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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8210-8.txt b/8210-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddadf51 --- /dev/null +++ b/8210-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11658 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. +by Coleridge, ed. Turnbull +#5 in our series by Coleridge, ed. Turnbull + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. + +Author: Coleridge, ed. Turnbull + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8210] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 2, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIA EPISTOLARIS, VOLUME 1. *** + + + + +Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +Samuel Taylor Coleridge's + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHIA EPISTOLARIS + + + +comprising 33 letters + +and being + +the Biographical Supplement of +Coleridge's BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA + +with additional letters etc., edited by + +A. TURNBULL + + + + +Vol. 1. + + + "On the whole this was surely the mightiest genius since Milton. In + poetry there is not his like, when he rose to his full power; he was + a philosopher, the immensity of whose mind cannot be gauged by + anything he has left behind; a critic, the subtlest and most + profound of his time. Yet these vast and varied powers flowed away + in the shifting sands of talk; and what remains is but what the few + land-locked pools are to the receding ocean which has left them + casually behind without sensible diminution of its + waters." + + Academy, 3d October, 1903. + + + + +PREFACE + +The work known as the Biographical Supplement of the Biographia +Literaria of S. T. Coleridge, and published with the latter in 1847, was +begun by Henry Nelson Coleridge, and finished after his death by his +widow, Sara Coleridge. The first part, concluding with a letter dated +5th November 1796, is the more valuable portion of the Biographical +Supplement. What follows, written by Sara Coleridge, is more +controversial than biographical and does not continue, like the first +part, to make Coleridge tell his own life by inserting letters in the +narrative. Of 33 letters quoted in the whole work, 30 are contained in +the section written by Henry Nelson Coleridge. Of these 11 were drawn +from Cottle's Early Recollections, seven being letters to Josiah Wade, +four to Joseph Cottle, and the remainder are sixteen letters to Poole, +one to Benjamin Flower, one to Charles E Heath, and one to Henry Martin. + +From this I think it is evident that Henry Nelson Coleridge intended +what was published as a Supplement to the Biographia Literaria to be a +Life of Coleridge, either supplementary to the Biographia Literaria or +as an independent narrative, in which most of the letters published by +Cottle in 1837 and unpublished letters to Poole and other correspondents +were to form the chief material. Sara Coleridge, in finishing the +fragment, did not attempt to carry out the original intention of her +husband. A few letters in Cottle were perhaps not acceptable to her +taste, and in rejecting them she perhaps resolved to reject all +remaining letters in Cottle. She thus finished the fragmentary Life of +Coleridge left by her husband in her own way. + +But Henry Nelson Coleridge had begun to build on another plan. His +intention was simply to string all Coleridge's letters available on a +slim biographical thread and thus produce a work in which the poet would +have been made to tell his own life. His beginning with the five +Biographical Letters to Thomas Poole is a proof of this. He took these +as his starting point; and, as far as he went, his "Life of Coleridge" +thus constructed is the most reliable of all the early biographies of +Coleridge. + +This edition of the Biographical Supplement is meant to carry out as far +as possible the original project of its author. The whole of his +narrative has been retained, and also what Sara Coleridge added to his +writing; and all the non-copyright letters of Coleridge available from +other sources have been inserted into the narrative, and additional +biographical matter, explanatory of the letters, has been given. [1] By +this retention of authentic sources I have produced as faithful a +picture of the Poet-Philosopher Coleridge as can be got anywhere, for +Coleridge always paints his own character in his letters. Those desirous +of a fuller picture may peruse, along with this work, the letters +published in the Collection of 1895, the place of which in the narrative +is indicated in footnotes. + +[Footnote: What has been added is enclosed in square brackets.] + + +The letters are drawn from the following sources: + + +"Biographical Supplement", 1847 ............................................ 33 +Cottle's "Reminiscences", 1847 ............................................. 78 +The original "Friend", 1809 ................................................. 5 +"The Watchman", 1796 ........................................................ 1 +Gillman's "Life of Coleridge", 1838 ......................................... 7 +Allsop's "Letters, Conversations, etc., of S. T. C"., 1836 (1864) .......... 45 +"Essays on his Own Times", 1850 ............................................. 1 +"Life and Correspondence of R. Southey", 1850 ............................... 7 +Editorials of Poems, etc .................................................... 8 +"Literary Remains of S. T. C., 1836, etc" ................................... 3 +"Blackwood's Magazine", October, 1821 ....................................... 1 +"Fragmentary Remains of Humphry Davy", 1858 ................................ 15 +"Macmillan's Magazine", 1864 (Letters to W. Godwin) ......................... 9 +Southey's "Life of Andrew Bell", 3 vols., 1844 .............................. 2 +"Charles Lamb and the Lloyds", by E. V. Lucas ............................... 3 +"Anima Poetae", by E. H. Coleridge, 1895 .................................... 1 + + +The letters of Coleridge have slowly come to light. Coleridge was always +fond of letter-writing, and at several periods of his career he was more +active in letter-writing than at others. He commenced the publication of +his letters himself. The epistolary form was as dear to him in prose as +the ballad or odic form in verse. From his earliest publications we can +see he loved to launch a poem with "A letter to the Editor," or to the +recipient, as preface. The "Mathematical Problem", one of his juvenile +facetiae in rhyme, was thus heralded with a letter addressed to his +brother George explaining the import of the doggerel. His first printed +poem, "To Fortune" (Dykes Campbell's Edition of the "Poems", p. 27), was +also prefaced by a short letter to the editor of the "Morning +Chronicle". Among Coleridge's letters are several of this sort, and each +affords a glimpse into his character. Those with the "Raven" and +"Talleyrand to Lord Grenville" are characteristic specimens of his +drollery and irony. + +Coleridge's greatest triumphs in letter-writing were gained in the field +of politics. His two letters to Fox, his letters on the Spaniards, and +those to Judge Fletcher, are his highest specimens of epistolary +eloquence, and constitute him the rival of Rousseau as an advocate of +some great truth in a letter addressed to a public personage. In +clearness of thought and virile precision of language they surpass the +most of anything that Coleridge has written. They never wander from the +point at issue; the evolution of their ideas is perfect, their idiom the +purest mother-English written since the refined vocabulary of Hooker, +Jeremy Taylor, and Harrington was coined. + +Besides the political letters, Coleridge published during his lifetime +four important letters of great length written during his sojourn in +Germany. Three of these appeared in the "Friend" of 1809, and indeed +were the finest part of that periodical; and one was first made public +in the "Amulet" of 1829. Six letters published in "Blackwood's Magazine" +of 1820-21, and a few others of less importance, brought up the number +of letters published by Coleridge to 46. The following is a list of them: + + +7th Nov. 1793, "To Fortune," Ed. "Morning Chronicle" ................ 1 +22nd Sept. 1794, Dedication to "Robespierre," to H. Martin ........... 1 +1st April 1796, Letter to "Caius Gracchus," "The Watchman" ........... 1 +26th Dec. 1796, Dedication to the "Ode to the Departing Year," +to T. Poole ........... 1 +1798, Ed. "Monthly Magazine, re Monody on Chatterton"................. 1 +1799, Ed. "Morning Post," with the "Raven" ........................... 1 +21 Dec. 1799, Ed. "Morning Post," with "Love" ........................ 1 +10th Jan. 1800, Ed. "Morning Post, Talleyrand to Lord Grenville" ..... 1 +18th Nov. 1800, "Monthly Review," on "Wallenstein" ................... 1 +1834, To George Coleridge, with "Mathematical Problem" ............... 1 +Political Letters to the "Morning Post" and "Courier" ................ 21 +1809, Letters of Satyrane, etc., in the "Friend" ..................... 8 +1820-21, Letters to "Blackwood's Magazine" ........................... 6 +1829, "The Amulet," "Over the Brocken" .............................. 1 + -- + 46 + +The "Literary Remains," published in 1836, added ..................... 4 + +Allsop, in his "Letters, Conversations, etc.", gave to the world ..... 46 + +Cottle followed in 1837, with his "Early Recollections", in which .... 84 +letters or fragments of letters made their appearance + +Gillman in 1838 published 11 letters or fragments, 4 of which had +already appeared in the works of Allsop and Cottle and in the +"Friend", leaving a contribution of ................................. 7 + + +The "Gentleman's Magazine" followed in 1838 +with letters to Daniel Stuart ........................................17 + +Cottle, in 1847, re-cast his "Early Recollections", and called his +work "Reminiscences of Coleridge and Southey", and added the +splendid Wedgwood series of 19 letters, and a few others of less +importance, in all ...................................................25 + +The "Biographical Supplement" to the 1847 edition of the "Biographia +Literaria" contained 33 letters, 11 of which were from Cottle; +leaving a contribution of ............................................22 + +In 1850, Coleridge's "Essays on his Own Times", consisting of his +magazine and newspaper articles, contained in the Preface (p. 91), +a fragment of a letter to Poole .......................................1 + +Making ..............................................................252 + + +published up to 1850 by Coleridge himself and his three early +biographers; and these continued to be quoted and alluded to by writers +on Coleridge until 1895, when Mr. E. H. Coleridge gave to the world a +collection of 260 letters. + +Meantime, numerous biographies, memoirs, and magazines continued to +throw in a contribution now and then. The following, as far as I have +been able to ascertain, is the number of letters or fragments of letters +contributed by the various works enumerated: + + +1836-8, Lockhart's "Life of Sir Walter Scott" 1 +1841, "Life of Charles Mathews" 1 + " "The Mirror", Letter to George Dyer 1 +1844, Southey's "Life of Dr. Andrew Bell" 5 +1847, "Memoir of Carey" (Translator of Dante) 1 +1848, "Memoir of William Collins, R.A." 1 +1849, "Life and Correspondence of R. Southey" 7 +1851, "Memoirs of W. Wordsworth" 8 +1858, "Fragmentary Remains of Sir H. Davy" 15 +1860, "Autobiography of C. R. Leslie" 1 +1864, "Macmillan's Magazine" (Letters to Win. Godwin) 9 +1869, "H. Crabb Robinson's Diary" 5 +1870, "Westminster Review" (Letters to Dr. Brabant) 11 +1871, Meteyard's "Group of Englishmen" 2 +1873, Sara Coleridge's "Memoirs" 1 +1874, "Lippincott's Magazine" 10 +1876, "Life of William Godwin", by C. Regan Paul (16, + less 7 of those which appeared in "Macmillan's + Magazine", 1864) 9 +1878, "Fraser's Magazine" (letters to Matilda Betham) 5 +1880, Macmillan's Edition of "Coleridge's Poems" 1 +1882, "Journals of Caroline Fox" 1 +1884, "Life of Alaric Watts" 5 +1886, Brandl's "Life of Coleridge" 10 +1887, "Memorials of Coleorton" 20 +1888, "Thomas Poole and his Friends" (Mrs. Sandford) 75 +1889, Professor Knight's "Life of Wordsworth" 12 +1889, "Rogers and his Contemporaries" 1 +1890, "Memoir of John Murray" 4 +1891, "De Quincey Memorials" 4 +1893, "Life of Washington Allston" (Flagg) 4 +" "Friends' Quarterly Magazine" 1 +" "Illustrated London News" 19 +1893, J. Dykes Campbell's Edition of "Coleridge's Poems" 8 +1894, " " " Life of Coleridge" (fragments) 36 +1894, "The Athenaeum" (3 letters to Wrangham) 3 +1895, "Letters" of S. T. Coleridge (edited by E. H. + Coleridge) 174 +" "Anima Poetae" (E. H. C.), Letter to J. Tobin. 