments, affirmative and negative, on two or +three celebrated problems, with no appeal to any possible decision, +but one which involves the Kantian doctrines. A _quæstio vexata_ is +proposed--for instance, the _infinite divisibility of matter_; each +side of this question, _thesis_ and _antithesis_, is argued; the logic +is irresistible, the links are perfect, and for each side alternately +there is a verdict, thus terminating in the most triumphant _reductio +ad absurdum_,--viz. that A, at one and the same time and in the same +sense, is and is not B,--from which no escape is available but through +a Kantian solution. On any other philosophy, it is demonstrated that +this opprobrium of the human understanding, this scandal of logic, +cannot be removed. This celebrated chapter of _antinomies_ has been of +great service to the mere polemics of the transcendental philosophy: +it is a glove or gage of defiance, constantly lying on the ground, +challenging the rights of victory and supremacy so long as it is _not_ +taken up by any antagonist, and bringing matters to a short decision +when it _is._ + +One section, and that the introductory section, of the transcendental +philosophy, I have purposely omitted, though in strictness not to be +insulated or dislocated from the faithful exposition even of that which +I have given. It is the doctrine of Space and Time. These profound +themes, so confounding to the human understanding, are treated by +Kant under two aspects--_1st_, as Anschauungen, or _Intuitions_--(so +the German word is usually translated for want of a better); _2dly_, +as forms, _a priori_, of all our other intuitions. Often have I +laughed internally at the characteristic exposure of Kant's style of +thinking--that he, a man of so much worldly sagacity, could think of +offering, and of the German scholastic habits, that any modern nation +could think of accepting such cabalistic phrases, such a true and very +"_Ignotium per Ignotius_," in part payment of an explanatory account +of Time and Space. Kant repeats these words--as a charm before which +all darkness flies; and he supposes continually the case of a man +denying his explanations or demanding proofs of them, never once the +sole imaginable case--viz., of all men demanding an explanation of +these explanations. Deny them! Combat them! How should a man deny, why +should he combat, what might, for anything to the contrary appearing, +contain a promissory note at two months after date for 100 guineas? No; +it will cost a little preliminary work before _such_ explanations will +much avail any scheme of philosophy, either for the _pro_ or the _con_. +And yet I do myself really profess to understand the dark words; and +a great service it would be to sound philosophy amongst us, if this +one word _anschauung_ were adequately unfolded and naturalized (as +naturalized it might be) in the English philosophic dictionary, by some +full Grecian equivalent. Strange that no man acquainted with German +philosophy should yet have been struck by the fact--or, being struck, +should not have felt it important to call public attention to the +fact,--of our inevitable feebleness in a branch of study for which as +yet we want the indispensable words. Our feebleness is at once argued +by this want, and partly caused. Meantime, as respects the Kantian way +of viewing space, by much the most important innovation which it makes +upon the old doctrines is--that it considers space as a _subjective_ +not an _objective_ aliquid; that is, as having its whole available +foundation lying ultimately in ourselves, not in any external or alien +tenure. This one distinction, as applied to space, for ever secures +(what nothing else _can_ secure or explain) the cogency of geometrical +evidence. Whatever is true for any determinations of a space originally +included in ourselves, must be true for such determinations for ever, +since they cannot become objects of consciousness to us but in and +by that very mode of conceiving space, that very form of schematism +which originally presented us with these determinations of space, or +any whatever. In the uniformity of our own space-conceiving faculty we +have a pledge of the absolute and _necessary_ uniformity (or internal +agreement among themselves) of all future or possible determinations of +space; because they could no otherwise become to us conceivable forms +of space than by adapting themselves to the known conditions of our +conceiving faculty. Here we have the _necessity_ which is indispensable +to all geometrical demonstration: it is a necessity founded in our +human organ, which cannot admit or conceive a space, unless as +preconforming to these original forms or schematisms. Whereas, on +the contrary, if space were something _objective_, and consequently, +being a separate existence, independent of a human organ, then it is +altogether impossible to find any intelligible source of _obligation_ +or cogency in the evidence--such as is indispensable to the very nature +of geometrical demonstration. Thus we will suppose that a regular +demonstration has gradually, from step to step downwards, through a +series of propositions--No. 8 resting upon 7, that upon 5, 5 upon 3--at +length reduced you to the elementary axiom that Two straight lines +cannot enclose a space. Now, if space be _subjective_ originally--that +is to say, founded (as respects us and our geometry) in ourselves--then +it is impossible that two such lines can enclose a space, because +the possibility of anything whatever relating to the determinations +of space is exactly co-extensive with (and exactly expressed by) our +power to conceive it. Being thus able to affirm its impossibility +universally, we can build a demonstration upon it. But, on the other +hypothesis, of space being _objective_, it is impossible to guess +whence we are to draw our proof of the alleged inaptitude in two +straight lines for enclosing a space. The most we could say is, that +hitherto no instance has been found of an enclosed space circumscribed +by two straight lines. It would not do to allege our human inability +to conceive, or in imagination to draw, such a circumscription. For, +besides that such a mode of argument is exactly the one supposed to +have been rejected, it is liable to this unanswerable objection, so +long as space is assumed to have an _objective_ existence, viz. that +the human inability to conceive such a possibility only argues (what +in fact is often found in other cases) that the _objective_ existence +of space--_i.e._ the existence of space in itself, and in its absolute +nature--is far larger than its subjective existence--_i.e._ than +its mode of existing _quoad_ some particular subject. A being more +limited than man might be so framed as to be unable to conceive curve +lines; but this subjective inaptitude for those determinations of +space would not affect the objective reality of curves, or even their +subjective reality for a higher intelligence. Thus, on the hypothesis +of an objective existence for space, we should be thrown upon an ocean +of possibilities, without a test for saying what was--what was not +possible. But, on the other hypothesis, having always in the last +resort what is _subjectively_ possible or impossible (_i.e._ what is +conceivable or not by us, what can or cannot be drawn or circumscribed +by a human imagination), we have the means of demonstration in our +power, by having the ultimate appeals in our power to a known uniform +test--viz. a known human faculty. + +This is no trifling matter, and therefore no trifling advantage on the +side of Kant and his philosophy, to all who are acquainted with the +disagreeable controversies of late years among French geometricians of +the first rank, and sometimes among British ones, on the question of +mathematical evidence. Legendre and Professor Leslie took part in one +such a dispute; and the temper in which it was managed was worthy of +admiration, as contrasted with the angry controversies of elder days, +if, indeed, it did not err in an opposite spirit, by too elaborate and +too calculating a tone of reciprocal flattery. But, think as we may +of the discussion in this respect, most assuredly it was painful to +witness so infirm a philosophy applied to an interest so mighty. The +whole aerial superstructure--the heaven-aspiring pyramid of geometrical +synthesis--all tottered under the palsying logic of evidence, to which +these celebrated mathematicians appealed. And wherefore?--From the want +of any philosophic account of space, to which they might have made +a common appeal, and which might have so far discharged its debt to +truth as at least to reconcile its theory with the great outstanding +phenomena in the most absolute of sciences. Geometry is the _science_ +of space: therefore, in any _philosophy_ of space, geometry is entitled +to be peculiarly considered, and used as a court of appeal. Geometry +has these two further claims to distinction--that, 1st, It is the most +perfect of the sciences, so far as it has gone; and, 2dly, That it +has gone the farthest. A philosophy of space which does not consider +and does not reconcile to its own doctrines the facts of geometry, +which, in the two points of beauty and of vast extent, is more like +a work of nature than of man, is, _prima facie_, of no value. A +philosophy of space _might_ be false which should harmonize with the +facts of geometry--it _must_ be false if it contradict them. Of Kant's +philosophy it is a capital praise that its very opening section--that +section which treats the question of space--not only quadrates with +the facts of geometry, but also, by the _subjective_ character which +it attributes to space, is the very first philosophic scheme which +explains and accounts for the cogency of geometrical evidence. + +These are the two primary merits of the transcendental theory--_1st_, +Its harmony with mathematics, and the fact of having first, by its +doctrine of space, applied philosophy to the nature of geometrical +evidence; _2dly_, That it has filled up, by means of its doctrine +of categories, the great _hiatus_ in all schemes of the human +understanding from Plato downwards. All the rest, with a reserve +as to the part which concerns the _practical_ reason (or will), is +of more questionable value, and leads to manifold disputes. But I +contend that, had transcendentalism done no other service than that +of laying a foundation, sought but not found for ages, to the human +understanding--namely, by showing an intelligible genesis to certain +large and indispensable ideas--it would have claimed the gratitude +of all profound inquirers. To a reader still disposed to undervalue +Kant's service in this respect, I put one parting question--Wherefore +he values Locke? What has _he_ done, even if value is allowed in full +to his pretensions? Has the reader asked himself _that_? He gave a +_negative_ solution at the most. He told his reader that certain +disputed ideas were _not_ deduced thus and thus. Kant, on the other +hand, has given him at the least a _positive_ solution. He teaches him, +in the profoundest revelation, by a discovery in the most absolute +sense on record, and the most entirely a single act--without parts, or +contributions, or stages, or preparations from other quarters--that +these long disputed ideas could not be derived from the experience +assigned by Locke, inasmuch as they are themselves _previous conditions +under which any experience at all is possible_: he teaches him that +these ideas are not mystically originated, but are, in fact, but +another phasis of the functions or forms of his own understanding; and, +finally, he gives consistency, validity, and a charter of authority, +to certain modes of _nexus_ without which the sum total of human +experience would be a rope of sand. + +In terminating this slight account of the Kantian philosophy, I may +mention that, in or about the year 1818-19, Lord Grenville, when +visiting the lakes of England, observed to Professor Wilson that, after +five years' study of this philosophy, he had not gathered from it one +clear idea. Wilberforce, about the same time, made the same confession +to another friend of my own. + +It is not usual for men to meet with their capital disappointments +in early life, at least not in youth. For, as to disappointments in +love, which are doubtless the most bitter and incapable of comfort, +though otherwise likely to arise in youth, they are in this way made +impossible at a very early age, that no man can be in love to the +whole extent of his capacity until he is in full possession of all +his faculties, and with the sense of dignified maturity. A perfect +love, such as is necessary to the anguish of a perfect disappointment, +presumes also for its object not a mere girl, but woman, mature +both in person and character, and womanly dignity. This sort of +disappointment, in a degree which could carry its impression through +life, I cannot therefore suppose occurring earlier than at twenty-five +or twenty-seven. My disappointment--the profound shock with which I +was repelled from German philosophy, and which thenceforwards tinged +with cynical disgust towards man in certain aspects a temper which +originally I will presume to consider the most benign that can ever +have been created--occurred when I was yet in my twentieth year. In a +poem under the title of _Saul_, written many years ago by Mr. Sotheby, +and perhaps now forgotten, having never been popular, there occurs a +passage of some pathos, in which Saul is described as keeping amongst +the splendid equipments of a royal wardrobe that particular pastoral +habit which he had worn in his days of earliest manhood, whilst yet +humble and undistinguished by honour, but also yet innocent and +happy. There, also, with the same care, he preserved his shepherd's +crook, which, in hands of youthful vigour, had been connected with +remembrances of heroic prowess. These memorials, in after times of +trouble or perplexity, when the burthen of royalty, its cares, or its +feverish temptations, pointed his thoughts backwards, for a moment's +relief, to scenes of pastoral gaiety and peace, the heart-wearied +prince would sometimes draw from their repository, and in solitude +would apostrophise them separately, or commune with the bitter-sweet +remembrances which they recalled. In something of the same spirit--but +with a hatred to the German philosopher such as men are represented as +feeling towards the gloomy enchanter, Zamiel or whomsoever, by whose +hateful seductions they have been placed within a circle of malign +influences--did I at times revert to Kant: though for me his power had +been of the very opposite kind; not an enchanter's, but the power of +a disenchanter--and a disenchanter the most profound. As often as I +looked into his works, I exclaimed in my heart, with the widowed queen +of Carthage, using her words in an altered application-- + + "Quæsivit lucem--_ingemuitque repertâ_." + +Had the transcendental philosophy corresponded to my expectations, +and had it left important openings for further pursuit, my purpose +then was to have retired, after a few years spent in Oxford, to the +woods of Lower Canada. I had even marked out the situation for a +cottage and a considerable library, about seventeen miles from Quebec. +I planned nothing so ambitious as a scheme of _Pantisocracy_. My +object was simply profound solitude, such as cannot now be had in any +part of Great Britain--with two accessary advantages, also peculiar +to countries situated in the circumstances and under the climate +of Canada: viz. the exalting presence in an under-consciousness of +forests endless and silent, the everlasting sense of living amongst +forms so ennobling and impressive, together with the pleasure attached +to natural agencies, such as frost, more powerfully manifested than +in English latitudes, and for a much longer period. I hope there is +nothing fanciful in all this. It is certain that in England, and in +all moderate climates, we are too slightly reminded of nature or the +forces of nature. Great heats, or great colds (and in Canada there are +both), or great hurricanes, as in the West Indian latitudes, recall us +continually to the sense of a powerful presence, investing our paths on +every side; whereas in England it is possible to forget that we live +amongst greater agencies than those of men and human institutions. Man, +in fact, "too much man," as Timon complained most reasonably in Athens, +was then, and is now, our greatest grievance in England. Man is a weed +everywhere too rank. A strange place must that be with us from which +the sight of a hundred men is not before us, or the sound of a thousand +about us. + +Nevertheless, being in this hotbed of man inevitably for some years, no +sooner had I dismissed my German philosophy than I relaxed a little +that spirit of German abstraction which it had prompted; and, though +never mixing freely with society, I began to look a little abroad. It +may interest the reader, more than anything else which I can record of +this period, to recall what I saw within the ten first years of the +century that was at all noticeable or worthy of remembrance amongst the +literati, the philosophers, or the poets of the time. For, though I am +now in my academic period from 1804 to 1808, my knowledge of literary +men--or men distinguished in some way or other, either by their +opinions, their accomplishments, or their position and the accidents +of their lives--began from the first year of the century, or, more +accurately, from the year 1800; which, with some difficulty and demurs, +and with some arguments from the Laureate Pye, the world was at length +persuaded to consider the last year of the eighteenth century.[20] + + [20] Those who look back to the newspapers of 1799 and 1800 will + see that considerable discussion went on at that time upon the + question whether the year 1800 was entitled to open the 19th + century or to close the 18th. Mr. Laureate Pye wrote a poem with a + long and argumentative preface on the point. + + [21] From _Tait's Magazine_ for February 1837, where the title was + "A Literary Novitiate."--M. + + + + + LITERARY & LAKE REMINISCENCES + + CHAPTER I + + A MANCHESTER SWEDENBORGIAN AND A LIVERPOOL LITERARY COTERIE[21] + + +It was in the year 1801, whilst yet at school, that I made my first +literary acquaintance. This was with a gentleman now dead, and little, +at any time, known in the literary world; indeed, not at all; for his +authorship was confined to a department of religious literature as +obscure and as narrow in its influence as any that can be named--viz. +Swedenborgianism. + +Already, on the bare mention of that word, a presumption arises +against any man, that, writing much (or writing at all) for a body of +doctrines so apparently crazy as those of Mr. Swedenborg, a man must +have bid adieu to all good sense and manliness of mind. Indeed, this +is so much of a settled case, that even to have written _against_ Mr. +Swedenborg would be generally viewed as a suspicious act, requiring +explanation, and not very easily admitting of it. _Mr._ Swedenborg I +call him, because I understand that his title to call himself "Baron" +is imaginary; or rather he never _did_ call himself by any title +of honour--that mistake having originated amongst his followers in +this country, who have chosen to designate him as the "Honourable" +and as the "Baron" Swedenborg, by way of translating, to the ear of +England, some one or other of those irrepresentable distinctions, +_Legations-Rath_, _Hofrath_, _&c._, which are tossed about with so +much profusion in the courts of continental Europe, on both sides the +Baltic. For myself, I cannot think myself qualified to speak of any +man's writings without a regular examination of some one or two among +those which his admirers regard as his best performances. Yet, as any +happened to fall in my way, I have looked into them; and the impression +left upon my mind was certainly not favourable to their author. They +laboured, to my feeling, with two opposite qualities of annoyance, but +which I believe not uncommonly found united in lunatics--excessive +dulness or matter-of-factness in the execution, with excessive +extravagance in the conceptions. The result, at least, was most +unhappy: for, of all writers, Swedenborg is the only one I ever heard +of who has contrived to strip even the shadowy world beyond the grave +of all its mystery and all its awe. From the very heaven of heavens, +he has rent away the veil; no need for seraphs to "tremble while they +gaze"; for the familiarity with which all objects are invested makes it +impossible that even poor mortals should find any reason to tremble. +Until I saw this book, I had not conceived it possible to carry an +atmosphere so earthy, and steaming with the vapours of earth, into +regions which, by early connexion in our infant thoughts with the +sanctities of death, have a hold upon the reverential affections such +as they rarely lose. In this view, I should conceive that Swedenborg, +if it were at all possible for him to become a popular author, would, +at the same time, become immensely mischievous. He would dereligionize +men beyond all other authors whatsoever. + +Little could this character of Swedenborg's writings--this, indeed, +least of all--have been suspected from the temper, mind, or manners +of my new friend. He was the most spiritual-looking, the most saintly +in outward aspect, of all human beings whom I have known throughout +life. He was rather tall, pale, and thin; the most unfleshly, the most +of a sublimated spirit dwelling already more than half in some purer +world, that a poet could have imagined. He was already aged when I +first knew him, a clergyman of the Church of England; which may seem +strange in connexion with his Swedenborgianism; but he was, however, +so. He was rector of a large parish in a large town, the more active +duties of which parish were discharged by his curate; but much of +the duties within the church were still discharged by himself, and +with such exemplary zeal that his parishioners, afterwards celebrating +the fiftieth anniversary, or _golden_ jubilee of his appointment to +the living (the twenty-fifth anniversary is called in German the +silver--the fiftieth, the golden jubilee), went farther than is +usual in giving a public expression and a permanent shape to their +sentiments of love and veneration. I am surprised, on reflection, +that this venerable clergyman should have been unvexed by Episcopal +censures. He might, and I dare say would, keep back the grosser parts +of Swedenborg's views from a public display; but, in one point, it +would not be easy for a man so conscientious to make a compromise +between his ecclesiastical duty and his private belief; for I have +since found, though I did not then know it, that Swedenborg held a very +peculiar creed on the article of atonement. From the slight pamphlet +which let me into this secret I could not accurately collect the exact +distinctions of his creed; but it was very different from that of the +English Church. + +However, my friend continued unvexed for a good deal more than fifty +years, enjoying that peace, external as well as internal, which, +by so eminent a title, belonged to a spirit so evangelically meek +and dovelike. I mention him chiefly for the sake of describing his +interesting house and household, so different from all which belong +to this troubled age, and his impressive style of living. The house +seemed almost monastic; and yet it stood in the centre of one of the +largest, busiest, noisiest towns in England; and the whole household +seemed to have stepped out of their places in some Vandyke, or even +some Titian, picture, from a forgotten century and another climate. On +knocking at the door, which of itself seemed an outrage to the spirit +of quietness which brooded over the place, you were received by an +ancient manservant in the sober livery which belonged traditionally +to Mr. ----'s[22] family; for he was of a gentleman's descent, and +had had the most finished education of a gentleman. This venerable old +butler put me in mind always, by his noiseless steps, of the Castle +of Indolence, where the porter or usher walked about in shoes that +were shod with felt, lest any rude echoes might be roused. An ancient +housekeeper was equally venerable, equally gentle in her deportment, +quiet in her movements, and inaudible in her tread. One or other of +these upper domestics,--for the others rarely crossed my path,--ushered +me always into some room expressing by its furniture, its pictures, +and its coloured windows, the solemn tranquillity which, for half a +century, had reigned in that mansion. Among the pictures were more +than one of St. John, the beloved apostle, by Italian masters. Neither +the features nor the expression were very wide of Mr. Clowes's own +countenance; and, had it been possible to forget the gross character +of Swedenborg's reveries, or to substitute for these fleshly dreams +the awful visions of the Apocalypse, one might have imagined easily +that the pure, saintly, and childlike evangelist had been once again +recalled to this earth, and that this most quiet of mansions was +some cell in the island of Patmos. Whence came the stained glass of +the windows I know not, and whether it were stained or painted. The +revolutions of that art are known from Horace Walpole's account; and, +nine years after this period, I found that, in Birmingham, where the +art of staining glass was chiefly practised, no trifling sum was +charged even for a vulgar lacing of no great breadth round a few +drawing-room windows, which one of my friends thought fit to introduce +as an embellishment. These windows, however, of my clerical friend were +really "_storied_ windows," having Scriptural histories represented +upon them. A crowning ornament to the library or principal room was a +sweet-toned organ, ancient, and elaborately carved in its wood-work, at +which my venerable friend readily sate down, and performed the music +of anthems as often as I asked him, sometimes accompanying it with +his voice, which was tremulous from old age, but neither originally +unmusical, nor (as might be perceived) untrained. + + [22] As De Quincey has divulged the name of this clergyman in his + Autobiography (see vol. i. pp. 136-138), there is no need for + concealing it here. He was the Rev. John Clowes, Rector of St. + John's Church, Manchester, and we shall substitute the full name + for the blank in the sequel.--M. + +Often, from the storms and uproars of this world, I have looked back +upon this most quiet and, I believe, most innocent abode (had I said +saintly I should hardly have erred), conneacting it in thought with +_Little Gidding_, the famous mansion (in Huntingdonshire, I believe) +of the Farrers, an interesting family in the reigns of James I. +and Charles I. Of the Farrers there is a long and circumstantial +biographical account, and of the conventual discipline maintained at +Little Gidding. For many years it was the rule at Gidding--and it was +the wish of the Farrers to have transmitted that practice through +succeeding centuries--that a musical or cathedral service should be +going on at every hour of night and day in the chapel of the mansion. +Let the traveller, at what hour he would, morning or evening, summer +or winter, and in what generation or century soever, happen to +knock at the gate of Little Gidding, it was the purpose of Nicholas +Farrer--a sublime purpose--that always he should hear the blare of +the organ, sending upwards its surging volumes of melody, God's +worship for ever proceeding, anthems of praise for ever ascending, +and _jubilates_ echoing without end or known beginning. One stream +of music, in fact, never intermitting, one vestal fire of devotional +praise and thanksgiving, was to connect the beginnings with the ends +of generations, and to link one century into another. Allowing for +the sterner asceticism of N. Farrer--partly arising out of the times, +partly out of personal character, and partly, perhaps, out of his +travels in Spain--my aged friend's arrangement of the day, and the +training of his household, might seem to have been modelled on the +plans of Mr. Farrer; whom, however, he might never have heard of. +There was also, in each house, the same union of religion with some +cultivation of the ornamental arts, or some expression of respect +for them. In each case, a monastic severity, that might, under other +circumstances, have terminated in the gloom of a La Trappe, had been +softened by English sociality, and by the habits of a gentleman's +education, into a devotional pomp, reconcilable with Protestant views. +When, however, remembering this last fact in Mr. Clowes's case (the +fact I mean of his liberal education), I have endeavoured to explain +the possibility of one so much adorned by all the accomplishments +of a high-bred gentleman, and one so truly pious, falling into the +grossness, almost the sensuality, which appears to besiege the visions +of Swedenborg, I fancy that the whole may be explained out of the same +cause which occasionally may be descried, through a distance of two +complete centuries, as weighing heavily upon the Farrers--viz. the dire +monotony of daily life, when visited by no irritations either of hope +or fear--no hopes from ambition, no fears from poverty. + +Nearly (if not quite) sixty years did my venerable friend inhabit +that same parsonage house, without any incident more personally +interesting to himself than a cold or a sore throat. And I suppose +that he resorted to Swedenborg--reluctantly, perhaps, at the first--as +to a book of fairy tales connected with his professional studies. And +one thing I am bound to add in candour, which may have had its weight +with him, that more than once, on casually turning over a volume of +Swedenborg, I have certainly found most curious and felicitous passages +of comment--passages which extracted a brilliant meaning from numbers, +circumstances, or trivial accidents, apparently without significance +or object, and gave to things, without a place or a habitation in the +critic's regard, a value as hieroglyphics or cryptical ciphers, which +struck me as elaborately ingenious. This acknowledgment I make not so +much in praise of Swedenborg, whom I must still continue to think a +madman, as in excuse for Mr. Clowes. It may easily be supposed that a +person of Mr. Clowes's consideration and authority was not regarded +with indifference by the general body of the Swedenborgians. At his +motion it was, I believe, that a society was formed for procuring and +encouraging a translation into English of Swedenborg's entire works, +most of which are written in Latin. Several of these translations are +understood to have been executed personally by Mr. Clowes; and in +this obscure way, for anything I know, he may have been an extensive +author. But it shows the upright character of the man that never, in +one instance, did he seek to bias my opinions in this direction. Upon +every other subject, he trusted me confidentially--and, notwithstanding +my boyish years (15-16), as his equal. His regard for me, when thrown +by accident in his way, had arisen upon his notice of my fervent +simplicity, and my unusual thoughtfulness. Upon these merits, I had +gained the honourable distinction of a general invitation to his +house, without exception as to days and hours, when few others could +boast of any admission at all. The common ground on which we met was +literature--more especially the Greek and Roman literature; and much +he exerted himself, in a spirit of the purest courtesy, to meet my +animation upon these themes. But the interest on his part was too +evidently a secondary interest in _me_, for whom he talked, and not in +the subject: he spoke much from memory, as it were of things that he +had once felt, and little from immediate sympathy with the author; and +his animation was artificial, though his courtesy, which prompted the +effort, was the truest and most unaffected possible. + +The connexion between us must have been interesting to an observer; +for, though I cannot say with Wordsworth, of old Daniel and his +grandson, that there were "ninety good years of fair and foul weather" +between us, there were, however, sixty, I imagine, at the least; +whilst as a bond of connexion there was nothing at all that I know +of beyond a common tendency to reverie, which is a bad link for a +_social_ connexion. The little ardour, meantime, with which he had, +for many years, participated in the interests of this world, or all +that it inherits, was now rapidly departing. Daily and consciously he +was loosening all ties which bound him to earlier recollections; and, +in particular, I remember--because the instance was connected with my +last farewell visit, as it proved--that for some time he was engaged +daily in renouncing with solemnity (though often enough in cheerful +words) book after book of classical literature in which he had once +taken particular delight. Several of these, after taking his final +glance at a few passages to which a pencil reference in the margin +pointed his eye, he delivered to me as memorials in time to come of +himself. The last of the books given to me under these circumstances +was a Greek "Odyssey," in Clarke's edition. "This," said he, "is nearly +the sole book remaining to me of my classical library--which, for some +years, I have been dispersing amongst my friends. Homer I retained to +the last, and the 'Odyssey,' by preference to the 'Iliad,' both in +compliance with my own taste, and because this very copy was my chosen +companion for evening amusement during my freshman's term at Trinity +College, Cambridge--whither I went early in the spring of 1743. Your +own favourite Grecian is Euripides; but still you must value--we must +all value--Homer. I, even as old as I am, could still read him with +delight; and, as long as any merely human composition ought to occupy +my time, I should have made an exception in behalf of this solitary +author. But I am a soldier of Christ; the enemy, the last enemy, cannot +be far off; _sarcinas colligere_ is, at my age, the watchword for every +faithful sentinel, hourly to keep watch and ward, to wait and to be +vigilant. This very day I have taken my farewell glance at Homer, for +I must no more be found seeking my pleasure amongst the works of man; +and, that I may not be tempted to break my resolution, I make over this +my last book to you." + +Words to this effect, uttered with his usual solemnity, accompanied his +gift; and, at the same time, he added, without any separate comment, +a little pocket Virgil--the one edited by Alexander Cunningham, the +bitter antagonist of Bentley--with a few annotations placed at the end. +The act was in itself a solemn one; something like taking the veil for +a nun--a final abjuration of the world's giddy agitations. And yet to +him--already and for so long a time linked so feebly to anything that +could be called the world, and living in a seclusion so profound--it +was but as if an anchorite should retire from his outer to his inner +cell. Me, however, it impressed powerfully in after years; because +this act of self-dedication to the next world, and of parting from +the intellectual luxuries of this, was also, in fact, though neither +of us at the time knew it to be such, the scene of his final parting +with myself. Immediately after his solemn speech, on presenting me +with the "Odyssey," he sat down to the organ, sang a hymn or two, then +chanted part of the liturgy, and, finally, at my request, performed the +anthem so well known in the English Church service--the collect for the +seventh Sunday after Trinity--(_Lord of all power and might, &c._) It +was summer--about half after nine in the evening; the light of day was +still lingering, and just strong enough to illuminate the Crucifixion, +the Stoning of the Protomartyr, and other grand emblazonries of the +Christian faith, which adorned the rich windows of his library. Knowing +the early hours of his household, I now received his usual fervent +adieus--which, without the words, had the sound and effect of a +benediction--felt the warm pressure of his hand, saw dimly the outline +of his venerable figure, more dimly his saintly countenance, and +quitted that gracious presence, which, in this world, I was destined +no more to revisit. The night was one in the first half of July 1802; +in the second half of which, or very early in August, I quitted school +clandestinely, and consequently the neighbourhood of Mr. Clowes. Some +years after, I saw his death announced in all the public journals, +as having occurred at Leamington Spa, then in the springtime of its +medicinal reputation. Farewell, early friend! holiest of men whom it +has been my lot to meet! Yes, I repeat, thirty-five years are past +since then, and I have yet seen few men approaching to this venerable +clergyman in paternal benignity--none certainly in child-like purity, +apostolic holiness, or in perfect alienation of heart from the spirit +of this fleshly world. + +I have delineated the habits and character of Mr. Clowes at some +length, chiefly because a connexion is rare and interesting between +parties so widely asunder in point of age--one a schoolboy, and the +other almost an octogenarian, to quote a stanza from one of the most +spiritual sketches of Wordsworth-- + + "We talked with open heart and tongue, + Affectionate and free-- + A pair of friends, though I was young, + And Matthew seventy-three." + +I have stated a second reason for this record, in the fact that Mr. +Clowes was the first of my friends who had any connexion with the +press. At one time I have reason to believe that this connexion was +pretty extensive, though not publicly avowed, and so far from being +lucrative that at first I believe it to have been expensive to him, +and whatever profits might afterwards arise were applied, as much +of his regular income, to the benefit of others.[23] Here, again, +it seems surprising that a spirit so beneficent and, in the amplest +sense, charitable, could coalesce in any views with Swedenborg, who, +in some senses, was not charitable. Swedenborg had been scandalized +by a notion which, it seems, he found prevalent amongst the poor +of the Continent--viz., that, if riches were a drag and a negative +force on the road to religious perfection, poverty must be positive +title _per se_ to the favour of Heaven. Grievously offended with this +error, he came almost to hate poverty as a presumptive indication of +this offensive heresy; scarcely would he allow it an indirect value, +as removing in many cases the occasions or incitements of evil. No: +being in itself neutral and indifferent, he argued that it had become +erroneously a ground of presumptuous hope; whilst the rich man, aware +of his danger, was, in some degree, armed against it by fear and +humility. And, in this course of arguing and of corresponding feeling, +Mr. Swedenborg had come to hate the very name of a poor candidate for +Heaven, as bitterly as a sharking attorney hates the applications of a +pauper client. Yet so entirely is it true that "to the pure, all things +are pure," and that perfect charity "thinketh no ill," but is gifted +with a power to transmute all things into its own resemblance--so +entirely is all this true, that this most spiritual, and, as it were, +disembodied of men, could find delight in the dreams of the very +"fleshliest incubus" that has intruded amongst heavenly objects; +and, secondly, this benignest of men found his own pure feelings not +outraged by one who threw a withering scowl over the far larger half of +his fellow-creatures. + + [23] In a recent [1889] catalogue of a Manchester book-sale I find + this entry:--"Clowes (John, of Manchester, the Church of England + Swedenborgian). Sermons, Translations, etc., with a Life of him by + Theo. Crompton, principally published in Manchester from 1799 to + 1850. 17 vols."--M. + + * * * * * + +Concurrently with this acquaintance, so impressive and so elevating +to me, from the unusual sanctity of Mr. Clowes's character, I formed +another with a well-known coterie, more avowedly, and in a more +general sense, literary, resident at Liverpool or its neighbourhood. +In my sixteenth year [1801] I had accompanied my mother and family +on a summer's excursion to Everton, a well-known village upon the +heights immediately above Liverpool; though by this time I believe +it has thrown out so many fibres of connexion as to have become a +mere quarter or suburban "process" (to speak by anatomical phrase) +of the great town below it. In those days, however, distant by one +third of a century from ours, Everton was still a distinct village +(for a mile of ascent is worth three of level ground in the way of +effectual separation); it was delightfully refreshed by marine breezes, +though raised above the sea so far that its thunders could be heard +only under favourable circumstances. There we had a cottage for some +months; and the nearest of our neighbours happened to be that Mr. +Clarke, the banker, to whom acknowledgments are made in the _Lorenzo +the Magnificent_, for aid in procuring MSS. and information from Italy. +This gentleman called on my mother, merely in the general view of +offering neighbourly attentions to a family of strangers. I, as the +eldest of my brothers, and already with strong literary propensities, +had received a general invitation to his house. Thither I went, indeed, +early and late; and there I met Mr. Roscoe, Dr. Currie (who had just at +that time published his Life and Edition of Burns), and Mr. Shepherd of +Gatacre, the author of some works on Italian literature (particularly +a Life of _Poggio Bracciolini_), and, since then, well known to all +England by his Reform politics. + +There were other members of this society--some, like myself, visitors +merely to that neighbourhood; but those I have mentioned were the +chief. Here I had an early opportunity of observing the natural +character and tendencies of merely literary society--by which society +I mean all such as, having no strong distinctions in power of thinking +or in native force of character, are yet raised into circles of +pretension and mark by the fact of having written a book, or of +holding a notorious connexion with some department or other of the +periodical press. No society is so vapid and uninteresting in its +natural quality, none so cheerless and petrific in its influence upon +others. Ordinary people, in such company, are in general repressed from +uttering with cordiality the natural expression of their own minds or +temperaments, under a vague feeling of some peculiar homage due, or +at least customarily paid, to those lions: such people are no longer +at their ease, or masters of their own natural motions in their own +natural freedom; whilst indemnification of any sort is least of all to +be looked for from the literary dons who have diffused this unpleasant +atmosphere of constraint. They disable others, and yet do nothing +themselves to fill up the void they have created. One and all--unless +by accident people of unusual originality, power, and also nerve, so +as to be able without trepidation to face the expectations of men--the +literary class labour under two opposite disqualifications for a good +tone of conversation. From causes visibly explained, they are either +spoiled by the vices of reserve, and of over-consciousness directed +upon themselves--this is one extreme; or, where manliness of mind has +prevented this, beyond others of equal or inferior natural power, they +are apt to be desperately commonplace. The first defect is an accident +arising out of the rarity of literary pretensions, and would rapidly +subside as the proportion became larger of practising literati to the +mass of educated people. But the other is an adjunct scarcely separable +from the ordinary prosecution of a literary career, and growing in fact +out of literature _per se_, as literature is generally understood. +That same day, says Homer, which makes a man a slave robs him of +half his value. That same hour which first awakens a child to the +consciousness of being observed, and to the sense of admiration, strips +it of its freedom and unpremeditated graces of motion. Awkwardness at +the least--and too probably, as a consequence of _that_, affectation +and conceit--follow hard upon the consciousness of special notice or +admiration. The very attempt to disguise embarrassment too often issues +in a secondary and more marked embarrassment. + +Another mode of reserve arises with some literary men, who believe +themselves to be in possession of novel ideas. Cordiality of +communication, or ardour of dispute, might betray them into a +revelation of those golden thoughts, sometimes into a necessity of +revealing them, since, without such aid, it might be impossible +to maintain theirs in the discussion. On this principle it was--a +principle of deliberate unsocial reserve--that Adam Smith is said to +have governed his conversation; he professed to put a bridle on his +words, lest by accident a pearl should drop out of his lips amongst the +vigilant bystanders. And in no case would he have allowed himself to +be engaged in a disputation, because both the passions of dispute and +the necessities of dispute are alike apt to throw men off their guard. +A most unamiable reason it certainly is, which places a man in one +constant attitude of self-protection against petty larceny. And yet, +humiliating as that may be to human nature, the furtive propensities +or instincts of petty larceny are diffused most extensively through +all ranks--directed, too, upon a sort of property far more tangible +and more ignoble, as respects the possible motives of the purloiner, +than any property in subjects purely intellectual. Rather more than ten +years ago, a literary man of the name of Alton published, some little +time before his own death, a very searching essay upon this chapter +of human integrity--arraying a large list of common cases (cases of +hats, gloves, umbrellas, books, newspapers, &c.) where the claim +of ownership, left to itself and unsupported by accidents of shame +and exposure, appeared to be weak indeed amongst classes of society +prescriptively "respectable." And yet, for a double reason, literary +larceny is even more to be feared; both because it is countenanced by +a less ignoble quality of temptation, and because it is far more easy +of achievement--so easy, indeed, that it may be practised without any +clear accompanying consciousness. + +I have myself witnessed or been a party to a case of the following +kind:--A new truth--suppose for example, a new doctrine or a new +theory--was communicated to a very able man in the course of +conversation, not _didactically_, or directly _as_ a new truth, +but _polemically_,--communicated as an argument in the current of +a dispute. What followed? Necessarily it followed that a very able +man would not be purely _passive_ in receiving this new truth; that +he would _co-operate_ with the communicator in many ways--as by +raising objections, by half dissipating his own objections, and in a +variety of other co-agencies. In such cases, a very clever man does +in effect half-generate the new idea for himself, but then he does +this entirely under your leading; you stand ready at each point of +possible deviation, to warn him away from the wrong turn--from the turn +which leads nowhither or the turn which leads astray. Yet the final +result has been that the _catechumen_, under the full consciousness +of _self_-exertion, has so far confounded his just and true belief of +having contributed to the evolution of the doctrine, _quoad_ his own +apprehension of it, with the far different case of having evolved the +truth itself into light, as to go off with the firm impression that the +doctrine had been a product of his own.[24] There is therefore ground +enough for the jealousy of Adam Smith, since a robbery may be committed +unconsciously; though, by the way, it is not a peril peculiarly +applicable to himself, who has not so much succeeded in discovering new +truths as in establishing a logical connexion amongst old ones. + + [24] For a similar passage, see _ante_, pp. 96, 97.--M. + +On the other hand, it is not by reserve, whether of affectation or of +Smithian jealousy, that the majority of literary people offend--at +least not by the latter; for, so far from having much novelty to +protect against pirates, the most general effect of literary pursuits +is to tame down all points of originality to one standard of insipid +monotony. I shall not go into the reasons for this. I make my appeal +to the matter of fact. Try a Parisian populace, very many of whom are +highly cultivated by reading, against a body of illiterate rustics. Mr. +Scott of Aberdeen,[25] in his "Second Tour to Paris" (1815), tells us +that, on looking over the shoulder of poor stall women selling trifles +in the street, he usually found them reading Voltaire, Rousseau, +or even (as I think he adds) Montesquieu; but, notwithstanding the +polish which such reading both presumes as a previous condition and +produces as a natural effect, yet no people could be more lifeless in +their minds, or more barren of observing faculties, than they; and +so he describes them. Words! words! nothing but words! On the other +hand, listen to the conversation of a few scandalous village dames +collected at a tea-table. Vulgar as the spirit may be which possesses +them, and not seldom malicious, still how full of animation and of +keen perception it will generally be found, and of a learned spirit +of connoisseurship in human character, by comparison with the _fade_ +generalities and barren recollections of mere literati! + + [25] He was first editor of the _London Magazine_, and was killed + in an unfortunate duel in February 1821.--M. + +All this was partially illustrated in the circle to which I was now +presented. Mr. Clarke was not an author, and he was by much the most +interesting person of the whole. He had travelled, and, particularly, +he had travelled in Italy--then an aristocratic distinction; had a +small, but interesting, picture gallery; and, at this time, amused +himself by studying Greek, for which purpose he and myself met at +sunrise every morning through the summer, and read Æschylus together. +These meetings, at which we sometimes had the company of any stranger +who might happen to be an amateur in Greek, were pleasant enough to +my schoolboy vanity--placing me in the position of teacher and guide +to men old enough to be my grandfathers. But the dinner parties, at +which the literati sometimes assembled in force, were far from being +equally amusing. Mr. Roscoe[26] was simple and manly in his demeanour; +but there was the feebleness of a mere _belle-lettrist_, a mere man of +_virtù_, in the style of his sentiments on most subjects. Yet he was +a politician, and took an ardent interest in politics, and wrote upon +politics--all which are facts usually presuming some vigour of mind. +And he wrote, moreover, on the popular side, and with a boldness which, +in that day, when such politics were absolutely disreputable, seemed +undeniably to argue great moral courage. But these were accidents +arising out of his connexion with the Whig party, or (to speak more +accurately) with the _Opposition_ party in Parliament; by whom he was +greatly caressed. Mr. Fox, the Duchess of Devonshire, Mr. Sheridan, +and all the _powers_ on that side of the question, showed him the +most marked attention in a great variety of forms; and this it was, +not any native propensity for such speculations, which drove him into +pamphleteering upon political questions. Mr. Fox (himself the very +feeblest of party writers) was probably sincere in his admiration of +Mr. Roscoe's pamphlets; and did seriously think him, as I know that he +described him in private letters, an antagonist well matched against +Burke; and _that_ he afterwards became in form. The rest of the world +wondered at his presumption, or at his gross miscalculation of his +own peculiar powers. An eminent person, in after years (about 1815), +speaking to me of Mr. Roscoe's political writings, especially those +which had connected his name with Burke, declared that he always felt +of him in that relation not so much as of a feeble man, but absolutely +as of a _Sporus_ (that was his very expression), or a man emasculated. +Right or wrong in his views, he showed the most painful defect of good +sense and prudence in confronting his own understanding, so plain and +homely, with the Machiavelian Briareus of a hundred arms--the Titan +whom he found in Burke; all the advantages of a living antagonist over +a dead one could not compensate odds so fearful in original power. + + [26] William Roscoe (1753-1831), author of _Life of Lorenzo de' + Medici_, _Life and Pontificate of Leo X_, and other works, was a + native of Liverpool, and spent the main part of his life as a + banker in that town.--M. + +It was a striking illustration of the impotence of mere literature +against natural power and mother wit that the only man who was +considered indispensable in these parties, for giving life and impulse +to their vivacity, was a tailor; and not, I was often assured, a +person deriving a designation from the craft of those whose labours +he supported as a capitalist, but one who drew his own honest daily +bread from his own honest needle, except when he laid it aside for the +benefit of drooping literati, who needed to be watered with his wit. +Wit, perhaps, in a proper sense, he had not--it was rather drollery, +and sometimes even buffoonery. + +These, in the lamentable absence of the tailor, could be furnished of +an inferior quality by Mr. Shepherd,[27] who (as may be imagined from +this fact) had but little dignity in private life. I know not how far +he might alter in these respects; but certainly, at the time (1801-2), +he was decidedly, or could be, a buffoon, and seemed even ambitious +of the title, by courting notice for his grotesque manner and coarse +stories, more than was altogether compatible with the pretensions +of a scholar and a clergyman. I must have leave to think that such +a man could not have emerged from any great University, or from any +but a sectarian training. Indeed, about Poggio himself there were +circumstances which would have indisposed any regular clergyman of +the Church of England, or of the Scottish Kirk, to usher him into the +literature of his country. With what coarseness and low buffoonery +have I heard this Mr. Shepherd in those days run down the bishops then +upon the bench, but especially those of any public pretensions or +reputation, as Horsley and Porteus, and, in connexion with them, the +pious Mrs. Hannah More! Her he could not endure. + + [27] The Rev. William Shepherd, author of a _Life of Poggio + Bracciolini_ (Liverpool, 1802) and _Paris in 1802 and 1814_ + (London, 1814), and joint author of a work in two volumes called + _Systematic Education, or Elementary Instruction in the various + Departments of Literature and Science_ (London, 1815).--M. + +Of this gentleman, having said something disparaging, I am bound to go +on and add, that I believe him to have been at least a truly upright +man--talking often wildly, but incapable of doing a conscious wrong to +any man, be his party what it might; and, in the midst of fun or even +buffoonery, a real, and, upon occasion, a stern patriot, Mr. Canning +and others he opposed to the teeth upon the Liverpool hustings, and +would take no bribe, as others did, from literary feelings of sympathy, +or (which is so hard for an amiable mind to resist) from personal +applications of courtesy and respect. Amusing it is to look back upon +any political work of Mr. Shepherd's, as upon his "Tour to France," +published in 1815, and to know that the pale pink of his Radicalism was +then accounted deep, deep scarlet. + +Nothing can better serve to expound the general force of intellect +amongst the Liverpool coterie than the quality of their poetry, and the +general standard which they set up in poetry. Not that even in their +errors, as regarded poetry, they were of a magnitude to establish any +standard or authority in their own persons. Imitable or seducing there +could be nothing in persons who wrote verses occasionally, and as a +[Greek: parergon] or by-labour, and were themselves the most timid of +imitators. But to me, who, in that year, 1801, already knew of a grand +renovation of poetic power--of a new birth in poetry, interesting +not so much to England as to the human mind--it was secretly amusing +to contrast the little artificial usages of their petty traditional +knack with the natural forms of a divine art--the difference being +pretty much as between an American lake, Ontario, or Superior, and +a carp pond or a tench preserve. Mr. Roscoe had just about this +time published a translation from the _Balia_ of Luigi Tansillo--a +series of dullish lines, with the moral purpose of persuading young +women to suckle their own children. The brilliant young Duchess of +Devonshire, some half century ago, had, for a frolic--a great lady's +caprice--set a precedent in this way; against which, however, in that +rank, medical men know that there is a good deal to be said; and in +ranks more extensive than those of the Duchess it must be something of +an Irish bull to suppose any _general_ neglect of this duty, since, +upon so large a scale, whence could come the vicarious nurses? There +is, therefore, no great sense in the fundamental idea of the poem, +because the abuse denounced cannot be large enough; but the prefatory +sonnet, addressed to the translator's wife, as one at whose maternal +breast "six sons successive" had hung in infancy--this is about the +one sole bold, natural thought, or natural expression of feeling, to +which Mr. Roscoe had committed himself in verse. Everywhere else, +the most timid and blind servility to the narrowest of conventional +usages, conventional ways of viewing things, conventional forms of +expression, marks the style. For example, Italy is always _Italia_, +Scotland _Scotia_, France _Gallia_; so inveterately had the mind, in +this school of feeling, been trained, alike in the highest things and +in the lowest, to a horror of throwing itself boldly upon the great +_realities_ of life: even names must be fictions for _their_ taste. Yet +what comparison between "_France_, an Ode," and "_Gallia_, an Ode"? + +Dr. Currie was so much occupied with his professional duties that of +him I saw but little. His edition of Burns was just then published (I +think in that very month), and in everybody's hands. At that time, +he was considered not unjust to the memory of the man, and (however +constitutionally phlegmatic, or with little enthusiasm, at least in +external show) not much below the mark in his appreciation of the +poet.[28] + + [28] Dr. James Currie, born 1756, a native of Dumfriesshire, + settled in Liverpool, in medical practice, in 1781. His edition of + Burns, with memoir and criticism, published in 1800, was for the + benefit of the widow and children of the poet, and realised £1400. + Currie died in 1805.--M. + +So stood matters some twelve or fourteen years; after which period a +"craze" arose on the subject of Burns, which allowed no voice to be +heard but that of zealotry and violent partisanship. The first impulse +to this arose out of an oblique collision between Lord Jeffrey and +Mr. Wordsworth; the former having written a disparaging critique +upon Burns's pretensions--a little, perhaps, too much coloured by +the fastidiousness of long practice in the world, but, in the main, +speaking some plain truths on the quality of Burns's understanding, as +expressed in his epistolary compositions. Upon which, in his celebrated +letter to Mr. James Gray, the friend of Burns, himself a poet, and then +a master in the High School of Edinburgh, Mr. Wordsworth commented +with severity, proportioned rather to his personal resentments towards +Lord Jeffrey than to the quantity of wrong inflicted upon Burns. +Mr. Wordsworth's letter, in so far as it was a record of embittered +feeling, might have perished; but, as it happened to embody some +profound criticisms, applied to the art of biography, and especially +to the delicate task of following a man of original genius through his +personal infirmities or his constitutional aberrations--this fact, +and its relation to Burns and the author's name, have all combined to +embalm it.[29] Its momentary effect, in conjunction with Lord Jeffrey's +article, was to revive the interest (which for some time had languished +under the oppression of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron) in all that +related to Burns. Fresh Lives appeared in a continued succession, +until, upon the death of Lord Byron in 1824, Mr. Allan Cunningham, who +had personally known Burns, so far as a boy _could_ know a mature man, +gave a new impulse to the interest, by an impressive paper in which +he contrasted the circumstances of Burns's death with those of Lord +Byron's, and also the two funerals--both of which, one altogether, +and the other in part, Mr. Cunningham had personally witnessed. A +man of genius, like Mr. Cunningham, throws a new quality of interest +upon all which he touches; and, having since brought fresh research +and the illustrative power of the arts to bear upon the subject, and +all this having gone on concurrently with the great modern revolution +in literature--that is, the great extension of a _popular_ interest, +through the astonishing reductions of price--the result is, that Burns +has, at length, become a national, and, therefore, in a certain sense, +a privileged subject; which, in a perfect sense, he was _not_, until +the controversial management of his reputation had irritated the public +attention. Dr. Currie did not address the same alert condition of the +public feeling, nor, by many hundred degrees, so _diffused_ a condition +of any feeling which might imperfectly exist, as a man must consciously +address in these days, whether as the biographer or the critic of +Burns. The lower-toned enthusiasm of the public was not of a quality to +irritate any little enthusiasm which the worthy Doctor might have felt. +The public of that day felt with regard to Burns exactly as with regard +to Bloomfield--not that the quality of his poems was then the staple of +the interest, but the extraordinary fact that a ploughman or a lady's +shoemaker should have written any poems at all. The sole difference in +the two cases, as regarded by the public of that day, was that Burns's +case was terminated by a premature, and, for the public, a very sudden +death: this gave a personal interest to his case which was wanting in +the other; and a direct result of this was that his executors were able +to lay before the world a series of his letters recording his opinions +upon a considerable variety of authors, and his feelings under many +ordinary occasions of life. + + [29] Wordsworth's publication was in 1816, under the title _A + Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns, occasioned by an intended + Republication of the Account of the Life of Burns by Dr. Currie_. + _By William Wordsworth._--M. + +Dr. Currie, therefore, if phlegmatic, as he certainly was, must be +looked upon as upon a level with the public of his own day--a public +how different, different by how many centuries, from the world of +this present 1837! One thing I remember which powerfully illustrates +the difference. Burns, as we all know, with his peculiarly wild +and almost ferocious spirit of independence, came a generation too +soon. In this day, he would have been forced to do that, clamorously +called upon to do that, and would have found his pecuniary interest +in doing that, which in his own generation merely to attempt doing +loaded him with the reproach of Jacobinism. It must be remembered that +the society of Liverpool wits on whom my retrospect is now glancing +were all Whigs--all, indeed, fraternizers with French Republicanism. +Yet so it was that--not once, not twice, but daily almost, in the +numerous conversations naturally elicited by this Liverpool monument +to Burns's memory--I heard every one, clerk or layman, heartily +agreeing to tax Burns with ingratitude and with pride falsely directed, +because he sate uneasily or restively under the bridle-hand of his +noble self-called "_patrons_." Aristocracy, then, the essential +spirit of aristocracy--this I found was not less erect and clamorous +amongst partisan democrats--democrats who were such merely in a party +sense of supporting his Majesty's Opposition against his Majesty's +Servants--than it was or could be among the most bigoted of the +professed feudal aristocrats. For my part, at this moment, when all +the world was reading Currie's monument to the memory of Burns and the +support of his family, I felt and avowed my feeling most loudly--that +Burns was wronged, was deeply, memorably wronged. A £10 bank note, +by way of subscription for a few copies of an early edition of his +poems--this is the outside that I could ever see proof given of Burns +having received anything in the way of _patronage_; and doubtless +this would have been gladly returned, but from the dire necessity of +dissembling. + +Lord Glencairn is the "patron" for whom Burns appears to have felt the +most sincere respect. Yet even he--did he give him more than a seat at +his dinner table? Lord Buchan again, whose liberalities are by this +time pretty well appreciated in Scotland, exhorts Burns, in a tone +of one preaching upon a primary duty of life, to exemplary gratitude +towards a person who had given him absolutely nothing at all. The man +has not yet lived to whose happiness it was more essential that he +should live unencumbered by the sense of obligation; and, on the other +hand, the man has not lived upon whose independence as professing +benefactors so many people practised, or who found so many others ready +to ratify and give value to their pretences.[30] Him, whom beyond most +men nature had created with the necessity of conscious independence, +all men besieged with the assurance that he was, must be, ought to +be dependent; nay, that it was his primary duty to be grateful for +his dependence. I have not looked into any edition of Burns, except +once for a quotation, since this year 1801--when I read the whole of +Currie's edition, and had opportunities of meeting the editor--and once +subsequently, upon occasion of a fifth or supplementary volume being +published. I know not, therefore, how this matter has been managed +by succeeding editors, such as Allan Cunningham, far more capable of +understanding Burns's situation, from the previous struggles of their +own honourable lives, and Burns's feelings, from something of congenial +power. + + [30] Jacobinism--although the seminal principle of all political + evil in all ages alike of advanced civilization--is natural to the + heart of man, and, in a qualified sense, may be meritorious. A + good man, a high-minded man, in certain circumstances, _must_ be a + Jacobin in a certain sense. The aspect under which Burns's + Jacobinism appears is striking: there is a thought which an + observing reader will find often recurring, which expresses its + peculiar bitterness. It is this: the necessity which in old + countries exists for the labourer humbly to beg _permission_ that + he may labour. To eat in the sweat of a man's brow--that is bad; + and that is a curse, and pronounced such by God. But, when _that_ + is all, the labourer is by comparison happy. The second curse + makes _that_ a jest: he must sue, he must sneak, he must fawn like + an Oriental slave, in order to win his fellow-man, in Burns's + indignant words, "to give him _leave_ to toil." That was the + scorpion thought that was for ever shooting its sting into Burns's + meditations, whether forward-looking or backward-looking; and, + that considered, there arises a world of allowance for that vulgar + bluster of independence which Lord Jeffrey, with so much apparent + reason charges upon his prose writings. + +I, in this year, 1801, when in the company of Dr. Currie, did not +forget, and, with some pride I say that I stood alone in remembering, +the very remarkable position of Burns: not merely that, with his +genius, and with the intellectual pretensions generally of his family, +he should have been called to a life of early labour, and of labour +unhappily not prosperous, but also that he, by accident about the +proudest of human spirits, should have been by accident summoned, +beyond all others, to eternal recognitions of some mysterious gratitude +which he owed to some mysterious patrons little and great, whilst yet, +of all men, perhaps, he reaped the least obvious or known benefit from +any patronage that has ever been put on record. Most men, if they reap +little from patronage, are liberated from the claims of patronage, +or, if they are summoned to a galling dependency, have at least the +fruits of their dependency. But it was this man's unhappy fate--with an +early and previous irritability on this very point--to find himself +saddled, by his literary correspondents, with all that was odious in +dependency, whilst he had every hardship to face that is most painful +in unbefriended poverty. + +On this view of the case, I talked, then, being a schoolboy, with and +against the first editor of Burns:--I did not, and I do not, profess +to admire the letters (that is, the prose), all or any, of Burns. I +felt that they were liable to the charges of Lord Jeffrey, and to +others beside; that they do not even express the natural vigour of +Burns's mind, but are at once vulgar, tawdry, coarse, and commonplace; +neither was I a person to affect any profound sympathy with the general +character and temperament of Burns, which has often been described +as "of the earth, earthy"--unspiritual--animal--beyond those of most +men equally intellectual. But still I comprehended his situation; I +had for ever ringing in my ears, during that summer of 1801, those +groans which ascended to heaven from his over-burthened heart--those +harrowing words, "_To give him leave to toil_," which record almost a +reproach to the ordinances of God--and I felt that upon him, amongst +all the children of labour, the primal curse had fallen heaviest and +sunk deepest. Feelings such as these I had the courage to express: a +personal compliment, or so, I might now and then hear; but all were +against me on the _matter_. Dr. Currie said--"Poor Burns! such notions +had been his ruin"; Mr. Shepherd continued to draw from the subject +some scoff or growl at Mr. Pitt and the Excise; the laughing tailor +told us a good story of some proud beggar; Mr. Clarke proposed that I +should write a Greek inscription for a cenotaph which he was to erect +in his garden to the memory of Burns;--and so passed away the solitary +protestation on behalf of Burns's jacobinism, together with the wine +and the roses, and the sea-breezes of that same Everton, in that same +summer of 1801. Mr. Roscoe is dead, and has found time since then to +be half forgotten; Dr. Currie, the physician, has been found "unable +to heal himself"; Mr. Shepherd of Gatacre is a name and a shadow; Mr. +Clarke is a shadow without a name; the tailor, who set the table in a +roar, is dust and ashes; and three men at the most remain of all who +in those convivial meetings held it right to look down upon Burns as +upon one whose spirit was rebellious overmuch against the institutions +of man, and jacobinical in a sense which "men of property" and master +manufacturers will never brook, albeit democrats by profession.[31] + + [31] De Quincey's strictures in this paper of 1837 on the + Liverpool literary coterie of 1801 gave great offence in that + town. The Liverpool papers attacked him for it; and Dr. Shepherd + of Gatacre, apparently then the sole survivor of the coterie, + addressed a letter of remonstrance to the editor of _Tait's + Magazine_. It appeared in the number of the magazine for May 1837, + with some editorial comments. "The question of which I have to + treat," wrote Dr. Shepherd, "is a question of accuracy of + recollection; and I am constrained to remark that, as, from the + appellation by which, with an extraordinary kind of taste, Mr. De + Quincey chooses to designate himself in his literary character, he + seems to have been at one period of his life the slave of a + deleterious drug, which shakes the nerves, and, inflaming the + brain, impairs the memory, whilst _I_ have avoided that poison + even in its medical application, therefore _my_ recollection is + more likely to be correct that his." The letter proceeds to + vindicate Dr. Currie, Mr. Roscoe, and the writer himself, from the + charge of defective appreciation of the manly demeanour of Burns + in his relations with the Scottish aristocracy and lairds; after + which come some words of special self-defence of the writer in the + matters of his political consistency and his jests at Hannah More. + The letter altogether is destitute of effective point; and the + editor of _Tait_ was quite justified in standing by De Quincey. + This is done in every particular of the offending paper, with this + included sting: "It may tempt a smile from the few who are likely + to trouble themselves about this foolish affair to find that, + though solemnly assuming the office of advocate-general for the + other members of the extinct coterie, Dr. Shepherd, as well as the + newspaper writers, has entirely overlooked the vivacious tailor + celebrated by Mr. De Quincey, of whom we think none of his + literary friends have the least reason to be ashamed."----The main + matter of interest now in this little controversy of 1837 respects + De Quincey's own estimate of Burns. Although he had taken up the + cudgels for Burns in that particular in which he thought Dr. + Currie and the rest of the Liverpool coterie of 1801, professed + democrats though they were, had done Burns injustice,--viz. his + spirit of manly independence and superiority to considerations of + mere worldly rank,--it remains true that De Quincey's own estimate + of Burns all in all fell woefully beneath the proper mark. There + are evidences of this in the present paper, and there are other + evidences at different points of De Quincey's life. Wordsworth in + this respect differed immensely from his friend De Quincey, and + might have taught him better. In that letter of Wordsworth's which + is referred to by De Quincey (_ante_, p. 131) precisely because it + had deprecated the republication in 1816 of Dr. Currie's _Life of + Burns_ in 1800, how enthusiastic was the feeling for Burns and his + memory compared with anything that De Quincey seems ever to have + permitted himself! And, as long before as 1803, had not + Wordsworth, in his lines _At the Grave of Burns_, given expression + to the same feeling in more personal shape? Who can forget that + deathless stanza in which, remembering that Burns had died so + recently, and that, though they had never met, they had been near + neighbours by their places of habitation, the new poet of England + had confessed his own indebtedness to the example of the Scottish + ploughman bard?-- + + "I mourned with thousands, but as one + More deeply grieved; for He was gone + Whose light I hailed, when first it shone + And showed my youth + How verse may build a princely throne + On humble truth." + + In connexion with the fact of De Quincey's defective appreciation of + Burns even so late as 1837, it is additionally significant that, though + he refers in the present paper, with modified approbation, to Jeffrey's + somewhat captious article on Burns in the _Edinburgh Review_ for + January 1809, he does not mention the compensation which had appeared, + with Jeffrey's own editorial sanction, in the shape of Carlyle's essay + on Burns in the same _Review_ for December 1828.--M. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE[32] + + [32] This chapter is composed of four articles contributed to + _Tait's Magazine_ under the title of "Samuel Taylor Coleridge: By + the English Opium-Eater." They appeared, respectively, in the + numbers of the Magazine for September, October, and November 1834, + and January 1835. Three of these articles were revised by De + Quincey, and thrown into one paper for Vol. II of the Collective + Edition of his writings, published in 1854. The fourth article was + not included in that paper; but it is added to the reprint of the + paper in the American Collective Edition of De Quincey, and is + necessary to complete his sketch of Coleridge. It is therefore + reproduced here. The reader will understand, accordingly, that as + far as to p. 208 we follow De Quincey's revised text of three of + his Coleridge articles; after which we have to print the fourth + article as it originally stood in _Tait_.--M. + + +It was, I think, in the month of August, but certainly in the summer +season, and certainly in the year 1807, that I first saw this +illustrious man. My knowledge of him as a man of most original genius +began about the year 1799. A little before that time Wordsworth had +published the first edition (in a single volume) of the "Lyrical +Ballads,"[33] and into this had been introduced Mr. Coleridge's poem +of the "Ancient Mariner," as the contribution of an anonymous friend. +It would be directing the reader's attention too much to myself if +I were to linger upon this, the greatest event in the unfolding of +my own mind. Let me say, in one word, that, at a period when neither +the one nor the other writer was valued by the public--both having +a long warfare to accomplish of contumely and ridicule before they +could rise into their present estimation--I found in these poems +"the ray of a new morning," and an absolute revelation of untrodden +worlds teeming with power and beauty as yet unsuspected amongst men. I +may here mention that, precisely at the same time, Professor Wilson, +entirely unconnected with myself, and not even known to me until ten +years later, received the same startling and profound impressions +from the same volume.[34] With feelings of reverential interest, +so early and so deep, pointing towards two contemporaries, it may +be supposed that I inquired eagerly after their names. But these +inquiries were self-baffled; the same deep feelings which prompted +my curiosity causing me to recoil from all casual opportunities of +pushing the inquiry, as too generally lying amongst those who gave +no sign of participating in my feelings; and, extravagant as this +may seem, I revolted with as much hatred from coupling my question +with any occasion of insult to the persons whom it respected, as a +primitive Christian from throwing frankincense upon the altars of +Cæsar, or a lover from giving up the name of his beloved to the coarse +license of a Bacchanalian party. It is laughable to record for how +long a period my curiosity in this particular was thus self-defeated. +Two years passed before I ascertained the two names. Mr. Wordsworth +published _his_ in the second and enlarged edition of the poems[35]; +and for Mr. Coleridge's I was "indebted" to a private source; but I +discharged that debt ill, for I quarrelled with my informant for what +I considered his profane way of dealing with a subject so hallowed in +my own thoughts. After this I searched, east and west, north and south, +for all known works or fragments of the same authors. I had read, +therefore, as respects Mr. Coleridge, the Allegory which he contributed +to Mr. Southey's "Joan of Arc."[36] I had read his fine Ode entitled +"France,"[37] his Ode to the Duchess of Devonshire, and various +other contributions, more or less interesting, to the two volumes +of the "Anthology" published at Bristol, about 1799-1800, by Mr. +Southey[38]; and, finally, I had, of course, read the small volume of +poems published under his own name. These, however, as a juvenile and +immature collection, made expressly with a view to pecuniary profit, +and therefore courting expansion at any cost of critical discretion, +had in general greatly disappointed me.[39] + + [33] Published in 1798.--M. + + [34] See _ante_, p. 61.--M. + + [35] Published in 1800.--M. + + [36] The first edition of Southey's epic was published in 1796, + the second in 1798, both at Bristol.--M. + + [37] Published, with other political pieces, in 1798, after having + appeared in the _Morning Post_ newspaper.--M. + + [38] _English Anthology_ for 1799-1800, in 2 vols., published at + Bristol, and edited by Southey.--M. + + [39] The first edition, entitled _Poems on Various Subjects, by S. + T. Coleridge, late of Jesus College, Cambridge_, was published at + Bristol in 1796; the second at London in 1797; the third at London + in 1803.--M. + +Meantime, it had crowned the interest which to me invested his name, +that about the year 1804 or 1805 I had been informed by a gentleman +from the English Lakes, who knew him as a neighbour, that he had for +some time applied his whole mind to metaphysics and psychology--which +happened to be my own absorbing pursuit. From 1803 to 1808, I was a +student at Oxford; and, on the first occasion when I could conveniently +have sought for a personal knowledge of one whom I contemplated with so +much admiration, I was met by a painful assurance that he had quitted +England, and was then residing at Malta, in the quality of secretary to +the Governor. I began to inquire about the best route to Malta; but, +as any route at that time promised an inside place in a French prison, +I reconciled myself to waiting; and at last, happening to visit the +Bristol Hotwells in the summer of 1807, I had the pleasure to hear +that Coleridge was not only once more upon English ground, but within +forty and odd miles of my own station. In that same hour I bent my +way to the south; and, before evening, reaching a ferry on the river +Bridgewater, at a village called, I think, Stogursey (_i.e._, Stoke de +Courcy, by way of distinction from some other Stoke), I crossed it, and +a few miles farther attained my object--viz., the little town of Nether +Stowey, amongst the Quantock Hills. Here I had been assured that I +should find Mr. Coleridge, at the house of his old friend Mr. Poole. On +presenting myself, however, to that gentleman, I found that Coleridge +was absent at Lord Egmont's, an elder brother (by the father's side) +of Mr. Perceval, the Prime Minister, assassinated five years later; +and, as it was doubtful whether he might not then be on the wing to +another friend's in the town of Bridgewater, I consented willingly, +until his motions should be ascertained, to stay a day or two with +this Mr. Poole--a man on his own account well deserving a separate +notice; for, as Coleridge afterwards remarked to me, he was almost +an ideal model for a useful member of Parliament.[40] I found him a +stout, plain-looking farmer, leading a bachelor life, in a rustic, +old-fashioned house; the house, however, upon further acquaintance, +proving to be amply furnished with modern luxuries, and especially with +a good library, superbly mounted in all departments bearing at all +upon political philosophy; and the farmer turning out a polished and +liberal Englishman, who had travelled extensively, and had so entirely +dedicated himself to the service of his humble fellow-countrymen--the +hewers of wood and drawers of water in this southern part of +Somersetshire--that for many miles round he was the general arbiter of +their disputes, the guide and counsellor of their difficulties; besides +being appointed executor and guardian to his children by every third +man who died in or about the town of Nether Stowey. + + [40] For a full account of this interesting Mr. Poole see _Thomas + Poole and his Friends_, by Mrs. Henry Sandford, 2 vols., 1888. He + was born 1765, and died 1837.--M. + +The first morning of my visit, Mr. Poole was so kind as to propose, +knowing my admiration of Wordsworth, that we should ride over to +Alfoxton[41]--a place of singular interest to myself, as having been +occupied in his unmarried days by that poet, during the minority of Mr. +St. Aubyn, its present youthful proprietor. At this delightful spot, +the ancient residence of an ancient English family, and surrounded by +those ferny Quantock Hills which are so beautifully glanced at in the +poem of "Ruth," Wordsworth, accompanied by his sister, had passed a +good deal of the interval between leaving the University (Cambridge) +and the period of his final settlement amongst his native lakes of +Westmoreland: some allowance, however, must be made--but how much I do +not accurately know--for a long residence in France, for a short one +in North Germany, for an intermitting one in London, and for a regular +domestication with his sister at Race Down in Dorsetshire. + + [41] More properly spelt _Alfoxden_.--M. + +Returning late from this interesting survey, we found ourselves +without company at dinner; and, being thus seated _tête-à-tête_, +Mr. Poole propounded the following question to me, which I mention +because it furnished me with the first hint of a singular infirmity +besetting Coleridge's mind:--"Pray, my young friend, did you ever +form any opinion, or, rather, did it ever happen to you to meet +with any rational opinion or conjecture of others, upon that most +revolting dogma of Pythagoras about beans? You know what I mean: that +monstrous doctrine in which he asserts that a man might as well, for +the wickedness of the thing, eat his own grandmother as meddle with +beans."[42] + + [42] In the abrupt phrasing of Mr. Poole's question De Quincey + must surely have recollected the similar question put by the clown + in _Twelfth Night_ to the supposed madman Malvolio to test his + sanity--"_Clown_. What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning + wild fowl?"--M. + +"Yes," I replied; "the line is, I believe, in the Golden Verses. I +remember it well." + +P.--"True: now, our dear excellent friend Coleridge, than whom God +never made a creature more divinely endowed, yet, strange it is to +say, sometimes steals from other people, just as you or I might do; I +beg your pardon--just as a poor creature like myself might do, that +sometimes have not wherewithal to make a figure from my own exchequer: +and the other day, at a dinner party, this question arising about +Pythagoras and his beans, Coleridge gave us an interpretation which, +from his manner, I suspect to have been not original. Think, therefore, +if you have anywhere read a plausible solution." + +"I have: and it was a German author. This German, understand, is a poor +stick of a man, not to be named on the same day with Coleridge: so +that, if Coleridge should appear to have robbed him, be assured that he +has done the scamp too much honour." + +P.--"Well: what says the German?" + +"Why, you know the use made in Greece of beans in voting and balloting? +Well: the German says that Pythagoras speaks symbolically; meaning that +electioneering, or, more generally, all interference with political +intrigues, is fatal to a philosopher's pursuits and their appropriate +serenity. Therefore, says he, follower of mine, abstain from public +affairs as you would from parricide." + +P.--"Well, then, Coleridge _has_ done the scamp too much honour: for, +by Jove, that is the very explanation he gave us!" + +Here was a trait of Coleridge's mind, to be first made known to me by +his best friend, and first published to the world by me, the foremost +of his admirers! But both of us had sufficient reasons:--Mr. Poole knew +that, stumbled on by accident, such a discovery would be likely to +impress upon a man as yet unacquainted with Coleridge a most injurious +jealousy with regard to all he might write: whereas, frankly avowed +by one who knew him best, the fact was disarmed of its sting; since +it thus became evident that, where the case had been best known and +most investigated, it had not operated to his serious disadvantage. On +the same argument,--to forestall, that is to say, other discoverers, +who would make a more unfriendly use of the discovery,--and also as +matters of literary curiosity, I shall here point out a few others of +Coleridge's unacknowledged obligations, noticed by myself in a very +wide course of reading.[43] + + [43] With respect to all these cases of apparent plagiarism, see + an explanatory Note at the end of this chapter. + +1. The Hymn to Chamouni is an expansion of a short poem in stanzas, +upon the same subject, by Frederica Brun, a female poet of Germany, +previously known to the world under her maiden name of Münter. The +mere framework of the poem is exactly the same--an appeal to the most +impressive features of the regal mountain (Mont Blanc), adjuring them +to proclaim their author: the torrent, for instance, is required to say +by whom it had been arrested in its headlong raving, and stiffened, as +by the petrific touch of Death, into everlasting pillars of ice; and +the answer to these impassioned apostrophes is made by the same choral +burst of rapture. In mere logic, therefore, and even as to the choice +of circumstances, Coleridge's poem is a translation. On the other hand, +by a judicious amplification of some topics, and by its far deeper tone +of lyrical enthusiasm, the dry bones of the German outline have been +awakened by Coleridge into the fulness of life. It is not, therefore, a +paraphrase, but a re-cast of the original. And how was this calculated, +if frankly avowed, to do Coleridge any injury with the judicious? + +2. A more singular case of Coleridge's infirmity is this:--In a very +noble passage of "France," a fine expression or two occur from "Samson +Agonistes." Now, to take a phrase or an inspiriting line from the great +fathers of poetry, even though no marks of quotation should be added, +carries with it no charge of plagiarism. Milton is justly presumed to +be as familiar to the ear as nature to the eye; and to steal from him +as impossible as to appropriate, or sequester to a private use, some +"bright particular star." And there is a good reason for rejecting the +typographical marks of quotation: they break the continuity of the +passion, by reminding the reader of a printed book; on which account +Milton himself (to give an instance) has not marked the sublime words, +"tormented all the air" as borrowed; nor has Wordsworth, in applying to +an unprincipled woman of commanding beauty the memorable expression "a +weed of glorious feature," thought it necessary to acknowledge it as +originally belonging to Spenser. Some dozens of similar cases might be +adduced from Milton. But Coleridge, when saying of republican France +that, + + "_Insupportably advancing_, + Her arm made mockery of the warrior's tramp," + +not satisfied with omitting the marks of acknowledgment, thought fit +positively to deny that he was indebted to Milton. Yet who could +forget that semi-chorus in the "Samson" where the "bold Ascalonite" is +described as having "fled from his lion ramp"? Or who, that was not +in this point liable to some hallucination of judgment, would have +ventured on a public challenge (for virtually it was that) to produce +from the "Samson" words so impossible to be overlooked as those of +"insupportably advancing the foot"? The result was that one of the +critical journals placed the two passages in juxtaposition and left the +reader to his own conclusions with regard to the poet's veracity. But, +in this instance, it was common sense rather than veracity which the +facts impeach. + +3. In the year 1810 I happened to be amusing myself by reading, in +their chronological order, the great classical circumnavigations of +the earth; and, coming to Shelvocke, I met with a passage to this +effect:--That Hatley, his second captain (_i.e._ lieutenant), being a +melancholy man, was possessed by a fancy that some long season of foul +weather, in the solitary sea which they were then traversing, was due +to an albatross which had steadily pursued the ship; upon which he shot +the bird, but without mending their condition. There at once I saw +the germ of the "Ancient Mariner"; and I put a question to Coleridge +accordingly. Could it have been imagined that he would see cause +utterly to disown so slight an obligation to Shelvocke? Wordsworth, a +man of stern veracity, on hearing of this, professed his inability to +understand Coleridge's meaning; the fact being notorious, as he told +me, that Coleridge had derived from the very passage I had cited the +original hint for the action of the poem; though it is very possible, +from something which Coleridge said on another occasion, that, before +meeting a fable in which to embody his ideas, he had meditated a poem +on delirium, confounding its own dream-scenery with external things, +and connected with the imagery of high latitudes. + +4. All these cases amount to nothing at all as cases of plagiarism, +and for this reason expose the more conspicuously that obliquity of +feeling which could seek to decline the very slight acknowledgments +required. But now I come to a case of real and palpable plagiarism; +yet that, too, of a nature to be quite unaccountable in a man of +Coleridge's attainments. It is not very likely that this particular +case will soon be detected; but others will. Yet who knows? Eight +hundred or a thousand years hence, some reviewer may arise who having +read the "Biographia Literaria" of Coleridge, will afterwards read the +"Philosophical----"[44] of Schelling, the great Bavarian professor--a +man in some respects worthy to be Coleridge's assessor; and he will +then make a singular discovery. In the "Biographia Literaria" occurs +a dissertation upon the reciprocal relations of the _Esse_ and the +_Cogitare_,--that is, of the _objective_ and the _subjective_: and an +attempt is made, by inverting the postulates from which the argument +starts, to show how each might arise as a product, by an intelligible +genesis, from the other. It is a subject which, since the time of +Fichte, has much occupied the German metaphysicians; and many thousands +of essays have been written on it, or indirectly so, of which many +hundreds have been read by many tens of persons. Coleridge's essay, +in particular, is prefaced by a few words in which, aware of his +coincidence with Schelling, he declares his willingness to acknowledge +himself indebted to so great a man in any case where the truth would +allow him to do so; but, in this particular case, insisting on the +impossibility that he could have borrowed arguments which he had +first seen some years after he had thought out the whole hypothesis +_proprio marte_. After this, what was my astonishment to find that +the entire essay, from the first word to the last, is a _verbatim_ +translation from Schelling, with no attempt in a single instance to +appropriate the paper by developing the arguments or by diversifying +the illustrations? Some other obligations to Schelling, of a slighter +kind, I have met with in the "Biographia Literaria"; but this was a +barefaced plagiarism, which could in prudence have been risked only +by relying too much upon the slight knowledge of German literature in +this country, and especially of that section of the German literature. +Had, then, Coleridge any need to borrow from Schelling? Did he borrow +_in forma pauperis_? Not at all: there lay the wonder. He spun daily, +and at all hours, for mere amusement of his own activities, and from +the loom of his own magical brain, theories more gorgeous by far, and +supported by a pomp and luxury of images such as neither Schelling--no, +nor any German that ever breathed, not John Paul--could have emulated +in his dreams. With the riches of El Dorado lying about him, he would +condescend to filch a handful of gold from any man whose purse he +fancied, and in fact reproduced in a new form, applying itself to +intellectual wealth, that maniacal propensity which is sometimes well +known to attack enormous proprietors and millionaires for acts of petty +larceny. The last Duke of Anc---- could not abstain from exercising his +furtive mania upon articles so humble as silver spoons; and it was the +nightly care of a pious daughter, watching over the aberrations of her +father, to have his pockets searched by a confidential valet, and the +claimants of the purloined articles traced out. + + [44] I forget the exact title, not having seen the book since + 1823, and then only for one day; but I believe it was Schelling's + "Kleine Philosophische Werke." + +Many cases have crossed me in life of people, otherwise not wanting in +principle, who had habits, or at least hankerings, of the same kind. +And the phrenologists, I believe, are well acquainted with the case, +its signs, its progress, and its history. Dismissing, however, this +subject, which I have at all noticed only that I might anticipate, +and (in old English) that I might _prevent_, the uncandid interpreter +of its meaning, I will assert finally that, after having read for +thirty years in the same track as Coleridge--that track in which few +of any age will ever follow us, such as German metaphysicians, Latin +schoolmen, thaumaturgic Platonists, religious Mystics--and having thus +discovered a large variety of trivial thefts, I do, nevertheless, +most heartily believe him to have been as entirely original in all +his capital pretensions as any one man that ever has existed; as +Archimedes in ancient days, or as Shakspere in modern. Did the reader +ever see Milton's account of the rubbish contained in the Greek and +Latin Fathers?[45] Or did he ever read a statement of the monstrous +chaos with which an African Obeah man stuffs his enchanted scarecrows? +Or, take a more common illustration, did he ever amuse himself by +searching the pockets of a child--three years old, suppose--when +buried in slumber after a long summer's day of out-o'-doors intense +activity? I have done this; and, for the amusement of the child's +mother, have analyzed the contents, and drawn up a formal register +of the whole. Philosophy is puzzled, conjecture and hypothesis are +confounded, in the attempt to explain the law of selection which _can_ +have presided in the child's labours; stones remarkable only for +weight, old rusty hinges, nails, crooked skewers stolen when the cook +had turned her back, rags, broken glass, tea-cups having the bottom +knocked out, and loads of similar jewels, were the prevailing articles +in this _procès-verbal_. Yet, doubtless, much labour had been incurred, +some sense of danger perhaps had been faced, and the anxieties of a +conscious robber endured, in order to amass this splendid treasure. +Such in value were the robberies of Coleridge; such their usefulness to +himself or anybody else; and such the circumstances of uneasiness under +which he had committed them. I return to my narrative. + + [45] "Whatever Time, or the heedless hand of blind Chance, hath + drawn down from of old to this present in her huge drag-net, + whether fish, or seaweed, shells or shrubs, unpicked, unchosen, + these are the Fathers." Milton's Tract _Of Prelatical Episcopacy_, + published in 1641.