1 +" "The Gillmans of Highgate" (A. W. Gillman) 3 +" "Athenaeum" of 18 May, 1895 1 +1897, "William Blackwood and his Sons", by Mrs. Oliphant 6 +1898, "Charles Lamb and the Lloyds" (E. V. Lucas) 3 +1899, "J. H. Frere and his Friends" 7 +1903, "Tom Wedgwood", by R. B. Litchfield 1 +1907, "Christabel", edited by E. H. Coleridge 1 +1910, "The Bookman", May 1 + + Total 747 + + +Besides these there are privately printed letters and letters not yet +published to be taken account of. The chief collection of these is +"Letters from the Lake Poets" (edited by E. H. Coleridge), containing 87 +letters to Daniel Stuart, some of which are republished in the +"Letters", 1895. The remainder of letters not published, from the +information given by Mr. E. H. Coleridge in his Preface, I make out to +be about 300. + +Nor does this exhaust the list of letters written by Coleridge. In +Ainger's Collection of the Letters of Charles Lamb are 62 letters by +Lamb to Coleridge, most of which are in answer to letters received. We +may therefore estimate the letters of Coleridge to Lamb at not less than +62. In Dorothy Wordsworth's "Grasmere Journal" there are no less than 32 +letters to the Wordsworths[1] mentioned as having been received during +the period 1800-1803, not represented among the letters in Professor +Knight's "Life of Wordsworth". The total number of letters known to have +been written by Coleridge is therefore between 1,100 and 1,200. Other +correspondents of Coleridge not appearing among the recipients of +letters in publications are probably as follows: + +V. Le Grice. + +Sam. Le Grice. + +T. F. Middleton. + +Robert Allen. + +Robert Lovell. + +Ch. Lloyd, Jr. + +John Cruickshank. + +Dr. Beddoes. + +Edmund Irving. + +Mr. Clarkson. + +Mrs. Clarkson (except one small fragment in "Diary of H. C. Robinson"). + +[Footnote 1: +The letters to Lamb and Miss Wordsworth do not now exist.] + + +The letters of Coleridge, taken as a whole, are one of the most +important contributions to English Letter-writing. They are gradually +coming to light, and with every letter or group of letters put forth, +the character and intellectual development of Coleridge is becoming +clearer. His poems and prose works, great as these are, are not +comprehensible without a study of his letters, which join together the +"insulated fragments" of that grand scheme of truth which he called his +"System" ("Table Talk", 12th Sept. 1831, and 26th June 1834). +Coleridge, in his letters, has written his own life, for his life, after +all, was a life of thought, and his finest thoughts and his most +ambitious aspirations are given expression to in his letters to his +numerous friends; and the true biography of Coleridge is that in which +his letters are made the main source of the narrative. A Biographia +Epistolaris is what we want of such a man. + +Coleridge's letters are often bizarre in construction and quite +regardless of the conventions of style, and abound in the most curious +freaks of emphasis and imagery. They resemble the letters of Cowper in +that they were not written for publication; and, like Cowper's, they +have a character of their own. But they far surpass the epistles of the +poet of Olney in spiritual vision and intellectuality. The eighteenth +century, from Pope and Swift down to Cowper, is extremely + rich in +letter-writing. Bolingbroke, Lord Chesterfield, Lady Mary Wortley +Montagu, Gray, Mason, Johnson, Beattie, Burns, and Gibbon, among +literary personages, have contributed to the great Epistolick Art, as +Dr. Johnson called it; and this list does not include the letters of the +politicians, Horace Walpole, Junius, and others. The eighteenth century, +in fact, was a letter-writing age; and while the bulk of the poetry of +its 300 poets, with the exception of a few masterpieces of monumental +quality, has gradually gone out of fashion, its letters have risen into +greater repute. Even among the poets whose verse is still read there is +a hesitation in public opinion as to whether the verses or letters are +superior. There are readers not a few who would not scruple to place +Cowper's letters above his poems, who believe that Gray's letters are +much more akin to the modern spirit than the "Elegy" and the "Ode +to Eton College", and who think that Swift's fly-leaves to his +friends will outlive the fame of "Gulliver" and the "Tale of a +Tub". + +Coleridge, who stands between the eighteenth and the nineteenth +centuries, was, like the poets of the former age, a multiform +letter-writer. He was often seized with letter-writing when unable to +write poetry or execute those unpublished masterpieces in the +composition of some of which he was engaged. + +Coleridge's letters are of the utmost importance as a part of the +literature of the opening of the nineteenth century. It is in the +letters that we see better than elsewhere the germs of the speculations +which afterwards came to fruition between 1817 and 1850, when the +poetical and critical principles of the Lake School gradually took the +place of the Classicism of the eighteenth century, and the theology of +Broad Churchism began to displace the old theology, and the school of +Paley in Evidences and Locke in Philosophy gave way before the inroad of +Transcendentalism. + +As the record of the phases of an intellectual development the letters +of Coleridge stand very high; and, indeed, I do not know anything equal +to them except it be the "Journal of Amiel". + +The resemblance between Coleridge and Amiel is very striking. Both +valetudinarians and barely understood by the friends with whom they came +into contact, they took refuge in the inner shrine of introspection, and +clothed the most abstruse ideas in the most beautiful forms of language +and imagery that is only not poetry because it is not verse. While one +wrote the story of his own intellectual development in secret and +retained the record of it hidden from all eyes, the other scattered his +to the winds in the shape of letters, which thus, widely distributed, +kept his secret until they were gathered together by later hands. The +letters of Coleridge as a collection is one of the most engaging +psychological studies of the history of an individual mind. + +The text of the letters in the present volume is reproduced from the +original sources, the "Biographical Supplement", Cottle, Gillman, +Allsop, and the "Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey". Fuller +texts of some of the letters will be found in "Letters of S. T. C." of +1895, Litchfield's "Tom Wedgwood", and other recent publications. One of +the objects of the present work is to preserve the text of the letters +as presented in these authentic sources of the life of Coleridge. + +Letters Nos. 44, 45, and 46, from "Charles Lamb and the Lloyds", by Mr. +E. V. Lucas (Smith, Elder and Co.); No. 130 from "Anima Poetae" (W. +Heinemann), are printed here by arrangement with the poet's grandson, +Ernest Hartley Coleridge, Esq., to whom my sincere thanks are also due +for his kindness in reading the proofs. Mr. Coleridge, of course, is not +responsible for any of the opinions expressed in this work; but he has +taken great pains in putting me right regarding certain views of others +who had written on Coleridge, and also on some of the mistakes made by +Henry Nelson Coleridge and Sara Coleridge, who had insufficient data on +the matters on which they wrote, and definite information on which, +indeed, could not be ascertainable in 1847. Coming from Mr. +Coleridge--the chief living authority on the life, letters, and +published and unpublished writings of S. T. Coleridge--the corrections +in the footnotes and elsewhere may be taken as authoritative; and I have +to acknowledge my indebtedness to him accordingly, + +ARTHUR TURNBULL. + +KIRKCALDY, + +31st January, 1911. + + + +WORKS RELATING TO COLERIDGE + +"Early Years and Late Reflections". By Clement Carlyon, M.D. 4 vols. +1836-1858. + +"Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge". With a +Preface by the Editor. Moxon, 1836. 2 vols. Second Edition. By Thomas +Allsop. 1858. Third Edition, 1864. + +"Early Recollections, chiefly relating to the late S. T. Coleridge +during his long residence in Bristol". By Joseph Cottle. 2 vols. 1837. + +"The Letters of Charles Lamb with a Sketch of his Life". By Sir Thomas +Noon Talfourd, 1837; and "Final Memorials", 1848. + +"Reminiscences of S. T. Coleridge and Robert Southey". By Joseph Cottle. +1847. 1 vol. + +"Biographia Literaria, or Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life and +Opinions". By S. T. Coleridge. Second Edition, prepared for publication +in part by the late H. N. Coleridge: completed and published by his +widow. 2 vols. 1847. + +"The Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey". 6 vols. 1849-1850. + +"Essays on his own Times". By Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Edited by his +daughter. London: William Pickering. 3 vols. 1850. + +"Memoirs of William Wordsworth". By Christopher Wordsworth, D.D. 2 vols. +1851. + +"The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge". New York: Harper and +Brothers. 7 vols. 1853. + +"Oxford and Cambridge Essays". Professor Hort on Coleridge. 1856. + +"Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey". 4 vols. 1856. + +"Fragmentary Remains, literary and scientific, of Sir Humphry Davy, +Bart." Edited by his brother, John Davy, M.D. 1858. + +"Dissertations and Discussions". John Stuart Mill. 4 vols. 1859-1875. + +"Autobiographical Recollections by the late Charles Robert Leslie, R.A." +Edited by Tom Taylor. 2 vols. 1860. + +"Beaten Paths". By T. Colley Grattan 2 vols. 1862. + +"Studies in Poetry and Philosophy". By J. C. Shairp. 1868. + +"Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson". +Selected and Edited by Thomas Sadler, Ph.D. 3 vols. 1869. + +"A Group of Englishmen (1795-1815) being records of the younger +Wedgwoods and their Friends". By Eliza Meteyard, 1 vol. 1871. + +"Memoir and Letters of Sara Coleridge", 1 vol. 1873. + +"Life of William Godwin". By C. Kegan Paul. 2 vols. 1876. + +"Journals and Letters of Caroline Fox". 2 vols. 1884. + +"Life and Works of William Wordsworth". By William Knight, LL.D. 11 +vols. 1882-1889. + +"Prose Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge". Bohn Library. 6 vols. (various +dates). + +"Memorials of Coleorton". Edited by William Knight, University of St. +Andrews. 2 vols. 1887. + +"The Letters of Charles Lamb". Edited by Alfred Ainger. 2 vols. 1888. + +"Thomas Poole and his Friends". By Mrs. Henry Sandford. 2 vols. 1888. + +"Appreciations". By Walter Pater. 1889. + +"De Quincey Memorials". Edited by Alexander H. Japp, LL.D., F.R.S.E. 2 +vols. 1891. + +"Posthumous Works of De Quincey". Edited by Alexander H. Japp, LL.D., +F.R.S.E. Vol. II. 1893. + +"The Life of Washington Allston". By Jared B. Flagg. 1893. + +"The Works of Thomas De Quincey". Edited by Professor Masson. Vols. +I-III. 1896. + +"Illustrated London News", 1893. Letters of S. T. C. edited by E. H. +Coleridge. + +"Anima Poetae: From the unpublished note-books of Samuel Taylor +Coleridge". Edited by Ernest Hartley Coleridge. 1895. + +"The Gillmans of Highgate". By Alexander W. Gillman. 1895. + +"Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge". Edited by Ernest Hartley +Coleridge. 2 vols. 1895. (Referred to in present volume as "Letters".} + +"The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth". Edited by William Knight. 2 vols. +1897. + +"The Early Life of William Wordsworth", 1770-1798, "A Study of the +Prelude". By Emile Legouis; translated by J. W. Matthews. 1897. + +"Charles Lamb and the Lloyds". Edited by E. V. Lucas. 1898. + +"Bibliography of S. T. Coleridge". R. Heine Shepherd and Colonel +Prideaux. 1900. + +"The German Influence on Coleridge". By John Louis Haney. 1902. + +"A Bibliography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge". By John Louis Haney. 1903. + +"Tom Wedgwood, the First Photographer". By R. B. Litchfield. 1903. + +"Christabel, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; illustrated by a Facsimile of +the Manuscript and by Textual and other notes". By Ernest Hartley +Coleridge, Hon. F.R.S.L. Published under the direction of the Royal +Society of Literature: London, Henry Frowde. 1907. (The Facsimile is +that of the MS. presented by Coleridge to Sarah Hutchinson.) + + + + +BIOGRAPHIES OF COLERIDGE + +John Thomas Cox. Memoir prefixed to Edition of the Poems of S. T. +Coleridge. 1836. + +Life of Coleridge prefixed to Edition of the Poems by Milner and +Sowerby. (No date.) + +James Gillman. "Life of S. T. Coleridge". Vol. I. 1838. + +Biographical Supplement to the Second Edition of the "Biographia +Literaria". By Henry Nelson Coleridge and Sara Coleridge. 1847. + +F. Freiligrath. Memoir to the "Tauchnitz Edition" of the Poems of S. T. +Coleridge. 1860. + +E. H. Norton. Poetical and Dramatic Works, with Life of the Author. 3 +vols. Boston, 1864. + +Derwent Coleridge, Introductory Essay to Poems of S. T. C. Moxon and +Sons. 1870. + +W. M. Rossetti. Critical Memoir to the Edition of Poems of S. T. C. in +Moxon's "Popular Poets." 1872. + +William Bell Scott. Introduction to Edition of the Poems in "Routledge's +Poets." + +Memoir prefixed to the Edition of the Poems of S. T. C. in "Lansdown" +Poets. F. Warne and Co. 1878. + +R. Herne Shepherd. Life of S. T. C. prefixed to Macmillan's Edition of +the Poems of S. T. C. 4 vols. 1877-1880. + +Memoir prefixed to the "Landscape Edition" of the Poems of S. T. +Coleridge. Edinburgh, 1881. + +"Life of S. T. Coleridge". By H. Traill, "English Men of Letters +Series." 1884. + +Thomas Ashe. "Life of S. T. Coleridge" prefixed to the "Aldine Edition" +of the Poems of S. T. C. 2 vols. 1885. + +Professor Alois Brandl, Prague. "Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the English +Romantic School". English Edition by Lady Eastlake. 1887. + +"The Life of S. T. Coleridge". By Hall Caine. "Great Writers Series." +1887. + +Introductory Memoir by J. Dykes Campbell, prefixed to "Poetical Works of +S. T. C." Macmillan. 1893. + +"Samuel Taylor Coleridge". A narrative of the events of his Life. By +James Dykes Campbell. 1894. + +"Coleridge". Bell's "Miniature Series of Great Writers." By Richard +Garnett. 1904. + +"La Vie d'un Poete--Coleridge". Par Joseph Aynard. Paris, 1907. + + + + +INTRODUCTIONS TO SELECTIONS OF THE POEMS OF S. T. C., 1869-1908 + +Algernon C. Swinburne. "Christabel and the Lyrical and Imaginative Poems +of S. T. Coleridge" (Sampson Low, and Co.). 1869. + +Joseph Skipsey. Prefatory Notice to the "Canterbury Edition" of +Coleridge's Poems (Walter Scott). + +Stopford A. Brooke. Introduction to the Golden Book of Coleridge (Dent +and Co.). + +Andrew Lang. Introduction to Poems of S. T. C. (Longmans). + +Richard Garnett. "The Poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge". The "Muses" +Library (Lawrence and Bullen, now Routledge). 1888. + +"Coleridge's Select Poems". Edited by Andrew J. George, M. A. (Heath, +publisher.) + +"Poems". Edited by E. H. Coleridge (Heinemann). + +"Poems". Edited by Alice Meynell. "Red Letter Library" (Blackie). + +"Poems of S. T. C." Edited by Professor Knight (Newnes). + +"Poems of Coleridge", selected and arranged. Edited by Arthur Symons +(Methuen and Co.). + +"The Poems of Coleridge". Illustrated by Gerald Metcalfe. With an +Introduction by E. Hartley Coleridge (John Lane). 1907. + +"The Poems of S. T. Coleridge". "The World's Classics" (Frowde). Edited +by T. Quiller-Couch. 1908. + +"Poems of Coleridge". "The Golden Poets." With an Introduction by +Professor Edward Dowden, LL.D. (Caxton Publishing Company). + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL APPRECIATIONS + +1865. Article in the "North British Review" for December of this year. + +1903. "From Ottery to Highgate, the story of the childhood and later +years of Samuel Taylor Coleridge". By Wilfred Brown (Coleberd and Co., +Ltd., Ottery St. Mary). + + + + + +CONTENTS + +PART I.--POETRY + + Page +CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS I, 3 + Letter 1. To Thomas Poole. -- Feby. 1797 5 + 2. " -- Mch. 1797 7 + 3. " 9 Oct. 1797 11 + 4. " 16 Oct. 1797 15 + 5. " 19 Feby. 1798 19 + +CHAPTER II. CAMBRIDGE AND PANTISOCRACY 29 + Letter 6. To George Coleridge. 31 Mch. 1791 29 + 7. Robert Southey. 6 July, 1794 34 + 8. Henry Martin. 22 July, 1794 35 + 9. Southey. 6 Sept. 1794 42 + 10. " 18 Sept. 1794 43 + 11. Charles Heath. -- -- 1794 44 + 12. Henry Martin. 22 Sept. 1794 46 + 13. Southey. -- Dec. 1794 47 + +CHAPTER III. "THE WATCHMAN" 50 +Letter 14. To Thomas Poole. 7 Oct. 1795 50 + 15. Joseph Cottle. -- Dec. 1795 52 + 16. " 1 Jany. 1796 52 + 17. Josiah Wade. -- Jany. 1796 55 + 18. " -- -- 1796 55 + 19. " -- -- 1796 56 + 20. " -- -- 1796 58 + 21. " 7 Jany. 1796 59 + 22. " -- Jany. 1796 60 + 23. Cottle. -- Feby. 1796 62 + 24. " -- -- 1796 62 + 25. " 22 Feby. 1796 63 + 26. Poole. 30 Mch. 1796 65 + 27. Benjamin Flower. 1 April, 1796 + 28. Caius Gracchus. 1 April, 1796 + 29. Poole. 11 April, 1796 + 30. Cottle. 15 April, 1796 + 31. " -- April, 1796 + 32. " -- April, 1796 + 33. Poole. 6 May, 1796 + 34. " 12 May, 1796 + 35. " 29 May, 1796 + 36. " 4 July, 1796 + 37. " -- Aug. 1796 + 38. Wade. -- Sept. 1796 + 39. Poole. 24 Sept. 1796 + 40. Charles Lamb. 29 Sept. 1796 + 41. Cottle. 18 Oct. 1796 + 42. Poole. 1 Nov. 1796 + 43. " 5 Nov. 1796 + 44. Charles Lloyd, Senr. 15 Oct. 1796 + 45. " 14 Nov. 1796 + 46. " 4 Dec. 1796 + 47. Poole. 26 Dec. 1796 + +CHAPTER IV. CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS OF COLERIDGE + +CHAPTER V. STOWEY +Letter 48. To Cottle. Jany. 1797 + 49. " 3 Jany. 1797 + 50. " 10 Jany. 1797 + 51. " Jany. 1797 + 52. " Jany. -- + 53. " Jany. -- + 54. " Feby. or Mch. 1797 + 55. " May, 1797 + 56. " -- -- + 57. " -- -- + 58. Wade. -- -- + 59. Cottle. -- -- + 60. " -- June, 1797 + 61. " 8 June, 1797 + 62. " 29 -- -- + 63. " 3-17 July, 1797 + 64. Wade. 17-20 July, 1797 +Letter 65. To Cottle. --Sept. 1797 + 66. " 3 Sept. 1797 + 67. " 10-15 Sept. 1797 + 68. " 28 Nov. 1797 + 69. " 2 Dec. 1797 + 70. " --Jany. 1798 + 71. Wedgwood. --Jany. 1798 + 72. Cottle. 24 Jany. 1798 + 73. the Editor, "Monthly Mag." --Jany. 1798 + + +CHAPTER VI. THE LYRICAL BALLADS AND GERMANY + +Letter 74. To Cottle. 18 Feb. 1798 + 75. the Editor, "Morning Post." 10 Mch. 1798 + 76. Cottle. 8 Mch. 1798 + 77. Wade. 21 Mch. 1798 + 78. Cottle. Mch. or Apl. 1798 + 79. " 14 April, 1798 + 80. " --April, 1798 + 81. " --May, 1798 + 82. Mrs. Coleridge. 14 Jany. 1799 + 83. " 23 April, 1799 + + +CHAPTER VII. THE RELIGION OF THE PINEWOODS + +Letter 84. To Mrs. Coleridge. 17 May, 1799 + + +CHAPTER VIII. RETURN TO ENGLAND, "WALLENSTEIN", AND + THE "MORNING POST" + +Letter 85. To Josiah Wedgwood. 21 May, 1799 + 86. "the Editor, Morning Post." 21 Dec. 1799 + 87. " 10 Jany. 1800 + 88. Thomas Wedgwood. --Jany. 1800 + 89. Josiah Wedgwood. --Feby. 1800 + 90. Thomas Poole. --Mch. 1800 + + +CHAPTER IX KESWICK + +Letter 91. To William Godwin. 21 May, 1800 + 92. Humphry Davy. --June, 1800 + 93. Josiah Wedgwood. 24 July, 1800 + 94. Davy. 25 July, 1800 + 95. Godwin. 22 Sept. 1800 + 96. Davy. 9 Oct. 1800 + 97. Godwin. 13 Oct. 1800 + 98. Davy. 18 Oct. 1800 + 99. Josiah Wedgwood. 1 Nov. 1800 + 100. " 12 Nov. 1800 + 101. the Editor, "Monthly Review."18 Nov. 1800 + 102. Davy. 2 Dec. 1800 + 103. " 3 Feby. 1801 + 104. Wade. 6 March, 1801 + 105. Godwin. 25 March, 1801 + + + +PART II.--THE PERMANENT + + +CHAPTER X. ILL HEALTH; SOUTHEY COMES TO KESWICK + +Letter 106. To Southey. 13 April, 1801 + 107. Davy. 4 May, 1801 + 108. " 20 May, 1801 + 109. Godwin. 23 June, 1801 + 110. Davy. 31 Oct. 1801 + 111. Thos. Wedgwood. 20 Oct. 1802 + 112. " 3 Nov. 1802 + 113. " 9 Jany. l803 + 114. " 14 Jany. 1803 + 115. " 10 Feby. 1803 + 116. " 10 Feby. 1803 + 117. " 17 Feby. 1803 + 118. " 17 Feby. 1803 + 119. Godwin. 4 June, 1803 + 120. " 10 July, 1803 + 121. Southey. -- July, 1803 + 122. Thos. Wedgwood. 16 Sept. 1803 + 123. Miss Cruikshank. -- -- 1803 + 124. Thos. Wedgwood. -- Jany. 1804 + 125. " 28 Jany. 1804 + 126. Davy. 6 Mch. 1804 + 127. Sarah Hutchinson. 10 March, 1804 + 128. Wedgwood. 24 March, 1804 + 129. Davy. 25 March, 1804 + + + +PART I + +POETRY + +BIOGRAPHIA EPISTOLARIS + + + +CHAPTER I + + +EARLY YEARS +[1772 to 1791] + + + While here, thou fed'st upon etherial beams, + As if thou had'st not a terrestrial birth;-- + Beyond material objects was thy sight; + In the clouds woven was thy lucid robe! + "Ah! who can tell how little for this sphere + That frame was fitted of empyreal fire!" [1] + + +Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the youngest child of the Reverend John +Coleridge, Chaplain-Priest and Vicar of the parish of Ottery St. Mary, +in the county of Devon, and Master of the Free Grammar, or King's +School, as it is called, founded by Henry VIII in that town. His +mother's maiden name was Ann Bowdon. He was born at Ottery on the 21st +of October 1772, "about eleven o'clock in the forenoon," as his father, +the Vicar, has, with rather unusual particularity, entered it in the +register. + +John Coleridge, who was born in 1719, and finished his education at +Sidney-Sussex College, Cambridge,[2] was a country clergyman and +schoolmaster of no ordinary kind. He was a good Greek and Latin scholar, +a profound Hebraist, and, according to the measure of his day, an +accomplished mathematician. He was on terms of literary friendship with +Samuel Badcock, and, by his knowledge of Hebrew, rendered material +assistance to Dr. Kennicott, in his well known critical works. Some +curious papers on theological and antiquarian subjects appear with his +signature in the early numbers of "The Gentleman's Magazine", between +the years 1745 and 1780; almost all of which have been inserted in the +interesting volumes of Selections made several years ago from that work. +In 1768 he published miscellaneous Dissertations arising from the 17th +and 18th chapters of the Book of Judges; in which a very learned and +ingenious attempt is made to relieve the character of Micah from the +charge of idolatry ordinarily brought against it; and in 1772 appeared a +"Critical Latin Grammar", which his son called "his best work," and +which is not wholly unknown even now to the inquisitive by the proposed +substitution of the terms "prior, possessive, attributive, posterior, +interjective, and quale-quare-quidditive," for the vulgar names of the +cases. This little Grammar, however, deserves a philologer's perusal, +and is indeed in many respects a very valuable work in its kind. He also +published a Latin Exercise book, and a Sermon. His school was +celebrated, and most of the country gentlemen of that generation, +belonging to the south and east parts of Devon, had been his pupils. +Judge Buller was one. The amiable character and personal eccentricities +of this excellent man are not yet forgotten amongst some of the elders +of the parish and neighbourhood, and the latter, as is usual in such +cases, have been greatly exaggerated. He died suddenly in the month of +October 1781, after riding to Ottery from Plymouth, to which latter +place he had gone for the purpose of embarking his son Francis, as a +midshipman, for India. Many years afterwards, in 1797, S. T. Coleridge +commenced a series of Letters to