--M. + +Two or three days had slipped away in waiting for Coleridge's +re-appearance at Nether Stowey, when suddenly Lord Egmont called +upon Mr. Poole, with a present for Coleridge: it was a canister of +peculiarly fine snuff, which Coleridge now took profusely. Lord +Egmont, on this occasion, spoke of Coleridge in the terms of excessive +admiration, and urged Mr. Poole to put him upon undertaking some great +monumental work, that might furnish a sufficient arena for the display +of his various and rare accomplishments; for his multiform erudition +on the one hand, for his splendid power of theorizing and combining +large and remote notices of facts on the other. And he suggested, +judiciously enough, as one theme which offered a field at once large +enough and indefinite enough to suit a mind that could not show its +full compass of power unless upon very plastic materials--a History +of Christianity, in its progress and in its chief divarications into +Church and Sect, with a continual reference to the relations subsisting +between Christianity and the current philosophy; their occasional +connexions or approaches, and their constant mutual repulsions. "But, +at any rate, let him do something," said Lord Egmont; "for at present +he talks very much like an angel, and does nothing at all." Lord Egmont +I understood from everybody to be a truly good and benevolent man; and +on this occasion he spoke with an earnestness which agreed with my +previous impression. Coleridge, he said, was now in the prime of his +powers--uniting something of youthful vigour with sufficient experience +of life; having the benefit, beside, of vast meditation, and of reading +unusually discursive. No man had ever been better qualified to revive +the heroic period of literature in England, and to give a character of +weight to the philosophic erudition of the country upon the Continent. +"And what a pity," he added, "if this man were, after all, to vanish +like an apparition, and you, I, and a few others, who have witnessed +his grand _bravuras_ of display, were to have the usual fortune of +ghost-seers, in meeting no credit for any statements that we might +vouch on his behalf!" + +On this occasion we learned, for the first time, that Lord Egmont's +carriage had, some days before, conveyed Coleridge to Bridgewater, with +a purpose of staying one single day at that place, and then returning +to Mr. Poole's. From the sort of laugh with which Lord Egmont taxed +his own simplicity, in having confided at all in the stability of any +Coleridgian plan, I now gathered that procrastination in excess was, +or had become, a marking feature in Coleridge's daily life. Nobody who +knew him ever thought of depending on any appointment he might make: +spite of his uniformly honourable intentions, nobody attached any +weight to his assurances _in re futura_: those who asked him to dinner +or any other party, as a matter of course, sent a carriage for him, and +went personally or by proxy to fetch him; and, as to letters, unless +the address were in some female hand that commanded his affectionate +esteem, he tossed them all into one general _dead-letter bureau_, and +rarely, I believe, opened them at all.[46] Bourrienne mentions a mode +of abridging the trouble attached to a very extensive correspondence, +by which infinite labour was saved to himself, and to Napoleon, when +First Consul. Nine out of ten letters, supposing them letters of +business with official applications of a special kind, he contends, +answer themselves: in other words, time alone must soon produce events +which virtually contain the answer. On this principle the letters were +opened periodically, after intervals, suppose, of six weeks; and, at +the end of that time, it was found that not many remained to require +any further more particular answer. Coleridge's plan, however, was +shorter: he opened none, I understood, and answered none. At least +such was his habit at that time. But, on that same day, all this, +which I heard now for the first time, and with much concern, was fully +explained; for already he was under the full dominion of opium, as he +himself revealed to me, and with a deep expression of horror at the +hideous bondage, in a private walk of some length which I took with him +about sunset. + + [46] This might pass as a description of De Quincey himself in his + later years, if not all through his life.--M. + +Lord Egmont's information, and the knowledge now gained of Coleridge's +habits, making it very uncertain when I might see him in my present +hospitable quarters, I immediately took my leave of Mr. Poole, and went +over to Bridgewater. I had received directions for finding out the +house where Coleridge was visiting; and, in riding down a main street +of Bridgewater, I noticed a gateway corresponding to the description +given me. Under this was standing, and gazing about him, a man whom I +will describe. In height he might seem to be about five feet eight (he +was, in reality, about an inch and a-half taller, but his figure was +of an order which drowns the height); 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 from the peculiar appearance of haze or dreaminess which mixed +with their light that I recognised my object. This was Coleridge.[47] +I examined him steadfastly for a minute or more; and it struck me +that he saw neither 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 an inn-door, and advanced close to him, before he had +apparently become conscious of my presence. The sound of my voice, +announcing my own 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. There was no _mauvaise honte_ 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 +in which the whole town of Bridgewater seemed to share; for in the +evening, when the heat of the day had declined, I 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. + + [47] At the date of this first meeting of De Quincey with + Coleridge, De Quincey was twenty-two years of age and Coleridge + nearly thirty-seven.--M. + +All the people of station and weight in the place, and apparently all +the ladies, were abroad to enjoy the lovely summer evening; and not a +party passed without some mark of smiling recognition, and the majority +stopping to make personal inquiries about his health, and to express +their anxiety that he should make a lengthened stay amongst them. +Certain I am, from the lively esteem expressed towards Coleridge at +this time by the people of Bridgewater, that a very large subscription +might, in that town, have been raised to support him amongst them, in +the character of a lecturer, or philosophical professor. Especially I +remarked that the young men of the place manifested the most liberal +interest in all that concerned him; and I can add my attestation +to that of Mr. Coleridge himself, when describing an evening spent +amongst the enlightened tradesmen of Birmingham, that nowhere is +more unaffected good sense exhibited, and particularly nowhere more +elasticity and _freshness_ of mind, than in the conversation of +the reading men in manufacturing towns. In Kendal, especially, in +Bridgewater, and in Manchester, I have witnessed more interesting +conversations, as much information, and more natural eloquence in +conveying it, than usually in literary cities, or in places professedly +learned. One reason for this is that in trading towns the time is more +happily distributed; the day given to business and active duties--the +evening to relaxation; on which account, books, conversation, and +literary leisure are more cordially enjoyed: the same satiation never +can take place which too frequently deadens the genial enjoyment of +those who have a surfeit of books and a monotony of leisure. Another +reason is that more simplicity of manner may be expected, and more +natural picturesqueness of conversation, more open expression of +character, in places where people have no previous name to support. Men +in trading towns are not afraid to open their lips for fear they should +disappoint your expectations, nor do they strain for showy sentiments +that they may meet them. But, elsewhere, many are the men who stand +in awe of their own reputation: not a word which is unstudied, not +a movement in the spirit of natural freedom, dare they give way to, +because it might happen that on review something would be seen to +retract or to qualify--something not properly planed and chiselled to +build into the general architecture of an artificial reputation. But to +return:-- + +Coleridge led me to a drawing-room, rang the bell for refreshments, +and omitted no point of a courteous reception. He told me that there +would be a very large dinner party on that day, which, perhaps, might +be disagreeable to a perfect stranger; but, if not, he could assure +me of a most hospitable welcome from the family. I was too anxious to +see him under all aspects to think of declining this invitation. That +point being settled, Coleridge, like some great river, the Orellana, +or the St. Lawrence, that, having been checked and fretted by rocks +or thwarting islands, suddenly recovers its volume of waters and its +mighty music, swept at once, as if returning to his natural business, +into a continuous strain of eloquent dissertation, certainly the most +novel, the most finely illustrated, and traversing the most spacious +fields of thought by transitions the most just and logical, that it +was possible to conceive. What I mean by saying that his transitions +were "just" is by way of contradistinction to that mode of conversation +which courts variety through links of _verbal_ connexions. Coleridge, +to many people, and often I have heard the complaint, seemed to wander; +and he seemed then to wander the most when, in fact, his resistance to +the wandering instinct was greatest--viz., when the compass and huge +circuit by which his illustrations moved travelled farthest into remote +regions before they began to revolve. Long before this coming round +commenced most people had lost him, and naturally enough supposed that +he had lost himself. They continued to admire the separate beauty of +the thoughts, but did not see their relations to the dominant theme. +Had the conversation been thrown upon paper, it might have been easy +to trace the continuity of the links; just as in Bishop Berkeley's +"Siris,"[48] from a pedestal so low and abject, so culinary, as Tar +Water, the method of preparing it, and its medicinal effects, the +dissertation ascends, like Jacob's ladder, by just gradations, into the +Heaven of Heavens and the thrones of the Trinity. But Heaven is there +connected with earth by the Homeric chain of gold; and, being subject +to steady examination, it is easy to trace the links; whereas, in +conversation, the loss of a single word may cause the whole cohesion to +disappear from view. However, I can assert, upon my long and intimate +knowledge of Coleridge's mind, that logic the most severe was as +inalienable from his modes of thinking as grammar from his language. + + [48] _Seiris_ ought to have been the title--_i.e._ [Greek: + Seiris], a chain. From this defect in the orthography, I did not + in my boyish days perceive, nor could obtain any light upon, its + meaning. + +On the present occasion, the original theme, started by myself, was +Hartley and the Hartleian theory. I had carried as a little present to +Coleridge a scarce Latin pamphlet, "De Ideis," written by Hartley about +1746,--that is, about three years earlier than the publication of his +great work. He had also preluded to this great work in a little English +medical tract upon Joanna Stephens's medicine for the stone; for indeed +Hartley was the person upon whose evidence the House of Commons had +mainly relied in giving to that same Joanna a reward of £5000 for her +idle medicines--an application of public money not without its use, in +so far as it engaged men by selfish motives to cultivate the public +service, and to attempt public problems of very difficult solution; but +else, in that particular instance, perfectly idle, as the groans of +three generations since Joanna's era have too feelingly established. It +is known to most literary people that Coleridge was, in early life, so +passionate an admirer of the Hartleian philosophy that "Hartley" was +the sole baptismal name which he gave to his eldest child; and in an +early poem, entitled "Religious Musings," he has characterized Hartley +as + + "Him of mortal kind + Wisest, him first who mark'd the ideal tribes + Up the fine fibres through the sentient brain + Pass in fine surges." + +But at present (August 1807) all this was a forgotten thing. Coleridge +was so profoundly ashamed of the shallow Unitarianism of Hartley, and +so disgusted to think that he could at any time have countenanced that +creed, that he would scarcely allow to Hartley the reverence which is +undoubtedly his due; for I must contend that, waiving all question of +the extent to which Hartley would have pushed it (as though the law of +association accounted not only for our complex pleasures and pains, but +also might be made to explain the act of ratiocination),--waiving also +the physical substratum of nervous vibrations and miniature vibrations +to which he has chosen to marry his theory of association;--all this +apart, I must contend that the "Essay on Man, his Frame, his Duty, +and his Expectations" stands forward as a specimen almost unique +of elaborate theorizing, and a monument of absolute beauty in the +impression left of its architectural grace. In this respect it has, to +my mind, the spotless beauty and the ideal proportions of some Grecian +statue. However, I confess that, being myself, from my earliest years, +a reverential believer in the doctrine of the Trinity, simply because I +never attempted to bring all things within the mechanic understanding, +and because, like Sir Thomas, Browne, my mind almost demanded mysteries +in so mysterious a system of relations as those which connect us with +another world, and also because the farther my understanding opened the +more I perceived of dim analogies to strengthen my creed, and because +nature herself, mere physical nature, has mysteries no less profound; +for these, and for many other "_becauses_," I could not reconcile with +my general reverence for Mr. Coleridge the fact, so often reported to +me, that he was a Unitarian. But, said some Bristol people to me, not +only is he a Unitarian--he is also a Socinian. In that case, I replied, +I cannot hold him a Christian. I am a liberal man, and have no bigotry +or hostile feelings towards a Socinian; but I can never think that man +a Christian who has blotted out of his scheme the very powers by which +only the great offices and functions of Christianity can be sustained; +neither can I think that any man, though he make himself a marvellously +clever disputant, ever could tower upwards into a very great +philosopher unless he should begin or should end with Christianity. +Kant is a dubious exception. Not that I mean to question his august +pretensions, so far as they went, and in his proper line. Within his +own circle none durst tread but he. But that circle was limited. He +was called by one who weighed him well, the _alles-zermalmender_, the +world-shattering Kant. He could destroy--his intellect was essentially +destructive. He was the Gog and he was the Magog of Hunnish desolation +to the existing schemes of Philosophy. He probed them; he showed the +vanity of vanities which besieged their foundations--the rottenness +below, the hollowness above. But he had no instincts of creation or +restoration within his Apollyon mind; for he had no love, no faith, no +self-distrust, no humility, no childlike docility; all which qualities +belonged essentially to Coleridge's mind, and waited only for manhood +and for sorrow to bring them forward. + +Who can read without indignation of Kant that, at his own table, in +social sincerity and confidential talk, let him say what he would +in his books, he exulted in the prospect of absolute and ultimate +annihilation; that he planted his glory in the grave, and was +ambitious of rotting for ever? The King of Prussia, though a personal +friend of Kant's, found himself obliged to level his state thunders +at some of his doctrines, and terrified him in his advance; else I +am persuaded that Kant would have formally delivered Atheism from +the professor's chair, and would have enthroned the horrid Ghoulish +creed (which privately he professed) in the University of Königsberg. +It required the artillery of a great king to make him pause: his +menacing or warning letter to Kant is extant. The general notion +is, that the royal logic applied so austerely to the public conduct +of Kant in his professor's chair was of that kind which rests its +strength "upon thirty legions." My own belief is that the king had +private information of Kant's ultimate tendencies as revealed in his +table-talk. The fact is that, as the stomach has been known, by means +of its own potent acid secretion, to attack not only whatsoever alien +body is introduced within it, but also (as John Hunter first showed) +sometimes to attack itself and its own organic structure, so, and with +the same preternatural extension of instinct, did Kant carry forward +his destroying functions, until he turned them upon his own hopes and +the pledges of his own superiority to the dog, the ape, the worm. But +"_exoriare aliquis_"--and some philosopher, I am persuaded, _will_ +arise; and "one sling of some victorious arm" ("Paradise Lost," B. x.) +will yet destroy the destroyer, in so far as he has applied himself +to the destruction of Christian hope. For my faith is that, though a +great man may, by a rare possibility, be an infidel, an intellect of +the highest order must build upon Christianity. A very clever architect +may choose to show his power by building with insufficient materials; +but the supreme architect must require the very best, because the +perfection of the forms cannot be shown but in the perfection of the +matter. + +On these accounts I took the liberty of doubting, as often as I heard +the reports I have mentioned of Coleridge; and I now found that he +disowned most solemnly (and I may say penitentially) whatever had been +true in these reports. Coleridge told me that it had cost him a painful +effort, but not a moment's hesitation, to abjure his Unitarianism, from +the circumstance that he had amongst the Unitarians many friends, to +some of whom he was greatly indebted for great kindness. In particular, +he mentioned Mr. Estlin of Bristol, a distinguished Dissenting +clergyman, as one whom it grieved him to grieve. But he would not +dissemble his altered views. I will add, at the risk of appearing to +dwell too long on religious topics, that, on this my first introduction +to Coleridge, he reverted with strong compunction to a sentiment which +he had expressed in earlier days upon prayer. In one of his youthful +poems, speaking of God, he had said-- + + "Of whose omniscient and all-spreading love + Aught to implore were impotence of mind." + +This sentiment he now so utterly condemned that, on the contrary, he +told me, as his own peculiar opinion, that the act of praying was the +very highest energy of which the human heart was capable; praying, that +is, with the total concentration of the faculties; and the great mass +of worldly men, and of learned men, he pronounced absolutely incapable +of prayer. + +For about three hours he had continued to talk, and in the course +of this performance he had delivered many most striking aphorisms, +embalming more weight of truth, and separately more deserving to be +themselves embalmed, than would easily be found in a month's course +of select reading. In the midst of our conversation, if that can be +called conversation which I so seldom sought to interrupt, and which +did not often leave openings for contribution, the door opened, +and a lady entered. She was in person full and rather below the +common height; whilst her face showed to my eye some prettiness of +rather a commonplace order. Coleridge paused upon her entrance; his +features, however, announced no particular complacency, and did not +relax into a smile. In a frigid tone he said, whilst turning to me, +"Mrs. Coleridge"; in some slight way he then presented me to her: I +bowed; and the lady almost immediately retired. From this short but +ungenial scene, I gathered, what I afterward learned redundantly, that +Coleridge's marriage had not been a very happy one. But let not the +reader misunderstand me. Never was there a baser insinuation, viler in +the motive, or more ignoble in the manner, than that passage in some +lampoon of Lord Byron's, where, by way of vengeance on Mr. Southey (who +was the sole delinquent), he described both him and Coleridge as having +married "two milliners from Bath." Everybody knows what is _meant_ +to be conveyed in that expression, though it would be hard, indeed, +if, even at Bath, there should be any class under such a fatal curse, +condemned so irretrievably, and so hopelessly prejudged, that ignominy +must, at any rate, attach, in virtue of a mere name or designation, to +the mode by which they gained their daily bread, or possibly supported +the declining years of a parent. However, in this case, the whole +sting of the libel was a pure falsehood of Lord Byron's. Bath was +not the native city, nor at any time the residence, of the ladies in +question, but Bristol. As to the other word, "_milliners_," that is +not worth inquiring about. Whether they, or any one of their family, +ever _did_ exercise this profession, I do not know; they were, at all +events, too young, when removed by marriage from Bristol, to have +been much tainted by the worldly feelings which may beset such a mode +of life. But, what is more to the purpose, I heard, at this time, +in Bristol, from Mr. Cottle, the author, a man of high principle, +as also from his accomplished sisters,--from the ladies, again, who +had succeeded Mrs. Hannah More in her school, and who enjoyed her +entire confidence,--that the whole family of four or five sisters had +maintained an irreproachable character, though naturally exposed, by +their personal attractions, to some peril, and to the malevolence of +envy. This declaration, which I could strengthen by other testimony +equally disinterested, if it were at all necessary, I owe to truth; and +I must also add, upon a knowledge more personal, that Mrs. Coleridge +was, in all circumstances of her married life, a virtuous wife and a +conscientious mother; and, as a mother, she showed at times a most +meritorious energy. In particular, I remember that, wishing her +daughter to acquire the Italian language, and having in her retirement +at Keswick no means of obtaining a master, she set to work resolutely, +under Mr. Southey's guidance, to learn the language herself, at a time +of life when such attainments are not made with ease or pleasure. She +became mistress of the language in a very respectable extent, and then +communicated her new accomplishment to her most interesting daughter. + +I go on, therefore, to say, that Coleridge afterwards made me, as +doubtless some others, a confidant in this particular. What he had +to complain of was simply incompatibility of temper and disposition. +Wanting all cordial admiration, or indeed comprehension, of her +husband's intellectual powers, Mrs. Coleridge wanted the original basis +for affectionate patience and candour. Hearing from everybody that +Coleridge was a man of most extraordinary endowments, and attaching +little weight, perhaps, to the distinction between popular talents +and such as by their very nature are doomed to a slower progress in +the public esteem, she naturally looked to see, at least, an ordinary +measure of worldly consequence attend upon their exercise. Now, had +Coleridge been as persevering and punctual as the great mass of +professional men, and had he given no reason to throw the _onus_ of +the different result upon his own different habits, in that case this +result might, possibly and eventually, have been set down to the +peculiar constitution of his powers, and their essential mal-adaptation +to the English market. But, this trial having never fairly been made, +it was natural to impute his non-success exclusively to his own +irregular application, and to his carelessness in forming judicious +connexions. In circumstances such as these, however, no matter how +caused or how palliated, was laid a sure ground of discontent and +fretfulness in any woman's mind, not unusually indulgent or unusually +magnanimous. Coleridge, besides, assured me that his marriage was not +his own deliberate act, but was in a manner forced upon his sense of +honour by the scrupulous Southey, who insisted that he had gone too +far in his attentions to Miss Fricker for any honourable retreat. On +the other hand, a neutral spectator of the parties protested to me, +that, if ever in his life he had seen a man under deep fascination, and +what he would have called desperately in love, Coleridge, in relation +to Miss F., was that man. Be that as it might, circumstances occurred +soon after the marriage which placed all the parties in a trying +situation for their candour and good temper. I had a full outline of +the situation from two of those who were chiefly interested, and a +partial one from a third: nor can it be denied that all the parties +offended in point of prudence. A young lady became a neighbour, and +a daily companion of Coleridge's walks, whom I will not describe +more particularly than by saying that intellectually she was very +much superior to Mrs. Coleridge. That superiority alone, when made +conspicuous by its effects in winning Coleridge's regard and society, +could not but be deeply mortifying to a young wife. However, it was +moderated to her feelings by two considerations:--1. That the young +lady was much too kind-hearted to have designed any annoyance in this +triumph, or to express any exultation; 2. That no shadow of suspicion +settled upon the moral conduct or motives of either party: the young +lady was always attended by her brother; she had no personal charms; +and it was manifest that mere intellectual sympathies, in reference +to literature and natural scenery, had associated them in their daily +walks. + +Still, it is a bitter trial to a young married woman to sustain any +sort of competition with a female of her own age for any part of her +husband's regard, or any share of his company. Mrs. Coleridge, not +having the same relish for long walks or rural scenery, and their +residence being, at this time, in a very sequestered village, was +condemned to a daily renewal of this trial.[49] Accidents of another +kind embittered it still further: often it would happen that the +walking party returned drenched with rain; in which case, the young +lady, with a laughing gaiety, and evidently unconscious of any liberty +that she was taking, or any wound that she was inflicting, would run +up to Mrs. Coleridge's wardrobe, array herself, without leave asked, +in Mrs. Coleridge's dresses, and make herself merry with her own +unceremoniousness and Mrs. Coleridge's gravity. In all this, she took +no liberty that she would not most readily have granted in return; +she confided too unthinkingly in what she regarded as the natural +privileges of friendship; and as little thought that she had been +receiving or exacting a favour, as, under an exchange of their relative +positions, she would have claimed to confer one. But Mrs. Coleridge +viewed her freedoms with a far different eye: she felt herself no +longer the entire mistress of her own house; she held a divided +empire; and it barbed the arrow to her womanly feelings that Coleridge +treated any sallies of resentment which might sometimes escape her as +narrow-mindedness; whilst, on the other hand, her own female servant, +and others in the same rank of life, began to drop expressions which +alternately implied pity for her as an injured woman, or contempt for +her as a very tame one. + + [49] Another sentence of faulty grammar: a rare thing with De + Quincey.--M. + +The reader will easily apprehend the situation, and the unfortunate +results which it boded to the harmony of a young married couple, +without further illustration. Whether Coleridge would not, under +any circumstances, have become indifferent to a wife not eminently +capable of enlightened sympathy with his own ruling pursuits, I do not +undertake to pronounce. My own impression is, that neither Coleridge +nor Lord Byron could have failed, eventually, to quarrel with _any_ +wife, though a Pandora sent down from heaven to bless him. But, +doubtless, this consummation must have been hastened by a situation +which exposed Mrs. Coleridge to an invidious comparison with a more +intellectual person; as, on the other hand, it was most unfortunate +for Coleridge himself to be continually compared with one so ideally +correct and regular in his habits as Mr. Southey. Thus was their +domestic peace prematurely soured: embarrassments of a pecuniary nature +would be likely to demand continual sacrifices; no depth of affection +existing, these would create disgust or dissension; and at length +each would believe that their union had originated in circumstances +overruling their own deliberate choice. + +The gloom, however, and the weight of dejection which sat upon +Coleridge's countenance and deportment at this time could not be +accounted for by a disappointment (if such it were) to which time +must, long ago, have reconciled him. Mrs. Coleridge, if not turning +to him the more amiable aspects of her character, was at any rate a +respectable partner. And the season of youth was now passed. They had +been married about ten years; had had four children, of whom three +survived; and the interests of a father were now replacing those of a +husband. Yet never had I beheld so profound an expression of cheerless +despondency. And the restless activity of Coleridge's mind, in chasing +abstract truths, and burying himself in the dark places of human +speculation, seemed to me, in a great measure, an attempt to escape +out of his own personal wretchedness. I was right. In this instance, +at least, I had hit the mark; and Coleridge bore witness himself at an +after period to the truth of my divination by some impressive verses. +At dinner, when a very numerous party had assembled, he knew that he +was expected to talk, and exerted himself to meet the expectation. But +he was evidently struggling with gloomy thoughts that prompted him to +silence, and perhaps to solitude: he talked with effort, and passively +resigned himself to the repeated misrepresentations of several amongst +his hearers. The subject chiefly discussed was Arthur Young, not for +his Rural Economy, but for his Politics.[50] It must be to this period +of Coleridge's life that Wordsworth refers in those exquisite "Lines +written in my pocket copy of the 'Castle of Indolence.'" The passage +which I mean comes after a description of Coleridge's countenance, and +begins in some such terms as these:-- + + "A piteous sight it was to see this man, + When he came back to us, a wither'd flow'r," &c. + +Withered he was, indeed, and to all appearance blighted. At night he +entered into a spontaneous explanation of this unhappy overclouding +of his life, on occasion of my saying accidentally that a toothache +had obliged me to take a few drops of laudanum. At what time or on +what motive he had commenced the use of opium, he did not say; but the +peculiar emphasis of horror with which he warned me against forming a +habit of the same kind impressed upon my mind a feeling that he never +hoped to liberate himself from the bondage. My belief is that he never +_did_. About ten o'clock at night I took leave of him; and, feeling +that I could not easily go to sleep after the excitement of the day, +and fresh from the sad spectacle of powers so majestic already besieged +by decay, I determined to return to Bristol through the coolness of +the night. The roads, though, in fact, a section of the great highway +between seaports so turbulent as Bristol and Plymouth, were as quiet +as garden-walks. Once only I passed through the expiring fires of a +village fair or wake: that interruption excepted, through the whole +stretch of forty miles from Bridgewater to the Hot-wells, I saw no +living creature but a surly dog, who followed me for a mile along a +park-wall, and a man, who was moving about in the half-way town of +Cross. The turnpike-gates were all opened by a mechanical contrivance +from a bedroom window; I seemed to myself in solitary possession of the +whole sleeping country. The summer night was divinely calm; no sound, +except once or twice the cry of a child as I was passing the windows of +cottages, ever broke upon the utter silence; and all things conspired +to throw back my thoughts upon that extraordinary man whom I had just +quitted. + + [50] Arthur Young's numerous works, published between 1768 and + 1812, are mainly on agricultural subjects, in the form of tours + and statistics, but include political doctrines and theories.--M. + +The fine saying of Addison is familiar to most readers--that Babylon +in ruins is not so affecting a spectacle, or so solemn, as a human +mind overthrown by lunacy. How much more awful, then, when a mind +so regal as that of Coleridge is overthrown, or threatened with +overthrow, not by a visitation of Providence, but by the treachery of +its own will, and by the conspiracy, as it were, of himself against +himself! Was it possible that this ruin had been caused or hurried +forward by the dismal degradations of pecuniary difficulties? That +was worth inquiring. I will here mention briefly that I _did_ inquire +two days after; and, in consequence of what I heard, I contrived that +a particular service should be rendered to Mr. Coleridge, a week +after, through the hands of Mr. Cottle of Bristol, which might have +the effect of liberating his mind from anxiety for a year or two, and +thus rendering his great powers disposable to their natural uses. That +service was accepted by Coleridge.[51] To save him any feelings of +distress, all names were concealed; but, in a letter written by him +about fifteen years after that time, I found that he had become aware +of all the circumstances, perhaps through some indiscretion of Mr. +Cottle's. A more important question I never ascertained, viz. whether +this service had the effect of seriously lightening his mind. For some +succeeding years, he did certainly appear to me released from that load +of despondency which oppressed him on my first introduction. Grave, +indeed, he continued to be, and at times absorbed in gloom; nor did I +ever see him in a state of perfectly natural cheerfulness. But, as he +strove in vain, for many years, to wean himself from his captivity to +opium, a healthy state of spirits could not be much expected. Perhaps, +indeed, where the liver and other organs had, for so large a period +in life, been subject to a continual morbid stimulation, it might be +impossible for the system ever to recover a natural action. Torpor, +I suppose, must result from continued artificial excitement; and, +perhaps, upon a scale of corresponding duration. Life, in such a case, +may not offer a field of sufficient extent for unthreading the fatal +links that have been wound about the machinery of health, and have +crippled its natural play. + + [51] The service consisted in a gift by De Quincey of £300 + conveyed to Coleridge through the Bristol bookseller Cottle. + Coleridge's receipt to Cottle for the money is dated 12th November + 1807. Coleridge knew nothing more at the time than that the gift + came from "a young man of fortune who admired his talents." De + Quincey, who had but recently attained his majority, had then + plenty of money. He wanted, indeed, to make the gift £500; but + Cottle insisted on reducing the sum.--M. + +Meantime--to resume the thread of my wandering narrative--on this +serene summer night of 1807, as I moved slowly along, with my eyes +continually settling upon the northern constellations, which, like +all the fixed stars, by their immeasurable and almost spiritual +remoteness from human affairs, naturally throw the thoughts upon the +perishableness of our earthly troubles, in contrast with their own +utter peace and solemnity--I reverted, at intervals, to all I had ever +heard of Coleridge, and strove to weave it into some continuous sketch +of his life. I hardly remember how much I then knew; I know but little +now: that little I will here jot down upon paper. + + * * * * * + +Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the son of a learned clergyman--the vicar +of Ottery St. Mary, in the southern quarter of Devonshire.[52] It is +painful to mention that he was almost an object of persecution to his +mother; why, I could never learn. His father was described to me, by +Coleridge himself, as a sort of Parson Adams, being distinguished +by his erudition, his inexperience of the world, and his guileless +simplicity. I once purchased in London, and, I suppose, still possess, +two elementary books on the Latin language by this reverend gentleman; +one of them, as I found, making somewhat higher pretensions than a +common school grammar.[53] In particular, an attempt is made to +reform the theory of the cases; and it gives a pleasant specimen of +the rustic scholar's _naïveté_, that he seriously proposes to banish +such vexatious terms as the _accusative_; and, by way of simplifying +the matter to tender minds, that we should call it, in all time to +come, the "_quale-quare-quidditive_" case, upon what incomprehensible +principle I never could fathom. He used regularly to delight his +village flock, on Sundays, with Hebrew quotations in his sermons, which +he always introduced as the "immediate language of the Holy Ghost." +This proved unfortunate to his successor: he also was a learned man, +and his parishioners admitted it, but generally with a sigh for past +times, and a sorrowful complaint that he was still far below Parson +Coleridge--for that _he_ never gave them any "immediate language +of the Holy Ghost." I presume that, like the reverend gentleman so +pleasantly sketched in "St. Ronan's Well," Mr. Coleridge, who resembled +that person in his oriental learning, in his absence of mind, and in +his simplicity, must also have resembled him in shortsightedness, +of which his son used to relate this ludicrous instance. Dining in +a large party, one day, the modest divine was suddenly shocked by +perceiving some part, as he conceived, of his own snowy shirt emerging +from a part of his habiliments, which we will suppose to have been +his waistcoat. It was _not_ that; but for decorum we will so call +it. The stray portion of his own supposed tunic was admonished of +its errors by a forcible thrust back into its proper home; but still +another _limbus_ persisted to emerge, or seemed to persist, and still +another, until the learned gentleman absolutely perspired with the +labour of re-establishing order. And, after all, he saw with anguish +that some arrears of the snowy indecorum still remained to reduce +into obedience. To this remnant of rebellion he was proceeding to +apply himself--strangely confounded, however, at the obstinacy of the +insurrection--when, the mistress of the house rising to lead away the +ladies from the table, and all parties naturally rising with her, it +became suddenly apparent to every eye that the worthy Orientalist had +been most laboriously stowing away into the capacious receptacles of +his own habiliments--under the delusion that it was his own shirt--the +snowy folds of a lady's gown, belonging to his next neighbour; and so +voluminously that a very small portion of it, indeed, remained for the +lady's own use; the natural consequence of which was, of course, that +the lady appeared inextricably yoked to the learned theologian, and +could not in any way effect her release, until after certain operations +upon the vicar's dress, and a continued refunding and rolling out of +snowy mazes upon snowy mazes, in quantities which at length proved too +much for the gravity of the company. Inextinguishable laughter arose +from all parties, except the erring and unhappy doctor, who, in dire +perplexity, continued still refunding with all his might--perspiring +and refunding--until he had paid up the last arrears of his long debt, +and thus put an end to a case of distress more memorable to himself and +his parishioners than any "_quale-quare-quidditive_" case that probably +had ever perplexed his learning. + + [52] Coleridge was born there 21st October 1772, the youngest of a + family of nine brothers and four sisters, three of the sisters by + a previous marriage of his father.--M. + + [53] _A Critical Latin Grammar_, published for the author in 1772, + and _Sententiæ Excerptæ, explaining the Rules of Grammar_, printed + for the author in 1777. He also published a political sermon. + Besides being vicar of Ottery St. Mary, he was master of the + grammar school there.--M. + +In his childish days, and when he had become an orphan, Coleridge was +removed to the heart of London, and placed on the great foundation +of Christ's Hospital.[54] He there found himself associated, as a +school-fellow, with several boys destined to distinction in after +life; particularly the brilliant Leigh Hunt, and more closely with one +who, if not endowed with powers equally large and comprehensive as his +own, had, however, genius not less original or exquisite--viz. the +inimitable Charles Lamb. But, in learning, Coleridge outstripped all +competitors, and rose to be the captain of the school. It is, indeed, +a memorable fact to be recorded of a boy, that, before completing his +fifteenth year, he had translated the Greek Hymns of Synesius into +English Anacreontic verse. This was not a school task, but a labour of +love and choice. Before leaving school, Coleridge had an opportunity +of reading the sonnets of Bowles, which so powerfully impressed his +poetic sensibility that he made forty transcripts of them with his own +pen, by way of presents to youthful friends. From Christ's Hospital, +by the privilege of his station at school, he was transferred to Jesus +College, Cambridge.[55] It was here, no doubt, that his acquaintance +began with the philosophic system of Hartley, for that eminent person +had been a Jesus man. Frend also, the mathematician, of heretical +memory (he was judicially tried, and expelled from his fellowship, on +some issue connected with the doctrine of the Trinity), belonged to +that college, and was probably contemporary with Coleridge.[56] What +accident, or imprudence, carried him away from Cambridge before he had +completed the usual period of study, I never heard. He had certainly +won some distinction as a scholar, having obtained the prize for a +Greek ode in Sapphic metre, of which the sentiments (as he observes +himself) were better than the Greek. Porson was accustomed, meanly +enough, to ridicule the Greek _lexis_ of this ode; which was to break +a fly upon the wheel. The ode was clever enough for a boy; but to such +skill in Greek as could have enabled him to compose with critical +accuracy Coleridge never made pretensions. + + [54] This was in July 1782.--M. + + [55] In February 1791.--M. + + [56] The Rev. William Frend (1757-1831), a very eminent scholar, + had been ejected from his tutorship in Jesus College in 1788, + because of his Unitarian opinions and general liberalism, but was + still about the University in Coleridge's time, battling stoutly + with the authorities. + +The incidents of Coleridge's life about this period, and some account +of a heavy disappointment in love, which probably it was that +carried him away from Cambridge, are to be found embodied (with what +modifications I know not) in the novel of "Edmund Oliver," written by +Charles Lloyd. It is well known that, in a frenzy of unhappy feeling +at the rejection he met with from the lady of his choice, Coleridge +enlisted as a private into a dragoon regiment.[57] He fell off his +horse on several occasions, but perhaps not more than raw recruits are +apt to do when first put under the riding-master. But Coleridge was +naturally ill framed for a good horseman. + + [57] He enlisted in the 15th Light Dragoons, 3d December 1793, + under the name of Silas Titus Comberback. So says a very minute + memoir of him prefixed to Messrs. Macmillan's edition of his + Poetical and Dramatic Works in four volumes, 1880.--M. + +He is also represented in "Edmund Oliver" as having found peculiar +difficulty or annoyance in grooming his horse. But the most romantic +incident in that scene of his life was in the circumstances of his +discharge. It is said (but I vouch for no part of the story) that +Coleridge, as a private, mounted guard at the door of a room in +which his officers were giving a ball. Two of them had a dispute upon +some Greek word or passage when close to Coleridge's station. He +interposed his authentic decision of the case. The officers stared as +though one of their own horses had sung "Rule Britannia"; questioned +him; heard his story; pitied his misfortune; and finally subscribed +to purchase his discharge. So the story has been told; and also +otherwise.[58] Not very long after this, Coleridge became acquainted +with the two celebrated Wedgwoods of Etruria, both of whom, admiring +his fine powers, subscribed to send him into North Germany, where, +at the University of Göttingen, he completed his education according +to his own scheme. The most celebrated professor whose lectures he +attended was the far-famed Blumenbach, of whom he continued to speak +through life with almost filial reverence. Returning to England, he +attended Mr. Thomas Wedgwood, as a friend, throughout the afflicting +and anomalous illness which brought him to the grave. It was supposed +by medical men that the cause of Mr. Wedgwood's continued misery was a +stricture of the colon. The external symptoms were torpor and morbid +irritability, together with everlasting restlessness. By way of some +relief to this latter symptom, Mr. Wedgwood purchased a travelling +carriage, and wandered up and down England, taking Coleridge as +his companion. And, as a desperate attempt to rouse and irritate +the decaying sensibility of his system, I have been assured, by a +surviving friend, that Mr. Wedgwood at one time opened a butcher's +shop, conceiving that the affronts and disputes to which such a +situation would expose him might act beneficially upon his increasing +torpor. This strange expedient[59] served only to express the anguish +which had now mastered his nature; it was soon abandoned; and this +accomplished but miserable man at length sank under his sufferings. +What made the case more memorable was the combination of worldly +prosperity which forced into strong relief and fiery contrast this +curse written in the flesh. He was rich, he was young, he was popular, +distinguished for his scientific attainments, publicly honoured for +patriotic services, and had before him, when he first fell ill, every +prospect of a career even nationally splendid. + + [58] Somewhat otherwise in the memoir mentioned in last note, + where the date of his discharge is given as 10th April 1794, and + the place as Hounslow. He returned to Cambridge for a few months, + and then, after shifting about a little, settled in Bristol with + Southey, where he married, 4th October 1795, Sara Fricker, the + sister of Southey's wife. De Quincey seems to misdate his first + visit to Germany.--M. + + [59] Which, however, his brother denied as a pure fable. On + reading this account, he wrote to me, and in very courteous terms + assured me that I had been misinformed. I now retain the story + simply as a version, partially erroneous, no doubt, of perhaps + some true anecdote that may have escaped the surviving Mr. + Wedgwood's knowledge; my reason for thinking thus being that the + same anecdote essentially but varied in the circumstances, has + reached me at different periods from parties having no connexion + whatsoever. + +By the death of Mr. Wedgwood, Coleridge succeeded to a regular annuity +of £75, which that gentleman had bequeathed to him. The other Mr. +Wedgwood granted him an equal allowance. Now came his marriage, his +connexion with politics and political journals, his residence in +various parts of Somersetshire, and his consequent introduction to +Mr. Wordsworth. In his politics, Mr. Coleridge was most sincere and +most enthusiastic. No man hailed with profounder sympathy the French +Revolution; and, though he saw cause to withdraw his regard from +many of the democratic zealots in this country, and even from the +revolutionary interest as it was subsequently conducted, he continued +to worship the original revolutionary cause in a pure Miltonic spirit; +and he continued also to abominate the policy of Mr. Pitt in a degree +which I myself find it difficult to understand. The very spirited +little poem of "Fire, Famine, and Slaughter," who are supposed to meet +in conference, to describe their horrid triumphs, and then to ask in +a whisper _who_ it was that unchained them,--to which each in turn +replies, + + "Letters four do form his name!"-- + +expresses his horror of Mr. Pitt personally in a most extravagant +shape, but merely for the purpose of poetic effect; for he had no real +unkindness in his heart towards any human being; and I have often heard +him disclaim the hatred which is here expressed for Mr. Pitt, as he +did also very elaborately and earnestly in print. Somewhere about this +time, Coleridge attempted, under Sheridan's countenance, to bring a +tragedy upon the stage of Drury Lane; but his prospect of success, as I +once heard or read, was suddenly marred by Mr. Sheridan's inability to +sacrifice what he thought a good jest. One scene presented a cave with +streams of water weeping down the sides; and the first words were, in a +sort of mimicry of the sound, "Drip, drip, drip!" Upon which Sheridan +repeated aloud to the assembled green-room, expressly convoked for the +purpose of hearing the play read, "Drip, drip, drip!--why, God bless +me, there's nothing here but _dripping_!" and so arose a chorus of +laughter amongst the actors fatal for the moment to the probationary +play. + +About the latter end of the century, Coleridge visited North Germany +again, in company with Mr. and Miss Wordsworth.[60] Their tour was +chiefly confined to the Hartz Forest and its neighbourhood. But the +incident most worthy of remembrance in their excursion was a visit +made to Klopstock; either at Hamburgh, or, perhaps, at the Danish +town of Altona, on the same river Elbe; for Klopstock was a pensioner +of the Danish king. An anonymous writer, who attacked Coleridge +most truculently in an early number of "Blackwood," and with an +_acharnement_ that must astonish the neutral reader, has made the +mistake of supposing Coleridge to have been the chief speaker, who +did not speak at all. The case was this: Klopstock could not speak +English, though everybody remembers the pretty broken English[61] +of his second wife. Neither Coleridge nor Wordsworth, on the other +hand, was able to _speak_ German with any fluency. French, therefore, +was the only medium of free communication; that being pretty equally +familiar to Wordsworth and to Klopstock. But Coleridge found so much +difficulty even in _reading_ French that, wherever (as in the case of +Leibnitz's "Theodicée") there was a choice between an original written +in French and a translation, though it might be a very faulty one, +in German, he always preferred the latter. Hence it happened that +Wordsworth, on behalf of the English party, was the sole supporter of +the dialogue. The anonymous critic says another thing, which certainly +has an air of truth--viz. that Klopstock plays a very secondary _rôle_ +in the interview (or words to that effect). But how was this to be +avoided in reporting the case, supposing the fact to have been such? +Now, the plain truth is that Wordsworth, upon his own ground, was +an incomparable talker; whereas "Klubstick" (as Coleridge used to +call him) was always a feeble and slovenly one, because a loose and +incoherent thinker. Besides, he was now old and decaying. Nor at any +time, nor in any accomplishment, could Klopstock have shone, unless in +the respectable art of skating. _There_ he had a real advantage. The +author of "The Messiah," I have authority for saying, skated with the +ease and grace of a regular artist; whereas the poet of the "Excursion" +sprawled upon the ice like a cow dancing a cotillon. Wordsworth did the +very opposite of that with which he was taxed; for, happening to look +down at Klopstock's swollen legs, and recollecting his age, he felt +touched by a sort of filial pity for his helplessness. And he came to +the conclusion that it would not seem becoming in a young and as yet +obscure author to report too consciously the real superiority which he +found it easy to maintain in such a colloquy. + + [60] He was absent on this tour in Germany from September 1798 to + November 1799.--M. + + [61] Published in Richardson's Correspondence. + +But neither had Klopstock the pretensions as a poet which the +Blackwood writer seems to take for granted. Germany, the truth is, +wanted a great epic poet. Not having produced one in that early and +plastic stage of her literary soil when such a growth is natural and +spontaneous, the next thing was to bespeak a substitute. The force +of Coleridge's well-known repartee, when, in reply to a foreigner +asserting for Klopstock the rank of German Milton, he said, "True, +sir; a very _German_ Milton," cannot be fully appreciated but by one +who is familiar with the German poetry, and the small proportion in +which it is a natural, racy, and domestic growth. It has been often +noticed as the misfortune of the Roman literature that it grew up too +much under the oppression of Grecian models, and of Grecian models +depraved by Alexandrian art--a fact, so far as it _was_ a fact, which +tended to cripple the _genial_ and characteristic spirit of the +national mind. But this evil, after all, did not take effect except +in a partial sense. Rome had cast much of her literature in her own +moulds before these exotic models had begun to domineer. In fact, the +reproach is in a very narrow sense true. Not so with Germany. Her +literature, since its revival in the last century (and the revival upon +the impulse of what cattle!--Bodmer on the one hand, and Gottsched, +the never-enough-to-be-despised Gottsched, on the other!) has hardly +moved a step in the freedom of natural grace. England for nineteen, and +France for the twentieth, of all her capital works, has given the too +servile law: and, with regard to Klopstock, if ever there was a good +exemplification of the spurious and the counterfeit in literature, seek +it in "The Messiah." He is verily and indeed the _Birmingham_ Milton. +This Klopstockian dialogue, by the way, was first printed (hardly +_published_) in the original, or Lake edition of "The Friend." In the +recast of that work it was omitted; nor has it been printed anywhere +else that I am aware of. + +About the close of the first revolutionary war it must have been, or +in the brief interval of peace, that Coleridge resorted to the English +Lakes as a place of residence.[62] Wordsworth had a natural connexion +with that region, by birth, breeding, and family alliances. Wordsworth +must have attracted Coleridge to the Lakes; and Coleridge, through his +affinity to Southey, eventually attracted _him_. Southey, as is known +to all who take an interest in the Lake colony, married a sister of +Mrs. Coleridge's; and, as a singular eccentricity in the circumstances +of that marriage, I may mention that, on his wedding-day, and from +the very portico of the church, Southey left his bride to embark for +Lisbon. His uncle, Dr. Herbert, was chaplain to the English factory in +that city; and it was to benefit by the facilities in that way opened +to him for seeing Portugal that Southey now went abroad. He extended +his tour to Spain; and the result of his notices was communicated to +the world in a volume of travels. By such accidents of personal or +family connexion as I have mentioned was the Lake colony gathered; +and the critics of the day, unaware of the real facts, supposed them +to have assembled under common views in literature--particularly with +regard to the true functions of poetry, and the true theory of poetic +diction. Under this original blunder, laughable it is to mention +that they went on to _find_ in their writings all the agreements and +common characteristics which their blunder had presumed; and they +incorporated the whole community under the name of the _Lake School_. +Yet Wordsworth and Southey never had one principle in common; their +hostility was even flagrant. Indeed, Southey troubled himself little +about abstract principles in anything; and, so far from agreeing with +Wordsworth to the extent of setting up a separate school in poetry, he +told me himself (August 1812) that he highly disapproved both of Mr. +Wordsworth's theories and of his practice. It is very true that one man +may sympathize with another, or even follow his leading, unconscious +that he does so; or he may go so far as, in the very act of virtual +imitation, to deem himself in opposition; but this sort of blind +agreement could hardly be supposed of two men so discerning and so +self-examining as Wordsworth and Southey. And, in fact, a philosophic +investigation of the difficult questions connected with this whole +slang about schools, Lake schools, &c., would show that Southey has +not, nor ever had, any _peculiarities_ in common with Wordsworth, +beyond that of exchanging the old prescriptive diction of poetry, +introduced between the periods of Milton and Cowper, for the simpler +and profounder forms of daily life in some instances, and of the +Bible in others. The bold and uniform practice of Wordsworth was here +adopted, on perfectly independent views, by Southey. In this respect, +however, Cowper had already begun the reform; and his influence, +concurring with the now larger influence of Wordsworth, has operated so +extensively as to make their own original differences at this day less +perceptible. + + [62] It was in 1800 that Coleridge removed from London to Keswick, + Wordsworth being then at Grasmere.--M. + +By the way, the word _colony_ reminds me that I have omitted to mention +in its proper place some scheme for migrating to America which had +been entertained by Coleridge and Southey about the year 1794-95, +under the learned name of _Pantisocracy_. So far as I ever heard, it +differed little, except in its Grecian name, from any other scheme for +mitigating the privations of a wilderness by settling in a cluster of +families, bound together by congenial tastes and uniform principles, +rather than in self-depending, insulated households. Steadily pursued, +it might, after all, have been a fortunate plan for Coleridge. +"Soliciting my food from daily toil," a line in which Coleridge alludes +to the scheme, implies a condition of life that would have upheld +Coleridge's health and happiness somewhat better than the habits of +luxurious city life as now constituted in Europe. But, returning[63] +to the Lakes, and to the Lake colony of poets: So little were Southey +and Wordsworth connected by any personal intercourse in those days, +and so little disposed to be connected, that, whilst the latter had +a cottage in Grasmere, Southey pitched his tent at Greta Hall, on a +little eminence rising immediately from the river Greta and the town +of Keswick. Grasmere is in Westmoreland; Keswick in Cumberland; and +they are thirteen good miles apart. Coleridge and his family were +domiciliated in Greta Hall; sharing that house, a tolerably large one, +on some principle of amicable division, with Mr. Southey. But Coleridge +personally was more often to be found at Grasmere--which presented the +threefold attractions of loveliness so complete as to eclipse even the +scenery of Derwentwater; a pastoral state of society, free from the +deformities of a little town like Keswick; and, finally, for Samuel +Taylor Coleridge, the society of Wordsworth. Not before 1815 or 1816 +could it be said that Southey and Wordsworth were even upon friendly +terms; so entirely is it untrue that they combined to frame a school of +poetry. Up to that time, they viewed each other with mutual respect, +but also with mutual dislike; almost, I might say, with mutual disgust. +Wordsworth disliked in Southey the want of depth, or the apparent want, +as regards the power of philosophic abstraction. Southey disliked in +Wordsworth the air of dogmatism, and the unaffable haughtiness of his +manner. Other more trivial reasons combined with these. + + [63] This peculiar usage of an unrelated participle is pretty + frequent with De Quincey, and is perhaps the only recurring + peculiarity of his grammar to which a purist would object.--M. + +At this time, when Coleridge first settled at the Lakes, or not long +after, a romantic and somewhat tragical affair drew the eyes of all +England, and, for many years, continued to draw the steps of tourists, +to one of the most secluded Cumberland valleys, so little visited +previously that it might be described almost as an undiscovered +chamber of that romantic district. Coleridge was brought into a closer +connexion with this affair than merely by the general relation of +neighbourhood; for an article of his in a morning paper, I believe, +unintentionally furnished the original clue for unmasking the base +impostor who figured as the central actor in this tale. The tale was +at that time dramatized, and scenically represented by some of the +minor theatres in London, as noticed by Wordsworth in the "Prelude." +But other generations have arisen since that time, who must naturally +be unacquainted with the circumstances; and on their account I will +here recall them:--One day in the Lake season there drove up to the +Royal Oak, the principal inn at Keswick, a handsome and well-appointed +travelling carriage, containing one gentleman of somewhat dashing +exterior. The stranger was a picturesque-hunter, but not of that order +who fly round the ordinary tour with the velocity of lovers posting to +Gretna, or of criminals running from the police; his purpose was to +domiciliate himself in this beautiful scenery, and to see it at his +leisure. From Keswick, as his head-quarters, he made excursions in +every direction amongst the neighbouring valleys; meeting generally a +good deal of respect and attention, partly on account of his handsome +equipage, and still more from his visiting cards, which designated him +as "The Hon. Augustus Hope." Under this name, he gave himself out for +a brother of Lord Hopetoun's. Some persons had discernment enough to +doubt of this; for the man's breeding and deportment, though showy, +had an under-tone of vulgarity about it; and Coleridge assured me that +he was grossly ungrammatical in his ordinary conversation. However, +one fact, soon dispersed by the people of a little rustic post-office, +laid asleep all demurs; he not only received letters addressed to +him under this assumed name--_that_ might be through collusion with +accomplices--but he himself continually _franked_ letters by that name. +Now, this being a capital offence, being not only a forgery, but (as +a forgery on the Post-Office) sure to be prosecuted, nobody presumed +to question his pretensions any longer; and, henceforward, he went to +all places with the consideration attached to an earl's brother. All +doors flew open at his approach; boats, boatmen, nets, and the most +unlimited sporting privileges, were placed at the disposal of the +"Honourable" gentleman: and the hospitality of the district was put on +its mettle, in offering a suitable reception to the patrician Scotsman. +It could be no blame to a shepherd girl, bred in the sternest solitude +which England has to show, that she should fall into a snare which many +of her betters had not escaped. Nine miles from Keswick, by the nearest +bridle-road through Newlands, but fourteen or fifteen by any route +which the honourable gentleman's travelling-carriage could traverse, +lies the Lake of Buttermere. Its margin, which is overhung by some of +the loftiest and steepest of the Cumbrian mountains, exhibits on either +side few traces of human neighbourhood; the level area, where the +hills recede enough to allow of any, is of a wild pastoral character, +or almost savage; the waters of the lake are deep and sullen; and the +barrier mountains, by excluding the sun for much of his daily course, +strengthen the gloomy impressions. At the foot of this lake (that is, +at the end where its waters issue) lie a few unornamented fields, +through which rolls a little brook-like river, connecting it with the +larger lake of Crummock; and at the edge of this miniature domain, +upon the roadside, stands a cluster of cottages, so small and few that +in the richer tracts of England they would scarcely be complimented +with the name of hamlet. One of these, and I believe the principal, +belonged to an independent proprietor, called, in the local dialect, +a "_Statesman_"[64]; and more, perhaps, for the sake of attracting a +little society than with much view to pecuniary profit at that era, +this cottage offered the accommodations of an inn to the traveller +and his horse. Rare, however, must have been the mounted traveller in +those days, unless visiting Buttermere for itself, and as a _terminus +ad quem_; since the road led to no further habitations of man, with +the exception of some four or five pastoral cabins, equally humble, in +Gatesgarthdale. + + [64] _i.e._--A 'Statesman elliptically for an Estatesman,--a + native dalesman possessing and personally cultivating a + patrimonial landed estate. + +Hither, however, in an evil hour for the peace of this little +brotherhood of shepherds, came the cruel spoiler from Keswick. His +errand was, to witness or to share in the char-fishing; for in +Derwentwater (the Lake of Keswick) no char is found, which breeds only +in the deep waters, such as Windermere, Crummock, Buttermere, and +Coniston--never in the shallow ones. But, whatever had been his first +object, _that_ was speedily forgotten in one more deeply interesting. +The daughter of the house, a fine young woman of eighteen, acted as +waiter.[65] In a situation so solitary, the stranger had unlimited +facilities for enjoying her company, and recommending himself to her +favour. Doubts about his pretensions never arose in so simple a place +as this; they were overruled before they could well have arisen by the +opinion now general in Keswick, that he really was what he pretended to +be: and thus, with little demur, except in the shape of a few natural +words of parting anger from a defeated or rejected rustic admirer, the +young woman gave her hand in marriage to the showy and unprincipled +stranger. I know not whether the marriage was, or could have been, +celebrated in the little mountain chapel of Buttermere. If it were, +I persuade myself that the most hardened villain must have felt a +momentary pang on violating the altar of such a chapel; so touchingly +does it express, by its miniature dimensions, the almost helpless +humility of that little pastoral community to whose spiritual wants +it has from generation to generation administered. It is not only +the very smallest chapel by many degrees in all England, but is so +mere a toy in outward appearance that, were it not for its antiquity, +its wild mountain exposure, and its consecrated connexion with the +final hopes and fears of the adjacent pastoral hamlet--but for these +considerations, the first movement of a stranger's feelings would be +towards loud laughter; for the little chapel looks not so much a mimic +chapel in a drop-scene from the Opera House as a miniature copy from +such a scene; and evidently could not receive within its walls more +than half a dozen of households. From this sanctuary it was--from +beneath the maternal shadow, if not from the very altar,[66] of this +lonely chapel--that the heartless villain carried off the flower of +the mountains. Between this place and Keswick they continued to move +backwards and forwards, until at length, with the startling of a +thunder-clap to the affrighted mountaineers, the bubble burst: officers +of justice appeared: the stranger was easily intercepted from flight, +and, upon a capital charge, was borne away to Carlisle. At the ensuing +assizes he was tried for forgery on the prosecution of the Post-Office, +found guilty, left for execution, and executed accordingly.[67] On +the day of his condemnation, Wordsworth and Coleridge passed through +Carlisle, and endeavoured to obtain an interview with him. Wordsworth +succeeded; but, for some unknown reason, the prisoner steadily refused +to see Coleridge; a caprice which could not be penetrated. It is true +that he had, during his whole residence at Keswick, avoided Coleridge +with a solicitude which had revived the original suspicions against him +in some quarters, after they had generally gone to sleep. But for this +his motive had then been sufficient: he was of a Devonshire family, +and naturally feared the eye, or the inquisitive examination of one +who bore a name immemorially associated with the southern part of that +county. + + [65] "_Waiter_":--Since this was first written, social changes in + London, by introducing females very extensively into the office + (once monopolized by men) of attending the visitors at the tables + of eating-houses have introduced a corresponding new word--viz., + _waitress_; which word, twenty-five years back, would have been + simply ludicrous; but now is become as indispensable to precision + of language as the words traitress, heiress, inheritrix, &c. + + [66] My doubt is founded upon the varying tenure of these secluded + chapels as to privileges of marrying or burying. The mere name of + chapel, though, of course, in regular connexion with some mother + church, does not of itself imply whether it has or has not the + power to solemnize a marriage. + + [67] At Carlisle, 3d September 1803. His marriage with Mary + Robinson, the Beauty of Buttermere, had been on 3d October 1802, + when he was forty-three years of age. Originally he had been a + commercial traveller; and his early marriage with an illegitimate + daughter of a younger son of an English nobleman seems to have had + much to do with his subsequent career. Deserting this wife and her + children in 1782, he had lived a life of swindling ever since, had + married a second wife and deserted her, and was wooing a young + Irish lady at the very time when the Buttermere girl became his + victim. "His manners were extremely polished and insinuating, and + he was possessed of qualities which might have rendered him an + ornament of society," is the pleasant character I find of him in + one _Newgate Calendar_ compendium.--M. + +Coleridge, however, had been transplanted so immaturely from his +native region that few people in England knew less of its family +connexions. That, perhaps, was unknown to this malefactor; but, at +any rate, he knew that all motive was now at an end for disguise of +any sort; so that his reserve, in this particular, had now become +unintelligible. However, if not him, Coleridge saw and examined his +very interesting papers. These were chiefly letters from women whom he +had injured, pretty much in the same way, and by the same impostures, +as he had so recently practised in Cumberland; and, as Coleridge +assured me, were in part the most agonizing appeals that he had ever +read to human justice and pity. The man's real name was, I think, +Hatfield. And amongst the papers were two separate correspondences, of +some length, with two young women, apparently of superior condition +in life (one the daughter of an English clergyman), whom this villain +had deluded by marriage, and, after some cohabitation, abandoned,--one +of them with a family of young children. Great was the emotion of +Coleridge when he recurred to his remembrance of these letters, and +bitter, almost vindictive, was the indignation with which he spoke +of Hatfield. One set of letters appeared to have been written under +too certain a knowledge of _his_ villany to whom they were addressed; +though still relying on some possible remains of humanity, or perhaps +(the poor writer might think) on some lingering preference for herself. +The other set was even more distressing; they were written under the +first conflicts of suspicions, alternately repelling with warmth the +gloomy doubts which were fast arising, and then yielding to their +afflicting evidence; raving in one page under the misery of alarm, in +another courting the delusions of hope, and luring back the perfidious +deserter,--here resigning herself to despair, and there again labouring +to show that all might yet be well. Coleridge said often, in looking +back upon that frightful exposure of human guilt and misery, that the +man who, when pursued by these heart-rending apostrophes, and with +this litany of anguish sounding in his ears, from despairing women +and from famishing children, could yet find it possible to enjoy the +calm pleasures of a Lake tourist, and deliberately to hunt for the +picturesque, must have been a fiend of that order which fortunately +does not often emerge amongst men. It is painful to remember that, +in those days, amongst the multitudes who ended their career in the +same ignominious way, and the majority for offences connected with +the forgery of bank notes, there must have been a considerable number +who perished from the very opposite cause--viz., because they felt, +too passionately and profoundly for prudence, the claims of those who +looked up to them for support. One common scaffold confounds the most +flinty hearts and the tenderest. However, in this instance, it was +in some measure the heartless part of Hatfield's conduct which drew +upon him his ruin: for the Cumberland jury honestly declared their +unwillingness to hang him for having forged a frank; and both they, +and those who refused to aid his escape when first apprehended, were +reconciled to this harshness entirely by what they heard of his conduct +to their injured young fellow-countrywoman. + +She, meantime, under the name of _The Beauty of Buttermere_, became +an object of interest to all England; melodramas were produced in the +London suburban[68] theatres upon her story; and, for many a year +afterwards, shoals of tourists crowded to the secluded lake, and the +little homely cabaret, which had been the scene of her brief romance; +It was fortunate for a person in her distressing situation that +her home was not in a town: the few and simple neighbours, who had +witnessed her imaginary elevation, having little knowledge of worldly +feelings, never for an instant connected with her disappointment any +sense of the ludicrous, or spoke of it as a calamity to which her +vanity might have co-operated. They treated it as unmixed injury, +reflecting shame upon nobody but the wicked perpetrator. Hence, without +much trial to her womanly sensibilities, she found herself able to +resume her situation in the little inn; and this she continued to hold +for many years. In that place, and that capacity, I saw her repeatedly, +and shall here say a word upon her personal appearance, because the +Lake poets all admired her greatly. Her figure was, in my eyes, good; +but I doubt whether most of my readers would have thought it such. She +was none of your evanescent, wasp-waisted beauties; on the contrary, +she was rather large every way; tallish, and proportionably broad. Her +face was fair, and her features feminine; and, unquestionably, she +was what all the world would have agreed to call "good-looking." But, +except in her arms, which had something of a statuesque beauty, and +in her carriage, which expressed a womanly grace, together with some +degree of dignity and self-possession, I confess that I looked in vain +for any _positive_ qualities of any sort or degree. _Beautiful_, in +any emphatic sense, she was not. Everything about her face and bust +was negative; simply without offence. Even this, however, was more +than could be said at all times; for the expression of her countenance +_could_ be disagreeable. This arose out of her situation; connected +as it was with defective sensibility and a misdirected pride. Nothing +operates so differently upon different minds and different styles of +beauty as the inquisitive gaze of strangers, whether in the spirit of +respectful admiration or of insolence. Some I have seen upon whose +angelic beauty this sort of confusion settled advantageously, and like +a softening veil; others, in whom it meets with proud resentment, are +sometimes disfigured by it. In Mary of Buttermere it roused mere anger +and disdain; which, meeting with the sense of her humble and dependent +situation, gave birth to a most unhappy aspect of countenance. Men who +had no touch of a gentleman's nature in their composition sometimes +insulted her by looks and by words, supposing that they purchased +the right to do this by an extra half-crown; and she too readily +attributed the same spirit of impertinent curiosity to every man whose +eyes happened to settle steadily upon her face. Yet, once at least, +I must have seen her under the most favourable circumstances: for, +on my first visit to Buttermere, I had the pleasure of Mr. Southey's +company, who was incapable of wounding anybody's feelings, and to Mary, +in particular, was well known by kind attentions, and I believe by +some services. Then, at least, I saw her to advantage, and perhaps, +for a figure of her build, at the best age; for it was about nine or +ten years after her misfortune, when she might be twenty-seven or +twenty-eight years old. We were alone, a solitary pair of tourists: +nothing arose to confuse or distress her. She waited upon us at dinner, +and talked to us freely. "This is a respectable young woman," I said +to myself; but nothing of that enthusiasm could I feel which beauty, +such as I _have_ beheld at the Lakes, would have been apt to raise +under a similar misfortune. One lady, not very scrupulous in her +embellishments of facts, used to tell an anecdote of her which I hope +was exaggerated. Some friend of hers (as she affirmed), in company with +a large party, visited Buttermere within one day after that upon which +Hatfield suffered; and she protested that Mary threw upon the table, +with an emphatic gesture, the Carlisle paper containing an elaborate +account of his execution. + + [68] In connexion with this mention of "suburban" and minor + theatres, it is but fair to cite a passage expressly relating to + Mary of Buttermere from the Seventh Book (entitled "Residence in + London") of Wordsworth's "Prelude":-- + + "Here, too, were _forms and pressures of the time_, + Rough, bold, as Grecian comedy display'd + When Art was young; dramas of living men, + And recent things yet warm with life; a sea-fight, + Shipwreck, or some domestic incident + Divulged by Truth, and magnified by Fame; + Such as the daring brotherhood of late + Set forth, too serious theme for that light place-- + I mean, O distant friend! a story drawn + From our own ground--the Maid of Buttermere, + And how, unfaithful to a virtuous wife, + Deserted and deceived, the spoiler came + And wooed the artless daughter of the hills, + And wedded her, in cruel mockery + Of love and marriage bonds. These words to thee + Must needs bring back the moment when we first, + Ere the broad world rang with the maiden's name, + Beheld her serving at the cottage inn, + Both stricken, as she enter'd or withdrew, + With admiration of her modest mien + And carriage, mark'd by unexampled grace. + We since that time not unfamiliarly + Have seen her--her discretion have observed, + Her just opinions, delicate reserve, + Her patience and humility of mind, + Unspoiled by commendation and the excess + Of public notice--an offensive light + To a meek spirit suffering inwardly." + + The "distant friend" here apostrophized is Coleridge, then at Malta. + But it is fair to record this memorial of the fair mountaineer--going + perhaps as much beyond the public estimate of her pretensions as my own + was below it. It should be added that William Wordsworth and Samuel + Taylor Coleridge (to whom the writer appeals as in general sympathy + with himself) had seen Mary more frequently, and had conversed with her + much more freely, than myself. + +It is an instance of Coleridge's carelessness that he, who had as +little of fixed ill-nature in his temper as any person whom I have ever +known, managed, in reporting this story at the time of its occurrence, +to get himself hooked into a personal quarrel, which hung over his +head unsettled for nine or ten years. A Liverpool merchant, who was +then meditating a house in the Vale of Grasmere, and perhaps might +have incurred Coleridge's anger by thus disturbing, with inappropriate +intrusions, this loveliest of all English landscapes, had connected +himself a good deal with Hatfield during his Keswick masquerade; and +was said even to have carried his regard to that villain so far as +to have christened one of his own children by the names of "Augustus +Hope." With these and other circumstances, expressing the extent of +the infatuation amongst the swindler's dupes, Coleridge made the +public merry. Naturally, the Liverpool merchant was not amongst those +who admired the facetiousness of Coleridge on this occasion, but +swore vengeance whenever they should meet. They never _did_ meet, +until ten years had gone by; and then, oddly enough, it was in the +Liverpool man's own house--in that very nuisance of a house which had, +I suppose, first armed Coleridge's wrath against him. This house, by +time and accident, in no very wonderful way, had passed into the hands +of Wordsworth as tenant. Coleridge, as was still less wonderful, had +become the visitor of Wordsworth on returning from Malta; and the +Liverpool merchant, as was also natural, either seeking his rent, or on +the general errand of a friendly visit, calling upon Wordsworth, met +Coleridge in the hall. Now came the hour for settling old accounts. I +was present, and can report the case. Both looked grave, and coloured +a little. But ten years work wonders: an armistice of that duration +heals many a wound; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, requesting his enemy's +company in the garden, entered upon a long metaphysical dissertation, +bordering upon what you might call _philosophical rigmarole_, and +rather puzzling to answer. It seemed to be an expansion, by Thomas +Aquinas, of that parody upon a well-known passage in Shenstone, where +the writer says-- + + "He kick'd me down-stairs with such a sweet grace + That I thought he was handing me up." + +And, in the upshot, this conclusion _eventuated_ (to speak +Yankeeishly), that purely on principles of good neighbourhood and +universal philanthropy could Coleridge have meditated or executed the +insult offered in the "Morning Post." The Liverpool merchant rubbed his +forehead, and seemed a little perplexed; but he was a most good-natured +man; and he was eminently a gentleman. At length, considering, perhaps, +how very like Duns Scotus, or Albertus Magnus, Coleridge had shown +himself in this luminous explanation, he might begin to reflect that, +had any one of those distinguished men offered a similar affront, it +would have been impossible to resent it; for who could think of kicking +the "Doctor Seraphicus," or would it tell to any man's advantage +in history that he had caned Thomas Aquinas? On these principles, +therefore, without saying one word, Liverpoliensis held out his hand, +and a lasting reconciliation followed. + +Not very long, I believe, after this affair of Hatfield, Coleridge went +to Malta.[69] His inducement to such a step must have been merely a +desire to see the most interesting regions of the Mediterranean under +the shelter and advantageous introduction of an official station. +It was, however, an unfortunate chapter of his life: for, being +necessarily thrown a good deal upon his own resources in the narrow +society of a garrison, he there confirmed and cherished, if he did not +there form, his habit of taking opium in large quantities. I am the +last person in the world to press conclusions harshly or uncandidly +against Coleridge; but I believe it to be notorious that he first began +the use of opium, not as a relief from any bodily pains or nervous +irritations (since his constitution was strong and excellent), but as +a source of luxurious sensations. It is a great misfortune, at least it +is a great peril, to have tasted the enchanted cup of youthful rapture +incident to the poetic temperament. That fountain of high-wrought +sensibility once unlocked experimentally, it is rare to see a +submission afterwards to the insipidities of daily life. Coleridge, to +speak in the words of Cervantes, wanted better bread than was made of +wheat; and, when youthful blood no longer sustained the riot of his +animal spirits, he endeavoured to excite them by artificial stimulants. + + [69] In April 1804.--M. + +At Malta he became acquainted with Commodore Decatur and other +Americans of distinction; and this brought him afterwards into +connexion with Allston, the American artist. Of Sir Alexander Ball, +one of Lord Nelson's captains in the battle of the Nile, and Governor +of Malta, he spoke and wrote uniformly in a lavish style of panegyric, +for which plainer men found it difficult to see the slightest ground. +It was, indeed, Coleridge's infirmity to project his own mind, and his +own very peculiar ideas, nay, even his own expressions and illustrative +metaphors, upon other men, and to contemplate these reflex images +from himself as so many characters having an absolute ground in some +separate object. "Ball and Bell"--"Bell and Ball,"[70] were two of +these pet subjects; he had a "craze" about each of them; and to each +he ascribed thoughts and words to which, had they been put upon the +rack, they never would have confessed. + + [70] "_Ball and Bell_"--"_Bell and Ball_":--viz. Sir Alexander + Ball, Governor of Malta, and Dr. Andrew Bell, the importer into + England from Madras of that machinery for facilitating popular + education which was afterwards fraudulently appropriated by Joseph + Lancaster. The Bishop of Durham (Shute Barrington) gave to Dr. + Bell, in reward of his Madras services, the princely Mastership of + Sherborne Hospital. The doctor saved in this post £125,000, and + with this money founded Trinity College, Glenalmond, in + Perthshire. Most men have their enemies and calumniators: Dr. Bell + had _his_, who happened rather indecorously to be his wife--from + whom he was legally separated, or (as in Scotch law it is called) + _divorced_; not, of course, divorced _à vinculo matrimonii_ (which + only amounts to a divorce in the English sense--such a divorce as + enables the parties to contract another marriage), but simply + divorced _à mensâ et thoro_. This legal separation, however, did + not prevent the lady from persecuting the unhappy doctor with + everlasting letters, indorsed outside with records of her enmity + and spite. Sometimes she addressed her epistles thus:--"To that + supreme of rogues, who looks the hang-dog that he is, Doctor (such + a doctor!) Andrew Bell." Or again:--"To the ape of apes, and the + knave of knaves, who is recorded to have once paid a debt--but a + small one, you may be sure, it was that he selected for this + wonderful experiment--in fact, it was 4-1/2d. Had it been on the + other side of 6d., he must have died before he could have achieved + so dreadful a sacrifice." Many others, most ingeniously varied in + the style of abuse, I have heard rehearsed by Coleridge, Southey, + Lloyd, &c.; and one, in particular, addressed to the doctor, when + spending a summer at the cottage of Robert Newton, an old soldier, + in Grasmere, presented on the back two separate adjurations: one + specially addressed to Robert himself, pathetically urging him to + look sharply after the rent of his lodgings; and the other more + generally addressed to the unfortunate person, as yet undisclosed + to the British public (and in this case turning out to be myself) + who might be incautious enough to pay the postage at Ambleside. + "Don't grant him an hour's credit," she urged upon the person + unknown, "if I had any regard to my family." "_Cash down!_" she + wrote twice over. Why the doctor submitted to these annoyances, + nobody knew. Some said it was mere indolence; but others held it + to be a cunning compromise with her inexorable malice. The letters + were certainly open to the "public" eye; but meantime the "public" + was a very narrow one; the clerks in the post-office had little + time for digesting such amenities of conjugal affection; and the + chance bearer of the letters to the doctor would naturally solve + the mystery by supposing an _extra_ portion of madness in the + writer, rather than an _extra_ portion of knavery in the reverend + receiver. + +From Malta, on his return homewards,[71] he went to Rome and Naples. +One of the cardinals, he tells us, warned him, by the Pope's wish, +of some plot, set on foot by Bonaparte, for seizing him as an +anti-Gallican writer. This statement was ridiculed by the anonymous +assailant in "Blackwood" as the very consummation of moonstruck +vanity; and it is there compared to John Dennis's frenzy in retreating +from the sea-coast, under the belief that Louis XIV had commissioned +emissaries to land on the English shore and make a dash at his person. +But, after all, the thing is not so entirely improbable. For it is +certain that some orator of the Opposition (Charles Fox, as Coleridge +asserts) had pointed out all the principal writers in the "Morning +Post" to Napoleon's vengeance, by describing the war as a war "of that +journal's creation."[72] And, as to the insinuation that Napoleon was +above throwing his regards upon a simple writer of political essays, +_that_ is not only abundantly confuted by many scores of established +cases, but also is specially put down by a case circumstantially +recorded in the Second Tour to Paris by the celebrated John Scott of +Aberdeen.[73] It there appears that, on no other ground whatever than +that of his connexion with the London newspaper press, some friend of +Mr. Scott's had been courted most assiduously by Napoleon during the +_Hundred Days_. Assuredly Coleridge deserved, beyond all other men +that ever were connected with the daily press, to be regarded with +distinction. Worlds of fine thinking lie buried in that vast abyss, +never to be disentombed or restored to human admiration. Like the sea, +it has swallowed treasures without end, that no diving-bell will bring +up again. But nowhere, throughout its shoreless magazines of wealth, +does there lie such a bed of pearls confounded with the rubbish and +"purgamenta" of ages, as in the political papers of Coleridge. No more +_appreciable_ monument could be raised to the memory of Coleridge than +a republication of his essays in the "Morning Post," and afterwards +in the "Courier." And here, by the way, it may be mentioned that +the sagacity of Coleridge, as applied to the signs of the times, is +illustrated by this fact, that distinctly and solemnly he foretold the +restoration of the Bourbons, at a period when most people viewed such +an event as the most romantic of visions, and not less chimerical than +that "march upon Paris" of Lord Hawkesbury's which for so many years +supplied a theme of laughter to the Whigs. + + [71] He left Malta 27th September 1805.--M. + + [72] Coleridge had long been a contributor to the _Morning + Post_.--M. + + [73] _Paris Revisited in 1815 by way of Brussels_ is the title of + this publication in 1816 of the Aberdonian John Scott. He had + previously published _A Visit to Paris in 1814_. He wrote other + things, and was editor of the _London Magazine_ from January 1820 + till his death, February 1821, the result of a duel.--M. + +Why Coleridge left Malta, is as difficult to explain upon any +principles of ordinary business, as why he had ever gone thither. The +post of secretary, if it imposed any official attendance of a regular +kind, or any official correspondence, must have been but poorly filled +by _him_; and Sir Alexander Ball, if I have collected his character +justly, was not likely to accept the gorgeous philosophy of Coleridge +as an indemnification for irregular performance of his public duties. +Perhaps, therefore, though on the best terms of mutual regard, mutually +they might be pleased to part. Part they did, at any rate, and poor +Coleridge was sea-sick the whole of his homeward (as he had been +through the whole of his outward) voyage. + + * * * * * + +It was not long after this event that my own introduction to Coleridge +occurred. At that time some negotiation was pending between him and the +Royal Institution, which ended in their engaging him to deliver a course +of lectures on Poetry and the Fine Arts during the ensuing winter. +For this series (twelve or sixteen, I think) he received a sum of one +hundred guineas. And, considering the slightness of the pains which +he bestowed upon them, he was well remunerated. I fear that they did +not increase his reputation; for never did any man treat his audience +with less respect, or his task with less careful attention. I was in +London for part of the time, and can report the circumstances, having +made a point of attending duly at the appointed hours. Coleridge was +at that time living uncomfortably enough at the "Courier" office, in +the Strand.[74] In such a situation, annoyed by the sound of feet +passing his chamber-door continually to the printing-rooms of this +great establishment, and with no gentle ministrations of female hands +to sustain his cheerfulness, naturally enough his spirits flagged; and +he took more than ordinary doses of opium. I called upon him daily, and +pitied his forlorn condition. There was no bell in the room; which for +many months answered the double purpose of bedroom and sitting-room. +Consequently, I often saw him, picturesquely enveloped in nightcaps, +surmounted by handkerchiefs indorsed upon handkerchiefs, shouting from +the attics of the "Courier" office, down three or four flights of +stairs, to a certain "Mrs. Brainbridge," his sole attendant, whose +dwelling was in the subterranean regions of the house. There did I +often see the philosopher, with the most lugubrious of faces, invoking +with all his might this uncouth name of "Brainbridge," each syllable +of which he intonated with long-drawn emphasis, in order to overpower +the hostile hubbub coming downwards from the creaking press, and the +roar from the Strand, which entered at all the front windows. "Mistress +Brainbridge! I say, Mistress Brainbridge!" was the perpetual cry, +until I expected to hear the Strand, and distant Fleet Street, take +up the echo of "Brainbridge!" Thus unhappily situated, he sank more +than ever under the dominion of opium; so that, at two o'clock, when +he should have been in attendance at the Royal Institution, he was too +often unable to rise from bed. Then came dismissals of audience after +audience, with pleas of illness; and on many of his lecture days I have +seen all Albemarle Street closed by a "lock" of carriages, filled with +women of distinction, until the servants of the Institution or their +own footmen advanced to the carriage-doors with the intelligence that +Mr. Coleridge had been suddenly taken ill. This plea, which at first +had been received with expressions of concern, repeated too often, +began to rouse disgust. Many in anger, and some in real uncertainty +whether it would not be trouble thrown away, ceased to attend. And we +that were more constant too often found reason to be disappointed with +the quality of his lecture. His appearance was generally that of a +person struggling with pain and overmastering illness. His lips were +baked with feverish heat, and often black in colour; and, in spite +of the water which he continued drinking through the whole course +of his lecture, he often seemed to labour under an almost paralytic +inability to raise the upper jaw from the lower. In such a state, it +is clear that nothing could save the lecture itself from reflecting +his own feebleness and exhaustion, except the advantage of having +been precomposed in some happier mood. But that never happened: most +unfortunately he relied upon his extempore ability to carry him +through. Now, had he been in spirits, or had he gathered animation, +and kindled by his own motion, no written lecture could have been +more effectual than one of his unpremeditated colloquial harangues. +But either he was depressed originally below the point from which +any re-ascent was possible, or else this re-action was intercepted by +continual disgust from looking back upon his own ill-success; for, +assuredly, he never once recovered that free and eloquent movement +of thought which he could command at any time in a private company. +The passages he read, moreover, in illustrating his doctrines, were +generally unhappily chosen, because chosen at haphazard, from the +difficulty of finding at a moment's summons those passages which his +purpose required. Nor do I remember any that produced much effect, +except two or three, which I myself put ready marked into his hands, +among the Metrical Romances edited by Ritson. + + [74] The very accurate memoir prefixed to Messrs. Macmillan's + four-volume edition of Coleridge's Poetical Works states that + Stuart, who had been proprietor of the _Morning Post_, and had + become proprietor of the _Courier_, gave Coleridge apartments in + the _Courier_ office to save expense in his contributorship to + that newspaper.--M. + +Generally speaking, the selections were as injudicious and as +inappropriate as they were ill delivered; for, amongst Coleridge's +accomplishments, good reading was not one; he had neither voice +(so, at least, _I_ thought) nor management of voice. This defect is +unfortunate in a public lecturer; for it is inconceivable how much +weight and effectual pathos can be communicated by sonorous depth and +melodious cadences of the human voice to sentiments the most trivial; +nor, on the other hand, how the grandest are emasculated by a style of +reading which fails in distributing the lights and shadows of a musical +intonation. However, this defect chiefly concerned the immediate +impression; the most afflicting to a friend of Coleridge's was the +entire absence of his own peculiar and majestic intellect; no heart, +no soul, was in anything he said; no strength of feeling in recalling +universal truths; no power of originality or compass of moral relations +in his novelties: all was a poor faint reflection from jewels once +scattered in the highway by himself in the prodigality of his early +opulence--a mendicant dependence on the alms dropped from his own +overflowing treasury of happier times. + +The next opportunity I had of seeing Coleridge was at the Lakes, in +the winter of 1809, and up to the autumn of the following year. During +this period it was that he carried on the original publication of "The +Friend"[75]; and for much the greater part of the time I saw him +daily. He lived as a visitor in the house occupied by Mr. Wordsworth. +This house (Allan Bank by name) was in Grasmere; and in another part +of the same vale, at a distance of barely one mile, I myself had a +cottage, and a considerable library. Many of my books being German, +Coleridge borrowed them in great numbers. Having a general license +from me to use them as he would, he was in the habit of accumulating +them so largely at Allan Bank (the name of Mr. Wordsworth's house) +that sometimes as many as five hundred were absent at once: which +I mention in order to notice a practice of Coleridge's, indicating +his very scrupulous honour in what regarded the rights of ownership. +Literary people are not always so strict in respecting property of this +description; and I know more than one celebrated man who professes +as a maxim that he holds it no duty of honour to restore a borrowed +book; not to speak of many less celebrated persons, who, without +openly professing such a principle, do however, in fact, exhibit a lax +morality in such cases. The more honourable it was to poor Coleridge, +who had means so trifling of buying books for himself, that, to prevent +my flocks from mixing and being confounded with the flocks already +folded at Allan Bank (his own and Wordsworth's), or rather that they +_might_ mix without danger, he duly inscribed my name in the blank +leaves of every volume; a fact which became rather painfully made known +to me; for, as he had chosen to dub me _Esquire_, many years after +this it cost myself and a female friend some weeks of labour to hunt +out these multitudinous memorials and to erase this heraldic addition; +which else had the appearance to a stranger of having been conferred by +myself. + + [75] The first number of this celebrated but unfortunate + periodical, "printed on stamped paper by a printer of the name of + Brown at Penrith," was issued, the already cited memoir of + Coleridge informs us, on Thursday, 1st June 1809, and the last on + 15th March 1810.--M. + +"The Friend," in its original publication, was, as a pecuniary +speculation, the least judicious, both for its objects and its means, +I have ever known. It was printed at Penrith, a town in Cumberland, on +the outer verge of the Lake district, and precisely twenty-eight miles +removed from Coleridge's abode. This distance, enough of itself, in +all conscience, was at least trebled in effect by the interposition +of Kirkstone, a mountain which is scaled by a carriage ascent of +three miles long, and so steep in parts that, without four horses, +no solitary traveller can persuade the neighbouring innkeepers to +carry him. Another road, by way of Keswick, is subject to its own +separate difficulties. And thus, in any practical sense, for ease, for +certainty, and for despatch, Liverpool, ninety-five miles distant, +was virtually nearer. Dublin even, or Cork, was more eligible. Yet, +in this town, so situated as I have stated, by way of purchasing +such intolerable difficulties at the highest price, Coleridge was +advised, and actually persuaded, to set up a printer, to buy, to lay +in a stock of paper, types, &c., instead of resorting to some printer +already established in Kendal, a large and opulent town not more than +eighteen miles distant, and connected by a daily post, whereas between +himself and Penrith there was no post at all. Building his mechanical +arrangements upon this utter "upside-down" inversion of all common +sense, it is not surprising (as "madness ruled the hour") that in all +other circumstances of plan or execution the work moved by principles +of downright crazy disregard to all that a judicious counsel would +have suggested. The subjects were chosen obstinately in defiance of +the popular taste; they were treated in a style studiously disfigured +by German modes of thinking, and by a German terminology; no attempt +was made to win or conciliate public taste; and the plans adopted for +obtaining payment were of a nature to insure a speedy bankruptcy to +the concern. Coleridge had a list--nobody could ever say upon whose +authority gathered together--of subscribers. He tells us himself that +many of these renounced the work from an early period; and some (as +Lord Corke) rebuked him for his presumption in sending it unordered, +but (as Coleridge asserts) neither returned the copies nor remitted +the price. And even those who were conscientious enough to do this +could not remit four or five shillings for as many numbers without +putting Coleridge to an expense of treble postage at the least. This +he complains of bitterly in his "Biographia Literaria," forgetting +evidently that the evil was due exclusively to his own defective +arrangements. People necessarily sent their subscriptions through +such channels as were open to them, or such as were pointed out by +Coleridge himself. It is also utterly unworthy of Coleridge to have +taxed, as he does, many of his subscribers (or really, for anything +that appears, the whole body) with neglecting to pay at all. Probably +not one neglected. And some ladies, to my knowledge, scrupulously +anxious about transmitting their subscriptions, paid three times over. +Managed as the reader will collect from these indications, the work +was going down-hill from the first. It never gained any accessions of +new subscribers; from what source, then, was the continual dropping +off of names to be supplied? The printer became a bankrupt: Coleridge +was as much in arrear with his articles as with his lectures at the +Royal Institution. _That_ he was from the very first; but now he +was disgusted and desponding; and with No. 28 or 29 the work came +to a final stop. Some years after, it was re-cast and re-published. +But, in fact, this re-cast was altogether and absolutely a new work. +The sole contributors to the original work had been, first of all, +Wordsworth who gave a very valuable paper on the principles concerned +in the composition of Epitaphs; and, secondly, Professor Wilson, who, +in conjunction with Mr. (now Dr.) Blair, an early friend,[76] then +visiting Mr. W. on Windermere, wrote the letter signed "Mathetes," the +reply to which came from Wordsworth. + + [76] Alexander Blair, LL.D., Professor of English Literature in + University College, London, from 1830 to 1836.--M. + +At the Lakes, and summoned abroad by scenery so exquisite--living, too, +in the bosom of a family endeared to him by long friendship and by +sympathy the closest with all his propensities and tastes--Coleridge +(it may be thought) could not sequester himself so profoundly as at +the "Courier" Office within his own shell, or shut himself out so +completely from that large dominion of eye and ear amongst the hills, +the fields, and the woods, which once he had exercised so delightfully +to himself, and with a participation so immortal, through his exquisite +poems, to all generations. He was not now reduce to depend upon "Mrs. +Brainbridge"----(Mistress Brain--Brain--Brainbridge, I say----Oh +heavens! _is_ there, can there, was there, _will_ there ever at any +future period be, an undeniable use in saying and in pressing upon the +attention of the Strand and Fleet Street at their earliest convenience +the painful subject of Mistress Brain--Brain--Brainbridge, I say---- +Do you hear, Mrs. Brain--Brain--Brainbridge----? Brain or Bain, it +matters little--Bran or Brain, it's all one, I conceive):--here, on +the contrary, he looked out from his study windows upon the sublime +hills of _Seat Sandal_ and _Arthur's Chair_, and upon pastoral cottages +at their feet; and all around him he heard hourly the murmurings of +happy life, the sound of female voices, and the innocent laughter of +children. But apparently he was not happy; opium, was it, or what was +it, that poisoned all natural pleasure at its sources? He burrowed +continually deeper into scholastic subtleties and metaphysical +abstractions; and, like that class described by Seneca in the luxurious +Rome of _his_ days, he lived chiefly by candlelight. At two or four +o'clock in the afternoon he would make his first appearance. Through +the silence of the night, when all other lights had disappeared in the +quiet cottages of Grasmere, _his_ lamp might be seen invariably by the +belated traveller, as he descended the long steep from Dunmailraise; +and at seven or eight o'clock in the morning, when man was going forth +to his labour, this insulated son of reverie was retiring to bed. + +Society he did not much court, because much was not to be had; but +he did not shrink from any which wore the promise of novelty. At +that time the leading person about the Lakes, as regarded rank and +station, amongst those who had any connexion with literature, was +Dr. Watson, the well-known Bishop of Llandaff.[77] This dignitary I +knew myself as much as I wished to know him; he _was_ interesting; +yet also _not_ interesting; and I will speak of him circumstantially. +Those who have read his Autobiography, or are otherwise acquainted +with the outline of his career, will be aware that he was the son of +a Westmoreland schoolmaster. Going to Cambridge, with no great store +of classical knowledge, but with the more common accomplishment of +Westmoreland men, and one better suited to Cambridge, viz. a sufficient +basis of mathematics, and a robust though commonplace intellect for +improving his knowledge according to any direction which accident +should prescribe--he obtained the Professorship of Chemistry without +one iota of chemical knowledge up to the hour when he gained it; and +then, setting eagerly to work, that he might not disgrace the choice +which had thus distinguished him, long before the time arrived for +commencing his prelections he had made himself capable of writing +those beautiful essays on that science which, after a revolution and a +counter-revolution so great as succeeding times have witnessed, still +remain a cardinal book of introductory discipline to such studies: +an opinion deliberately expressed to myself by the late Sir Humphry +Davy, and in answer to an earnest question which I took the liberty +of proposing to him on that point. Sir Humphry said that he could +scarcely imagine a time, or a condition of the science, in which the +Bishop's "Essays" would be superannuated.[78] With this experimental +proof that a Chemical Chair might be won and honoured without previous +knowledge even of the chemical alphabet, he resolved to play the same +feat with the Royal Chair of Divinity; one far more important for +local honour and for wealth. Here, again, he succeeded; and this time +he extended his experiment; for, whereas both Chairs had been won +without _previous_ knowledge, he resolved that in this case it should +be maintained without _after_ knowledge. He applied himself simply to +the improvement of its income, which he raised from £300 to at least +£1000 per annum. All this he had accomplished before reaching the age +of thirty-five. + + [77] Bishop Richard Watson (1737-1816) is perhaps best remembered + now for his _Apology for the Bible_; of which George III said, + when he heard of it, "What, what! Apology for the Bible! Didn't + know that it needed an apology." There were, however, two + _Apologies_, published together in 1806,--one for Christianity + against Gibbon, the other for the Bible against Thomas Paine.--M. + + [78] _Chemical Essays_, in 5 vols., published 1781-7.--M. + +Riches are with us the parent of riches; and success, in the hands of +an active man, is the pledge of further success. On the basis of this +Cambridge preferment Dr. Watson built upwards, until he had raised +himself, in one way or other, to a seat in the House of Lords, and to a +commensurate income. For the latter half of his life, he--originally a +village schoolmaster's son--was able to associate with the _magnates_ +of the land upon equal terms. And that fact, of itself, without another +word, implies, in this country, a degree of rank and fortune which one +would think a sufficient reward even for merit as unquestionable as +was that of Dr. Watson, considering that in _quality_ it was merit of +so vulgar a class. Yet he was always a discontented man, a railer at +the government and the age which could permit merit such as his to pine +away ingloriously in one of the humblest amongst the bishoprics, with +no other addition to its emoluments than the richest professorship in +Europe, and such other accidents in life as gave him in all, perhaps, +not above five thousand per annum! Poor man!--only five thousand per +annum! What a trial to a man's patience!--and how much he stood in need +of philosophy, or even of religion, to face so dismal a condition! + +This bishop was himself, in a secondary way, no uninteresting study. +What I mean is, that, though originally the furthest removed from +an interesting person, being a man remarkable indeed for robust +faculties, but otherwise commonplace in his character, worldly-minded, +and coarse, even to obtuseness, in his sensibilities, he yet became +interesting from the strength of _degree_ with which these otherwise +repulsive characteristics were manifested. He was one of that numerous +order in whom even the love of knowledge is subordinate to schemes +of advancement; and to whom even his own success, and his own honour +consequent upon that success, had no higher value than according to +their use as instruments for winning further promotion. Hence it +was that, when by such aids he had mounted to a certain eminence, +beyond which he saw little promise of further ascent through any +assistance of _theirs_--since at this stage it was clear that party +connexion in politics must become his main reliance--he ceased to +regard his favourite sciences with interest. The very organs of his +early advancement were regarded with no gratitude or tenderness, when +it became clear that they could yield no more. Even chemistry was +now neglected. This, above all, was perplexing to one who did not +understand his character. For hither one would have supposed he might +have retreated from his political disappointments, and have found a +perpetual consolation in honours which no intrigues could defeat, +and in the esteem, so pure and untainted, which still attended the +honourable exertions of his youth. But he had not feeling enough for +that view; he looked at the matter in a very different light. Other +generations had come since then, and "other palms were won." To keep +pace with the advancing science, and to maintain his station amongst +his youthful competitors, would demand a youthful vigour and motives +such as theirs. But, as to himself, chemistry had given all it _could_ +give. Having first raised himself to distinction by that, he had since +married into an ancient family--one of the leaders amongst the landed +aristocracy of his own county: he had thus entitled himself to call +the head of that family--a territorial potentate with ten thousand per +annum--by the contemptuous sobriquet of "Dull Daniel"; he looked down +upon numbers whom, twenty years before, he scarcely durst have looked +up to, except perhaps as a cat is privileged to look at a king; he had +obtained a bishopric. Chemistry had done all this for him; and had, +besides, co-operating with luck, put him in the way of reaping a large +estate from the gratitude and early death of his pupil, Mr. Luther. All +this chemistry had effected. Could chemistry do anything more? Clearly +not. It was a burnt-out volcano. And here it was that, having lost his +motives for cultivating it farther, he regarded the present improvers +of the science, not with the feelings natural to a disinterested +lover of such studies on their own account, but with jealousy, as men +who had eclipsed or had bedimmed his own once brilliant reputation. +Two revolutions had occurred since his own "palmy days"; Sir Humphry +Davy, he said, might be right; and all might be gold that glistened; +but, for his part, he was too old to learn new theories--he must be +content to hobble to his grave with such old-fashioned creeds as had +answered in his time, when, for aught he could see, men prospered as +much as in this newfangled world. Such was the tone of his ordinary +talk; and, in one sense--as regards personal claims, I mean--it was +illiberal enough; for the leaders of modern chemistry never overlooked +_his_ claims. Professor Thomson of Glasgow always spoke of his "Essays" +as of a book which hardly any revolution could antiquate; and Sir +Humphry Davy, in reply to a question which I put to him upon that +point in 1813, declared that he knew of no book better qualified as +one of introductory discipline to the youthful experimenter, or as an +apprenticeship to the taste in elegant selection of topics. + +Yet, querulous and discontented as the bishop was, when he adverted +either to chemistry or to his own position in life, the reader must not +imagine to himself the ordinary "complement" and appurtenances of that +character--such as moroseness, illiberality, or stinted hospitalities. +On the contrary, his lordship was a joyous, jovial, and cordial host. +He was pleasant, and even kind, in his manners; most hospitable in his +reception of strangers, no matter of what party; and I must say that +he was as little overbearing in argument, and as little stood upon his +privilege in his character of a church dignitary, as any "big wig" I +have happened to know. He was somewhat pompous, undoubtedly; but that, +in an old academic hero, was rather agreeable, and had a characteristic +effect. He listened patiently to all your objections; and, though +steeped to the lips in prejudice, he was really candid. I mean to say +that, although, generally speaking, the unconscious pre-occupation of +his understanding shut up all avenues to new convictions, he yet did +his best to open his mind to any views that might be presented at the +moment. And, with regard to his querulous egotism, though it may appear +laughable enough to all who contrast his real pretensions with their +public appreciation as expressed in his acquired opulence and rank, +and who contrast, also, _his_ case with that of other men in his own +profession--with that of Paley, for example--yet it cannot be denied +that fortune had crossed his path, latterly, with foul winds, no less +strikingly than his early life had been seconded by her favouring +gales. In particular, Lord Holland[79] mentioned to a friend of my +own the following anecdote:--"What you say of the bishop may be very +true" (they were riding past his grounds at the time, which had turned +the conversation upon his character and public claims): "but to _us_" +(Lord Holland meant to the Whig party) "he was truly honourable and +faithful; insomuch that my uncle" (meaning, of course, Charles Fox) +"had agreed with Lord Grenville to make him Archbishop of York, _sede +vacante_;--all was settled; and, had we staid in power a little +longer, he would, beyond a doubt, have had that dignity." + + [79] It was _Lady_ Holland. I know not how I came to make such a + mistake. And the friend was Wordsworth. + +Now, if the reader happens to recollect how soon the death of +Dr. Markham followed the sudden dissolution of that short-lived +administration in 1807, he will see how narrowly Dr. Watson missed +this elevation; and one must allow for a little occasional spleen +under such circumstances. How grand a thing, how princely, to be an +English archbishop! Yet, what an archbishop! He talked openly, at his +own table, as a Socinian; ridiculed the miracles of the New Testament, +which he professed to explain as so many chemical tricks, or cases +of legerdemain; and certainly had as little of devotional feeling as +any man that ever lived. It is, by comparison, a matter of little +consequence that, so slightly regarding the Church of which he called +himself a member in her spiritual interest, he should, in her temporal +interests, have been ready to lay her open to any assaults from almost +any quarter. He could naturally have little reverence for the rights +of the shepherds, having so very little for the pastoral office +itself, or for the manifold duties it imposes. All his public, all his +professional duties, he systematically neglected. He was a lord in +Parliament, and for many a year he never attended in his place: he was +a bishop, and he scarcely knew any part of his diocese by sight, living +three hundred miles away from it: he was a professor of divinity, +holding the richest professorship in Europe--the weightiest, for its +functions, in England--drawing, by his own admission, one thousand +per annum from its endowments (deducting some stipend to his _locum +tenens_ at Cambridge), and for thirty years he never read a lecture, or +performed a public exercise. Spheres how vast of usefulness to a man +as able as himself!--subjects of what bitter anguish on his deathbed +to one who had been tenderly conscientious! In his political purism, +and the unconscious partisanship of his constitutional scruples, he +was a true Whig, and thoroughly diverting. That Lord Lonsdale or that +the Duke of Northumberland should interfere with elections, this he +thought scandalous and awful; but that a lord of the house of Cavendish +or Howard, a Duke of Devonshire or Norfolk, or an Earl of Carlisle, +should traffic in boroughs, or exert the most despotic influence as +landlords, _mutato nomine_, he viewed as the mere natural right of +property; and so far was he from loving the pure-hearted and unfactious +champions of liberty, that, in one of his printed works, he dared +to tax Milton with having knowingly, wilfully, deliberately told a +falsehood.[80] + + [80] This supposed falsehood respected the sect called Brownists, + and occurs in the "Defensio pro Pop. Anglicano." The whole charge + is a blunder, and rests upon the bishop's own imperfect Latinity. + +Could Coleridge--was it possible that he could reverence a man +like this? Ordinary men might, because they were told that he had +defended Christianity against the vile blasphemers and impotent +theomachists of the day. But Coleridge had too pure an ideal of a +Christian philosopher, derived from the age of the English Titans +in theology, to share in that estimate. It is singular enough, and +interesting to a man who has ever heard Coleridge talk, but especially +to one who has _assisted_ (to speak in French phrase) at a talking +party between Coleridge and the Bishop, to look back upon an article +in the "Quarterly Review," where, in connexion with the Bishop's +Autobiography, some sneers are dropped with regard to the intellectual +character of the neighbourhood in which he had settled. I have been +told, on pretty good authority, that this article was written by the +late Dr. Whittaker of Craven, the topographical antiquarian; a pretty +sort of person, doubtless, to assume such a tone, in speaking of a +neighbourhood so dazzling in its intellectual pretensions as that +region at that time. Listen, reader, and judge! + +The Bishop had fixed his abode on the banks of Windermere. In a small, +but by the necessity of its situation a beautiful park, he had himself +raised a plain, but handsome and substantial mansion; Calgarth, or +Calgarth Park, was its name. Now, at Keswick (I am looking back to the +sneer of the "Quarterly Review") lived Southey; twenty miles distant, +it is true, but still, for a bishop with a bishop's equipage, not +beyond a morning's drive. At Grasmere, about eight miles from Calgarth, +were to be found Wordsworth and Coleridge. At Brathay, about four +miles from Calgarth, lived Charles Lloyd; and he, far as he might be +below the others I have mentioned, could not in candour be considered +a common man. Common! he was a man never to be forgotten! He was +somewhat too _Rousseauish_; but he had, in conversation, the most +extraordinary powers for analysis of a certain kind, applied to the +philosophy of manners, and the most delicate _nuances_ of social life; +and his translation of "Alfieri," together with his own poems, shows +him to have been an accomplished scholar. Then, not much above a mile +from Calgarth, at his beautiful creation of Elleray, lived Professor +Wilson; of whom I need not speak. He, in fact, and Mr. Lloyd were on +the most intimate terms with the Bishop's family. The meanest of these +persons was able to have "taken the conceit" out of Dr. Whittaker and +all his tribe. But even in the town of Kendal, about nine miles from +Calgarth, there were many men of information, at least as extensive as +Dr. Watson's, and amply qualified to have met him upon equal terms in +conversation. Mathematics, it is well known, are extensively cultivated +in the north of England. Sedburgh, for many years, was a sort of +nursery or rural chapel-of-ease to Cambridge. Dawson of Sedburgh was +a luminary better known than ever Dr. Watson was, by mathematicians +both foreign and domestic. Gough, the blind mathematician and botanist +of Kendal, is known to this day; but many others in that town had +accomplishments equal to his; and, indeed, so widely has mathematical +knowledge extended itself throughout Northern England that, even +amongst the poor Lancashire weavers, mechanic labourers for their daily +bread, the cultivation of pure geometry, in the most refined shape, has +long prevailed; of which some accounts have been recently published. +Local pique, therefore, must have been at the bottom of Dr. Whittaker's +sneer. At all events, it was ludicrously contrasted with the true state +of the case, as brought out by the meeting between Coleridge and the +Bishop. + +Coleridge was armed, at all points, with the scholastic erudition which +bore upon all questions that could arise in polemic divinity. The +philosophy of ancient Greece, through all its schools, the philosophy +of the schoolmen technically so called, Church history, &c., Coleridge +had within his call. Having been personally acquainted, or connected +as a pupil, with Eichhorn and Michaelis, he knew the whole cycle of +schisms and audacious speculations through which Biblical criticism +or Christian philosophy has revolved in Modern Germany. All this +was ground upon which the Bishop of Llandaff trod with the infirm +footing of a child. He listened to what Coleridge reported with the +same sort of pleasurable surprise, alternating with starts of doubt +or incredulity, as would naturally attend a detailed report from +Laputa--which aërial region of speculation does but too often recur to +a sober-minded person in reading of the endless freaks in philosophy +of Modern Germany, where the sceptre of Mutability, that potentate +celebrated by Spenser, gathers more trophies in a year than elsewhere +in a century; "the anarchy of dreams" presides in her philosophy; and +the restless elements of opinion, throughout every region of debate, +mould themselves eternally, like the billowy sands of the desert +as beheld by Bruce, into towering columns, soar upwards to a giddy +altitude, then stalk about for a minute, all aglow with fiery colour, +and finally unmould and "dislimn," with a collapse as sudden as the +motions of that eddying breeze under which their vapoury architecture +had arisen. Hartley and Locke, both of whom the bishop made into +idols, were discussed; especially the former, against whom Coleridge +alleged some of those arguments which he has used in his "Biographia +Literaria." The bishop made but a feeble defence; and upon some points +none at all. He seemed, I remember, much struck with one remark of +Coleridge's, to this effect:--"That, whereas Hartley fancied that +our very reasoning was an aggregation, collected together under the +law of association, on the contrary, we reason by counteracting that +law: just," said he, "as, in leaping, the law of gravitation concurs +to that act in its latter part; but no leap could take place were it +not by a counteraction of the law." One remark of the bishop's let me +into the secret of his very limited reading. Coleridge had used the +word "apperception," apparently without intention; for, on hearing +some objection to the word, as being "surely not a word that Addison +would have used," he substituted _transcendental consciousness_. Some +months afterwards, going with Charles Lloyd to call at Calgarth, during +the time when "The Friend" was appearing, the bishop again noticed +this obnoxious word, and in the very same terms:--"Now, this word +_apperception_, which Mr. Coleridge uses in the last number of 'The +Friend,' surely, surely it would not have been approved by Addison; no, +Mr. Lloyd, nor by Swift; nor even, I think, by Arbuthnot." Somebody +suggested that the word was a new word of German mintage, and most +probably due to Kant--of whom the bishop seemed never to have heard. +Meantime the fact was, and to me an amusing one, that the word had been +commonly used by Leibnitz, a _classical_ author on such subjects, 120 +years before. + + * * * * * + +In the autumn of 1810, Coleridge left the Lakes; and, so far as I +am aware, for ever. I once, indeed, heard a rumour of his having +passed through with some party of tourists--some reason struck me +at the time for believing it untrue--but, at all events, he never +returned to them as a resident. What might be his reason for this +eternal self-banishment from scenes which he so well understood in all +their shifting forms of beauty, I can only guess. Perhaps it was the +very opposite reason to that which is most obvious: not, possibly, +because he had become indifferent to their attractions, but because +his undecaying sensibility to their commanding power had become +associated with too afflicting remembrances, and flashes of personal +recollections, suddenly restored and illuminated--recollections which +will + + "Sometimes leap + From hiding-places ten years deep," + +and bring into collision the present with some long-forgotten past, in +a form too trying and too painful for endurance. I have a brilliant +Scotch friend, who cannot walk on the seashore--within sight of its +[Greek: anêrithmon gelasma], the multitudinous laughter of its waves, +or within hearing of its resounding uproar, because they bring up, by +links of old association, too insupportably to his mind the agitations +of his glittering, but too fervid youth. There is a feeling--morbid, +it may be, but for which no anodyne is found in all the schools +from Plato to Kant--to which the human mind is liable at times: it +is best described in a little piece by Henry More, the "Platonist." +He there represents himself as a martyr to his own too passionate +sense of beauty, and his consequent too pathetic sense of its decay. +Everywhere--above, below, around him, in the earth, in the clouds, +in the fields, and in their "garniture of flowers"--he beholds a +beauty carried to excess; and this beauty becomes a source of endless +affliction to him, because everywhere he sees it liable to the touch +of decay and mortal change. During one paroxysm of this sad passion, +an angel appears to comfort him; and, by the sudden revelation of her +immortal beauty, does, in fact, suspend his grief. But it is only a +suspension; for the sudden recollection that her privileged condition, +and her exemption from the general fate of beauty, is only by way of +exception to a universal rule, restores his grief: "And thou thyself," +he says to the angel-- + + "And thou thyself, that com'st to comfort me, + Wouldst strong occasion of deep sorrow bring, + If thou wert subject to mortality!" + +Every man who has ever dwelt with passionate love upon the fair face +of some female companion through life must have had the same feeling, +and must often, in the exquisite language of Shakspere's sonnets, have +commanded and adjured all-conquering Time, there, at least, and upon +that one tablet of his adoration, + + "To write no wrinkle with his antique hand." + +Vain prayer! Empty adjuration! Profitless rebellion against the laws +which season all things for the inexorable grave! Yet not the less +we rebel again and again; and, though wisdom counsels resignation, +yet our human passions, still cleaving to their object, force us +into endless rebellion. Feelings the same in kind as these attach +themselves to our mental power, and our vital energies. Phantoms of +lost power, sudden intuitions, and shadowy restorations of forgotten +feelings, sometimes dim and perplexing, sometimes by bright but furtive +glimpses, sometimes by a full and steady revelation, overcharged with +light--throw us back in a moment upon scenes and remembrances that we +have left full thirty years behind us. In solitude, and chiefly in the +solitudes of nature, and, above all, amongst the great and _enduring_ +features of nature, such as mountains, and quiet dells, and the lawny +recesses of forests, and the silent shores of lakes, features with +which (as being themselves less liable to change) our feelings have a +more abiding association--under these circumstances it is that such +evanescent hauntings of our past and forgotten selves are most apt to +startle and to waylay us. These are _positive_ torments from which +the agitated mind shrinks in fear; but there are others _negative_ +in their nature--that is, blank mementoes of powers extinct, and of +faculties burnt out within us. And from both forms of anguish--from +this twofold scourge--poor Coleridge fled, perhaps, in flying from the +beauty of external nature. In alluding to this latter, or negative form +of suffering--that form, I mean, which presents not the too fugitive +glimpses of past power, but its blank annihilation--Coleridge himself +most beautifully insists upon and illustrates the truth that all which +we find in Nature must be created by ourselves; and that alike whether +Nature is so gorgeous in her beauty as to seem apparelled in her +wedding-garment or so powerless and extinct as to seem palled in her +shroud. In either case, + + "O, Lady, we receive but what we give, + And in _our_ life alone does nature _live_; + Ours is her wedding-garment, ours her shroud. + + It were a vain endeavour, + Though I should gaze for ever + On that green light that lingers in the west: + I may not hope from _outward_ forms to win + The passion and the life whose fountains are _within_." + +This was one, and the most common, shape of extinguished power from +which Coleridge fled to the great city. But sometimes the same decay +came back upon his heart in the more poignant shape of intimations +and vanishing glimpses, recovered for one moment from the paradise +of youth, and from fields of joy and power, over which, for him, too +certainly, he felt that the cloud of night was settling for ever. +Both modes of the same torment exiled him from nature; and for the +same reasons he fled from poetry and all commerce with his own soul; +burying himself in the profoundest abstractions from life and human +sensibilities. + + "For not to think of what I needs must feel, + But to be still and patient all I can; + And haply _by abstruse research to steal_, + _From my own nature, all the natural man_; + This was my sole resource, my only plan; + Till _that_, which suits a part, infects the whole, + And now is almost grown the habit of my soul." + +Such were, doubtless, the true and radical causes which, for the final +twenty-four years of Coleridge's life, drew him away from those scenes +of natural beauty in which only, at an earlier stage of life, he found +strength and restoration. These scenes still survived; but their power +was gone, because _that_ had been derived from himself, and his ancient +self had altered. Such were the _causes_; but the immediate _occasion_ +of his departure from the Lakes, in the autumn of 1810, was the +favourable opportunity then presented to him of migrating in a pleasant +way. Mr. Basil Montagu, the Chancery barrister, happened at that time +to be returning to London, with Mrs. Montagu, from a visit to the +Lakes, or to Wordsworth.[81] His travelling carriage was roomy enough +to allow of his offering Coleridge a seat in it; and his admiration of +Coleridge was just then fervent enough to prompt a friendly wish for +that sort of close connexion (viz. by domestication as a guest under +Mr. Basil Montagu's roof) which is the most trying to friendship, +and which in this instance led to a perpetual rupture of it. The +domestic habits of eccentric men of genius, much more those of a man so +irreclaimably irregular as Coleridge, can hardly be supposed to promise +very auspiciously for any connexion so close as this. A very extensive +house and household, together with the unlimited licence of action +which belongs to the _ménage_ of some great Dons amongst the nobility, +could alone have made Coleridge an inmate perfectly desirable. Probably +many little jealousies and offences had been mutually suppressed; but +the particular spark which at length fell amongst the combustible +materials already prepared, and thus produced the final explosion, +took the following shape:--Mr. Montagu had published a book against +the use of wine and intoxicating liquors of every sort.[82] Not out +of parsimony or under any suspicion of inhospitality, but in mere +self-consistency and obedience to his own conscientious scruples, Mr. +Montagu would not countenance the use of wine at his own table. So +far all was right. But doubtless, on such a system, under the known +habits of modern life, it should have been made a rule to ask no man +to dinner: for to force men, without warning, to a _single_ (and, +therefore, thoroughly useless) act of painful abstinence, is what +neither I nor any man can have a right to do. In point of sense, it is, +in fact, precisely the freak of Sir Roger de Coverley, who drenches his +friend the "Spectator" with a hideous decoction: not, as his confiding +visitor had supposed, for some certain and immediate benefit to follow, +but simply as having a _tendency_ (if well supported by many years' +continuance of similar drenches) to abate the remote contingency of the +stone. Hear this, ye Gods of the Future! I am required to perform a +most difficult sacrifice; and forty years hence I _may_, by persisting +so long, have some dim chance of reward. One day's abstinence could +do no good on _any_ scheme: and no man was likely to offer himself +for a second. However, such being the law of the castle, and that law +well known to Coleridge, he nevertheless, thought fit to ask to dinner +Colonel (then Captain) Pasley, of the Engineers, well known in those +days for his book on the "Military Policy of England," and since for +his "System of Professional Instruction." Now, where or in what land +abides that + + "Captain, or Colonel, or Knight-in-arms," + +to whom wine in the analysis of dinner is a neutral or indifferent +element? Wine, therefore, as it was not of a nature to be omitted, +Coleridge took care to furnish at his own private cost. And so far, +again, all was right. But why must Coleridge give his dinner to the +captain in Mr. Montagu's house? There lay the affront; and, doubtless, +it was a very inconsiderate action on the part of Coleridge. I report +the case simply as it was then generally borne upon the breath, not of +scandal, but of jest and merriment. The result, however, was no jest; +for bitter words ensued--words that festered in the remembrance; and a +rupture between the parties followed, which no reconciliation has ever +healed. + + [81] Basil Montagu (1770-1851) and his wife were celebrities in + London society for many years. Among his publications, besides + legal treatises, were an edition of Bacon's Works and a volume of + selections from the older English Prose-writers. + + [82] _Inquiry into the Effects of Fermented Liquors. By a + Waterdrinker._ London. 1814.--M. + +Meantime, on reviewing this story, as generally adopted by the learned +in literary scandal, one demur rises up. Dr. Parr, a lisping Whig +pedant, without personal dignity or conspicuous power of mind, was +a frequent and privileged inmate at Mr. Montagu's. Him now--this +Parr--there was no conceivable motive for enduring; that point is +satisfactorily settled by the pompous inanities of his works. Yet, on +the other hand, his habits were in their own nature far less endurable +than Samuel Taylor Coleridge's; for the monster smoked;--and how? How +did the "Birmingham Doctor"[83] smoke? Not as you, or I, or other +civilized people smoke, with a gentle cigar--but with the very coarsest +tobacco. And those who know how that abomination lodges and nestles in +the draperies of window-curtains will guess the horror and detestation +in which the old Whig's memory is held by all enlightened women. +Surely, in a house where the Doctor had any toleration at all, Samuel +Taylor Coleridge might have enjoyed an unlimited toleration.[84] + + [83] "_Birmingham Doctor_":--This was a _sobriquet_ imposed on Dr. + Parr by "The Pursuits of Literature," that most popular of satires + at the end of the eighteenth and opening of the nineteenth + centuries. The name had a mixed reference to the Doctor's personal + connexion with Warwickshire, but chiefly to the Doctor's spurious + and windy imitation of Dr. Johnson. He was viewed as the + Birmingham (or mock) Dr. Johnson. Why the word _Birmingham_ has + come for the last sixty or seventy years to indicate in every + class of articles the spurious in opposition to the genuine, I + suppose to have arisen from the Birmingham habit of reproducing + all sorts of London or Paris trinkets, _bijouterie_, &c., in + cheaper materials and with inferior workmanship. + + [84] It is at this point that De Quincey's revised reprint in 1854 + of his Recollections of Coleridge stops. What follows is from the + unrevised sequel in _Tait's Magazine_ for January 1835. See note, + _ante_, p. 138.--M. + + * * * * * + +From Mr. Montagu's Coleridge passed, by favour of what introduction +I never heard, into a family as amiable in manners and as benign in +disposition as I remember to have ever met with. On this excellent +family I look back with threefold affection, on account of their +goodness to Coleridge, and because they were then unfortunate, and +because their union has long since been dissolved by death. The family +was composed of three members: of Mr. M----, once a lawyer, who had, +however, ceased to practise; of Mrs. M----, his wife, a blooming +young woman, distinguished for her fine person; and a young lady, her +unmarried sister.[85] Here, for some years, I used to visit Coleridge; +and, doubtless, as far as situation merely, and the most delicate +attentions from the most amiable women, _could_ make a man happy, he +must have been so at this time; for both the ladies treated him as +an elder brother, or as a father. At length, however, the cloud of +misfortune, which had long settled upon the prospects of this excellent +family, thickened; and I found, upon one of my visits to London, that +they had given up their house in Berners Street, and had retired to +a cottage in Wiltshire. Coleridge had accompanied them; and there I +visited them myself, and, as it eventually proved, for the last time. +Some time after this, I heard from Coleridge, with the deepest sorrow, +that poor M---- had been thrown into prison, and had sunk under the +pressure of his misfortunes. The gentle ladies of his family had +retired to remote friends; and I saw them no more, though often vainly +making inquiries about them. + + [85] The Mr. M---- of this sentence was Mr. John Morgan. He had + known Coleridge and Southey in Bristol, and now lived in + London.--M. + +Coleridge, during this part of his London life, I saw +constantly--generally once a day, during my own stay in London; and +sometimes we were jointly engaged to dinner parties. In particular, I +remember one party at which we met Lady Hamilton--Lord Nelson's Lady +Hamilton--the beautiful, the accomplished, the enchantress! Coleridge +admired her, as who would not have done, prodigiously; and she, in +her turn, was fascinated with Coleridge. He was unusually effective +in his display; and she, by way of expressing her acknowledgments +appropriately, performed a scene in Lady Macbeth--how splendidly, I +cannot better express than by saying that all of us who then witnessed +her performance were familiar with Mrs. Siddons's matchless execution +of that scene, and yet, with such a model filling our imaginations, we +could not but acknowledge the possibility of another, and a different +perfection, without a trace of imitation, equally original, and +equally astonishing. The word "magnificent" is, in this day, most +lavishly abused: daily I hear or read in the newspapers of magnificent +objects, as though scattered more thickly than blackberries; but for +my part I have seen few objects really deserving that epithet. Lady +Hamilton was one of them. She had Medea's beauty, and Medea's power of +enchantment. But let not the reader too credulously suppose her the +unprincipled woman she has been described. I know of no sound reason +for supposing the connexion between Lord Nelson and her to have been +other than perfectly virtuous. Her public services, I am sure, were +most eminent--for _that_ we have indisputable authority; and equally +sure I am that they were requited with rank ingratitude. + +After the household of the poor M----s had been dissolved, I know not +whither Coleridge went immediately: for I did not visit London until +some years had elapsed. In 1823-24 I first understood that he had taken +up his residence as a guest with Mr. Gillman, a surgeon, in Highgate. +He had then probably resided for some time at that gentleman's: there +he continued to reside on the same terms, I believe, of affectionate +friendship with the members of Mr. Gillman's family as had made life +endurable to him in the time of the M----s; and there he died in July +of the present year. If, generally speaking, poor Coleridge had but +a small share of earthly prosperity, in one respect at least he was +eminently favoured by Providence: beyond all men who ever perhaps have +lived, he found means to engage a constant succession of most faithful +friends; and he levied the services of sisters, brothers, daughters, +sons, from the hands of strangers--attracted to him by no possible +impulses but those of reverence for his intellect, and love for his +gracious nature. How, says Wordsworth-- + + ----"How can _he_ expect that others should + Sow for him, reap for _him_, and at his call + Love him, who for himself will take no thought at all?" + +How can he, indeed? It is most unreasonable to do so: yet this +expectation, if Coleridge ought not to have entertained, at all events +he realized. Fast as one friend dropped off, another, and another, +succeeded: perpetual relays were laid along his path in life, of +judicious and zealous supporters, who comforted his days, and smoothed +the pillow for his declining age, even when it was beyond all human +power to take away the thorns which stuffed it. + +And what _were_ those thorns?--and whence derived? That is a question +on which I ought to decline speaking, unless I could speak fully. Not, +however, to make any mystery of what requires none, the reader will +understand that _originally_ his sufferings, and the death within +him of all hope--the palsy, as it were, of that which is the life of +life, and the heart within the heart--came from opium. But two things +I must add--one to explain Coleridge's case, and the other to bring +it within the indulgent allowance of equitable judges:--_First_, the +sufferings from morbid derangements, originally produced by opium, had +very possibly lost that simple character, and had themselves re-acted +in producing secondary states of disease and irritation, not any longer +dependent upon the opium, so as to disappear with its disuse: hence, +a more than mortal discouragement to accomplish this disuse, when the +pains of self-sacrifice were balanced by no gleams of restorative +feeling. Yet, _secondly_, Coleridge did make prodigious efforts to +deliver himself from this thraldom; and he went so far at one time in +Bristol, to my knowledge, as to hire a man for the express purpose, +and armed with the power of resolutely interposing between himself and +the door of any druggist's shop. It is true that an authority derived +only from Coleridge's will could not be valid against Coleridge's own +counter-determination: he could resume as easily as he could delegate +the power. But the scheme did not entirely fail; a man shrinks from +exposing to another that infirmity of will which he might else have but +a feeble motive for disguising to himself; and the delegated man, the +external conscience, as it were, of Coleridge, though destined--in the +final resort, if matters came to absolute rupture, and to an obstinate +duel, as it were, between himself and his principal--in that extremity +to give way, yet might have long protracted the struggle before coming +to that sort of _dignus vindice nodus_: and in fact, I know, upon +absolute proof, that, before reaching that crisis, the man showed +fight, and, faithful to his trust, and comprehending the reasons for +it, declared that, if he must yield, he would "know the reason why." + +Opium, therefore, subject to the explanation I have made, was certainly +the original source of Coleridge's morbid feelings, of his debility, +and of his remorse. His pecuniary embarrassments pressed as lightly +as could well be expected upon him. I have mentioned the annuity of +£150 made to him by the two Wedgwoods. One half, I believe, could not +be withdrawn, having been left by a regular testamentary bequest. But +the other moiety, coming from the surviving brother, was withdrawn on +the plea of commercial losses, somewhere, I think, about 1815. That +would have been a heavy blow to Coleridge; and assuredly the generosity +is not very conspicuous of having ever suffered an allowance of that +nature to be left to the mercy of accident. Either it ought not to +have been granted in that shape--viz. as an _annual_ allowance, giving +ground for expecting its periodical recurrence--or it ought not to +have been withdrawn. However, this blow was broken to Coleridge by the +bounty of George IV, who placed Coleridge's name in the list of twelve +to whom he granted an annuity of 100 guineas per annum. This he enjoyed +so long as that Prince reigned. But at length came a heavier blow than +that from Mr. Wedgwood: a new King arose, who knew not Joseph. Yet +surely _he_ was not a King who could so easily resolve to turn adrift +twelve men of letters, many of them most accomplished men, for the sake +of appropriating a sum no larger to himself than 1200 guineas--no less +to some of them than the total freight of their earthly hopes?--No +matter: let the deed have been from whose hand it might, it was +done: [Greek: heirgastai], it was perpetrated, as saith the Medea of +Euripides; and it will be mentioned hereafter, "more than either once +or twice." It fell with weight, and with effect upon the latter days +of Coleridge; it took from him as much heart and hope as at his years, +and with his unworldly prospects, remained for man to blight: and, if +it did not utterly crush him, the reason was--because for himself he +had never needed much, and was now continually drawing near to that +haven in which, for himself, he would need nothing; secondly, because +his children were now independent of his aid; and, finally, because in +this land there are men to be found always of minds large enough to +comprehend the claims of genius, and with hearts, by good luck, more +generous, by infinite degrees, than the hearts of Princes. + +Coleridge, as I now understand, was somewhere about sixty-two years +of age when he died.[86] This, however, I take upon the report of the +public newspapers; for I do not, of my own knowledge, know anything +accurately upon that point. + + [86] Coleridge died at Highgate, 25th July 1834, in the + sixty-second year of his age, and the eighteenth of his residence + with Mr. Gillman.--M. + + * * * * * + +It can hardly be necessary to inform any reader of discernment or +of much practice in composition that the whole of this article +upon Mr. Coleridge, though carried through at intervals, and (as +it has unexpectedly happened) with time sufficient to have made it +a very careful one, has, in fact, been written in a desultory and +unpremeditated style. It was originally undertaken on the sudden +but profound impulse communicated to the writer's feelings by the +unexpected news of this great man's death; partly, therefore, to +relieve, by expressing, his own deep sentiments of reverential +affection to his memory, and partly, in however imperfect a way, to +meet the public feeling of interest or curiosity about a man who had +long taken his place amongst the intellectual _potentates_ of the age. +Both purposes required that it should be written almost _extempore_: +the greater part was really and unaffectedly written in that way, +and under circumstances of such extreme haste as would justify the +writer in pleading the very amplest privilege of licence and indulgent +construction which custom concedes to such cases. Hence it had occurred +to the writer, as a judicious principle, to create a sort of merit out +of his own necessity, and rather to seek after the graces which belong +to the epistolary form, or to other modes of composition professedly +careless, than after those which grow out of preconceived biographies, +which, having originally settled their plan upon a regular foundation, +are able to pursue a course of orderly development, such as _his_ +slight sketch had voluntarily renounced from the beginning. That mode +of composition having been once adopted, it seemed proper to sustain +it, even after delays and interruption had allowed time for throwing +the narrative into a more orderly movement, and modulating it, as +it were, into a key of the usual solemnity. The _qualis ab incepto +processerit_--the _ordo_ prescribed by the first bars of the music +predominated over all other considerations, and to such an extent that +he had purposed to leave the article without any regular termination or +summing up--as, on the one hand, scarcely demanded by the character of +a sketch so rapid and indigested, whilst, on the other, he was sensible +that anything of so much pretension as a formal peroration challenged +a sort of consideration to the paper which it was the author's chief +wish to disclaim. That effect, however, is sufficiently parried by the +implied protest now offered; and, on other reasons, it is certainly +desirable that a general glance, however cursory, should be thrown over +the intellectual claims of Mr. Coleridge by one who knew him so well, +and especially in a case where those very claims constitute the entire +and sole justification of the preceding personal memoir. That which +furnishes the whole moving reason for any separate notice at all, and +forms its whole latent interest, ought not, in mere logic, to be left +without some notice itself, though as rapidly executed as the previous +biographical sketch, and, from the necessity of the subject, by many +times over more imperfect. + +To this task, therefore, the writer now addresses himself; and by +way of gaining greater freedom of movement and of resuming his +conversational tone, he will here again take the liberty of speaking in +the first person. + +If Mr. Coleridge had been merely a scholar--merely a philologist--or +merely a man of science--there would be no reason apparent for +travelling in our survey beyond the field of his intellect, rigorously +and narrowly so called. But, because he was a poet, and because he was +a philosopher in a comprehensive and a most _human_ sense, with whose +functions the moral nature is so largely interwoven, I shall feel +myself entitled to notice the most striking aspects of his _character_ +(using that word in its common limited meaning), of his disposition, +and his manners, as so many reflex indications of his intellectual +constitution. But let it be well understood that I design nothing +elaborate, nothing comprehensive or ambitious: my purpose is merely to +supply a few hints and suggestions drawn from a very hasty retrospect, +by way of adding a few traits to any outline which the reader may have +framed to himself, either from some personal knowledge, or from more +full and lively memorials. + +One character in which Mr. Coleridge most often came before the public +was that of politician. In this age of fervent partisanship, it will, +therefore, naturally occur as a first question to inquire after his +party and political connexions: was he Whig, Tory, or Radical? Or, +under a new classification, were his propensities Conservative or +Reforming? I answer that, in any exclusive or emphatic sense, he +was none of these; because, as a philosopher, he was, according to +circumstances, and according to the object concerned, all of these by +turns. These are distinctions upon which a cloud of delusion rests. +It would not be difficult to show that in the speculations built upon +the distinction of Whig and Tory, even by as philosophic a politician +as Edmund Burke, there is an oversight of the largest practical +importance. But the general and partisan use of these terms superadds +to this [Greek: prôton pseudos] a second which is much more flagrant. +It is this: the terms Whig or Tory, used by partisans, are taken _extra +gradum_, as expressing the ideal or extreme cases of the several +creeds; whereas, in actual life, few such cases are found realized, +by far the major part of those who answer to either one or the other +denomination making only an approximation (differing by infinite +degrees) to the ideal or abstract type. A third error there is, +relating to the actual extent of the several denominations, even after +every allowance made for the faintest approximations. Listen to a Whig, +or to a Tory, and you will suppose that the great bulk of society range +under his banner: all, at least, who have any property at stake. Listen +to a Radical, and you will suppose that all are marshalled in the same +ranks with himself, unless those who have some private interest in +existing abuses, or have aristocratic privileges to defend. Yet, upon +going extensively into society as it is, you find that a vast majority +of good citizens are of no party whatsoever, own no party designation, +care for no party interest, but carry their good wishes by turns to men +of every party, according to the momentary purpose they are pursuing. +As to Whig and Tory, it is pretty clear that only two classes of men, +both of limited extent, acknowledge these as their distinctions: +first, those who make politics in some measure their profession or +trade--whether by standing forward habitually in public meetings as +leaders or as assistants, or by writing books and pamphlets in the same +cause; secondly, those whose rank, or birth, or position in a city, +or a rural district, almost pledges them to a share in the political +struggles of the day, under the penalty of being held _fainéans_, +truants, or even malignant recusants, if they should decline a warfare +which often, perhaps, they do not love in secret. These classes, which, +after all, are not numerous, and not entirely sincere, compose the +whole extent of professing Whigs and Tories who make any approach to +the standards of their two churches; and, generally speaking, these +persons have succeeded to their politics and their party ties, as they +have to their estates, viz. by inheritance. Not their way of thinking +in politics has dictated their party connexions; but these connexions, +traditionally bequeathed from one generation to another, have dictated +their politics. With respect to the Radical or the Reformer, the case +is otherwise; for it is certain that in this, as in every great and +enlightened nation, enjoying an intense and fervid communication of +thought through the press, there is, and must be, a tendency widely +diffused to the principles of sane reform--an anxiety to probe and +examine all the institutions of the land by the increasing lights +of the age--and a salutary determination that no acknowledged abuse +shall be sheltered by prescription, or privileged by its antiquity. In +saying, therefore, that _his_ principles are spread over the length +and breadth of the land, the Reformer says no more than the truth. +_Whig_ and _Tory_, as usually understood, express only two modes of +aristocratic partisanship: and it is strange, indeed, to find people +deluded by the notion that the reforming principle has any more natural +connexion with the first than the last. _Reformer_, on the other hand, +to a certain extent expresses the political creed and aspect of almost +every enlightened citizen: but, then, how? Not, as the _Radical_ would +insinuate, as pledging a man to a specific set of objects, or to any +visible and apparent party, having known leaders and settled modes of +action. British society, in its large majority, may be fairly described +as _Reformers_, in the sense of being favourably disposed to a general +spirit of ventilation and reform carried through all departments of +public business, political or judicial; but it is so far from being, +therefore, true that men in general are favourably disposed to any +known party, in or out of Parliament, united for certain objects and by +certain leaders, that, on the contrary, this reforming party itself has +no fixed unity, and no generally acknowledged heads. It is divided both +as to persons and as to things: the ends to be pursued create as many +schisms as the course of means proper for the pursuit, and the choice +of agents for conducting the public wishes. In fact, it would be even +more difficult to lay down the ideal standard of a Reformer, or his +abstract creed, than of a Tory: and, supposing this done, it would be +found, in practice, that the imperfect approximations to the pure faith +would differ by even broader shades as regarded the reforming creed +than as regarded that of the rigorous or ultra Tory. + +With respect to Mr. Coleridge: he was certainly a friend to all +enlightened reforms; he was a friend, for example, to Reform in +Parliament. Sensible as he was of the prodigious diffusion of knowledge +and good sense amongst the classes immediately below the gentry in +British society, he could not but acknowledge their right to a larger +and a less indirect share of political influence. As to the plan, and +its extent, and its particular provisions,--upon those he hesitated +and wavered; as other friends to the same views have done, and will +continue to do. The only _avowed_ objects of modern Reformers which he +would strenuously have opposed, nay, would have opposed with the zeal +of an ancient martyr, are those which respect the Church of England, +and, therefore, most of those which respect the two Universities of +Oxford and Cambridge. There he would have been found in the first ranks +of the Anti-Reformers. He would also have supported the House of +Peers, as the tried bulwark of our social interests in many a famous +struggle, and sometimes, in the hour of need, the sole barrier against +despotic aggressions on the one hand, and servile submissions on the +other. Moreover, he looked with favour upon many modes of aristocratic +influence as balances to new-made commercial wealth, and to a far +baser tyranny likely to arise from that quarter when unbalanced. But, +allowing for these points of difference, I know of little else stamped +with the general seal of modern reform, and claiming to be a privileged +object for a national effort, which would not have had his countenance. +It is true,--and this I am sensible will be objected,--that his party +connexions were chiefly with the Tories; and it adds a seeming strength +to this objection, that these connexions were not those of accident, +nor those which he inherited, nor those of his youthful choice. They +were sought out by himself, and in his maturer years; or else they were +such as sought _him_ for the sake of his political principles; and +equally, in either case, they argued some affinity in his political +creed. This much cannot be denied. But one consideration will serve +greatly to qualify the inference from these facts. In those years when +Mr. Coleridge became connected with Tories, what was the predominating +and cardinal principle of Toryism, in comparison with which all else +was willingly slighted? Circumstances of position had thrown upon the +Tories the _onus_ of a great national struggle, the greatest which +History anywhere records, and with an enemy the most deadly. The Whigs +were then out of power: they were therefore in opposition; and that +one fact, the simple fact, of holding an anti-ministerial position, +they allowed, by a most fatal blunder, to determine the course of +their foreign politics. Napoleon was to be cherished simply because he +was a thorn in Mr. Pitt's side. So began their foreign policy--and in +that pettiest of personal views. Because they were anti-ministerial, +they allowed themselves passively to become anti-national. To be a +Whig, therefore, in those days, implied little more than a strenuous +opposition to foreign war; to be a Tory pledged a man to little +more than war with Napoleon Bonaparte. And this view of our foreign +relations it was that connected Coleridge with Tories,--a view which +arose upon no motives of selfish interest (as too often has been said +in reproach), but upon the changes wrought in the spirit of the French +Republic, which gradually transmuted its defensive warfare (framed +originally to meet a conspiracy of kings crusading against the new-born +democracy of French institutions, whilst yet in their cradle) into a +warfare of aggression and sanguinary ambition. The military strength +evoked in France by the madness of European kings had taught her the +secret of her own power--a secret too dangerous for a nation of vanity +so infinite, and so feeble in all means of moral self-restraint. +The temptation to foreign conquest was too strong for the national +principles; and, in this way, all that had been grand and pure in the +early pretensions of French Republicanism rapidly melted away before +the common bribes of vulgar ambition. Unoffending states, such as +Switzerland, were the first to be trampled under foot; no voice was +heard any more but the "brazen throat of war"; and, after all that +had been vaunted of a golden age, and a long career opened to the +sceptre of pure political justice, the clouds gathered more gloomily +than ever; and the sword was once more reinstated, as the sole arbiter +of right, with less disguise and less reserve than under the vilest +despotism of kings. The change was in the French Republicans, not in +their foreign admirers; they, in mere consistency, were compelled +into corresponding changes, and into final alienation of sympathy, as +they beheld, one after one, all titles forfeited by which that grand +explosion of pure democracy had originally challenged and sustained +their veneration. The mighty Republic had now begun to revolve through +those fierce transmigrations foreseen by Burke, to every one of which, +by turns, he had denounced an inevitable "purification by fire and +blood": no trace remained of her primitive character: and of that awful +outbreak of popular might which once had made France the land of hope +and promise to the whole human race, and had sounded a knell to every +form of oppression or abuse, no record was to be found, except in the +stupendous power which cemented its martial oligarchy. Of the people, +of the democracy--or that it had ever for an hour been roused from its +slumbers--one sole evidence remained; and that lay in the blank power +of destruction, and its perfect organization, which none but a popular +movement, no power short of that, could have created. The people, +having been unchained, and as if for the single purpose of creating +a vast system of destroying energies, had then immediately recoiled +within their old limits, and themselves become the earliest victim +of their own stratocracy. In this way France had become an object of +jealousy and alarm. It remained to see to what purpose she would apply +her new energies. That was soon settled; her new-born power was wielded +from the first by unprincipled and by ambitious men; and, in 1800, +it fell under the permanent control of an autocrat, whose unity of +purpose, and iron will, left no room for any hope of change. + +Under these circumstances, under these prospects, coupled with this +retrospect, what became the duty of all foreign politicians? of +the English above all, as natural leaders in any hopeful scheme of +resistance? The question can scarcely be put with decency. Time and +season, place or considerations of party, all alike vanished before +an elementary duty to the human race, which much transcended any +duty of exclusive patriotism. Plant it, however, on that narrower +basis, and the answer would have been the same for all centuries, +and for every land under a corresponding state of circumstances. Of +Napoleon's real purposes there cannot _now_ be any reasonable doubt. +His confessions--and, in particular, his indirect revelations at St. +Helena--have long since removed all demurs or scruples of scepticism. +For England, therefore, as in relation to a man bent upon her ruin, +all distinctions of party were annihilated--Whig and Tory were merged +and swallowed up in the transcendent duties of patriots, Englishmen, +lovers of liberty. Tories, _as_ Tories, had here no peculiar or +separate duties--none which belonged to their separate creed in +politics. Their duties were paramount; and their partisanship had +here no application--was perfectly indifferent, and spoke neither +this way nor that. In one respect only they had peculiar duties, and +a peculiar responsibility; peculiar, however, not by any difference +of quality, but in its supreme degree; the same duties which belonged +to all, belonged to them by a heavier responsibility. And how, or +why? Not _as_ Tories had they, or could they have, any functions at +all applying to this occasion; it was as being then the ministerial +party, as the party accidentally in power at the particular crisis: in +_that_ character it was that they had any separate or higher degree +of responsibility; otherwise, and as to the _kind_ of their duty +apart from this degree, the Tories stood in the same circumstances +as men of all other parties. To the Tories, however, as accidentally +in possession of the supreme power, and wielding the national forces +at that time, and directing their application--to them it was that +the honour belonged of making a beginning: on them had devolved +the privilege of opening and authorizing the dread crusade. How +and in what spirit they acquitted themselves of that most enviable +task--enviable for its sanctity, fearful for the difficulty of its +adequate fulfilment--how they persevered, and whether, at any crisis, +the direst and most ominous to the righteous cause, they faltered or +gave sign of retreating--History will tell--History has already told. +To the Whigs belonged the duty of seconding their old antagonists: +and no wise man could have doubted that, in a case of transcendent +patriotism, where none of those principles could possibly apply by +which the two parties were divided and distinguished, the Whigs would +be anxious to show that, for the interests of their common country, +they could cheerfully lay aside all those party distinctions, and +forget those feuds which now had no pertinence or meaning. Simply as +Whigs, had they stood in no other relation, they probably would have +done so. Unfortunately, however, for their own good name and popularity +in after times, they were divided from the other party, not merely as +Whigs opposed to Tories, but also upon another and a more mortifying +distinction, which was not, like the first, a mere inert question of +speculation or theory, but involved a vast practical difference of +honours and emoluments:--they were divided, I say, on another and +more vexatious principle, as the _Outs_ opposed to the _Ins_. Simply +as Whigs, they might have coalesced with the Tories _quoad hoc_, and +merely for this one purpose. But, as men _out_ of power, they could +not coalesce with those who were _in_. They constituted "his Majesty's +Opposition"; and, in a fatal hour, they determined that it was fitting +to carry their general scheme of hostility even into this sacred and +privileged ground. That resolution once taken, they found it necessary +to pursue it with zeal. The case itself was too weighty and too +interesting to allow of any moderate tone for the abetters or opposers. +Passion and personal bitterness soon animated the contest: violent +and rash predictions were hazarded--prophecies of utter ruin and of +captivity for our whole army were solemnly delivered: and it soon +became evident, as indeed mere human infirmity made it beforehand but +too probable, that, where so much personal credit was at stake upon the +side of our own national dishonour, the wishes of the prophet had been +pledged to the same result as the credit of his political sagacity. +Many were the melancholy illustrations of the same general case. Men +were seen fighting against the evidences of some great British victory +with all the bitterness and fierce incredulity which usually meet the +first rumours of some private calamity: that was in effect the aspect +in their eyes of each national triumph in its turn. Their position, +connected with the unfortunate election made by the Whig leaders of +their tone, from the very opening of the contest, gave the character of +a calamity for them and for their party to that which to every other +heart in Britain was the noblest of triumphs in the noblest of causes; +and, as a party, the Whigs mourned for years over those events which +quickened the pulses of pleasure and sacred exultation in every other +heart. God forbid that all Whigs should have felt in this unnatural +way! I speak only of the tone set by the Parliamentary leaders. The +few who were in Parliament, and exposed to daily taunts from the just +exultation of their irritated opponents, had their natural feelings +poisoned and envenomed. The many who were out of Parliament, and not +personally interested in this warfare of the Houses, were left open to +natural influences of patriotic pride, and to the contagion of public +sympathy: and these, though Whigs, felt as became them. + +These are things too unnatural to be easily believed, or, in a land +where the force of partisanship is less, to be easily understood. Being +true, however, they ought not to be forgotten: and at present it is +almost necessary that they should be stated for the justification of +Coleridge. Too much has been written upon this part of his life, and +too many reproaches thrown out upon his levity or his want of principle +in his supposed sacrifice of his early political connexions, to make +it possible for any reverencer of Coleridge's memory to pass over the +case without a full explanation. That explanation is involved in the +strange and scandalous conduct of the Parliamentary Whigs. Coleridge +passed over to the Tories only in that sense in which all patriots did +so at that time, and in relation to our great _foreign_ interest--viz. +by refusing to accompany the Whigs in their almost perfidious demeanour +towards Napoleon Bonaparte. Anti-_ministerial_ they affect to style +their policy, but in the most eminent sense it was anti-_national_. It +was thus far--viz. exclusively, or almost exclusively, in relation to +our great feud with Napoleon--that Coleridge adhered to the Tories. +But, because this feud was so capital and so earth-shaking a quarrel +that it occupied all hearts and all the councils of Christendom, +suffering no other question almost to live in its neighbourhood, hence +it happened that he who acceded to the Tories in this one chapter +of their policy was regarded as an ally in the most general sense. +Domestic politics were then, in fact, forgotten; no question, in any +proper sense a Tory one, ever arose in that era; or, if it had, the +public attention would not have settled upon it, and it would speedily +have been dismissed. + +_Hence_ I deduce as a possibility, and, from my knowledge of Coleridge, +I deduce it as a fact, that his adhesion to the Tories was bounded by +his approbation of their foreign policy; and even of _that_ rarely in +its executive details, rarely even in its military plans (for these he +assailed with more keenness of criticism than to me the case seemed +to justify), but solely in its animating principle, its moving and +sustaining force, viz. the doctrine and entire faith that Napoleon +Bonaparte ought to be resisted, was not a proper object of diplomacy or +negotiation, and could be resisted hopefully and triumphantly. Thus far +he went along with the Tories: in all else he belonged quite as much +to other parties--so far as he belonged to any. And that he did not +follow any bias of private interest in connecting himself with Tories, +or rather in allowing Tories to connect themselves with him, appears +(rather more indeed than it ought to have appeared) on the very surface +of his life. From Tory munificence he drew nothing at all, unless it +should be imputed to his Tory connexions that George IV selected him +for one of his academicians. But this slight mark of royal favour he +owed, I believe, to other considerations; and I have reason to think +that this way of treating political questions, so wide of dogmatism, +and laying open so vast a field to scepticism that might else have +gone unregarded, must have been held as evidence of too latitudinarian +a creed to justify a title to Toryism. And, upon the whole, I am of +opinion that few events of Mr. Coleridge's life were better calculated +to place his disinterested pursuit of truth in a luminous aspect. In +fact, his carelessness of all worldly interests was too notorious to +leave him open to suspicions of that nature: nor was this carelessness +kept within such limits as to be altogether meritorious. There is no +doubt that his indolence concurred, in some degree, to that line of +conduct and to that political reserve which would, at all events, have +been pursued, in a degree beyond what honour the severest, or delicacy +the most nervous, could have enjoined. + +It is a singular anecdote, after all, to report of Coleridge, who +incurred the reproach of having _ratted_ solely by his inability to +follow the friends of his early days into what his heart regarded as a +monstrous and signal breach of patriotism, that in any eminent sense he +was _not_ a patriot. His understanding, in this, as in many instances, +was too active, too restless, for any abiding feelings to lay hold of +him, unless when they coincided with some palpable command of nature. +Parental love, for instance, was too holy a thing to be submitted +for an instant to any scrutiny or any jealousy of his hair-splitting +understanding. But it must be something as sacred and as profound as +that which with Coleridge could long support the endless attrition of +his too active intellect. In this instance, he had the same defect, +derived in part from the same cause, as a contemporary, one of the +idols of the day, more celebrated, and more widely celebrated, than +Coleridge, but far his inferior in power and compass of intellect. +I speak of Goethe: he also was defective, and defective under far +stronger provocations and excitement, in patriotic feeling. He cared +little for Weimar, and less for Germany. And he was, thus far, much +below Coleridge--that the passion which he could not feel Coleridge +yet obliged himself practically to obey in all things which concerned +the world, whereas Goethe disowned this passion equally in his acts, +his words, and his writings. Both are now gone--Goethe and Coleridge; +both are honoured by those who knew them, and by multitudes who did +not. But the honours of Coleridge are perennial, and will annually grow +more verdant; whilst from those of Goethe every generation will see +something fall away, until posterity will wonder at the subverted idol, +whose basis, being hollow and unsound, will leave the worship of their +fathers an enigma to their descendants. + + NOTE REFERRED TO ON PAGE 143 + +I have somewhere seen it remarked with respect to these charges of +plagiarism, that, however incontrovertible, they did not come with any +propriety or grace from myself as the supposed friend of Coleridge, +and as writing my sketch of slight reminiscences on the immediate +suggestion of his death. My answer is this: _I_ certainly was the first +person (first, I believe, by some years) to point out the plagiarisms +of Coleridge, and above all others that circumstantial plagiarism, of +which it is impossible to suppose him unconscious, from Schelling. Many +of his plagiarisms were probably unintentional, and arose from that +confusion between things floating in the memory and things self-derived +which happens at times to most of us that deal much with books on the +one hand, and composition on the other. An author can hardly have +written much and rapidly who does not sometimes detect himself, and +perhaps, therefore, sometimes fail to detect himself, in appropriating +the thoughts, images, or striking expressions of others. It is enough +for his conscientious self-justification, that he is anxiously vigilant +to guard himself from such unacknowledged obligations, and forward to +acknowledge them as soon as ever they are pointed out. But no excess +of candour the most indulgent will allow us to suppose that a most +profound speculation upon the original relations _inter se_ of the +subjective and the objective, literally translated from the German, +and stretching over some pages, could, after any interval of years, +come to be mistaken by the translator for his own. This amounted to +an entire essay. But suppose the compass of the case to lie within +a single word, yet if that word were so remarkable, so provocative +to the curiosity, and promising so much weight of meaning (which +reasonably any great departure from ordinary diction must promise), +as the word _esemplastic_,[87] we should all hold it impossible for +a man to appropriate this word inadvertently. I, therefore, greatly +_understated_ the case against Coleridge, instead of giving to it +an undue emphasis. Secondly, in stating it at all, I did so (as at +the time I explained) in pure kindness. Well I knew that, from the +direction in which English philosophic studies were now travelling, +sooner or later these appropriations of Coleridge must be detected; +and I felt that it would break the force of the discovery, as an +unmitigated sort of police detection, if first of all it had been +announced by one who, in the same breath, was professing an unshaken +faith in Coleridge's philosophic power. It could not be argued that +one of those who most fervently admired Coleridge had professed such +feelings only because he was ignorant of Coleridge's obligations to +others. Here was a man who had actually for himself, unguided and +unwarned, discovered these obligations; and yet, in the very act of +making that discovery, this man clung to his original feelings and +faith. But, thirdly, I must inform the reader that I was not, nor ever +had been, the "friend" of Coleridge in any sense which could have a +right to restrain my frankest opinions upon his merits. I never had +lived in such intercourse with Coleridge as to give me an opportunity +of becoming his friend. To _him_ I owed nothing at all; but to the +public, to the body of his own readers, every writer owes the truth, +and especially on a subject so important as that which was then before +me. + + [87] "_Esemplastic_":--A writer in "Blackwood," who carried a + wrath into the discussion for which I and others found it hard to + account, made it a sort of charge against myself, that I had + overlooked this remarkable case. If I _had_, there would have been + no particular reason for anger or surprise, seeing that the + particular German work in which these plagiarisms were traced had + been lent to me under most rigorous limitations as to the time for + returning it; the owner of the volume was going out of London, and + a very few hours (according to my present remembrance only two) + were all that he could allow me for hunting through the most + impracticable of metaphysical thickets (what Coleridge elsewhere + calls "the holy jungle of metaphysics"). Meantime I had _not_ + overlooked the case of _esemplastic_; I had it in my memory, but + hurry of the press and want of room obliged me to omit a good + deal. Indeed, if such omissions constituted any reproach, then the + critic in "Blackwood" was liable to his own censure. For I + remember to this hour several Latin quotations made by Schelling, + and repeated by Coleridge as his own, which neither I nor my too + rigorous reviewer had drawn out for public exposure. As regarded + myself, it was quite sufficient that I had indicated the grounds, + and opened the paths, on which the game must be sought; that I + left the rest of the chase to others, was no subject for blame, + but part of my purpose; and, under the circumstances, very much a + matter of necessity.--In taking leave of this affair, I ought to + point out a ground of complaint against my reviewer under his + present form of expression, which I am sure could not have been + designed. It happened that I had forgotten the particular title of + Schelling's work; naturally enough, in a situation where no + foreign books could be had, I quoted it under a false one. And + this inevitable error of mine on a matter so entirely irrelevant + is so described that the neutral reader might suppose me to have + committed against Coleridge the crime of Lauder against + Milton--that is, taxing him with plagiarism by referring, not to + real works of Schelling, but to pretended works, of which the very + titles were forgeries of my own. This, I am sure, my unknown + critic never could have meant. The plagiarisms were really there; + more and worse in circumstances than any denounced by myself; and, + of all men, the "Blackwood" critic was the most bound to proclaim + this; or else what became of his own clamorous outcry? Being, + therefore, such as I had represented, of what consequence was the + special title of the German volume to which these plagiarisms were + referred?--[The reference in this footnote, written by De Quincey + in 1854, is to an article on "The Plagiarisms of S. T. Coleridge," + which had appeared in _Blackwood_ for March 1840, the writer of + which had animadverted on De Quincey's previous disclosures on the + subject in his _Tait_ papers of 1834-5.--M.] + +With respect to the comparatively trivial case of Pythagoras, an +author of great distinction in literature and in the Anglican Church +has professed himself unable to understand what room there could be +for plagiarism in a case where the solution ascribed to Coleridge +was amongst the commonplaces of ordinary English academic tuition. +Locally this may have been so; but hardly, I conceive, in so large +an extent as to make that solution _publici juris_. Yet, however +this may be, no help is given to Coleridge; since, according to Mr. +Poole's story, whether the interpretation of the riddle were or were +_not_ generally diffused, Coleridge claimed it for his own.--[In Mrs. +Sandford's _Thomas Poole and his Friends_ (1888), vol. ii. pp. 304-6, +there is printed a letter of Mr. Poole's, dated June 1835, doubting the +accuracy of De Quincey's story of their discourse in 1807, respecting +Coleridge's plagiarisms.--M.] + +Finally--for distance from the press and other inconveniences of +unusual pressure oblige me to wind up suddenly--the whole spirit of my +record at the time (twenty years ago), and in particular the special +allusion to the last Duke of Ancaster's case, as one which ran parallel +to Coleridge's, involving the same propensity to appropriate what +generally were trifles in the midst of enormous and redundant wealth, +survives as an indication of the _animus_ with which I approached this +subject, starting even from the assumption that I was bound to consider +myself under the restraints of friendship--which, for the second time +let me repeat, I was _not_. In reality, the notes contributed to the +Aldine edition of the "Biographia Literaria," by Coleridge's admirable +daughter, have placed this whole subject in a new light; and, in doing +this, have unavoidably reflected some degree of justification upon +myself. Too much so, I understand to be the feeling in some quarters. +This lamented lady is thought to have shown partialities in her +distributions of praise and blame upon this subject. I will not here +enter into that discussion. But, as respects the justification of her +father, I regard her mode of argument as unassailable. Filial piety the +most tender never was so finely reconciled with candour towards the +fiercest of his antagonists. Wherever the plagiarism was undeniable, +she has allowed it; whilst palliating its faultiness by showing the +circumstances under which it arose. But she has also opened a new view +of other circumstances under which an apparent plagiarism arose that +was not real. I myself, for instance, knew cases where Coleridge gave +to young ladies a copy of verses, headed thus--"Lines on----, from the +German of Hölty." Other young ladies made transcripts of these lines; +and, caring nothing for the German authorship, naturally fathered +them upon Coleridge, the translator. These lines were subsequently +circulated as Coleridge's, and as if on Coleridge's own authority. Thus +arose many cases of apparent plagiarism. And, lastly, as his daughter +most truly reports, if he took--he gave. Continually he fancied other +men's thoughts his own; but such were the confusions of his memory that +continually, and with even greater liberality, he ascribed his own +thoughts to others. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE LAKE POETS: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH[88] + + [88] Composed of articles in _Tait's Magazine_ for January, + February, and April 1839, as revised and recast by De Quincey, + published, with some additions, for the second volume of the + Collective Edinburgh Edition of his writings in 1854.--M. + + +In 1807 it was, at the beginning of winter, that I first saw William +Wordsworth. I have already mentioned[89] that I had introduced myself +to his notice by letter as early as the spring of 1803. To this hour +it has continued, I believe, a mystery to Wordsworth why it was that +I suffered an interval of four and a half years to slip away before +availing myself of the standing invitation with which I had been +honoured to the poet's house. Very probably he accounted for this +delay by supposing that the new-born liberty of an Oxford life, with +its multiplied enjoyments, acting upon a boy just emancipated from +the restraints of a school, and, in one hour, elevated into what we +Oxonians so proudly and so exclusively denominate "a man,"[90] might +have tempted me into pursuits alien from the pure intellectual passions +which had so powerfully mastered my youthful heart some years before. +Extinguished such a passion could not be; nor could he think so, if +remembering the fervour with which I had expressed it, the sort of +"nympholepsy" which had seized upon me, and which, in some imperfect +way, I had avowed with reference to the very lakes and mountains +amongst which the scenery of this most original poetry had chiefly +grown up and moved. The very names of the ancient hills--Fairfield, +Seat Sandal, Helvellyn, Blencathara, Glaramara; the names of the +sequestered glens--such as Borrowdale, Martindale, Mardale, Wasdale, +and Ennerdale; but, above all, the shy pastoral recesses, not garishly +in the world's eye, like Windermere or Derwentwater, but lurking half +unknown to the traveller of that day--Grasmere, for instance, the +lovely abode of the poet himself, solitary, and yet sowed, as it were, +with a thin diffusion of humble dwellings--here a scattering, and there +a clustering, as in the starry heavens--sufficient to afford, at every +turn and angle, human remembrances and memorials of time-honoured +affections, or of passions (as the "Churchyard amongst the Mountains" +will amply demonstrate) not wanting even in scenic and tragical +interest: these were so many local spells upon me, equally poetic and +elevating with the Miltonic names of Valdarno and Vallombrosa. + + [89] _Ante_, p. 59.--M. + + [90] At the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where the town + is viewed as a mere ministerial appendage to the numerous + colleges--the civic Oxford, for instance, existing for the sake of + the academic Oxford, and not _vice versâ_--it has naturally + happened that the students honour with the name of "_a man_" him + only who wears a cap and gown. + +Deep are the voices which seem to call, deep is the lesson which would +be taught, even to the most thoughtless of men, + + "Could field, or grove, or any spot of earth, + Show to his eye an image of the pangs + Which it hath witnessed; render back an echo + Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod."[91] + + [91] See the divine passage (in the Sixth Book of "The Excursion") + beginning-- + + "Ah, what a lesson to a thoughtless man," &c. + +Meantime, my delay was due to anything rather than to waning interest. +On the contrary, the real cause of my delay was the too great +profundity, and the increasing profundity, of my interest in this +regeneration of our national poetry, and the increasing awe, in due +proportion to the decaying thoughtlessness of boyhood, which possessed +me for the character of its author. So far from neglecting Wordsworth, +it is a fact that twice I had undertaken a long journey expressly for +the purpose of paying my respects to Wordsworth; twice I came so far +as the little rustic inn (then the sole inn of the neighbourhood) at +Church Coniston; and on neither occasion could I summon confidence +enough to present myself before him. It was not that I had any want +of proper boldness for facing the most numerous company of a mixed or +ordinary character: reserved, indeed, I was, perhaps even shy--from +the character of my mind, so profoundly meditative, and the character +of my life, so profoundly sequestered--but still, from counteracting +causes, I was not deficient in a reasonable self-confidence towards +the world generally. But the very image of Wordsworth, as I prefigured +it to my own planet-struck eye, crushed my faculties as before Elijah +or St. Paul. Twice, as I have said, did I advance as far as the Lake +of Coniston; which is about eight miles from the church of Grasmere, +and once I absolutely went forwards from Coniston to the very gorge +of Hammerscar, from which the whole Vale of Grasmere suddenly breaks +upon the view in a style of almost theatrical surprise, with its lovely +valley stretching before the eye in the distance, the lake lying +immediately below, with its solemn ark-like island of four and a half +acres in size seemingly floating on its surface, and its exquisite +outline on the opposite shore, revealing all its little bays[92] and +wild sylvan margin, feathered to the edge with wild flowers and ferns. +In one quarter, a little wood, stretching for about half a mile towards +the outlet of the lake; more directly in opposition to the spectator, a +few green fields; and beyond them, just two bowshots from the water, a +little white cottage gleaming from the midst of trees, with a vast and +seemingly never-ending series of ascents rising above it to the height +of more than three thousand feet. That little cottage was Wordsworth's +from the time of his marriage, and earlier; in fact, from the beginning +of the century to the year 1808. Afterwards, for many a year, it was +mine. Catching one hasty glimpse of this loveliest of landscapes, +I retreated like a guilty thing, for fear I might be surprised by +Wordsworth, and then returned faintheartedly to Coniston, and so to +Oxford, _re infectâ_. + + [92] All which inimitable graces of nature have, by the hands of + mechanic art, by solid masonry, by whitewashing, &c., been + exterminated, as a growth of weeds and nuisances, for thirty + years.--_August 17, 1853._ + +This was in 1806. And thus far, from mere excess of nervous distrust +in my own powers for sustaining a conversation with Wordsworth, I +had for nearly five years shrunk from a meeting for which, beyond +all things under heaven, I longed. In early youth I laboured under a +peculiar embarrassment and penury of words, when I sought to convey my +thoughts adequately upon interesting subjects: neither was it words +only that I wanted; but I could not unravel, I could not even make +perfectly conscious to myself, the subsidiary thoughts into which one +leading thought often radiates; or, at least, I could not do this with +anything like the rapidity requisite for conversation. I laboured +like a sibyl instinct with the burden of prophetic woe, as often as +I found myself dealing with any topic in which the understanding +combined with deep feelings to suggest mixed and tangled thoughts: +and thus partly--partly also from my invincible habit of reverie--at +that era of my life, I had a most distinguished talent "_pour le +silence_." Wordsworth, from something of the same causes, suffered +(by his own report to myself) at the same age from pretty much the +same infirmity. And yet, in more advanced years--probably about +twenty-eight or thirty--both of us acquired a remarkable fluency in the +art of unfolding our thoughts colloquially. However, at that period my +deficiencies were what I have described. And, after all, though I had +no absolute cause for anticipating contempt, I was so far right in my +fears, that since that time I have had occasion to perceive a worldly +tone of sentiment in Wordsworth, not less than in Mrs. Hannah More and +other literary people, by which they were led to set a higher value +upon a limited respect from a person high in the world's esteem than +upon the most lavish spirit of devotion from an obscure quarter. Now, +in that point, _my_ feelings are far otherwise. + +Meantime, the world went on; events kept moving; and, amongst them, +in the course of 1807, occurred the event of Coleridge's return to +England from his official station in the Governor's family at Malta. +At Bridgewater, as I have already recorded, in the summer of 1807, I +was introduced to him. Several weeks after he came with his family to +the Bristol Hot-Wells, at which, by accident, I was then visiting. +On calling upon him, I found that he had been engaged by the Royal +Institution to lecture at their theatre in Albemarle Street during +the coming winter of 1807-8, and, consequently, was embarrassed about +the mode of conveying his family to Keswick. Upon this, I offered my +services to escort them in a post-chaise. This offer was cheerfully +accepted; and at the latter end of October we set forwards--Mrs. +Coleridge, viz., with her two sons--Hartley, aged nine, Derwent, about +seven--her beautiful little daughter,[93] about five, and, finally, +myself. Going by the direct route through Gloucester, Bridgenorth, &c., +on the third day we reached Liverpool, where I took up my quarters at +a hotel, whilst Mrs. Coleridge paid a visit of a few days to a very +interesting family, who had become friends of Southey during his visit +to Portugal. These were the Misses Koster, daughters of an English +gold-merchant of celebrity, who had recently quitted Lisbon on the +approach of the French army under Junot. Mr. Koster did me the honour +to call at my quarters, and invite me to his house; an invitation +which I very readily accepted, and had thus an opportunity of becoming +acquainted with a family the most accomplished I had ever known. At +dinner there appeared only the family party--several daughters, and +one son, a fine young man of twenty, but who was _consciously_ dying +of asthma. Mr. Koster, the head of the family, was distinguished for +his good sense and practical information; but, in Liverpool, even more +so by his eccentric and obstinate denial of certain notorious events; +in particular, some two years later, he denied that any such battle as +Talavera had ever been fought, and had a large wager depending upon the +decision. His house was the resort of distinguished foreigners; and, on +the first evening of my dining there, as well as afterwards, I there +met that marvel of women, Madame Catalani. I had heard her repeatedly; +but never before been near enough to see her smile and converse--even +to be honoured with a smile myself. She and Lady Hamilton were the most +effectively brilliant women I ever saw. However, on this occasion, the +Misses Koster outshone even La Catalani; to her they talked in the most +fluent Italian; to some foreign men, in Portuguese; to one in French; +and to most of the party in English; and each, by turns, seemed to be +their native tongue. Nor did they shrink, even in the presence of the +mighty enchantress, from exhibiting their musical skill. + + [93] That most accomplished, and to Coleridge most pious daughter, + whose recent death afflicted so very many who knew her only by her + writings. She had married her cousin, Mr. Serjeant Coleridge, and + in that way retained her illustrious maiden name as a wife. At + seventeen, when last I saw her, she was the most perfect of all + pensive, nun-like, intellectual beauties that I have seen in real + breathing life. The upper parts of her face were verily divine. + See, for an artist's opinion, the Life of that admirable man + Collins, by his son. + +Leaving Liverpool, after about a week's delay, we pursued our journey +northwards. We had slept on the first day at Lancaster. Consequently, +at the rate of motion which then prevailed throughout England--which, +however, was rarely equalled on that western road, where all things +were in arrear by comparison with the eastern and southern roads of the +kingdom--we found ourselves, about three o'clock in the afternoon, at +Ambleside, fourteen miles to the north-west of Kendal, and thirty-six +from Lancaster. There, for the last time, we stopped to change horses; +and about four o'clock we found ourselves on the summit of the White +Moss, a hill which rises between the second and third milestones on +the stage from Ambleside to Keswick, and which then retarded the +traveller's advance by a full fifteen minutes, but is now evaded by a +lower line of road. In ascending this hill, from weariness of moving +so slowly, I, with the two Coleridges, had alighted; and, as we all +chose to refresh ourselves by running down the hill into Grasmere, +we had left the chaise behind us, and had even lost the sound of the +wheels at times, when all at once we came, at an abrupt turn of the +road, in sight of a white cottage, with two yew-trees breaking the +glare of its white walls. A sudden shock seized me on recognising this +cottage, of which, in the previous year, I had gained a momentary +glimpse from Hammerscar, on the opposite side of the lake. I paused, +and felt my old panic returning upon me; but just then, as if to take +away all doubt upon the subject, I saw Hartley Coleridge, who had +gained upon me considerably, suddenly turn in at a garden gate; this +motion to the right at once confirmed me in my belief that here at +last we had reached our port; that this little cottage was tenanted +by that man whom, of all the men from the beginning of time, I most +fervently desired to see; that in less than a minute I should meet +Wordsworth face to face. Coleridge was of opinion that, if a man were +really and _consciously_ to see an apparition, in such circumstances +death would be the inevitable result; and, if so, the wish which we +hear so commonly expressed for such experience is as thoughtless as +that of Semele in the Grecian Mythology, so natural in a female, that +her lover should visit her _en grand costume_--presumptuous ambition, +that unexpectedly wrought its own ruinous chastisement! Judged by +Coleridge's test, my situation could not have been so terrific as _his_ +who anticipates a ghost; for, certainly, I survived this meeting; but +at that instant it seemed pretty much the same to my own feelings. + +Never before or since can I reproach myself with having trembled at the +approaching presence of any creature that is born of woman, excepting +only, for once or twice in my life, woman herself. Now, however, I +_did_ tremble; and I forgot, what in no other circumstances I could +have forgotten, to stop for the coming up of the chaise, that I might +be ready to hand Mrs. Coleridge out. Had Charlemagne and all his +peerage been behind me, or Cæsar and his equipage, or Death on his +pale horse, I should have forgotten them at that moment of intense +expectation, and of eyes fascinated to what lay before me, or what +might in a moment appear. Through the little gate I pressed forward; +ten steps beyond it lay the principal door of the house. To this, no +longer clearly conscious of my own feelings, I passed on rapidly; I +heard a step, a voice, and, like a flash of lightning, I saw the figure +emerge of a tallish man, who held out his hand, and saluted me with +most cordial expressions of welcome. The chaise, however, drawing up +to the gate at that moment, he (and there needed no Roman nomenclator +to tell me that this _he_ was Wordsworth) felt himself summoned to +advance and receive Mrs. Coleridge. I, therefore, stunned almost +with the actual accomplishment of a catastrophe so long anticipated +and so long postponed, mechanically went forward into the house. A +little semi-vestibule between two doors prefaced the entrance into +what might be considered the principal room of the cottage. It was +an oblong square, not above eight and a half feet high, sixteen feet +long, and twelve broad; very prettily wainscoted from the floor to the +ceiling with dark polished oak, slightly embellished with carving. +One window there was--a perfect and unpretending cottage window, with +little diamond panes, embowered at almost every season of the year with +roses, and in the summer and autumn with a profusion of jasmine and +other fragrant shrubs. From the exuberant luxuriance of the vegetation +around it, and from the dark hue of the wainscoting, this window, +though tolerably large, did not furnish a very powerful light to one +who entered from the open air. However, I saw sufficiently to be aware +of two ladies just entering the room, through a doorway opening upon a +little staircase, The foremost, a tallish young woman, with the most +winning expression of benignity upon her features, advanced to me, +presenting her hand with so frank an air that all embarrassment must +have fled in a moment before the native goodness of her manner. This +was Mrs. Wordsworth, cousin of the poet, and, for the last five years +or more, his wife.