his friend Thomas Poole, of Nether +Stowey, in the county of Somerset, in which he proposed to give an +account of his life up to that time. Five only were written, and +unfortunately they stop short of his residence at Cambridge. This series +will properly find a place here. + +[Footnote 1: From a Sonnet To Coleridge by Sir Egerton Brydges--written +16th Feb. 1837. S. C.] + +[Footnote 2: He was matriculated at Sidney a sizar on the 18th of March +1748, but does not appear to have taken any degree at the University. S. +C.] + + +LETTER 1. TO MR. POOLE + +My Dear Poole, + +I could inform the dullest author how he might write an interesting +book. Let him relate the events of his own life with honesty, not +disguising the feelings that accompanied them. I never yet read even a +Methodist's "Experience" in the Gospel Magazine without receiving +instruction and amusement; and I should almost despair of that man who +could peruse the Life of John Woolman without an amelioration of heart. +As to my Life, it has all the charms of variety,--high life and low +life, vices and virtues, great folly and some wisdom. However, what I am +depends on what I have been; and you, my best friend, have a right to +the narration. To me the task will be a useful one. It will renew and +deepen my reflections on the past; and it will perhaps make you behold +with no unforgiving or impatient eye those weaknesses and defects in my +character, which so many untoward circumstances have concurred in +planting there. + +My family on my Mother's side can be traced up, I know not how far. The +Bowdons inherited a good farm and house thereon in the Exmoor country, +in the reign of Elizabeth, as I have been told; and to my knowledge they +have inherited nothing better since that time. My Grandfather was in the +reign of George I a considerable woollen trader in Southmolton; so that +I suppose, when the time comes, I shall be allowed to pass as a +"Sans-culotte" without much opposition. My Father received a better +education than the rest of his family in consequence of his own +exertions, not of his superiour advantages. When he was not quite +sixteen years of age, my grandfather, by a series of misfortunes, was +reduced to great distress. My Father received the half of his last crown +and his blessing, and walked off to seek his fortune. After he had +proceeded a few miles, he sate him down on the side of the road, so +overwhelmed with painful thoughts that he wept audibly. A gentleman +passed by who knew him, and, inquiring into his sorrow, took him home +and gave him the means of maintaining himself by placing him in a +school. At this time he commenced being a severe and ardent student. He +married his first wife, by whom he had three daughters, all now alive. +While his first wife lived, having scraped up money enough, he at the +age of twenty walked to Cambridge, entered himself at Sidney College, +distinguished himself in Hebrew and Mathematics, and might have had a +fellowship if he had not been married. He returned and settled as a +schoolmaster in Southmolton where his wife died. In 1760 he was +appointed Chaplain-Priest and Master of the School at Ottery St. Mary, +and removed to that place; and in August, 1760, Mr. Buller, the father +of the present Judge, procured for him the living from Lord Chancellor +Bathurst. By my Mother, his second wife, he had ten children, of whom I +am the youngest, born October 20th,[1] 1772. + +These facts I received from my Mother; but I am utterly unable to fill +them up by any further particulars of times, or places, or names. Here I +shall conclude my first Letter, because I cannot pledge myself for the +accuracy of the accounts, and I will not therefore mingle it with that +for the truth of which, in the minutest parts, I shall hold myself +responsible. You must regard this Letter as a first chapter devoted to +dim traditions of times too remote to be pierced by the eye of +investigation. + +Yours affectionately, S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Feb. 1797. Monday. + +[Footnote 1: A mistake, should be October 21st.] + + + +LETTER 2. To MR. POOLE + +My Dear Poole, + +My Father (Vicar of, and Schoolmaster at, Ottery St. Mary, Devon) was a +good mathematician, and well versed in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew +languages. He published, or rather attempted to publish, several +works;--1st, Miscellaneous Dissertations arising from the 17th and 18th +chapters of the Book of Judges; 2d, "Sententiae Excerptcae" for the use +of his own School; and 3d, his best work, a Critical Latin Grammar, in +the Preface to which he proposes a bold innovation in the names of the +cases. My Father's new nomenclature was not likely to become popular, +although it must be allowed to be both sonorous and expressive. "Exempli +gratia", he calls the ablative case "the quare-quale-quidditive case!" +He made the world his confidant with respect to his learning and +ingenuity, and the world seems to have kept the secret very faithfully. +His various works, uncut, unthumbed, were preserved free from all +pollution in the family archives, where they may still be for anything +that I know. This piece of good luck promises to be hereditary; for all +"my" compositions have the same amiable home-staying propensity. The +truth is, my Father was not a first-rate genius; he was, however, a +first-rate Christian, which is much better. I need not detain you with +his character. In learning, goodheartedness, absentness of mind, and +excessive ignorance of the world, he was a perfect Parson Adams. + + My Mother was an admirable economist, and managed exclusively. My + eldest brother's name was John. He was a Captain in the East India + Company's service; a successful officer and a brave one, as I have + heard. He died in India in 1786. My second brother William went to + Pembroke College, Oxford. He died a clergyman in 1780, just on the eve + of his intended marriage. My brother James has been in the army since + the age of fifteen, and has married a woman of fortune, one of the old + Duke family of Otterton in Devon. Edward, the wit of the family, went + to Pembroke College, and is now a clergyman. George also went to + Pembroke. He is in orders likewise, and now has the same School, a very + flourishing one, which my Father had. He is a man of reflective mind + and elegant talent. He possesses learning in a greater degree than any + of the family, excepting myself. His manners are grave, and hued over + with a tender sadness. In his moral character he approaches every way + nearer to perfection than any man I ever yet knew. He is worth us all. + Luke Herman was a surgeon, a severe student, and a good man. He died in + 1790, leaving one child, a lovely boy still alive. [1] My only sister, + Ann, died at twenty-one, a little after my brother Luke:-- + +Rest, gentle Shade! and wait thy Maker's will; Then rise unchang'd, and +be an angel still! + +Francis Syndercombe went out to India as a midshipman under Admiral +Graves. He accidentally met his brother John on board ship abroad, who +took him ashore, and procured him a commission in the Company's army. He +died in 1792, aged twenty-one, a Lieutenant, in consequence of a fever +brought on by excessive fatigue at and after the siege of Seringapatam, +and the storming of a hill fort, during all which his conduct had been +so gallant that his Commanding Officer particularly noticed him, and +presented him with a gold watch, which my Mother now has. All my +brothers are remarkably handsome; but they were as inferiour to Francis +as I am to them. He went by the name of "the handsome Coleridge." The +tenth and last child was Samuel Taylor, the subject and author of these +Epistles. + +From October 1772 to October 1773. Baptized Samuel Taylor, my +Godfather's name being Samuel Taylor, Esquire. I had another called +Evans, and two Godmothers, both named Munday. + +From October 1773 to October 1774. In this year I was carelessly left by +my nurse, ran to the fire, and pulled out a live coal, and burned myself +dreadfully. While my hand was being drest by Mr. Young, I spoke for the +first time, (so my Mother informs me) and said, "nasty Dr. Young!" The +snatching at fire, and the circumstance of my first words expressing +hatred to professional men--are they at all ominous? This year I went to +school. My Schoolmistress, the very image of Shenstone's, was named Old +Dame Key. She was nearly related to Sir Joshua Reynolds. + +From October 1774 to 1775. I was inoculated; which I mention, because I +distinctly remember it, and that my eyes were bound; at which I +manifested so much obstinate indignation, that at last they removed the +bandage, and unaffrighted I looked at the lancet, and suffered the +scratch. At the close of this year I could read a chapter in the Bible. + +Here I shall end, because the remaining years of my life all assisted to +form my particular mind;--the first three years had nothing in them that +seems to relate to it. + +God bless you and your sincere S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Sunday, March, 1797. + + +[Footnote 1: William Hart Coleridge, Bishop of Barbadoes and the Leeward +Islands. + +(He was appointed to that See in 1824, retired from it in 1842; and +afterwards accepted the Wardenship of St. Augustine's College, +Canterbury. S. C.) [He died in 1849.] ] + + A letter from Francis S. Coleridge to his sister has been preserved in + the family, in which a particular account is given of the chance + meeting of the two brothers in India, mentioned shortly in the + preceding Letter. There is something so touching and romantic in the + incident that the Reader will, it is hoped, pardon the insertion of the + original narrative here. + + Dear Nancy, + + You are very right, I have neglected my absent friends, but do not + think I have forgot them, and indeed it would be ungrateful in me if I + did not write to them. + + You may be sure, Nancy, I thank Providence for bringing about that + meeting, which has been the cause of all my good fortune and happiness, + which I now in fulness enjoy. It was an affectionate meeting, and I + will inform you of the particulars. There was in our ship one Captain + Mordaunt, who had been in India before, when we came to Bombay. Finding + a number of his friends there he went often ashore. The day before the + Fleet sailed he desired one Captain Welsh to go aboard with him, who + was an intimate friend of your brother's. "I will," said Welsh, "and + will write a note to Coleridge to go with us." Upon this Captain + Mordaunt, recollecting me, said there was a young midshipman, a + favourite of Captain Hicks, of that name on board. Upon that they + agreed to inform my brother of it, which they did soon after, and all + three came on board. I was then in the lower deck, and, though you + won't believe it, I was sitting upon a gun and thinking of my brother, + that is, whether I should ever see or hear anything of him; when seeing + a Lieutenant, who had been sent to inform me of my brother's being on + board, I got up off the gun: but instead of telling me about my + brother, he told me that Captain Hicks was very angry with me and + wanted to see me. Captain Hicks had always been a Father to me, and + loved me as if I had been his own child. I therefore went up shaking + like an aspen leaf to the Lieutenant's apartments, when a Gentleman + took hold of my hand. I did not mind him at first, but looked round for + the Captain; but the Gentleman still holding my hand, I looked, and + what was my surprise, when I saw him too full to speak and his eyes + full of tears. Whether crying is catching I know not, but I began a + crying too, though I did not know the reason, till he caught me in his + arms, and told me he was my brother, and then I found I was paying + nature her tribute, for I believe I never cried so much in my life. + There is a saying in Robinson Crusoe, I remember very well, + viz.