[94] She was now mother of two children, a son and +a daughter; and she furnished a remarkable proof how possible it is +for a woman neither handsome nor even comely according to the rigour +of criticism--nay, generally pronounced very plain--to exercise all +the practical fascination of beauty, through the mere compensatory +charms of sweetness all but angelic, of simplicity the most entire, +womanly self-respect and purity of heart speaking through all her +looks, acts, and movements. _Words_, I was going to have added; but her +words were few. In reality, she talked so little that Mr. Slave-Trade +Clarkson used to allege against her that she could only say "_God bless +you!_" Certainly, her intellect was not of an active order; but, in +a quiescent, reposing, meditative way, she appeared always to have a +genial enjoyment from her own thoughts; and it would have been strange, +indeed, if she, who enjoyed such eminent advantages of training, from +the daily society of her husband and his sister, failed to acquire +some power of judging for herself, and putting forth some functions +of activity. But undoubtedly that was not her element: to feel and +to enjoy in a luxurious repose of mind--there was her _forte_ and +her peculiar privilege; and how much better this was adapted to her +husband's taste, how much more adapted to uphold the comfort of his +daily life, than a blue-stocking loquacity, or even a legitimate talent +for discussion, may be inferred from his verses, beginning-- + + "She was a phantom of delight, + When first she gleam'd upon my sight." + +Once for all,[95] these exquisite lines were dedicated to Mrs. +Wordsworth; were understood to describe her--to have been prompted by +the feminine graces of her character; hers they are, and will remain +for ever. To these, therefore, I may refer the reader for an idea of +what was most important in the partner and second self of the poet. +And I will add to this abstract of her _moral_ portrait these few +concluding traits of her appearance in a physical sense. Her figure was +tolerably good. In complexion she was fair, and there was something +peculiarly pleasing even in this accident of the skin, for it was +accompanied by an animated expression of health, a blessing which, in +fact, she possessed uninterruptedly. Her eyes, the reader may already +know, were + + "Like stars of twilight fair; + Like twilight, too, her dark brown hair; + But all things else about her drawn + From May-time and the cheerful dawn." + +Yet strange it is to tell that, in these eyes of vesper gentleness, +there was a considerable obliquity of vision; and much beyond +that slight obliquity which is often supposed to be an attractive +foible in the countenance: this _ought_ to have been displeasing or +repulsive; yet, in fact, it was not. Indeed all faults, had they +been ten times more and greater, would have been neutralized by +that supreme expression of her features to the unity of which every +lineament in the fixed parts, and every undulation in the moving parts, +of her countenance, concurred, viz. a sunny benignity--a radiant +graciousness--such as in this world I never saw surpassed. + + [94] Mary Hutchinson, who became Wordsworth's wife in October + 1802, had been known to him since 1777, when she was his + fellow-pupil in a Dame's school at Penrith.--M. + + [95] _Once for all_, I say--on recollecting that Coleridge's + verses to _Sara_ were made transferable to any Sara who reigned at + the time. At least three Saras appropriated them; all three long + since in the grave. + +Immediately behind her moved a lady, shorter, slighter, and perhaps, in +all other respects, as different from her in personal characteristics +as could have been wished for the most effective contrast. "Her +face was of Egyptian brown"; rarely, in a woman of English birth, +had I seen a more determinate gipsy tan. Her eyes were not soft, +as Mrs. Wordsworth's, nor were they fierce or bold; but they were +wild and startling, and hurried in their motion. Her manner was warm +and even ardent; her sensibility seemed constitutionally deep; and +some subtle fire of impassioned intellect apparently burned within +her, which, being alternately pushed forward into a conspicuous +expression by the irrepressible instincts of her temperament, and +then immediately checked, in obedience to the decorum of her sex and +age, and her maidenly condition, gave to her whole demeanour, and to +her conversation, an air of embarrassment, and even of self-conflict, +that was almost distressing to witness. Even her very utterance and +enunciation often suffered, in point of clearness and steadiness, from +the agitation of her excessive organic sensibility. At times, the +self-counteraction and self-baffling of her feelings caused her even +to stammer, and so determinately to stammer that a stranger who should +have seen her and quitted her in that state of feeling would have +certainly set her down for one plagued with that infirmity of speech +as distressingly as Charles Lamb himself. This was Miss Wordsworth, +the only sister of the poet--his "Dorothy"; who naturally owed so +much to the lifelong intercourse with her great brother in his most +solitary and sequestered years; but, on the other hand, to whom he has +acknowledged obligations of the profoundest nature; and, in particular, +this mighty one, through which we also, the admirers and the +worshippers of this great poet, are become equally her debtors--that, +whereas the intellect of Wordsworth was, by its original tendency, too +stern, too austere, too much enamoured of an ascetic harsh sublimity, +she it was--the lady who paced by his side continually through sylvan +and mountain tracks, in Highland glens, and in the dim recesses of +German charcoal-burners--that first _couched_ his eye to the sense of +beauty, humanized him by the gentler charities, and engrafted, with +her delicate female touch, those graces upon the ruder growths of +his nature which have since clothed the forest of his genius with a +foliage corresponding in loveliness and beauty to the strength of its +boughs and the massiness of its trunks. The greatest deductions from +Miss Wordsworth's attractions, and from the exceeding interest which +surrounded her in right of her character, of her history, and of the +relation which she fulfilled towards her brother, were the glancing +quickness of her motions, and other circumstances in her deportment +(such as her stooping attitude when walking), which gave an ungraceful, +and even an unsexual character to her appearance when out-of-doors. +She did not cultivate the graces which preside over the person and its +carriage. But, on the other hand, she was a person of very remarkable +endowments intellectually; and, in addition to the other great services +which she rendered to her brother, this I may mention, as greater than +all the rest, and it was one which equally operated to the benefit of +every casual companion in a walk--viz. the exceeding sympathy, always +ready and always profound, by which she made all that one could tell +her, all that one could describe, all that one could quote from a +foreign author, reverberate, as it were, _à plusieurs reprises_, to +one's own feelings, by the manifest impression it made upon _hers_. The +pulses of light are not more quick or more inevitable in their flow +and undulation, than were the answering and echoing movements of her +sympathizing attention. Her knowledge of literature was irregular, and +thoroughly unsystematic. She was content to be ignorant of many things; +but what she knew and had really mastered lay where it could not be +disturbed--in the temple of her own most fervid heart. + +Such were the two ladies who, with himself and two children, and +at that time one servant, composed the poet's household. They were +both, I believe, about twenty-eight years old; and, if the reader +inquires about the single point which I have left untouched in their +portraiture--viz. the style of their manners--I may say that it was, in +_some_ points, naturally of a plain household simplicity, but every way +pleasing, unaffected, and (as respects Mrs. Wordsworth) even dignified. +Few persons had seen so little as this lady of the world. She had seen +nothing of high life, for she had seen little of any. Consequently, she +was unacquainted with the conventional modes of behaviour, prescribed +in particular situations by high breeding. But, as these modes are +little more than the product of dispassionate good sense, applied to +the circumstances of the case, it is surprising how few deficiencies +are perceptible, even to the most vigilant eye--or, at least, essential +deficiencies--in the general demeanour of any unaffected young woman, +acting habitually under a sense of sexual dignity and natural courtesy. +Miss Wordsworth had seen more of life, and even of good company; for +she had lived, when quite a girl, under the protection of Dr. Cookson, +a near relative, canon of Windsor, and a personal favourite of the +Royal Family, especially of George III. Consequently, she ought to +have been the more polished of the two; and yet, from greater natural +aptitudes for refinement of manner in her sister-in-law, and partly, +perhaps, from her more quiet and subdued manner, Mrs. Wordsworth would +have been pronounced very much the more lady-like person. + +From the interest which attaches to anybody so nearly connected as +these two ladies with a great poet, I have allowed myself a larger +latitude than else might have been justifiable in describing them. I +now go on with my narrative:-- + +I was ushered up a little flight of stairs, fourteen in all, to a +little drawing-room, or whatever the reader chooses to call it. +Wordsworth himself has described the fireplace of this room as his + + "Half-kitchen and half-parlour fire." + +It was not fully seven feet six inches high, and, in other respects, +pretty nearly of the same dimensions as the rustic hall below. There +was, however, in a small recess, a library of perhaps three hundred +volumes, which seemed to consecrate the room as the poet's study and +composing room; and such occasionally it was. But far oftener he both +studied, as I found, and composed, on the high road. I had not been two +minutes at the fireside, when in came Wordsworth, returning from his +friendly attentions to the travellers below, who, it seemed, had been +over-persuaded by hospitable solicitations to stay for this night in +Grasmere, and to make out the remaining thirteen miles of their road to +Keswick on the following day. Wordsworth entered. And "_what-like_"--to +use a Westmoreland as well as a Scottish expression--"_what-like_" +was Wordsworth? A reviewer in "Tait's Magazine," noticing some recent +collection of literary portraits, gives it as his opinion that Charles +Lamb's head was the finest among them.[96] This remark may have been +justified by the engraved portraits; but, certainly, the critic would +have cancelled it, had he seen the original heads--at least, had he +seen them in youth or in maturity; for Charles Lamb bore age with less +disadvantage to the intellectual expression of his appearance than +Wordsworth, in whom a sanguine complexion had, of late years, usurped +upon the original bronze-tint; and this change of hue, and change in +the quality of skin, had been made fourfold more conspicuous, and more +unfavourable in its general effect, by the harsh contrast of grizzled +hair which had displaced the original brown. No change in personal +appearance ever can have been so unfortunate; for, generally speaking, +whatever other disadvantages old age may bring along with it, one +effect, at least in male subjects, has a compensating tendency--that it +removes any tone of vigour too harsh, and mitigates the expression of +power too unsubdued. But, in Wordsworth, the effect of the change has +been to substitute an air of animal vigour, or, at least, hardiness, +as if derived from constant exposure to the wind and weather, for +the fine sombre complexion which he once wore, resembling that of a +Venetian senator or a Spanish monk. + + [96] Vol. iv. p. 793 (Dec. 1837).--So De Quincey notes; but I may + add that the paper in _Tait_ referred to was a Review of Books of + the Season, one of them being "Tilt's Medallion Portraits of + Modern English Authors, with Illustrative notices by H. F. + Chorley." The reviewer's words were "The finest head, in every + way, in the series, is that of Charles Lamb."--M. + +Here, however, in describing the personal appearance of Wordsworth, +I go back, of course, to the point of time at which I am speaking. +He was, upon the whole, not a well-made man. His legs were pointedly +condemned by all female connoisseurs in legs; not that they were +bad in any way which _would_ force itself upon your notice--there +was no absolute deformity about them; and undoubtedly they had been +serviceable legs beyond the average standard of human requisition; for +I calculate, upon good data, that with these identical legs Wordsworth +must have traversed a distance of 175,000 to 180,000 English miles--a +mode of exertion which, to him, stood in the stead of alcohol and +all other stimulants whatsoever to the animal spirits; to which, +indeed, he was indebted for a life of unclouded happiness, and we +for much of what is most excellent in his writings. But, useful as +they have proved themselves, the Wordsworthian legs were certainly +not ornamental; and it was really a pity, as I agreed with a lady in +thinking, that he had not another pair for evening dress parties--when +no boots lend their friendly aid to mask our imperfections from the +eyes of female rigorists--those _elegantes formarum spectatrices_. A +sculptor would certainly have disapproved of their contour. But the +worst part of Wordsworth's person was the bust; there was a narrowness +and a droop about the shoulders which became striking, and had an +effect of meanness, when brought into close juxtaposition with a +figure of a more statuesque build. Once on a summer evening, walking +in the Vale of Langdale with Wordsworth, his sister, and Mr. J---, a +native Westmoreland clergyman, I remember that Miss Wordsworth was +positively mortified by the peculiar illustration which settled upon +this defective conformation. Mr. J---, a fine towering figure, six feet +high, massy and columnar in his proportions, happened to be walking, a +little in advance, with Wordsworth; Miss Wordsworth and myself being in +the rear; and from the nature of the conversation which then prevailed +in our front rank, something or other about money, devises, buying and +selling, we of the rear-guard thought it requisite to preserve this +arrangement for a space of three miles or more; during which time, at +intervals, Miss Wordsworth would exclaim, in a tone of vexation, "Is it +possible,--can that be William? How very mean he looks!" And she did +not conceal a mortification that seemed really painful, until I, for my +part, could not forbear laughing outright at the serious interest which +she carried into this trifle. She was, however, right, as regarded +the mere visual judgment. Wordsworth's figure, with all its defects, +was brought into powerful relief by one which had been cast in a more +square and massy mould; and in such a case it impressed a spectator +with a sense of absolute meanness, more especially when viewed from +behind and not counteracted by his countenance; and yet Wordsworth +was of a good height (five feet ten), and not a slender man; on the +contrary, by the side of Southey, his limbs looked thick, almost in a +disproportionate degree. But the total effect of Wordsworth's person +was always worst in a state of motion. Meantime, his face--that was one +which would have made amends for greater defects of figure. Many such, +and finer, I have seen amongst the portraits of Titian, and, in a later +period, amongst those of Vandyke, from the great era of Charles I, as +also from the court of Elizabeth and of Charles II, but none which has +more impressed me in my own time. + +Haydon, in his great picture of "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem," has +introduced Wordsworth in the character of a disciple attending his +Divine Master, and Voltaire in the character of a sneering Jewish +elder. This fact is well known; and, as the picture itself is tolerably +well known to the public eye, there are multitudes now living who will +have seen a very impressive likeness of Wordsworth--some consciously, +some not suspecting it. There will, however, always be many who have +_not_ seen any portrait at all of Wordsworth; and therefore I will +describe its general outline and effect. It was a face of the long +order, often falsely classed as oval: but a greater mistake is made by +many people in supposing the long face which prevailed so remarkably in +the Elizabethan and Carolinian periods to have become extinct in our +own. Miss Ferrier, in one of her novels ("Marriage," I think), makes a +Highland girl protest that "no Englishman _with his round face_" shall +ever wean her heart from her own country; but England is not the land +of round faces; and those have observed little, indeed, who think so: +France it is that grows the round face, and in so large a majority of +her provinces that it has become one of the national characteristics. +And the remarkable impression which an Englishman receives from the +eternal recurrence of the orbicular countenance proves of itself, +without any _conscious_ testimony, how the fact stands; in the blind +sense of a monotony, not felt elsewhere, lies involved an argument +that cannot be gainsaid. Besides, even upon an _a priori_ argument, +how is it possible that the long face so prevalent in England, by all +confession, in certain splendid eras of our history, should have had +time, in some five or six generations, to grow extinct? Again, the +character of face varies essentially in different provinces. Wales has +no connexion in this respect with Devonshire, nor Kent with Yorkshire, +nor either with Westmoreland. England, it is true, tends, beyond all +known examples, to a general amalgamation of differences, by means +of its unrivalled freedom of intercourse. Yet, even in England, law +and necessity have opposed as yet such and so many obstacles to the +free diffusion of labour that every generation occupies, by at least +five-sixths of its numbers, the ground of its ancestors. + +The movable part of a population is chiefly the higher part; and it +is the lower classes that, in every nation, compose the _fundus_, in +which lies latent the national face, as well as the national character. +Each exists here in racy purity and integrity, not disturbed in the +one by alien intermarriages, nor in the other by novelties of opinion, +or other casual effects, derived from education and reading. Now, look +into this _fundus_, and you will find, in many districts, no such +prevalence of the round orbicular face as some people erroneously +suppose; and in Westmoreland, especially, the ancient long face of +the Elizabethan period, powerfully resembling in all its lineaments +the ancient Roman face, and often (though not so uniformly) the face +of northern Italy in modern times. The face of Sir Walter Scott, as +Irving, the pulpit orator, once remarked to me, was the indigenous +face of the Border: the mouth, which was bad, and the entire lower +part of the face, are seen repeated in thousands of working-men; +or, as Irving chose to illustrate his position, "in thousands of +Border horse-jockeys." In like manner, Wordsworth's face was, if not +absolutely the indigenous face of the Lake district, at any rate a +variety of that face, a modification of that original type. The head +was well filled out; and there, to begin with, was a great advantage +over the head of Charles Lamb, which was absolutely truncated in +the posterior region--sawn off, as it were, by no timid sawyer. The +forehead was not remarkably lofty--and, by the way, some artists, in +their ardour for realizing their phrenological preconceptions, not +suffering nature to surrender quietly and by slow degrees her real +alphabet of signs and hieroglyphic characters, but forcing her language +prematurely into conformity with their own crude speculations, have +given to Sir Walter Scott a pile of forehead which is unpleasing +and cataphysical, in fact, a caricature of anything that is ever +seen in nature, and would (if real) be esteemed a deformity; in one +instance--that which was introduced in some annual or other--the +forehead makes about two-thirds of the entire face. Wordsworth's +forehead is also liable to caricature misrepresentations in these days +of phrenology: but, whatever it may appear to be in any man's fanciful +portrait, the real living forehead, as I have been in the habit of +seeing it for more than five-and-twenty years, is not remarkable +for its height; but it is, perhaps, remarkable for its breadth and +expansive development. Neither are the eyes of Wordsworth "large," +as is erroneously stated somewhere in "Peter's Letters"[97]; on +the contrary, they are (I think) rather small; but _that_ does not +interfere with their effect, which at times is fine, and suitable to +his intellectual character. At times, I say, for the depth and subtlety +of eyes, even their colouring (as to condensation or dilation), varies +exceedingly with the state of the stomach; and, if young ladies were +aware of the magical transformations which can be wrought in the depth +and sweetness of the eye by a few weeks' walking exercise, I fancy we +should see their habits in this point altered greatly for the better. +I have seen Wordsworth's eyes oftentimes affected powerfully in this +respect; his eyes are not, under any circumstances, bright, lustrous, +or piercing; but, after a long day's toil in walking, I have seen +them assume an appearance the most solemn and spiritual that it is +possible for the human eye to wear. The light which resides in them +is at no time a superficial light; but, under favourable accidents, +it is a light which seems to come from unfathomed depths: in fact, it +is more truly entitled to be held "the light that never was on land +or sea," a light radiating from some far spiritual world, than any +the most idealizing that ever yet a painter's hand created. The nose, +a little arched, is large; which, by the way (according to a natural +phrenology, existing centuries ago amongst some of the lowest amongst +the human species), has always been accounted an unequivocal expression +of animal appetites organically strong. And that expressed the simple +truth: Wordsworth's intellectual passions were fervent and strong: but +they rested upon a basis of preternatural animal sensibility diffused +through _all_ the animal passions (or appetites); and something +of that will be found to hold of all poets who have been great by +original force and power, not (as Virgil) by means of fine management +and exquisite artifice of composition applied to their conceptions. +The mouth, and the whole circumjacencies of the mouth, composed the +strongest feature in Wordsworth's face; there was nothing specially +to be noticed that I know of in the mere outline of the lips; but the +swell and protrusion of the parts above and around the mouth are both +noticeable in themselves, and also because they remind me of a very +interesting fact which I discovered about three years after this my +first visit to Wordsworth. + + [97] Lockhart's famous publication of 1819 under the name of + _Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_.--M. + +Being a great collector of everything relating to Milton, I had +naturally possessed myself, whilst yet very young, of Richardson the +painter's thick octavo volume of notes on the "Paradise Lost."[98] It +happened, however, that my copy, in consequence of that mania for +portrait collecting which has stripped so many English classics of +their engraved portraits, wanted the portrait of Milton. Subsequently +I ascertained that it ought to have had a very good likeness of the +great poet; and I never rested until I procured a copy of the book +which had not suffered in this respect by the fatal admiration of the +amateur. The particular copy offered to me was one which had been +priced unusually high, on account of the unusually fine specimen which +it contained of the engraved portrait. This, for a particular reason, +I was exceedingly anxious to see; and the reason was--that, according +to an anecdote reported by Richardson himself, this portrait, of all +that were shown to her, was the only one acknowledged by Milton's last +surviving daughter to be a strong likeness of her father. And her +involuntary gestures concurred with her deliberate words:--for, on +seeing all the rest, she was silent and inanimate; but the very instant +she beheld that crayon drawing from which is derived the engraved +head in Richardson's book, she burst out into a rapture of passionate +recognition; exclaiming--"That is my father! that is my dear father!" +Naturally, therefore, after such a testimony, so much stronger than any +other person in the world could offer to the authentic value of this +portrait, I was eager to see it.[99] + + [98] Jonathan Richardson (born about 1665, died 1745) published in + 1734 a volume of Explanatory Notes and Remarks on _Paradise Lost_, + with a Life of Milton, containing particulars which Richardson had + collected about Milton personally.--M. + + [99] It was between 1721 and 1725, when Mrs. Deborah Clarke, + Milton's youngest and only surviving daughter, was living in old + age and in very humble circumstances in Moorfields, London, that + the engraver Vertue and others went to see her for the special + purpose of consulting her about portraits of her father. Some that + were shown her she rejected at once; but one "crayon drawing" + moved her in the manner which De Quincey reports. This is the + portrait which came into Richardson's possession; and after + Richardson's death in 1745 it was acquired by Jacob Tonson + tertius, of the Tonson publishing family. There seems to be little + doubt that it was a drawing of Milton from the life by Faithorne + about 1670, when Milton's _History of Britain_ appeared with that + portrait of him by Faithorne which is the only authentic print of + him in later life, and worth all the other current portraits put + together. Faithorne seems to have made two drawings, closely + resembling each other, of Milton,--that (now lost) from which the + engraving was made for the _History of Britain_, and this other + "crayon drawing" which Richardson possessed. Richardson's + reproduction of it in his book is spoilt by a laureate wreath and + other flummery about the head; and the only genuine copy of it + known to me is a beautiful one prefixed to Mr. Leigh Sotheby's + sumptuous volume entitled _Ramblings in Elucidation of the + Autograph of Milton_, published in 1871. The face there is + identically the same in essentials as that in the Faithorne + engraving of 1670, though somewhat less sad in expression; and the + two drawings must have been by the same hand.--M. + +Judge of my astonishment when, in this portrait of Milton, I saw a +likeness nearly perfect of Wordsworth, better by much than any which I +have since seen of those expressly painted for himself. The likeness +is tolerably preserved in that by Carruthers, in which one of the +little Rydal waterfalls, &c., composes a background; yet this is much +inferior, as a mere portrait of Wordsworth, to the Richardson head of +Milton; and this, I believe, is the last which represents Wordsworth +in the vigour of his power. The rest, which I have not seen, may be +better as works of art (for anything I know to the contrary), but they +must labour under the great disadvantage of presenting the features +when "defeatured," in the degree and the way I have described, by +the peculiar ravages of old age, as it affects this family; for it +is noticed of the Wordsworths, by those who are familiar with their +peculiarities, that in their very blood and constitutional differences +lie hidden causes that are able, in some mysterious way, + + "Those shocks of passion to prepare + That kill the bloom before its time, + And blanch, without the owner's crime, + The most resplendent hair." + +Some people, it is notorious, live faster by much than others, the +oil is burned out sooner in one constitution than another: and the +cause of this may be various; but in the Wordsworths one part of the +cause is, no doubt, the secret fire of a temperament too fervid; the +self-consuming energies of the brain, that gnaw at the heart and +life-strings for ever. In that account which "The Excursion" presents +to us of an imaginary Scotsman who, to still the tumult of his heart, +when visiting the cataracts of a mountainous region, obliges himself +to study the laws of light and colour as they affect the rainbow of +the stormy waters, vainly attempting to mitigate the fever which +consumed him by entangling his mind in profound speculations; raising +a cross-fire of artillery from the subtilizing intellect, under the +vain conceit that in this way he could silence the mighty battery of +his impassioned heart: there we read a picture of Wordsworth and his +own youth. In Miss Wordsworth every thoughtful observer might read the +same self-consuming style of thought. And the effect upon each was so +powerful for the promotion of a premature old age, and of a premature +expression of old age, that strangers invariably supposed them fifteen +to twenty years older than they were. And I remember Wordsworth once +laughingly reporting to me, on returning from a short journey in 1809, +a little personal anecdote, which sufficiently showed what was the +spontaneous impression upon that subject of casual strangers, whose +feelings were not confused by previous knowledge of the truth. He +was travelling by a stage-coach, and seated outside, amongst a good +half-dozen of fellow-passengers. One of these, an elderly man, who +confessed to having passed the grand climacterical year (9 multiplied +into 7) of 63, though he did not say precisely by how many years, said +to Wordsworth, upon some anticipations which they had been mutually +discussing of changes likely to result from enclosures, &c., then going +on or projecting--"Ay, ay, another dozen of years will show us strange +sights; but you and I can hardly expect to see them."--"How so?" said +Wordsworth. "How so, my friend? How old do you take me to be?"--"Oh, I +beg pardon," said the other; "I meant no offence--but what?" looking +at Wordsworth more attentively--"you'll never see threescore, I'm of +opinion"; meaning to say that Wordsworth _had_ seen it already. And, to +show that he was not singular in so thinking, he appealed to all the +other passengers; and the motion passed (_nem. con._) that Wordsworth +was rather over than under sixty. Upon this he told them the literal +truth--that he had not yet accomplished his thirty-ninth year. "God +bless me!" said the climacterical man; "so then, after all, you'll have +a chance to see your childer get up like, and get settled! Only to +think of that!" And so closed the conversation, leaving to Wordsworth +an undeniable record of his own prematurely expressed old age in this +unaffected astonishment, amongst a whole party of plain men, that he +could really belong to a generation of the forward-looking, who live +by hope; and might reasonably expect to see a child of seven years +old matured into a man. And yet, as Wordsworth lived into his 82d +year,[100] it is plain that the premature expression of decay does not +argue any real decay. + + [100] Into his 81st only.--M. + +Returning to the question of portraits, I would observe that this +Richardson engraving of Milton has the advantage of presenting, not +only by far the best likeness of Wordsworth, but of Wordsworth in the +prime of his powers--a point essential in the case of one so liable to +premature decay. It may be supposed that I took an early opportunity +of carrying the book down to Grasmere, and calling for the opinions +of Wordsworth's family upon this most remarkable coincidence. Not one +member of that family but was as much impressed as myself with the +accuracy of the likeness. All the peculiarities even were retained--a +drooping appearance of the eyelids, that remarkable swell which I +have noticed about the mouth, the way in which the hair lay upon the +forehead. In two points only there was a deviation from the rigorous +truth of Wordsworth's features--the face was a little too short and +too broad, and the eyes were too large. There was also a wreath of +laurel about the head, which (as Wordsworth remarked) disturbed the +natural expression of the whole picture[101]; else, and with these few +allowances, he also admitted that the resemblance was, _for that period +of his life_, perfect, or as nearly so as art could accomplish. + + [101] See footnote (99), p. 247.--M. + +I have gone into so large and circumstantial a review of my +recollections on this point as would have been trifling and tedious +in excess, had these recollections related to a less important man; +but I have a certain knowledge that the least of them will possess a +lasting and a growing interest in connexion with William Wordsworth. +How peculiar, how different from the interest which we grant to the +ideas of a great philosopher, a great mathematician, or a great +reformer, is that burning interest which settles on the great poets +who have made themselves necessary to the human heart; who have first +brought into consciousness, and have clothed in words, those grand +catholic feelings that belong to the grand catholic situations of life +through all its stages; who have clothed them in such words that human +wit despairs of bettering them! Mighty were the powers, solemn and +serene is the memory, of Archimedes; and Apollonius shines like "the +starry Galileo" in the firmament of human genius; yet how frosty is +the feeling associated with these names by comparison with that which, +upon every sunny lawn, by the side of every ancient forest, even in the +farthest depths of Canada, many a young innocent girl, perhaps at this +very moment--looking now with fear to the dark recesses of the infinite +forest, and now with love to the pages of the infinite poet, until the +fear is absorbed and forgotten in the love--cherishes in her heart for +the name and person of Shakspere! + +The English language is travelling fast towards the fulfilment of +its destiny. Through the influence of the dreadful Republic[102] +that within the thirty last years has run through all the stages of +infancy into the first stage of maturity, and through the English +colonies--African, Canadian, Indian, Australian--the English language +(and, therefore, the English literature) is running forward towards its +ultimate mission of eating up, like Aaron's rod, all other languages. +Even the German and the Spanish will inevitably sink before it; perhaps +within 100 or 150 years. In the recesses of California, in the vast +solitudes of Australia, _The Churchyard amongst the Mountains_, from +Wordsworth's "Excursion," and many a scene of his shorter poems, will +be read, even as now Shakspere is read amongst the forests of Canada. +All which relates to the writer of these poems will then bear a value +of the same kind as that which attaches to our personal memorials +(unhappily so slender) of Shakspere. + + [102] Not many months ago, the blind hostility of the Irish + newspaper editors in America forged a ludicrous estimate of the + Irish numerical preponderance in the United States, from which it + was inferred, as at least a possibility, that the Irish Celtic + language might come to dispute the pre-eminence with the English. + Others anticipated the same destiny for the German. But, in the + meantime, the unresting career of the law-courts, of commerce, and + of the national senate, that cannot suspend themselves for an + hour, reduce the case to this dilemma: If the Irish and the + Germans in the United States adapt their general schemes of + education to the service of their public ambition, they must + begin by training themselves to the use of the language now + prevailing on all the available stages of ambition. On the other + hand, by refusing to do this, they lose in the very outset every + point of advantage. In other words, adopting the English, they + renounce the contest--_not_ adopting it, they disqualify + themselves for the contest. + +Let me now attempt to trace, in a brief outline, the chief incidents +in the life of William Wordsworth, which are interesting, not only in +virtue of their illustrious subject, but also as exhibiting a most +remarkable (almost a providential) arrangement of circumstances, all +tending to one result--that of insulating from worldly cares, and +carrying onward from childhood to the grave, in a state of serene +happiness, one who was unfitted for daily toil, and, at all events, +who could not, under such demands upon his time and anxieties, have +prosecuted those genial labours in which all mankind have an interest. + + * * * * * + +William Wordsworth was born[103] at Cockermouth, a small town of +Cumberland, lying about a dozen miles to the north-west of Keswick, +on the high road from that town to Whitehaven. His father was a +solicitor, and acted as an agent for that Lord Lonsdale, the immediate +predecessor of the present,[104] who is not unfrequently described by +those who still remember him, as "the bad Lord Lonsdale." In what was +he bad? Chiefly, I believe, in this--that, being a man of great local +power, founded on his rank, on his official station of Lord-Lieutenant +over two counties, and on a very large estate, he used his power at +times in a most oppressive way. I have heard it said that he was mad; +and, at any rate, he was inordinately capricious--capricious even to +eccentricity. But, perhaps, his madness was nothing more than the +intemperance of a haughty and a headstrong will, encouraged by the +consciousness of power, and tempted to abuses of it by the abject +servility which poverty and dependence presented in one direction, +embittering the contrast of that defiance which inevitably faced him in +another, throughout a land of freedom and amongst spirits as haughty +as his own. He was a true feudal chieftain; and, in the very approaches +to his mansion, in the style of his equipage, or whatever else was +likely to meet the public eye, he delighted to express his disdain of +modern refinements, and the haughty carelessness of his magnificence. +The coach in which he used to visit Penrith, the nearest town to his +principal house of Lowther, was old and neglected; his horses fine, but +untrimmed; and such was the impression diffused about him by his gloomy +temper and his habits of oppression, that the streets were silent as +he traversed them, and an awe sat upon many faces (so, at least, I +have heard a Penrith contemporary of the old despot declare), pretty +much like that which may be supposed to attend the entry into a guilty +town of some royal commission for trying state criminals. In his park +you saw some of the most magnificent timber in the kingdom--trees that +were coeval with the feuds of York and Lancaster, yews that possibly +had furnished bows to Coeur de Lion, and oaks that might have built +a navy. All was savage grandeur about these native forests: their +sweeping lawns and glades had been unapproached, for centuries it might +be, by the hand of art; and amongst them roamed--not the timid fallow +deer--but thundering droves of wild horses. + + [103] 7th April 1770.--M. + + [104] "_The present_":--This was written about 1835, when the + present Earl of Lonsdale meant the late Earl. + +Lord Lonsdale went to London less frequently than else he might have +done, because at home he was allowed to forget that in this world +there was any greater man than himself. Even in London, however, his +haughty injustice found occasions for making itself known. On a court +day (I revive an anecdote once familiarly known), St. James's Street +was lined by cavalry, and the orders were peremptory that no carriages +should be allowed to pass, except those which were carrying parties +to court. Whether it were by accident or by way of wilfully provoking +such a collision, Lord Lonsdale's carriage advanced; and the coachman, +in obedience to orders shouted out from the window, was turning down +the forbidden route, when a trooper rode up to the horses' heads, +and stopped them; the thundering menaces of Lord Lonsdale perplexed +the soldier, who did not know but he might be bringing himself into +a scrape by persisting in his opposition; but the officer on duty, +observing the scene, rode up, and, in a determined tone, enforced the +order, causing two of his men to turn the horses' heads round into +Piccadilly. Lord Lonsdale threw his card to the officer, and a duel +followed; in which, however, the outrageous injustice of his lordship +met with a pointed rebuke; for the first person whom he summoned to +his aid, in the quality of second, though a friend, and, I believe, +a relative of his own, declined to sanction by any interference so +scandalous a quarrel with an officer for simply executing an official +duty. In this dilemma (for probably he was aware that few military men +would fail to take the same disapproving view of the affair) he applied +to the present[105] Earl of Lonsdale, then Sir William Lowther. Either +there must have been some needless discourtesy in the officer's mode +of fulfilling his duty, or else Sir William thought the necessity of +the case, however wantonly provoked, a sufficient justification for +a relative giving his assistance, even under circumstances of such +egregious injustice. At any rate, it is due to Sir William, in mere +candour, to suppose that he did nothing in this instance but what his +conscience approved; seeing that in all others his conduct has been +such as to win him the universal respect of the two counties in which +he is best known. He it was that acted as second; and, by a will which +is said to have been dated the same day, he became eventually possessed +of a large property, which did not necessarily accompany the title. + + [105] Who must now (1854) be classed as the _late_ Earl. + +Another anecdote is told of the same Lord Lonsdale which expresses, +in a more eccentric way, and a way that to many people will be +affecting--to some shocking--the moody energy of his passions. +He loved, with passionate fervour, a fine young woman, of humble +parentage, in a Cumberland farmhouse. Her he had persuaded to leave +her father, and put herself under his protection. Whilst yet young and +beautiful, she died: Lord Lonsdale's sorrow was profound; he could not +bear the thought of a final parting from that face which had become so +familiar to his heart: he caused her to be embalmed; a glass was placed +over her features; and at intervals, when his thoughts reverted to her +memory, he found a consolation (or perhaps a luxurious irritation) of +his sorrow in visiting this sad memorial of his former happiness. +This story, which I have often heard repeated by the country-people +of Cumberland, strengthened the general feeling of this eccentric +nobleman's self-willed character, though in this instance complicated +with a trait of character that argued nobler capacities. By what rules +he guided himself in dealing with the various lawyers, agents, or +stewards whom his extensive estates brought into a dependency upon +his justice or his moderation--whether, in fact, he had no rule, but +left all to accident or caprice--I have never learned. Generally, I +have heard it said that in some years of his life he resisted the +payment of all bills indiscriminately which he had any colourable plea +for supposing to contain overcharges; some fared ill, because they +were neighbours, and his lordship could say that "he knew them to be +knaves"; others fared worse, because they were so remote that "how +could his lordship know what they were?" Of this number, and possibly +for this reason left unpaid, was Wordsworth's father. He died whilst +his four sons and one daughter were yet helpless children, leaving +to them respectable fortunes, but which, as yet, were unrealized and +tolerably hypothetic, as they happened to depend upon so shadowy a +basis as the justice of Lord Lonsdale. The executors of the will, +and trustees of the children's interests, in one point acted wisely: +foreseeing the result of a legal contest with so potent a defendant +as this leviathan of two counties, and that, under any nominal award, +the whole estate of the orphans might be swallowed up in the costs +of any suit that should be carried into Chancery, they prudently +withdrew from all active measures of opposition, confiding the event +to Lord Lonsdale's returning sense of justice. Unfortunately for that +nobleman's reputation, and also, as was thought, for the children's +prosperity, before this somewhat rusty quality of justice could have +time to operate, his lordship died. + +However, for once the world was wrong in its malicious anticipations: +the successor to Lord Lonsdale's titles and Cumberland estates was +made aware of the entire case, in all its circumstances; and he very +honourably gave directions for full restitution being made. This +was done; and in one respect the result was more fortunate for the +children than if they had been trained from youth to rely upon their +expectations: for, by the time this repayment was made, three out of +the five children were already settled in life, with the very amplest +prospects opening before them--_so_ ample as to make their private +patrimonial fortunes of inconsiderable importance in their eyes; and +very probably the withholding of their inheritance it was, however +unjust, and however little contemplated as an occasion of any such +effect, that urged these three persons to the exertions requisite +for their present success. Two only of the children remained to whom +the restoration of their patrimony was a matter of grave importance; +but it was precisely those two whom no circumstances could have made +independent of their hereditary means by personal exertions--viz. +William Wordsworth, the poet, and Dorothy, the sole daughter of the +house. The three others were:--Richard, the eldest: he had become a +thriving solicitor, at one of the inns of court in London; and, if +he died only moderately rich, and much below the expectations of his +acquaintance, in the final result of his laborious life, it was because +he was moderate in his desires, and, in his later years, reverting +to the pastoral region of his infancy and boyhood, chose rather to +sit down by a hearth of his own amongst the Cumberland mountains, and +wisely to woo the deities of domestic pleasures and health, than to +follow the chase after wealth in the feverish crowds of the capital. +The third son (I believe) was Christopher (Dr. Wordsworth), who, at an +early age, became a man of importance in the English Church, being made +one of the chaplains and librarians of the Archbishop of Canterbury +(Dr. Manners Sutton, father of the late Speaker, Lord Canterbury). He +has since risen to the important and dignified station--once held by +Barrow, and afterwards by Bentley--of Master of Trinity in Cambridge. +Trinity in Oxford is not a first-rate college; but Trinity, Cambridge, +answers in rank and authority to Christ Church in Oxford; and to be the +head of that college is rightly considered a very splendid distinction. + +Dr. Wordsworth has distinguished himself as an author by a very useful +republication, entitled, "Ecclesiastical Biography," which he has +enriched with valuable notes. And in his own person, besides other +works more professional, he is the author of one very interesting +work of historical research upon the difficult question of "Who wrote +the 'Eicon Basilike'?" a question still unsettled, but much nearer +to a settlement, in consequence of the strong presumptions which Dr. +Wordsworth has adduced on behalf of the King's claim.[106] + + [106] "_Eicon Basilike_":--By the way, in the lamented Eliot + Warburton's "Prince Rupert," this book, by a very excusable + mistake, is always cited as the "Eicon Basili_con_": he was + thinking of the "Doron Basilicon," written by Charles's father: + each of the nouns _Eicon_ and _Doron_, having the same terminal + syllable--_on_--it was most excusable to forget that the first + belonged to an imparisyllabic declension, so as to be feminine, + the second not so; which made it neuter. With respect to the great + standing question as to the authorship of the work, I have myself + always held that the natural freedom of judgment in this case has + been intercepted by one strong prepossession (entirely false) from + the very beginning. The minds of all people have been pre-occupied + with the notion that Dr. Gauden, the reputed author, obtained his + bishopric confessedly on the credit of that service. Lord + Clarendon, it is said, who hated the Doctor, nevertheless gave him + a bishopric, on the sole ground of his having written the "Eicon." + The inference therefore is that the Prime Minister, who gave so + reluctantly, must have given under an irresistible weight of proof + that the Doctor really had done the work for which so unwillingly + he paid him. Any shade of doubt, such as could have justified Lord + Clarendon in suspending this gift, would have been eagerly + snatched at. Such a shade, therefore, there was not. Meantime the + whole of this reasoning rests upon a false assumption: Dr. Gauden + did _not_ owe his bishopric to a belief (true or false) that he + had written the "Eicon." The bishopric was given on another + account: consequently it cannot, in any way of using the fact, at + all affect the presumptions, small or great, which may exist + separately for or against the Doctor's claim on that head.--[So + far De Quincey; but let not the reader trust to him too much in + this matter. The evidence is overwhelming that Clarendon gave + Gauden his bishopric after the Restoration because he believed + Gauden to have been the author of the _Eikon Basilike_ and dared + not face Gauden's threats of revelations on the subject if + promotion were refused him; and the evidence is conclusive, all + Dr. Wordsworth's arguments notwithstanding, that Gauden _was_ the + real author of the book.--M.] + +The fourth and youngest son, John, was in the service of the East India +Company, and perished most unhappily, at the very outset of the voyage +which he had meant to be his last, off the coast of Dorsetshire, in the +Company's ship _Abergavenny_. A calumny was current in some quarters, +that Captain Wordsworth was in a state of intoxication at the time +of the calamity. But the printed report of the affair, revised by +survivors, entirely disproves this calumny; which, besides, was in +itself incredible to all who were acquainted with Captain Wordsworth's +most temperate and even philosophic habits of life. So peculiarly, +indeed, was Captain Wordsworth's temperament, and the whole system of +his life, coloured by a grave and meditative turn of thought, that +amongst his brother officers in the Company's service he bore the +surname of "The Philosopher." And William Wordsworth, the poet, not +only always spoke of him with a sort of respect that argued him to have +been no ordinary man, but he has frequently assured me of one fact +which, as implying some want of sincerity in himself, gave me pain +to hear--viz. that in the fine lines entitled "The Happy Warrior," +reciting the main elements which enter into the composition of a hero, +he had in view chiefly his brother John's character. That was true, I +daresay, but it was inconsistent in some measure with the note attached +to the lines, by which the reader learns that it was out of reverence +for Lord Nelson, as one who transcended the estimate here made, that +the poem had not been openly connected with his name, as the real +suggester of the thoughts. Now, privately, though still professing a +lively admiration for the mighty Admiral, as one of the few men who +carried into his professional labours a real and vivid genius (and thus +far Wordsworth often testified a deep admiration for Lord Nelson), yet, +in reference to these particular lines, he uniformly declared that Lord +Nelson was much below the ideal there contemplated, and that, in fact, +it had been suggested by the recollection of his brother. But, if so, +why should it have been dissembled? And surely, in some of the finest +passages, this cannot be so; for example, when he makes it one trait of +the heaven-born hero that he, if called upon to face some mighty day of +trial-- + + "To which Heaven has joined + Great issues, good or bad, for human kind-- + Is happy as a lover, and attired + With sudden brightness, like a man inspired"-- + +then, at least, he must have had Lord Nelson's idea predominating in +his thoughts; for Captain Wordsworth was scarcely tried in such a +situation. There can be no doubt, however, that he merited the praises +of his brother; and it was indeed an idle tale that he should first of +all deviate from this philosophic temperance upon an occasion where +his utmost energies and the fullest self-possession were all likely +to prove little enough. In reality it was the pilot, the incompetent +pilot, who caused the fatal catastrophe;--"O pilot, you have ruined +me!" were amongst the last words that Captain Wordsworth was heard to +utter--pathetic words, and fit for him, "a meek man and a brave," to +use in addressing a last reproach to one who, not through misfortune +or overruling will of Providence, but through miserable conceit and +unprincipled levity, had brought total ruin upon so many gallant +countrymen. Captain Wordsworth might have saved his own life; but the +perfect loyalty of his nature to the claims upon him, that sublime +fidelity to duty which is so often found amongst men of his profession, +kept him to the last upon the wreck; and, after _that_, it is probable +that the almost total wreck of his own fortunes (which, but for this +overthrow, would have amounted to twenty thousand pounds, upon the +successful termination of this one voyage), but still more the total +ruin of the new and splendid Indiaman confided to his care, had so much +dejected his spirits that he was not in a condition for making such +efforts as, under a more hopeful prospect, he might have been able to +make. Six weeks his body lay unrecovered; at the end of that time, +it was found, and carried to the Isle of Wight, and buried in close +neighbourhood to the quiet fields which he had so recently described +in letters to his sister at Grasmere as a Paradise of English peace, +to which his mind would be likely oftentimes to revert amidst the +agitations of the sea. + +Such were the modes of life pursued by three of the orphan children: +such the termination of life to the youngest. Meantime, the one +daughter of the house was reared liberally, in the family of a relative +at Windsor; and she might have pursued a quiet and decorous career, of +a character, perhaps, somewhat tame, under the same dignified auspices; +but, at an early age, her good angel threw open to her a vista of +nobler prospects, in the opportunity which then arose, and which she +did not hesitate to seize, of becoming the companion, through a life +of delightful wanderings--of what, to her more elevated friends, seemed +little short of vagrancy--the companion and confidential friend, and, +with a view to the enlargement of her own intellect, the pupil, of a +brother, the most original and most meditative man of his own age. + +William had passed his infancy on the very margin of the Lake district, +just six miles, in fact, beyond the rocky screen of Whinlatter, and +within one hour's ride of Bassenthwaite Water. To those who live in the +tame scenery of Cockermouth, the blue mountains in the distance, the +sublime peaks of Borrowdale and of Buttermere, raise aloft a signal, +as it were, of a new country, a country of romance and mystery, to +which the thoughts are habitually turning. Children are fascinated and +haunted with vague temptations, when standing on the frontiers of such +a foreign land; and so was Wordsworth fascinated, so haunted. Fortunate +for Wordsworth that, at an early age, he was transferred to a quiet +nook of this lovely district. At the little town of Hawkshead, seated +on the north-west angle of Esthwaite Water, a grammar-school (which, in +English usage, means a school for classical literature) was founded, in +Queen Elizabeth's reign, by Archbishop Sandys, who belonged to the very +ancient family of that name still seated in the neighbourhood. Hither +were sent all the four brothers; and here it was that Wordsworth passed +his life, from the age of nine until the time arrived for his removal +to college. Taking into consideration the peculiar tastes of the +person, and the peculiar advantages of the place, I conceive that no +pupil of a public school can ever have passed a more luxurious boyhood +than Wordsworth. The school discipline was not by many evidences very +strict; the mode of living out of school very much resembled that of +Eton for Oppidans; less elegant, no doubt, and less costly in its +provisions for accommodation, but not less comfortable, and, in that +part of the arrangements which was chiefly Etonian, even more so; for +in both places the boys, instead of being gathered into one fold, and +at night into one or two huge dormitories, were distributed amongst +motherly old "dames," technically so called at Eton, but not at +Hawkshead. In the latter place, agreeably to the inferior scale of the +whole establishment, the houses were smaller, and more cottage-like, +consequently more like private households: and the old lady of the +_ménage_ was more constantly amongst them, providing, with maternal +tenderness and with a professional pride, for the comfort of her young +flock, and protecting the weak from oppression. The humble cares to +which these poor matrons dedicated themselves may be collected from +several allusions scattered through the poems of Wordsworth; that +entitled "Nutting," for instance, in which his own early Spinosistic +feeling is introduced, of a mysterious presence diffused through the +solitudes of woods, a presence that was disturbed by the intrusion of +careless and noisy outrage, and which is brought into a strong relief +by the previous homely picture of the old housewife equipping her young +charge with beggar's weeds, in order to prepare him for a struggle +with thorns and brambles. Indeed, not only the moderate rank of the +boys, and the peculiar kind of relation assumed by these matrons, +equally suggested this humble class of motherly attentions, but the +whole spirit of the place and neighbourhood was favourable to an old +English homeliness of domestic and personal economy. Hawkshead, most +fortunately for its own manners and the primitive style of its habits +even to this day, stands about six miles out of the fashionable line +for the "Lakers." + +Esthwaite, though a lovely scene in its summer garniture of woods, +has no features of permanent grandeur to rely upon. A wet or gloomy +day, even in summer, reduces it to little more than a wildish pond, +surrounded by miniature hills: and the sole circumstances which restore +the sense of a romantic region and an Alpine character are the towering +groups of Langdale and Grasmere fells, which look over the little +pastoral barriers of Esthwaite, from distances of eight, ten, and +fourteen miles. Esthwaite, therefore, being no object for itself, and +the sublime head of Coniston being accessible by a road which evades +Hawkshead, few tourists ever trouble the repose of this little village +town. And in the days of which I am speaking (1778-1787) tourists were +as yet few and infrequent to _any_ parts of the country. Mrs. Radcliffe +had not begun to cultivate the sense of the picturesque in her popular +romances; guide-books, with the sole exception of "Gray's Posthumous +Letters," had not arisen to direct public attention to this domestic +Calabria; roads were rude, and, in many instances, not wide enough to +admit post-chaises; but, above all, the whole system of travelling +accommodations was barbarous and antediluvian for the requisitions of +the pampered south. As yet the land had rest; the annual fever did +not shake the very hills; and (which was the happiest immunity of +the whole) false taste, the pseudo-romantic rage, had not violated +the most awful solitudes amongst the ancient hills by opera-house +decorations. Wordsworth, therefore, enjoyed this labyrinth of valleys +in a perfection that no one can have experienced since the opening +of the present century. The whole was one paradise of virgin beauty; +the rare works of man, all over the land, were hoar with the grey +tints of an antique picturesque; nothing was new, nothing was raw and +uncicatrized. Hawkshead, in particular, though tamely seated in itself +and its immediate purlieus, has a most fortunate and central locality, +as regards the best (at least the most interesting) scenes for a +pedestrian rambler. The gorgeous scenery of Borrowdale, the austere +sublimities of Wastdalehead, of Langdalehead, or Mardale--these are too +oppressive, in their colossal proportions and their utter solitudes, +for encouraging a perfectly human interest. Now, taking Hawkshead +as a centre, with a radius of about eight miles, one might describe +a little circular tract which embosoms a perfect network of little +valleys--separate wards or cells, as it were, of one larger valley, +walled in by the great leading mountains of the region. Grasmere, +Easedale, Great and Little Langdale, Tilberthwaite, Yewdale, Elter +Water, Loughrigg Tarn, Skelwith, and many other little quiet nooks, lie +within a single division of this labyrinthine district. All these are +within one summer afternoon's ramble. And amongst these, for the years +of his boyhood, lay the daily excursions of Wordsworth. + +I do not conceive that Wordsworth _could_ have been an amiable boy; +he was austere and unsocial, I have reason to think, in his habits; +not generous; and not self-denying. I am pretty certain that no +consideration would ever have induced Wordsworth to burden himself +with a lady's reticule, parasol, shawl, or anything exacting trouble +and attention. Mighty must be the danger which would induce him to +lead her horse by the bridle. Nor would he, without some demur, stop +to offer her his hand over a stile. Freedom--unlimited, careless, +insolent freedom--unoccupied possession of his own arms--absolute +control over his own legs and motions--these have always been so +essential to his comfort, that, in any case where they were likely to +become questionable, he would have declined to make one of the party. +Meantime, we are not to suppose that Wordsworth the boy expressly +sought for solitary scenes of nature amongst woods and mountains with +a direct conscious anticipation of imaginative pleasure, and loving +them with a pure, disinterested love, on their own separate account. +These are feelings beyond boyish nature, or, at all events, beyond +boyish nature trained amidst the selfishness of social intercourse. +Wordsworth, like his companions, haunted the hills and the vales +for the sake of angling, snaring birds, swimming, and sometimes of +hunting, according to the Westmoreland fashion (or the Irish fashion +in Galway), on foot; for riding to the chase is quite impossible, +from the precipitous nature of the ground. It was in the course of +these pursuits, by an indirect effect growing gradually upon him, that +Wordsworth became a passionate lover of nature, at the time when the +growth of his intellectual faculties made it possible that he should +combine those thoughtful passions with the experience of the eye and +the ear. + +One of the most interesting among the winter amusements of the +Hawkshead boys was that of skating on the adjacent lake. Esthwaite +Water is not one of the deep lakes, as its neighbours of Windermere, +Coniston, and Grasmere are; consequently, a very slight duration +of frost is sufficient to freeze it into a bearing strength. In +this respect Wordsworth found the same advantages in his boyhood as +afterwards at the University; for the county of Cambridge is generally +liable to shallow waters; and that University breeds more good skaters +than all the rest of England. About the year 1810, by way of expressing +an interest in "The Friend," which was just at that time appearing in +weekly numbers, Wordsworth allowed Coleridge to print an extract from +the poem on his own life, descriptive of the games celebrated upon +the ice of Esthwaite by all who were able to skate: the mimic chases +of hare and hounds, pursued long after the last orange gleam of light +had died away from the western horizon--oftentimes far into the night; +a circumstance which does not speak much for the discipline of the +schools, or rather, perhaps, _does_ speak much for the advantages of a +situation so pure, and free from the usual perils of a town, as could +allow of a discipline so lax. Wordsworth, in this fine descriptive +passage--which I wish that I had at this moment the means of citing, +in order to amplify my account of his earliest tyrocinium--speaks of +himself as frequently wheeling aside from his joyous companions to +cut across the image of a star; and thus, already in the midst of +sportiveness, and by a movement of sportiveness, half unconsciously to +himself expressing the growing necessity of retirement to his habits +of thought.[107] At another period of the year, when the golden summer +allowed the students a long season of early play before the studies of +the day began, he describes himself as roaming, hand-in-hand, with +one companion, along the banks of Esthwaite Water, chanting, with one +voice, the verses of Goldsmith and of Gray--verses which, at the time +of recording the fact, he had come to look upon as either in parts +false in the principles of their composition, or, at any rate, as far +below the tone of high poetic passion; but which, at that time of life, +when the profounder feelings were as yet only germinating, filled them +with an enthusiasm + + "More bright than madness and the dreams of wine." + +Meanwhile, how prospered the classical studies which formed the main +business of Wordsworth at Hawkshead? Not, in all probability, very +well; for, though Wordsworth finally became a very sufficient master +of the Latin language, and read certain favourite authors, especially +Horace, with a critical nicety, and with a feeling for the felicities +of his composition, I have reason to think that little of this skill +had been obtained at Hawkshead. As to Greek, that is a language which +Wordsworth never had energy enough to cultivate with effect. + + [107] The following is the passage to which De Quincey refers, as + it now stands in Wordsworth's autobiographical poem _The Prelude_; + which, though begun in 1799 and completed in 1805, was not + published till 1850:-- + + "All shod with steel, + We hissed along the polished ice in games + Confederate, imitative of the chase + And woodland pleasures,--the resounding horn, + The pack loud chiming, and the hunted hare. + So through the darkness and the cold we flew, + And not a voice was idle; with the din + Smitten, the precipices rang aloud; + The leafless trees and every icy crag + Tinkled like iron; while far distant hills + Into the tumult sent an alien sound + Of melancholy not unnoticed, while the stars + Eastward were sparkling clear, and in the west + The orange sky of evening died away. + Not seldom from the uproar I retired + Into a silent bay, or sportively + Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng, + To cut across the reflex of a star + That fled, and, flying still before me, gleamed + Upon the glassy plain." + M. + +From Hawkshead, and, I believe, after he had entered his eighteenth +year (a time which is tolerably early on the English plan), probably +at the latter end of the year 1787, Wordsworth entered at St. +John's College, Cambridge. St. John's ranks as the second college +in Cambridge--the second as to numbers, and influence, and general +consideration; in the estimation of the Johnians as the first, or +at least as co-equal in all things with Trinity; from which, at any +rate, the general reader will collect that no such absolute supremacy +is accorded to any society in Cambridge as in Oxford is accorded +necessarily to Christ Church. The advantages of a large college are +considerable, both to the idle man, who wishes to lurk unnoticed in the +crowd, and to the brilliant man, whose vanity could not be gratified +by pre-eminence amongst a few. Wordsworth, though not idle as regarded +his own pursuits, was so as regarded the pursuits of the place. With +respect to them he felt--to use his own words--that his hour was not +come; and that his doom for the present was a happy obscurity, which +left him, unvexed by the torments of competition, to the genial +enjoyment of life in its most genial hours. + +It will excite some astonishment when I mention that, on coming to +Cambridge, Wordsworth actually assumed the beau, or, in modern slang, +the "dandy." He dressed in silk stockings, had his hair powdered, and +in all things plumed himself on his gentlemanly habits. To those who +remember the slovenly dress of his middle and philosophic life, this +will furnish matter for a smile. + +Stranger still it is to tell that, for the first time in his life, +Wordsworth became inebriated at Cambridge. It is but fair to add that +the first time was also the last time. But perhaps the strangest +part of the story is the occasion of this drunkenness; which was in +celebration of his first visit to the very rooms at Christ College once +occupied by Milton--intoxication by way of homage to the most temperate +of men; and this homage offered by one who has turned out himself to +the full as temperate! Every man, meantime, who is not a churl, must +grant a privilege and charter of large enthusiasm to such an occasion. +And an older man than Wordsworth (at that era not fully nineteen), and +a man even without a poet's blood in his veins, might have leave to +forget his sobriety in such circumstances. Besides which, after all, I +have heard from Wordsworth's own lips that he was not too far gone to +attend chapel decorously during the very acmé of his elevation.[108] + + [108] Wordsworth has told the story himself in his _Prelude_, + thus:-- + + "Among the band of my compeers was one + Whom chance had stationed in the very room + Honoured by Milton's name. O temperate Bard! + Be it confest that, for the first time, seated + Within thy innocent lodge and oratory, + One of a festive circle, I poured out + Libations, to thy memory drank, till pride + And gratitude grew dizzy in a brain + Never excited by the fumes of wine + Before that hour, or since. Then, forth I ran + From the assembly; through a length of streets + Ran, ostrich-like, to reach our chapel door + In not a desperate or opprobrious time, + Albeit long after the importunate bell + Had stopped, with wearisome Cassandra voice + No longer haunting the dark winter night.... + Call back, O Friend! a moment to thy mind + The place itself and fashion of the rites. + With careless ostentation shouldering up + My surplice, through the inferior throng I clove + Of the plain Burghers, who in audience stood + On the last skirts of their permitted ground, + Under the pealing organ." + M. + +The rooms which Wordsworth occupied at St. John's were singularly +circumstanced; mementoes of what is highest and what is lowest in +human things solicited the eye and the ear all day long. If the +occupant approached the outdoors prospect, in one direction, there was +visible, through the great windows in the adjacent chapel of Trinity, +the statue of Newton "with his silent face and prism," memorials of +the abstracting intellect, serene and absolute, emancipated from +fleshly bonds. On the other hand, immediately below, stood the college +kitchen; and, in that region, "from noon to dewy eve," resounded +the shrill voice of scolding from the female ministers of the head +cook, never suffering the mind to forget one of the meanest amongst +human necessities. Wordsworth, however, as one who passed much of his +time in social gaiety, was less in the way of this annoyance than a +profounder student would have been. Probably he studied little beyond +French and Italian during his Cambridge life; not, however, at any +time forgetting (as I had so much reason to complain, when speaking +of my Oxonian contemporaries) the literature of his own country. It +is true that he took the regular degree of A.B., and in the regular +course; but this was won in those days by a mere nominal examination, +unless where the mathematical attainments of the student prompted his +ambition to contest the splendid distinction of Senior Wrangler. This, +in common with all other honours of the University, is won in our days +with far severer effort than in that age of relaxed discipline; but +at no period could it have been won, let the malicious say what they +will, without an amount of mathematical skill very much beyond what has +ever been exacted of its _alumni_ by any other European University. +Wordsworth was a profound admirer of the sublimer mathematics; at least +of the higher geometry. The secret of this admiration for geometry +lay in the antagonism between this world of bodiless abstraction and +the world of passion. And here I may mention appropriately, and I hope +without any breach of confidence, that, in a great philosophic poem of +Wordsworth's, which is still in MS., and will remain in MS. until after +his death, there is, at the opening of one of the books, a dream, which +reaches the very _ne plus ultra_ of sublimity, in my opinion, expressly +framed to illustrate the eternity, and the independence of all social +modes or fashions of existence, conceded to these two hemispheres, as +it were, that compose the total world of human power--mathematics on +the one hand, poetry on the other.[109] + + [109] The reference is to the Fifth Book of _The Prelude_.--M. + +I scarcely know whether I am entitled to quote--as my memory (though +not refreshed by a sight of the poem for more than twenty years) would +well enable me to do--any long extract; but thus much I may allowably +say, as it cannot in any way affect Mr. Wordsworth's interests, that +the form of the dream is as follows; and, by the way, even this form +is not arbitrary; but, with exquisite skill in the art of composition, +is made to arise out of the situation in which the poet had previously +found himself, and is faintly prefigured in the elements of that +situation. He had been reading "Don Quixote" by the sea-side; and, +oppressed by the heat of the sun, he had fallen asleep, whilst gazing +on the barren sands before him. Even in these circumstances of the +case--as, first, the adventurous and half-lunatic knight riding about +the world, on missions of universal philanthropy, and, secondly, the +barren sands of the sea-shore--one may read the germinal principles of +the dream. He dreams that, walking in some sandy wilderness of Africa, +some endless Zahara, he sees at a distance + + "An Arab of the desert, lance in rest, + Mounted upon a dromedary." + +The Arab rides forward to meet him; and the dreamer perceives, in the +countenance of the rider, the agitation of fear, and that he often +looks behind him in a troubled way, whilst in his hand he holds two +books--one of which is "Euclid's Elements"; the other (which is a +book and yet not a book) seeming, in fact, a shell as well as a +book--seeming neither, and yet both at once. The Arab directs him to +apply the shell to his ear; upon which, + + "In an unknown tongue, which yet I understood," + +the dreamer says that he heard + + "A wild prophetic blast of harmony, + An ode, as if in passion utter'd, that foretold + Destruction to the people of this earth + By deluge near at hand." + +The Arab, with grave countenance, assures him that it is even so; that +all was true which had been said; and that he himself was riding upon a +divine mission, having it in charge + + "To bury those two books; + The one that held acquaintance with the stars, + ... undisturb'd by Space or Time; + The other, that was a god, yea, many gods, + Had voices more than all the winds, and was + A joy, a consolation, and a hope!" + +That is, in effect, his mission is to secure the two great interests of +poetry and mathematics from sharing in the watery ruin. As he talks, +suddenly the dreamer perceives that the Arab's "countenance grew +more disturbed," and that his eye was often reverted; upon which the +dreaming poet also looks along the desert in the same direction; and in +the far horizon he descries "a glittering light." What is it? he asks +of the Arab rider. "It is," said the Arab, "the waters of the earth," +that even then were travelling on their awful errand. Upon which, the +poet sees this apostle of the desert riding + + "Hurrying o'er the illimitable waste, + With the fleet waters of a drowning world + In chase of him: whereat I [meaning the poet] waked in terror, + And saw the sea before me, and the book + In which I had been reading at my side."[110] + + [110] On comparing these quotations with the original passages in + _The Prelude_, one finds that De Quincey, quoting from memory, is + not exact to the text in any of them save the last.--M. + +The sketch I have here given of this sublime dream sufficiently +attests the interest which Wordsworth took in the mathematic studies +of the place, and the exalted privilege which he ascribed to them of +co-eternity with "the vision and the faculty divine" of the poet--the +destiny common to both, of an endless triumph over the ruins of +nature and of time. Meantime, he himself travelled no farther in +these studies than through the six elementary books usually selected +from the fifteen of Euclid. Whatever might be the interests of his +speculative understanding, whatever his admiration, practically he +devoted himself to the more agitating interests of man, social and +political, just then commencing that vast career of revolution which +has never since been still or stationary; interests which in his mind +alternated, nevertheless, with another and different interest, in +the grander forms of external nature, as found amongst mountains and +forests. In obedience to this latter passion it was--for a passion it +had become--that during one of his long Cambridge vacations, stretching +from June to November, he went over to Switzerland and Savoy, for +a pedestrian excursion amongst the Alps; taking with him for his +travelling companion a certain Mr. J----, of whom (excepting that he +is once apostrophized in a sonnet, written at Calais in the year 1802) +I never happened to hear him speak: whence I presume to infer that Mr. +J---- owed this flattering distinction, not so much to any intellectual +graces of his society, as, perhaps, to his powers of administering +"punishment" (in the language of the "fancy") to restive and mutinous +landlords; for such were abroad in those days,--people who presented +huge reckonings with one hand, and with the other a huge cudgel, by +way of opening the traveller's eyes to the propriety of settling them +without demur, and without discount. I do not positively know this to +have been the case; but I have heard Wordsworth speak of the ruffian +landlords who played upon his youth in the Grisons; and, however well +qualified to fight his own battles, he might find, amongst such savage +mountaineers, two combatants better than one. + +Wordsworth's route, on this occasion, lay at first through Austrian +Flanders, then (1788, I think) on the fret for an insurrectionary war +against the capricious innovations of the imperial coxcomb, Joseph +II. He passed through the camps then forming, and thence ascended the +Rhine to Switzerland; crossed the Great St. Bernard, visited the Lake +of Como, and other interesting scenes in the north of Italy, where, +by the way, the tourists were benighted in a forest--having, in some +way or other, been misled by the Italian clocks and their peculiar +fashion of striking round to twenty-four o'clock. On his return, +Wordsworth published a quarto pamphlet of verses, describing, with +very considerable effect and brilliancy, the grand scenery amongst +which he had been moving.[111] This poem, as well as another in the +same quarto form, describing the English lake scenery of Westmoreland +and Cumberland, addressed by way of letter "to a young lady" (viz., +Miss Wordsworth),[112] are remarkable, in the first place, as the +earliest effort of Wordsworth in verse, at least as his earliest +publication; but, in the second place, and still more so, from their +style of composition. "Pure description," even where it cannot be said, +sneeringly, "to hold the place of sense," is so little attractive as +the direct exclusive object of a poem, and in reality it exacts so +powerful an effort on the part of the reader to realize visually, +or make into an apprehensible unity, the scattered elements and +circumstances of external landscapes painted only by words, that, +inevitably, and reasonably, it can never hope to be a popular form +of composition; else it is highly probable that these "Descriptive +Sketches" of Wordsworth, though afterwards condemned as vicious in +their principles of composition by his own maturer taste, would really +have gained him a high momentary notoriety with the public, had they +been fairly brought under its notice; whilst, on the other hand, his +revolutionary principles of composition, and his purer taste, ended in +obtaining for him nothing but scorn and ruffian insolence. + + [111] _Descriptive Sketches during a Pedestrian Tour on the + Italian, Swiss, and Savoyard Alps._ London, 1793.--M. + + [112] _An Evening Walk: an Epistle in Verse._ London, 1793.--M. + +This seems marvellous; but, in fact, it is not so: it seems, I mean, +_primâ facie_, marvellous that the inferior models should be fitted +to gain a far higher reputation; but the secret lies here--that these +were in a style of composition which, if sometimes false, had been +long reconciled to the public feelings, and which, besides, have a +specific charm for certain minds, even apart from all fashions of the +day; whereas, his later poems had to struggle against sympathies long +trained in an opposite direction, to which the recovery of a healthier +tone (even where nature had made it possible) presupposed a difficult +process of weaning, and an effort of discipline for re-organizing the +whole internal economy of the sensibilities that is both painful and +mortifying: for--and that is worthy of deep attention--the misgivings +of any vicious or unhealthy state, the impulses and suspicious +gleams of the truth struggling with cherished error, the instincts +of light conflicting with darkness--these are the real causes of +that hatred and intolerant scorn which is ever awakened by the first +dawnings of new and important systems of truth. Therefore it is, that +Christianity was so much more hated than any mere variety of error. +Therefore are the first feeble struggles of nature towards a sounder +state of health always harsh and painful; for the false system which +this change for the better disturbs had, at least, this soothing +advantage--that it was self-consistent. Therefore, also, was the +Wordsworthian restoration of elementary power, and of a higher or +transcendent truth of nature (or, as some people vaguely expressed +the case, of _simplicity_), received at first with such malignant +disgust. For there was a galvanic awakening in the shock of power, as +it jarred against the ancient system of prejudices, which inevitably +revealed so much of truth as made the mind jealous; enlightened it +enough to descry its own wanderings, but not enough to recover the +right road. The more energetic, the more spasmodically potent, are +the throes of nature towards her own re-establishment in the cases of +suspended animation--by drowning, strangling, &c.--the more keen is the +anguish of revival. And, universally, a transition state is a state +of suffering and disquiet. Meantime, the early poems of Wordsworth, +that _might_ have suited the public taste so much better than his more +serious efforts, if the fashion of the hour, or the sanction of a +leading review, or the _prestige_ of a name, had happened to bring them +under the public eye, did, in fact, drop unnoticed into the market. +Nowhere have I seen them quoted--no, not even since the author's +victorious establishment in the public admiration. The reason may be, +however, that not many copies were printed at first; no subsequent +edition was ever called for; and yet, from growing interest in the +author, every copy of the small impression had been studiously bought +up. Indeed, I myself went to the publisher's (Johnson's) as early as +1805 or 1806, and bought up all the remaining copies (which were but +six or seven of the Foreign Sketches, and two or three of the English), +as presents, and as _future_ curiosities in literature to literary +friends whose interest in Wordsworth might assure one of a due value +being put upon the poems. Were it not for this extreme scarcity, +I am disposed to think that many lines or passages would long ere +this have been made familiar to the public ear. Some are delicately, +some forcibly picturesque; and the selection of circumstances is +occasionally very original and felicitous. In particular, I remember +this one, which presents an accident in rural life that must by +thousands of repetitions have become intimately known to every dweller +in the country, and yet had never before been consciously taken up for +a poet's use. After having described the domestic cock as "sweetly +ferocious"--a prettiness of phraseology which he borrows from an +Italian author--he notices those competitions or defiances which are +so often carried on interchangeably between barn-door cocks from great +distances:-- + + "Echoed by faintly answering farms remote." + +This is the beautiful line in which he has caught and preserved so +ordinary an occurrence--one, in fact, of the commonplaces which lend +animation and a moral interest to rural life. + +After his return from this Swiss excursion, Wordsworth took up his +parting residence at Cambridge, and prepared for a final adieu to +academic pursuits and academic society. + +It was about this period that the French Revolution broke out; and the +reader who would understand its appalling effects--its convulsing, +revolutionary effects upon Wordsworth's heart and soul--should consult +the history of the Solitary, as given by himself in "The Excursion"; +for that picture is undoubtedly a leaf from the personal experience of +Wordsworth:-- + + "From that dejection I was roused--but how?" + +Mighty was the transformation which it wrought in the whole economy of +his thoughts; miraculous almost was the expansion which it gave to his +human sympathies; chiefly in this it showed its effects--in throwing +the thoughts inwards into grand meditations upon man, his final +destiny, his ultimate capacities of elevation; and, secondly, in giving +to the whole system of the thoughts and feelings a firmer tone, and a +sense of the awful _realities_ which surround the mind; by comparison +with which the previous literary tastes seemed (even where they were +fine and elegant, as in Collins or Gray, unless where they had the +self-sufficing reality of religion, as in Cowper) fanciful and trivial. +In all lands this result was accomplished, and at the same time: +Germany, above all, found her new literature the mere creation and +rebound of this great moral tempest; and, in Germany or England alike, +the poetry was so entirely regenerated, thrown into moulds of thought +and of feeling so new, that the poets everywhere felt themselves to be +putting away childish things, and now first, among those of their own +century, entering upon the dignity and the sincere thinking of mature +manhood. + +Wordsworth, it is well known to all who know anything of his history, +felt himself so fascinated by the gorgeous festival era of the +Revolution--that era when the sleeping snakes which afterwards stung +the national felicity were yet covered with flowers--that he went over +to Paris, and spent about one entire year between that city, Orleans, +and Blois. There, in fact, he continued to reside almost too long. He +had been sufficiently connected with public men to have drawn upon +himself some notice from those who afterwards composed the Committee +of Public Safety. And, as an Englishman, when that partiality began +to droop which at an earlier period had protected the English name, +he became an object of gloomy suspicion with those even who would +have grieved that he should fall a victim to undistinguishing popular +violence. Already _for_ England, and in her behalf, he was thought +to be that spy which (as Coleridge tells us in his "Biographia +Literaria") afterwards he was accounted by Mr. Pitt's emissaries, in +the worst of services _against_ her. I doubt, however (let me say it +without impeachment of Coleridge's veracity--for he was easily duped), +this whole story about Mr. Pitt's Somersetshire spies; and it has often +struck me with astonishment that Coleridge should have suffered his +personal pride to take so false a direction as to court the humble +distinction of having been suspected as a conspirator, in those very +years when poor empty tympanies of men, such as Thelwall, Holcroft, +&c., were actually recognised as enemies of the state, and worthy of +a state surveillance, by ministers so blind and grossly misinformed +as, on this point, were Pitt and Dundas. Had I been Coleridge, instead +of saving Mr. Pitt's reputation with posterity, by ascribing to him a +jealousy which he or his agents had not the discernment to cherish, I +would have boldly planted myself upon the fact, the killing fact, that +he had utterly ignored both myself (Coleridge, to wit) and Wordsworth. +Even with Dogberry, _I_ would have insisted upon that--"Set down, also, +that I am an ass!" Clamorous should have been my exultation in this +fact.[113] + + [113] The reader, who may happen not to have seen Coleridge's + "Biographia Literaria," is informed that Coleridge tells a long + story about a man who followed and dogged himself and Wordsworth + in all their rural excursions, under a commission (originally + emanating from Mr. Pitt) for detecting some overt acts of treason, + or treasonable correspondence, or, in default of either, some + words of treasonable conversation. Unfortunately for his own + interests as an active servant, even in a whole month that spy had + collected nothing at all as the basis of a report, excepting only + something which they (Coleridge and Wordsworth, to wit) were + continually saying to each other, now in blame, now in praise, of + one _Spy Nosy_; and this, praise and blame alike, the honest spy + very naturally took to himself, seeing that the world accused him + of having a _nose_ of unreasonable dimensions, and his own + conscience accused him of being a spy. "Now," says Coleridge, "the + very fact was that Wordsworth and I were constantly talking about + Spinosa." This story makes a very good Joe Miller; but, for other + purposes, is somewhat damaged. However, there is one excellent + story in the case. Some country gentleman from the neighbourhood + of Nether Stowey, upon a party happening to discuss the + probabilities that Wordsworth and Coleridge might be traitors, and + in correspondence with the French Directory, answered thus:--"Oh, + as to that Coleridge, he's a rattlebrain, that will say more in a + week than he will stand to in a twelvemonth. But + Wordsworth--that's the traitor: why, bless you, he's so close, + that you'll never hear him open his lips on the subject from + year's end to year's end!" + +In France, however, Wordsworth had a chance, in good earnest, of +passing for the traitor that, in England, no rational person ever +thought him. He had chosen his friends carelessly; nor could any +man, the most sagacious, have chosen them safely, in a time when the +internal schisms of the very same general party brought with them +worse hostilities and more personal perils than even, upon the broader +divisions of party, could have attended the most _ultra_ professions of +anti-national politics, and when the rapid changes of position shifted +the peril from month to month. One individual is especially recorded +by Wordsworth, in the poem on his own life, as a man of the highest +merit, and personal qualities the most brilliant, who ranked first +upon the list of Wordsworth's friends; and this man was so far a safe +friend, at one moment, as he was a republican general--finally, indeed, +a commander-in-chief. This was Beaupuis; and the description of his +character and position is singularly interesting. There is, in fact, a +special value and a use about the case; it opens one's eyes feelingly +to the fact that, even in this thoughtless people, so full of vanity +and levity, nevertheless, the awful temper of the times, and the dread +burden of human interests with which it was charged, had called to a +consciousness of new duties, had summoned to an audit, as if at some +great final tribunal, even the gay, radiant creatures that, under less +solemn auspices, under the reign of a Francis I. or a Louis XIV, would +have been the merest painted butterflies of the court sunshine. This +Beaupuis was a man of superb person--beautiful in a degree which made +him a painter's model, both as to face and figure; and, accordingly, in +a land where conquests of that nature were so easy, and the subjects of +so trifling an effort, he had been distinguished, to his own as well +as the public eyes, by a rapid succession of _bonnes fortunes_ amongst +women. Such, and so glorified by triumphs the most unquestionable and +flattering, had the earthquake of the Revolution found him. From that +moment he had no leisure, not a thought, to bestow upon his former +selfish and frivolous pursuits. He was hurried, as one inspired by some +high apostolic passion, into the service of the unhappy and desolate +serfs amongst his own countrymen--such as are described, at an earlier +date, by Madame de Sevigné, as the victims of feudal institutions; +and one day, as he was walking with Wordsworth in the neighbourhood +of Orleans, and they had turned into a little quiet lane, leading off +from a heath, suddenly they came upon the following spectacle:--A girl, +seventeen or eighteen years old, hunger-bitten, and wasted to a meagre +shadow, was knitting, in a dejected, drooping way; whilst to her arm +was attached, by a rope, the horse, equally famished, that earned the +miserable support of her family. Beaupuis comprehended the scene in a +moment; and, seizing Wordsworth by the arm, he said,--"Dear English +friend!--brother from a nation of freemen!--_that_ it is which is the +curse of our people, in their widest section; and to cure this it is, +as well as to maintain our work against the kings of the earth, that +blood must be shed and tears must flow for many years to come!" At +that time the Revolution had not fulfilled its tendencies; as yet, +the king was on the throne; the fatal 10th of August 1792 had not +dawned; and thus far there was safety for a subject of kings.[114] The +irresistible stream was hurrying forwards. The king fell; and (to pause +for a moment) how divinely is the fact recorded by Wordsworth, in the +MS. poem on his own life, placing the awful scenes past and passing +in Paris under a pathetic relief from the description of the golden, +autumnal day, sleeping in sunshine-- + + "When I + Towards the fierce metropolis bent my steps, + The homeward road to England. From his throne + The king had fallen," &c. + +What a picture does he give of the fury which there possessed the +public mind; of the frenzy which shone in every eye, and through +every gesture; of the stormy groups assembled at the Palais Royal, or +the Tuileries, with "hissing factionists" for ever in their centre, +"hissing" from the self-baffling of their own madness, and incapable +from wrath of speaking clearly; of fear already creeping over the +manners of multitudes; of stealthy movements through back streets; +plotting and counter-plotting in every family; feuds to extermination, +dividing children of the same house for ever; scenes such as those +of the Chapel Royal (now silenced on that _public_ stage), repeating +themselves daily amongst private friends; and, to show the universality +of this maniacal possession--that it was no narrow storm discharging +its fury by local concentration upon a single city, but that it +overspread the whole realm of France--a picture is given, wearing the +same features, of what passed daily at Orleans, Blois, and other towns. +The citizens are described in the attitudes they assumed at the daily +coming in of the post from Paris; the fierce sympathy is portrayed +with which they echoed back the feelings of their compatriots in the +capital: men of all parties had been there up to this time--aristocrats +as well as democrats; and one, in particular, of the former class is +put forward as a representative of his class. This man, duly as the +hour arrived which brought the Parisian newspapers, read restlessly +of the tumults and insults amongst which the Royal Family now passed +their days; of the decrees by which his own order were threatened or +assailed; of the self-expatriation, now continually swelling in amount, +as a measure of despair on the part of myriads, as well priests as +gentry--all this and worse he read in public; and still, as he read, + + "His hand + Haunted his sword, like an uneasy spot + In his own body." + +In short, as there never has been so strong a national convulsion +diffused so widely, with equal truth it may be asserted, that no +describer, so powerful, or idealizing so magnificently what he deals +with, has ever been a real living spectator of parallel scenes. The +French, indeed, it may be said, are far enough from being a people +profound in feeling. True; but, of all people, they most exhibit their +feeling on the surface; are the most _demonstrative_ (to use a modern +term), and most of all (except Italians) mark their feelings by outward +expression of gesticulation: not to insist upon the obvious truth--that +even a people of shallow feeling may be deeply moved by tempests which +uproot the forest of a thousand years' growth; by changes in the very +organization of society, such as throw all things, for a time, into one +vast anarchy; and by murderous passions, alternately the effect and +the cause of that same chaotic anarchy. Now, it was in this autumn of +1792, as I have already said, that Wordsworth parted finally from his +illustrious friend--for, all things considered, he may be justly so +entitled--the gallant Beaupuis. This great season of public trial had +searched men's natures; revealed their real hearts; brought into light +and action qualities oftentimes not suspected by their possessors; +and had thrown men, as in elementary states of society, each upon his +own native resources, unaided by the old conventional forces of rank +and birth. Beaupuis had shone to unusual advantage under this general +trial; he had discovered, even to the philosophic eye of Wordsworth, +a depth of benignity very unusual in a Frenchman; and not of local, +contracted benignity, but of large, illimitable, apostolic devotion to +the service of the poor and the oppressed--a fact the more remarkable +as he had all the pretensions in his own person of high birth and +high rank, and, so far as he had any personal interest embarked in +the struggle, should have allied himself with the aristocracy. But of +selfishness in any shape he had no vestiges; or, if he had, it showed +itself in a slight tinge of vanity; yet, no--it was not vanity, but a +radiant quickness of sympathy with the eye which expressed admiring +love--sole relic of the chivalrous devotion once dedicated to the +service of ladies. Now, again, he put on the garb of chivalry; it +was a chivalry the noblest in the world, which opened his ear to the +Pariah and the oppressed all over his misorganized country. A more +apostolic fervour of holy zealotry in this great cause had not been +seen since the days of Bartholomew las Casas, who showed the same +excess of feeling in another direction. This sublime dedication of his +being to a cause which, in his conception of it, extinguished all petty +considerations for himself, and made him thenceforwards a creature of +the national will--"a son of France," in a more eminent and loftier +sense than according to the heraldry of Europe--had extinguished even +his sensibility to the voice of worldly honour. "Injuries," says +Wordsworth-- + + "Injuries + Made him more gracious." + +And so utterly had he submitted his own will or separate interests +to the transcendent voice of his country, which, in the main, he +believed to be now speaking authentically for the first time since the +foundations of Christendom, that, even against the motions of his own +heart, he adopted the hatreds of the young republic, growing cruel in +his purposes towards the ancient oppressor, out of very excess of love +for the oppressed; and, against the voice of his own order, as well as +in stern oblivion of many early friendships, he became the champion +of democracy in the struggle everywhere commencing with prejudice +or feudal privilege. Nay, he went so far upon the line of this new +crusade against the evils of the world that he even accepted, with a +conscientious defiance of his own quiet homage to the erring spirit of +loyalty embarked upon that cause, a commission in the Republican armies +preparing to move against La Vendée; and, finally, in that cause, +as commander-in-chief, he laid down his life. "He perished," says +Wordsworth-- + + "He perished fighting, in supreme command, + Upon the banks of the unhappy Loire." + +Homewards fled all the English from a land which now was fast making +ready the shambles for its noblest citizens. Thither also came +Wordsworth; and there he spent his time for a year and more chiefly +in London, overwhelmed with shame and despondency for the disgrace +and scandal brought upon Liberty by the atrocities committed in that +holy name. Upon this subject he dwells with deep emotion in the poem +on his own life; and he records the awful triumph for retribution +accomplished which possessed him when crossing the sands of the great +Bay of Morecamb from Lancaster to Ulverstone, and hearing from a +horseman who passed him, in reply to the question--_Was there any +news?_--"Yes, that Robespierre had perished." Immediately a passion +seized him, a transport of almost epileptic fervour, prompting him, as +he stood alone upon this perilous[115] waste of sands, to shout aloud +anthems of thanksgiving for this great vindication of eternal justice. +Still, though justice was done upon one great traitor to the cause, +the cause itself was overcast with clouds too heavily to find support +and employment for the hopes of a poet who had believed in a golden +era ready to open upon the prospects of human nature. It gratified and +solaced his heart that the indignation of mankind should have wreaked +itself upon the chief monsters that had outraged their nature and +their hopes; but for the present he found it necessary to comfort his +disappointment by turning away from politics to studies less capable of +deceiving his expectations. + + [114] How little has any adequate power as yet approached this + great theme! Not the Grecian stage, not "the dark sorrows of the + line of Thebes," in any of its scenes, unfold such tragical + grouping of circumstances and situations as may be gathered from + the memoirs of the time. The galleries and vast staircases of + Versailles, at early dawn, on some of the greatest days--filled + with dreadful faces--the figure of the Duke of Orleans obscurely + detected amongst them--the growing fury--the growing panic--the + blind tumult--and the dimness of the event,--all make up a scene + worthy to blend with our images of Babylon or of Nineveh with the + enemy in all her gates, Memphis or Jerusalem in their agonies. + But, amongst all the exponents of the growing agitation that + besieged the public mind, none is so profoundly impressive as the + scene (every Sunday renewed) at the Chapel Royal. Even in the most + penitential of the litanies, in the presence when most immediately + confessed of God himself--when the antiphonies are chanted, one + party singing, with fury and gnashing of teeth, _Salvum fac + Regem_, and another, with equal hatred and fervour, answering _Et + Reginam_ (the poor queen at this time engrossing the popular + hatred)--the organ roared into thunder--the semi-chorus swelled + into shouting--the menaces into defiance--again the crashing + semi-choir sang with shouts their _Salvum fac Regem_--again the + vengeful antiphony hurled back its _Et Reginam_--and one person, + an eye-witness of these scenes, which mounted in violence on each + successive Sunday, declares that oftentimes the semi-choral bodies + were at the point of fighting with each other in the presence of + the king. + + [115] That tract of the lake country which stretches southwards + from Hawkshead and the lakes of Esthwaite, Windermere, and + Coniston, to the little town of Ulverstone (which may be regarded + as the metropolis of the little romantic English Calabria called + Furness), is divided from the main part of Lancashire by the + estuary of Morecamb. The sea retires with the ebb tide to a vast + distance, leaving the sands passable through a few hours for + horses and carriages. But, partly from the daily variation in + these hours, partly from the intricacy of the pathless track which + must be pursued, and partly from the galloping pace at which the + returning tide comes in, many fatal accidents are continually + occurring--sometimes to the too venturous traveller who has + slighted the aid of guides--sometimes to the guides themselves, + when baffled and perplexed by mists. Gray the poet mentions one of + the latter class as having then recently occurred, under affecting + circumstances. Local tradition records a long list of such cases. + +From this period, therefore--that is, from the year 1794-95--we may +date the commencement of Wordsworth's entire self-dedication to poetry +as the study and main business of his life. Somewhere about this period +also (though, according to my remembrance of what Miss Wordsworth once +told me, I think one year or so later) his sister joined him; and they +began[116] to keep house together: once at Race Down, in Dorsetshire; +once at Clevedon, on the coast of Somersetshire; then amongst the +Quantock Hills, in the same county, or in that neighbourhood; +particularly at Alfoxton, a beautiful country-house, with a grove and +shrubbery attached, belonging to Mr. St. Aubyn, a minor, and let (I +believe) on the terms of keeping the house in repair. Whilst resident +at this last place it was, as I have generally understood, and in +the year 1797 or 1798, that Wordsworth first became acquainted with +Coleridge; though possibly in the year I am wrong; for it occurs to me +that, in a poem of Coleridge's dated in 1796, there is an allusion to a +young writer of the name of Wordsworth as one who had something austere +in his style, but otherwise was more original than any other poet of +the age; and it is probable that this knowledge of the poetry would +be subsequent to a personal knowledge of the author, considering the +little circulation which any poetry of a Wordsworthian stamp would be +likely to attain at that time.[117] + + [116] I do not, on consideration, know when they might begin to + keep house together: but, by a passage in "The Prelude," they must + have made a tour together as early as 1787. + + [117] In the Memoir of Coleridge prefaced to Messrs. Macmillan's + four-volume edition of his poetical works (1880) one reads:--"In + the summer of 1797 Coleridge and Wordsworth, if they did not + actually meet for the first time, first became familiarly + acquainted with each other at Racedown in Dorsetshire. Wordsworth + was then in his twenty-eighth and Coleridge in his twenty-fifth + year."--M. + +It was at Alfoxton that Miss Mary Hutchinson visited her cousins the +Wordsworths, and there, or previously in the north of England, at +Stockton-upon-Tees and Darlington, that the attachment began between +Miss Mary Hutchinson and Wordsworth which terminated in their marriage +about the beginning of the present century. The marriage took place +in the north; somewhere, I believe, in Yorkshire; and, immediately +after the ceremony, Wordsworth brought his bride to Grasmere; in which +most lovely of English valleys he had previously obtained, upon a +lease of seven or eight years, the cottage in which I found him living +at my first visit to him in November 1807. I have heard that there +was a paragraph inserted on this occasion in the "Morning Post" or +"Courier"--and I have an indistinct remembrance of having once seen it +myself--which described this event of the poet's marriage in the most +ludicrous terms of silly pastoral sentimentality; the cottage being +described as "the abode of content and all the virtues," the vale +itself in the same puerile slang, and the whole event in the style of +allegorical trifling about the Muses, &c. The masculine and severe +taste of Wordsworth made him peculiarly open to annoyance from such +absurd trifling; and, unless his sense of the ludicrous overpowered +his graver feelings, he must have been much displeased with the +paragraph. But, after all, I have understood that the whole affair was +an unseasonable jest of Coleridge's or Lamb's. + +To us who, in after years, were Wordsworth's friends, or, at least, +intimate acquaintances--viz., to Professor Wilson and myself--the most +interesting circumstance in this marriage, the one which perplexed us +exceedingly, was the very possibility that it should ever have been +brought to bear. For we could not conceive of Wordsworth as submitting +his faculties to the humilities and devotion of courtship. That +self-surrender--that prostration of mind by which a man is too happy +and proud to express the profundity of his service to the woman of his +heart--it seemed a mere impossibility that ever Wordsworth should be +brought to feel for a single instant; and what he did not sincerely +feel, assuredly he was not the person to profess. Wordsworth, I take +it upon myself to say, had not the feelings within him which make this +total devotion to a woman possible. There never lived a woman whom he +would not have lectured and admonished under circumstances that should +have seemed to require it; nor would he have conversed with her in +any mood whatever without wearing an air of mild condescension to her +understanding. To lie at her feet, to make her his idol, to worship her +very caprices, and to adore the most unreasonable of her frowns--these +things were impossible to Wordsworth; and, being so, never could he, in +any emphatic sense, have been a lover. + +A lover, I repeat, in any passionate sense of the word, Wordsworth +could not have been. And, moreover, it is remarkable that a woman who +could dispense with that sort of homage in her suitor is not of a +nature to inspire such a passion. That same meekness which reconciles +her to the tone of superiority and freedom in the manner of her suitor, +and which may afterwards in a wife become a sweet domestic grace, +strips her of that too charming irritation, captivating at once and +tormenting, which lurks in feminine pride. If there be an enchantress's +spell yet surviving in this age of ours, it is the haughty grace +of maidenly pride--the womanly sense of dignity, even when most in +excess, and expressed in the language of scorn--which tortures a man +and lacerates his heart, at the same time that it pierces him with +admiration:-- + + "Oh, what a world of scorn looks beautiful + In the contempt and anger of her lip!" + +And she who spares a man the agitations of this thraldom robs him no +less of its divinest transports. Wordsworth, however, who never could +have laid aside his own nature sufficiently to have played _his_ part +in such an impassioned courtship, by suiting himself to this high +sexual pride with the humility of a lover, quite as little could have +enjoyed the spectacle of such a pride, or have viewed it in any degree +as an attraction: it would to him have been a pure vexation. Looking +down even upon the lady of his heart, as upon the rest of the world, +from the eminence of his own intellectual superiority--viewing her, in +fact, as a child--he would be much more disposed to regard any airs of +feminine disdain she might assume as the impertinence of girlish levity +than as the caprice of womanly pride; and much I fear that, in any case +of dispute, he would have called even his mistress, "Child! child!" and +perhaps even (but this I do not say with the same certainty) might have +bid her hold her tongue. + +If, however, no lover, in a proper sense,--though, from many exquisite +passages, one might conceive that at some time of his life he was, as +especially from the inimitable stanzas beginning-- + + "When she I loved was strong and gay, + And like a rose in June," + +or perhaps (but less powerfully so, because here the passion, though +profound, is less the _peculiar_ passion of love) from the impassioned +lamentation for "the pretty Barbara," beginning-- + + "'Tis said that some have died for love: + And here and there, amidst unhallow'd ground + In the cold north," &c.,-- + +yet, if no lover, or (which some of us have sometimes thought) a lover +disappointed at some earlier period, by the death of her he loved, or +by some other fatal event (for he always preserved a mysterious silence +on the subject of that "Lucy," repeatedly alluded to or apostrophized +in his poems); at all events he made what for him turned out a happy +marriage. Few people have lived on such terms of entire harmony and +affection as he lived with the woman of his final choice. Indeed, the +sweetness, almost unexampled, of temper, which shed so sunny a radiance +over Mrs. Wordsworth's manners, sustained by the happy life she led, +the purity of her conscience, and the uniformity of her good health, +made it impossible for anybody to have quarrelled with _her_; and +whatever fits of ill-temper Wordsworth might have--for, with all his +philosophy, he had such fits--met with no fuel to support them, except +in the more irritable temperament of his sister. She was all fire, and +an ardour which, like that of the first Lord Shaftesbury, + + "O'er-informed its tenement of clay"; + +and, as this ardour looked out in every gleam of her wild eyes (those +"wild eyes" so finely noticed in the "Tintern Abbey"), as it spoke +in every word of her self-baffled utterance, as it gave a trembling +movement to her very person and demeanour--easily enough it might +happen that any apprehension of an unkind word should with her kindle +a dispute. It might have happened; and yet, to the great honour of +both, having such impassioned temperaments, rarely it did happen; and +this was the more remarkable, as I have been assured that both were, +in childhood, irritable or even ill-tempered, and they were constantly +together; for Miss Wordsworth was always ready to walk out--wet or dry, +storm or sunshine, night or day; whilst Mrs. Wordsworth was completely +dedicated to her maternal duties, and rarely left the house, unless +when the weather was tolerable, or, at least, only for short rambles. I +should not have noticed this trait in Wordsworth's occasional manners, +had it been gathered from domestic or confidential opportunities. +But, on the contrary, the first two occasions on which, after months' +domestic intercourse with Wordsworth, I became aware of his possible +ill-humour and peevishness, were so public, that others, and those +strangers, must have been equally made parties to the scene. This scene +occurred in Kendal. + + * * * * * + +Having brought down the history of Wordsworth to the time of his +marriage, I am reminded by that event to mention the singular good +fortune, in all points of worldly prosperity, which has accompanied him +through life. His marriage--the capital event of life--was fortunate, +and inaugurated a long succession of other prosperities. He has himself +described, in his "Leech-Gatherer,"[118] the fears that at one time, or +at least in some occasional moments of his life, haunted him, lest at +some period or other he might be reserved for poverty. "Cold, pain, and +hunger, and all fleshly ills," occurred to his boding apprehension, and +"mighty poets in their misery dead." + + [118] Now entitled _Resolution and Independence_.--M. + + "He thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy, + The sleepless soul that perished in its pride; + Of him who walked in glory and in joy + Following his plough along the mountain-side." + +And, at starting on his career of life, certainly no man had plainer +reasons for anticipating the worst evils that have ever persecuted +poets, excepting only two reasons which might warrant him in hoping +better; and these two were--his great prudence, and the temperance of +his daily life. He could not be betrayed into foolish engagements; he +could not be betrayed into expensive habits. Profusion and extravagance +had no hold over him, by any one passion or taste. He was not luxurious +in anything; was not vain or even careful of external appearances +(not, at least, since he had left Cambridge, and visited a mighty +nation in civil convulsions); was not even in the article of books +expensive. Very few books sufficed him; he was careless habitually of +all the current literature, or indeed of any literature that could not +be considered as enshrining the very ideal, capital, and elementary +grandeur of the human intellect. In this extreme limitation of his +literary sensibilities he was as much assisted by that accident of +his own intellectual condition--viz. extreme, intense, unparalleled +_onesidedness_ (_einseitigkeit_)--as by any peculiar sanity of feeling. +Thousands of books that have given rapturous delight to millions of +ingenuous minds for Wordsworth were absolutely a dead letter--closed +and sealed up from his sensibilities and his powers of appreciation, +not less than colours from a blind man's eye. Even the few books which +his peculiar mind had made indispensable to him were not in such a +sense indispensable as they would have been to a man of more sedentary +habits. He lived in the open air, and the enormity of pleasure which +both he and his sister drew from the common appearances of nature and +their everlasting variety--variety so infinite that, if no one leaf of +a tree or shrub ever exactly resembled another in all its filaments and +their arrangement, still less did any one day ever repeat another in +all its pleasurable elements. This pleasure was to him in the stead of +many libraries:-- + + "One impulse, from a vernal wood, + Could teach him more of Man, + Of moral evil and of good, + Than all the sages can." + +And he, we may be sure, who could draw, + + "Even from the meanest flower that blows, + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,"-- + +to whom the mere daisy, the pansy, the primrose, could furnish +pleasures--not the puerile ones which his most puerile and worldly +insulters imagined, but pleasures drawn from depths of reverie and +meditative tenderness far beyond all power of _their_ hearts to +conceive: that man would hardly need any large variety of books. In +fact, there were only two provinces of literature in which Wordsworth +could be looked upon as decently well read--Poetry and Ancient History. +Nor do I believe that he would much have lamented, on his own account, +if all books had perished, excepting the entire body of English Poetry, +and, perhaps, "Plutarch's Lives."[119] + + [119] I do not mean to insinuate that Wordsworth was at all in the + dark about the inaccuracy and want of authentic weight attaching + to Plutarch as a historian; but his business with Plutarch was not + for purposes of research: he was satisfied with his fine moral + effects. + +With these simple or rather austere tastes, Wordsworth (it might seem) +had little reason to fear poverty, supposing him in possession of any +moderate income; but meantime he had none. About the time when he left +college, I have good grounds for believing that his whole regular +income was precisely = 0. Some fragments must have survived from the +funds devoted to his education; and with these, no doubt, he supported +the expenses of his Continental tours, and his year's residence in +France. But, at length, "cold, pain, and hunger, and all fleshly ills," +must have stared him in the face pretty earnestly. And hope of longer +evading an unpleasant destiny of daily toil, in some form or other, +there seemed absolutely none. "For," as he himself expostulates with +himself-- + + "For how can _he_ expect that others should + Sow for him, build for _him_, and, at his call, + Love him, who for himself will take no thought at all?" + +In this dilemma, he had all but resolved, as Miss Wordsworth once told +me, to take pupils; and perhaps _that_, though odious enough, was the +sole resource he had; for Wordsworth never acquired any popular talent +of writing for the current press; and, at that period of his life, he +was gloomily unfitted for bending to such a yoke. In this crisis of +his fate it was that Wordsworth, for once, and once only, became a +martyr to some nervous affection. _That_ raised pity; but I could not +forbear smiling at the remedy, or palliation, which his few friends +adopted. Every night they played at cards with him, as the best mode +of beguiling his sense of distress, whatever that might be: _cards_, +which, in any part of the thirty-and-one years since I have known +Wordsworth, could have had as little power to interest him, or to +cheat him of sorrow, as marbles or a top. However, so it was; for my +information could not be questioned: it came from Miss Wordsworth. + +The crisis, as I have said, had arrived for determining the future +colour of his life. Memorable it is, that exactly in those critical +moments when some decisive step had first become necessary, there +happened the first instance of Wordsworth's good luck; and equally +memorable that, at measured intervals throughout the long sequel of his +life since then, a regular succession of similar but superior windfalls +have fallen in, to sustain his expenditure, in exact concurrence with +the growing claims upon his purse. A more fortunate man, I believe, +does not exist than Wordsworth. The aid which now dropped from heaven, +as it were, to enable him to range at will in paths of his own +choosing, and + + "Finally array + His temples with the Muses diadem," + +came in the shape of a bequest from Raisley Calvert, a young man of +good family in Cumberland, who died about this time of pulmonary +consumption. A very remarkable young man he must have been, this +Raisley Calvert, to have discerned, at this early period, that future +superiority in Wordsworth which so few people suspected. He was the +brother of a Cumberland gentleman, whom slightly I know; a generous +man, doubtless; for he made no sort of objections (though legally, I +have heard, he might) to his brother's farewell memorial of regard; +a good man to all his dependants, as I have generally understood, in +the neighbourhood of Windy Brow, his mansion, near Keswick; and, as +Southey always said (who must know better than I could do), a man of +strong natural endowments; else, as his talk was of oxen, I might have +made the mistake of supposing him to be, in heart and soul, what he +was in profession--a mere farming country gentleman, whose ambition +was chiefly directed to the turning up of mighty turnips. The sum +left by Raisley Calvert was £900; and it was laid out in an annuity. +This was the basis of Wordsworth's prosperity in life; and upon this +he has built up, by a series of accessions, in which each step, taken +separately for itself, seems perfectly natural, whilst the total result +has undoubtedly something wonderful about it, the present goodly +edifice of his fortunes. Next in the series came the present Lord +Lonsdale's repayment of his predecessor's debt. Upon that, probably, it +was that Wordsworth felt himself entitled to marry. Then, I believe, +came some fortune with Miss Hutchinson; then--that is, fourthly--some +worthy uncle of the same lady was pleased to betake himself to a better +world, leaving to various nieces, and especially to Mrs. Wordsworth, +something or other--I forget what, but it was expressed by thousands +of pounds. At this moment, Wordsworth's family had begun to increase; +and the worthy old uncle, like everybody else in Wordsworth's case, +finding his property very clearly "wanted," and, as people would tell +him, "bespoke," felt how very indelicate it would look for him to +stay any longer in this world; and so off he moved. But Wordsworth's +family, and the wants of that family, still continued to increase; +and the next person--viz., the fifth--who stood in the way, and must, +therefore, have considered himself rapidly growing into a nuisance, +was the stamp-distributor for the county of Westmoreland. About March +1814, I think it was, that his very comfortable situation was wanted. +Probably it took a month for the news to reach him; because in April, +and not before, feeling that he had received a proper notice to quit, +he, good man (this stamp-distributor), like all the rest, distributed +himself and his office into two different places--the latter falling, +of course, into the hands of Wordsworth. + +This office, which it was Wordsworth's pleasure to speak of as +"a little one," yielded, I believe, somewhere about £500 a year. +Gradually, even _that_, with all former sources of income, became +insufficient; which ought not to surprise anybody; for a son at Oxford, +as a gentleman commoner, would spend, at the least, £300 per annum; and +there were other children. Still, it is wrong to say that it _had_ +become insufficient; as usual, it had not come to that; but, on the +first symptoms arising that it soon _would_ come to that, somebody, of +course, had notice to consider himself a sort of nuisance-elect;--in +this case, it was the distributor of stamps for the county of +Cumberland. His district was absurdly large; and what so reasonable as +that he should submit to a Polish partition of his profits--no, not +Polish; for, on reflection, such a partition neither was nor could be +attempted with regard to an actual incumbent. But then, since people +had such consideration for him as not to remodel the office so long +as he lived, on the other hand, the least he could do for "people" +in return--so as to show his sense of this consideration--was not +to trespass on so much goodness longer than necessary. Accordingly, +here, as in all cases before, the _Deus ex machinâ_ who invariably +interfered when any _nodus_ arose in Wordsworth's affairs, such as +could be considered _vindice dignus_, caused the distributor to +begone into a region where no stamps are wanted, about the very +month, or so, when an additional £400 per annum became desirable. +This, or perhaps more, was understood to have been added, by the new +arrangement, to the Westmoreland distributorship; the small towns of +Keswick and Cockermouth, together with the important one of Whitehaven, +being severed, under this remodelling, from their old dependency on +Cumberland (to which geographically they belonged), and transferred +to the small territory of rocky Westmoreland, the sum total of whose +inhabitants was at that time not much above 50,000; of which number, +one-third, or nearly so, was collected into the only important town +of Kendal; but, of the other two-thirds, a larger proportion was a +simple agricultural or pastoral population than anywhere else in +England. In Westmoreland, therefore, it may be supposed that the stamp +demand could not have been so great, not perhaps by three-quarters, +as in Cumberland; which, besides having a population at least three +times as large, had more and larger towns. The result of this new +distribution was something that approached to an equalization of the +districts--giving to each, as was said, in round terms, a thousand a +year. + +Thus I have traced Wordsworth's ascent through its several steps and +stages, to what, for his moderate desires and habits so philosophic, +may be fairly considered opulence. And it must rejoice every man who +joins in the public homage _now_ rendered to his powers (and what man +is to be found that, more or less, does not?) to hear, with respect +to one so lavishly endowed by nature, that he has not been neglected +by fortune; that he has never had the finer edge of his sensibilities +dulled by the sad anxieties, the degrading fears, the miserable +dependencies of debt; that he has been blessed with competency even +when poorest; has had hope and cheerful prospects in reversion through +every stage of his life; that at all times he has been liberated from +_reasonable_ anxieties about the final interests of his children; +that at all times he has been blessed with leisure, the very amplest +that ever man enjoyed, for intellectual pursuits the most delightful; +yes, that, even as regards those delicate and coy pursuits, he has +possessed, in combination, all the conditions for their most perfect +culture--the leisure, the ease, the solitude, the society, the +domestic peace, the local scenery--Paradise for his eye, in Miltonic +beauty, lying outside his windows, Paradise for his heart, in the +perpetual happiness of his own fireside; and, finally, when increasing +years might be supposed to demand something more of modern luxuries, +and expanding intercourse with society something more of refined +elegancies, that his means, still keeping pace in almost arithmetical +ratio with his wants, had shed the graces of art upon the failing +powers of nature, had stripped infirmity of discomfort, and (so far as +the necessities of things will allow) had placed the final stages of +life, by means of many compensations, by universal praise, by plaudits +reverberated from senates, benedictions wherever his poems have +penetrated, honour, troops of friends--in short, by all that miraculous +prosperity can do to evade the primal decrees of nature, had placed the +final stages upon a level with the first. + +But now, reverting to the subject of Wordsworth's prosperity, I +have numbered up six separate stages of good luck--six instances of +pecuniary showers emptying themselves into his very bosom, at the very +moments when they _began_ to be needed, on the first symptoms that +they might be wanted--accesses of fortune stationed upon his road like +repeating frigates, connecting, to all appearance, some preconcerted +line of operations, and, amidst the tumults of chance, wearing as much +the air of purpose and design as if they supported a human plan. I +have come down to the sixth case. Whether there were any seventh, I +do not know: but confident I feel that, had a seventh been required +by circumstances, a seventh would have happened. So true it is that +still, as Wordsworth needed a place or a fortune, the holder of that +place or fortune was immediately served with a summons to surrender it: +so certainly was this impressed upon my belief, as one of the blind +necessities making up the prosperity and fixed destiny of Wordsworth, +that, for myself, had I happened to know of any peculiar adaptation +in an estate or office of mine to an existing need of Wordsworth's, +forthwith, and with the speed of a man running for his life, I would +have laid it down at his feet. "Take it," I should have said; "take it, +or in three weeks I shall be a dead man." + +Well, let me pause: I think the reader is likely by this time to have +a slight notion of _my_ notion of Wordsworth's inevitable prosperity, +and the sort of _lien_ that he had upon the incomes of other men who +happened to stand in his way. The same prosperity attended the other +branches of the family, with the single exception of John, the brother +who perished in the _Abergavenny_: and even he was prosperous up to +the moment of his fatal accident. As to Miss Wordsworth, who will, by +some people, be classed amongst the non-prosperous, I rank her amongst +the most fortunate of women; or, at least, if regard be had to that +period of life which is most capable of happiness. Her fortune, after +its repayment by Lord Lonsdale, was, much of it, confided, with a +sisterly affection, to the use of her brother John; and part of it, +I have heard, perished in his ship. How much, I never felt myself +entitled to ask; but certainly a part was on that occasion understood +to have been lost irretrievably. Either it was that only a partial +insurance had been effected; or else the nature of the accident, being +in home waters (off the coast of Dorsetshire), might, by the nature of +the contract, have taken the case out of the benefit of the policy. +This loss, however, had it even been total, for a single sister +amongst a family of flourishing brothers, could not be of any lasting +importance. A much larger number of voices would proclaim her to have +been unfortunate in life because she made no marriage connexion; and +certainly, the insipid as well as unfeeling ridicule which descends so +plentifully upon those women who, perhaps from strength of character, +have refused to make such a connexion where it promised little of +elevated happiness, _does_ make the state of singleness somewhat of a +trial to the patience of many; and to many the vexation of this trial +has proved a snare for beguiling them of their honourable resolutions. +Meantime, as the opportunities are rare in which all the conditions +concur for happy marriage connexions, how important it is that the +dignity of high-minded women should be upheld by society in the +honourable election they make of a self-dependent virgin seclusion, +by preference to a heartless marriage! Such women, as Mrs. Trollope +justly remarks, fill a place in society which in their default would +_not_ be filled, and are available for duties requiring a tenderness +and a punctuality that could not be looked for from women preoccupied +with household or maternal claims. If there were no regular fund (so to +speak) of women free from conjugal and maternal duties, upon what body +could we draw for our "sisters of mercy," &c.? In another point Mrs. +Trollope is probably right: few women live unmarried from necessity. +Miss Wordsworth had several offers; amongst them, to my knowledge, one +from Hazlitt; all of them she rejected decisively. And she did right. A +happier life, by far, was hers in youth, coming as near as difference +of scenery and difference of relations would permit to that which was +promised to Ruth--the Ruth of her brother's creation[120]--by the +youth who came from Georgia's shore; for, though not upon American +savannah, or Canadian lakes, + + "With all their fairy crowds + Of islands, that together lie + As quietly as spots of sky + Amongst the evening clouds," + +yet, amongst the loveliest scenes of sylvan England, and (at intervals) +of sylvan Germany--amongst lakes, too, far better fitted to give the +_sense_ of their own character than the vast inland _seas_ of America, +and amongst mountains more romantic than many of the chief ranges in +that country--her time fleeted away like some golden age, or like the +life of primeval man; and she, like Ruth, was for years allowed + + "To run, though _not_ a bride, + A sylvan huntress, by the side" + +of him to whom she, like Ruth, had dedicated her days, and to whose +children, afterwards, she dedicated a love like that of mothers. Dear +Miss Wordsworth! How noble a creature did she seem when I first knew +her!--and when, on the very first night which I passed in her brother's +company, he read to me, in illustration of something he was saying, a +passage from Fairfax's "Tasso," ending pretty nearly with these words, + + "Amidst the broad fields and the endless wood, + The lofty lady kept her maidenhood," + +I thought that, possibly, he had his sister in his thoughts. Yet +"lofty" was hardly the right word. Miss Wordsworth was too ardent +and fiery a creature to maintain the reserve essential to dignity; +and dignity was the last thing one thought of in the presence of one +so natural, so fervent in her feelings, and so embarrassed in their +utterance--sometimes, also, in the attempt to check them. It must +not, however, be supposed that there was any silliness or weakness of +enthusiasm about her. She was under the continual restraint of severe +good sense, though liberated from that false shame which, in so many +persons, accompanies all expressions of natural emotion; and she had +too long enjoyed the ennobling conversation of her brother, and his +admirable comments on the poets, which they read in common, to fail +in any essential point of logic or propriety of thought. Accordingly, +her letters, though the most careless and un-elaborate--nay, the +most hurried that can be imagined--are models of good sense and just +feeling. In short, beyond any person I have known in this world, Miss +Wordsworth was the creature of impulse; but, as a woman most thoroughly +virtuous and well-principled, as one who could not fail to be kept +right by her own excellent heart, and as an intellectual creature from +her cradle, with much of her illustrious brother's peculiarity of +mind--finally, as one who had been, in effect, educated and trained +by that very brother--she won the sympathy and the respectful regard +of every man worthy to approach her. Properly, and in a spirit of +prophecy, was she named _Dorothy_; in its Greek meaning,[121] _gift of +God_, well did this name prefigure the relation in which she stood to +Wordsworth, the mission with which she was charged--to wait upon him as +the tenderest and most faithful of domestics; to love him as a sister; +to sympathize with him as a confidante; to counsel him; to cheer him +and sustain him by the natural expression of her feelings--so quick, so +ardent, so unaffected--upon the probable effect of whatever thoughts or +images he might conceive; finally, and above all other ministrations, +to ingraft, by her sexual sense of beauty, upon his masculine austerity +that delicacy and those graces which else (according to the grateful +acknowledgments of his own maturest retrospect) it never could have +had:-- + + "The blessing of my later years + with me when I was a boy: + She gave me hopes, she gave me fears, + A heart the fountain of sweet tears, + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + And love, and thought, and joy." + +And elsewhere he describes her, in a philosophic poem, still in +MS.,[122] as one who planted flowers and blossoms with her feminine +hand upon what might else have been an arid rock--massy, indeed, and +grand, but repulsive from the severity of its features. I may sum up +in one brief abstract the amount of Miss Wordsworth's character, as +a companion, by saying, that she was the very wildest (in the sense +of the most natural) person I have ever known; and also the truest, +most inevitable, and at the same time the quickest and readiest in her +sympathy with either joy or sorrow, with laughter or with tears, with +the realities of life or the larger realities of the poets! + + [120] "_The Ruth of her brother's creation_":--So I express it; + because so much in the development of the story and situations + necessarily belongs to the poet. Else, for the mere outline of the + story, it was founded upon fact. Wordsworth himself told me, in + general terms, that the case which suggested the poem was that of + an American lady, whose husband forsook her at the very place of + embarkation from England, under circumstances and under + expectations, upon her part, very much the same as those of Ruth. + I am afraid, however, that the husband was an attorney; which is + intolerable; _nisi prius_ cannot be harmonized with the dream-like + fairyland of Georgia. + + [121] Of course, therefore, it is essentially the same name as + _Theodora_, the same elements being only differently arranged. Yet + how opposite is the impression upon the mind! and chiefly, I + suppose, from the too prominent emblazonment of this name in the + person of Justinian's scandalous wife; though, for my own part, I + am far from believing all the infamous stories which we read about + her. + + [122] In the concluding Book of the _Prelude_.--M. + +Meantime, amidst all this fascinating furniture of her mind, won from +nature, from solitude, from enlightened companionship, Miss Wordsworth +was as thoroughly deficient (some would say painfully deficient--I say +charmingly deficient) in ordinary female accomplishments as "Cousin +Mary" in dear Miss Mitford's delightful sketch. Of French, she might +have barely enough to read a plain modern page of narrative; Italian, +I question whether any; German, just enough to insult the German +literati, by showing how little she had found them or their writings +necessary to her heart. The "Luise" of Voss, the "Hermann und Dorothea" +of Goethe she had begun to translate, as young ladies do "Télémaque"; +but, like them, had chiefly cultivated the first two pages[123]; with +the third she had a slender acquaintance, and with the fourth she +meditated an intimacy at some future day. Music, in her solitary and +out-of-doors life, she could have little reason for cultivating; nor +is it possible that any woman can draw the enormous energy requisite +for this attainment, upon a _modern_ scale of perfection, out of +any other principle than that of vanity (at least of great value for +social applause) or else of deep musical sensibility; neither of which +belonged to Miss Wordsworth's constitution of mind. But, as everybody +agrees in our days to think this accomplishment of no value whatever, +and, in fact, _unproduceable_, unless existing in an exquisite state +of culture, no complaint could be made on that score, nor any surprise +felt. But the case in which the irregularity of Miss Wordsworth's +education _did_ astonish one was in that part which respected her +literary knowledge. In whatever she read, or neglected to read, she had +obeyed the single impulse of her own heart; where that led her, _there_ +she followed: where that was mute or indifferent, not a thought had +she to bestow upon a writer's high reputation, or the call for some +acquaintance with his works to meet the demands of society. And thus +the strange anomaly arose, of a woman deeply acquainted with some great +authors, whose works lie pretty much out of the fashionable beat; able, +moreover, in her own person, to produce brilliant effects; able on some +subjects to write delightfully, and with the impress of originality +upon all she uttered; and yet ignorant of great classical works in her +own mother tongue, and careless of literary history in a degree which +at once exiled her from the rank and privileges of _bluestockingism_. + + [123] Viz., "Calypso ne savoit se consoler du départ," &c. For how + long a period (viz., nearly two centuries) has Calypso been + inconsolable in the morning studies of young ladies! As Fénélon's + most dreary romance always opened at one or other of these three + earliest and dreary pages, naturally to my sympathetic fancy the + poor unhappy goddess seemed to be eternally aground on this + Goodwin Sand of inconsolability. It is amongst the standing + hypocrisies of the world, that most people affect a reverence for + this book, which nobody reads. + +The reader may, perhaps, have objected silently to the illustration +drawn from Miss Mitford, that "Cousin Mary" does not effect her +fascinations out of pure negations. Such negations, from the mere +startling effect of their oddity in this present age, might fall +in with the general current of her attractions; but Cousin Mary's +undoubtedly lay in the _positive_ witcheries of a manner and a +character transcending, by force of irresistible nature (as in a +similar case recorded by Wordsworth in "The Excursion") all the pomp +of nature and art united as seen in ordinary creatures. Now, in +Miss Wordsworth, there were certainly no "Cousin Mary" fascinations +of manner and deportment, that snatch a grace beyond the reach +of art: _there_ she was, indeed, painfully deficient; for hurry +mars and defeats even the most ordinary expression of the feminine +character--viz. its gentleness: abruptness and trepidation leave often +a joint impression of what seems for an instant both rudeness and +ungracefulness: and the least painful impression was that of unsexual +awkwardness. But the point in which Miss Wordsworth made the most ample +amends for all that she wanted of more customary accomplishments, was +this very originality and native freshness of intellect, which settled +with so bewitching an effect upon some of her writings, and upon +many a sudden remark or ejaculation, extorted by something or other +that struck her eye, in the clouds, or in colouring, or in accidents +of light and shade, of form or combination of form. To talk of her +"writings" is too pompous an expression, or at least far beyond any +pretensions that she ever made for herself. Of poetry she has written +little indeed; and that little not, in my opinion, of much merit. +The verses published by her brother, and beginning, "Which way does +the wind come?", meant only as nursery lines, are certainly wild and +pretty; but the other specimen is likely to strike most readers as +feeble and trivial in the sentiment. Meantime, the book which is in +very deed a monument to her power of catching and expressing all the +hidden beauties of natural scenery, with a felicity of diction, a +truth and strength, that far transcend Gilpin, or professional writers +on those subjects, is her record of a _first_ tour in Scotland, made +about the year 1802. This MS. book (unless my recollection of it, +from a period now gone by for thirty years, has deceived me greatly) +is absolutely unique in its class; and, though it never could be very +popular, from the minuteness of its details, intelligible only to the +eye, and the luxuriation of its descriptions, yet I believe no person +has ever been favoured with a sight of it that has not yearned for +its publication. Its own extraordinary merit, apart from the interest +which _now_ invests the name of Wordsworth, could not fail to procure +purchasers for one edition on its first appearance.[124] + + [124] It was published in full in 1874, with the title + _Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland, A.D. 1803, by Dorothy + Wordsworth_. _Edited by J. C. Shairp, LL.D._--M. + +Coleridge was of the party at first; but afterwards, under some +attack of rheumatism, found or thought it necessary to leave them. +Melancholy it would be at this time, thirty-six years and more from +the era of that tour, to read it under the afflicting remembrances +of all which has been suffered in the interval by two at least out +of the three who composed the travelling party; for I fear that Miss +Wordsworth has suffered not much less than Coleridge, and, in any +general expression of it, from the same cause, viz. an excess of +pleasurable excitement and luxurious sensibility, sustained in youth +by a constitutional glow from animal causes, but drooping as soon as +that was withdrawn. It is painful to point a moral from any story +connected with those whom one loves or has loved; painful to look for +one moment towards any "improvement" of such a case, especially where +there is no reason to tax the parties with any criminal contribution +to their own sufferings, except through that relaxation of the will +and its potential energies through which most of us, at some time or +other--I myself too deeply and sorrowfully--stand accountable to our +own consciences. Not, therefore, with any intention of speaking in a +monitorial or censorial character, do I here notice a defect in Miss +Wordsworth's self-education of something that might have mitigated the +sort of suffering which, more or less, ever since the period of her +too genial, too radiant youth, I suppose her to have struggled with. +I have mentioned the narrow basis on which her literary interests had +been made to rest--the exclusive character of her reading, and the +utter want of pretension, and of all that looks like _bluestockingism_, +in the style of her habitual conversation and mode of dealing with +literature. Now, to me it appears, upon reflection, that it would +have been far better had Miss Wordsworth condescended a little to the +ordinary mode of pursuing literature; better for her own happiness +if she _had_ been a bluestocking; or, at least, if she had been, in +good earnest, a writer for the press, with the pleasant cares and +solicitudes of one who has some little ventures, as it were, on that +vast ocean. + +We all know with how womanly and serene a temper literature has +been pursued by Joanna Baillie, by Miss Mitford, and other women +of admirable genius--with how absolutely no sacrifice or loss of +feminine dignity they have cultivated the profession of authorship; +and, if we could hear their report, I have no doubt that the little +cares of correcting proofs, and the forward-looking solicitudes +connected with the mere business arrangements of new publications, +would be numbered amongst the minor pleasures of life; whilst the +more elevated cares connected with the intellectual business of such +projects must inevitably have done much to solace the troubles which, +as human beings, they cannot but have experienced, and even to scatter +flowers upon their path. Mrs. Johnstone of Edinburgh has pursued the +profession of literature--the noblest of professions, and the only +one open to both sexes alike--with even more assiduity, and as a +_daily_ occupation; and, I have every reason to believe, with as much +benefit to her own happiness as to the instruction and amusement of +her readers; for the petty cares of authorship are agreeable, and its +serious cares are ennobling.[125] More especially is such an occupation +useful to a woman without children, and without any _prospective_ +resources--resources in objects that involve hopes growing and +unfulfilled. It is too much to expect of any woman (or man either) that +her mind should support itself in a pleasurable activity, under the +drooping energies of life, by resting on the past or on the present; +some interest in reversion, some subject of hope from day to day, must +be called in to reinforce the animal fountains of good spirits. Had +that been opened for Miss Wordsworth, I am satisfied that she would +have passed a more cheerful middle-age, and would not, at any period, +have yielded to that nervous depression (or is it, perhaps, nervous +irritation?) which, I grieve to hear, has clouded her latter days. +Nephews and nieces, whilst young and innocent, are as good almost as +sons and daughters to a fervid and loving heart that has carried them +in her arms from the hour they were born. But, after a nephew has grown +into a huge hulk of a man, six feet high, and as stout as a bullock; +after he has come to have children of his own, lives at a distance, +and finds occasion to talk much of oxen and turnips--no offence to +him!--he ceases to be an object of any very profound sentiment. +There is nothing in such a subject to rouse the flagging pulses of +the heart, and to sustain a fervid spirit, to whom, at the very best, +human life offers little of an adequate or sufficing interest, unless +when idealized by the magic of the mighty poets. Farewell, Miss +Wordsworth! farewell, impassioned Dorothy! I have not seen you for many +a day--shall, too probably, never see you again; but shall attend your +steps with tender interest so long as I hear of you living: so will +Professor Wilson; and, from two hearts at least, that knew and admired +you in your fervid prime, it may sometimes cheer the gloom of your +depression to be assured of never-failing remembrance, full of love and +respectful pity.[126] + + [125] Mrs. Johnstone (1781-1857) was the authoress of several + novels, a contributor to various periodicals, and editor of + _Tait's Magazine_ through a portion at least of De Quincey's + connexion with it.--M. + + [126] In the recast by De Quincey, for the collective edition of + his writings in 1853, of his _Tait_ articles on Wordsworth in + 1839, there were some omissions of matter that had appeared in the + magazine. One was this concluding paragraph in the article for + April 1839:--"I have traced the history of each [_i.e._ of William + and Dorothy Wordsworth] until the time when I became personally + acquainted with them; and, henceforwards, anything which it may be + interesting to know with respect to either will naturally come + forward, not in a separate narrative, but in connexion with my own + life; for in the following year I became myself the tenant of that + pretty cottage in which I found them; and from that time, for many + years, my life flowed on in daily union with theirs."--M. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE LAKE POETS: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND ROBERT SOUTHEY[127] + + [127] From _Tait's Magazine_ for July 1839. See explanation in + Editor's Preface to this volume.--M. + + +That night--the first of my personal intercourse with +Wordsworth--the first in which I saw him face to face--was +(it is little, indeed, to say) memorable: it was marked by a +change even in the physical condition of my nervous system. +Long disappointment--hope for ever baffled (and why should +it be less painful because _self_-baffled?)--vexation and +self-blame, almost self-contempt, at my own want of courage +to face the man whom of all since the Flood I most yearned to +behold:--these feelings had impressed upon my nervous sensibilities +a character of irritation--agitation--restlessness--eternal +self-dissatisfaction--which were gradually gathering into a distinct, +well-defined type, that would, but for youth--almighty youth, and +the spirit of youth--have shaped itself into some nervous complaint, +wearing symptoms _sui generis_ (for most nervous complaints, in minds +that are at all eccentric, will be _sui generis_); and, perhaps, +finally, have been immortalized in some medical journal as the +anomalous malady of an interesting young gentleman, aged twenty-two, +who was supposed to have studied too severely, and to have perplexed +his brain with German metaphysics. To this result things tended; +but, in one hour, all passed away. It was gone, never to return. The +spiritual being whom I had anticipated--for, like Eloisa, + + "My fancy framed him of the angelic kind, + Some emanation of the all-beauteous mind"-- + +this ideal creature had at length been seen--seen "in the flesh"--seen +with fleshly eyes; and now, though he did not cease for years to wear +something of the glory and the _aureola_ which, in Popish legends, +invests the head of superhuman beings, yet it was no longer as a being +to be feared: it was as Raphael, the "affable" angel, who conversed on +the terms of man with man, that I now regarded him. + +It was four o'clock, perhaps, when we arrived. At that hour in November +the daylight soon declined; and, in an hour and a half, we were all +collected about the tea-table. This, with the Wordsworths, under the +simple rustic system of habits which they cherished then, and for +twenty years after, was the most delightful meal in the day; just as +dinner is in great cities, and for the same reason--because it was +prolonged into a meal of leisure and conversation. And the reason why +any meal favours and encourages conversation is pretty much the same +as that which accounts for the breaking down of so many lawyers, and +generally their ill-success in the House of Commons. In the courts +of law, when a man is haranguing upon general and abstract topics, +if at any moment he feels getting beyond his depth, if he finds his +anchor driving, he can always bring up, and drop his anchor anew upon +the _terra firma_ of his case: the facts of this, as furnished by his +brief, always assure him of a retreat as soon as he finds his more +general thoughts failing him; and the consciousness of this retreat, by +inspiring confidence, makes it much less probable that they _should_ +fail. But, in Parliament, where the advantage of a case with given +facts and circumstances, or the details of a statistical report, does +not offer itself once in a dozen times that a member has occasion to +speak--where he has to seek unpremeditated arguments and reasonings of +a general nature, from the impossibility of wholly evading the previous +speeches that may have made an impression upon the House;--this +necessity, at any rate a trying one to most people, is doubly so to +one who has always walked in the leading-strings of a _case_--always +swum with the help of bladders, in the conscious resource of his +_facts_. The reason, therefore, why a lawyer succeeds ill as a senator +is to be found in the sudden removal of an artificial aid. Now, just +such an artificial aid is furnished to timid or to unready men by +a dinner-table, and the miscellaneous attentions, courtesies, or +occupations which it enjoins or permits, as by the fixed memoranda +of a brief. If a man finds the ground slipping from beneath him in a +discussion--if, in a tide of illustration, he suddenly comes to a pause +for want of matter--he can make a graceful close, a self-interruption, +that shall wear the interpretation of forbearance, or even win the +rhetorical credit of an _aposiopesis_ (according to circumstances), by +stopping to perform a duty of the occasion: pressed into a dilemma by +some political partisan, one may evade it by pressing him to take a +little of the dish before one; or, plagued for a reason which is not +forthcoming, one may deprecate this logical rigour by inviting one's +tormentor to wine. In short, what I mean to say is, that a dinner +party, or any meal which is made the meal for intellectual relaxation, +must for ever offer the advantages of a _palæstra_ in which the weapons +are foils and the wounds not mortal: in which, whilst the interest is +that of a real, the danger is that of a sham fight: in which whilst +there is always an opportunity for swimming into deep waters, there is +always a retreat into shallow ones. And it may be laid down as a maxim, +that no nation is civilized to the height of its capacity until it +_has_ one such meal. With our ancestors of sixty years back, this meal +was supper: with the Athenians and Greeks it was dinner[128] (coena +and [Greek: deipnon]), as with ourselves; only that the hour was a +very early one, in consequence, partly, of the early bedtime of these +nations (which again was occasioned by the dearness of candle-light +to the mass of those who had political rights, on whose account the +forensic meetings, the visits of clients to their patrons, &c., opened +the political day by four hours earlier than with us), and partly in +consequence of the uncommercial habits of the ancients--commerce having +at no time created an aristocracy of its own, and, therefore, having at +no time and in no city (no, not Alexandria nor Carthage) dictated the +household and social arrangements, or the distribution of its hours. + + [128] A curious dissertation might be written on this subject. + Meantime, it is remarkable that almost all modern nations have + committed the blunder of supposing the Latin word for supper to be + _coena_, and of dinner _prandium_. Now, the essential definition + of dinner is, that which is the main meal--(what the French call + the he great meal). By that or any test (for example, the _time_, + three P.M.) the Roman coena was dinner. Even Louis XII, whose + death is partly ascribed to his having altered his dinner hour + from nine to eleven A.M. in compliment to his young English bride, + did not _sup_ at three P.M. + +I have been led insensibly into this digression. I now resume the +thread of my narrative. That night, after hearing conversation superior +by much, in its tone and subject, to any which I had ever heard +before--one exception only being made in favour of Coleridge, whose +style differed from Wordsworth's in this, that, being far more agile +and more comprehensive, consequently more showy and surprising, it was +less impressive and weighty; for Wordsworth's was slow in its movement, +solemn, majestic. After a luxury so rare as this, I found myself, about +eleven at night, in a pretty bedroom, about fourteen feet by twelve. +Much I feared that this might turn out the best room in the house; and +it illustrates the hospitality of my new friends to mention that it +was. Early in the morning, I was awoke by a little voice, issuing from +a little cottage bed in an opposite corner, soliloquizing in a low +tone. I soon recognized the words--"Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was +crucified, dead, and buried"; and the voice I easily conjectured to be +that of the eldest amongst Wordsworth's children, a son, and at that +time about three years old. He was a remarkably fine boy in strength +and size, promising (which has in fact been realized) a much more +powerful person, physically, than that of his father. Miss Wordsworth +I found making breakfast in the little sitting-room. No urn was there; +no glittering breakfast service; a kettle boiled upon the fire, and +everything was in harmony with these unpretending arrangements. I, the +son of a merchant, and naturally, therefore, in the midst of luxurious +(though not ostentatious) display from my childhood, had never seen so +humble a _ménage_: and, contrasting the dignity of the man with this +honourable poverty, and this courageous avowal of it, his utter absence +of all effort to disguise the simple truth of the case, I felt my +admiration increase to the uttermost by all I saw. This, thought I to +myself, is, indeed, in his own words-- + + "Plain living, and high thinking." + +This is indeed to reserve the humility and the parsimonies of life +for its bodily enjoyments, and to apply its lavishness and its luxury +to its enjoyments of the intellect. So might Milton have lived; so +Marvell. Throughout the day--which was rainy--the same style of modest +hospitality prevailed. Wordsworth and his sister--myself being of the +party--walked out in spite of the rain, and made the circuit of the two +lakes, Grasmere and its dependency Rydal--a walk of about six miles. On +the third day, Mrs. Coleridge having now pursued her journey northward +to Keswick, and having, at her departure, invited me, in her own name +as well as Southey's, to come and see them, Wordsworth proposed that we +should go thither in company, but not by the direct route--a distance +of only thirteen miles: this we were to take in our road homeward; our +outward-bound journey was to be by way of Ulleswater--a circuit of +forty-three miles. + +On the third morning after my arrival in Grasmere, I found the whole +family, except the two children, prepared for the expedition across the +mountains. I had heard of no horses, and took it for granted that we +were to walk; however, at the moment of starting, a cart--the common +farmers' cart of the country--made its appearance; and the driver +was a bonny young woman of the vale. Such a vehicle I had never in +my life seen used for such a purpose; but what was good enough for +the Wordsworths was good enough for me; and, accordingly, we were all +carted along to the little town, or large village, of Ambleside--three +and a half miles distant. Our style of travelling occasioned no +astonishment; on the contrary, we met a smiling salutation wherever +we appeared--Miss Wordsworth being, as I observed, the person most +familiarly known of our party, and the one who took upon herself the +whole expenses of the flying colloquies exchanged with stragglers on +the road. What struck me with most astonishment, however, was the +liberal manner of our fair driver, who made no scruple of taking a +leap, with the reins in her hand, and seating herself dexterously upon +the shafts (or, in Westmoreland phrase, the _trams_) of the cart. From +Ambleside--and without one foot of intervening flat ground--begins +to rise the famous ascent of Kirkstone; after which, for three long +miles, all riding in a cart drawn by one horse becomes impossible. The +ascent is computed at three miles, but is, probably, a little more. +In some parts it is almost frightfully steep; for the road, being +only the original mountain track of shepherds, gradually widened and +improved from age to age (especially since the era of tourists began), +is carried over ground which no engineer, even in alpine countries, +would have viewed as practicable. In ascending, this is felt chiefly +as an obstruction and not as a peril, unless where there is a risk of +the horses backing; but in the reverse order, some of these precipitous +descents are terrific: and yet once, in utter darkness, after midnight, +and the darkness irradiated only by continual streams of lightning, +I was driven down this whole descent, at a full gallop, by a young +woman--the carriage being a light one, the horses frightened, and +the descents, at some critical parts of the road, so literally like +the sides of a house, that it was difficult to keep the fore wheels +from pressing upon the hind legs of the horses. Indeed, this is only +according to the custom of the country, as I have before mentioned. +The innkeeper of Ambleside, or Lowwood, will not mount this formidable +hill without four horses. The leaders you are not required to take +beyond the first three miles; but, of course, they are glad if you will +take them on the whole stage of nine miles, to Patterdale; and, in +that case, there is a real luxury at hand for those who enjoy velocity +of motion. The descent into Patterdale is much above two miles; but +such is the propensity for flying down hills in Westmoreland that I +have found the descent accomplished in about six minutes, which is at +the rate of eighteen miles an hour; the various turnings of the road +making the speed much more sensible to the traveller. The pass, at the +summit of this ascent, is nothing to be compared in sublimity with +the pass under Great Gavil from Wastdalehead; but it is solemn, and +profoundly impressive. At a height so awful as this, it may be easily +supposed that all human dwellings have been long left behind: no sound +of human life, no bells of churches or chapels ever ascend so far. +And, as is noticed in Wordsworth's fine stanzas upon this memorable +pass, the only sound that, even in noonday, disturbs the sleep of the +weary pedestrian, is that of the bee murmuring amongst the mountain +flowers--a sound as ancient + + "As man's imperial front, and woman's roseate bloom." + +This way, and (which, to the sentiment of the case, is an important +point) this way of _necessity_ and _inevitably_, passed the Roman +legions; for it is a mathematic impossibility that any other route +could be found for an army nearer to the eastward of this pass than +by way of Kendal and Shap; nearer to the westward, than by way of +Legbesthwaite and St. John's Vale (and so by Threlkeld to Penrith). +Now, these two roads are exactly twenty-five miles apart; and, since +a Roman cohort was stationed at Ambleside (_Amboglane_), it is pretty +evident that this cohort would not correspond with the more northerly +stations by either of these remote routes--having immediately before +it this direct though difficult pass to Kirkstone. On the solitary +area of tableland which you find at the summit--though, Heaven knows, +you might almost cover it with a drawing-room carpet, so suddenly +does the mountain take to its old trick of precipitous descent, on +both sides alike--there are only two objects to remind you of man +and his workmanship. One is a guide-post--always a picturesque and +interesting object, because it expresses a wild country and a labyrinth +of roads, and often made much more interesting (as in this case) by +the lichens which cover it, and which record the generations of men +to whom it has done its office; as also by the crucifix form, which +inevitably recalls, in all mountainous regions, the crosses of Catholic +lands, raised to the memory of wayfaring men who have perished by +the hand of the assassin. The other memorial of man is even more +interesting:--Amongst the fragments of rock which lie in the confusion +of a ruin on each side of the road, one there is which exceeds the +rest in height, and which, in shape, presents a very close resemblance +to a church. This lies to the left of the road as you are going from +Ambleside; and from its name, Churchstone (Kirkstone), is derived +the name of the pass, and from the pass the name of the mountain. +The guide-post--which was really the work of man--tells those going +southwards (for to those who go northwards it is useless, since, in +that direction, there is no choice of roads) that the left hand track +conducts you to Troutbeck, and Bowness, and Kendal, the right hand to +Ambleside, and Hawkshead, and Ulverstone. The church--which is but a +phantom of man's handiwork--might, however, really be mistaken for +such, were it not that the rude and almost inaccessible state of the +adjacent ground proclaims the truth. As to size, _that_ is remarkably +difficult to estimate upon wild heaths or mountain solitudes, where +there are no leadings through gradations of distance, nor any +artificial standards, from which height or breadth can be properly +deduced. This mimic church, however, has a peculiarly fine effect in +this wild situation, which leaves so far below the tumults of this +world: the phantom church, by suggesting the phantom and evanescent +image of a congregation, where never congregation met; of the pealing +organ, where never sound was heard except of wild natural notes, or +else of the wind rushing through these mighty gates of everlasting +rock--in this way, the fanciful image that accompanies the traveller on +his road, for half a mile or more, serves to bring out the antagonist +feeling of intense and awful solitude, which is the natural and +presiding sentiment--the _religio loci_--that broods for ever over the +romantic pass. + +Having walked up Kirkstone, we ascended our cart again; then rapidly +descended to Brothers' Water--a lake which lies immediately below; +and, about three miles further, through endless woods and under the +shade of mighty fells, immediate dependencies and processes of the +still more mighty Helvellyn, we approached the vale of Patterdale, +when, by moonlight, we reached the inn. Here we found horses--by whom +furnished I never asked nor heard; perhaps I owe somebody for a horse +to this day. All I remember is--that through those most romantic woods +and rocks of Stybarren--through those silent glens of Glencoin and +Glenridding--through that most romantic of parks then belonging to +the Duke of Norfolk, viz. Gobarrow Park--we saw alternately, for four +miles, the most grotesque and the most awful spectacles-- + + "Abbey windows + And Moorish temples of the Hindoos," + +all fantastic, all as unreal and shadowy as the moonlight which created +them; whilst, at every angle of the road, broad gleams came upwards of +Ulleswater, stretching for nine miles northward, but, fortunately for +its effect, broken into three watery chambers of almost equal length, +and rarely visible at once. At the foot of the lake, in a house called +Ewsmere, we passed the night, having accomplished about twenty-two +miles only in our day's walking and riding. + +The next day Wordsworth and I, leaving at Ewsmere the rest of our +party, spent the morning in roaming through the woods of Lowther, and, +towards evening, we dined together at Emont Bridge, one mile short of +Penrith. Afterwards, we walked into Penrith. There Wordsworth left me +in excellent quarters--the house of Captain Wordsworth, from which the +family happened to be absent. Whither he himself adjourned, I know +not, nor on what business; however, it occupied him throughout the +next day; and, therefore, I employed myself in sauntering along the +road, about seventeen miles, to Keswick. There I had been directed to +ask for Greta Hall, which, with some little difficulty, I found; for +it stands out of the town a few hundred yards, upon a little eminence +overhanging the river Greta. It was about seven o'clock when I reached +Southey's door; for I had stopped to dine at a little public house in +Threlkeld, and had walked slowly for the last two hours in the dark. +The arrival of a stranger occasioned a little sensation in the house; +and, by the time the front door could be opened, I saw Mrs. Coleridge, +and a gentleman whom I could not doubt to be Southey, standing, very +hospitably, to greet my entrance. Southey was, in person, somewhat +taller than Wordsworth, being about five feet eleven in height, or a +trifle more, whilst Wordsworth was about five feet ten; and, partly +from having slender limbs, partly from being more symmetrically formed +about the shoulders than Wordsworth, he struck one as a better and +lighter figure, to the effect of which his dress contributed; for he +wore pretty constantly a short jacket and pantaloons, and had much the +air of a Tyrolese mountaineer. + +On the next day arrived Wordsworth. I could read at once, in the manner +of the two authors, that they were not on particularly friendly, +or rather, I should say, confidential terms. It seemed to me as if +both had silently said--"We are too much men of sense to quarrel +because we do not happen particularly to like each other's writings: +we are neighbours, or what passes for such in the country. Let us +show each other the courtesies which are becoming to men of letters; +and, for any closer connexion, our distance of thirteen miles may +be always sufficient to keep us from _that_." In after life, it is +true--fifteen years, perhaps, from this time--many circumstances +combined to bring Southey and Wordsworth into more intimate terms +of friendship: agreement in politics, sorrows which had happened to +both alike in their domestic relations, and the sort of tolerance for +different opinions in literature, or, indeed, in anything else, which +advancing years and experience are sure to bring with them. But at +this period, Southey and Wordsworth entertained a mutual esteem, but +did not cordially like each other. Indeed, it would have been odd if +they had. Wordsworth lived in the open air: Southey in his library, +which Coleridge used to call his wife. Southey had particularly +elegant habits (Wordsworth called them finical) in the use of books. +Wordsworth, on the other hand, was so negligent, and so self-indulgent +in the same case, that, as Southey, laughing, expressed it to me some +years afterwards, when I was staying at Greta Hall on a visit--"To +introduce Wordsworth into one's library is like letting a bear into +a tulip garden." What I mean by self-indulgent is this: generally it +happens that new books baffle and mock one's curiosity by their uncut +leaves; and the trial is pretty much the same as when, in some town +where you are utterly unknown, you meet the postman at a distance from +your inn, with some letter for yourself from a dear, dear friend in +foreign regions, without money to pay the postage. How is it with you, +dear reader, in such a case? Are you not tempted (_I am_ grievously) to +snatch the letter from his tantalizing hand, spite of the roar which +you anticipate of "Stop thief!" and make off as fast as you can for +some solitary street in the suburbs, where you may instantly effect an +entrance upon your new estate before the purchase money is paid down? +Such were Wordsworth's feelings in regard to new books; of which the +first exemplification I had was early in my acquaintance with him, and +on occasion of a book which (if any could) justified the too summary +style of his advances in rifling its charms. On a level with the eye, +when sitting at the tea-table in my little cottage at Grasmere, stood +the collective works of Edmund Burke. The book was to me an eye-sore +and an ear-sore for many a year, in consequence of the cacophonous +title lettered by the bookseller upon the back--"Burke's Works." I have +heard it said, by the way, that Donne's intolerable defect of ear grew +out of his own baptismal name, when harnessed to his own surname--_John +Donne_. No man, it was said, who had listened to this hideous jingle +from childish years, could fail to have his genius for discord, and the +abominable in sound, improved to the utmost. Not less dreadful than +_John Donne_ was "Burke's Works"; which, however, on the old principle, +that every day's work is no day's work, continued to annoy me for +twenty-one years. Wordsworth took down the volume; unfortunately it was +uncut; fortunately, and by a special Providence as to him, it seemed, +tea was proceeding at the time. Dry toast required butter; butter +required knives; and knives then lay on the table; but sad it was for +the virgin purity of Mr. Burke's as yet unsunned pages, that every +knife bore upon its blade testimonies of the service it had rendered. +Did _that_ stop Wordsworth? Did that cause him to call for another +knife? Not at all; he + + "Look'd at the knife that caus'd his pain: + And look'd and sigh'd, and look'd and sigh'd again"; + +and then, after this momentary tribute to regret, he tore his way into +the heart of the volume with this knife, that left its greasy honours +behind it upon every page: and are they not there to this day? This +personal experience first brought me acquainted with Wordsworth's +habits in that particular especially, with his intense impatience for +one minute's delay which would have brought a remedy; and yet the +reader may believe that it is no affectation in me to say that fifty +such cases could have given me but little pain, when I explain that +whatever could be made good by money, at that time, I did not regard. +Had the book been an old black-letter book, having a value from its +rarity, I should have been disturbed in an indescribable degree; but +simply with reference to the utter impossibility of reproducing that +mode of value. As to the Burke, it was a common book; I had bought the +book, with many others, at the sale of Sir Cecil Wray's library, for +about two-thirds of the selling price: I could easily replace it; and I +mention the case at all, only to illustrate the excess of Wordsworth's +outrages on books, which made him, in Southey's eyes, a mere monster; +for Southey's beautiful library was his estate; and this difference of +habits would alone have sufficed to alienate him from Wordsworth. And +so I argued in other cases of the same nature. Meantime, had Wordsworth +done as Coleridge did, how cheerfully should I have acquiesced in his +destruction (such as it was, in a pecuniary sense) of books, as the +very highest obligation he could confer. Coleridge often spoiled a +book; but, in the course of doing this, he enriched that book with +so many and so valuable notes, tossing about him, with such lavish +profusion, from such a cornucopia of discursive reading, and such a +fusing intellect, commentaries so many-angled and so many-coloured +that I have envied many a man whose luck has placed him in the way of +such injuries; and that man must have been a churl (though, God knows! +too often this churl _has_ existed) who could have found in his heart +to complain. But Wordsworth rarely, indeed, wrote on the margin of +books; and, when he did, nothing could less illustrate his intellectual +superiority. The comments were such as might have been made by anybody. +Once, I remember, before I had ever seen Wordsworth--probably a year +before--I met a person who had once enjoyed the signal honour of +travelling with him to London. It was in a stage-coach. But the person +in question well knew _who_ it was that had been his _compagnon de +voyage_. Immediately he was glorified in my eyes. "And," said I, to +this glorified gentleman (who, _par parenthése_, was also a donkey), +"Now, as you travelled nearly three hundred miles in the company of +Mr. Wordsworth, consequently (for this was in 1805) during two nights +and two days, doubtless you must have heard many profound remarks that +would inevitably fall from his lips." Nay, Coleridge had also been of +the party; and, if Wordsworth _solus_ could have been dull, was it +within human possibilities that these _gemini_ should have been so? +"Was it possible?" I said; and perhaps my donkey, who looked like one +that had been immoderately threatened, at last took courage; his eye +brightened; and he intimated that he _did_ remember something that +Wordsworth had said--an "observe," as the Scotch call it. + +"Ay, indeed; and what was it now? What did the great man say?" + +"Why, sir, in fact, and to make a long story short, on coming near +to London, we breakfasted at Baldock--you know Baldock? It's in +Hertfordshire. Well, now, sir, would you believe it, though we were +quite in regular time, the breakfast was precisely good for nothing?" + +"And Wordsworth?" + +"He observed----" + +"What did he observe?" + +"That the buttered toast looked, for all the world, as if it had been +soaked in hot water." + +Ye heavens! "_buttered toast!_" And was it _this_ I waited for? Now, +thought I, had Henry Mackenzie been breakfasting with Wordsworth at +Baldock (and, strange enough! in years to come I _did_ breakfast +with Henry Mackenzie, for the solitary time I ever met him, and at +Wordsworth's house in Rydal), he would have carried off one sole +reminiscence from the meeting--namely, a confirmation of his creed, +that we English are all dedicated, from our very cradle, to the +luxuries of the palate, and peculiarly to this.[129] _Proh pudor!_ +Yet, in sad sincerity, Wordsworth's pencil-notices in books were quite +as disappointing. In "Roderick Random," for example, I found a note +upon a certain luscious description, to the effect that "such things +should be left to the imagination of the reader--not expressed." In +another place, that it was "improper"; and, in a third, that "the +principle laid down was doubtful," or, as Sir Roger de Coverley +observes, "that much might be said on both sides." All this, however, +indicates nothing more than that different men require to be roused +by different stimulants. Wordsworth, in his marginal notes, thought +of nothing but delivering himself of a strong feeling, with which +he wished to challenge the reader's sympathy. Coleridge imagined an +audience before him; and, however doubtful that consummation might +seem, I am satisfied that he never wrote a line for which he did +not feel the momentary inspiration of sympathy and applause, under +the confidence, that, sooner or later, all which he had committed +to the chance margins of books would converge and assemble in some +common reservoir of reception. Bread scattered upon the water will +be gathered after many days. This, perhaps, was the consolation that +supported him; and the prospect that, for a time, his Arethusa of +truth would flow underground, did not, perhaps, disturb, but rather +cheered and elevated, the sublime old somnambulist.[130] Meantime, +Wordsworth's habits of using books--which, I am satisfied, would, in +those days, alone have kept him at a distance from most men with fine +libraries--were not vulgar; not the habits of those who turn over the +page by means of a wet finger (though even this abomination I have +seen perpetrated by a Cambridge tutor and fellow of a college; but +then he had been bred up as a ploughman, and the son of a ploughman): +no; but his habits were more properly barbarous and licentious, and in +the spirit of audacity belonging _de jure_ to no man but him who could +plead an income of four or five hundred thousand per annum, and to whom +the Bodleian or the Vatican would be a three years' purchase. Gross, +meantime, was his delusion upon this subject. Himself he regarded as +the golden mean between the too little and the too much of care for +books; and, as it happened that every one of his friends far exceeded +him in this point, curiously felicitous was the explanation which he +gave of this superfluous care, so as to bring it within the natural +operation of some known fact in the man's peculiar situation. Southey +(he was by nature something of an old bachelor) had his house filled +with pretty articles--_bijouterie_, and so forth; and, naturally, +he wished his books to be kept up to the same level--burnished +and bright for show. Sir George Beaumont--this peculiarly elegant +and accomplished man--was an old and most affectionate friend of +Wordsworth's. Sir George Beaumont never had any children; if he had +been so blessed, they, by familiarizing him with the spectacle of +books ill used--stained, torn, mutilated, &c.--would have lowered the +standard of his requisitions. The short solution of the whole case +was--and it illustrated the nature of his education--he had never lived +in a regular family at a time when habits are moulded. From boyhood to +manhood he had been _sui juris_. + + [129] It is not known to the English, but it is a fact which I can + vouch for, from my six or seven years' residence in Scotland + [written in 1839], that the Scotch, one and all, believe it to be + an inalienable characteristic of an Englishman to be fond of good + eating. What indignation have I, and how many a time, had occasion + to feel and utter on this subject? But of this at some other time. + Meantime, the Man of Feeling had this creed in excess; and, in + some paper (of _The Mirror_ or _The Lounger_), he describes an + English tourist in Scotland by saying--"I would not wish to be + thought national; yet, in mere reverence for truth, I am bound to + say, and to declare to all the world (let who will be offended), + that the first innkeeper in Scotland under whose roof we met with + genuine buttered toast was an Englishman." + + [130] Meantime, if it did not disturb _him_, it ought to disturb + _us_, his immediate successors, who are at once the most likely to + retrieve these _losses_ by direct efforts, and the least likely to + benefit by any casual or indirect retrievals, such as will be + produced by time. Surely a subscription should be set on foot to + recover all books enriched by his marginal notes. I would + subscribe; and I know others who would largely. + + * * * * * + +Returning to Southey and Greta Hall, both the house and the master +may deserve a few words more of description. For the master, I have +already sketched his person; and his face I profess myself unable to +describe accurately. His hair was black, and yet his complexion was +fair; his eyes I believe to be hazel and large; but I will not vouch +for that fact: his nose aquiline; and he has a remarkable habit of +looking up into the air, as if looking at abstractions. The expression +of his face was that of a very acute and aspiring man. So far, it was +even noble, as it conveyed a feeling of a serene and gentle pride, +habitually familiar with elevating subjects of contemplation. And yet +it was impossible that this pride could have been offensive to anybody, +chastened as it was by the most unaffected modesty; and this modesty +made evident and prominent by the constant expression of reverence for +the great men of the age (when he happened to esteem them such), and +for all the great patriarchs of our literature. The point in which +Southey's manner failed the most in conciliating regard was in all +which related to the external expressions of friendliness. No man could +be more sincerely hospitable--no man more essentially disposed to give +up even his time (the possession which he most valued) to the service +of his friends. But there was an air of reserve and distance about +him--the reserve of a lofty, self-respecting mind, but, perhaps, a +little too freezing--in his treatment of all persons who were not among +the _corps_ of his ancient fireside friends. Still, even towards the +veriest strangers, it is but justice to notice his extreme courtesy in +sacrificing his literary employments for the day, whatever they might +be, to the duty (for such he made it) of doing the honours of the lake +and the adjacent mountains. + +Southey was at that time (1807), and has continued ever since, the most +industrious of all literary men on record. A certain task he prescribed +to himself every morning before breakfast. This could not be a very +long one, for he breakfasted at nine, or soon after, and _never_ rose +before eight, though he went to bed duly at half-past ten; but, as I +have many times heard him say, less than nine hours' sleep he found +insufficient. From breakfast to a latish dinner (about half after five +or six) was his main period of literary toil. After dinner, according +to the accident of having or not having visitors in the house, he sat +over his wine, or he retired to his library again, from which, about +eight, he was summoned to tea. But, generally speaking, he closed his +_literary_ toils at dinner; the whole of the hours after that meal +being dedicated to his correspondence. This, it may be supposed, was +unusually large, to occupy so much of his time, for his letters rarely +extended to any length. At that period, the post, by way of Penrith, +reached Keswick about six or seven in the evening. And so pointedly +regular was Southey in all his habits that, short as the time was, +all letters were answered on the same evening which brought them. At +tea, he read the London papers. It was perfectly astonishing to men of +less methodical habits to find how much he got through of elaborate +business by his unvarying system of arrangement in the distribution +of his time. We often hear it said, in accounts of pattern ladies and +gentlemen (what Coleridge used contemptuously to style _goody_ people), +that they found time for everything; that business never interrupted +pleasure; that labours of love and charity never stood in the way +of courtesy and personal enjoyment. This is easy to say--easy to put +down as one feature of an imaginary portrait: but I must say that in +actual life I have seen few such cases. Southey, however, _did_ find +time for everything. It moved the sneers of some people, that even his +poetry was composed according to a predetermined rule; that so many +lines should be produced, by contract, as it were, before breakfast; +so many at such another definite interval. And I acknowledge that so +far I went along with the sneerers as to marvel exceedingly how that +_could_ be possible. But, if _a priori_ one laughed and expected to +see verses corresponding to this mechanic rule of construction, _a +posteriori_ one was bound to judge of the verses as one found them. +Supposing them good, they were entitled to honour, no matter for the +previous reasons which made it possible that they would _not_ be good. +And generally, however undoubtedly they _ought_ to have been bad, the +world has pronounced them good. In fact, they _are_ good; and the sole +objection to them is, that they are too intensely _objective_--too much +reflect the mind, as spreading itself out upon external things--too +little exhibit the mind as introverting itself upon its own thoughts +and feelings. This, however, is an objection which only seems to limit +the range of the poetry--and all poetry _is_ limited in its range: none +comprehends more than a section of the human power. + +Meantime, the prose of Southey was that by which he lived. The +_Quarterly Review_ it was by which, as he expressed it to myself in +1810, he "_made the pot boil_."[131] About the same time, possibly +as early as 1808 (for I think that I remember in that Journal an +account of the Battle of Vimiera), Southey was engaged by an Edinburgh +publisher (Constable, was it not?) to write the entire historical part +of the _Edinburgh Annual Register_, at a salary of £400 per annum. +Afterwards, the publisher, who was intensely national, and, doubtless, +never from the first cordially relished the notion of importing +English aid into a city teeming with briefless barristers and variety +of talent, threw out a hint that perhaps he might reduce the salary +to £300. Just about this time I happened to see Southey, who said +laughingly--"If the man of Edinburgh does this, I shall _strike_ for an +advance of wages." I presume that he _did_ strike, and, like many other +"operatives," without effect. Those who work for lower wages during a +strike are called _snobs_,[132] the men who stand out being _nobs_. +Southey became a resolute nob; but some snob was found in Edinburgh, +some youthful advocate, who accepted £300 per annum, and thenceforward +Southey lost this part of his income. I once possessed the whole work: +and in one part, viz. the _Domestic Chronicle_, I know that it is +executed with a most culpable carelessness--the beginnings of cases +being given without the ends, the ends without the beginnings--a defect +but too common in public journals. The credit of the work, however, +was staked upon its treatment of the current public history of Europe, +and the tone of its politics in times so full of agitation, and +teeming with new births in every year, some fated to prove abortive, +but others bearing golden promises for the human race. Now, whatever +might be the talent with which Southey's successor performed his duty, +there was a loss in one point for which no talent of mere execution +could make amends. The very prejudices of Southey tended to unity of +feeling: they were in harmony with each other, and grew out of a strong +moral feeling, which is the one sole secret for giving interest to an +historical narration, fusing the incoherent details into one body, and +carrying the reader fluently along the else monotonous recurrences and +unmeaning details of military movements. + + [131] In De Quincey's imperfect reproduction of this paper in his + collective edition, he adds here:--"One single paper, for + instance--viz. a review of Nelson's life, which subsequently was + expanded into his very popular little book on that + subject--brought him the splendid honorarium of £150."--M. + + [132] See the Evidence before the House of Commons' Committee. [De + Quincey does not give the date, nor the occasion.--M.] + +Well or ill directed, a strong moral feeling, and a profound sympathy +with elementary justice, is that which creates a soul under what +else may well be denominated, Miltonically, "the ribs of death." Now +this, and a mind already made up even to obstinacy upon all public +questions, were the peculiar qualifications which Southey brought to +the task--qualifications not to be bought in any market, not to be +compensated by any amount of mere intellectual talent, and almost +impossible as the qualifications of a much younger man.[133] + + [133] See note, _Southey and the Edinburgh Annual Register_, + appended to this chapter.