--sudden joy like grief confounds at first. We directly went ashore + having got my discharge, and having took a most affectionate leave of + Captain Hicks, I left the ship for good and all. + +My situation in the army is that I am one of the oldest Ensigns, and +before you get this must in all probability be a Lieutenant. How many +changes there have been in my life, and what lucky ones they have been, +and how young I am still! I must be seven years older before I can +properly style myself a man, and what a number of officers do I command, +who are old enough to be my Father already! + + + +LETTER 3. To MR. POOLE + +October 9th, 1797. + +My Dearest Poole, + +From March to October--a long silence! But it is possible that I may +have been preparing materials for future Letters, and the time cannot be +considered as altogether subtracted from you. + +From October 1775 to October 1778. These three years I continued at the +Reading School, because I was too little to be trusted among my Father's +schoolboys. After break-fast I had a halfpenny given me, with which I +bought three cakes at the baker's shop close by the school of my old +mistress; and these were my dinner every day except Saturday and Sunday, +when I used to dine at home, and wallowed in a beef and pudding dinner. +I am remarkably fond of beans and bacon: and this fondness I attribute +to my Father's giving me a penny for having eaten a large quantity of +beans on Saturday. For the other boys did not like them, and, as it was +an economic food, my Father thought my attachment to it ought to be +encouraged. He was very fond of me, and I was my Mother's darling: in +consequence whereof I was very miserable. For Molly, who had nursed my +brother Francis, and was immoderately fond of him, hated me because my +Mother took more notice of me than of Frank; and Frank hated me because +my Mother gave me now and then a bit of cake when he had none,--quite +forgetting that for one bit of cake which I had and he had not, he had +twenty sops in the pan, and pieces of bread and butter with sugar on +them from Molly, from whom I received only thumps and ill names. + +So I became fretful, and timorous, and a tell-tale; and the schoolboys +drove me from play, and were always tormenting me. And hence I took no +pleasure in boyish sports, but read incessantly. I read through all +gilt-cover little books that could be had at that time, and likewise all +the uncovered tales of Tom Hickathrift, Jack the Giant Killer, and the +like. And I used to lie by the wall, and mope; and my spirits used to +come upon me suddenly, and in a flood;--and then I was accustomed to run +up and down the churchyard, and act over again all I had been reading on +the docks, the nettles, and the rank grass. At six years of age I +remember to have read Belisarius, Robinson Crusoe, and Philip Quarles; +and then I found the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, one tale of which, +(the tale of a man who was compelled to seek for a pure virgin,) made so +deep an impression on me, (I had read it in the evening while my mother +was at her needle,) that I was haunted by spectres, whenever I was in +the dark: and I distinctly recollect the anxious and fearful eagerness, +with which I used to watch the window where the book lay, and when the +sun came upon it, I would seize it, carry it by the wall, and bask, and +read. My father found out the effect which these books had produced, and +burned them. + +So I became a dreamer, and acquired an indisposition to all bodily +activity; and I was fretful, and inordinately passionate; and as I could +not play at anything, and was slothful, I was despised and hated by the +boys: and because I could read and spell, and had, I may truly say, a +memory and understanding forced into almost unnatural ripeness, I was +flattered and wondered at by all the old women. And so I became very +vain, and despised most of the boys that were at all near my own age, +and before I was eight years old I was a "character". Sensibility, +imagination, vanity, sloth, and feelings of deep and bitter contempt for +almost all who traversed the orbit of my understanding, were even then +prominent and manifest. + +From October 1778 to 1779. That which I began to be from three to six, I +continued to be from six to nine. In this year I was admitted into the +Grammar School, and soon outstripped all of my age. I had a dangerous +putrid fever this year. My brother George lay ill of the same fever in +the next room. My poor brother, Francis, I remember, stole up in spite +of orders to the contrary, and sat by my bedside, and read Pope's Homer +to me. Frank had a violent love of beating me; but whenever that was +superseded by any humour or circumstances, he was always very fond of +me, and used to regard me with a strange mixture of admiration and +contempt. Strange it was not, for he hated books, and loved climbing, +fighting, playing, and robbing orchards, to distraction. My Mother +relates a story of me, which I repeat here, because it must be reckoned +as my first piece of wit.--During my fever, I asked why Lady Northcote, +our neighbour, did not come and see me. My Mother said she was afraid of +catching the fever. I was piqued, and answered, "Ah! Mamma! the four +Angels round my bed a'n't afraid of catching it!" I suppose you know the +old prayer:-- + + Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, + Bless the bed that I lie on!-- + Four good Angels round me spread, + Two at my feet and two at my head. + +This "prayer" I said nightly, and most firmly believed the truth of it. +Frequently have I, (half-awake and half-asleep; my body diseased, and +fevered by my imagination,)--seen armies of ugly things bursting in upon +me, and these four Angels keeping them off. + +In my next I shall carry on my life to my Father's death. + +God bless you, my dear Poole, + +And your affectionate, S.T. COLERIDGE. + +In a note written in after life Mr. Coleridge speaks of this period of +his life in the following terms: + +"Being the youngest child, I possibly inherited the weakly state of +health of my Father, who died, at the age of sixty-two, before I had +reached my ninth year; and from certain jealousies of old Molly, my +brother Frank's dotingly fond nurse--and if ever child by beauty and +loveliness deserved to be doted on, my brother Francis was that +child--and by the infusion of her jealousies into my brother's mind, I +was in earliest childhood huffed away from the enjoyments of muscular +activity in play, to take refuge at my Mother's side on my little stool, +to read my little book, and to listen to the talk of my elders. I was +driven from life in motion to life in thought and sensation. I never +played except by myself, and then only acted over what I had been +reading or fancying, or half one, half the other, with a stick cutting +down weeds and nettles, as one of the "Seven Champions of Christendom." +Alas! I had all the simplicity, all the docility of the little child, +but none of the child's habits. I never thought as a child, never had +the language of a child." [1] + +[Footnote 1: Gillman's "Life of Coleridge", p. 10.] + + +LETTER 4. TO MR. POOLE + +Dear Poole, + +From October 1779 to 1781. I had asked my Mother one evening to cut my +cheese entire, so that I might toast it. This was no easy matter, it +being a "crumbly" cheese. My Mother however did it. I went into the +garden for something or other, and in the mean time my brother Frank +minced my cheese, to "disappoint the favourite." I returned, saw the +exploit, and in an agony of passion flew at Frank. He pretended to have +been seriously hurt by my blow, flung himself on the ground, and there +lay with outstretched limbs. I hung over him mourning and in a great +fright; he leaped up, and with a horse-laugh gave me a severe blow in +the face. I seized a knife, and was running at him, when my Mother came +in and took me by the arm. I expected a flogging, and, struggling from +her, I ran away to a little hill or slope, at the bottom of which the +Otter flows, about a mile from Ottery. There I staid; my rage died away, +but my obstinacy vanquished my fears, and taking out a shilling book, +which had at the end morning and evening prayers, I very devoutly +repeated them--thinking at the same time with a gloomy inward +satisfaction--how miserable my Mother must be! I distinctly remember my +feelings, when I saw a Mr. Vaughan pass over the bridge at about a +furlong's distance, and how I watched the calves in the fields beyond +the river. It grew dark, and I fell asleep. It was towards the end of +October, and it proved a stormy night. I felt the cold in my sleep, and +dreamed that I was pulling the blanket over me, and actually pulled over +me a dry thorn-bush which lay on the ground near me. In my sleep I had +rolled from the top of the hill till within three yards of the river, +which flowed by the unfenced edge of the bottom. I awoke several times, +and finding myself wet, and cold, and stiff, closed my eyes again that I +might forget it. + +In the meantime my Mother waited about half an hour, expecting my return +when the "sulks" had evaporated. I not returning, she sent into the +churchyard, and round the town. Not found! Several men and all the boys +were sent out to ramble about and seek me. In vain! My Mother was almost +distracted; and at ten o'clock at night I was 'cried' by the crier +in Ottery, and in two villages near it, with a reward offered for me. No +one went to bed;--indeed I believe half the town were up all the night. +To return to myself. About five in the morning, or a little after, I was +broad awake, and attempted to get up, and walk; but I could not move. I +saw the shepherds and workmen at a distance, and cried, but so faintly, +that it was impossible to hear me thirty yards off. And there I might +have lain and died;--for I was now almost given over, the ponds and even +the river, near which I was lying, having been dragged. But +providentially Sir Stafford Northcote, who had been out all night, +resolved to make one other trial, and came so near that he heard me +crying. He carried me in his arms for nearly a quarter of a mile, when +we met my father and Sir Stafford Northcote's servants. I remember, and +never shall forget, my Father's face as he looked upon me while I lay in +the servant's arms--so calm, and the tears stealing down his face; for I +was the child of his old age. My Mother, as you, may suppose, was +outrageous with joy. Meantime in rushed a young lady, crying out--"I +hope you'll whip him, Mrs. Coleridge." This woman still lives at Ottery; +and neither philosophy nor religion has been able to conquer the +antipathy which I feel towards her, whenever I see her. I was put to +bed, and recovered in a day or so. But I was certainly injured; for I +was weakly and subject to ague for many years after. + +My Father--who had so little parental ambition in him, that, but for my +Mother's pride and spirit, he would certainly have brought up his other +sons to trades--had nevertheless resolved that I should be a parson. I +read every book that came in my way without distinction; and my Father +was fond of me, and used to take me on his knee, and hold long +conversations with me. I remember, when eight years old, walking with +him one winter evening from a farmer's house, a mile from Ottery; and he +then told me the names of the stars, and how Jupiter was a thousand +times larger than our world, and that the other twinkling stars were +suns that had worlds rolling round them; and when I came home, he showed +me how they rolled round. I heard him with a profound delight and +admiration, but without the least mixture of wonder or incredulity. For +from my early reading of fairy tales and about genii, and the like, my +mind had been habituated "to the Vast"; and I never regarded "my senses" +in any way as the "criteria" of my belief. I regulated all my creeds by +my conceptions, not by my sight, even at that age. Ought children to be +permitted to read romances, and stories