--M. + +As a pecuniary loss, though considerable, Southey was not unable to +support it; for he had a pension from Government before this time, and +under the following circumstances:--Charles Wynne, the brother of Sir +Watkin, the great autocrat of North Wales--that C. W. who is almost +equally well known for his knowledge of Parliamentary usage, which +pointed him out to the notice of the House as an eligible person to +fill the office of Speaker, and for his unfortunately shrill voice, +which chiefly it was that defeated his claim[134]--(in fact, as is +universally known, his brother and he, for different defects of +voice and utterance, are called _Bubble and Squeak_)--this C. W. had +believed himself to have been deeply indebted to Southey's high-toned +moral example, and to his wise counsels, during the time when both +were students at Oxford, for the fortunate direction given to his own +wavering impulses. This sense of obligation he endeavoured to express +by settling a pension upon Southey from his own funds. At length, upon +the death of Mr. Pitt, early in 1806, an opening was made for the Fox +and Grenville parties to come into office. Charles Wynne, as a person +connected by marriage with the house of Grenville, and united with them +in political opinions, shared in the golden shower; he also received a +place; and, upon the strength of his improving prospects, he married: +upon which it occurred to Southey, that it was no longer right to tax +the funds of one who was now called upon to support an establishment +becoming his rank. Under that impression he threw up his pension; and +upon _their_ part, to express their sense of what they considered a +delicate and honourable sacrifice, the Grenvilles placed Southey upon +the national pension list. + + [134] Sir Watkin, the elder brother, had a tongue too large for + his mouth; Mr. C. Wynne, the younger, had a shrill voice, which at + times rose into a scream. It became, therefore, a natural and + current jest, to call the two brothers by the name of a well-known + dish, viz. _bubble and squeak_. + +What might be the exact colour of Southey's political creed in this +year, 1807, it is difficult to say. The great revolution, in his way of +thinking upon such subjects, with which he has been so often upbraided +as something equal in delinquency to a deliberate tergiversation or +moral apostasy, could not have then taken place; and of this I am sure, +from the following little anecdote connected with this visit:--On the +day after my own arrival at Greta Hall, came Wordsworth following +upon my steps from Penrith. We dined and passed that evening with Mr. +Southey. The next morning, after breakfast, previously to leaving +Keswick, we were sitting in Southey's library; and he was discussing +with Wordsworth the aspect of public affairs: for my part, I was far +too diffident to take any part in such a conversation, for I had no +opinions at all upon politics, nor any interest in public affairs, +further than that I had a keen sympathy with the national honour, +gloried in the name of Englishman, and had been bred up in a frenzied +horror of jacobinism. Not having been old enough, at the first outbreak +of the French Revolution, to participate (as else, undoubtedly, I +should have done) in the golden hopes of its early dawn, my first +youthful introduction to foreign politics had been in seasons and +circumstances that taught me to approve of all I heard in abhorrence of +French excesses, and to worship the name of Pitt; otherwise my whole +heart had been so steadily fixed on a different world from the world of +our daily experience, that, for some years, I had never looked into a +newspaper; nor, if I cared something for the movement made by nations +from year to year, did I care one iota for their movement from week +to week. Still, careless as I was on these subjects, it sounded as a +novelty to me, and one which I had not dreamed of as a possibility, +to hear men of education and liberal pursuits--men, besides, whom I +regarded as so elevated in mind, and one of them as a person charmed +and consecrated from error--giving utterance to sentiments which seemed +absolutely disloyal. Yet now did I hear--and I heard with an emotion of +sorrow, but a sorrow that instantly gave way to a conviction that it +was myself who lay under a delusion, and simply because + + ----"from Abelard it came"-- + +opinions avowed most hostile to the reigning family; not personally +to them, but generally to a monarchical form of government. And that +I could not be mistaken in my impression, that my memory cannot have +played me false, is evident, from one relic of the conversation which +rested upon my ear, and has survived to this day [1839]--thirty and +two years from the time. It had been agreed, that no good was to be +hoped for, as respected England, until the royal family should be +expatriated; and Southey, jestingly considering to what country they +could be exiled, with mutual benefit for that country and themselves, +had supposed the case--that, with a large allowance of money, such as +might stimulate beneficially the industry of a rising colony, they +should be transported to New South Wales; which project, amusing his +fancy, he had, with the readiness and facility that characterizes his +mind, thrown _extempore_ into verse; speaking off, as an improvisatore, +about eight or ten lines, of which the three last I perfectly remember, +and they were these (by the way I should have mentioned that they took +the form of a petition addressed to the King):-- + + "Therefore, old George, by George we pray + Of thee forthwith to extend thy sway + Over the great Botanic Bay." + +The sole doubt I have about the exact words regards the second line, +which might have been (according to a various reading which equally +clings to my ear)-- + + "That thou would'st please to extend thy sway." + +But about the last I cannot be wrong; for I remember laughing with a +sense of something peculiarly droll in the substitution of the stilted +phrase--"_the great Botanic Bay_," for our ordinary week-day name +_Botany Bay_, so redolent of thieves and pickpockets. + +Southey walked with us that morning for about five miles on our road +towards Grasmere, which brought us to the southern side of Shoulthwaite +Moss, and into the sweet solitary little vale of Legbesthwaite. And, +by the way, he took leave of us at the gate of a house, one amongst +the very few (five or six in all) just serving to redeem that valley +from absolute solitude, which some years afterwards became, in a +slight degree, remarkable to me from two little incidents by which +it connected itself with my personal experiences. One was, perhaps, +scarcely worth recording. It was simply this--that Wordsworth and +myself having, through a long day's rambling, alternately walked and +rode with a friend of his who happened to have a travelling carriage +with him, and who was on his way to Keswick, agreed to wait hereabouts +until Wordsworth's friend, in his abundant kindness, should send back +his carriage to take us, on our return to Grasmere, distant about +eight miles. It was a lovely summer evening; but, as it happened that +we ate our breakfast early, and had eaten nothing at all throughout a +long summer's day, we agreed to "sorn" upon the goodman of the house, +whoever he might happen to be, Catholic or Protestant, Jew, Gentile, +or Mahometan, and to take any bone that he would be pleased to toss to +such hungry dogs as ourselves. Accordingly we repaired to his gate; +we knocked, and, forthwith it was opened to us by a man-mountain, +who listened benignantly to our humble request, and ushered us into +a comfortable parlour. All sorts of refreshments he continued to +shower upon us for a space of two hours: it became evident that our +introducer was the master of the house: we adored him in our thoughts +as an earthly providence to hungry wayfarers; and we longed to make his +acquaintance. But, for some inexplicable reason, that must continue +to puzzle all future commentators on Wordsworth and his history, he +never made his appearance. Could it be, we thought, that, without the +formality of a sign, he, in so solitary a region, more than twentyfive +miles distant from Kendal (the only town worthy of the name throughout +the adjacent country), exercised the functions of a landlord, and that +we ought to pay him for his most liberal hospitality? Never was such +a dilemma from the foundation of Legbesthwaite. To err, in either +direction, was damnable: to go off without paying, if he _were_ an +innkeeper, made us swindlers; to offer payment if he were not, and +supposing that he had been inundating us with his hospitable bounties +simply in the character of a natural-born gentleman, made us the most +unfeeling of mercenary ruffians. In the latter case we might expect a +duel; in the former, of course, the treadmill. We were deliberating +on this sad alternative, and I, for my part was voting in favour of +the treadmill, when the sound of wheels was heard, and, in one minute, +the carriage of his friend drew up to the farmer's gate; the crisis +had now arrived, and we perspired considerably; when in came the frank +Cumberland lass who had been our attendant. To her we propounded our +difficulty--and lucky it was we did so, for she assured us that her +master was an awful man, and would have "brained" us both if we had +insulted him with the offer of money. She, however, honoured us by +accepting the price of some female ornament. + +I made a memorandum at the time, to ascertain the peculiar taste of +this worthy Cumberland farmer, in order that I might, at some future +opportunity, express my thanks to him for his courtesy; but, alas! for +human resolutions, I have not done so to this moment; and is it likely +that he, perhaps sixty years old at that time (1813), is alive at +present, twenty-five years removed? Well, he _may_ be; though I think +_that_ exceedingly doubtful, considering the next anecdote relating to +the same house:--Two, or, it may be, three years after this time, I +was walking to Keswick, from my own cottage in Grasmere. The distance +was thirteen miles; the time just nine o'clock; the night a cloudy +moonlight, and intensely cold. I took the very greatest delight in +these nocturnal walks through the silent valleys of Cumberland and +Westmoreland; and often at hours far later than the present. What I +liked in this solitary rambling was, to trace the course of the evening +through its household hieroglyphics from the windows which I passed or +saw: to see the blazing fires shining through the windows of houses, +lurking in nooks far apart from neighbours; sometimes, in solitudes +that seemed abandoned to the owl, to catch the sounds of household +mirth; then, some miles further, to perceive the time of going to bed; +then the gradual sinking to silence of the house; then the drowsy +reign of the cricket; at intervals, to hear church-clocks or a little +solitary chapel-bell, under the brows of mighty hills, proclaiming +the hours of the night, and flinging out their sullen knells over +the graves where "the rude forefathers of the hamlet slept"--where +the strength and the loveliness of Elizabeth's time, or Cromwell's, +and through so many fleeting generations that have succeeded, had +long ago sunk to rest. Such was the sort of pleasure which I reaped +in my nightly walks--of which, however, considering the suspicions +of lunacy which it has sometimes awoke, the less I say, perhaps, the +better. Nine o'clock it was--and deadly cold as ever March night was +made by the keenest of black frosts, and by the bitterest of north +winds--when I drew towards the gate of our huge and hospitable friend. +A little garden there was before the house; and in the centre of this +garden was placed an arm-chair, upon which arm-chair was sitting +composedly--but I rubbed my eyes, doubting the very evidence of my own +eyesight--_a_ or _the_ huge man in his shirt-sleeves; yes, positively +not sunning but _mooning_ himself--apricating himself in the occasional +moonbeams; and, as if simple star-gazing from a sedentary station were +not sufficient on such a night, absolutely pursuing his astrological +studies, I repeat, in his shirt-sleeves! Could this be our hospitable +friend, the man-mountain? Secondly, was it any man at all? Might it +not be a scarecrow dressed up to frighten the birds? But from what--to +frighten them from what at that season of the year? Yet, again, it +might be an ancient scarecrow--a superannuated scarecrow, far advanced +in years. But, still, why should a scarecrow, young or old, sit in an +arm-chair? Suppose I were to ask. Yet, where was the use of asking a +scarecrow? And, if not a scarecrow, where was the safety of speaking +too inquisitively, on his own premises, to a man-mountain? The old +dilemma of the duel or the treadmill, if I should intrude upon his +grounds at night, occurred to me; and I watched the anomalous object +in silence for some minutes. At length the monster (for such at any +rate it was, scarecrow or not scarecrow) solemnly raised his hand to +his face, perhaps taking a pinch of snuff, and thereby settled one +question. But that settled only irritated my curiosity the more upon +a second: what hallucination of the brain was it that could induce a +living man to adopt so very absurd a line of conduct? Once I thought of +addressing him thus:--Might I presume so far upon your known courtesy +to wayfaring strangers as to ask--Is it the Devil who prompts you to +sit in your shirt-sleeves, as if meditating a _camisade_, or to woo +_al fresco_ pleasures on such a night as this? But, as Dr. Y., on +complaining that, whenever he looked out of the window, he was sure to +see Mr. X. lounging about the quadrangle, was effectually parried by +Mr. X. retorting that, whenever he lounged in the quadrangle, he was +sure to see the Doctor looking out of the window, so did I anticipate +a puzzling rejoinder from the former, with regard to my own motives +for haunting the roads as a nocturnal tramper, without a rational +object that I could make intelligible. I thought, also, of the fate +which attended the Calendars, and so many other notorious characters +in the "Arabian Nights," for unseasonable questions, or curiosity too +vivacious. And, upon the whole, I judged it advisable to pursue my +journey in silence, considering the time of night, the solitary place, +and the fancy of our enormous friend for "braining" those whom he +regarded as ugly customers. And thus it came about that this one house +has been loaded in my memory with a double mystery, that too probably +never _can_ be explained: and another torment had been prepared for the +curious of future ages. + +Of Southey, meantime, I had learned, upon this brief and hurried +visit, so much in confirmation or in extension of my tolerably just +preconceptions with regard to his character and manners, as left me not +a very great deal to add, and nothing at all to alter, through the many +years which followed of occasional intercourse with his family, and +domestic knowledge of his habits. A man of more serene and even temper +could not be imagined; nor more uniformly cheerful in his tone of +spirits; nor more unaffectedly polite and courteous in his demeanour to +strangers; nor more hospitable in his own wrong--I mean by the painful +sacrifices which hospitality entailed upon him of time so exceedingly +precious that, during his winter and spring months of solitude, or +whenever he was left absolute master of its distribution, every half +hour in the day had its peculiar duty. In the still "weightier matters +of the law," in cases that involved appeals to conscience and high +moral principle, I believe Southey to be as exemplary a man as can ever +have lived. Were it to his own instant ruin, I am satisfied that he +would do justice and fulfil his duty under any possible difficulties, +and through the very strongest temptations to do otherwise. For honour +the most delicate, for integrity the firmest, and for generosity within +the limits of prudence, Southey cannot well have a superior; and, +in the lesser moralities--those which govern the daily habits, and +transpire through the manners--he is certainly a better man--that is +(with reference to the minor principle concerned), a more _amiable_ +man--than Wordsworth. He is less capable, for instance, of usurping an +undue share of the conversation; he is more uniformly disposed to be +charitable in his transient colloquial judgments upon doubtful actions +of his neighbours; more gentle and winning in his condescensions to +inferior knowledge or powers of mind; more willing to suppose it +possible that he himself may have fallen into an error; more tolerant +of avowed indifference towards his own writings (though, by the way, I +shall have something to offer in justification of Wordsworth, upon this +charge); and, finally, if the reader will pardon a violent instance of +anti-climax, much more ready to volunteer his assistance in carrying a +lady's reticule or parasol. + +As a more _amiable_ man (taking that word partly in the French sense, +partly also in the loftier English sense), it might be imagined +that Southey would be a more eligible companion than Wordsworth. +But this is not so; and chiefly for three reasons which more than +counterbalance Southey's greater amiability: _first_, because the +natural reserve of Southey, which I have mentioned before, makes it +peculiarly difficult to place yourself on terms of intimacy with him; +_secondly_, because the range of his conversation is more limited +than that of Wordsworth--dealing less with life and the interests of +life--more exclusively with books; _thirdly_, because the style of his +conversation is less flowing and diffusive--less expansive--more apt to +clothe itself in a keen, sparkling, aphoristic form--consequently much +sooner and more frequently coming to an abrupt close. A sententious, +epigrammatic form of delivering opinions has a certain effect of +_clenching_ a subject, which makes it difficult to pursue it without +a corresponding smartness of expression, and something of the same +antithetic point and equilibration of clauses. Not that the reader +is to suppose in Southey a showy master of rhetoric and colloquial +sword-play, seeking to strike and to dazzle by his brilliant hits or +adroit evasions. The very opposite is the truth. He seeks, indeed, to +be effective, not for the sake of display, but as the readiest means +of retreating from display, and the necessity for display: feeling +that his station in literature and his laurelled honours make him a +mark for the curiosity and interest of the company--that a standing +appeal is constantly turning to him for his opinion--a latent call +always going on for his voice on the question of the moment--he is +anxious to comply with this requisition at as slight a cost as may be +of thought and time. His heart is continually reverting to his wife, +viz. his library; and, that he may waste as little effort as possible +upon his conversational exercises--that the little he wishes to say +may appear pregnant with much meaning--he finds it advantageous, and, +moreover, the style of his mind naturally prompts him, to adopt a +trenchant, pungent, aculeated form of terse, glittering, stenographic +sentences--sayings which have the air of laying down the law without +any _locus penitentiæ_ or privilege of appeal, but are not meant to do +so; in short, aiming at brevity for the company as well as for himself, +by cutting off all opening for discussion and desultory talk through +the sudden winding up that belongs to a sententious aphorism. The +hearer feels that "the record is closed"; and he has a sense of this +result as having been accomplished by something like an oracular laying +down of the law _ex cathedra_: but this is an indirect collateral +impression from Southey's manner, and far from the one he meditates or +wishes. An oracular manner he does certainly affect in certain dilemmas +of a languishing or loitering conversation; not the peremptoriness, +meantime, not the imperiousness of the oracle is what he seeks for, but +its brevity, its dispatch, its conclusiveness. + +Finally, as a fourth reason why Southey is less fitted for a genial +companion than Wordsworth, his spirits have been, of late years, in +a lower key than those of the latter. The tone of Southey's animal +spirits was never at any time raised beyond the standard of an ordinary +sympathy; there was in him no tumult, no agitation of passion; +his organic and constitutional sensibilities were healthy, sound, +perhaps strong--but not profound, not excessive. Cheerful he was, and +animated at all times; but he levied no tributes on the spirits or the +feelings beyond what all people could furnish. One reason why his +bodily temperament never, like that of Wordsworth, threw him into a +state of tumultuous excitement which required intense and elaborate +conversation to work off the excessive fervour, was, that, over and +above his far less fervid constitution of mind and body, Southey +rarely took any exercise; he led a life as sedentary, except for the +occasional excursions in summer (extorted from his sense of kindness +and hospitality), as that of a city tailor. And it was surprising to +many people, who did not know by experience the prodigious effect upon +the mere bodily health of regular and congenial mental labour, that +Southey should be able to maintain health so regular, and cheerfulness +so uniformly serene. Cheerful, however, he was, in those early years of +my acquaintance with him; but it was manifest to a thoughtful observer +that his golden equanimity was bound up in a threefold chain,--in a +conscience clear of all offence, in the recurring enjoyments from +his honourable industry, and in the gratification of his parental +affections. If any one cord should give way, there (it seemed) would +be an end to Southey's tranquillity. He had a son at that time, +Herbert[135] Southey, a child in petticoats when I first knew him, very +interesting even then, but annually putting forth fresh blossoms of +unusual promise, that made even indifferent people fear for the safety +of one so finely organized, so delicate in his sensibilities, and so +prematurely accomplished. As to his father, it became evident that +he lived almost in the light of young Herbert's smiles, and that the +very pulses of his heart played in unison to the sound of his son's +laughter. There was in his manner towards this child, and towards this +only, something that marked an excess of delirious doating, perfectly +unlike the ordinary chastened movements of Southey's affections; and +something also which indicated a vague fear about him; a premature +unhappiness, as if already the inaudible tread of calamity could be +perceived, as if already he had lost him; which, for the latter years +of the boy's life, seemed to poison the blessing of his presence. + + [135] Why he was called Herbert, if my young readers inquire, I + must reply, that I do not precisely know; because I know of + reasons too many by half why he might have been so called. Derwent + Coleridge, the second son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and first + cousin of Herbert Southey, was so called from the Lake of Keswick, + commonly styled Derwent Water, which gave the title of Earl to the + noble, and the noble-minded, though erring, family of the + Radcliffes, who gave up, like heroes and martyrs, their lives and + the finest estates in England for one who was incapable of + appreciating the service. One of the islands on this lake is + dedicated to St. Herbert, and this _might_ have given a name to + Southey's first-born child. But it is more probable that he + derived this name from Dr. Herbert, uncle to the laureate. + +A stronger evidence I cannot give of Southey's trembling +apprehensiveness about this child than that the only rude thing I ever +knew him to do, the only discourteous thing, was done on his account. +A party of us, chiefly composed of Southey's family and his visitors, +were in a sailboat upon the lake. Herbert was one of this party; and at +that time not above five or six years old. In landing upon one of the +islands, most of the gentlemen were occupied in assisting the ladies +over the thwarts of the boat; and one gentleman, merely a stranger, +observing this, good-naturedly took up Herbert in his arms, and was +stepping with him most carefully from thwart to thwart, when Southey, +in a perfect frenzy of anxiety for his boy, his "moon" as he used to +call him (I suppose from some pun of his own, or some mistake of the +child's upon the equivocal word _sun_), rushed forward, and tore him +out of the arms of the stranger without one word of apology; nor, +in fact, under the engrossing panic of the moment, lest an unsteady +movement along with the rocking and undulating of the boat should throw +his little boy overboard into the somewhat stormy waters of the lake, +did Southey become aware of his own exceedingly discourteous action: +fear for his boy quelled his very power of perception. _That_ the +stranger, on reflection, understood; a race of emotions travelled over +his countenance. I saw the whole, a silent observer from the shore. +First a hasty blush of resentment mingled with astonishment: then a +good-natured smile of indulgence to the _naïveté_ of the paternal +feeling as displaying itself in the act, and the accompanying gestures +of frenzied impatience; finally, a considerate, grave expression of +acquiescence in the whole act; but with a pitying look towards father +and son, as too probably destined under such agony of affection to +trials perhaps insupportable. If I interpreted aright the stranger's +feelings, he did not read their destinies amiss. Herbert became, with +his growing years, a child of more and more hope; but, therefore, the +object of more and more fearful solicitude. He read, and read; and he +became at last + + "A very learned youth"-- + +to borrow a line from his uncle's beautiful poem on the wild boy who +fell into a heresy whilst living under the patronage of a Spanish +grandee, and finally escaped from a probable martyrdom by sailing up a +great American river, wide as any sea, after which he was never heard +of again. The learned youth of the river Greta had an earlier and +more sorrowful close to his career. Possibly from want of exercise, +combined with inordinate exercise of the cerebral organs, a disease +gradually developed itself in the heart. It was not a mere disorder +in the functions, it was a disease in the structure of the organ, and +admitted of no permanent relief, consequently of no final hope. He +died[136]; and with him died for ever the golden hopes, the radiant +felicity, and the internal serenity, of the unhappy father. It was from +Southey himself, speaking without external signs of agitation, calmly, +dispassionately, almost coldly, but with the coldness of a settled +despondency, that I heard, whilst accompanying him through Grasmere +on his road homewards to Keswick from some visit he had been paying +to Wordsworth at Rydal Mount, his settled feelings and convictions as +connected with that loss. For _him_, in this world, he said, happiness +there could be none; for his tenderest affections, the very deepest by +many degrees which he had ever known, were now buried in the grave with +his youthful and too brilliant Herbert! + + [136] On the 17th of April 1816, aged ten years.--M. + + + SOUTHEY AND THE _EDINBURGH ANNUAL REGISTER_ + +De Quincey's recollection of the _Edinburgh Annual Register_ in +connexion with Southey is altogether erroneous. Though there had been +a project of some periodical of the kind by the Constable publishing +house as early as 1807, the enterprise was not started till 1809, +and then not by Constable at all, but actually in opposition to +Constable by the new Edinburgh publishing house of John Ballantyne,--or +rather, one might say, of Scott and Ballantyne, for Scott (secretly +Ballantyne's partner already for a long while in his printing business) +was Ballantyne's real backer and principal in the whole of this new +concern. In a letter of Scott's to his friend Merritt, of date 14th +January 1809, after announcing the great fact that a _Quarterly Review_ +was forthcoming to counteract the _Edinburgh_, he adds:--"Then, sir, +to turn the flank of Messrs. Constable and Co., and to avenge myself +of certain impertinences which, in the vehemence of their Whiggery, +they have dared to indulge in towards me, I have prepared to start +against them at Whitsunday first the celebrated printer Ballantyne, +with a long purse ['the purse was, alas! Scott's own,' Lockhart notes +at this point] and a sound political creed, not to mention an alliance +offensive and defensive with young John Murray of Fleet Street, the +most enlightened and active of the London trade. By this means I hope +to counterbalance the predominating influence of Constable and Co., +who at present have it in their power and inclination to forward or +suppress any book as they approve or dislike its political tendency. +Lastly, I have caused the said Ballantyne to venture upon an _Edinburgh +Annual Register_, of which I send you a prospectus. I intend to help +him myself as far as time will admit, and hope to procure him many +respectable coadjutors." In another letter, written just a fortnight +previously, Scott had broached the subject of the new _Annual Register_ +to his friend Kirkpatrick Sharpe, intimating that, though Ballantyne +would be the managing editor, with himself for the real editor in +the background, all the more important contributions would be from +selected hands, and that, as the historical department was the most +important,--a luminous picture of the current events of the world from +year to year being "a task for a man of genius,"--they proposed to +give their "historian" £300 a year,--"no deaf nuts," adds Scott, in +comment on the sum. A certain eminent person had already been offered +the post, Scott proceeds; but, should "the great man" decline, would +Kirkpatrick Sharpe himself accept it? The "great man" was Southey; he +did accept; and for some years he had the accredited charge of the +historical department of the _Register_. From the first, however, the +venture did not pay; and, the loss upon it having gone on for some +time at the rate of £1000 a year, Scott,--who had been tending to a +reconciliation with Constable on other grounds,--was glad when, in +1813, Constable took a portion of the burden of the concern off his +hands. It is possible that this accession of Constable to a share in +the management, and some consequent retrenchment of expenses, may have +had something to do with Southey's resignation of his connexion with +the _Register_. Not, however, till 1815, if we may trust Lockhart's +dating, did that resignation take place,--for, in Lockhart's narrative +for the following year, 1816, where he notes that Scott had stepped +in for the rescue of the _Register_ by himself undertaking to do its +arrears in the historical department, he gives the reasons thus:--"Mr. +Southey had, for reasons on which I do not enter, discontinued his +services to that work; and it was now doubly necessary, after trying +for one year a less eminent hand, that, if the work were not to be +dropped altogether, some strenuous exertion should be made to sustain +its character."--From all this it will be seen that De Quincey is wrong +in his fancy that the proposal to reduce Southey's salary (from £400 to +£300, he says, but was it not £300 from the first?) was a mere device +for getting rid of him because he was an Englishman, and because a +Scottish "snob" of the Parliament House could be got to do the work +at a cheaper rate; or, at all events, that he is wrong in attributing +the shabbiness to Constable and the Whigs in Edinburgh. Southey's own +fellow-Tory Scott was still supreme in the conduct of the _Register_, +though he might take Constable's advice in all matters of its financial +administration; and, if Constable advised, among other things, a +reduction of Southey's salary in the historical department, that was +but natural in the circumstances, and Scott probably acquiesced.--In +fact, by this time the contributorship to the _Edinburgh Annual +Register_, always a drudgery, must have been of less consequence to +Southey than it had been. In November 1813 he had been appointed to the +office of Poet-Laureate, then vacant by the death of Henry James Pye; +and the salary attached to that sinecure, though small, was something. +On the 13th of that month Scott, who had declined the office for +himself and had strongly recommended Southey, and who was then still +virtually Southey's paymaster for his services in the _Edinburgh Annual +Register_, had written his congratulations to Southey, with his regrets +that the Laureateship was not better worth his while.--D. M. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + THE LAKE POETS: SOUTHEY, WORDSWORTH, AND COLERIDGE[137] + + [137] From _Tait's Magazine_ for August 1839. See explanation in + Preface to this volume.--M. + + +A circumstance which, as much as anything, expounded to every eye the +characteristic distinctions between Wordsworth and Southey, and would +not suffer a stranger to forget it for a moment, was the insignificant +place and consideration allowed to the small book-collection of the +former, contrasted with the splendid library of the latter. The two +or three hundred volumes of Wordsworth occupied a little, homely, +painted book-case, fixed into one of two shallow recesses, formed on +each side of the fireplace by the projection of the chimney in the +little sitting-room up stairs which he had already described as his +half kitchen and half parlour. They were ill bound, or not bound at +all--in boards, sometimes in tatters; many were imperfect as to the +number of volumes, mutilated as to the number of pages; sometimes, +where it seemed worth while, the defects being supplied by manuscript; +sometimes not: in short, everything showed that the books were for use, +and not for show; and their limited amount showed that their possessor +must have independent sources of enjoyment to fill up the major part +of his time. In reality, when the weather was tolerable, I believe +that Wordsworth rarely resorted to his books (unless, perhaps, to some +little pocket edition of a poet which accompanied him in his rambles) +except in the evenings, or after he had tired himself by walking. On +the other hand, Southey's collection occupied a separate room, the +largest, and every way the most agreeable in the house; and this room +was styled, and not ostentatiously (for it really merited that name), +the Library. The house itself, Greta Hall, stood upon a little eminence +(as I have before mentioned), overhanging the river Greta. There was +nothing remarkable in its internal arrangements. In all respects it +was a very plain, unadorned family dwelling: large enough, by a little +contrivance, to accommodate two, or, in some sense, three families, +viz. Mr. Southey and _his_ family, Mr. Coleridge and _his_, together +with Mrs. Lovell, who, when her son was with her, might be said to +compose a third. Mrs. Coleridge, Mrs. Southey, and Mrs. Lovell were +sisters; all having come originally from Bristol; and, as the different +sets of children in this one house had each three several aunts, all +the ladies, by turns, assuming that relation twice over, it was one +of Southey's many amusing jests, to call the hill on which Greta Hall +was placed the _ant-hill_. Mrs. Lovell was the widow of Mr. Robert +Lovell, who had published a volume of poems, in conjunction with +Southey, somewhere about the year 1797, under the signatures of Bion +and Moschus. This lady, having only one son, did not require any large +suite of rooms; and the less so, as her son quitted her at an early +age, to pursue a professional education. The house had, therefore, been +divided (not by absolute partition into two distinct[138] apartments, +but by an amicable distribution of rooms) between the two families of +Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Southey; Mr. Coleridge had a separate study, +which was distinguished by nothing except by an organ amongst its +furniture, and by a magnificent view from its window (or windows), +if that could be considered a distinction in a situation whose local +necessities presented you with magnificent objects in whatever +direction you might happen to turn your eyes. + + [138] "_Into two distinct apartments_":--The word apartment, + meaning, in effect, a compartment of a house, already includes, in + its proper sense, a suite of rooms; and it is a mere vulgar error, + arising out of the ambitious usage of lodging-house keepers, to + talk of one family or an establishment occupying apartments in the + plural. The Queen's apartment at St. James's or at Versailles--not + the Queen's apartments--is the correct expression. + +In the morning, the two families might live apart; but they met +at dinner, and in a common drawing-room; and Southey's library, in +both senses of the word, was placed at the service of all the ladies +alike. However, they did not intrude upon him, except in cases where +they wished for a larger reception room, or a more interesting place +for suggesting the topics of conversation. Interesting this room +was, indeed, and in a degree not often rivalled. The library--the +collection of books, I mean, which formed the most conspicuous part +of its furniture within--was in all senses a good one. The books were +chiefly English, Spanish, and Portuguese; well selected, being the +great cardinal classics of the three literatures; fine copies, and +decorated externally with a reasonable elegance, so as to make them +in harmony with the other embellishments of the room. This effect +was aided by the horizontal arrangement upon brackets of many rare +manuscripts--Spanish or Portuguese. Made thus gay within, this room +stood in little need of attractions from without. Yet, even upon the +gloomiest day of winter, the landscape from the different windows was +too permanently commanding in its grandeur, too essentially independent +of the seasons or the pomp of woods, to fail in fascinating the gaze of +the coldest and dullest of spectators. The lake of Derwent Water in one +direction, with its lovely islands--a lake about ten miles in circuit, +and shaped pretty much like a boy's kite; the lake of Bassinthwaite +in another; the mountains of Newlands, arranging themselves like +pavilions; the gorgeous confusion of Borrowdale just revealing its +sublime chaos through the narrow vista of its gorge: all these objects +lay in different angles to the front; whilst the sullen rear, not +fully visible on this side of the house, was closed for many a league +by the vast and towering masses of Skiddaw and Blencathara--mountains +which are rather to be considered as frontier barriers, and chains of +hilly ground, cutting the county of Cumberland into great chambers and +different climates, than as insulated eminences, so vast is the area +which they occupy; though there _are_ also such separate and insulated +heights, and nearly amongst the highest in the country. Southey's lot +had therefore fallen, locally considered, into a goodly heritage. +This grand panorama of mountain scenery, so varied, so expansive, +and yet having the delightful feeling about it of a deep seclusion +and dell-like sequestration from the world--a feeling which, in the +midst of so expansive an area spread out below his windows, could not +have been sustained by any barriers less elevated than Glaramara, +Skiddaw, or (which could be also descried) "the mighty Helvellyn and +Catchedicam,"--this congregation of hill and lake, so wide, and yet so +prison-like in its separation from all beyond it, lay for ever under +the eyes of Southey. His position locally, and, in some respects, +intellectually, reminded one of Gibbon: but with great advantage in +the comparison to Southey. The little town of Keswick and its adjacent +lake bore something of the same relation to mighty London that Geneva +and its lake may be thought to bear towards brilliant Paris. Southey, +like Gibbon, was a miscellaneous scholar; he, like Gibbon, of vast +historical research; he, like Gibbon, signally industrious, and +patient, and elaborate in collecting the materials for his historical +works. Like Gibbon, he had dedicated a life of competent ease, in a +pecuniary sense, to literature; like Gibbon, he had gathered to the +shores of a beautiful lake, remote from great capitals, a large, or, at +least, sufficient library (in each case, I believe, the library ranged, +as to numerical amount, between seven and ten thousand); and, like +Gibbon, he was the most accomplished _littérateur_ amongst the erudite +scholars of his time, and the most of an erudite scholar amongst the +accomplished _littérateurs_. After all these points of agreement +known, it remains as a pure advantage on the side of Southey--a mere +_lucro ponatur_--that he was a poet; and, by all men's confession, a +respectable poet, brilliant in his descriptive powers, and fascinating +in his narration, however much he might want of + + "The vision and the faculty divine." + +It is remarkable amongst the series of parallelisms that have been +or might be pursued between two men, that both had the honour of +retreating from a parliamentary life[139]; Gibbon, after some silent +and inert experience of that warfare; Southey, with a prudent foresight +of the ruin to his health and literary usefulness, won from the +experience of his nearest friends. + + [139] It illustrated the national sense of Southey's comprehensive + talents, and of his political integrity, that Lord Radnor (the + same who, under the courtesy title of Lord Folkestone, had + distinguished himself for very democratic politics in the House of + Commons, and had even courted the technical designation of + _radical_) was the man who offered to bring in Southey for a + borough dependent on _his_ influence. Sir Robert Peel, under the + same sense of Southey's merits, had offered him a baronetcy. Both + honours were declined, on the same prudential considerations, and + with the same perfect disregard of all temptations from personal + vanity. + + * * * * * + +I took leave of Southey in 1807, at the descent into the vale of +Legbesthwaite, as I have already noticed. One year afterwards, I +became a permanent resident in his neighbourhood; and, although, on +various accounts, my intercourse with him was at no time very strict, +partly from the very uncongenial constitution of my own mind, and the +different direction of my studies, partly from my reluctance to levy +any tax on time so precious and so fully employed, I was yet on such +terms for the next ten or eleven years that I might, in a qualified +sense, call myself his friend. + +Yes! there were long years through which Southey might respect me, +I _him_. But the years came--for I have lived too long, reader, in +relation to many things! and the report of me would have been better, +or more uniform at least, had I died some twenty years ago--the years +came in which circumstances made me an Opium Eater; years through +which a shadow as of sad eclipse sate and rested upon my faculties; +years through which I was careless of all but those who lived within +_my_ inner circle, within "my hearts of hearts"; years--ah! heavenly +years!--through which I lived, beloved, _with_ thee, _to_ thee, _for_ +thee, _by_ thee! Ah! happy, happy years! in which I was a mere football +of reproach, but in which every wind and sounding hurricane of wrath +or contempt flew by like chasing enemies past some defying gates of +adamant, and left me too blessed in thy smiles--angel of life!--to +heed the curses or the mocking which sometimes I heard raving outside +of our impregnable Eden. What any man said of me in those days, what +he thought, did I ask? did I care? Then it was, or nearly then, that +I ceased to see, ceased to hear of Southey; as much abstracted from +all which concerned the world outside, and from the Southeys, or even +the Coleridges, in its van, as though I had lived with the darlings of +my heart in the centre of Canadian forests, and all men else in the +centre of Hindostan. + + * * * * * + +But, before I part from Greta Hall and its distinguished master, one +word let me say, to protect myself from the imputation of sharing +in some peculiar opinions of Southey, with respect to political +economy, which have been but too familiar to the world, and some +opinions of the world, hardly less familiar, with respect to Southey +himself and his accomplishments. Probably, with respect to the first, +before this paper will be made public, I shall have sufficiently +vindicated my own opinions in these matters by a distinct treatment +of some great questions which lie at the base of all sound political +economy; above all, the radical question of value, upon which no man +has ever seen the full truth except Mr. Ricardo; and, unfortunately, +he had but little of the _polemic_[140] skill which is required to +meet the errors of his opponents. For it is noticeable that the most +conspicuous of those opponents, viz. Mr. Malthus, though too much, I +fear, actuated by a spirit of jealousy, and therefore likely enough +to have scattered sophistry and disingenuous quibbling over the +subject, had no need whatever of any further confusion for darkening +and perplexing his themes than what inevitably belonged to his own +most chaotic understanding. He and Say, the Frenchman, were both +plagued by understandings of the same quality--having a clear vision +in shallow waters, and this misleading them into the belief that they +saw with equal clearness through the remote and the obscure; whereas, +universally, their acuteness is like that of Hobbes--the gift of +shallowness, and the result of _not_ being subtle or profound enough to +apprehend the true _locus_ of the difficulty; and the barriers, which +to them limit the view, and give to it, together with the contraction, +all the distinctness and definite outline of limitation, are, in nine +cases out of ten, the product of their own defective and aberrating +vision, and not real barriers at all. + + [140] "_Polemic_ skill":--The word polemic is falsely interpreted + by the majority of mere English readers. Having seldom seen it + used except in a case of theological controversy, they fancy that + it has some original and etymological appropriation to such a use; + whereas it expresses, with regard to _all_ subjects, without + restriction, the functions of the debater as opposed to those of + the original orator; the functions of him who meets error and + unravels confusion or misrepresentation, opposed to those of him + who lays down the abstract truth: truth absolute and without + relation to the modes of viewing it. As well might the word + _Radical_ be limited to a political use as _Polemic_ to + controversial divinity. + +Meantime, until I write fully and deliberately upon this subject, I +shall observe, simply, that all "the Lake Poets," as they are called, +were not only in error, but most presumptuously in error, upon these +subjects. They were ignorant of every principle belonging to every +question alike in political economy, and they were obstinately bent +upon learning nothing; they were all alike too proud to acknowledge +that any man knew better than they, unless it were upon some purely +professional subject, or some art remote from all intellectual +bearings, such as conferred no honour in its possession. Wordsworth was +the least tainted with error upon political economy; and that because +he rarely applied his thoughts to any question of that nature, and, in +fact, despised every study of a moral or political aspect, unless it +drew its materials from such revelations of truth as could be won from +the _prima philosophia_ of human nature approached with the poet's eye. +Coleridge was the one whom Nature and his own multifarious studies had +the best qualified for thinking justly on a theme such as this; but he +also was shut out from the possibility of knowledge by presumption, and +the habit of despising all the analytic studies of his own day--a habit +for which he certainly had some warrant in the peculiar feebleness +of all that has offered itself for _philosophy_ in modern England. +In particular, the religious discussions of the age, which touch +inevitably at every point upon the profounder philosophy of man and his +constitution, had laid bare the weakness of his own age to Coleridge's +eye; and, because all was hollow and trivial in this direction, he +chose to think that it was so in every other. And hence he has laid +himself open to the just scoffs of persons far inferior to himself. +In a foot-note in some late number of the _Westminster Review_, it +is most truly asserted (not in these words, but to this effect) that +Coleridge's "Table Talk" exhibits a superannuation of error fit only +for two centuries before. And what gave peculiar point to this display +of ignorance was, that Coleridge did not, like Wordsworth, dismiss +political economy from his notice disdainfully, as a puerile tissue +of truisms, or of falsehoods not less obvious, but actually addressed +himself to the subject; fancied he had made discoveries in the science; +and even promised us a systematic work on its whole compass. + +To give a sample of this new and reformed political economy, it cannot +well be necessary to trouble the reader with more than one chimera +culled from those which Mr. Coleridge first brought forward in his +early model of "The Friend." He there propounds, as an original +hypothesis of his own, that taxation never burthens a people, or, as +a mere possibility, _can_ burthen a people simply by its amount. And +why? Surely it draws from the purse of him who pays the quota a sum +which it may be very difficult or even ruinous for him to pay, were it +no more important in a public point of view than as so much deducted +from his own unproductive expenditure, and which may happen to have +even a national importance if it should chance to be deducted from +the funds destined to productive industry. What is Mr. Coleridge's +answer to these little objections? Why, thus: the latter case he +evades entirely, apparently not adverting to it as a case in any +respect distinguished from the other; and this other--how is _that_ +answered? Doubtless, says Mr. Coleridge, it may be inconvenient to +John or Samuel that a sum of money, otherwise disposable for their own +separate uses, should be abstracted for the purchase of bayonets, or +grape-shot; but with this the public, the commonwealth, have nothing +to do, any more than with the losses at a gaming-table, where A's loss +is B's gain--the total funds of the nation remaining exactly the same. +It is, in fact, nothing but the accidental distribution of the funds +which is affected--possibly for the worse (no other "worse," however, +is contemplated than shifting it into hands less deserving), but, +also, by possibility, for the better; and the better and the worse +may be well supposed, in the long run, to balance each other. And +that this is Mr. Coleridge's meaning cannot be doubted, upon looking +into his illustrative image in support of it: he says that money +raised by Government in the shape of taxes is like moisture exhaled +from the earth--doubtless, for the moment injurious to the crops, but +reacting abundantly for their final benefit when returning in the +shape of showers. So natural, so obvious, so inevitable, by the way, +is this conceit (or, to speak less harshly, this hypothesis), and so +equally natural, obvious, and inevitable is the illustration from the +abstraction and restoration of moisture, the exhalations and rains +which affect this earth of ours, like the systole and the diastole of +the heart, the flux and reflux of the ocean, that precisely the same +doctrine, and precisely the same exemplification of the doctrine, +is to be found in a Parliamentary speech[141] of some orator in the +famous Long Parliament about the year 1642. And to my mind it was a +bitter humiliation to find, about 150 years afterwards, in a shallow +French work, the famous "_Compte Rendu_" of the French Chancellor of +the Exchequer (Comptroller of the Finances) Neckar--in that work, most +humiliating it was to me, on a certain day, that I found this idle +Coleridgian fantasy, not merely repeated, as it had been by scores--not +merely anticipated by full twenty and two years, so that these French +people had been beforehand with him, and had made Coleridge, to all +appearance, their plagiarist, but also (hear it, ye gods!) answered, +satisfactorily refuted, by this very feeble old sentimentalist, Neckar. +Yes; positively Neckar, the slipshod old system-fancier and political +driveller, had been so much above falling into the shallow snare, that +he had, on sound principles, exposed its specious delusions. Coleridge, +the subtlest of men in his proper walk, had brought forward, as a +novel hypothesis of his own, in 1810, what Neckar, the rickety old +charlatan, had scarcely condescended, in a hurried foot-note, to expose +as a vulgar error and the shallowest of sophisms in 1787-88. There was +another enormous blunder which Coleridge was constantly authorizing, +both in his writings and his conversation. Quoting a passage from Sir +James Stuart, in which he speaks of a vine-dresser as adding nothing to +the public wealth, unless his labour did something more than replace +his own consumption--that is, unless it reproduced it together with a +profit; he asks contemptuously, whether the happiness and moral dignity +that may have been exhibited in the vine-dresser's family are to pass +for nothing? And then he proceeds to abuse the economists, because +they take no account of such important considerations. Doubtless these +are invaluable elements of social grandeur, in a _total_ estimate +of those elements. But what has political economy to do with them, +a science openly professing to insulate, and to treat apart from +all other constituents of national well-being, those which concern +the production and circulation of wealth?[142] So far from gaining +anything by enlarging its field in the way demanded by Coleridge's +critic, political economy would be as idly travelling out of the limits +indicated and held forth in its very name, as if logic were to teach +ethics, or ethics to teach diplomacy. With respect to the Malthusian +doctrine of population, it is difficult to know who was the true +proprietor of the arguments urged against it sometimes by Southey, +sometimes by Coleridge. Those used by Southey are chiefly to be found +up and down the _Quarterly Review_. But a more elaborate attack was +published by Hazlitt; and this must be supposed to speak the peculiar +objections of Coleridge, for he was in the habit of charging Hazlitt +with having pillaged his conversation, and occasionally garbled it +throughout the whole of this book. One single argument there was, +undoubtedly just, and it was one which others stumbled upon no less +than Coleridge, exposing the fallacy of the supposed different laws +of increase for vegetable and animal life. But, though this frail +prop withdrawn took away from Mr. Malthus's theory all its scientific +rigour, the main _practical_ conclusions were still valid as respected +any argument from the Lakers; for the strongest of these arguments that +ever came to my knowledge was a mere appeal--not _ad verecundiam_, in +the ordinary sense of the phrase, but _ad honestatem_, as if it were +shocking to the _honestum_ of Roman ethics (the _honnêteté_ of French +minor ethics) that the check derived from self-restraint should not be +supposed amply competent to redress all the dangers from a redundant +population under any certain knowledge generally diffused that such +dangers existed. But these are topics which it is sufficient in this +place to have noticed _currente calamo_. I was anxious, however, to +protest against the probable imputation that I, because generally so +intense an admirer of these men, adopted their blind and hasty reveries +in political economy. + + [141] Reported at length in a small quarto volume, of the well + known quarto size so much in use for Tracts, Pamphlets, &c., + throughout the life of Milton--1608-74. + + [142] In fact, the exposure is as perfect in the case of an + individual as in that of a nation, and more easily apprehended. + Levy from an individual clothier £1000 in taxes, and afterwards + return to him the whole of this sum in payment for the clothing of + a regiment. Then, supposing profits to be at the rate of 15 per + cent, he will have replaced £150 of his previous loss; even his + gains will simply reinstate him in something that he had lost, and + the remaining £850 will continue to be a dead loss; since the £850 + restored to him exactly replaces, by the terms of this case, his + disbursements in wages and materials; if it did more, profits + would not be at 15 per cent, according to the supposition. But + Government may spend _more_ than the £1000 with this clothier; + they may spend £10,000. Doubtless, and in that case, on the same + supposition as to profits, he will receive £1500 as a nominal + gain; and £500 will be a real gain, marked with the positive sign + (+). But such a case would only prove that nine other taxpayers, + to an equal amount, had been left without any reimbursement at + all. Strange that so clear a case for an individual should become + obscure when it regards a nation. + +There were (and perhaps more justly I might say there are) two other +notions currently received about Southey, one of which is altogether +erroneous, and the other true only in a limited sense. The first is +the belief that he belonged to what is known as the Lake school in +poetry; with respect to which all that I need say in this place is +involved in his own declaration frankly made to myself in Easedale, +during the summer of 1812: that he considered Wordsworth's theory of +poetic diction, and still more his principles as to the selection of +subjects, and as to what constituted a poetic treatment, as founded on +error. There is certainly some community of phraseology between Southey +and the other Lakers, naturally arising out of their joint reverence +for Scriptural language: this was a field in which they met in common: +else it shows but little discernment and power of valuing the essences +of things, to have classed Southey in the same school with Wordsworth +and Coleridge. The other popular notion about Southey which I conceive +to be expressed with much too little limitation regards his style. +He has been praised, and justly, for his plain, manly, unaffected +English, until the parrot echoers of other men's judgments, who adopt +all they relish with undistinguishing blindness, have begun to hold +him up as a great master of his own language, and a classical model +of fine composition. Now, if the error were only in the degree, it +would not be worth while to notice it; but the truth is, that Southey's +defects in this particular power are as striking as his characteristic +graces. Let a subject arise--and almost in any path there is a ready +possibility that it should--in which a higher tone is required, of +splendid declamation, or of impassionate fervour, and Southey's +style will immediately betray its want of the loftier qualities as +flagrantly as it now asserts its powers in that unpretending form +which is best suited to his level character of writing and his humbler +choice of themes. It is to mistake the character of Southey's mind, +which is elevated but not sustained by the higher modes of enthusiasm, +to think otherwise. Were a magnificent dedication required, moving +with a stately and measured solemnity, and putting forward some +majestic pretensions, arising out of a long and laborious life; were +a pleading required against some capital abuse of the earth--war, +slavery, oppression in its thousand forms; were a _Defensio pro Populo +Anglicano_ required; Southey's is not the mind, and, by a necessary +consequence, Southey's is not the style, for carrying such purposes +into full and memorable effect. His style is _therefore_ good, because +it has been suited to his themes; and those themes have hitherto been +either narrative, which usually imposes a modest diction, and a modest +structure of sentences, or argumentative in that class which is too +overburthened with details, with replies, with interruption, and every +mode of discontinuity, to allow a thought of eloquence, or of the +periodic style which a perfect eloquence instinctively seeks. + + * * * * * + +I here close my separate notice of the Lake Poets--meaning those +three who were originally so denominated--three men upon whom +posterity, in every age, will look back with interest as profound as, +perhaps, belongs to any other names of our era; for it happens, not +unfrequently, that the _personal_ interest in the author is not in the +direct ratio of that which belongs to his works: and the character +of an author better qualified to command a vast popularity for the +creations of his pen is oftentimes more of a universal character, +less peculiar, less fitted to stimulate the curiosity, or to sustain +the sympathy of the intellectual, than the profounder and more +ascetic solemnity of a Wordsworth, or the prodigal and magnificent +eccentricities of a Coleridge. With respect to both of these gifted +men, some interesting notices still remain in arrear; but these will +more properly come forward in their natural places, as they happen to +arise in after years in connexion with my own memoirs. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE SARACEN'S HEAD[143] + + [143] From _Tait's Magazine_ for December 1839.--M. + + +My first visit to the Wordsworths had been made in November, 1807; +but, on that occasion, from the necessity of saving the Michaelmas +Term at Oxford, for which I had barely left myself time, I stayed only +one week. On the last day, I witnessed a scene, the first and the last +of its kind that ever I _did_ witness, almost too trivial to mention, +except for the sake of showing what things occur in the realities of +experience which a novelist could not venture to imagine. Wordsworth +and his sister were under an engagement of some standing to dine on +that day with a literary lady about four miles distant; and, as the +southern mail, which I was to catch at a distance of eighteen miles, +would not pass that point until long after midnight, Miss Wordsworth +proposed that, rather than pass my time at an inn, I should join the +dinner party; a proposal rather more suitable to her own fervent and +hospitable temper than to the habits of our hostess, who must (from +what I came to know of her in after years) have looked upon me as an +intruder. Something _had_ reached Miss Wordsworth of her penurious +_ménage_, but nothing that approached the truth. I was presented to the +lady, whom we found a perfect _bas bleu_ of a very commonplace order, +but having some other accomplishments beyond her slender acquaintance +with literature. Our party consisted of six--our hostess, who might +be about fifty years of age; a pretty timid young woman, who was +there in the character of a humble friend; some stranger or other; +the Wordsworths, and myself. The dinner was the very humblest and +simplest I had ever seen--in that there was nothing to offend--I did +not then know that the lady was very rich--but also it was flagrantly +insufficient in quantity. Dinner, however, proceeded; when, without any +removals, in came a kind of second course, in the shape of a solitary +pheasant. This, in a cold manner, she asked me to try; but we, in our +humility, declined for the present; and also in mere good-nature, not +wishing to expose too palpably the insufficiency of her dinner. May I +die the death of a traitor, if she did not proceed, without further +question to any one of us (and, as to the poor young companion, no +form of even invitation was conceded to her), and, in the eyes of +us all, eat up the whole bird, from alpha to omega. Upon my honour, +I thought to myself, this is a scene I would not have missed. It is +well to know the possibilities of human nature. Could she have a bet +depending on the issue, and would she explain all to us as soon as she +had won her wager? Alas! no explanation ever came, except, indeed, that +afterwards her character, put _en evidence_ upon a score of occasions, +too satisfactorily explained everything. No; it was, as Mr. Coleridge +expresses it, a psychological curiosity--a hollow thing--and only once +matched in all the course of my reading, in or out of romances; but +that once, I grieve to say it, was by a king, and a sort of hero. + +The Duchess of Marlborough it is who reports the shocking anecdote +of William III, that actually Princess Anne, his future wife, durst +not take any of the green peas brought to the dinner table, when that +vegetable happened to be as yet scarce and premature. _There_ was a +gentleman! And such a lady had we for our hostess. However, we all +observed a suitable gravity; but afterwards, when we left the house, +the remembrance affected us differently. Miss Wordsworth laughed with +undissembled glee; but Wordsworth thought it too grave a matter for +laughing--he was thoroughly disgusted, and said repeatedly, "A person +cannot be honest, positively not honest, who is capable of such an +act." The lady is dead, and I shall not mention her name: she lived +only to gratify her selfish propensities; and two little anecdotes +may show the outrageous character of her meanness. I was now on the +debtor side of her dinner account, and, therefore, in a future year she +readily accepted an invitation to come and dine with me at my cottage. +But, on a subsequent occasion, when I was to have a few literary people +at dinner, whom I knew that she greatly wished to meet, she positively +replied thus:--"No; I have already come with my young lady to dine +with you; that puts me on the wrong side by one; now, if I were to +come again, as I cannot leave Miss ---- behind, I shall then be on the +wrong side by three; and that is more than I could find opportunities +to repay before I go up to London for the winter." "Very well," I said; +"give me 3s. and _that_ will settle the account." She laughed, but +positively persisted in not coming until after dinner, notwithstanding +she had to drive a distance of ten miles. + +The other anecdote is worse. She was exceedingly careful of her health; +and not thinking it healthy to drive about in a close carriage,--which, +besides, could not have suited the narrow mountain tracks, to which +her sketching habits attracted her,--she shut up her town carriage for +the summer, and jobbed some little open car. Being a very large woman, +and, moreover, a masculine woman, with a bronzed complexion, and always +choosing to wear, at night, a turban, round hair that was as black +as that of the "Moors of Malabar," she presented an exact likeness +of a Saracen's Head, as painted over inn-doors; whilst the timid and +delicate young lady by her side looked like "dejected Pity" at the side +of "Revenge" when assuming the war-denouncing trumpet. Some Oxonians +and Cantabs, who, at different times, were in the habit of meeting this +oddly assorted party in all nooks of the country, used to move the +question, whether the poor horse or the young lady had the worst of it? +At length the matter was decided: the horse was fast going off this +sublunary stage; and the Saracen's Head was told as much, and with this +little addition,--that his death was owing _inter alia_ to starvation. +Her answer was remarkable:--"But, my dear madam, that is his master's +fault; I pay so much a-day--he is to keep the horse." That might be, +but still the horse was dying, and dying in the way stated. The +Saracen's Head persisted in using him under those circumstances--such +was her "bond"--and in a short time the horse actually died. Yes, the +horse died--and died of starvation--or at least of an illness caused +originally by starvation: for so said, not merely the whole population +of the little neighbouring town, but also the surgeon. Not long after, +however, the lady, the Saracen's Head, died herself; but I fear _not_ +of starvation; for, though something like it did prevail at her table, +she prudently reserved it all for her guests; in fact, I never heard +of such vigilant care, and so much laudable exertion, applied to the +promotion of health: yet all failed, and, in a degree which confounded +people's speculations upon the subject--for she did not live much +beyond sixty; whereas everybody supposed that the management of her +physical system entitled her to outwear a century. Perhaps the prayers +of horses might avail to order it otherwise. + +But the singular thing about this lady's mixed and contradictory +character was, that in London and Bath, where her peculiar habits +of life were naturally less accurately known, she maintained the +reputation of one who united the accomplishments of literature and art +with a remarkable depth of sensibility, and a most amiable readiness +to enter into the distresses of her friends by sympathy the most +cordial and consolation the most delicate. More than once I have +seen her name recorded in printed books, and attended with praises +that tended to this effect. I have seen letters also from a lady in +deep affliction which spoke of the Saracen's Head as having paid her +the first visit from which she drew any effectual consolation. Such +are the erroneous impressions conveyed by biographical memoirs; or, +which is a more charitable construction of the case, such are the +inconsistencies of the human heart! And certainly there was one fact, +even in her Westmoreland life, that _did_ lend some countenance to the +southern picture of her amiableness: and this lay in the cheerfulness +with which she gave up her time (_time_, but not much of her redundant +money) to the promotion of the charitable schemes set on foot by the +neighbouring ladies; sometimes for the education of poor children, +sometimes for the visiting of the sick, &c., &c. I have heard several +of those ladies express their gratitude for her exertions, and +declare that she was about their best member. But their horror was +undisguised when the weekly committee came, by rotation, to hold its +sittings at her little villa; for, as the business occupied them +frequently from eleven o'clock in the forenoon to a late dinner hour, +and as many of them had a fifteen or twenty miles' drive, they needed +some refreshments: but these were, of course, a "great idea" at the +Saracen's Head; since, according to the epigram which illustrates the +maxim of Tacitus that _omne ignotum pro magnifico_, and, applying it +to the case of a miser's horse, terminates by saying, "What vast ideas +must he have of oats!"--upon the same principle these poor ladies, +on those fatal committee days, never failed to form most exaggerated +ideas of bread, butter, and wine. And at length some, more intrepid +than the rest, began to carry biscuits in their muffs, and, with the +conscious tremors of school girls (profiting by the absence of the +mistress but momentarily expecting detection), they employed some +casual absence of their unhostly hostess in distributing and eating +their hidden "viaticum." However, it must be acknowledged, that time +and exertion, and the sacrifice of more selfish pleasure during the +penance at the school, were, after all, real indications of kindness +to her fellow-creatures; and, as I wish to part in peace even with +the Saracen's Head, I have reserved this anecdote to the last: for +it is painful to have lived on terms of good nature, and exchanging +civilities, with any human being of whom one can report absolutely _no_ +good thing; and I sympathize heartily with that indulgent person of +whom it is somewhere recorded that, upon an occasion when the death of +a man happened to be mentioned who was unanimously pronounced a wretch +without one good quality, "_monstrum nullâ virtute redemptum_," he +ventured, however, at last, in a deprecatory tone to say--"Well, he did +_whistle_ beautifully, at any rate." + +Talking of "whistling" reminds me to return from my digression; for on +that night, the 12th of November, 1807, and the last of my visits to +the Wordsworths, I took leave of them in the inn at Ambleside about +ten at night; and the post-chaise in which I crossed the country to +catch the mail was driven by a postilion who whistled so delightfully +that, for the first time in my life, I became aware of the prodigious +powers which are lodged potentially in so despised a function of the +vocal organs. For the whole of the long ascent up Orrest Head, which +obliged him to walk his horses for a full half-mile, he made the woods +of Windermere ring with the canorous sweetness of his half flute, +half clarionet music; but, in fact, the subtle melody of the effect +placed it in power far beyond either flute or clarionet. A year or two +afterwards, I heard a fellow-servant of this same postilion's, a black, +play with equal superiority of effect upon the jew's harp; making that, +which in most hands is a mere monotonous jarring, a dull reverberating +vibration, into a delightful lyre of no inconsiderable compass. We +have since heard of, some of us have heard, the chinchopper. Within +the last hundred years, we have had the Æolian harp (first mentioned +and described in the "Castle of Indolence," which I think was first +published entire about 1738[144]); then the musical glasses; then the +_celestina_, to represent the music of the spheres, introduced by Mr. +Walker, or some other lecturing astronomer; and many another fine +effect obtained from trivial means. But, at this moment, I recollect a +performance perhaps more astonishing than any of them. A Mr. Worgman, +who had very good introductions, and very general ones (for he was +to be met within a few months in every part of the island), used to +accompany himself on the piano, weaving _extempore_ long tissues of +impassioned music, that were called his own, but which, in fact, +were all the better for not being such, or at least for continually +embodying passages from Handel and Pergolesi. To this substratum of +the instrumental music he contrived to adapt some unaccountable and +indescribable choral accompaniment, a pomp of sound, a tempestuous +blare of harmony ascending in clouds not from any one, but apparently +from a band of Mr. Worgman's; for sometimes it was a trumpet, sometimes +a kettle-drum, sometimes a cymbal, sometimes a bassoon, and sometimes +it was all of these at once. + + "And now 'twas like all instruments; + And now it was a flute; + And now it was an angel's voice, + That maketh the heavens be mute." + +In this case I presume that ventriloquism must have had something to +do with the effect; but, whatever it were, the power varied greatly +with the state of his spirits, or with some other fluctuating causes in +the animal economy. However, the result of all these experiences is, +that I shall never more be surprised at any musical effects, the very +greatest, drawn from whatever inconsiderable or apparently inadequate +means; not even if the butcher's instrument, the marrow-bones and +cleaver, or any of those culinary instruments so pleasantly treated by +Addison in the "Spectator," such as the kitchen dresser and thumb, the +tongs and shovel, the pepper and salt-box, should be exalted, by some +immortal butcher or inspired scullion, into a sublime harp, dulcimer, +or lute, capable of wooing St. Cecilia to listen, able even + + "To raise a mortal to the skies, + Or draw an angel down." + +That night, as I was passing under the grounds of Elleray, then +belonging to a Westmoreland "statesman," a thought struck me, that I +was now traversing a road with which, as yet, I was scarcely at all +acquainted, but which, in years to come, might perhaps be as familiar +to my eye as the rooms of my own house; and possibly that I might +traverse them in company with faces as yet not even seen by me, but +in those future years dearer than any which I had yet known. In this +prophetic glimpse there was nothing very marvellous; for what could be +more natural than that I should come to reside in the neighbourhood of +the Wordsworths, and that this might lead to my forming connexions in +a country which I should consequently come to know so well? I did not, +however, anticipate so definitely and circumstantially as all this; +but generally I had a dim presentiment that here, on this very road, +I should often pass, and in company that, now not even conjecturally +delineated or drawn out of the utter darkness in which they were as +yet reposing, would hereafter plant memories in my heart, the last +that will fade from it in the hour of death. Here, afterwards, at this +very spot, or a little above it, but on this very estate, which from +local peculiarities of ground, and of sudden angles, was peculiarly +_kenspeck_, _i.e._ easy of recognition,[145] and could have been +challenged and identified at any distance of years; here afterwards +lived Professor Wilson, the only very intimate male friend I have +had; here, too, it was, my M.,[146] that, in long years afterwards, +through many a score of nights--nights often dark as Erebus, and amidst +thunders and lightnings the most sublime--we descended at twelve, one, +and two o'clock at night, speeding from Kendal to our distant home, +twenty miles away. Thou wert at present a child not nine years old, nor +had I seen thy face, nor heard thy name. But within nine years from +that same night thou wert seated by my side;--and, thenceforwards, +through a period of fourteen years, how often did we two descend, +hand locked in hand, and thinking of things to come, at a pace of +hurricane; whilst all the sleeping woods about us re-echoed the uproar +of trampling hoofs and groaning wheels. Duly as we mounted the crest of +Orrest Head, mechanically and of themselves almost, and spontaneously, +without need of voice or spur, according to Westmoreland usage, the +horses flew off into a gallop, like the pace of a swallow.[147] It +was a railroad pace that we ever maintained; objects were descried +far ahead in one moment, and in the next were crowding into the rear. +Three miles and a half did this storm-flight continue, for so long the +descent lasted. Then, for many a mile, over undulating ground, did we +alternately creep and fly, until again a long precipitous movement, +again a storm-gallop, that hardly suffered the feet to touch the +ground, gave warning that we drew near to that beloved cottage; warning +to us--warning to them:-- + + "The silence that is here + Is of the grave, and of austere + But happy feelings of the dead." + +Sometimes the nights were bright with cloudless moonlight, and of +that awful breathless quiet which often broods over vales that are +peculiarly landlocked, and which is, or seems to be, so much more +expressive of a solemn hush and a Sabbath-like rest from the labours of +nature than I remember to have experienced in flat countries:-- + + "It is not quiet--is not peace-- + But something deeper far than these." + +And on such nights it was no sentimental refinement, but a sincere +and hearty feeling, that, in wheeling past the village churchyard of +Stavely, something like an outrage seemed offered to the sanctity of +its graves by the uproar of our career. Sometimes the nights were of +that pitchy darkness which is more palpable and unfathomable wherever +hills intercept the gleaming of light which otherwise is usually seen +to linger about the horizon in the northern quarter; and then arose in +perfection that striking effect when the glare of lamps searches for +one moment every dark recess of the thickets, forces them into sudden, +almost daylight, revelation, only to leave them within the twinkling of +the eye in darkness more profound; making them, like the snow-flakes +falling upon a cataract, "one moment bright, then gone for ever." But, +dark or moonlight alike, in every instance throughout so long a course +of years, the road was entirely our own for the whole twenty miles. +After nine o'clock not many people are abroad, after ten absolutely +none, upon the roads of Westmoreland; a circumstance which gives a +peculiar solemnity to a traveller's route amongst these quiet valleys +upon a summer evening of latter May, of June, or early July; since, in +a latitude so much higher than that of London, broad daylight prevails +to an hour long after nine. Nowhere is the holiness of vesper hours +more deeply felt. + + [144] The _Castle of Indolence_ was first published in 1748, the + year of the poet's death. The following is the stanza of the poem + referred to by De Quincey:-- + + "A certain music, never known before, + Here lull'd the pensive, melancholy mind; + Full easily obtained. Behoves no more + But sidelong to the gently-waving wind + To lay the well-tuned instrument reclined, + From which, with airy flying fingers light, + Beyond each mortal touch the most refined; + The god of winds drew sounds of deep delight; + Whence, with just cause, the Harp of Æolus it hight."--M. + + [145] The usual Scottish word is _kenspeckle_.--M. + + [146] His future wife, Margaret Simpson.--M. + + [147] It may be supposed, not literally, for the swallow (or at + least that species called the swift) has been known to fly at the + rate of 300 miles an hour. Very probably, however, this pace was + not deduced from an entire hour's performance, but estimated by + proportion from a flight of one or two minutes. An interesting + anecdote is told by the gentleman (I believe the Rev. E. Stanley) + who described in _Blackwood's_ _Magazine_ the opening of the + earliest English railway, viz. that a bird (snipe was it, or + field-fare, or plover?) ran, or rather flew, a race with the + engine for three or four miles, until, finding itself likely to be + beaten, it then suddenly wheeled away into the moors. And now, in + 1839, from all these flying journeys and their stinging + remembrances, hardly a wreck survives of what composed their + living equipage: the men who chiefly drove in those days (for I + have ascertained it) are gone; the horses are gone; darkness rests + upon all, except myself. I, woe is me! am the solitary survivor + from scenes that now seem to me as fugitive as the flying lights + from our lamps as they shot into the forest recesses. God forbid + that on such a theme I should seem to affect sentimentalism! It is + from overmastering recollections that I look back on those distant + days; and chiefly I have suffered myself to give way before the + impulse that haunts me of reverting to those bitter, bitter + thoughts, in order to notice one singular waywardness or caprice + (as it might seem) incident to the situation, which, I doubt not, + besieges many more people than myself: it is, that I find a more + poignant suffering, a pang more searching, in going back, not to + those enjoyments themselves, and the days when they were within my + power, but to times anterior, when as yet they did not exist; nay, + when some who were chiefly concerned in them as parties had not + even been born. No night, I might almost say, of my whole life, + remains so profoundly, painfully, and pathetically imprinted on my + remembrance as this very one, on which I tried prelusively, as it + were, that same road in solitude, and lulled by the sweet + carollings of the postilion, which, _after_ an interval of ten + years, and _through_ a period of more than equal duration, it was + destined that I should so often traverse in circumstances of + happiness too radiant, that for me are burned out for ever. + Coleridge told me of a similar case that had fallen within his + knowledge, and the impassioned expression which the feelings + belonging to it drew from a servant woman at Keswick:--She had + nursed some boy, either of his or of Mr. Southey's; the boy had + lived apart from the rest of the family, secluded with his nurse + in her cottage; she was dotingly fond of him; lived, in short, + _by_ him, as well as for him; and nearly ten years of her life had + been exalted into one golden dream by his companionship. At length + came the day which severed the connexion; and she, in the anguish + of the separation, bewailing her future loneliness, and knowing + too well that education and the world, if it left him some kind + remembrances of her, never could restore him to her arms the same + fond loving boy that felt no shame in surrendering his whole heart + to caressing and being caressed, did not revert to any day or + season of her ten years' happiness, but went back to the very day + of his arrival, a particular Thursday, and to an hour when, as + yet, she had not seen him, exclaiming--"O that Thursday! O that it + could come back! that Thursday when the chaise-wheels were ringing + in the streets of Keswick; when yet I had not seen his bonny face; + but when _he_ was coming!" + +Ay, reader, all this may sound foolishness to you, that perhaps never +had a heartache, or that may have all your blessings to come. But now +let me return to my narrative. After about twelve months' interval, and +therefore again in November, but November of the year 1808, I repeated +my visit to Wordsworth, and upon a longer scale. I found him removed +from his cottage to a house of considerable size, about three-quarters +of a mile distant, called Allan Bank. This house had been very recently +erected, at an expense of about £1500, by a gentleman from Liverpool, +a merchant, and also a lawyer in some department or other. It was +not yet completely finished; and an odd accident was reported to +me as having befallen it in its earliest stage. The walls had been +finished, and this event was to be celebrated at the village inn +with an _ovation_, previously to the _triumph_ that would follow on +the roof-raising. The workmen had all housed themselves at the _Red +Lion_, and were beginning their carouse, when up rode a traveller, +who brought them the unseasonable news, that, whilst riding along the +vale, he had beheld the downfall of the whole building. Out the men +rushed, hoping that this might be a hoax; but too surely they found his +report true, and their own festival premature. A little malice mingled +unavoidably with the laughter of the Dalesmen; for it happened that +the Liverpool gentleman had offered a sort of insult to the native +artists, by bringing down both masons and carpenters from his own +town; an unwise plan, for they were necessarily unacquainted with many +points of local skill; and it was to some ignorance in their mode of +laying the stones that the accident was due. The house had one or two +capital defects--it was cold, damp, and, to all appearance, incurably +smoky. Upon this latter defect, by the way, Wordsworth founded a claim, +not for diminution of rent, but absolutely for entire immunity from +any rent at all. It was truly comical to hear him argue the point +with the Liverpool proprietor, Mr. C. He went on dilating on the +hardship of living in such a house; of the injury, or suffering, at +least, sustained by the eyes; until, at last, he had drawn a picture +of himself as a very ill-used man; and I seriously expected to hear +him sum up by demanding a round sum for damages. Mr. C. was a very +good-natured man, calm, and gentlemanlike in his manners. He had also a +considerable respect for Wordsworth, derived, it may be supposed, not +from his writings, but from the authority (which many more besides him +could not resist) of his conversation. However, he looked grave and +perplexed. Nor do I know how the matter ended; but I mention it as an +illustration of Wordsworth's keen spirit of business. Whilst foolish +people supposed him a mere honeyed sentimentalist, speaking only in +zephyrs and bucolics, he was in fact a somewhat hard pursuer of what he +thought fair advantages. + +In the February which followed, I left Allan Bank; but, upon Miss +Wordsworth's happening to volunteer the task of furnishing for my use +the cottage so recently occupied by her brother's family, I took it +upon a seven years' lease. And thus it happened--this I mean was the +mode of it (for, at any rate, I should have settled somewhere in the +country)--that I became a resident in Grasmere. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + WESTMORELAND AND THE DALESMEN: SOCIETY OF THE LAKES[148] + + [148] From _Tait's Magazine_ for January 1840.--M. + + +In February, as I have said, of 1809, I quitted Allan Bank; and, from +that time until the depth of summer, Miss Wordsworth was employed in +the task she had volunteered, of renewing and furnishing the little +cottage in which I was to succeed the illustrious tenant who had, in my +mind, hallowed the rooms by a seven years' occupation, during, perhaps, +the happiest period of his life--the early years of his marriage, and +of his first acquaintance with parental affections. Cottage, immortal +in my remembrance! as well it might be; for this cottage I retained +through just seven-and-twenty years: this was the scene of struggle +the most tempestuous and bitter within my own mind: this the scene +of my despondency and unhappiness: this the scene of my happiness--a +happiness which justified the faith of man's _earthly_ lot, as, upon +the whole, a dowry from heaven. It was, in its exterior, not so much +a picturesque cottage--for its outline and proportions, its windows +and its chimneys, were not sufficiently marked and effective for the +picturesque[149]--as it was lovely: one gable end was, indeed, most +gorgeously apparelled in ivy, and so far picturesque; but the principal +side, or what might be called front, as it presented itself to the +road, and was most illuminated by windows, was embossed--nay, it might +be said, smothered--in roses of different species, amongst which the +moss and the damask prevailed. These, together with as much jessamine +and honeysuckle as could find room to flourish, were not only in +themselves a most interesting garniture for a humble cottage wall, but +they also performed the acceptable service of breaking the unpleasant +glare that would else have wounded the eye from the whitewash; a glare +which, having been renewed amongst the general preparations against +my coming to inhabit the house, could not be sufficiently subdued +in tone for the artist's eye until the storm of several winters had +weather-stained and tamed down its brilliancy. The Westmoreland +cottages, as a class, have long been celebrated for their picturesque +forms, and very justly so: in no part of the world are cottages to be +found more strikingly interesting to the eye by their general outlines, +by the sheltered porches of their entrances, by their exquisite +chimneys, by their rustic windows, and by the distribution of the +parts. These parts are on a larger scale, both as to number and size, +than a stranger would expect to find as dependencies and out-houses +attached to dwelling-houses so modest; chiefly from the necessity of +making provision both in fuel for themselves, and in hay, straw, and +brackens for the cattle against the long winter. But, in praising the +Westmoreland dwellings, it must be understood that only those of the +native Dalesmen are contemplated; for, as to those raised by the alien +intruders--"the lakers," or "foreigners" as they are sometimes called +by the old indigenous possessors of the soil--these, being designed +to exhibit "a taste" and an eye for the picturesque, are pretty often +mere models of deformity, as vulgar and as silly as it is well possible +for any object to be in a case where, after all, the workman, and +obedience to custom, and the necessities of the ground, &c., will often +step in to compel the architects into common sense and propriety. The +main defect in Scottish scenery, the eyesore that disfigures so many +charming combinations of landscape, is the offensive style of the rural +architecture; but still, even where it is worst, the _mode_ of its +offence is not by affectation and conceit, and preposterous attempts at +realizing sublime, Gothic, or castellated effects in little gingerbread +ornaments, and "tobacco pipes," and make-believe parapets, and towers +like kitchen or hothouse flues; but in the hard undisguised pursuit of +mere coarse uses and needs of life. + + [149] The idea of the picturesque is one which did not exist at + all until the post-Christian ages; neither amongst the Grecians + nor amongst the Romans; and _therefore_, as respects one reason, + it was, that the art of landscape painting did not exist (except + in a Chinese infancy, and as a mere trick of inventive ingenuity) + amongst the finest artists of Greece. What _is_ picturesque, as + placed in relation to the beautiful and the sublime? It is (to + define it by the very shortest form of words) the characteristic + pushed into a sensible excess. The prevailing character of any + natural object, no matter how little attractive it may be for + beauty, is always interesting for itself, as the character and + hieroglyphic symbol of the purposes pursued by Nature in the + determination of its form, style of motion, texture of + superficies, relation of parts, &c. Thus, for example, an + expression of dulness and somnolent torpor does not ally itself + with grace or elegance; but, in combination with strength and + other qualities, it may compose a character of serviceable and + patient endurance, as in the cart-horse, having unity in itself, + and tending to one class of uses sufficient to mark it out by + circumscription for a distinct and separate contemplation. Now, + in combination with certain counteracting circumstances, as with + the momentary energy of some great effort, much of this peculiar + character might be lost, or defeated, or dissipated. On that + account, the skilful observer will seek out circumstances that are + in harmony with the principal tendencies and assist them; such, + suppose, as a state of lazy relaxation from labour, and the fall + of heavy drenching rain causing the head to droop, and the shaggy + mane, together with the fetlocks, to weep. These, and other + circumstances of attitude, &c., bring out the character of + prevailing tendency of the animal in some excess; and, in such a + case, we call the resulting effect to the eye--picturesque: or in + fact, _characteresque_. In extending this speculation to objects + of art and human purposes, there is something more required of + subtle investigation. Meantime, it is evident that neither the + sublime nor the beautiful depends upon any _secondary_ interest of + a purpose or of a character expressing that purpose. They + (confining the case to visual objects) court the _primary_ + interest involved in that (form, colour, texture, attitude, + motion) which forces admiration, which fascinates the eye, for + itself, and without a question of any distinct purpose: and, + instead of character--that is, discriminating and separating + expression, tending to the special and the individual--they both + agree in pursuing the Catholic, the Normal, the Ideal. + +Too often, the rustic mansion, that should speak of decent poverty +and seclusion, peaceful and comfortable, wears the most repulsive +air of town confinement and squalid indigence; the house being built +of substantial stone, three storeys high, or even four, the roof of +massy slate; and everything strong which respects the future outlay +of the proprietor--everything frail which respects the comfort of the +inhabitants: windows broken and stuffed up with rags or old hats; +steps and door encrusted with dirt; and the whole tarnished with +smoke. Poverty--how different the face it wears looking with meagre +staring eyes from such a city dwelling as this, and when it peeps +out, with rosy cheeks, from amongst clustering roses and woodbines, +at a little lattice, from a little one-storey cottage! Are, then, the +main characteristics of the Westmoreland dwelling-houses imputable +to superior taste? By no means. Spite of all that I have heard Mr. +Wordsworth and others say in maintaining that opinion, I, for my +part, do and must hold, that the Dalesmen produce none of the happy +effects which frequently arise in their domestic architecture under +any search after beautiful forms, a search which they despise with a +sort of Vandal dignity; no, nor with any sense or consciousness of +their success. How then? Is it accident--mere casual good luck--that +has brought forth, for instance, so many exquisite forms of chimneys? +Not so; but it is this: it is good sense, on the one hand, bending and +conforming to the dictates or even the suggestions of the climate, +and the local circumstances of rocks, water, currents of air, &c.; +and, on the other hand, wealth sufficient to arm the builder with +all suitable means for giving effect to his purpose, and to evade +the necessity of make-shifts. But the radical ground of the interest +attached to Westmoreland cottage architecture lies in its submission +to the determining agencies of the surrounding circumstances; such +of them, I mean, as are permanent, and have been gathered from long +experience. The porch, for instance, which does so much to take away +from a house the character of a rude box, pierced with holes for air, +light, and ingress, has evidently been dictated by the sudden rushes of +wind through the mountain "ghylls," which make some kind of protection +necessary to the ordinary door; and this reason has been strengthened, +in cases of houses near to a road, by the hospitable wish to provide a +sheltered seat for the wayfarer; most of these porches being furnished +with one in each of the two recesses, to the right and to the left. + +The long winter, again, as I have already said, and the artificial +prolongation of the winter by the necessity of keeping the sheep +long upon the low grounds, creates a call for large out-houses; and +these, for the sake of warmth, are usually placed at right angles to +the house; which has the effect of making a much larger system of +parts than would else arise. But perhaps the main feature which gives +character to the pile of building, is the roof, and, above all, the +chimneys. It is the remark of an accomplished Edinburgh artist, H. +W. Williams, in the course of his strictures[150] upon the domestic +architecture of the Italians, and especially of the Florentines, +that the character of buildings, in certain circumstances, "depends +wholly or chiefly on the form of the roof and the chimney. This," he +goes on, "is particularly the case in Italy, where more variety and +taste is displayed in the chimneys than in the buildings to which +they belong. These chimneys are as peculiar and characteristic as +palm trees in a tropical climate." Again, in speaking of Calabria +and the Ionian Islands, he says--"We were forcibly struck with the +consequence which the beauty of the chimneys imparted to the character +of the whole building." Now, in Great Britain, he complains, with +reason, of the very opposite result: not the plain building ennobled +by the chimney, but the chimney degrading the noble building, and in +Edinburgh especially, where the homely and inelegant appearance of the +chimneys contrasts most disadvantageously and offensively with the +beauty of the buildings which they surmount. Even here, however, he +makes an exception for some of the _old_ buildings, whose chimneys, +he admits, "are very tastefully decorated, and contribute essentially +to the beauty of the general effect." It is probable, therefore, and +many houses of the Elizabethan era confirm it, that a better taste +prevailed, in this point, amongst our ancestors, both Scottish and +English; that this elder fashion travelled, together with many other +usages, from the richer parts of Scotland to the Borders, and thence +to the vales of Westmoreland; where they have continued to prevail, +from their affectionate adhesion to all patriarchal customs. Some, +undoubtedly, of these Westmoreland forms have been dictated by the +necessities of the weather, and the systematic energies of human +skill, from age to age, applied to the very difficult task of training +smoke into obedience, under the peculiar difficulties presented by the +sites of Westmoreland houses. These are chosen, generally speaking, +with the same good sense and regard to domestic comfort, as the primary +consideration (without, however, disdainfully slighting the sentiment, +whatever it were, of peace, of seclusion, of gaiety, of solemnity, the +special "religio loci"), which seems to have guided the choice of those +who founded religious houses. + + [150] "Travels in Italy, Greece, and the Ionian Islands," vol. i. + pp. 74, 75. + +And here, again, by the way, appears a marked difference between the +Dalesmen and the intrusive gentry--not creditable to the latter. The +native Dalesman, well aware of the fury with which the wind often +gathers and eddies about any eminence, however trifling its elevation, +never thinks of planting his house _there_: whereas the stranger, +singly solicitous about the prospect or the range of lake which his +gilt saloons are to command, chooses his site too often upon points +better fitted for a temple of Eolus than a human dwelling-place; and +he belts his house with balconies and verandas that a mountain gale +often tears away in mockery. The Dalesman, wherever his choice is not +circumscribed, selects a sheltered spot (a _wray_,[151] for instance), +which protects him from the wind altogether, upon one or two quarters, +and on all quarters from its tornado violence: he takes good care, at +the same time, to be within a few feet of a mountain beck: a caution +so little heeded by some of the villa founders that absolutely, in a +country surcharged with water, they have sometimes found themselves +driven, by sheer necessity, to the after-thought of sinking a well. The +very best situation, however, in other respects, may be bad in one, +and sometimes find its very advantages, and the beetling crags which +protect its rear, obstructions the most permanent to the ascent of +smoke; and it is in the contest with these natural baffling repellents +of the smoke, and in the variety of artifices for modifying its +vertical, or for accomplishing its lateral escape, that have arisen +the large and graceful variety of chimney models. My cottage, wanting +this primary feature of elegance in the constituents of Westmoreland +cottage architecture, and wanting also another very interesting feature +of the elder architecture, annually becoming more and more rare,--viz. +the outside gallery (which is sometimes merely of wood, but is much +more striking when provided for in the original construction of the +house, and completely _enfoncé_ in the masonry),--could not rank high +amongst the picturesque houses of the country; those, at least, which +are such by virtue of their architectural form. It was, however, +very irregular in its outline to the rear, by the aid of one little +projecting room, and also of a stable and little barn, in immediate +contact with the dwelling-house. It had, besides, the great advantage +of a varying height: two sides being about fifteen or sixteen feet high +from the exposure of both storeys; whereas the other two, being swathed +about by a little orchard that rose rapidly and unequally towards the +vast mountain range in the rear, exposed only the upper storey; and, +consequently, on those sides the elevation rarely rose beyond seven or +eight feet. All these accidents of irregular form and outline gave to +the house some little pretensions to a picturesque character; whilst +its "separable accidents" (as the logicians say), its bowery roses and +jessamine, clothed it in loveliness--its associations with Wordsworth +crowned it, to my mind, with historical dignity,--and, finally, my own +twenty-seven years' off-and-on connexion with it have, by ties personal +and indestructible, endeared it to my heart so unspeakably beyond all +other houses, that even now I rarely dream through four nights running +that I do not find myself (and others besides) in some one of those +rooms, and, most probably, the last cloudy delirium of approaching +death will re-install me in some chamber of that same humble cottage. +"What a tale," says Foster, the eloquent essayist--"what a tale could +be told by many a room, were the walls endowed with memory and speech!" +or, in the more impassioned expressions of Wordsworth-- + + "Ah! what a lesson to a thoughtless man + -------------- if any gladsome field of earth + Could render back the sighs to which it hath responded, + Or echo the sad steps by which it hath been trod!" + +And equally affecting it would be, if such a field or such a house +could render up the echoes of joy, of festal music, of jubilant +laughter--the innocent mirth of infants, or the gaiety, not less +innocent, of youthful mothers--equally affecting would be such a +reverberation of forgotten household happiness with the re-echoing +records of sighs and groans. And few indeed are the houses that, within +a period no longer than from the beginning of the century to 1835 +(so long was it either mine or Wordsworth's) have crowded such ample +materials for those echoes, whether sorrowful or joyous. + + [151] _Wraie_ is the old Danish or Icelandic word for _angle_. + Hence the many "wrays" in the Lake district. + + +SOCIETY OF THE LAKES + +My cottage was ready in the summer; but I was playing truant amongst +the valleys of Somersetshire; and, meantime, different families, +throughout the summer, borrowed the cottage of the Wordsworths as my +friends. They consisted chiefly of ladies; and some, by the delicacy +of their attentions to the flowers, &c., gave me reason to consider +their visit during my absence as a real honour; others--such is the +difference of people in this world--left the rudest memorials of +their careless habits impressed upon house, furniture, garden, &c. +In November, at last, I, the long-expected, made my appearance. Some +little sensation did really and naturally attend my coming, for most +of the draperies belonging to beds, curtains, &c., had been sewed by +the young women of that or the adjoining vales. This had caused me +to be talked of. Many had seen me on my visit to the Wordsworths. +Miss Wordsworth had introduced the curious to a knowledge of my age, +name, prospects, and all the rest of what can be interesting to +know. Even the old people of the vale were a little excited by the +accounts (somewhat exaggerated, perhaps) of the never ending books +that continued to arrive in packing-cases for several months in +succession. Nothing in these vales so much fixes the attention and +respect of the people as the reputation of being a "far learn'd" man. +So far, therefore, I had already bespoke the favourable opinion of +the Dalesmen. And a separate kind of interest arose amongst mothers +and daughters, in the knowledge that I should necessarily want +what--in a sense somewhat different from the general one--is called a +"housekeeper"; that is, not an upper servant to superintend others, +but one who could undertake, in her own person, all the duties of the +house. It is not discreditable to these worthy people that several +of the richest and most respectable families were anxious to secure +the place for a daughter. Had I been a dissipated young man, I have +good reason to know that there would have been no canvassing at all +for the situation. But partly my books spoke for the character of my +pursuits with these simple-minded people--partly the introduction of +the Wordsworths guaranteed the safety of such a service. Even then, +had I persisted in my original intention of bringing a man-servant, no +respectable young woman would have accepted the place. As it was, and +it being understood that I had renounced this intention, many, in a +gentle, diffident way, applied for the place, or their parents on their +behalf. And I mention the fact, because it illustrates one feature in +the manners of this primitive and peculiar people, the Dalesmen of +Westmoreland. However wealthy, they do not think it degrading to permit +even the eldest daughter to go out a few years to service. The object +is not to gain a sum of money in wages, but that sort of household +experience which is supposed to be unattainable upon a suitable scale +out of a gentleman's family. So far was this carried, that, amongst +the offers made to myself, was one from a young woman whose family was +amongst the very oldest in the country, and who was at that time under +an engagement of marriage to the very richest young man in the vale. +She and her future husband had a reasonable prospect of possessing +ten thousand pounds in land; and yet neither her own family nor her +husband's objected to her seeking such a place as I could offer. Her +character and manners, I ought to add, were so truly excellent, and +won respect so inevitably from everybody, that nobody could wonder at +the honourable confidence reposed in her by her manly and spirited +young lover. The issue of the matter, as respected my service, was, +why I do not know, that Miss Wordsworth did not accept of her: and she +fulfilled her purpose in another family, a very grave and respectable +one, in Kendal. She stayed about a couple of years, returned, and +married the young man to whom she had engaged herself, and is now the +prosperous mother of a fine handsome family; and she together with her +mother-in-law are the two leading matrons of the vale. + +It was on a November night, about ten o'clock, that I first found +myself installed in a house of my own--this cottage, so memorable from +its past tenant to all men, so memorable to myself from all which +has since passed in connexion with it. A writer in _The Quarterly +Review_, in noticing the autobiography of Dr. Watson, the Bishop of +Llandaff, has thought fit to say that the Lakes, of course, afforded +no society capable of appreciating this commonplace, coarse-minded man +of talents. The person who said this I understand to have been Dr. +Whitaker, the respectable antiquary. Now, that the reader may judge of +the propriety with which this was asserted, I shall slightly rehearse +the muster-roll of our Lake society, as it existed at the time when I +seated myself in my Grasmere cottage. I will undertake to say that the +meanest person in the whole scattered community was more extensively +accomplished than the good bishop, was more conscientiously true to +his duties, and had more varied powers of conversation. Wordsworth and +Coleridge, then living at Allan Bank, in Grasmere, I will not notice +in such a question. Southey, living thirteen miles off, at Keswick, +I have already noticed; and he needs no _proneur_. I will begin with +Windermere. + +At Clappersgate, a little hamlet of perhaps six houses, on its +north-west angle, and about five miles from my cottage, resided two +Scottish ladies, daughters of Dr. Cullen, the famous physician and +nosologist.[152] They were universally beloved for their truly kind +dispositions and the firm independence of their conduct They had been +reduced from great affluence to a condition of rigorous poverty. Their +father had made what should have been a fortune by his practice. +The good doctor, however, was careless of his money in proportion +to the facility with which he made it. All was put into a box, open +to the whole family. Breach of confidence, in the most thoughtless +use of this money, there could be none; because no restraint in that +point, beyond what honour and good sense imposed, was laid upon any +of the elder children. Under such regulations, it may be imagined +that Dr. Cullen would not accumulate any very large capital; and, +at his death, the family, for the first time, found themselves in +embarrassed circumstances. Of the two daughters who belonged to our +Lake population, one had married a Mr. Millar, son to the celebrated +Professor Millar of Glasgow.[153] This gentleman had died in America; +and Mrs. Millar was now a childless widow. The other still remained +unmarried. Both were equally independent; and independent even with +regard to their nearest relatives; for, even from their brother--who +had risen to rank and affluence as a Scottish judge, under the title +of Lord Cullen[154]--they declined to receive assistance; and except +for some small addition made to their income by a novel called "Home" +(in as many as seven volumes, I really believe) by Miss Cullen, +their expenditure was rigorously shaped to meet that very slender +income which they drew from _their_ shares of the patrimonial wrecks. +More honourable and modest independence, or poverty more gracefully +supported, I have rarely known. + + [152] William Cullen (1712-1790), Professor of the Institutes of + Medicine and the Practice of Physic in the University of Edinburgh + from 1766 to 1790.--M. + + [153] John Millar (1735-1801), author of _The Origin Of the + Distinction of Ranks in Society and Historical View of the English + Government_.--M. + + [154] Robert Cullen was a Scottish judge, with the courtesy title + of Lord Cullen, from 1796 to 1810.--M. + +Meantime, these ladies, though literary and very agreeable in +conversation, could not be classed with what now began to be known +as the _lake_ community of literati; for they took no interest in +any one of the lake poets; did not affect to take any; and I am sure +they were not aware of so much value in any one thing these poets had +written as could make it worth while even to look into their books; +and accordingly, as well-bred women, they took the same course as was +pursued for several years by Mrs. Hannah More, viz. cautiously to avoid +mentioning their names in my presence. This was natural enough in +women who had probably built their early admiration upon French models +(for Mrs. Millar used to tell me that she regarded the "Mahomet" of +Voltaire as the most perfect of human compositions), and still more so +at a period when almost all the world had surrendered their opinions +and their literary consciences (so to speak) into the keeping of _The +Edinburgh Review_; in whose favour, besides, those ladies had the +pardonable prepossessions of national pride, as a collateral guarantee +of that implicit faith which, in those days, stronger-minded people +than they took a pride in professing. Still, in defiance of prejudices +mustering so strongly to support their blindness, and the still +stronger support which this blindness drew from their total ignorance +of everything either done or attempted by the lake poets, these amiable +women persisted in one uniform tone of courteous forbearance, as often +as any question arose to implicate the names either of Wordsworth or +Coleridge,--any question about them, their books, their families, or +anything that was theirs. They thought it strange, indeed (for so +much I heard by a circuitous course), that promising and intellectual +young men--men educated at great Universities, such as Mr. Wilson of +Elleray, or myself, or a few others who had paid us visits,--should +possess so deep a veneration for these writers; but evidently this was +an infatuation--a craze, originating, perhaps, in personal connexions, +and, as the craze of valued friends, to be treated with tenderness. For +us therefore--for our sakes--they took a religious care to suppress +all allusion to these disreputable names; and it is pretty plain +how sincere their indifference must have been with regard to these +neighbouring authors, from the evidence of one fact, viz. that when, in +1810, Mr. Coleridge began to issue, in weekly numbers, his _Friend_, +which, by the prospectus, held forth a promise of meeting all possible +tastes--literary, philosophic, political--even this comprehensive +field of interest, combined with the adventitious attraction (so very +unusual, and so little to have been looked for in that thinly-peopled +region) of a local origin, from the bosom of those very hills at the +foot of which (though on a different side) they were themselves living, +failed altogether to stimulate their torpid curiosity; so perfect was +their persuasion beforehand that no good thing could by possibility +come out of a community that had fallen under the ban of the Edinburgh +critics. + +At the same time, it is melancholy to confess that, partly from the +dejection of Coleridge, his constant immersion in opium at that +period, his hatred of the duties he had assumed, or at least of their +too frequent and periodical recurrence, and partly also from the bad +selection of topics for a miscellaneous audience, from the heaviness +and obscurity with which they were treated, and from the total want +of variety, in consequence of defective arrangements on his part +for ensuring the co-operation of his friends, no conceivable act +of authorship that Coleridge _could_ have perpetrated, no possible +overt act of dulness and somnolent darkness that he _could_ have +authorized, was so well fitted to sustain the impression, with +regard to him and his friends, that had pre-occupied these ladies' +minds. _Habes confitentem reum!_ I am sure they would exclaim; not +perhaps confessing to that form of delinquency which they had been +taught to expect--trivial or extravagant sentimentalism, _Germanity_ +alternating with tumid inanity; not this, but something quite as +bad or worse, viz. palpable dulness--dulness that could be felt and +handled--rayless obscurity as to the thoughts--and communicated in +language that, according to the Bishop of Llandaff's complaint, was not +always English. For, though the particular words cited for blame were +certainly known to the vocabulary of metaphysics, and had even been +employed by a writer of Queen Anne's reign (Leibnitz), who, if any, +had the gift of translating dark thoughts into plain ones--still it +was intolerable, in point of good sense, that one who had to win his +way into the public ear should begin by bringing before a popular and +miscellaneous audience themes that could require such startling and +revolting words. _The Delphic Oracle_ was the kindest of the nicknames +which the literary taste of Windermere conferred upon the new journal. +This was the laughing suggestion of a clever young lady, a daughter of +the Bishop of Llandaff, who stood in a neutral position with regard to +Coleridge. But others there were amongst his supposed friends who felt +even more keenly than this young lady the shocking want of adaptation +to his audience in the choice of matter, and, even to an audience +better qualified to meet such matter, the want of adaptation in the +mode of publication,--viz. periodically, and by weekly recurrence; +a mode of soliciting the public attention which even authorizes the +expectation of current topics--topics arising each with its own week or +day. One in particular I remember of these disapproving friends: a Mr. +Blair, an accomplished scholar, and a frequent visitor at Elleray,[155] +who started the playful scheme of a satirical rejoinder to Coleridge's +_Friend_, under the name of _The Enemy_, which was to follow always in +the wake of its leader, and to stimulate Coleridge (at the same time +that it amused the public) by attic banter, or by downright opposition +and showing fight in good earnest. It was a plan that might have done +good service to the world, and chiefly through a seasonable irritation +(never so much wanted as then) applied to Coleridge's too lethargic +state: in fact, throughout life, it is most deeply to be regretted +that Coleridge's powers and peculiar learning were never forced out +into a large display by intense and almost persecuting opposition. +However, this scheme, like thousands of other day-dreams and bubbles +that rose upon the breath of morning spirits and buoyant youth, fell +to the ground; and, in the meantime, no enemy to _The Friend_ appeared +that was capable of matching _The Friend_ when left to itself and +its own careless or vagrant guidance. _The Friend_ ploughed heavily +along for nine-and-twenty numbers[156]; and our fair recusants and +non-conformists in all that regarded the lake poetry or authorship, +the two Scottish ladies of Clappersgate, found no reasons for changing +their opinions; but continued, for the rest of my acquaintance with +them, to practise the same courteous and indulgent silence, whenever +the names of Coleridge or Wordsworth happened to be mentioned. + + [155] See _ante_, p. 193, footnote (76).--M. + + [156] See _ante_. p. 190, footnote (75).--M. + +In taking leave of these Scottish ladies, it may be interesting to +mention that, previously to their final farewell to our Lake society, +upon taking up their permanent residence in York (which step they +adopted partly, I believe, to enjoy the more diversified society which +that great city yields, and, at any rate, the more _accessible_ +society than amongst mountain districts--partly with a view to the +cheapness of that rich district in comparison with our sterile soil, +poor towns, and poor agriculture) somewhere about the May or June of +1810, I think--they were able, by a long preparatory course of economy, +to invite to the English lakes a family of foreigners--what shall I +call them?--a family of Anglo-Gallo-Americans, from the Carolinas. The +invitation had been of old standing, and offered, as an expression +of gratitude, from these ladies, for many hospitalities and friendly +services rendered by the two heads of that family to Mrs. Millar, +in former years, and under circumstances of peculiar trial. Mrs. +Millar had been hastily summoned from Scotland to attend her husband +at Charleston; him, on her arrival, she found dying; and, whilst +overwhelmed by this sudden blow, it may be imagined that the young +widow would find trials enough for her fortitude, without needing any +addition to the load from friendlessness amongst a nation of strangers +and from total solitude. These evils were spared to Mrs. Millar, +through the kind offices and disinterested exertions of an American +gentleman (French by birth, but American by adoption), M. Simond, who +took upon himself the cares of superintending Mr. Millar's funeral +through all its details, and, by this most seasonable service, secured +to the heart-stricken widow that most welcome of privileges in all +situations, the privilege of unmolested privacy; for assuredly the +heaviest aggravation of such bereavements lies in the necessity,--too +often imposed by circumstances upon him or upon her who may happen +to be the sole responsible representative, and, at the same time, +the dearest friend of the deceased,--of superintending the funeral +arrangements. In the very agonies of a new-born grief, whilst the +heart is yet raw and bleeding, the mind not yet able to comprehend its +loss, the very light of day hateful to the eyes, the necessity even at +such a moment arises, and without a day's delay, of facing strangers, +talking with strangers, discussing the most empty details with a view +to the most sordid of considerations--cheapness, convenience, custom, +and local prejudice--and, finally, talking about whom? why, the very +child, husband, wife, who has just been torn away; and this, too, +under a consciousness that the being so hallowed is, as to these +strangers, an object equally indifferent with any one person whatsoever +that died a thousand years ago. Fortunate, indeed, is that person who +has a natural friend, or, in default of such a friend, who finds a +volunteer stepping forward to relieve him from a conflict of feeling +so peculiarly unseasonable. Mrs. Millar never forgot the service which +had been rendered to her; and she was happy when M. Simond, who had +become a wealthy citizen of America, at length held out the prospect of +coming to profit by her hospitable attentions amongst that circle of +friends with whom she and her sister had surrounded themselves in so +interesting a part of England. + +M. Simond had been a French emigrant; not, I believe, so far connected +with the privileged orders of his country, or with any political party, +as to be absolutely forced out of France by danger or by panic; but he +had shared in the feelings of those who were. Revolutionary France, +in the anarchy of the transition state, and still heaving to and fro +with the subsiding shocks of the great earthquake, did not suit him: +there was neither the polish which he sought in its manners, nor the +security which he sought in its institutions. England he did not love; +but yet, if not England, some country which had grown up from English +foundations was the country for him; and, as he augured no rest for +France through some generations to come, but an endless succession of +revolution to revolution, anarchy to anarchy, he judged it best that, +having expatriated himself and lost one country, he should solemnly +adopt another. Accordingly he became an American citizen. English he +already spoke with propriety and fluency. And, finally, he cemented +his English connexions by marrying an English lady, the niece of John +Wilkes. "What John Wilkes?" asked a lady, one of a dinner-party at +Calgarth (the house of Dr. Watson, the celebrated Bishop of Llandaff, +upon the banks of Windermere).--"_What_ John Wilkes?" re-echoed the +Bishop, with a vehement intonation of scorn; "_What_ John Wilkes, +indeed! as if there was ever more than one John Wilkes--_fama super +æthera notus_!"--"O, my Lord, I beg your pardon," said an old lady, +nearly connected with the Bishop, "there were two; I knew one of +them: he was a little, ill-looking man, and he kept the Blue Boar +at----."--"At Flamborough Head!" roared the Bishop, with a savage +expression of disgust. The old lady, suspecting that some screw was +loose in the matter, thought it prudent to drop the contest; but she +murmured, _sotto voce_, "No, not at Flamborough Head, but at Market +Drayton." Madame Simond, then, was the niece, not of the ill-looking +host of the Blue Boar, but of _the_ Wilkes so memorably connected with +the _parvanimities_ of the English government at one period; with the +casuistry of our English constitution, by the questions raised in his +person as to the effects of expulsion from the House of Commons, &c. +&c.; and, finally, with the history of English jurisprudence, by his +intrepidity on the matter of general warrants. M. Simond's party, when +at length it arrived, consisted of two persons besides himself, viz. +his wife, the niece of Wilkes, and a young lady of eighteen, standing +in the relation of grand-niece to the same memorable person. This young +lady, highly pleasing in her person, on quitting the lake district, +went northwards with her party, to Edinburgh, and there became +acquainted with Mr. Francis Jeffrey, the present Lord Jeffrey [1840], +who naturally enough fell in love with her, followed her across the +Atlantic, and in Charleston, I believe, received the honour of her hand +in marriage.[157] + + [157] She was Jeffrey's second wife, married to him in 1813.--M. + +I, as one of Mrs. Millar's friends, put in my claim to entertain her +American party in my turn. One long summer's day, they all came over +to my cottage in Grasmere; and, as it became my duty to do the honours +of our vale to the strangers, I thought that I could not discharge the +duty in a way more likely to interest them all than by conducting them +through Grasmere into the little inner chamber of Easedale, and there, +within sight of the solitary cottage, Blentarn Ghyll, telling them the +story of the Greens[158]; because, in this way, I had an opportunity, +at the same time, of showing the scenery from some of the best points, +and of opening to them a few glimpses of the character and customs +which distinguish this section of the English yeomanry from others. +The story did certainly interest them all; and thus far I succeeded +in my duties as Cicerone and Amphytrion of the day. But, throughout +the rest of our long morning's ramble, I remember that accident, or, +possibly the politeness of M. Simond, and his French sympathy with a +young man's natural desire to stand well in the eyes of a handsome +young woman, so ordered it that I had constantly the honour of being +Miss Wilkes's immediate companion, as the narrowness of the path pretty +generally threw us into ranks of two and two. Having, therefore, +through so many hours, the opportunity of an exclusive conversation +with this young lady, it would have been my own fault had I failed to +carry off an impression of her great good sense, as well as her amiable +and spirited character. Certainly I did _mon possible_ to entertain +her, both on her own account and as the visitor of my Scottish friends. +But, in the midst of all my efforts, I had the mortification to feel +that I was rowing against the stream; that there was a silent body +of prepossession against the whole camp of the lakers, which nothing +could unsettle. Miss Wilkes naturally looked up, with some feelings of +respect, to M. Simond, who, by his marriage with her aunt, had become +her own guardian and protector. Now, M. Simond, of all the men in the +world, was the last who could have appreciated an English poet. He +had, to begin with, a French inaptitude for apprehending poetry at +all: any poetry, that is, which transcends manners and the interests +of social life. Then, unfortunately, not merely through what he had +not, but equally through what he had, this cleverish Frenchman was, by +whole diameters of the earth, remote from the station at which he could +comprehend Wordsworth. He was a thorough, knowing man of the world, +keen, sharp as a razor, and valuing nothing but the tangible and the +ponderable. He had a smattering of mechanics, of physiology, geology, +mineralogy, and all other _ologies_ whatsoever; he had, besides, at his +fingers' ends, a huge body of statistical facts--how many people did +live, could live, ought to live, in each particular district of each +manufacturing county; how many old women of eighty-three there ought +to be to so many little children of one; how many murders ought to be +committed in a month by each town of five thousand souls; and so on +_ad infinitum_. And to such a thin shred had his old French politeness +been worn down by American attrition, that his thin lips could with +much ado contrive to disguise his contempt for those who failed to +meet him exactly upon his own field, with exactly his own quality of +knowledge. Yet, after all, it was but a little _case_ of knowledge, +that he had packed up neatly for a make-shift; just what corresponds +to the little assortment of razors, tooth-brushes, nail-brushes, +hair-brushes, cork-screw, gimlet, &c. &c., which one carries in one's +trunk, in a red Morocco case, to meet the casualties of a journey. The +more one was indignant at being the object of such a man's contempt, +the more heartily did one disdain his disdain, and recalcitrate his +kicks. + + [158] The pathetic story told in De Quincey's paper entitled + _Early Memorials of Grasmere_.--M. + +On the single day which Mrs. Millar could spare for Grasmere, I had +taken care to ask Wordsworth amongst those who were to meet the party. +Wordsworth came; but, by instinct, he and Monsieur Simond knew and +recoiled from each other. They met, they saw, they _inter-despised_. +Wordsworth, on his side, seemed so heartily to despise M. Simond +that he did not stir or make an effort to right himself under any +misapprehension of the Frenchman, but coolly acquiesced in any and +every inference which he might be pleased to draw; whilst M. Simond, +double-charged with contempt from _The Edinburgh Review_, and from the +report (I cannot doubt) of his present hostess, manifestly thought +Wordsworth too abject almost for the trouble of too openly disdaining +him. More than one of us could have done justice on this malefactor +by meeting M. Simond on his own ground, and taking the conceit out of +him most thoroughly. I was one of those; for I had the very knowledge, +or some of it, that he most paraded. But one of us was lazy; another +thought it not _tanti_; and I, for my part, in my own house, could not +move upon such a service. And in those days, moreover, when as yet I +loved Wordsworth not less than I venerated him, a success that would +have made him suffer in any man's opinion by comparison with myself +would have been painful to my feelings. Never did party meet more +exquisitely ill-assorted; never did party separate with more exquisite +and cordial disgust in its principal members towards each other. I +mention the case at all, in order to illustrate the abject condition of +worldly opinion in which Wordsworth then lived. Perhaps his ill fame +was just then in its meridian; for M. Simond, soon after, published +his English Tour in two octavo volumes; and, of course, he goes over +his residence at the Lakes; yet it is a strong fact that, according +to my remembrance, he does not vouchsafe to mention such a person as +Wordsworth. + +One anecdote, before parting with these ladies, I will mention, as +received from Miss Cullen on her personal knowledge of the fact. There +are stories current which resemble this, but wanting that immediate +guarantee for their accuracy which, in this case, I at least was +obliged to admit, in the attestation of so perfectly veracious a +reporter as this excellent lady. A female friend of her own, a person +of family and consideration, being on the eve of undertaking a visit +to a remote part of the kingdom, dreamed that, on reaching the end of +her journey, and drawing up to the steps of the door, a footman, with +a very marked and forbidding expression of countenance, his complexion +pale and bloodless, and his manners sullen, presented himself to let +down the steps of her carriage. This same man, at a subsequent point +of her dream, appeared to be stealing up a private staircase, with +some murderous instruments in his hands, towards a bed-room door. +This dream was repeated, I think, twice. Some time after, the lady, +accompanied by a grown-up daughter, accomplished her journey. Great was +the shock which awaited her on reaching her friend's house: a servant +corresponding in all points to the shadowy outline of her dream, +equally bloodless in complexion, and equally gloomy in manner, appeared +at her carriage door. The issue of the story was that upon a particular +night, after a stay of some length, the lady grew unaccountably +nervous; resisted her feelings for some time; but at length, at the +entreaty of her daughter, who slept in the same room, suffered some +communication of the case to be made to a gentleman resident in +the house, who had not yet retired to rest. This gentleman, struck +by the dream, and still more on recalling to mind some suspicious +preparations, as if for a hasty departure, in which he had detected the +servant, waited in concealment until three o'clock in the morning--at +which time, hearing a stealthy step moving up the staircase, he issued +with firearms, and met the man at the lady's door, so equipped as to +leave no doubt of his intentions; which possibly contemplated only +robbing of the lady's jewels, but possibly also murder in a case of +extremity. There are other stories with some of the same circumstances; +and, in particular, I remember one very like it in Dr. Abercrombie's +"Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers" [1830], p. 283. But in +this version of Dr. Abercrombie's (supposing it another version of the +same story) the striking circumstance of anticipating the servant's +features is omitted; and in no version, except this of Miss Cullen's, +have I heard the names mentioned both of the parties to the affair, and +also of the place at which it occurred. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + SOCIETY OF THE LAKES: CHARLES LLOYD[159] + + [159] From _Tait's Magazine_ for March 1840.--M. + + +Immediately below the little village of Clappersgate, in which the +Scottish ladies resided--Mrs. Millar and Mrs. Cullen--runs the wild +mountain river called the _Brathay_, which, descending from Langdale +Head, and soon after becoming confluent with the Rothay (a brook-like +stream that comes originally from Easedale, and takes its course +through the two lakes of Grasmere and Rydal), finally composes +a considerable body of water, that flows along, deep, calm, and +steady--no longer brawling, bubbling, tumultuous--into the splendid +lake of Windermere, the largest of our English waters, or, if not, at +least the longest, and of the most extensive circuit. Close to this +little river, Brathay, on the farther side as regards Clappersgate +(and what, though actually part and parcel of a district that is +severed by the sea, or by Westmoreland, from Lancashire proper, is +yet, from some old legal usage, denominated the Lancashire side of the +Brathay), stands a modest family mansion, called Low Brathay, by way +of distinction from another and a larger mansion, about a quarter of a +mile beyond it, which, standing upon a little eminence, is called High +Brathay. + +In this house of Low Brathay lived, and continued to live, for +many years (in fact, until misery, in its sharpest form, drove him +from his hearth and his household happiness), Charles L---- the +younger[160];--on his own account, and for his personal qualities, +worthy of a separate notice in any biography, howsoever sparing in its +digressions; but, viewed in reference to his fortunes, amongst the most +interesting men I have known. Never do I reflect upon his hard fate, +and the bitter though mysterious persecution of body which pursued +him, dogged him, and thickened as life advanced, but I feel gratitude +to Heaven for my own exemption from suffering in that particular +form; and, in the midst of afflictions, of which two or three have +been most hard to bear,--because not unmingled with pangs of remorse +for the share which I myself may have had in causing them,--still, by +comparison with the lot of Charles Lloyd, I acknowledge my own to have +been happy and serene. Already, on my first hasty visit to Grasmere in +1807, I found Charles Lloyd settled with his family at Brathay, and a +resident there, I believe, of some standing. It was on a wet gloomy +evening; and Miss Wordsworth and I were returning from an excursion to +Esthwaite Water, when, suddenly, in the midst of blinding rain, without +previous notice, she said--Pray, let us call for a few minutes at this +house. A garden gate led us into a little shrubbery, chiefly composed +of lawns, beautifully kept, through which ran a gravel road, just wide +enough to admit a single carriage. A minute or so saw us housed in a +small comfortable drawing-room, but with no signs of living creatures +near it; and, from the accident of double doors, all covered with +baize, being scattered about the house, the whole mansion seemed the +palace of silence, though populous, I understood, with children. In no +long time appeared Mr. Lloyd, soon followed by his youthful wife, both +radiant with kindness; and it may be supposed that we were not suffered +to depart for some hours. I call Mrs. Lloyd youthful; and so I might +call her husband; for both were youthful, considered as the parents of +a numerous family, six or seven children then living--Charles Lloyd +himself not being certainly more than twenty-seven, and his "Sophia" +perhaps not twenty-five. + + [160] The name was Charles Lloyd, and we shall fill up De + Quincey's blanks in the sequel.--M. + +On that short visit I saw enough to interest me in both; and, two +years after, when I became myself a permanent resident in Grasmere, +the connexion between us became close and intimate. My cottage stood +just five miles from Brathay; and there were two mountain roads which +shortened the space between us, though not the time nor the toil. +But, notwithstanding this distance, often and often, upon the darkest +nights, for many years, I used to go over about nine o'clock, or an +hour later, and sit with him till one. Mrs. Lloyd was simply an amiable +young woman, of pleasing person, perfectly well principled, and, as a +wife and mother, not surpassed by anybody I have known in either of +those characters. In figure she somewhat resembled the ever memorable +and most excellent Mrs. Jordan; she was exactly of the middle height +and having that slight degree of _embonpoint_, even in youth, which +never through life diminishes or increases. Her complexion may be +imagined from the circumstance of her hair being tinged with a slight +and not unpleasing shade of red. Finally, in manners she was remarkably +self-possessed, free from all awkward embarrassment, and (to an extent +which some people would wonder at in one who had been brought up, I +believe, wholly in a great commercial town) perfectly lady-like. So +much description is due to one who, though no authoress, and never +making the slightest pretension to talents, was too much connected +subsequently with the lakers to be passed over in a review of their +community. Ah! gentle lady! your head, after struggling through many +a year with strange calamities, has found rest at length; but not in +English ground, or amongst the mountains which you loved: at Versailles +it is, and perhaps within a stone's throw of that Mrs. Jordan whom +in so many things you resembled, and most of all in the misery which +settled upon your latter years. There you lie, and for ever, whose +blooming matronly figure rises up to me at this moment from a depth of +thirty years! and your children scattered into all lands! + +But for Charles Lloyd: he, by his literary works, is so far known +to the public, that, on his own account, he merits some separate +notice.[161] His poems do not place him in the class of powerful poets; +they are loosely conceived--faultily even at times--and not finished +in the execution. But they have a real and a mournful merit under +one aspect, which might be so presented to the general reader as to +win a peculiar interest for many of them, and for some a permanent +place in any judicious _thesaurus_--such as we may some day hope to +see drawn off, and carefully filtered, from the enormous mass of +poetry produced since the awakening era of the French Revolution. +This aspect is founded on the relation which they bear to the real +events and the unexaggerated afflictions of his own life. The feelings +which he attempts to express were not assumed for effect, nor drawn +by suggestion from others, and then transplanted into some ideal +experience of his own. They do not belong to the mimetic poetry so +extensively cultivated; but they were true solitary sighs, wrung from +his own meditative heart by excess of suffering, and by the yearning +after old scenes and household faces of an impassioned memory, brooding +over vanished happiness, and cleaving to those early times when life +wore even for _his_ eyes the golden light of Paradise. But he had other +and higher accomplishments of intellect than he showed in his verses, +as I shall presently explain; and of a nature which make it difficult +to bring them adequately within the reader's apprehension. + + [161] _Blank Verse by C. L. and Charles Lamb, 1798. Poetical + Essays on Pope, and Desultory Thoughts on London, &c., 1821._--M. + +Meantime, I will sketch an outline of poor Lloyd's history, so far as +I can pretend to know it. He was the son, and probably his calamitous +life originally dated from his being the son, of Quaker parents. It was +said, indeed, by himself as well as others, that the mysterious malady +which haunted him had been derived from an ancestress in the maternal +line; and this may have been true; and, for all that, it may also be +true that Quaker habits were originally answerable for this legacy of +woe. It is sufficiently well known that, in the training of their young +people, the Society of Friends make it a point of conscience to apply +severe checks to all open manifestations of natural feeling, or of +exuberant spirits. Not the passions--they are beyond their control--but +the expression of those passions by any natural language; this they +lay under the heaviest restraint; and, in many cases, it is possible +that such a system of thwarting nature may do no great mischief; just +as we see the American Indians, in moulding the plastic skulls of +their infants into capricious shapes, do not, after all, much disturb +the ordinary course of nature, nor produce the idiots we might have +expected. But, then, the reason why such tampering may often terminate +in slight results is, because often there is not much to tamper with; +the machinery is so slight, and the total range within which it plays +is perhaps so narrow, that the difference between its normal action and +its widest deviation may, after all, be practically unimportant. For +there are many men and women of whom I have already said, borrowing the +model of the word from Hartley, that they have not so much passions +as _passiuncles_. These, however, are in _one_ extreme; and others +there are and will be, in every class, and under every disadvantage, +who are destined to illustrate the very opposite extreme. Great +passions--passions pointing to the paths of love, of ambition, of +glory, martial or literary--these in men--and in women, again, these, +either in some direct shape, or taking the form of intense sympathy +with the same passions as moving amongst contemporary men--_will_ gleam +out fitfully amongst the placid children of Fox and Penn, not less than +amongst us who profess no war with the nobler impulses of our nature. +And, perhaps, according to the Grecian doctrine of _antiperistasis_, +strong untameable passions are more likely to arise even in consequence +of the counteraction. Deep passions undoubtedly lie in the blood and +constitution of Englishmen; and Quakers,[162] after all, do not, by +being such, cease, therefore, to be Englishmen. + + [162] In using the term _Quakers_, I hoped it would have been + understood, even without any explanation from myself, that I did + not mean to use it scornfully or insultingly to that respectable + body. But it was the great oversight of their founders not to have + saved them from a nickname by assuming some formal designation + expressive of some capital characteristic. At present one is in + this dilemma: either one must use a tedious periphrasis (_e.g._ + _the young women of the Society of Friends_), or the ambiguous one + of _young female Friends_. + of _young female Friends_. + +It is, I have said, sufficiently well known that the Quakers make it a +point of their moral economy to lay the severest restraints upon all +ebullitions of feeling. Whatever may be the nature of the feeling, +whatever its strength, utter itself by word or by gesture it must not; +smoulder it may, but it must not break into a flame. This is known; but +it is not equally known that this unnatural restraint, falling into +collision with two forces at once, the force of passion and of youth, +not uncommonly records its own injurious tendencies, and publishes the +rebellious movements of nature, by distinct and anomalous diseases. +And further, I have been assured, upon most excellent authority, +that these diseases, strange and elaborate affections of the nervous +system, are found _exclusively_ amongst the young men and women of the +Quaker society; that they are known and understood exclusively amongst +physicians who have practised in great towns having a large Quaker +population, such as Birmingham; that they assume a new type, and a more +inveterate character, in the second or third generation, to whom this +fatal inheritance is often transmitted; and finally, that, if this +class of nervous derangements does not increase so much as to attract +public attention, it is simply because the community itself--the Quaker +body--does not increase, but, on the contrary, is rather on the wane. + +From a progenitrix, then, no matter in what generation, C. Lloyd +inherited that awful malady which withered his own happiness, root +and branch, gathering strength from year to year. His father was a +banker, and, I presume, wealthy, from the ample allowance which he +always made to his son Charles. Charles, it is true, had the rights +of primogeniture--which, however, in a commercial family, are not +considerable--but, at the same time, though eldest, he was eldest of +seventeen or eighteen brothers and sisters, and of these I believe +that some round dozen or so were living at the time when I first came +to know him. He had been educated in the bosom of Quaker society; his +own parents, with most of their friends, were Quakers; and, even of +his own generation, all the young women continued Quakers. Naturally, +therefore, as a boy, he also was obliged to conform to the Quaker +ritual. But this ritual presses with great inequality upon the two +sexes; in so far, at least, as regards dress. The distinctions of +dress which announce the female Quaker are all in her favour. In a +nation eminent for personal purity, and where it should seem beforehand +impossible for any woman to create a pre-eminence for herself in that +respect, so it is, however, that the female Quaker, by her dress, +seems even purer than other women, and consecrated to a service of +purity; earthly soil or taint, even the sullying breath of mortality, +seems as if kept aloof from her person--forcibly held in repulsion by +some protecting sanctity. This transcendent purity, and a nun-like +gentleness, self-respect, and sequestration from the world--these are +all that _her_ peculiarity of dress expresses; and surely this "all" is +quite enough to win every man's favourable feelings towards her, and +something even like homage. But, with the male Quaker, how different +is the case! _His_ dress--originally not remarkable by its shape, but +solely by its colour and want of ornament, so peculiar has it become +in a lapse of nearly two centuries--seems expressly devised to point +him out to ridicule. In some towns, it is true, such as Birmingham and +Kendal, the public eye is so familiar with this costume, that in _them_ +it excites no feeling whatever more than the professional costume of +butchers, bakers, grooms, &c. But in towns not commercial--towns of +luxury and parade--a Quaker is exposed to most mortifying trials of his +self-esteem. It has happened that I have followed a young man of this +order for a quarter of a mile, in Bath, or in one of the fashionable +streets of London, on a summer evening, when numerous servants were +lounging on the steps of the front door, or at the area gates; and I +have seen him run the gauntlet of grim smiles from the men, and _heard_ +him run the gauntlet of that sound--the worst which heaven has in its +artillery of scorn against the peace of poor man--the half-suppressed +titter of the women. Laughing outright is bad, but still _that_ may be +construed into a determinate insult that studiously avows more contempt +than is really felt; but tittering is hell itself; for it seems mere +nature, and absolute truth, that extort this expression of contempt in +spite of every effort to suppress it. + +Some such expression it was that drove Charles Lloyd into an early +apostasy from his sect: early it must have been, for he went at the +usual age of eighteen to Cambridge, and there, as a Quaker, he could +not have been received. He, indeed, of all men, was the least fitted +to contend with the world's scorn, for he had no great fortitude of +mind; his vocation was not to martyrdom, and he was cursed with the +most exquisite sensibility. This sensibility, indeed, it was, and not +so properly any determinate passion, which had been the scourge of his +ancestors. There was something that appeared effeminate about it; and +which, accordingly, used to provoke the ridicule of Wordsworth, whose +character, in all its features, wore a masculine and Roman harshness. +But, in fact, when you came to know Charles Lloyd, there was, even +in this slight tinge of effeminacy, something which conciliated your +pity by the feeling that it impressed you with, of being part of his +disease. His sensibility was eminently _Rousseauish_--that is, it was +physico-moral; now pointing to appetites that would have mastered him +had he been less intellectual and governed by a less exalted standard +of moral perceptions; now pointing to fine aerial speculations, +subtle as a gossamer, and apparently calculated to lead him off into +abstractions even too remote from flesh and blood. + +During the Cambridge vacation, or, it might be, even before he went +to Cambridge--and my reason for thinking so is because both, I +believe, belonged to the same town, if it could not be said of them +as of Pyramus and Thisbe, that "_contiguas habuere domos_"--he fell +desperately in love with Miss Sophia P----n. Who she was I never +heard--that is, what were her connexions; but I presume that she must +have been of an opulent family, because Mrs. P----n, the mother of +Mrs. Lloyd, occasionally paid a visit to her daughter at the lakes, +and then she brought with her a handsomely-appointed equipage, as to +horses and servants. This I have reason to remember from the fact of +herself and her daughter frequently coming over on summer evenings +to drink tea with me, and the affront (as I then thought it) which +Wordsworth fastened upon me in connexion with one of those visits. One +evening,[163] * * * * * A pang of wrath gathered at my heart. Yet why? +One moment, I felt, indeed, that it was not gentlemanly to interfere +with the privileges of any man standing in the situation which I then +occupied, of host; but still I should not have regarded it, except from +its connexion with a case I recollected in a previous year. One fine +summer day, we were walking together--Wordsworth, myself, and Southey. +Southey had been making earnest inquiries about poor Lloyd, just then +in the crisis of some severe illness, and Wordsworth's answer had been +partly lost to me. I put a question upon it, when, to my surprise (my +wrath internally, but also to my special amusement), he replied that, +in fact, what he had said was a matter of some delicacy, and not quite +proper to be communicated except to _near friends of the family_. This +to me!--O ye gods!--to me, who knew by many a hundred conversations +how disagreeable Wordsworth was both to Charles Lloyd and to his +wife; whilst, on the other hand--not by words only, but by deeds, and +by the most delicate acts of confidential favour--I knew that Mr. +Wilson (Professor Wilson) and myself had been selected as friends in +cases which were not so much as named to Wordsworth. The arrogance of +Wordsworth was well illustrated in this case of the Lloyds. + + [163] This break of asterisks occurs in the original magazine + article.--M. + +But to resume Lloyd's history. Being so desperately in love with Miss +P----n, and his parents being rich, why should he not have married +her? _Why_, I know not. But some great obstacles arose; and, I presume, +on the side of Miss P----n's friends; for, actually, it became +necessary to steal her away; and the person in whom Lloyd confided +for this delicate service was no other than Southey. A better choice +he could not have made. Had the lady been Helen of Greece, Southey +would not have had a thought but for the honour and interests of his +confiding friend. + +Having thus, by proxy, run away with his young wife, and married her, +Lloyd brought her to Cambridge. It is a novel thing in Cambridge, +though not altogether unprecedented, for a student to live there with +a wife. This novelty Lloyd exhibited to the University for some time; +but then, finding the situation not perfectly agreeable to the delicate +sensibilities of his young wife, Lloyd removed, first, I think, to +Penrith; and, after some changes, he settled down at Brathay, from +which, so long as he stayed on English ground--that is, for about +fifteen or sixteen years--he never moved. When I first crossed his +path at the Lakes, he was in the zenith of the brief happiness that +was granted to him on earth. He stood in the very centre of earthly +pleasures; and, that his advantages may be easily estimated, I will +describe both himself and his situation. + +First, then, as to his person: he was tall and somewhat clumsy--not +intellectual so much as benign and conciliatory in his expression +of face. His features were not striking, but they expressed great +goodness of heart; and latterly wore a deprecatory expression that +was peculiarly touching to those who knew its cause. His manners were +free from all modes of vulgarity; and where he acquired his knowledge +I know not (for I never heard him claim any connexion with people of +rank), but a knowledge he certainly had of all the conventional usages +amongst the higher circles, and of those purely arbitrary customs +which mere good sense and native elegance of manner are not, of +themselves, sufficient to teach. Some of these he might have learned +from the family of the Bishop of Llandaff; for with the ladies of that +family he was intimate, especially with the eldest daughter, who was +an accomplished student in that very department of literature which +Lloyd himself most cultivated, viz. all that class of works which +deal in the analysis of human passions, or attempt to exhibit the +development of human character, in relation to sexual attachments, +when placed in trying circumstances. Lloyd corresponded with Miss +Watson in French; the letters, on both sides, being full of spirit and +originality; the subjects generally drawn from Rousseau's "Heloise" +or his "Confessions," from "Corinne," from "Delphine," or some other +work of Madame de Stael. For such disquisitions Lloyd had a real and a +powerful genius. It was really a delightful luxury to hear him giving +free scope to his powers for investigating subtle combinations of +character; for distinguishing all the shades and affinities of some +presiding qualities, disentangling their intricacies, and balancing, +antithetically, one combination of qualities against another. Take, for +instance, any well-known character from the drama, and pique Lloyd's +delicate perception of differences by affecting to think it identical +with some other character of the same class--instantly, in his anxiety +to mark out the features of dissimilitude, he would hurry into an +impromptu analysis of each character separately, with an eloquence, +with a keenness of distinction, and a felicity of phrase, which +were perfectly admirable. This display of familiarity with life and +human nature, in all its masqueradings, was sometimes truly splendid. +But two things were remarkable in these displays. One was, that the +splendour was quite hidden from himself, and unperceived amidst the +effort of mind, and oftentimes severe struggles, in attempting to do +himself justice, both as respected the thoughts and the difficult +task of clothing them in adequate words; he was as free from vanity, +or even from complacency in reviewing what he had effected, as it is +possible for a human creature to be. He thought, indeed, slightly of +his own power; and, which was even a stronger barrier against vanity, +his displays of this kind were always effective in proportion to his +unhappiness; for unhappiness it was, and the restlessness of internal +irritation, that chiefly drove him to exertions of his intellect; +else, and when free from this sort of excitement, he tended to the +quiescent state of a listener; for he thought everybody better than +himself. The other point remarkable in these displays was (and most +unfavourable, of course, it proved to his obtaining the reputation +they merited), that he could succeed in them only before confidential +friends, those on whom he could rely for harbouring no shade of +ridicule towards himself or his theme. Let but one person enter the +room of whose sympathy he did not feel secure, and his powers forsook +him as suddenly as the buoyancy of a bird that has received a mortal +shot in its wing. Accordingly, it is a fact that neither Wordsworth +nor Coleridge ever suspected the amount of power which was latent in +Lloyd; for he firmly believed that both of them despised him. Mrs. +Lloyd thought the same thing. Often and often she has said to me, +smiling in a mournful way--"I know too well that both Wordsworth and +Coleridge entertain a profound contempt for my poor Charles." And, +when I combated this notion, declaring that, although they might (and +probably did) hold very cheap such writers as Rousseau and Madame de +Stael, and, consequently, could not approve of studies directed so +exclusively to their works, or to works of the same class, still that +was not sufficient to warrant them in undervaluing the powers which +Mr. Lloyd applied to such studies. To this, or similar arguments, she +would reply by simply shaking her head, and then sink into silence. + +But the time was fast approaching when all pains of this kind, from +supercilious or well-founded disparagement, were to be swallowed up +in more awful considerations and fears. The transition was not a +long one from the state of prosperity in which I found Lloyd about +1807-10 to the utter overthrow of his happiness, and, for his friends, +the overthrow of all hopes on his behalf. In the three years I have +assigned, his situation seemed luxuriously happy, as regarded the +external elements of happiness. He had, without effort of his own, an +income, most punctually remitted from his father, of from £1500 to +£1800 per annum. This income was entirely resigned to the management +of his prudent and excellent wife; and, as his own personal expenses, +separate from those of his family, were absolutely none at all, except +for books, she applied the whole either to the education of her +children, or to the accumulation of all such elegances of life about +their easy unpretending mansion as might soothe her husband's nervous +irritations, or might cheer his drooping spirits with as much variety +of pleasure as a mountainous seclusion allowed. The establishment of +servants was usually limited to six--one only being a man-servant--but +these were well chosen: and one or two were confidential servants, +tried by long experience. Rents are always low in the country for +unfurnished houses; and, even for the country, Low Brathay was a +cheap house; but it contained everything for comfort, nothing at all +for splendour. Consequently, a very large part of their income was +disposable for purposes of hospitality; and, when I first knew them, +Low Brathay was distinguished above every other house at the head of +Windermere, or within ten miles of that neighbourhood, by the judicious +assortment of its dinner parties, and the gaiety of its _soirées +dansantes_. These parties were never crowded; poor Lloyd rarely danced +himself; but it gladdened his benevolent heart to see the young and +blooming floating through the mazes of the dances then fashionable, +whilst he sat by, looking on, at times, with pleasure from his sympathy +with the pleasure of others; at times pursuing some animated discussion +with a literary friend; at times lapsing into profound reverie. +At some of these dances it was that I first saw Wilson of Elleray +(Professor Wilson), in circumstances of animation, and buoyant with +youthful spirits, under the excitement of lights, wine, and, above +all, of female company. He, by the way, was the best male dancer (not +professional) I have ever seen; and this advantage he owed entirely +to the extraordinary strength of his foot in all its parts, to its +peculiarly happy conformation, and to the accuracy of his ear; for, as +to instruction, I have often understood from his family that he never +had any. Here also danced the future wife of Professor Wilson, Miss +Jane P----,[164] at that time the leading belle of the Lake country. +But, perhaps, the most interesting person in those parties, from the +peculiarity of her situation, was Mrs. Lloyd herself, still young, +and, indeed, not apparently exceeding in years most of her unmarried +visitors; still dancing and moving through cotillons, or country +dances, as elegantly and as lightly as the youngest of the company; +still framing her countenance to that expression of cheerfulness which +hospitality required; but stealing for ever troubled glances to the +sofa, or the recess, where her husband had reclined himself, dark +foreboding looks, that saw but too truly the coming darkness which was +soon to swallow up every vestige of this festal pleasure. She looked +upon herself and her children too clearly as a doomed household; and +such, in some sense, they were. And, doubtless, to poor Lloyd himself, +it must a thousandfold have aggravated his sufferings--that he could +trace, with a steady eye, the continual growth of that hideous malady +which was stealing over the else untroubled azure of his life, and with +inaudible foot was hastening onwards for ever to that night in which no +man can work, and in which no man can hope. + + [164] Miss Jane Penny.--M. + +It was so painful to Charles Lloyd, naturally, to talk much about +his bodily sufferings, and it would evidently have been so unfeeling +in one who had no medical counsels to offer, if, for the mere +gratification of his curiosity, he had asked for any circumstantial +account of its nature or symptoms, that I am at this moment almost +as much at a loss to understand what was the mode of suffering which +it produced, how it operated, and through what organs, as any of my +readers can be. All that I know is this:--For several years--six or +seven, suppose--the disease expressed itself by intense anguish of +irritation; not an irritation that gnawed at any one local spot, but +diffused itself; sometimes causing a determination of blood to the +head, then shaping itself in a general sense of plethoric congestion +in the blood-vessels, then again remoulding itself into a restlessness +that became insupportable; preying upon the spirits and the fortitude, +and finding no permanent relief or periodic interval of rest, night or +day. Sometimes Lloyd used robust exercise, riding on horseback as fast +as he could urge the horse forward; sometimes, for many weeks together, +he walked for twenty miles, or even more, at a time; sometimes (this +was in the earlier stages of the case) he took large doses of ether; +sometimes he used opium, and, I believe, in very large quantities; +and I understood him to say that, for a time, it subdued the excess +of irritability, and the agonizing accumulation of spasmodic strength +which he felt for ever growing upon him, and, as it were, upon the +very surface of his whole body. But all remedies availed him nothing; +and once he said to me, when we were out upon the hills--"Ay, that +landscape below, with its quiet cottage, looks lovely, I dare say, to +you: as for me, I see it, but I feel it not at all; for, if I begin +to think of the happiness, and its various modes which, no doubt, +belong to the various occupants, according to their ages and hopes, +then I _could_ begin to feel it; but it would be a painful effort +to me; and the worst of all would be when I _had_ felt it; for that +would so sharpen the prospect before me, that just such happiness, +which naturally ought to be mine, is soon on the point of slipping +away from me for ever." Afterwards he told me that his situation +internally was always this: it seemed to him as if on some distant road +he heard a dull trampling sound, and that he knew it, by a misgiving, +to be the sound of some man, or party of men, continually advancing +slowly, continually threatening, or continually accusing him; that all +the various artifices which he practised for cheating himself into +comfort, or beguiling his sad forebodings, were, in fact, but like so +many furious attempts, by drum and trumpets, or even by artillery, +to drown the distant noise of his enemies; that, every now and then, +mere curiosity, or rather breathless anxiety, caused him to hush the +artificial din, and to put himself into the attitude of listening +again; when, again and again, and so he was sure it would still be, he +caught the sullen and accursed sound, trampling and voices of men, or +whatever it were, still steadily advancing, though still perhaps at a +great distance. It was too evident that derangement of the intellect, +in some shape, was coming on; because slight and transient fits of +aberration from his perfect mind had already, at intervals, overtaken +him; flying showers, from the skirts of the clouds, that precede and +announce the main storm. This was the anguish of his situation, that, +for years, he saw before him what was on the road to overwhelm his +faculties and his happiness. Still his fortitude did not wholly forsake +him, and, in fact, proved to be far greater than I or others had given +him credit for possessing. Once only he burst suddenly into tears, on +hearing the innocent voices of his own children laughing, and of one +especially who was a favourite; and he told me that sometimes, when +this little child took his hand and led him passively about the garden, +he had a feeling that prompted him (however weak and foolish it seemed) +to call upon this child for protection; and that it seemed to him as +if he might still escape, could he but surround himself only with +children. No doubt this feeling arose out of his sense that a confusion +was stealing over his thoughts, and that men would soon find this out +to be madness, and would deal with him accordingly; whereas children, +as long as he did them no harm, would see no reason for shutting him up +from his own fireside, and from the human face divine. + +It would be too painful to pursue the unhappy case through all its +stages. For a long time, the derangement of poor Lloyd's mind was +but partial and fluctuating; and it was the opinion of Professor +Wilson, from what he had observed, that it was possible to recall +him to himself by firmly opposing his delusions. He certainly, on +his own part, did whatever he could to wean his thoughts from gloomy +contemplation, by pre-occupying them with cheerful studies, and such +as might call out his faculties. He translated the whole of Alfieri's +dramas, and published his translation. He wrote and printed (but did +not publish) a novel in two volumes; my copy of which he soon after +begged back again so beseechingly that I yielded; and so, I believe, +did all his other friends: in which case no copy may now exist. All, +however, availed him not; the crisis so long dreaded arrived. He was +taken away to a lunatic asylum; and, for some long time, he was lost +to me as to the rest of the world. The first memorial I had of him was +a gentleman, with his hair in disorder, rushing into my cottage at +Grasmere, throwing his arms about my neck, and bursting into stormy +weeping--it was poor Lloyd! + +Yes, it was indeed poor Lloyd, a fugitive from a madhouse, and throwing +himself for security upon the honour and affection of one whom, with +good reason, he supposed confidentially attached to him. Could there be +a situation so full of interest or perplexity? Should any ill happen +to himself, or to another, through his present enlargement--should he +take any fit of vindictive malice against any person whom he might +view as an accomplice in the plans against his own freedom--and +probably many persons in the neighbourhood, medical and non-medical, +stood liable to such a suspicion--upon me, I felt, as the abettor of +his evasion, would all the blame settle. And unfortunately we had, in +the recent records of this very vale, a most awful lesson, and still +fresh in everybody's remembrance, of the danger connected with this +sort of criminal connivance, or passive participation in the purposes +of maniacal malignity. A man, named Watson, had often and for years +threatened to kill his aged and inoffensive mother. His threats, partly +from their own monstrosity, and from the habit of hearing him for years +repeating them without any serious attempt to give them effect--partly +also from an unwillingness to aggravate the suffering of the poor +lunatic, by translating him out of a mountaineer's liberty into the +gloomy confinement of an hospital--were treated with neglect; and at +length, after years of disregarded menace, and direct forewarning +to the parish authorities, he took an opportunity (which indeed was +rarely wanting to him) of killing the poor gray-headed woman by her own +fireside. This case I had before my mind; and it was the more entitled +to have weight with me when connected with the altered temper of Lloyd, +who now, for the first time in his life, had dropped his gentle and +remarkably quiet demeanour, for a tone, savage and ferocious, towards +more than one individual. This tone, however, lurked under a mask, +and did not come forward, except by fits and starts, for the present. +Indeed his whole manner wore the appearance of studied dissimulation, +from the moment when he perceived that I was not alone. In the interval +of years since I had last seen him (which might have been in 1816) my +own marriage had taken place; accordingly, on turning round and seeing +a young woman seated at the tea-table, where heretofore he had been so +sure of finding me alone, he seemed shocked at the depth of emotion +which he had betrayed before a stranger, and anxious to reinstate +himself in his own self-respect, by assuming a tone of carelessness +and indifference. No person in the world could feel more profoundly on +his account than the young stranger before him, who in fact was not a +stranger to his situation and the excess of his misery. But this he +could not know; and it was not, therefore, until we found ourselves +alone, that he could be prevailed upon to speak of himself, or of the +awful circumstances surrounding him, unless in terms of most unsuitable +levity. + +One thing I resolved, at any rate, to make the rule of my conduct +towards this unhappy friend, viz. to deal frankly with him, and in no +case to make myself a party to any plot upon his personal freedom. +Retaken I knew he would be, but not through me; even a murderer in such +a case (_i.e._ the case of having thrown himself upon my good faith) I +would not betray. I drew from him an account of the immediate facts in +his late escape, and his own acknowledgment that even now the pursuit +must be close at hand; probably, that his recaptors were within a few +hours' distance of Grasmere; that he would be easily traced. That my +cottage furnished no means of concealment, he knew too well; still in +these respects he was not worse off in Grasmere than elsewhere; and, at +any rate, it might save him from immediate renewal of his agitation, +and might procure for him one night of luxurious rest and relaxation, +by means of conversation with a friend, if he would make up his mind +to stay with us until his pursuers should appear; and them I could +easily contrive to delay, for at least one day and night, by throwing +false information in their way, such as would send them on to Keswick +at least, if not to Whitehaven, through the collusion of the very few +persons who could have seen him enter my door. My plan was simple and +feasible: but, somehow or other, and, I believe, chiefly because he did +not find me alone, nothing I could say had any weight with him; nor +would he be persuaded to stay longer than for a little tea. Staying so +short a time, he found it difficult to account for having ever come. +But it was too evidently useless to argue the point with him; for he +was altered, and had become obstinate and intractable. I prepared, +therefore, to gratify him according to his own plan, by bearing him +company on the road to Ambleside, and (as he said) to Brathay. We set +off on foot: the distance to Ambleside is about three and a half miles; +and one-third of this distance brought us to an open plain on the +margin of Rydalmere, where the road lies entirely open to the water. +This lake is unusually shallow, by comparison with all its neighbours; +but, at the point I speak of, it takes (especially when seen under any +mode of imperfect light) the appearance of being gloomily deep: two +islands of exquisite beauty, but strongly discriminated in character, +and a sort of recess or bay in the opposite shore, across which the +shadows of the hilly margin stretch with great breadth and solemnity +of effect to the very centre of the lake,--together with the very +solitary character of the entire valley, on which (excluding the little +hamlet in its very gorge or entrance) there is not more than one +single house,--combine to make the scene as impressive by night as any +in the Lake country. At this point it was that my poor friend paused +to converse, and, as it seemed, to take his leave, with an air of +peculiar sadness, as if he had foreseen (what in fact proved to be the +truth) that we now saw each other for the final time. The spot seemed +favourable to confidential talk; and here, therefore, he proceeded +to make his heart-rending communication: here he told me rapidly the +tale of his sufferings, and, what oppressed his mind far more than +those at this present moment, of the cruel indignities to which he +had been under the necessity of submitting. In particular, he said, +that a man of great muscular power had instructions to knock him down +whenever he made any allusion to certain speculative subjects which +the presiding authorities of the asylum chose to think connected with +his unhappy disease. Many other brutalities, damnable and dishonouring +to human nature, were practised in this asylum, not always by abuse of +the powers lodged in the servants, but by direct authority from the +governors; and yet it had been selected as the one most favourable to +a liberal treatment of the patients; and, in reality, it continued to +hold a very high reputation. + +Great and monstrous are the abuses which have been detected in such +institutions, and exposed by parliamentary interference, as well as by +the energy of individual philanthropists; but it occurs to one most +forcibly, that, after all, the light of this parliamentary torch must +have been but feeble and partial, when it was possible for cases such +as these to escape all general notice, and for the establishment which +fostered them to retain a character as high as any in the land for +enlightened humanity. Perhaps the paramount care in the treatment of +lunatics should be directed towards those appliances, and that mode +of discipline, which is best fitted for restoring the patient finally +to a sane condition; but the _second_ place in the machinery of his +proper management should be reserved for that system of attentions, +medical or non-medical, which has the best chance of making him happy +for the present; and especially because his present happiness must +always be one of the directest avenues to his restoration. In the +present case, could it be imagined that the shame, agitation, and +fury, which convulsed poor Lloyd, as he went over the circumstances +of his degradation, were calculated for any other than the worst +effects upon the state and prospects of his malady? By sustaining the +tumult of his brain, they must, almost of themselves, have precluded +his restoration. At the side of that quiet lake he stood for nearly +an hour repeating his wrongs, his eyes glaring continually, as the +light thrown off from those parts of the lake which reflected bright +tracts of sky amongst the clouds fitfully illuminated them, and again +and again threatening, with gestures the wildest, vengeance the most +savage upon those vile keepers who had so abused any just purposes of +authority. He would talk of little else; apparently he could not. A +hollow effort he would make now and then, when his story had apparently +reached its close, to sustain the topics of ordinary conversation; but +in a minute he had relapsed into the one subject which possessed him. +In vain I pressed him to return with me to Grasmere. He was now, for a +few hours to come, to be befriended by the darkness; and he resolved +to improve the opportunity for some purpose of his own, which, as he +showed no disposition to communicate any part of his future plans, I +did not directly inquire into. In fact, part of his purpose in stopping +where he did had been to let me know that he did not wish for company +any further. We parted; and I saw him no more. He was soon recaptured; +then transferred to some more eligible asylum; then liberated from all +restraint; after which, with his family, he went to France; where again +it became necessary to deprive him of liberty. And, finally, in France +it was that his feverish existence found at length a natural rest and +an everlasting liberty; for there it was, in a _maison de santé_, at +or near Versailles, that he died (and I believe tranquilly), a few +years after he had left England. Death was indeed to him, in the words +of that fine mystic, Blake the artist, a "golden gate"--the gate of +liberation from the captivity of half a life; or, as I once found the +case beautifully expressed in a volume of poems a century old, and +otherwise poor enough, for they offered nothing worth recollecting +beyond this single line, in speaking of the particular morning in which +some young man had died-- + + "That morning brought him peace and liberty." + +Charles Lloyd never returned to Brathay after he had once been removed +from it; and the removal of his family soon followed. Mrs. Lloyd, +indeed, returned at intervals from France to England, upon business +connected with the interests of her family; and, during one of those +fugitive visits, she came to the Lakes, where she selected Grasmere +for her residence, so that I had opportunities of seeing her every +day, for a space of several weeks. Otherwise, I never again saw any of +the family, except one son, an interesting young man, who sought most +meritoriously, by bursting asunder the heavy yoke of constitutional +inactivity, to extract a balm for his own besetting melancholy from a +constant series of exertions in which he had forced himself to engage +for promoting education or religious knowledge amongst his poorer +neighbours. But often and often, in years after all was gone, I have +passed old Brathay, or have gone over purposely after dark, about the +time when, for many a year, I used to go over to spend the evening; +and, seating myself on a stone, by the side of the mountain river +Brathay, have staid for hours listening to the same sound to which +so often Charles Lloyd and I used to hearken together with profound +emotion and awe--the sound of pealing anthems, as if streaming from +the open portals of some illimitable cathedral; for such a sound does +actually arise, in many states of the weather, from the peculiar action +of the river Brathay upon its rocky bed; and many times I have heard +it, of a quiet night, when no stranger could have been persuaded to +believe it other than the sound of choral chanting--distant, solemn, +saintly. Its meaning and expression were, in those earlier years, +uncertain and general; not more pointed or determined in the direction +which it impressed upon one's feelings than the light of setting suns: +and sweeping, in fact, the whole harp of pensive sensibilities, rather +than striking the chord of any one specific sentiment. But since the +ruin or dispersion of that household, after the smoke had ceased to +ascend from their hearth, or the garden walks to re-echo their voices, +oftentimes, when lying by the river side, I have listened to the same +aerial saintly sound, whilst looking back to that night, long hidden in +the frost of receding years, when Charles and Sophia Lloyd, now lying +in foreign graves, first dawned upon me, coming suddenly out of rain +and darkness; then--young, rich, happy, full of hope, belted with young +children (of whom also most are long dead), and standing apparently +on the verge of a labyrinth of golden hours. Musing on that night in +November, 1807, and then upon the wreck that had been wrought by a +space of fifteen years, I would say to myself sometimes, and seem to +hear it in the songs of this watery cathedral--Put not your trust in +any fabric of happiness that has its root in man or the children of +men. Sometimes even I was tempted to discover in the same music a sound +such as this--Love nothing, love nobody, for thereby comes a killing +curse in the rear. But sometimes also, very early on a summer morning, +when the dawn was barely beginning to break, all things locked in +sleep, and only some uneasy murmur or cock-crow, at a faint distance, +giving a hint of resurrection for earth and her generations, I have +heard in that same chanting of the little mountain river a more solemn +if a less agitated admonition--a requiem over departed happiness, and +a protestation against the thought that so many excellent creatures, +but a little lower than the angels, whom I have seen only to love in +this life--so many of the good, the brave, the beautiful, the wise--can +have appeared for no higher purpose or prospect than simply to point +a moral, to cause a little joy and many tears, a few perishing moons +of happiness and years of vain regret! No! that the destiny of man is +more in correspondence with the grandeur of his endowments, and that +our own mysterious tendencies are written hieroglyphically in the +vicissitudes of day and night, of winter and summer, and throughout the +great alphabet of Nature! But on that theme--beware, reader! Listen to +no _intellectual_ argument. One argument there is, one only there is, +of philosophic value: an argument drawn from the _moral_ nature of man: +an argument of Immanuel Kant's. The rest are dust and ashes. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + SOCIETY OF THE LAKES: MISS ELIZABETH SMITH, THE SYMPSONS, AND THE + K---- FAMILY[165] + + [165] From _Tait's Magazine_ for June 1840. + + +Passing onwards from Brathay, a ride of about forty minutes carries you +to the summit of a wild heathy tract, along which, even at noonday, +few sounds are heard that indicate the presence of man, except now +and then a woodman's axe in some of the many coppice-woods scattered +about that neighbourhood. In Northern England there are no sheep-bells; +which is an unfortunate defect, as regards the full impression of wild +solitudes, whether amongst undulating heaths or towering rocks: at +any rate, it is so felt by those who, like myself, have been trained +to its soothing effects upon the hills of Somersetshire--the Cheddar, +the Mendip, or the Quantock--or any other of those breezy downs which +once constituted such delightful local distinctions for four or five +counties in that south-west angle of England. At all hours of day +or night, this silvery tinkle was delightful; but, after sunset, +in the solemn hour of gathering twilight, heard (as it always was) +intermittingly, and at great varieties of distance, it formed the most +impressive incident for the ear, and the most in harmony with the other +circumstances of the scenery, that, perhaps, anywhere exists--not +excepting even the natural sounds, the swelling and dying intonations +of insects wheeling in their vesper flights. Silence and desolation are +never felt so profoundly as when they are interrupted by solemn sounds, +recurring by uncertain intervals, and from distant places. But in +these Westmoreland heaths, and uninhabited ranges of hilly ground, too +often nothing is heard except occasionally the wild cry of a bird--the +plover, the snipe, or perhaps the raven's croak. The general impression +is, therefore, cheerless; and the more are you rejoiced when, looking +down from some one of the eminences which you have been gradually +ascending, you descry, at a great depth below,[166] the lovely lake +of Coniston. The head of this lake is the part chiefly interesting, +both from the sublime character of the mountain barriers, and from the +intricacy of the little valleys at their base. + + [166] The approach from Ambleside or Hawkshead, though fine, is + far less so than from Grasmere, through the vale of Tilberthwaite, + to which, for a _coup de théâtre_, I recollect nothing equal. + Taking the left-hand road, so as to make for Monk Coniston, and + not for Church Coniston, you ascend a pretty steep hill, from + which, at a certain point of the little gorge or _hawse_ (_i.e._ + _hals_, neck or throat, viz. the dip in any hill through which the + road is led), the whole lake of six miles in length, and the + beautiful foregrounds, all rush upon the eye with the effect of a + pantomimic surprise--not by a graduated revelation, but by an + instantaneous flash. + +On a little verdant knoll, near the north-eastern margin of the lake, +stands a small villa, called Tent Lodge, built by Colonel Smith, +and for many years occupied by his family. That daughter of Colonel +Smith who drew the public attention so powerfully upon herself by +the splendour of her attainments had died some months before I came +into the country.[167] But yet, as I was subsequently acquainted with +her family through the Lloyds (who were within an easy drive of Tent +Lodge), and as, moreover, with regard to Miss Elizabeth Smith herself, +I came to know more than the world knew--drawing my knowledge from many +of her friends, but especially from Mrs. Hannah More, who had been +intimately connected with her: for these reasons, I shall rehearse the +leading points of her story; and the rather because her family, who +were equally interested in that story, long continued to form part of +the Lake society. + + [167] Miss Elizabeth Smith (1776-1806), authoress of a translation + of a Life of Klopstock from the German, and also of a translation + of the Book of Job from the Hebrew, and a Hebrew, Arabic, and + Persic vocabulary, all published after her death. Two volumes of + her _Fragments in Prose and Verse_ were published at Bath in 1809, + with a memoir of her by H. M. Bowdler.--M. + +On my first becoming acquainted with Miss Smith's pretensions, it is +very true that I regarded them with but little concern; for nothing +ever interests me less than great philological attainments, or at +least that mode of philological learning which consists in mastery +over languages. But one reason for this indifference is, that the +apparent splendour is too often a false one. They who know a vast +number of languages rarely know any one with accuracy; and, the more +they gain in one way, the more they lose in another. With Miss Smith, +however, I gradually came to know that this was not the case; or, +at any rate, but partially the case; for, of some languages which +she possessed, and those the least accessible, it appeared, finally, +that she had even a critical knowledge. It created also a secondary +interest in these difficult accomplishments of hers, to find that +they were so very extensive. Secondly, That they were pretty nearly +all of self-acquisition. Thirdly, That they were borne so meekly, and +with unaffected absence of all ostentation. As to the first point, +it appears (from Mrs. H. Bowdler's Letter to Dr. Mummsen, the friend +of Klopstock)[168] that she made herself mistress of the French, the +Italian, the Spanish, the Latin, the German, the Greek, and the Hebrew +languages. She had no inconsiderable knowledge of the Syriac, the +Arabic, and the Persic. She was a good geometrician and algebraist. She +was a very expert musician. She drew from nature, and had an accurate +knowledge of perspective. Finally, she manifested an early talent for +poetry; but, from pure modesty, destroyed most of what she had written, +as soon as her acquaintance with the Hebrew models had elevated the +standard of true poetry in her mind, so as to disgust her with what she +now viewed as the tameness and inefficiency of her own performances. +As to the second point--that for these attainments she was indebted, +almost exclusively, to her own energy,--this is placed beyond all doubt +by the fact that the only governess she ever had (a young lady not +much beyond her own age) did not herself possess, and therefore could +not have communicated, any knowledge of languages, beyond a little +French and Italian. Finally, as to the modesty with which she wore her +distinctions, _that_ is sufficiently established by every page of +her printed works, and her letters. Greater diffidence, as respected +herself, or less willingness to obtrude her knowledge upon strangers, +or even upon those correspondents who would have wished her to make +a little more display, cannot be imagined. And yet I repeat that her +knowledge was as sound and as profound as it was extensive. For, taking +only one instance of this, her Translation of Job has been pronounced, +by Biblical critics of the first rank, a work of real and intrinsic +value, without any reference to the disadvantages of the translator, +or without needing any allowances whatever. In particular, Dr. Magee, +the celebrated writer on the Atonement, and subsequently a dignitary of +the Irish Church--certainly one of the best qualified judges at that +time--describes it as "conveying more of the character and meaning +of the Hebrew, with fewer departures from the idiom of the English, +than any other translation whatever that we possess." So much for the +scholarship; whilst he rightly notices, in proof of the translator's +taste and discretion, that "from the received version she very seldom +unnecessarily deviates": thus refusing to disturb what was, generally +speaking, so excellent and time-hallowed for any dazzling effects +of novelty; and practising this forbearance as much as possible, +notwithstanding novelty was, after all, the main attraction upon which +the new translation must rest. + + [168] See previous footnote (166), p. 404.--M. + +The example of her modesty, however, is not more instructive than that +of her continued struggle with difficulties in pursuing knowledge, +and with misfortunes in supporting a Christian fortitude. I shall +briefly sketch her story:--She was born at Burnhall, in the county of +Durham, at the latter end of the year 1776. Early in 1782, when she +had just entered her sixth year, her parents removed into Suffolk, +in order to be near a blind relation, who looked with anxiety to the +conscientious attentions of Mrs. Smith in superintending his comforts +and interests. This occupation absorbed so much of her time that she +found it necessary to obtain the aid of a stranger in directing the +studies of her daughter. An opportunity just then offered of attaining +this object, concurrently with another not less interesting to herself, +viz. that of offering an asylum to a young lady who had recently been +thrown adrift upon the world by the misfortunes of her parents. They +had very suddenly fallen from a station of distinguished prosperity; +and the young lady herself, then barely sixteen, was treading that +path of severe adversity upon which, by a most singular parallelism +of ill fortune, her young pupil was destined to follow her steps at +exactly the same age. Being so prematurely called to the office of +governess, this young lady was expected rather to act as an elder +companion, and as a lightener of the fatigues attached to their common +studies, than exactly as their directress. And, at all events, from +her, who was the only even nominal governess that Miss Smith ever had, +it is certain that she could have learned little or nothing. This +arrangement subsisted between two and three years, when the death of +their blind kinsman allowed Mr. Smith's family to leave Suffolk, and +resume their old domicile of Burnhall. But from this, by a sudden gleam +of treacherous prosperity, they were summoned, in the following year +(June, 1785) to the splendid inheritance of Piercefield--a show-place +upon the river Wye, and, next after Tintern Abbey and the river itself, +an object of attraction to all who then visited the Wye. + +A residence on the Wye, besides its own natural attraction, has this +collateral advantage, that it brings Bath (not to mention Clifton and +the Hot Wells) within a visiting distance for people who happen to +have carriages; and Bath, it is hardly necessary to say, besides its +stationary body of polished and intellectual residents, has also a +floating casual population of eminent or interesting persons, gathered +into this focus from every quarter of the empire. Amongst the literary +connexions which the Piercefield family had formed in Bath was one with +Mrs. Bowdler and her daughter--two ladies not distinguished by any very +powerful talents, but sufficiently tinctured with literature and the +love of literature to be liberal in their opinions. And, fortunately +(as it turned out for Miss Smith), they were eminently religious: but +not in a bigoted way; for they were conciliating and winning in the +outward expression of their religious character; capable of explaining +their own creed with intelligent consistency; and, finally, were the +women to recommend any creed by the sanctity and the benignity of +their own lives. This strong religious bias of the two Bath ladies +operated in Miss Smith's favour by a triple service. First of all, it +was this depth of religious feeling, and, consequently, of interest in +the Scriptures, which had originally moved the elder Mrs. Bowdler to +study the Hebrew and the Greek, as the two languages in which they had +been originally delivered. And this example it was of _female_ triumph +over their difficulties, together with the proof thus given that such +attainments were entirely reconcilable with feminine gentleness, +which first suggested to Miss Smith the project of her philological +studies; and, doubtless, these studies, by the constant and agreeable +occupation which they afforded, overspread the whole field of her life +with pleasurable activity. "From the above-mentioned visit," says her +mother, writing to Dr. Randolph,[169] and referring to the visit which +these Bath ladies had made to Piercefield--"from the above-mentioned +visit I date the turn of study which Elizabeth ever after pursued, and +which I firmly believe the amiable conduct of our guests first led her +to delight in." Secondly, to the religious sympathies which connected +these two ladies with Miss Smith was owing the fervour of that +friendship which afterwards, in their adversity, the Piercefield family +found more strenuously exerted in their behalf by the Bowdlers than +by all the rest of their connexions. And, finally, it was this piety +and religious resignation, with which she had been herself inoculated +by her Bath friends, that, throughout the calamitous era of her life, +enabled Miss Elizabeth Smith to maintain her own cheerfulness unbroken, +and greatly to support the failing fortitude of her mother. + + [169] The Rev. T. Randolph, D.D., editor of Miss Smith's + Translation of Job, 1810.--M. + +This visit of her Bath friends to Piercefield--so memorable an event +for the whole subsequent life of Miss Smith--occurred in the summer of +1789; consequently, when she was just twelve and a half years old. And +the impressions then made upon her childish, but unusually thoughtful, +mind, were kept up by continual communications, personal or written, +through the years immediately succeeding. Just two and a half years +after, in the very month when Miss Smith accomplished her fifteenth +year, upon occasion of going through the rite of Confirmation, +according to the discipline of the English Church, she received a +letter of religious counsel--grave, affectionate, but yet humble--from +the elder Mrs. Bowdler, which might almost have been thought to have +proceeded from a writer who had looked behind the curtain of fate, and +had seen the forge at whose fires the shafts of Heaven were even now +being forged. + +Just twelve months from the date of this letter, in the very month when +Miss Elizabeth Smith completed her sixteenth year, the storm descended +upon the house of Piercefield. The whole estate, a splendid one, was +swept away by the failure (as I have heard) of one banking-house; nor +were there recovered, until some years after, any slender fragments of +that estate. Piercefield was, of course, sold; but that was not the +heaviest of her grievances to Miss Smith. She was now far advanced +upon her studious career; for it should be mentioned, as a lesson to +other young ladies of what may be accomplished by unassisted labour, +that, between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one, all her principal +acquisitions were made. No treasure, therefore, could, in her eyes, +be of such priceless value as the Piercefield library; but this also +followed the general wreck: not a volume, not a pamphlet, was reserved; +for the family were proud in their integrity, and would receive no +favours from the creditors. Under this scorching test, applied to the +fidelity of friends, many, whom Mrs. Smith mentions in one of her +letters under the name of "summer friends," fled from them by crowds: +dinners, balls, soirées--credit, influence, support--these things were +no longer to be had from Piercefield. But more annoying even than +the fickle levity of such open deserters, was the timid and doubtful +countenance, as I have heard Mrs. Smith say, which was still offered to +them by some who did not relish, _for their own sakes_, being classed +with those who had paid their homage only to the fine house and fine +equipages of Piercefield. These persons continued, therefore, to send +invitations to the family; but so frigidly that every expression +manifested but too forcibly how disagreeable was the duty with which +they were complying, and how much more they submitted to it for their +own reputation's sake than for any kindness they felt to their old +friends. Mrs. Smith was herself a very haughty woman, and it maddened +her to be the object of condescensions so insolent and so reluctant. + +Meantime, her daughter, young as she was, became the moral support of +her whole family, and the fountain from which they all drew consolation +and fortitude. She was confirmed in her religious tendencies by two +circumstances of her recent experience: one was that she, the sole +person of her family who courted religious consolations, was also the +sole person who had been able to maintain cheerfulness and uniform +spirits: the other was that, although it could not be truly said of +_all_ their worldly friends that they had forsaken them, yet of their +religious friends it could be said that not one had done so; and at +last, when for some time they had been so far reduced as not to have a +roof over their heads, by one of these religious friends it was that +they were furnished with every luxury as well as comfort of life, +and in a spirit of such sisterly kindness as made the obligation not +painful to the proudest amongst them. + +It was in 1792 that the Piercefield family had been ruined; and in +1794, out of the wrecks which had been gathered together, Mr. Smith +(the father of the family) bought a commission in the army. For some +time the family continued to live in London, Bath, and other parts of +England; but, at length, Mr. Smith's regiment was ordered to the west +of Ireland; and the ladies of his family resolved to accompany him +to head-quarters. In passing through Wales (May, 1796) they paid a +visit to those sentimental anchorites of the last generation whom so +many of us must still remember--Miss Ponsonby and Lady Eleanor Butler +(a sister of Lord Ormond), whose hermitage stood near to Llangollen, +and, therefore, close to the usual Irish route, by way of Holyhead. +On landing in Ireland, they proceeded to a seat of Lord Kingston--a +kind-hearted, hospitable Irishman, who was on the old Piercefield list +of friends, and had never wavered in his attachment. Here they stayed +three weeks. Miss Smith renewed, on this occasion, her friendship +with Lady Isabella King, the daughter of Lord Kingston; and a little +incident connected with this visit gave her an opportunity afterwards +of showing her delicate sense of the sacred character which attaches +to gifts of friendship, and showing it by an ingenious device that +may be worth the notice of other young ladies in the same case. Lady +Isabella had given to Miss Smith a beautiful horse, called Brunette. +In process of time, when they had ceased to be in the neighbourhood of +any regimental stables, it became matter of necessity that Brunette +should be parted with. To have given the animal away, had that been +otherwise possible, might only have been delaying the sale for a short +time. After some demur, therefore, Miss Smith adopted this plan: she +sold Brunette, but applied the whole of the price, 120 guineas, to the +purchase of a splendid harp. The harp was christened Brunette, and was +religiously preserved to the end of her life. Now, Brunette, after all, +must have died in a few years; but, by translating her friend's gift +into another form, she not only connected the image of her distant +friend, and her sense of that friend's kindness, with a pleasure and a +useful purpose of her own, but she conferred on that gift a perpetuity +of existence. + +At length came the day when the Smiths were to quit Kingston Lodge for +the quarters of the regiment. And now came the first rude trial of Mrs. +Smith's fortitude, as connected with points of mere decent comfort. +Hitherto, floating amongst the luxurious habitations of opulent +friends, she might have felt many privations as regarded splendour +and direct personal power, but never as regarded the primary elements +of comfort, warmth, cleanliness, convenient arrangements. But on this +journey, which was performed by all the party on horseback, it rained +incessantly. They reached their quarters drenched with wet, weary, +hungry, forlorn. The quartermaster had neglected to give any directions +for their suitable accommodation--no preparations whatever had been +made for receiving them; and, from the luxuries of Lord Kingston's +mansion, which habit had made so familiar to them all, the ladies found +themselves suddenly transferred to a miserable Irish cabin--dirty, +narrow, nearly quite unfurnished, and thoroughly disconsolate. Mrs. +Smith's proud spirit fairly gave way, and she burst out into a fit of +weeping. Upon this, her daughter Elizabeth (and Mrs. Smith herself it +was that told the anecdote, and often she told it, or told others of +the same character, at Lloyd's), in a gentle, soothing tone, began to +suggest the many blessings which lay before them in life, and some even +for this evening. + +"Blessings, child!"