of giants, magicians, and genii? +I know all that has been said against it; but I have formed my faith in +the affirmative. I know no other way of giving the mind a love of the +Great and the Whole. Those who have been led to the same truths step by +step, through the constant testimony of their senses, seem to me to want +a sense which I possess. They contemplate nothing but parts, and all +parts are necessarily little, and the universe to them is but a mass of +little things. It is true, the mind may become credulous and prone to +superstition by the former method;--but are not the experimentalists +credulous even to madness in believing any absurdity, rather than +believe the grandest truths, if they have not the testimony of their own +senses in their favour? I have known some who have been rationally +educated, as it is styled. They were marked by a microscopic acuteness; +but when they looked at great things, all became a blank, and they saw +nothing, and denied that anything could be seen, and uniformly put the +negative of a power for the possession of a power, and called the want +of imagination, judgment, and the never being moved to rapture, +philosophy. + +Towards the latter end of September 1781, my Father went to Plymouth +with my brother Francis, who was to go out as midshipman under Admiral +Graves, who was a friend of my Father's. He settled Frank as he wished, +and returned on the 4th of October, 1781. He arrived at Exeter about six +o'clock, and was pressed to take a bed there by the friendly family of +the Harts; but he refused; and to avoid their entreaties he told them +that he had never been superstitious, but that the night before he had +had a dream, which had made a deep impression on him. He dreamed that +Death had appeared to him, as he is commonly painted, and had touched +him with his dart. Well, he returned home; and all his family, I +excepted, were up. He told my Mother his dream; but he was in high +health and good spirits; and there was a bowl of punch made, and my +Father gave a long and particular account of his travel, and that he had +placed Frank under a religious Captain, and so forth. At length he went +to bed, very well and in high spirits. A short time after he had lain +down, he complained of a pain in his bowels, to which he was subject, +from wind. My Mother got him some peppermint water, which he took, and +after a pause, he said, "I am much better now, my dear!"--and lay down +again. In a minute my Mother heard a noise in his throat, and spoke to +him, but he did not answer; and she spoke repeatedly in vain. Her shriek +awaked me, and I said--"Papa is dead!" I did not know my Father's +return; but I knew that he was expected. How I came to think of his +death, I cannot tell; but so it was. Dead he was. Some said it was gout +in the heart;--probably it was a fit of apoplexy. He was an Israelite +without guile, simple, generous, and, taking some Scripture texts in +their literal sense, he was conscientiously indifferent to the good and +the evil of this world. God love you and + +S.T. COLERIDGE. + + +He was buried at Ottery on the 10th of October 1781. "O! that I might so +pass away," said Coleridge, thirty years afterwards, "if, like him, I +were an Israelite without guile! The image of my Father, very reverend, +kind, learned, simple-hearted Father is a religion to me." + +At his Father's death Coleridge was nearly nine years old. He continued +with his Mother at Ottery till the spring of 1782, when he was sent to +London to wait the appointed time for admission into Christ's Hospital, +to which a presentation had been procured from Mr. John Way through the +influence of his father's old pupil Sir Francis Buller. Ten weeks he +lived in London with an Uncle, and was entered in the books on the 8th +of July 1782. + + + + + +LETTER 5. TO MR. POOLE + +From October 1781 to October 1782. After the death of my Father, we, of +course, changed houses, and I remained with my Mother till the spring of +1782, and was a day scholar to Parson Warren, my Father's successor. He +was not very deep, I believe; and I used to delight my poor Mother by +relating little instances of his deficiency in grammar knowledge--every +detraction from his merits seeming an oblation to the memory of my +Father, especially as Warren did certainly "pulpitize" much better. +Somewhere I think about April 1782, Judge Buller, who had been educated +by my Father, sent for me, having procured a Christ's Hospital +presentation. I accordingly went to London, and was received and +entertained by my Mother's brother, Mr. Bowdon. He was generous as the +air, and a man of very considerable talents, but he was fond, as others +have been, of his bottle. He received me with great affection, and I +staid ten weeks at his house, during which I went occasionally to Judge +Buller's. My Uncle was very proud of me, and used to carry me from +coffee-house to coffee-house, and tavern to tavern, where I drank, and +talked, and disputed as if I had been a man. Nothing was more common +than for a large party to exclaim in my hearing, that I was a prodigy, +and so forth; so that while I remained at my Uncle's, I was most +completely spoilt and pampered, both mind and body. + +At length the time came, and I donned the blue coat and yellow +stockings, and was sent down to Hertford, a town twenty miles from +London, where there are about three hundred of the younger Blue-coat +boys. At Hertford I was very happy on the whole, for I had plenty to eat +and drink, and we had pudding and vegetables almost every day. I +remained there six weeks, and then was drafted up to the great school in +London, where I arrived in September, 1782, and was placed in the second +ward, then called Jefferies' Ward, and in the Under Grammar School. +There are twelve wards, or dormitories, of unequal sizes, beside the +sick ward, in the great school; and they contained altogether seven +hundred boys, of whom I think nearly one-third were the sons of +clergymen. There are five schools,--mathematical, grammar, drawing, +reading, and writing--all very large buildings. When a boy is admitted, +if he reads very badly, he is either sent to Hertford, or to the reading +school. Boys are admissible from seven to twelve years of age. If he +learns to read tolerably well before nine, he is drafted into the Lower +Grammar School, if not, into the Writing School, as having given proof +of unfitness for classical studies. If, before he is eleven, he climbs +up to the first form of the Lower Grammar School, he is drafted into the +Head Grammar School. If not, at eleven years of age, he is sent into the +Writing School, where he continues till fourteen or fifteen, and is then +either apprenticed or articled as a clerk, or whatever else his turn of +mind or of fortune shall have provided for him. Two or three times a +year the Mathematical Master beats up for recruits for the King's boys, +as they are called; and all who like the navy are drafted into the +Mathematical and Drawing Schools, where they continue till sixteen or +seventeen years of age, and go out as midshipmen, and schoolmasters in +the Navy. The boys who are drafted into the Head Grammar School, remain +there till thirteen; and then, if not chosen for the University, go into +the Writing School. + +Each dormitory has a nurse or matron, and there is a head matron to +superintend all these nurses. The boys were, when I was admitted, under +excessive subordination to each other according to rank in school; and +every ward was governed by four Monitors,--appointed by the Steward, who +was the supreme governor out of school--our temporal lord,--and by four +Markers, who wore silver medals, and were appointed by the Head Grammar +Master, who was our supreme spiritual lord. The same boys were commonly +both Monitors and Markers. We read in classes on Sundays to our Markers, +and were catechised by them, and under their sole authority during +prayers, etc. All other authority was in the Monitors; but, as I said, +the same boys were ordinarily both the one and the other. Our diet was +very scanty. Every morning a bit of dry bread and some bad small beer. +Every evening a larger piece of bread, and cheese or butter, whichever +we liked. For dinner,--on Sunday, boiled beef and broth; Monday, bread +and butter, and milk and water; Tuesday, roast mutton; Wednesday, bread +and butter, and rice milk; Thursday, boiled beef and broth; Friday, +boiled mutton and broth; Saturday, bread and butter, and pease-porridge. +Our food was portioned; and, excepting on Wednesdays, I never had a +belly full. Our appetites were damped, never satisfied; and we had no +vegetables. [1] + + +[Footnote 1: The above five letters are I-V of Mr. E. H. Coleridge's +"Letters of S. T. C". Letter VI is dated 1785; Letter VII of "Letters" +is dated "before 1790."] + + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +"O! what a change!" he writes in another note; "depressed, moping, +friendless, poor orphan, half starved; at that time the portion of food +to the Blue-coats was cruelly insufficient for those who had no friends +to supply them." And he afterwards says:--"When I was first plucked up +and transplanted from my birth-place and family, at the death of my dear +Father, whose revered image has ever survived in my mind to make me know +what the emotions and affections of a son are, and how ill a father's +place is likely to be supplied by any other relation, Providence, (it +has often occurred to me,) gave me the first intimation that it was my +lot, and that it was best for me, to make or find my way of life a +detached individual, a "terrae filius", who was to ask love or service +of no one on any more specific relation than that of being a man, and as +such to take my chance for the free charities of humanity." + +Coleridge continued eight years at Christ's Hospital. It was a very +curious and important part of his life, giving him Bowyer for his +teacher, and Lamb for his friend. [1] + +[Footnote 1: A few particulars of this "most remarkable and amiable +man," the well-known author of "Essays of Elia, Rosamund Gray, Poems", +and other works, will interest most readers of the "Biographia". + +He was born on the 18th of February, 1775, in the Inner Temple; died +27th December, 1834, about five months after his friend Coleridge, who +continued in habits of intimacy with him from their first acquaintance +till his death in July of the same year. In "one of the most exquisite +of all the Essays of Elia," "The Old Benchers of the Middle Temple" +("Works", vol. ii, p. 188), Lamb has given the characters of his father, +and of his father's master, Samuel Salt. The few touches descriptive of +this gentleman's "unrelenting bachelorhood"--which appears in the sequel +to have been a persistent mourner-hood--and the forty years' hopeless +passion of mild Susan P.--which very permanence redeems and almost +dignifies, is in the author's sweetest vein of mingled humour and +pathos, wherein the latter, as the stronger ingredient, predominates. + +Mr. Lamb never married, for, as is recorded in the Memoir, "on the death +of his parents, he felt himself called upon by duty to repay to his +sister [a] the solicitude with which she had watched over his infancy. To +her, from the age of twenty-one he devoted his existence, seeking +thenceforth no connection which could interfere with her supremacy in +his affections, or impair his ability to sustain and to comfort her." + + [[Sub-footnote a: "A word Timidly uttered, for she "lives", the meek, + The self-restraining, the ever kind." + + From Mr. Wordsworth's memorial poem to her brother. P. W. V. P. 333.]] + + +Mr. Coleridge speaks of Miss Lamb, to whom he continued greatly +attached, in these verses, addressed to her brother: + + "Cheerily, dear Charles! + Thou thy best friend shall cherish many a year; + Such warm presages feel I of high hope! + For not uninterested the dear maid + I've viewed--her soul affectionate yet wise, + Her polished wit as mild as lambent glories + That play around a sainted infant's head." + +(See the single volume of Coleridge's Poems, p. 28.) + +Mr. Lamb has himself described his dear and only sister, whose proper +name is Mary Anne, under the title of "Cousin Bridget," in the Essay +called "Mackery End", a continuation of that entitled "My Relations", in +which he has drawn the portrait of his elder brother. "Bridget Elia," so +he commences the former, "has been my housekeeper for many a long year. +I have obligations to Bridget, extending beyond the period of memory. We +house together, old bachelor and maid, in a sort of double singleness; +with such tolerable comfort upon the whole, that I, for one, find in +myself no sort of disposition to go out upon the mountains, with the +rash king's offspring, to bewail my celibacy."--("Works", vol. ii, p. +171.) He describes her intellectual tastes in this essay, but does not +refer to her literary abilities. She wrote "Mrs. Leicester's School", +which Mr. C. used warmly to praise for delicacy of taste and tenderness +of feeling. + +Miss Lamb still survives, in the words of Mr. Talfourd, "to mourn the +severance of a life-long association, as free from every alloy of +selfishness, as remarkable for moral beauty, as this world ever +witnessed in brother and sister. "I have felt desirous to place in +relief, as far as might be, such an interesting union--to show how blest +a fraternal marriage may be, and what sufficient helpmates a brother and +sister have been to each other. Marriages of this kind would perhaps be +more frequent but for the want of some pledge or solid warranty of +continuance equivalent to that which rivets wedlock between husband and +wife. Without the vow and the bond, formal or virtual, no society, from +the least to the greatest, will hold together. Many persons are so +constituted that they cannot feel rest or satisfaction of spirit without +a single supreme object of tender affection, in whose heart they are +conscious of holding a like supremacy,--who has common hopes, loves, and +interests with themselves. Without this the breezes do not refresh nor +the sunbeams gladden them. A "share" in ever so many kind hearts does +not suffice to their happiness; they must have the whole of one, as no +one else has any part of it, whatever love of another kind that heart +may still reserve for others. There is no reason why a brother and +sister might not be to each other this second-self--this dearer +half--though such an attachment is beyond mere fraternal love, and must +have something in it "of choice and election," superadded to the natural +tie: but it is seldom found to exist, because the durable cement is +wanting--the sense of security and permanence, without which the body of +affection cannot be consolidated, nor the heart commit itself to its +whole capacity of emotion. I believe that many a brother and sister +spend their days in uncongenial wedlock, or in a restless faintly +expectant-singlehood, who might form a "comfortable couple" could they +but make up their minds early to take each other for better for worse. + +Two other poems of Mr. C. besides the one in which his sister is +mentioned, are addressed to Mr. Lamb--"This Lime-tree-bower my Prison", +and the lines "To a Friend, who had declared his intention of writing no +more Poetry".--("Poetical Works", i, p. 201 and p. 205.) In a letter to +the author ("Ainger", i, p. 121), Lamb inveighs against the soft epithet +applied to him in the first of these. He hoped his ""virtues" had done +"sucking""--and declared such praise fit only to be a "cordial to some +greensick sonnetteer." + + "Yes! they wander on + In gladness all; but thou, methinks, most glad, + My "gentle-hearted" Charles! for thou hast pined + And hungered after nature, many a year, + In the great city pent, winning thy way + With sad yet patient soul through evil and pain + And strange calamity." + +In the next poem he is called "wild-eyed boy." The two epithets, +"wild-eyed" and "gentle-hearted," will recall Charles Lamb to the minds +of all who knew him personally. Mr. Talfourd seems to think that the +special delight in the country, ascribed to him by my father, was a +distinction scarcely merited. I rather imagine that his indifference to +it was a sort of "mock apparel" in which it was his humour at times to +invest himself. I have been told that, when visiting the Lakes, he took +as much delight in the natural beauties of the region as might be +expected from a man of his taste and sensibility. [b] + + [[Sub-footnote b: + + "Thou wert a scorner of the field, my Friend, + But more in show than truth." + + From Mr. W.'s poem "To a good man of most dear memory", quoted in p. + 323.]] + +Mr. Coleridge's expression, recorded in the "Table Talk", that he +"looked on the degraded men and things around him like moonshine on a +dunghill, that shines and takes no pollution," partly alludes to that +tolerance of moral evil, both in men and books, which was so much +remarked in Charles Lamb, and was, in so good a man, really remarkable. +His toleration of it in books is conspicuous in the view he takes of the +writings of Congreve and Wycherley, in his essay on the artificial +comedy of the last century ("Works", vol. ii, p. 322), and in many of +his other literary criticisms. His toleration of it in men--at least his +faculty of merging some kinds and degrees of it in concomitant good, or +even beholding certain errors rather as objects of interest, or of a +meditative pity and tenderness, than of pure aversion and condemnation, +Mr. Talfourd has feelingly described in his "Memoir" (vol. ii, p. +326-9), "Not only to opposite opinions," he says, "and devious habits of +thought was Lamb indulgent; he discovered the soul of goodness in things +evil so vividly, that the surrounding evil disappeared from his mental +vision." This characteristic of his mind is not to be identified with +the idolizing propensity common to many ardent and imaginative spirits. +He "not only loved his friends in spite of their errors," as Mr. +Talfourd observes, "but loved them, "errors and all";" which implies +that he was not unconscious of their existence. He saw the failings as +plainly as any one else, nay, fixed his gentle but discerning eye upon +them; whereas the idolizers behold certain objects in a bedarkening +blaze of light, or rather of light-confounding brightness, the +multiplied and heightened reflection of whatever is best in them, to the +obscurity or transmutation of all their defects. Whence it necessarily +follows that the world presents itself to their eyes divided, like a +chess-board, into black and white compartments--a moral and intellectual +chequer-work; not that they love to make darkness, but that they +luxuriate too eagerly in light: and their "over-muchness" toward some +men involves an over-littleness towards others, whom they involuntarily +contrast, in all their poor and peccant reality, with gorgeous +idealisms. The larger half of mankind is exiled for them into a +hemisphere of shadow, as dim, cold, and negative as the unlit portion of +the crescent moon. Lamb's general tendency, though he too could warmly +admire, was in a different direction; he was ever introducing streaks +and gleams of light into darkness, rather than drowning certain objects +in floods of it; and this, I think, proceeded in him from indulgence +toward human nature rather than from indifference to evil. To his friend +the disposition to exalt and glorify co-existed, in a very remarkable +manner, with a power of severe analysis of character and poignant +exhibition of it,--a power which few possess without exercising it some +time or other to their own sorrow and injury. The consequence to Mr. +Coleridge was that he sometimes seemed untrue to himself, when he had +but brought forward, one after another, perfectly real and sincere moods +of his mind. + +In his fine poem commemorating the deaths of several poets, Mr. +Wordsworth thus joins my father's name with that of his almost life-long +friend: + + "Nor has the rolling year twice measured, + From sign to sign, its steadfast course, + Since every mortal power of Coleridge + Was frozen at its marvellous source; + The rapt One of the godlike forehead, + The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth; + And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle, + Has vanished from his lonely hearth." + +S. C. Footnote 1 ends: main text resumes:] + +Numerous retrospective notices by himself and others exist of this +period; but none of his really boyish letters have been preserved. The +exquisite Essay intitled, "Christ's Hospital five and thirty years +ago", by Lamb, is principally founded on that delightful writer's +recollections of the boy Coleridge, and that boy's own subsequent +descriptions of his school days. Coleridge is Lamb's "poor friendless +boy."--"My parents and those who should care for me, were far away. +Those few acquaintances of theirs, which they could reckon upon being +kind to me in the great city, after a little forced notice, which they +had the grace to take of me on my first arrival in town, soon grew tired +of my holiday visits. They seemed to them to recur too often, though I +thought them few enough; and, one after another, they all failed me, and +I felt myself alone among six hundred playmates. O the cruelty of +separating a poor lad from his early homestead! The yearnings which I +used to have toward it in those unfledged years! How, in my dreams would +my native town, far in the west, come back with its church, its trees, +and faces! How I would wake weeping, and in the anguish of my heart +exclaim upon sweet "Calne in Wiltshire!"" + +Yet it must not be supposed that Coleridge was an unhappy boy. He was +naturally of a joyous temperament, and in one amusement, swimming, he +excelled and took singular delight. Indeed he believed, and probably +with truth, that his health was seriously injured by his excess in +bathing, coupled with such tricks as swimming across the New River in +his clothes, and drying them on his back, and the like. But reading was +a perpetual feast to him. "From eight to fourteen," he writes, "I was a +playless day-dreamer, a "helluo librorum", my appetite for which was +indulged by a singular incident: a stranger, who was struck by my +conversation, made me free of a circulating library in King Street, +Cheapside."--"Here," he proceeds, "I read through the catalogue, folios +and all, whether I understood them, or did not understand them, running +all risks in skulking out to get the two volumes which I was entitled to +have daily. Conceive what I must have been at fourteen; I was in a +continual low fever. My whole being was, with eyes closed to every +object of present sense, to crumple myself up in a sunny comer, and +read, read, read,--fancy myself on Robinson Crusoe's island, finding a +mountain of plum-cake, and eating a room for myself, and then eating it +into the shapes of tables and chairs--hunger and fancy!"--"My talents +and superiority," he continues, "made me for ever at the head in my +routine of study, though utterly without the desire to be so; without a +spark of ambition; and as to emulation, it had no meaning for me; but +the difference between me and my form-fellows, in our lessons and +exercises, bore no proportion to the measureless difference between me +and them in the wide, wild, wilderness of useless, unarranged book +knowledge and book thoughts. Thank Heaven! it was not the age for +getting up prodigies; but at twelve or fourteen I should have made as +pretty a juvenile prodigy as was ever emasculated and ruined by fond and +idle wonderment. Thank Heaven! I was flogged instead of being flattered. +However, as I climbed up the school, my lot was somewhat alleviated." + + + + + +CHAPTER II + + + +CAMBRIDGE AND PANTISOCRACY + + +(1791 to 1795) + + + Come back into memory, like as thou wert in the day-spring of thy + fancies, with Hope like a fiery column before thee--the dark pillar + not yet turned--Samuel Taylor Coleridge--Logician, Metaphysician, + Bard!