--her mother impatiently interrupted her. "What +sort of blessings? Irish blessings!--county of Sligo blessings, I +fancy. Or, perhaps, you call this a blessing?" holding up a miserable +fragment of an iron rod, which had been left by way of poker, or rather +as a substitute for the whole assortment of fire-irons. The daughter +laughed; but she changed her wet dress expeditiously, assumed an apron; +and so various were her accomplishments that, in no long time, she +had gathered together a very comfortable dinner for her parents, and, +amongst other things, a currant tart, which she had herself made, in a +tenement absolutely unfurnished of every kitchen utensil. + +In the autumn of this year (1796), they returned to England; and, after +various migrations through the next four years, amongst which was +another and longer visit to Ireland in 1800, they took up their abode +in the sequestered vale of Patterdale. Here they had a cottage upon +the banks of Ulleswater; the most gorgeous of the English lakes, from +the rich and ancient woods which possess a great part of its western +side; the sublimest, as respects its mountain accompaniments, except +only, perhaps, Wastdale; and, I believe, the largest; for, though only +nine miles in length, and, therefore, shorter by about two miles than +Windermere, it averages a greater breadth. Here, at this time, was +living Mr. Clarkson--that son of thunder, that Titan, who was in fact +the one great Atlas that bore up the Slave-Trade Abolition cause--now +resting from his mighty labours and nerve-shattering perils. So much +had _his_ nerves been shattered by all that he had gone through in +toil, in suffering, and in anxiety, that, for many years, I have heard +it said, he found himself unable to walk up stairs without tremulous +motions of his limbs. He was, perhaps, too iron a man, too much like +the _Talus_ of Spenser's "Faerie Queene,"[170] to appreciate so gentle +a creature as Miss Elizabeth Smith. A more suitable friend, and one +who thoroughly comprehended her, and expressed his admiration for her +in verse, was Thomas Wilkinson of Yanwath, a Quaker, a man of taste, +and of delicate sensibility. He wrote verses occasionally; and, though +feebly enough as respected poetic power, there were often such delicate +touches of feeling, such gleams of real tenderness, in some redeeming +part of each poem, that even Wordsworth admired and read them aloud +with pleasure. Indeed Wordsworth has addressed to him one copy of +verses, or rather to his spade, which was printed in the collection of +1807, and which Lord Jeffrey, after quoting one line, dismissed as too +dull for repetition.[171] + + [170] The "mighty iron man" of that romance.--M. + + [171] It is entitled "To the Spade of a Friend: composed while we + were labouring together in his pleasure ground"; and it begins-- + + "Spade! with which Wilkinson hath tilled his lands." + + It was written in 1804.--M. + +During this residence upon Ulleswater (winter of 1800) it was that +a very remarkable incident befell Miss Smith. I have heard it often +mentioned, and sometimes with a slight variety of circumstances; but I +here repeat it from an account drawn up by Miss Smith herself, who was +most literally exact and faithful to the truth in all reports of her +own personal experience. There is, on the western side of Ulleswater, +a fine cataract (or, in the language of the country, a _force_), known +by the name of Airey Force; and it is of importance enough, especially +in rainy seasons, to attract numerous visitors from among "the Lakers." +Thither, with some purpose of sketching, not the whole scene, but some +picturesque features of it, Miss Smith had gone, quite unaccompanied. +The road to it lies through Gobarrow Park; and it was usual, at that +time, to take a guide from the family of the Duke of Norfolk's keeper, +who lived in Lyulph's Tower--a solitary hunting lodge, built by his +Grace for the purposes of an annual visit which he used to pay to +his estates in that part of England. She, however, thinking herself +sufficiently familiar with the localities, had declined to encumber +her motions with such an attendant; consequently she was alone. For +half an hour or more, she continued to ascend: and, being a good +"cragswoman," from the experience she had won in Wales as well as in +northern England, she had reached an altitude much beyond what would +generally be thought corresponding to the time. The path had vanished +altogether; but she continued to pick out one for herself amongst the +stones, sometimes receding from the _force_, sometimes approaching it, +according to the openings allowed by the scattered masses of rock. +Pressing forward in this hurried way, and never looking back, all at +once she found herself in a little stony chamber, from which there +was no egress possible in advance. She stopped and looked up. There +was a frightful silence in the air. She felt a sudden palpitation +at her heart, and a panic from she knew not what. Turning, however, +hastily, she soon wound herself out of this aerial dungeon; but by +steps so rapid and agitated, that, at length, on looking round, she +found herself standing at the brink of a chasm, frightful to look +down. That way, it was clear enough, all retreat was impossible; but, +on turning round, retreat seemed in every direction alike even more +impossible. Down the chasm, at least, she might have leaped, though +with little or no chance of escaping with life; but on all other +quarters it seemed to her eye that at no price could she effect an +exit, since the rocks stood round her in a semi-circus, all lofty, all +perpendicular, all glazed with trickling water, or smooth as polished +porphyry. Yet how, then, had she reached the point? The same track, +if she could hit that track, would surely secure her escape. Round +and round she walked; gazed with almost despairing eyes; her breath +became thicker and thicker; for path she could not trace by which it +was possible for her to have entered. Finding herself grow more and +more confused, and every instant nearer to sinking into some fainting +fit or convulsion, she resolved to sit down and turn her thoughts +quietly into some less exciting channel. This she did; gradually +recovered some self-possession; and then suddenly a thought rose up to +her, that she was in the hands of God, and that He would not forsake +her. But immediately came a second and reproving thought--that this +confidence in God's protection might have been justified had she been +ascending the rocks upon any mission of duty; but what right could +_she_ have to any providential deliverance, who had been led thither +in a spirit of levity and carelessness? I am here giving _her_ view of +the case; for, as to myself, I fear greatly that, if _her_ steps were +erring ones, it is but seldom indeed that _nous autres_ can pretend +to be treading upon right paths. Once again she rose; and, supporting +herself upon a little sketching-stool that folded up into a stick, she +looked upwards, in the hope that some shepherd might, by chance, be +wandering in those aerial regions; but nothing could she see except +the tall birches growing at the brink of the highest summits, and the +clouds slowly sailing overhead. Suddenly, however, as she swept the +whole circuit of her station with her alarmed eye, she saw clearly, +about two hundred yards beyond her own position, a lady, in a white +muslin morning robe, such as were then universally worn by young ladies +until dinner-time. The lady beckoned with a gesture and in a manner +that, in a moment, gave her confidence to advance--_how_ she could +not guess; but, in some way that baffled all power to retrace it, she +found instantaneously the outlet which previously had escaped her. She +continued to advance towards the lady, whom now, in the same moment, +she found to be standing upon the other side of the _force_, and also +to be her own sister. How or why that young lady, whom she had left at +home earnestly occupied with her own studies, should have followed and +overtaken her filled her with perplexity. But this was no situation for +putting questions; for the guiding sister began to descend, and, by a +few simple gestures, just serving to indicate when Miss Elizabeth was +to approach and when to leave the brink of the torrent, she gradually +led her down to a platform of rock, from which the further descent was +safe and conspicuous. There Miss Smith paused, in order to take breath +from her panic, as well as to exchange greetings and questions with her +sister. But sister there was none. All trace of her had vanished; and, +when, in two hours after, she reached her home, Miss Smith found her +sister in the same situation and employment in which she had left her; +and the whole family assured her that she had never stirred from the +house. + +In 1801, I believe it was that the family removed from Patterdale to +Coniston. Certainly they were settled there in the spring of 1802; for, +in the May of that spring, Miss Elizabeth Hamilton--a writer now very +much forgotten, or remembered only by her "Cottagers of Glenburnie," +but then a person of mark and authority in the literary circles of +Edinburgh[172]--paid a visit to the Lakes, and stayed there for many +months, together with her married sister, Mrs. Blake; and both ladies +cultivated the friendship of the Smiths. Miss Hamilton was captivated +with the family; and, of the sisters in particular, she speaks as of +persons that, "in the days of paganism would have been worshipped as +beings of a superior order, so elegantly graceful do they appear, when, +with easy motion, they guide their light boat over the waves." And of +Miss Elizabeth, separately, she says, on another occasion,--"I never +before saw so much of Miss Smith; and, in the three days she spent +with us, the admiration which I had always felt for her extraordinary +talents, and as extraordinary virtues, was hourly augmented. She is, +indeed, a most charming creature; and, if one could inoculate her with +a little of the Scotch frankness, I think she would be one of the most +perfect of human beings." + + [172] Elizabeth Hamilton (1758-1816), though now remembered + chiefly by her Scottish story, _The Cottagers of Glenburnie_, + which appeared in 1808, was the author of many other writings.--M. + +About four years had been delightfully passed in Coniston. In the +summer of 1805 Miss Smith laid the foundation of her fatal illness in +the following way, according to her own account of the case to an old +servant, a very short time before she died:--"One very hot evening, +in July, I took a book, and walked about two miles from home, when I +seated myself on a stone beside the lake. Being much engaged by a poem +I was reading, I did not perceive that the sun was gone down, and was +succeeded by a very heavy dew, till, in a moment, I felt struck on +the chest as if with a sharp knife. I returned home, but said nothing +of the pain. The next day being also very hot, and every one busy in +the hay-field, I thought I would take a rake, and work very hard to +produce perspiration, in the hope that it might remove the pain; but +it did not." From that time, a bad cough, with occasional loss of +voice, gave reason to suspect some organic injury of the lungs. Late +in the autumn of this year (1805) Miss Smith accompanied her mother +and her two younger sisters to Bristol, Bath, and other places in the +south, on visits to various friends. Her health went through various +fluctuations until May of the following year, when she was advised to +try Matlock. Here, after spending three weeks, she grew worse; and, +as there was no place which she liked so well as the Lakes, it was +resolved to turn homewards. About the beginning of June, she and her +mother returned alone to Coniston: one of her sisters was now married; +her three brothers were in the army or navy; and her father almost +constantly with his regiment. Through the next two months she faded +quietly away, sitting always in a tent,[173] that had been pitched upon +the lawn, and which remained open continually to receive the fanning +of the intermitting airs upon the lake, as well as to admit the bold +mountain scenery to the north. She lived nearly through the first week +of August, dying on the morning of August 7; and the circumstances of +her last night are thus recorded by her mother:--"At nine she went +to bed. I resolved to quit her no more, and went to prepare for the +night. Turpin [Miss Smith's maid] came to say that Elizabeth entreated +I would not stay in her room. I replied--'On that one subject I am +resolved; no power on earth shall keep me from her; so, go to bed +yourself.' Accordingly, I returned to her room; and, at ten, gave her +the usual dose of laudanum. After a little time, she fell into a doze, +and, I thought, slept till one. She was uneasy and restless, but never +complained; and, on my wiping the cold sweat off her face, and bathing +it with camphorated vinegar, which I did very often in the course of +the night, she thanked me, smiled, and said--'That is the greatest +comfort I have.' She slept again for a short time; and, at half past +four, asked for some chicken broth, which she took perfectly well. +On being told the hour, she said, '_How long this night is!_' She +continued very uneasy; and, in half an hour after, on my inquiring if +I could move the pillow, or do anything to relieve her, she replied, +'There is nothing for it but quiet.' At six, she said, 'I must get up +and have some mint tea.' I then called for Turpin, and felt my angel's +pulse: it was fluttering; and by that I knew I should soon lose her. +She took the tea well. Turpin began to put on her clothes, and was +proceeding to dress her, when she laid her head upon the faithful +creature's shoulder, became convulsed in the face, spoke not, looked +not, and in ten minutes expired." + + [173] And, in allusion to this circumstance, the house afterwards + raised on a neighbouring spot, at this time suggested by Miss + Smith, received the name of Tent Lodge. + +She was buried in Hawkshead churchyard, where a small tablet of white +marble is raised to her memory, on which there is the scantiest record +that, for a person so eminently accomplished, I have ever met with. +After mentioning her birth and age (twenty-nine), it closes thus:--"She +possessed great talents, exalted virtues, and humble piety." Anything +so unsatisfactory or so commonplace I have rarely known. As much, or +more, is often said of the most insipid people; whereas Miss Smith +was really a most extraordinary person. I have conversed with Mrs. +Hannah More often about her; and I never failed to draw forth some +fresh anecdote illustrating the vast extent of her knowledge, the +simplicity of her character, the gentleness of her manners, and her +unaffected humility. She passed, it is true, almost inaudibly through +life; and the stir which was made after her death soon subsided. But +the reason was that she wrote but little! Had it been possible for the +world to measure her by her powers, rather than her performances, she +would have been placed, perhaps, in the estimate of posterity, at the +head of learned women; whilst her sweet and feminine character would +have rescued her from all shadow and suspicion of that reproach which +too often settles upon the learned character when supported by female +aspirants. + + * * * * * + +The family of Tent Lodge continued to reside at Coniston for many +years; and they were connected with the Lake literary clan chiefly +through the Lloyds and those who visited the Lloyds; for it is another +and striking proof of the slight hold which Wordsworth, &c., had upon +the public esteem in those days, that even Miss Smith, with all her +excessive diffidence in judging of books and authors, never seems, +by any one of her letters, to have felt the least interest about +Wordsworth or Coleridge; nor did Miss Hamilton, with all her _esprit +de corps_ and acquired interest in everything at all bearing upon +literature, ever mention them in those of her letters which belong to +the period of her Lake visit in 1802; nor, for the six or seven months +which she passed in that country, and within a short morning ride of +Grasmere, did she ever think it worth her while to seek an introduction +to any one of the resident authors. + +Yet this could not be altogether from ignorance that such people +existed; for Thomas Wilkinson, the intimate and admiring friend of Miss +Smith, was also the friend of Wordsworth; and, for some reason that I +never could fathom, he was a sort of pet with Wordsworth. Professor +Wilson and myself were never honoured with one line, one allusion from +his pen; but many a person of particular feebleness has received that +honour. Amongst these I may rank Thomas Wilkinson. Not that I wish +to speak contemptuously of him; he was a Quaker, of elegant habits, +rustic simplicity, and with tastes, as Wordsworth affirms, "too pure +to be refined."[174] His cottage was seated not far from the great +castle of the Lowthers; and, either from mere whim--as sometimes such +whims do possess great ladies--whims, I mean, for drawing about them +odd-looking, old-world people, as _piquant_ contrasts to the fine +gentlemen of their own society--or because they did really feel a +homely dignity in the plain-speaking "Friend," and liked, for a frolic, +to be _thou'd_ and _thee'd_--on some motive or other, at any rate, they +introduced themselves to Mr. Wilkinson's cottage; and I believe that +the connexion was afterwards improved by the use they found for his +services in forming walks through the woods of Lowther, and leading +them in such a circuit as to take advantage of all the most picturesque +stations. As a poet, I presume that Mr. Wilkinson could hardly have +recommended himself to the notice of ladies who would naturally have +modelled their tastes upon the favourites of the age. A poet, however, +in a gentle, unassuming way, he was; and he, therefore, is to be added +to the _corps litteraire_ of the Lakes, and Yanwath to be put down as +the advanced post of that _corps_ to the north. + + [174] Addressing Wilkinson's spade in the poem mentioned at p. 413 + _ante_, Wordsworth says-- + + "Rare master has it been thy lot to know; + Long hast thou served a man to reason true; + Whose life combines the best of high and low, + The labouring many and the resting few."--M. + + * * * * * + +Two families there still remain which I am tempted to gather into my +group of Lake society--notwithstanding it is true that the two most +interesting members of the first had died a little before the period at +which my sketch commences; and the second, though highly intellectual +in the person of that particular member whom I have chiefly to +commemorate, was not, properly speaking, literary, and, moreover, +belongs to a later period of my own Westmoreland experience--being, at +the time of my settlement in Grasmere, a girl at a boarding-school. The +first was the family of the Sympsons, whom Mr. Wordsworth has spoken +of, with deep interest, more than once. The eldest son, a clergyman, +and, like Wordsworth, an _alumnus_ of Hawkshead school, wrote, amongst +other poems, "The Vision of Alfred." Of these poems Wordsworth says +that they "are little known; but they contain passages of splendid +description; and the versification of his '_Vision_' is harmonious +and animated." This is much for Wordsworth to say; and he does him +even the honour of quoting the following illustrative simile from +his description of the sylphs in motion (which sylphs constitute the +machinery of his poem); and, probably, the reader will be of opinion +that this passage justifies the praise of Wordsworth. It is founded, as +he will see, on the splendid scenery of the heavens in Polar latitudes, +as seen by reflection in polished ice at midnight. + + "Less varying hues beneath the Pole adorn + The streamy glories of the Boreal morn, + That, waving to and fro, their radiance shed + On Bothnia's gulf, with glassy ice o'erspread; + Where the lone native, as he homeward glides + On polished sandals o'er the imprisoned tides, + Sees, at a glance, above him and below, + Two rival heavens with equal splendour glow: + Stars, moons, and meteors ray oppose to ray; + And solemn midnight pours the blaze of day." + +"He was a man," says Wordsworth, in conclusion, "of ardent feeling; and +his facilities of mind, particularly his memory, were extraordinary." +Brief notices of his life ought to find a place in the history of +Westmoreland. + +But it was the father of this Joseph Sympson who gave its chief +interest to the family. Him Wordsworth has described, at the same time +sketching his history, with a fulness and a circumstantiality beyond +what he has conceded to any other of the real personages in "The +Excursion." "A priest he was by function"; but a priest of that class +which is now annually growing nearer to extinction among us, not being +supported by any sympathies in this age. + + "His course, + From his youth up, and high as manhood's noon, + Had been irregular--I might say wild; + By books unsteadied, by his pastoral care + Too little checked. An active, ardent mind; + A fancy pregnant with resource and scheme + To cheat the sadness of a rainy day; + Hands apt for all ingenious arts and games; + A generous spirit, and a body strong + To cope with stoutest champions of the bowl; + Had earned for him sure welcome, and the rights + Of a priz'd visitant, in the jolly hall + Of country squire; or at the statelier board + Of duke or earl, from scenes of courtly pomp + Withdrawn, to while away the summer hours + In condescension amongst rural guests. + With these high comrades he had revelled long, + By hopes of coming patronage beguiled, + Till the heart sickened." + +Slowly, however, and indignantly his eyes opened fully to the windy +treachery of all the promises held out to him; and, at length, for mere +bread, he accepted, from an "unthought-of patron," a most "secluded +chapelry" in Cumberland. This was "the little, lowly house of prayer" +of Wythburn, elsewhere celebrated by Wordsworth; and, for its own +sake, interesting to all travellers, both for its deep privacy, and +for the excessive humility of its external pretensions, whether as to +size or ornament. Were it not for its twin sister at Buttermere, it +would be the very smallest place of worship in all England; and it +looks even smaller than it is, from its position; for it stands at the +base of the mighty Helvellyn, close to the high-road between Ambleside +and Keswick, and within speaking distance of the upper lake--(for +Wythburn Water, though usually passed by the traveller under the +impression of absolute unity in its waters, owing to the interposition +of a rocky screen, is, in fact, composed of two separate lakes). To +this miniature and most secluded congregation of shepherds did the +once dazzling parson officiate as pastor; and it seems to amplify the +impression already given of his versatility, that he became a diligent +and most fatherly, though not peculiarly devout, teacher and friend. +The temper, however, of the northern Dalesmen, is not constitutionally +turned to religion; consequently that part of his defects did him +no special injury, when compensated (as, in the judgment of these +Dalesmen, it _was_ compensated) by ready and active kindness, charity +the most diffusive, and patriarchal hospitality. The living, as I have +said, was in Wythburn; but there was no parsonage, and no house in +this poor dale which was disposable for that purpose. So Mr. Sympson +crossed the marches of the sister counties, which to him were about +equidistant from his chapel and his house, into Grasmere, on the +Westmoreland side. There he occupied a cottage by the roadside,--a +situation which, doubtless, gratified at once his social and his +hospitable propensities,--and, at length, from age, as well as from +paternal character and station, came to be regarded as the patriarch of +the vale. Before I mention the afflictions which fell upon his latter +end, and by way of picturesque contrast to his closing scene, let me +have permission to cite Wordsworth's sketch (taken from his own boyish +remembrance of the case) describing the first gipsy-like entrance of +the brilliant parson and his household into Grasmere--so equally out of +harmony with the decorums of his sacred character and the splendours of +his past life:-- + + "Rough and forbidding were the choicest roads + By which our northern wilds could then be crossed; + And into most of these secluded vales + Was no access for wain, heavy or light. + So at his dwelling-place the priest arrived + With store of household goods, in panniers slung + On sturdy horses graced with jingling bells, + And on the back of more ignoble beast, + That, with like burthen of effects most prized + Or easiest carried, closed the motley train. + Young was I then, a schoolboy of eight years: + But still methinks I see them as they passed + In order, drawing toward their wished-for home. + Rocked by the motion of a trusty ass + Two ruddy children hung, a well-poised freight, + Each in his basket nodding drowsily, + Their bonnets, I remember, wreathed with flowers, + Which told it was the pleasant month of June; + And close behind the comely matron rode, + A woman of soft speech and gracious smile, + And with a lady's mien.--From far they came, + Even from Northumbrian hills: yet theirs had been + A merry journey, rich in pastime, cheered + By music, pranks, and laughter-stirring jest; + And freak put on, and arch word dropped--to swell + That cloud of fancy and uncouth surmise + Which gathered round the slowly moving train. + 'Whence do they come? and with what errand charged? + Belong they to the fortune-telling tribe + Who pitch their tents under the greenwood tree? + Or Strollers are they, furnished to enact + Fair Rosamond and the Children of the Wood? + When the next village hears the show announced + By blast of trumpet?' Plenteous was the growth + Of such conjectures--overheard, or seen + On many a staring countenance portrayed + Of boor or burgher, as they marched along. + And more than once their steadiness of face + Was put to proof, and exercise supplied + To their inventive humour, by stern looks, + And questions in authoritative tone, + By some staid guardian of the public peace, + Checking the sober horse on which he rode, + In his suspicious wisdom; oftener still + By notice indirect or blunt demand + From traveller halting in his own despite, + A simple curiosity to ease: + Of which adventures, that beguiled and cheered + Their grave migration, the good pair would tell + With undiminished glee in hoary age." + +Meantime the lady of the house embellished it with feminine skill; and +the homely pastor--for such he had now become--not having any great +weight of spiritual duties, busied himself in rural labours and rural +sports. But was his mind, though bending submissively to his lot, +changed in conformity to his task? No: + + "For he still + Retained a flashing eye, a burning palm, + A stirring foot, a head which beat at nights + Upon its pillow with a thousand schemes. + Few likings had he dropped, few pleasures lost; + Generous and charitable, prompt to serve; + And still his harsher passions kept their hold-- + Anger and indignation. Still he loved + The sound of titled names, and talked in glee + Of long past banquetings with high-born friends: + Then, from those lulling fits of vain delight + Uproused by recollected injury, railed + At their false ways disdainfully,--and oft + In bitterness, and with a threatening eye + Of fire, incensed beneath its hoary brow. + Those transports, with staid looks of pure good-will, + And with soft smile his consort would reprove. + She, far behind him in the race of years, + Yet keeping her first mildness, was advanced + Far nearer, in the habit of her soul, + To that still region whither all are bound." + +Such was the tenor of their lives; such the separate character of +their manners and dispositions; and, with unusual quietness of course, +both were sailing placidly to their final haven. Death had not visited +their happy mansion through a space of forty years--"sparing both old +and young in that abode." But calms so deep are ominous--immunities +so profound are terrific. Suddenly the signal was given, and all lay +desolate. + + "Not twice had fallen + On those high peaks the first autumnal snow, + Before the greedy visiting was closed, + And the long-privileged house left empty; swept + As by a plague. Yet no rapacious plague + Had been among them; all was gentle death, + One after one with intervals of peace." + +The aged pastor's wife, his son, one of his daughters, and "a little +smiling grandson," all had gone within a brief series of days. These +composed the entire household in Grasmere (the others having dispersed +or married away); and all were gone but himself, by very many years the +oldest of the whole: he still survived. And the whole valley, nay, all +the valleys round about, speculated with a tender interest upon what +course the desolate old man would take for his support. + + "All gone, all vanished! he, deprived and bare, + How will he face the remnant of his life? + What will become of him? we said, and mused + In sad conjectures.--Shall we meet him now, + Haunting with rod and line the craggy brooks? + Or shall we overhear him, as we pass, + Striving to entertain the lonely hours + With music? (for he had not ceased to touch + The harp or viol, which himself had framed + For their sweet purposes, with perfect skill). + What titles will he keep? Will he remain + Musician, gardener, builder, mechanist, + A planter, and a rearer from the seed?" + +Yes; he persevered in all his pursuits; intermitted none of them; +weathered a winter in solitude; once more beheld the glories of a +spring, and the resurrection of the flowers upon the graves of his +beloved; held out even through the depths of summer into the cheerful +season of haymaking (a season much later in Westmoreland than in the +south); took his rank, as heretofore, amongst the haymakers; sat +down at noon for a little rest to his aged limbs, and found even a +deeper rest than he was expecting; for, in a moment of time, without a +warning, without a struggle, and without a groan, he did indeed rest +from his labours for ever. He, + + "With his cheerful throng + Of open projects, and his inward hoard + Of unsunned griefs, too many and too keen, + Was overcome by unexpected sleep + In one blest moment. Like a shadow thrown, + Softly and lightly, from a passing cloud, + Death fell upon him, while reclined he lay + For noontide solace on the summer grass-- + The warm lap of his mother earth; and so, + Their lenient term of separation passed, + That family, + By yet a higher privilege, once more + Were gathered to each other." + +Two surviving members of the family, a son and a daughter, I knew +intimately. Both have been long dead; but the children of the +daughter--grandsons, therefore, to the patriarch here recorded--are +living prosperously, and do honour to the interesting family they +represent. + +The other family were, if less _generally_ interesting by their +characters or accomplishments, much more so by the circumstances +of their position; and that member of the family with whom accident +and neighbourhood had brought me especially connected was, in her +intellectual capacity, probably superior to most of those whom I have +had occasion to record. Had no misfortunes settled upon her life +prematurely, and with the benefit of a little judicious guidance to her +studies, I am of opinion that she would have been a most distinguished +person. Her situation, when I came to know her, was one of touching +interest. I will state the circumstances:--She was the sole and +illegitimate daughter of a country gentleman, and was a favourite with +her father, as she well deserved to be, in a degree so excessive--so +nearly idolatrous--that I never heard illustrations of it mentioned +but that secretly I trembled for the endurance of so perilous a love +under the common accidents of life, and still more under the unusual +difficulties and snares of her peculiar situation. Her father was, +by birth, breeding, and property, a Leicestershire farmer; not, +perhaps, what you would strictly call a gentleman, for he affected no +refinements of manner, but rather courted the exterior of a bluff, +careless yeoman. Still he was of that class whom all people, even +then, on his letters, addressed as _esquire_: he had an ample income, +and was surrounded with all the luxuries of modern life. In early +life--and that was the sole palliation of his guilt--(and yet, again, +in another view, aggravated it)--he had allowed himself to violate his +own conscience in a way which, from the hour of his error, never ceased +to pursue him with remorse, and which was, in fact, its own avenger. +Mr. K---- was a favourite specimen of English yeomanly beauty: a fine +athletic figure; and with features handsome, well moulded, frank and +generous in their expression, and in a striking degree manly. In fact, +he might have sat for Robin Hood. It happened that a young lady of his +own neighbourhood, somewhere near Mount Soril I think, fell desperately +in love with him. Oh! blindness of the human heart! how deeply did +she come to rue the day when she first turned her thoughts to him! At +first, however, her case seemed a hopeless one; for she herself was +remarkably plain, and Mr. K---- was profoundly in love with the very +handsome daughter of a neighbouring farmer. One advantage, however, +there was on the side of this plain girl: she was rich; and part of +her wealth, or of her expectations, lay in landed property that would +effect a very tempting _arrondissement_ of an estate belonging to Mr. +K----. Through what course the affair travelled, I never heard more +particularly than that Mr. K---- was besieged and worried out of his +steady mind by the solicitations of aunts and other relations, who +had all adopted the cause of the heiress. But what finally availed +to extort a reluctant consent from him was the representation made +by the young lady's family, and backed by medical men, that she was +seriously in danger of dying unless Mr. K---- would make her his wife. +He was no coxcomb; but, when he heard all his own female relations +calling him a murderer, and taxing him with having, at times, given +some encouragement to the unhappy lovesick girl, in an evil hour he +agreed to give up his own sweetheart and marry her. He did so. But +no sooner was this fatal step taken than it was repented. His love +returned in bitter excess for the girl whom he had forsaken, and +with frantic remorse. This girl, at length, by the mere force of his +grief, he actually persuaded to live with him as his wife; and when, +in spite of all concealments, the fact began to transpire, and the +angry wife, in order to break off the connexion, obtained his consent +to their quitting Leicestershire altogether and transferring their +whole establishment to the Lakes, Mr. K---- evaded the whole object of +this manoeuvre by secretly contriving to bring her rival also into +Westmoreland. Her, however, he placed in another vale; and, for some +years, it is pretty certain that Mrs. K---- never suspected the fact. +Some said that it was her pride which would not allow her to seem +conscious of so great an affront to herself; others, better skilled in +deciphering the meaning of manners, steadfastly affirmed that she was +in happy ignorance of an arrangement known to all the country beside. + +Years passed on; and the situation of the poor wife became more and +more gloomy. During those years, she brought her husband no children; +on the other hand, her hated rival _had_: Mr. K---- saw growing up +about his table two children, a son, and then a daughter, who, in +their childhood, must have been beautiful creatures; for the son, when +I knew him in after life, though bloated and disfigured a good deal +by intemperance, was still a very fine young man; more athletic even +than his father; and presenting his father's handsome English yeoman's +face, exalted by a Roman dignity in some of the features. The daughter +was of the same cast of person; tall, and Roman also in the style of +her face. In fact, the brother and the sister would have offered a +fine impersonation of Coriolanus and Valeria. This Roman bias of the +features a little affected the feminine loveliness of the daughter's +appearance. But still, as the impression was not very decided, she +would have been pronounced anywhere a very captivating young woman. +These were the two crowns of Mr. K----'s felicity, that for seventeen +or eighteen years made the very glory of his life. But Nemesis was on +his steps; and one of these very children she framed the scourge which +made the day of his death a happy deliverance, for which he had long +hungered and thirsted. But I anticipate. + +About the time when I came to reside in Grasmere, some little affair of +local business one night drew Wordsworth up to Mr. K----'s house. It +was called, and with great propriety, from the multitude of holly trees +that still survived from ancient days, _The Hollens_; which pretty +local name Mrs. K----, in her general spirit of vulgar sentimentality, +had changed to _Holly Grove_. The place, spite of its slipshod novelish +name, which might have led one to expect a corresponding style of +tinsel finery, and a display of childish purposes, about its furniture +or its arrangements, was really simple and unpretending; whilst its +situation was, in itself, a sufficient ground of interest; for it stood +on a little terrace running like an artificial gallery or corridor +along the final, and all but perpendicular, descent of the mighty +Fairfield.[175] It seemed as if it must require iron bolts to pin +it to the rock which rose so high, and, apparently, so close behind. +Not until you reached the little esplanade upon which the modest +mansion stood, were you aware of a little area interposed between +the rear of the house and the rock, just sufficient for ordinary +domestic offices. The house was otherwise interesting to myself, from +recalling one in which I had passed part of my infancy. As in that, you +entered by a rustic hall, fitted up so as to make a beautiful little +breakfasting-room: the distribution of the passages was pretty nearly +the same; and there were other resemblances. + + [175] "_Mighty Fairfield_": + + "And Mighty Fairfield, with her chime + Of echoes, still was keeping time."--WORDSWORTH'S "WAGGONER." + + I have retained the English name of Fairfield; but, when I was studying + Danish, I stumbled upon the true meaning of the name, unlocked by that + language, and reciprocally (as one amongst other instances which I met + at the very threshold of my studies) unlocking the fact that Danish + (or Icelandic rather) is the master-key to the local names and dialect + of Westmoreland. _Faar_ is a sheep: _fald_ a hill. But are not all the + hills sheep hills? No; Fairfield only, amongst all its neighbours, has + large, smooth, pastoral savannas, to which the sheep resort when all + the rocky or barren neighbours are left desolate. + +Mr. K---- received us with civility and hospitality--checked, however, +and embarrassed, by a very evident reserve. The reason of this was, +partly, that he distrusted the feelings towards himself of two +scholars; but more, perhaps, that he had something beyond this general +jealousy for distrusting Wordsworth. He had been a very extensive +planter of larches, which were then recently introduced into the Lake +country, and were, in every direction, displacing the native forest +scenery, and dismally disfiguring this most lovely region; and this +effect was necessarily in its worst excess during the infancy of the +larch plantations; both because they took the formal arrangement of +nursery grounds, until extensive thinnings, as well as storms, had +begun to break this hideous stiffness in the lines and angles, and +also because the larch is a mean tree, both in form and colouring +(having a bright gosling glare in spring, a wet blanket hue in +autumn) as long as it continues a young tree. Not until it has seen +forty or fifty winters does it begin to toss its boughs about with +a wild Alpine grace. Wordsworth, for many years, had systematically +abused the larches and the larch planters; and there went about +the country a pleasant anecdote, in connexion with this well-known +habit of his, which I have often heard repeated by the woodmen--viz. +that, one day, when he believed himself to be quite alone--but was, +in fact, surveyed coolly, during the whole process of his passions, +by a reposing band of labourers in the shade, and at their noontide +meal--Wordsworth, on finding a whole cluster of birch-trees grubbed +up, and preparations making for the installation of larches in their +place, was seen advancing to the spot with gathering wrath in his eyes; +next he was heard pouring out an interrupted litany of comminations and +maledictions; and, finally, as his eye rested upon the four or five +larches which were already beginning to "dress the line" of the new +battalion, he seized his own hat in a transport of fury, and launched +it against the odious intruders. Mr. K---- had, doubtless, heard of +Wordsworth's frankness upon this theme, and knew himself to be, as +respected Grasmere, the sole offender. In another way, also, he had +earned a few random shots from Wordsworth's wrath--viz. as the erector +of a huge unsightly barn, built solely for convenience, and so far +violating all the modesty of rustic proportions that it was really an +eyesore in the valley. These considerations, and others besides, made +him reserved; but he felt the silent appeal to his _lares_ from the +strangers' presence, and was even kind in his courtesies. Suddenly, +Mrs. K---- entered the room: instantly his smile died away: he did not +even mention her name. Wordsworth, however, she knew slightly; and to +me she introduced herself. Mr. K---- seemed almost impatient when I +rose and presented her with my chair. Anything that detained her in the +room for a needless moment seemed to him a nuisance. She, on the other +hand--what was _her_ behaviour? I had been told that she worshipped +the very ground on which he trod; and so, indeed, it appeared. This +adoring love might, under other circumstances, have been beautiful to +contemplate; but here it impressed unmixed disgust. Imagine a woman of +very homely features, and farther disfigured by a scorbutic eruption, +fixing a tender gaze upon a burly man of forty, who showed, by every +word, look, gesture, movement, that he disdained her. In fact, nothing +could be more injudicious than her deportment towards him. Everybody +must feel that a man who hates any person hates that person the more +for troubling him with expressions of love; or, at least, it adds to +hatred the sting of disgust. That was the fixed language of Mr. K----'s +manner, in relation to his wife. He was not a man to be pleased with +foolish fondling endearments from any woman before strangers; but from +her! Faugh! he said internally, at every instant. His very eyes he +averted from her: not once did he look at her, though forced into the +odious necessity of speaking to her several times; and, at length, +when she seemed disposed to construe our presence as a sort of brief +privilege to her own, he adopted that same artifice for ridding himself +of her detested company which has sometimes done seasonable service to +a fine gentleman when called upon by ladies for the explanation of a +Greek word. He hinted to her, pretty broadly, that the subject of our +conversation was not altogether proper for female ears,--very much to +the astonishment of Wordsworth and myself. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + SOCIETY OF THE LAKES: PROFESSOR WILSON: DEATH OF LITTLE KATE + WORDSWORTH[176] + + [176] From _Tait's Magazine_ for August 1840.--M. + + +It was at Mr. Wordsworth's house that I first became acquainted with +Professor (then Mr.) Wilson, of Elleray. I have elsewhere described +the impression which he made upon me at my first acquaintance; and +it is sufficiently known, from other accounts of Mr. Wilson (as, for +example, that written by Mr. Lockhart in "Peter's Letters"), that +he divided his time and the utmost sincerity of his love between +literature and the stormiest pleasures of real life. Cock-fighting, +wrestling, pugilistic contests, boat-racing, horse-racing, all enjoyed +Mr. Wilson's patronage; all were occasionally honoured by his personal +participation. I mention this in no unfriendly spirit toward Professor +Wilson; on the contrary, these propensities grew out of his ardent +temperament and his constitutional endowments--his strength, speed, +and agility: and, being confined to the period of youth--for I am +speaking of a period removed by five-and-twenty years--can do him no +dishonour amongst the candid and the judicious. "_Non lusisse pudet, +sed non incidere ludum._" The truth was that Professor Wilson had in +him, at that period of life, something of the old English chivalric +feeling which our old ballad poetry agrees in ascribing to Robin Hood. +Several men of genius have expressed to me, at different times, the +delight they had in the traditional character of Robin Hood. He has no +resemblance to the old heroes of Continental romance in one important +feature: they are uniformly victorious: and this gives even a tone of +monotony to the Continental poems: for, let them involve their hero in +what dangers they may, the reader still feels them to be as illusory +as those which menace an enchanter--an Astolpho, for instance, who, +by one blast of his horn, can dissipate an army of opponents. But +Robin is frequently beaten: he never declines a challenge; sometimes +he courts one; and occasionally he learns a lesson from some proud +tinker or masterful beggar, the moral of which teaches him that there +are better men in the world than himself. What follows? Is the brave +man angry with his stout-hearted antagonist because he is no less +brave and a little stronger than himself? Not at all; he insists on +making him a present, on giving him a _dejeuner à la fourchette_, and +(in case he is disposed to take service in the forest) finally adopts +him into his band of archers. Much the same spirit governed, in his +earlier years, Professor Wilson. And, though a man of prudence cannot +altogether approve of his throwing himself into the convivial society +of gipsies, tinkers, potters,[177] strolling players, &c., nevertheless +it tells altogether in favour of Professor Wilson's generosity of +mind, that he was ever ready to forgo his advantages of station and +birth, and to throw himself fearlessly upon his own native powers, as +man opposed to man. Even at Oxford he fought an aspiring shoemaker +repeatedly--which is creditable to both sides; for the very _prestige_ +of the gown is already overpowering to the artisan from the beginning, +and he is half beaten by terror at his own presumption. Elsewhere he +sought out, or, at least, did not avoid the most dreaded of the local +heroes; and fought his way through his "most verdant years," taking or +giving defiances to the right and the left in perfect carelessness, as +chance or occasion offered. No man could well show more generosity in +these struggles, nor more magnanimity in reporting their issue, which +naturally went many times against him. But Mr. Wilson neither sought to +disguise the issue nor showed himself at all displeased with it: even +brutal ill-usage did not seem to have left any vindictive remembrance +of itself. These features of his character, however, and these +propensities, which naturally belonged merely to the transitional state +from boyhood to manhood, would have drawn little attention on their own +account, had they not been relieved and emphatically contrasted by his +passion for literature, and the fluent command which he soon showed +over a rich and voluptuous poetic diction. In everything Mr. Wilson +showed himself an Athenian. Athenians were all lovers of the cockpit; +and, howsoever shocking to the sensibilities of modern refinement, we +have no doubt that Plato was a frequent better at cock-fights; and +Socrates is known to have bred cocks himself. If he were any Athenian, +however, in particular, it was Alcibiades; for he had his marvellous +versatility; and to the Windermere neighbourhood, in which he had +settled, this versatility came recommended by something of the very +same position in society--the same wealth, the same social temper, +the same jovial hospitality. No person was better fitted to win or to +maintain a high place in social esteem; for he could adapt himself +to all companies; and the wish to conciliate and to win his way by +flattering the self-love of others was so predominant over all personal +self-love and vanity + + "That _he_ did in the general bosom reign + Of young and old." + +Mr. Wilson and most of his family I had already known for six years. +We had projected journeys together through Spain and Greece, all of +which had been nipped in the bud by Napoleon's furious and barbarous +mode of making war. It was no joke, as it had been in past times, +for an Englishman to be found wandering in continental regions; +the pretence that he was, or might be, a spy--a charge so easy to +make, so impossible to throw off--at once sufficed for the hanging +of the unhappy traveller. In one of his Spanish bulletins, Napoleon +even boasted[178] of having hanged sixteen Englishmen, "merchants +or others of that nation," whom he taxed with no suspicion even of +being suspected, beyond the simple fact of being detected in the +act of breathing Spanish air. These atrocities had interrupted our +continental schemes; and we were thus led the more to roam amongst +home scenes. How it happened I know not--for we had wandered together +often in England--but, by some accident, it was not until 1814 that we +visited Edinburgh together. Then it was that I first saw Scotland. + + [177] _Potter_ is the local term in northern England for a hawker + of earthen ware; many of which class lead a vagrant life, and + encamp during the summer months like gipsies. + + [178] This brutal boast might, after all, be a falsehood, and, + with respect to mere numbers, probably was so. + +I remember a singular incident which befell us on the road. +Breakfasting together, before starting, at Mr. Wilson's place of +Elleray, we had roamed, through a long and delightful day, by way +of Ulleswater, &c. Reaching Penrith at night, we slept there; and +in the morning, as we were sunning ourselves in the street, we saw, +seated in an arm-chair, and dedicating himself to the self-same task +of _apricating_ his jolly personage, a rosy, jovial, portly man, +having something of the air of a Quaker. Good nature was clearly his +predominating quality; and, as that happened to be our foible also, +we soon fell into talk; and from that into reciprocations of good +will; and from those into a direct proposal, on our new friend's part, +that we should set out upon our travels together. How--whither--to +what end or object--seemed as little to enter into his speculations +as the cost of realizing them. Rare it is, in this business world +of ours, to find any man in so absolute a state of indifference and +neutrality that for him all quarters of the globe, and all points of +the compass, are self-balanced by philosophic equilibrium of choice. +There seemed to us something amusing and yet monstrous in such a +man; and, perhaps, had we been in the same condition of exquisite +indetermination, to this hour we might all have been staying together +at Penrith. We, however, were previously bound to Edinburgh; and, as +soon as this was explained to him, that way he proposed to accompany +us. We took a chaise, therefore, jointly, to Carlisle; and, during +the whole eighteen miles, he astonished us by the wildest and most +frantic displays of erudition, much of it levelled at Sir Isaac Newton. +Much philosophical learning also he exhibited; but the grotesque +accompaniment of the whole was that, after every bravura, he fell back +into his corner in fits of laughter at himself. We began to find out +the unhappy solution of his indifference and purposeless condition; +he was a lunatic; and, afterwards, we had reason to suppose that he +was now a fugitive from his keepers. At Carlisle he became restless +and suspicious; and, finally, upon some real or imaginary business, he +turned aside to Whitehaven. We were not the objects of his jealousy; +for he parted with us reluctantly and anxiously. On our part, we felt +our pleasure overcast by sadness; for we had been much amused by his +conversation, and could not but respect the philological learning +which he had displayed. But one thing was whimsical enough:--Wilson +purposely said some startling things--startling in point of decorum, +or gay pleasantries _contra bonos mores_; at every sally of which he +looked as awfully shocked as though he himself had not been holding +the most licentious talk in another key, licentious as respected all +truth of history or of science. Another illustration, in fact, he +furnished of what I have so often heard Coleridge say--that lunatics, +in general, so far from being the brilliant persons they are thought, +and having a preternatural brightness of fancy, usually are the very +dullest and most uninspired of mortals. The sequel of our poor friend's +history--for the apparent goodness of his nature had interested us +both in his fortunes, and caused us to inquire after him through all +probable channels--was, that he was last seen by a Cambridge man of our +acquaintance, but under circumstances which confirmed our worst fears. +It was in a stage-coach; and, at first, the Cantab suspected nothing +amiss; but, some accident of conversation having started the topic of +La Place's _Mechanique Celeste_, off flew our jolly Penrith friend in +a tirade against Sir Isaac Newton; so that at once we recognised him, +as the Vicar of Wakefield his "cosmogony friend" in prison; but--and +that was melancholy to hear--this tirade was suddenly checked, in +the rudest manner, by a brutal fellow in one corner of the carriage, +who, as it now appeared, was attending him as a regular keeper, and, +according to the custom of such people, always laid an interdict upon +every ebullition of fancy or animated thought. He was a man whose mind +had got some wheel entangled, or some spring overloaded, but else was +a learned and able person; and he was to be silent at the bidding of a +low, brutal fellow, incapable of distinguishing between the gaieties of +fancy and the wandering of the intellect. Sad fate! and sad inversion +of the natural relations between the accomplished scholar and the rude +illiterate boor! + +Of Edinburgh I thought to have spoken at length. But I pause, and +retreat from the subject, when I remember that so many of those whom +I loved and honoured at that time--some, too, among the gayest of the +gay--are now lying in their graves. Of Professor Wilson's sisters, +the youngest, at that time a child almost, and standing at the very +vestibule of womanhood, is alone living; she has had a romantic life; +has twice traversed, with no attendance but her servants, the gloomy +regions of the Caucasus, and once with a young child by her side. Her +husband, Mr. M'Neill, is now the English Envoy at the court of Teheran. +On the rest, one of whom I honoured and loved as a sister, the curtain +has fallen; and here, in the present mood of my spirits, I also feel +disposed to drop a curtain over my subsequent memoirs. Farewell, +hallowed recollections! + + * * * * * + +Thus, I have sketched the condition of the Lake District, as to society +of an intellectual order, at the time (viz. the winter of 1808-9) +when I became a personal resident in that district; and, indeed, from +this era, through a period of about twenty years in succession, I +may describe my domicile as being amongst the lakes and mountains of +Westmoreland. It is true, I often made excursions to London, Bath, +and its neighbourhood, or northwards to Edinburgh, and, perhaps, on +an average, passed one-fourth part of each year at a distance from +this district; but here only it was that henceforwards I had a house +and small establishment. The house, for a very long course of years, +was that same cottage in Grasmere, embowered in roses and jessamine, +which I have already described as a spot hallowed to the admirers +of Mr. Wordsworth by his seven years' occupation of its pretty +chambers and its rocky orchard: a little domain, which he has himself +apostrophized as the "lowest stair in that magnificent temple" forming +the north-eastern boundary of Grasmere. The little orchard is rightly +called "the lowest stair"; for within itself all is ascending ground; +hardly enough of flat area on which to pitch a pavilion, and even that +scanty surface an inclined plane; whilst the rest of the valley, into +which you step immediately from the garden gate, is (according to the +characteristic beauty of the northern English valleys, as first noticed +by Mr. Wordsworth himself) "flat as the floor of a temple." + +In sketching the state of the literary society gathered or gathering +about the English lakes, at the time of my settling amongst them, I +have of course authorized the reader to suppose that I personally +mixed freely amongst the whole; else I should have had neither the +means for describing that society with truth, nor any motive for +attempting it. Meantime the direct object of my own residence at the +lakes was the society of Mr. Wordsworth. And it will be a natural +inference that, if I mingled on familiar or friendly terms with this +society, _a fortiori_ would Mr. Wordsworth do so, as belonging to +the lake district by birth, and as having been, in some instances, my +own introducer to members of this community. But it was not so; and +never was a grosser blunder committed than by Lord Byron when, in a +letter to Mr. Hogg (from which an extract is given in some volume of +Mr. Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott"), he speaks of Wordsworth, +Southey, &c., in connexion with Sir Walter, as all alike injured by +mixing only with little adoring coteries, which each severally was +supposed to have gathered about himself as a centre.[179] Now, had this +really been the case, I know not how the objects of such a partial +or exclusive admiration could have been injured by it in any sense +with which the public were concerned. A writer may--and of that there +are many instances--write the worse for meeting nobody of sympathy +with himself; no admiration sufficient to convince him that he has +written powerfully: that misfortune, when it occurs, may injure a +writer, or may cause him to cease cultivating his genius. But no man +was ever injured by the strong reflection of his own power in love and +admiration; not as a writer, I mean: though it is very true, from the +great variety of modes in which praise, or the indirect flattery of +silent homage, acts upon different minds, that some men may be injured +as social companions: vanity, and, still more, egotism--the habit +of making self the central point of reference in every treatment of +every subject--may certainly be cherished by the idolatry of a private +circle, continually ascending; but arrogance and gloomy anti-social +pride are qualities much more likely to be favoured by sympathy +withheld, and the unjust denial of a man's pretensions. This, however, +need not be discussed with any reference to Mr. Wordsworth; for he had +no such admiring circle: no applauding coterie ever gathered about +him.[180] Wordsworth was not a man to be openly flattered; his pride +repelled that kind of homage, or any homage that offered itself with +the air of conferring honour; and repelled it in a tone of loftiness +or arrogance that never failed to kindle the pride of the baffled +flatterer. Nothing in the way of applause could give Wordsworth any +pleasure, unless it were the spontaneous and half-unconscious utterance +of delight in some passage--the implicit applause of love, half +afraid to express itself; or else the deliberate praise of rational +examination, study, and comparison, applied to his writings: these +were the only modes of admiration which could recommend themselves +to Wordsworth. But, had it been otherwise, there was another mistake +in what Lord Byron said:--The neighbouring people, in every degree, +"gentle and simple," literary or half-educated, who had heard of +Wordsworth, agreed in despising him. Never had poet or prophet less +honour in his own country. Of the gentry, very few knew anything about +Wordsworth. Grasmere was a vale little visited at that time, except for +an hour's admiration. The case is now [1840] altered; and partly by a +new road, which, having pierced the valley by a line carried along +the water's edge, at a most preposterous cost, and with a large arrear +of debt for the next generation, saves the labour of surmounting a +laborious hill. The case is now altered no less for the intellect of +the age; and Rydal Mount is now one of the most honoured abodes in +the island. But, at that time, Grasmere did not differ more from the +Grasmere of to-day than Wordsworth from the Wordsworth of 1809-20. I +repeat that he was little known, even as a resident in the country; +and, as a poet, strange it would have been had the little town of +Ambleside undertaken to judge for itself, and against a tribunal which +had for a time subdued the very temper of the age. Lord Byron might +have been sure that nowhere would the contempt for Mr. Wordsworth be +rifer than exactly amongst those who had a local reason for curiosity +about the man, and who, of course, adopting the tone of the presiding +journals, adopted them with a personality of feeling unknown elsewhere. + + [179] Byron's letter was not to Hogg, but to Moore, concerning a + letter received from Hogg; and the extract from it in _Lockhart_ + to which De Quincey refers was as follows:--"Oh! I have had the + most amusing letter from Hogg, the Ettrick Minstrel and Shepherd. + I think very highly of him as a poet; but he and half of those + Scotch and Lake troubadours are spoilt by living in little circles + and petty coteries. London and the world is the only place to take + the conceit out of a man." The letter is dated 3d August 1814.--M. + + [180] Scott, at all events, who had been personally acquainted + with Wordsworth since 1803,--when Wordsworth and his sister + Dorothy in the course of their Scottish tour visited Scott and his + wife at Lasswade,--had always been an admirer of Wordsworth, even + while dissenting from his poetical views. Scott and his wife had + paid a return visit to Wordsworth at Grasmere in 1805; and the two + poets had corresponded occasionally since then,--Scott decidedly + more deferential to Wordsworth than Wordsworth was to Scott.--M. + +Except, therefore, with the Lloyds, or occasionally with Thomas +Wilkinson the Quaker, or very rarely with Southey, Wordsworth had no +intercourse at all beyond the limits of Grasmere: and in that valley I +was myself, for some years, his sole visiting friend; as, on the other +hand, my sole visitors as regarded that vale, were himself and his +family. + +Among that family, and standing fourth in the series of his children, +was a little girl, whose life, short as it was, and whose death, +obscure and little heard of as it was amongst all the rest of the +world, connected themselves with the records of my own life by ties of +passion so profound, by a grief so frantic, and so memorable through +the injurious effects which it produced of a physical kind, that, +had I left untouched every other chapter of my own experience, I +should certainly have left behind some memorandum of this, as having +a permanent interest in the psychological history of human nature. +Luckily the facts are not without a parallel, and in well authenticated +medical books; else I should have scrupled (as what man does _not_ +scruple who values, above all things, the reputation for veracity?) to +throw the whole stress of credibility on my own unattached narration. +But all experienced physicians know well that cases similar to mine, +though not common, occur at intervals in every large community. + +When I first settled in Grasmere, Catherine Wordsworth was in her +infancy, but, even at that age, noticed me more than any other person, +excepting, of course, her mother. She had for an attendant a young +girl, perhaps thirteen years old--Sarah, one of the orphan children +left by the unfortunate couple, George and Sarah Green, whose tragical +end in a snow-storm I have already narrated.[181] This Sarah Green was +as far removed in character as could be imagined from that elder sister +who had won so much admiration in her childish days, by her premature +display of energy and household virtues. She was lazy, luxurious, +and sensual: one, in fact, of those nurses who, in their anxiety to +gossip about young men, leave their infant or youthful charges to +the protection of chance. It was, however, not in her out-of-door +ramblings, but at home, that the accident occurred which determined +the fortunes of little Catherine. Mr. Coleridge was at that time a +visitor to the Wordsworths at Allan Bank, that house in Grasmere to +which Wordsworth had removed upon quitting his cottage. One day about +noon, when, perhaps, he was coming down to breakfast, Mr. Coleridge +passed Sarah Green, playing after her indolent fashion with the child; +and between them lay a number of carrots. He warned the girl that raw +carrots were an indigestible substance for the stomach of an infant. +This warning was neglected: little Catherine ate--it was never known +how many; and, in a short time, was seized with strong convulsions. +I saw her in this state about two P.M. No medical aid was to be had +nearer than Ambleside; about six miles distant. However, all proper +measures were taken; and, by sunset, she had so far recovered as to +be pronounced out of danger. Her left side, however, left arm, and +left leg, from that time forward, were in a disabled state: not what +could be called paralyzed, but suffering a sort of atony or imperfect +distribution of vital power. + + [181] The story will appear in a future volume.--M. + +Catherine was not above three years old when she died; so that there +could not have been much room for the expansion of her understanding, +or the unfolding of her real character. But there was room enough in +her short life, and too much, for love the most frantic to settle +upon her. The whole vale of Grasmere is not large enough to allow of +any great distances between house and house; and, as it happened that +little Kate Wordsworth returned my love, she in a manner lived with +me at my solitary cottage; as often as I could entice her from home, +walked with me, slept with me, and was my sole companion. That I was +not singular in ascribing some witchery to the nature and manners of +this innocent child, you may gather from the following most beautiful +lines extracted from a sketch[182] towards her portraiture, drawn by +her father (with whom, however, she was noways a favourite):-- + + "And, as a faggot sparkles on the hearth, + Not less if unattended and alone + Than when both young and old sit gathered round + And take delight in its activity; + Even so this happy creature of herself + Was all sufficient: solitude to her + Was blithe society, who filled the air + With gladness and involuntary songs. + Light were her sallies as the tripping fawn's, + Forth-startled from the form where she lay couch'd; + Unthought of, unexpected, as the stir + Of the soft breeze ruffling the meadow-flowers, + Or from before it chasing wantonly + The many-coloured images impressed + Upon the bosom of a placid lake." + +It was this radiant spirit of joyousness, making solitude for her +blithe society, and filling from morning to night the air "with +gladness and involuntary songs," this it was which so fascinated my +heart that I became blindly, doatingly, in a servile degree, devoted +to this one affection. In the spring of 1812, I went up to London; and, +early in June, by a letter from Miss Wordsworth, her aunt, I learned +the terrific news (for such to me it was) that she had died suddenly. +She had gone to bed in good health about sunset on June 4th; was found +speechless a little before midnight; and died in the early dawn, just +as the first gleams of morning began to appear above Seat Sandel and +Fairfield, the mightiest of the Grasmere barriers, about an hour, +perhaps, before sunrise. + + [182] It is entitled "Characteristics of a Child Three Years Old"; + and is dated at the foot 1811, which must be an oversight, for she + was not so old until the following year. I may as well add the + first six lines, though I had a reason for beginning the extract + where it does, in order to fix the attention upon the special + circumstance which had so much fascinated myself, of her + all-sufficiency to herself, and the way in which she "filled the + air with gladness and involuntary songs." The other lines are + these: + + "Loving she is and tractable, though wild; + And Innocence hath privilege in her + To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes; + And feats of cunning; and the pretty round + Of trespasses, affected to provoke + Mock-chastisement and partnership in play." + +Never, perhaps, from the foundations of those mighty hills, was there +so fierce a convulsion of grief as mastered my faculties on receiving +that heart-shattering news. Over and above my excess of love for her, +I had always viewed her as an impersonation of the dawn and the spirit +of infancy; and this abstraction seated in her person, together with +the visionary sort of connexion which, even in her parting hours, she +assumed with the summer sun, by timing her immersion into the cloud +of death with the rising and setting of that fountain of life,--these +combined impressions recoiled so violently into a contrast or polar +antithesis to the image of death that each exalted and brightened the +other. I returned hastily to Grasmere; stretched myself every night, +for more than two months running, upon her grave; in fact, often +passed the night upon her grave; not (as may readily be supposed) in +any parade of grief; on the contrary, in that quiet valley of simple +shepherds, I was secure enough from observation until morning light +began to return; but in mere intensity of sick, frantic yearning after +neighbourhood to the darling of my heart. Many readers will have seen +in Sir Walter Scott's "Demonology," and in Dr. Abercrombie's "Inquiries +concerning the Intellectual Powers," some remarkable illustrations of +the creative faculties awakened in the eye or other organs by peculiar +states of passion; and it is worthy of a place amongst cases of that +nature that, in many solitary fields, at a considerable elevation +above the level of the valleys,--fields which, in the local dialect, +are called "intacks,"--my eye was haunted at times, in broad noonday +(oftener, however, in the afternoon), with a facility, but at times +also with a necessity, for weaving, out of a few simple elements, a +perfect picture of little Kate in the attitude and onward motion of +walking. I resorted constantly to these "intacks," as places where I +was little liable to disturbance; and usually I saw her at the opposite +side of the field, which might sometimes be at a distance of a quarter +of a mile, generally not so much. Always almost she carried a basket +on her head; and usually the first hint upon which the figure arose +commenced in wild plants, such as tall ferns, or the purple flowers +of the foxglove; but, whatever might be the colours or the forms, +uniformly the same little full-formed figure arose, uniformly dressed +in the little blue bed-gown and black skirt of Westmoreland, and +uniformly with the air of advancing motion. Through part of June, July, +and part of August, in fact throughout the summer, this frenzy of grief +continued. It was reasonably to be expected that nature would avenge +such senseless self-surrender to passion; for, in fact, so far from +making an effort to resist it, I clung to it as a luxury (which, in +the midst of suffering, it really was in part). All at once, on a day +at the latter end of August, in one instant of time, I was seized with +some nervous sensation that, for a moment, caused sickness. A glass +of brandy removed the sickness; but I felt, to my horror, a sting as +it were, of some stationary torment left behind--a torment absolutely +indescribable, but under which I felt assured that life could not be +borne. It is useless and impossible to describe what followed: with +no apparent illness discoverable to any medical eye--looking, indeed, +better than usual for three months and upwards, I was under the +possession of some internal nervous malady, that made each respiration +which I drew an act of separate anguish. I travelled southwards +immediately to Liverpool, to Birmingham, to Bristol, to Bath, for +medical advice; and finally rested--in a gloomy state of despair, +rather because I saw no use in further change than that I looked for +any change in this place more than others--at Clifton, near Bristol. +Here it was, at length, in the course of November, that, in one hour, +my malady began to leave me: it was not quite so abrupt, however, in +its departure, as in its first development: a peculiar sensation arose +from the knee downwards, about midnight: it went forwards through a +space of about five hours, and then stopped, leaving me perfectly free +from every trace of the awful malady which had possessed me, but so +much debilitated as with difficulty to stand or walk. Going down soon +after this, to Ilfracombe, in Devonshire, where there were hot sea +baths, I found it easy enough to restore my shattered strength. But the +remarkable fact in this catastrophe of my illness is that all grief +for little Kate Wordsworth, nay, all remembrance of her, had, with my +malady, vanished from my mind. The traces of her innocent features +were utterly washed away from my heart: she might have been dead for a +thousand years, so entirely abolished was the last lingering image of +her face or figure. The little memorials of her which her mother had +given to me, as, in particular, a pair of her red morocco shoes, won +not a sigh from me as I looked at them: even her little grassy grave, +white with snow, when I returned to Grasmere in January, 1813, was +looked at almost with indifference; except, indeed, as now become a +memorial to me of that dire internal physical convulsion thence arising +by which I had been shaken and wrenched; and, in short, a case more +entirely realizing the old Pagan superstition of a nympholepsy in the +first place, and, secondly, of a Lethe or river of oblivion, and the +possibility, by one draught from this potent stream, of applying an +everlasting ablution to all the soils and stains of human anguish, I do +not suppose the psychological history of man affords.[183] + + [183] The paper in _Tait's Magazine_ for August 1840 does not end + here, but includes all the matter of the next short chapter. As + that matter changes the scene from the Lakes, however, better to + put it in a chapter by itself.--M. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + RAMBLES FROM THE LAKES: MRS. SIDDONS AND HANNAH MORE[184] + + [184] From _Tait's Magazine_ for August 1840.--M. + + +From the Lakes, as I have mentioned before, I went annually +southwards--chiefly to Somersetshire or to London, and more rarely +to Edinburgh. In my Somersetshire visits, I never failed to see Mrs. +Hannah More. My own relative's house, in fact, standing within one +mile of Barley Wood,[185] I seldom suffered a week to pass without +calling to pay my respects. There was a stronger motive to this than +simply what arose from Mrs. H. More's company, or even from that of +her sisters (one or two of whom were more entertaining, because more +filled with animal spirits and less thoughtful, than Mrs. Hannah); +for it rarely happened that one called within the privileged calling +hours,--which, with these rural ladies, ranged between twelve and +four o'clock,--but one met some person interesting by rank, station, +political or literary eminence. + + [185] Hannah More's residence.--M. + +Here, accordingly, it was that, during one of my last visits to +Somersetshire, either in 1813 or 1814, I met Mrs. Siddons, whom I had +often seen upon the stage, but never before in private society.[186] +She had come into this part of the country chiefly, I should imagine, +with a view to the medical advice at the Bristol Hot Wells and Clifton; +for it happened that one of her daughters--a fine interesting young +woman--was suffering under pulmonary consumption--that scourge of the +British youth; of which malady, I believe, she ultimately died. From +the Hot Wells, Mrs. Siddons had been persuaded to honour with her +company a certain Dr. Wh----, whose splendid villa of Mendip Lodge +stood about two miles from Barley Wood. + + [186] At the time mentioned Hannah More was verging on her + seventieth year and Mrs. Siddons on her sixtieth.--M. + +This villa, by the way, was a show place, in which a vast deal of money +had been sunk upon two follies equally unproductive of pleasure to the +beholder and of anything approaching a pecuniary compensation to the +owner. The villa, with its embellishments, was supposed to have cost +at least sixty thousand pounds; of which one-half had been absorbed, +partly by a contest with the natural obstacles of the situation, and +partly by the frailest of all ornaments--vast china jars, vases, and +other "knicknackery" baubles, which held their very existence by so +frail a tenure as the carefulness of a housemaid, and which, at all +events, if they should survive the accidents of life, never are known +to reproduce to the possessor one-tenth part of what they have cost. +Out of doors there were terraces of a mile long, one rising above +another, and carried, by mere artifice of mechanic skill, along the +perpendicular face of a lofty rock. Had they, when finished, any +particular beauty? Not at all. Considered as a pleasure ground, they +formed a far less delightful landscape, and a far less alluring haunt +to rambling steps, than most of the uncostly shrubberies which were +seen below, in unpretending situations, and upon the ordinary level +of the vale. What a record of human imbecility! For all his pains +and his expense in forming this costly "folly," his reward was daily +anxiety, and one solitary _bon mot_ which he used to record of some +man who, on being asked by the Rev. Doctor what he thought of his +place, replied that "he thought the Devil had tempted him up to an +exceedingly high place." No part of the grounds, nor the house itself, +was at all the better because originally it had been, beyond measure, +difficult to form it: so difficult that, according to Dr. Johnson's +witty remark on another occasion, there was good reason for wishing +that it had been impossible. The owner, whom I knew, most certainly +never enjoyed a happy day in this costly creation; which, after all, +displayed but little taste, though a gorgeous array of finery. The +show part of the house was itself a monument to the barrenness of +invention in him who planned it; consisting, as it did, of one long +suite of rooms in a straight line, without variety, without obvious +parts, and therefore without symmetry or proportions. This long vista +was so managed that, by means of folding-doors, the whole could be seen +at a glance, whilst its extent was magnified by a vast mirror at the +further end. The Doctor was a querulous old man, enormously tall and +enormously bilious; so that he had a spectral appearance when pacing +through the false gaieties of his glittering villa. He was a man of +letters, and had known Dr. Johnson, whom he admired prodigiously; and +had himself been, in earlier days, the author of a poem now forgotten. +He belonged, at one period, to the coterie of Miss Seward, Dr. Darwin, +Day, Mr. Edgeworth, &c.; consequently he might have been an agreeable +companion, having so much anecdote at his command: but his extreme +biliousness made him irritable in a painful degree and impatient of +contradiction--impatient even of dissent in the most moderate shape. +The latter stage of his life is worth recording, as a melancholy +comment upon the blindness of human foresight, and in some degree also +as a lesson on the disappointments which follow any departure from high +principle, and the deception which seldom fails to lie in ambush for +the deceiver. I had one day taken the liberty to ask him why, and with +what ultimate purpose, he, who did not like trouble and anxiety, had +embarrassed himself with the planning and construction of a villa that +manifestly embittered his days? "That is, my young friend," replied the +doctor, "speaking plainly, you mean to express your wonder that I, so +old a man (for he was then not far from seventy), should spend my time +in creating a show-box. Well now, I will tell you: precisely because +I _am_ old. I am naturally of a gloomy turn; and it has always struck +me that we English, who are constitutionally haunted by melancholy, +are too apt to encourage it by the gloomy air of the mansions we +inhabit. Your fortunate age, my friend, can dispense with such aids: +ours requires continual influxes of pleasure through the senses, in +order to cheat the stealthy advances of old age, and to beguile us +of our sadness. Gaiety, the _riant_ style in everything, that is what +we old men need. And I, who do not love the pains of creating, love +the creation; and, in fact, require it as part of my artillery against +time." Such was the amount of his explanation: and now, in a few words, +for his subsequent history. + +Finding himself involved in difficulties by the expenses of this villa, +going on concurrently with a large London establishment, he looked +out for a good marriage (being a widower) as the sole means within +his reach for clearing off his embarrassments without proportionable +curtailment of his expenses. It happened, unhappily for both parties, +that he fell in with a widow lady, who was cruising about the world +with precisely the same views, and in precisely the same difficulties. +Each (or the friends of each) held out a false flag, magnifying +their incomes respectively, and sinking the embarrassments. Mutually +deceived, they married: and one change immediately introduced at the +splendid villa was the occupation of an entire wing by a lunatic +brother of the lady's; the care of whom, with a large allowance, had +been committed to her by the Court of Chancery. This, of itself, +shed a gloom over the place which defeated the primary purpose of +the doctor (as explained by himself) in erecting it. Windows barred, +maniacal howls, gloomy attendants from a lunatic hospital ranging +about: these were sad disturbances to the doctor's rose-leaf system of +life. This, however, if it were a nuisance, brought along with it some +_solatium_, as the lawyers express it, in the shape of the Chancery +allowance. But next came the load of debts for which there was no +_solatium_, and which turned out to be the only sort of possession +with which the lady was well endowed. The disconsolate doctor--an old +man, and a clergyman of the Establishment--could not resort to such +redress as a layman might have adopted: he was obliged to give up all +his establishments; his gay villa was offered to Queen Caroline, who +would, perhaps, have bought it, but that _her_ final troubles in this +world were also besetting her about that very time. For the present, +therefore, the villa was shut up, and "left alone with its glory." +The reverend and aged proprietor, now ten times more bilious and more +querulous than ever, shipped himself off for France; and there, in one +of the southern provinces--so far, therefore, as climate was concerned, +realizing his vision of gaiety, but for all else the most melancholy +of exiles--sick of the world and of himself, hating to live, yet more +intensely hating to die, in a short time the unhappy old man breathed +his last, in a common lodging house, gloomy and vulgar, and in all +things the very antithesis to that splendid abode which he had planned +for the consolation of his melancholy, and for the gay beguilement of +old age. + +At this gentleman's villa Mrs. Siddons had been paying a visit; for +the doctor was a worshipper, in a servile degree, of all things which +flourished in the sunshine of the world's applause. To have been the +idolized favourite of nations, to have been an honoured and even a +privileged[187] guest at Windsor, that was enough for him; and he did +his utmost to do the honours of his neighbourhood, not less to glorify +himself in the eye of the country, who was fortunate enough to have +such a guest, than to show his respect for the distinguished visitor. +Mrs. Siddons felt herself flattered by the worthy doctor's splendid +hospitalities; for that they were really splendid may be judged by +this fact, communicated to me by Hannah More, viz. that the Bishop of +London (Porteus), when on a visit to Barley Wood, being much pressed by +the doctor to visit him, had at length accepted a dinner invitation. +Mrs. Hannah More was, of course, included in the invitation, but had +found it impossible to attend, from ill health; and the next morning, +at breakfast, the bishop had assured her that, in all his London +experience, in that city of magnificent dinners beyond all other +cities of the earth, and amongst the princes of the land, he had never +witnessed an entertainment so perfect in its appointments. + + [187] A _privileged_ guest at Windsor. Mrs. Siddons used to + mention that, when she was invited to Windsor Castle for the + purpose of reading before the Queen and her royal daughters, on + her first visit she was ready to sink from weariness under the + effort of standing for so long a time; but on some subsequent + visit I have understood that she was allowed to sit, probably on + the suggestion of one of the younger ladies. + +Gratified as she was, however, by her host's homage, as expressed in +his splendid style of entertaining, Mrs. Siddons was evidently more +happy in her residence at Barley Wood. The style of conversation +pleased her. It was religious: but Mrs. Siddons was herself religious; +and at that moment, when waiting with anxiety upon a daughter whose +languor seemed but too ominous in her maternal eyes, she was more than +usually open to religious impressions, and predisposed to religious +topics. Certain I am, however, from what I then observed, that Mrs. +Siddons, in common with many women of rank who were on the list of +the Barley Wood visitors, did not apprehend, in their full sense and +severity, the peculiar principles of Hannah More. This lady, excellent +as she was, and incapable of practising any studied deceit, had, +however, an instinct of worldly wisdom, which taught her to refrain +from shocking ears polite with too harsh or too broad an exposure +of all which she believed. This, at least, if it were any duty of +hers, she considered, perhaps, as already fulfilled by her writings; +and, moreover, the very tone of good breeding which she had derived +from the good company she had kept made her feel the impropriety of +lecturing her visitors even when she must have thought them in error. +Mrs. Siddons obviously thought Hannah More a person who differed from +the world chiefly by applying a greater energy, and sincerity, and +zeal, to a system of religious truth equally known to all. Repentance, +for instance--all people hold that to be a duty; and Mrs. Hannah More +differed from them only by holding it to be a duty of all hours, a +duty for youth not less than for age. But how much would she have been +shocked to hear that Mrs. Hannah More held all repentance, however +indispensable, yet in itself, and though followed by the sincerest +efforts at reformation of life, to be utterly unavailing as any +operative part of the means by which man gains acceptance with God. To +rely upon repentance, or upon anything that man can do for himself, +that Mrs. Hannah More considered as the mortal taint, as the [Greek: +prôton pseudos], in the worldly theories of the Christian scheme; and I +have heard the two ladies--Mrs. More and Mrs. Siddons, I mean--talking +by the hour together, as completely at cross purposes as it is possible +to imagine. Everything in fact of what was special in the creed +adopted by Mrs. Hannah More, by Wilberforce, and many others known as +Evangelical Christians, is always capable, in lax conversation, of +being translated into a vague general sense, which completely obscures +the true limitations of the meaning. + +Mrs. Hannah More, however, was too polished a woman to allow of +any sectarian movement being impressed upon the conversation; +consequently, she soon directed it to literature, upon which Mrs. +Siddons was very amusing, from her recollections of Dr. Johnson, whose +fine-turned compliment to herself (so much in the spirit of those +unique compliments addressed to eminent people by Louis XIV) had for +ever planted the Doctor's memory in her heart.[188] She spoke also of +Garrick and of Mrs. Garrick; but not, I think, with so much respect and +affection as Mrs. Hannah More, who had, in her youthful days, received +the most friendly attentions from both, though coming forward at that +time in no higher character than as the author of _Percy_, the most +insipid of tragedies.[189] + + [188] It was in 1783, the last year but one of Dr. Johnson's life, + that Mrs. Siddons, then twenty-eight years of age, and already the + most famous actress of her day, visited Johnson in his rooms in + Bolt Court, Fleet Street. "When Mrs. Siddons came into the room, + there happened to be no chair ready for her, which he observing, + said with a smile, 'Madam, you who so often occasion a want of + seats to other people will the more easily excuse the want of one + yourself.'" So Boswell reports.--M. + + [189] Published in 1777.--M. + +Mrs. Siddons was prevailed on to read passages from both Shakspere +and Milton. The dramatic readings were delightful; in fact, they were +almost stage rehearsals, accompanied with appropriate gesticulation. +One was the great somnambulist scene in _Macbeth_, which was the _ne +plus ultra_ in the whole range of Mrs. Siddons's scenical exhibitions, +and can never be forgotten by any man who once had the happiness to +witness that immortal performance of the divine artist. Another, +given at the request of a Dutch lady residing in the neighbourhood of +Barley Wood, was the scene from _King John_ of the Lady Constance, +beginning--"Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace!" &c. The last, +and truly superb for the musical intonation of the cadences, was that +inimitable apology or pleading of Christian charity for Cardinal +Wolsey, addressed to his bitterest enemy, Queen Catherine. All these, +in different degrees and different ways, were exquisite. But the +readings from Milton were not to my taste. And, some weeks after, when, +at Mrs. Hannah More's request, I had read to her some of Lord Byron's +most popular works, I got her to acknowledge, in then speaking upon the +subject of reading, that perhaps the style of Mrs. Siddons's reading +had been too much determined to the dramatic cast of emphasis, and the +pointed expression of character and situation which must always belong +to a speaker bearing a part in a dialogue, to admit of her assuming the +tone of a rapt poetic inspiration. + +Meantime, whatever she did--whether it were in display of her own +matchless talents, but always at the earnest request of the company +or of her hostess, or whether it were in gentle acquiescent attention +to the display made by others, or whether it were as one member of a +general party taking her part occasionally for the amusement of the +rest and contributing to the general fund of social pleasure--nothing +could exceed the amiable, kind, and unassuming deportment of Mrs. +Siddons. She had retired from the stage,[190] and no longer regarded +herself as a public character.[191] But so much the stronger did she +seem to think the claims of her friends upon anything she could do for +their amusement. + + [190] I saw her, however, myself upon the stage twice after this + meeting at Barley Wood. It was at Edinburgh; and the parts were + those of Lady Macbeth and Lady Randolph. But she then performed + only as an expression of kindness to her grandchildren. Professor + Wilson and myself saw her on the occasion from the stage-box, with + a delight embittered by the certainty that we saw her for the last + time. + + [191] Her farewell to the stage had been on the 29th of June 1812 + in the character of Lady Macbeth.--M. + +Meantime, amongst the many pleasurable impressions which Mrs. Siddons's +presence never failed to make, there was one which was positively +painful and humiliating: it was the degradation which it inflicted +upon other women. One day there was a large dinner party at Barley +Wood: Mrs. Siddons was present; and I remarked to a gentleman who sat +next to me--a remark which he heartily confirmed--that, upon rising +to let the ladies leave us, Mrs. Siddons, by the mere necessity of +her regal deportment, dwarfed the whole party, and made them look +ridiculous; though Mrs. H. More, and others of the ladies present, +were otherwise really women of very pleasing appearance. One final +remark is forced upon me by my recollections of Mrs. Jordan, and of +her most unhappy end: it is this; and strange enough it seems:--that +the child of laughter and comic mirth, whose laugh itself thrilled +the heart with pleasure, and who created gaiety of the noblest order +for one entire generation of her countrymen, died prematurely, and in +exile, and in affliction which really killed her by its own stings. +If ever woman died of a broken heart, of tenderness bereaved, and of +hope deferred, that woman was Mrs. Jordan.[192] On the other hand, this +sad votary of Melpomene, the queen of the tragic stage, died full of +years and honours, in the bosom of her admiring country, in the centre +of idolizing friends, and happy in all things except this, that some +of those whom she most loved on earth had gone before her. Strange +contrariety of lots for the two transcendent daughters of the comic and +tragic muses. For my own part, I shall always regard my recollections +of Mrs. Siddons as those in which chiefly I have an advantage over +the coming generation; nay, perhaps over all generations; for many +centuries may revolve without producing such another transcendent +creature. + + [192] Mrs. Jordan died in 1816, at the age of 54; Mrs. Siddons in + 1831, at the age of 76. Hannah More outlived both, dying in 1833, + at the age of 88.--M. + + END OF VOL. II + + + + + _In Four Volumes, large crown 8vo, Art Canvas binding, price 6s. each._ + + THE INGENIOUS GENTLEMAN + DON QUIXOTE + OF LA MANCHA + + BY + MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA + + DONE INTO ENGLISH BY + HENRY EDWARD WATTS + + _A NEW EDITION_ + + _With Notes Original and Selected._ + + + _In One Volume, uniform with the above Edition of DON QUIXOTE, + price 7s. 6d._ + + A NEW AND GREATLY ENLARGED + LIFE OF CERVANTES + + BY + + HENRY EDWARD WATTS + +The above Life has been wholly recast and almost entirely rewritten, +and contains an autogravure frontispiece of an interesting and original +portrait, reproduced from an exact copy of the bust of the figure +believed to represent Cervantes in Pacheco's picture at Seville. + +LONDON: A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE. + + +Standard Edition of the Waverley Novels + +[Illustration: Per 2/6 Volume] + +Complete in 25 Volumes, Crown 8vo, bound in Art Canvas, Gilt top, +containing Photogravure Frontispieces printed on Japanese Paper. + +_Also to be had in full limp leather, gilt edges, price 3s. 6d. per +volume._ + +Sets, cloth ... Price £3:2:6. + +_Sets can also be had in various leather bindings. Prices upon +application._ + + =1. Waverley; or, "'Tis Sixty Years Since."= + =2. Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer.= + =3. The Antiquary.= + =4. Rob Roy.= + =5. A Legend of Montrose, and The Black Dwarf.= + =6. Old Mortality.= + =7. The Heart of Mid-Lothian.= + =8. The Bride of Lammermoor.= + =9. Ivanhoe: A Romance.= + =10. The Monastery.= + =11. The Abbot: A Sequel.= + =12. Kenilworth.= + =13. The Pirate.= + =14. The Fortunes of Nigel.= + =15. Peveril of the Peak.= + =16. Quentin Durward.= + =17. St. Ronan's Well.= + =18. Redgauntlet.= + =19. The Betrothed, and The Highland Widow.= + =20. The Talisman: A Tale of the Crusaders.= + =21. Woodstock; or, The Cavalier.= + =22. The Fair Maid of Perth; or, St. Valentine's Day.= + =23. Anne of Geierstein; or, The Maiden of the Mist.= + =24. Count Robert of Paris.= + =25. The Surgeon's Daughter, and Castle Dangerous.= + +_The above Volumes contain all the Author's Introductions and Notes, +as well as the Copyright Annotations of the late DAVID LAING, LL.D. A +Glossary and Index are also appended to each._ + +LONDON: A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Collected Writing of Thomas De +Quincey, Vol. II, by Thomas De Quincey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42909 *** |