-- + + +S. T. Coleridge entered at Jesus College, Cambridge, the 5th of +February, 1791. [He did not go into residence till October 1791.] + +The poems he wrote about this time and during his first vacation at +College are rather conventional, and give few indications of his future +deft handling of verse. His "Mathematical Problem" sent to his brother +George, is a piece of droll nonsense, but the letter accompanying it is +much better than the verse. It reads as follows: + +LETTER 6. TO GEORGE COLERIDGE, WITH A POEM ENTITLED "A MATHEMATICAL +PROBLEM" + +Dear Brother, + +I have often been surprised that Mathematics, the quintessence of Truth, +should have found admirers so few and so languid. Frequent consideration +and minute scrutiny have at length unravelled the cause; viz. that +though Reason is feasted, Imagination is starved; whilst Reason is +luxuriating in its proper Paradise, Imagination is wearily travelling on +a dreary desert. To assist Reason by the stimulus of Imagination is the +design of the following production. In the execution of it much may be +objectionable. The verse (particularly in the introduction of the ode) +may be accused of unwarrantable liberties, but they are liberties +equally homogeneal with the exactness of Mathematical disquisition, and +the boldness of Pindaric daring. I have three strong champions to defend +me against the attacks of Criticism: the Novelty, the Difficulty, and +the Utility of the work. I may justly plume myself that I first have +drawn the nymph Mathesis from the visionary caves of abstracted idea, +and caused her to unite with Harmony. The first-born of this Union I now +present to you; with interested motives indeed--as I expect to receive +in return the more valuable offspring of your Muse. + +Thine ever S. T. C. + +Christ's Hospital, March 31, 1791. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters VIII-XXXI follow No. 6 of our collection.] + + +The piece of doggerel, to which this epistle is a preface, will be found +in vol. ii, p. 386, of the Aldine Edition of Coleridge's Poems. + +Coleridge's brother George also wrote verses, and "Mathematical Problem" +is just one of the cantrips in verse that passed between the brothers.] + +He gained Sir William Browne's gold medal for the Greek Ode in the +summer of that year. It was on the Slave Trade. The poetic force and +originality of this Ode were, as he said himself, much beyond the +language in which they were conveyed. In the winter of 1792-3 he stood +for the University (Craven) Scholarship with Dr. Keate, the late +head-master of Eton, Mr. Bethell (of Yorkshire) and Bishop Butler, who +was the successful candidate. In 1793 he wrote without success for the +Greek Ode on Astronomy, the prize for which was gained by Dr. Keate. The +original is not known to exist, but the reader may see what is probably +a very free version of it by Mr. Southey in his Minor Poems. ("Poetical +Works", vol. ii, p. 170.) "Coleridge"--says a schoolfellow [1] of his +who followed him to Cambridge in 1792, "was very studious, but his +reading was desultory and capricious. He took little exercise merely for +the sake of exercise: but he was ready at any time to unbend his mind in +conversation; and, for the sake of this, his room, (the ground-floor +room on the right hand of the staircase facing the great gate,) was a +constant rendezvous of conversation-loving friends. I will not call them +loungers, for they did not call to kill time, but to enjoy it. What +evenings have I spent in those rooms! What little suppers, or "sizings", +as they were called, have I enjoyed; when Aeschylus, and Plato, and +Thucydides were pushed aside, with a pile of lexicons and the like, to +discuss the pamphlets of the day. Ever and anon a pamphlet issued from +the pen of Burke. There was no need of having the book before +us;--Coleridge had read it in the morning, and in the evening he would +repeat whole pages "verbatim"."--"College Reminiscences, Gentleman's +Mag"., Dec. 1834. + +[Footnote 1: C. V. Le Grice.] + + +In May and June, 1793, Frend's trial took place in the Vice- +Chancellor's Court, and in the Court of Delegates, at Cambridge. Frend +was a Fellow of Jesus, and a slight acquaintance had existed between +him and Coleridge, who however soon became his partizan. Mr. C. used +to relate a remarkable incident, which is thus preserved by Mr. +Gillman:--"The trial was observed by Coleridge to be going against +Frend, when some observation or speech was made in his favour;--a +dying hope thrown out, as it appeared, to Coleridge, who in the midst +of the Senate House, whilst sitting on one of the benches, extended +his hands and clapped them. The Proctor in a loud voice demanded who +had committed this indecorum. Silence ensued. The Proctor, in an +elevated tone, said to a young man sitting near Coleridge, "Twas you, +Sir!' The reply was as prompt as the accusation; for, immediately +holding out the stump of his right arm, it appeared that he had lost +his hand;--'I would, Sir,' said he, 'that I had the power!' That no +innocent person should incur blame, Coleridge went directly afterwards +to the Proctor, who told him that he saw him clap his hands, but fixed +on this person, who he knew had not the power. 'You have had,' said +he, 'a narrow escape.'"--"Life of S. T. C"., i, p. 55. + +Coleridge passed the summer of 1793 at Ottery, and whilst there wrote +his "Songs of the Pixies" ("Poetical Works", i, p. 13), and some other +little pieces. He returned to Cambridge in October, but, in the +following month, in a moment of despondency and vexation of spirit, +occasioned principally by some debts not amounting to £100 he suddenly +left his college and went to London. In a few days he was reduced to +want, and observing a recruiting advertisement he resolved to get bread +and overcome a prejudice at the same time by becoming a soldier. He +accordingly applied to the sergeant, and after some delay was marched +down to Reading, where he regularly enlisted as a private in the 15th +Light Dragoons on the 3d of December, 1793. He kept his initials under +the names of Silas Tomkyn Comberbacke. "I sometimes," he writes in a +letter, "compare my own life with that of Steele, (yet O! how +unlike!)--led to this from having myself also for a brief time borne +arms, and written 'private' after my name, or rather another name; for, +being at a loss when suddenly asked my name, I answered "Cumberback", +and verily my habits were so little equestrian, that my horse, I doubt +not, was of that opinion." Coleridge continued four months a light +dragoon, during which time he saw and suffered much. He rode his horse +ill, and groomed him worse; but he made amends by nursing the sick, and +writing letters for the sound. His education was detected by one of his +officers, Captain Nathaniel Ogle, who observed the words,--"Eheu! quam +infortunii miserrimum est fuisse felicem!"--freshly written in pencil on +the stable-wall or door, and ascertained that Comberbacke was the +writer. But the termination of his military career was brought about by +a chance recognition in the street: his family was apprized of his +situation, and after some difficulty he was duly discharged on the both +of April, 1794, at Hounslow. + +Coleridge now returned to Cambridge, and remained there till the +commencement of the summer vacation. But the adventures of the preceding +six months had broken the continuity of his academic life, and given +birth to new views of future exertion. His acquaintance with Frend had +materially contributed to his adoption of the system called +Unitarianism, which he now openly professed, and this alone made it +imperative on his conscience to decline availing himself of any +advantages dependent on his entering into holy orders, or subscribing +the Articles of the English Church. He lived, nevertheless, to see and +renounce his error, and to leave on record his deep and solemn faith in +the catholic doctrine of Trinal Unity, and the Redemption of man through +the sacrifice of Christ, both God and Man. Indeed his Unitarianism, such +as it was, was not of the ordinary quality. "I can truly say"--were +Coleridge's words in after life--"that I never falsified the Scripture. +I always told the Unitarians that their interpretations of the Scripture +were intolerable upon any principles of sound criticism; and that if +they were to offer to construe the will of a neighbour as they did that +of their Maker, they would be scouted out of society. I said then +plainly and openly that it was clear enough that John and Paul were not +Unitarians. But at that time I had a strong sense of the repugnancy of +the doctrine of vicarious atonement to the moral being, and I thought +nothing could counterbalance that. 'What care I,' I said, 'for the +Platonisms of John, or the Rabbinisms of Paul?--My conscience revolts!' +That was the ground of my Unitarianism."--"Table Talk", Bohn Library +edition, p. 290. + +At the commencement of the Long Vacation, in June, 1794, Coleridge went +to Oxford on a visit to an old school-fellow, intending probably to +proceed afterwards to his mother at Ottery. But an accidental +introduction to Robert Southey, then an under-graduate at Balliol +College, first delayed, and ultimately prevented, the completion of this +design, and became, in its consequences, the hinge on which a large part +of Coleridge's after life was destined to turn. + +The first letter to Southey was written from Gloucester on 6th July +1794, and it shows the degree of intimacy on which the two +undergraduates stood at this time. They had met only about a month +before, for Southey writes on 12th June to his friend Grosvenor Bedford: +"Allen is with us daily and his friend from Cambridge, Coleridge, whose +poems you will oblige me by subscribing to, either at Hookam's or +Edward's. He is of most uncommon merit, of the strongest genius, the +clearest judgment, the best heart. My friend he already is, and must +hereafter be yours," ("Life and Correspondence of Southey", i, 210). The +poems mentioned were a projected volume of "Imitations from Modern Latin +Poets", of which an ode after Casimir is the only relic. Coleridge's +first letter to Southey reads as follows: + + +LETTER 7. TO SOUTHEY + +6 July 1794. + +You are averse to gratitudinarian flourishes, else would I talk about +hospitality, attention, &c. &c.; however, as I must not thank you, I +will thank my stars. Verily, Southey, I like not Oxford, nor the +inhabitants of it. I would say thou art a nightingale among owls; but +thou art so songless and heavy towards night that I will rather liken +thee to the matin lark, thy "nest" is in a blighted cornfield, where the +sleepy poppy nods its red-cowled head, and the weak-eyed mole plies his +dark work; but thy soaring is even unto heaven. Or let me add (for my +appetite for similes is truly canine at this moment), that as the +Italian nobles their new-fashioned doors, so thou dost make the +adamantine gate of Democracy turn on its golden hinges to most sweet +music. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter XXXII gives the full text of No. 7. Letter XXXIII is dated +15 July, 1794.] + +For the next fifteen months Coleridge and Southey were close companions, +Coleridge being the elder by two years. + +Upon the present occasion, however, he left Oxford with an acquaintance, +Mr. Hucks, for a pedestrian tour in Wales. [2] Two other friends, +Brookes and Berdmore, joined them in the course of their ramble; and at +Caernarvon Mr. Coleridge wrote the following letter to Mr. Martin, of +Jesus College. + +[Footnote 2: It is to this tour that he refers in the "Table Talk", p. +88.--"I took the thought of "grinning for joy" in that poem ("The +Ancient Mariner") from my companion (Berdmore's) remark to me, when we +had climbed to the top of Penmaenmaur, and were nearly dead with thirst. +We could not speak from the constriction, till we found a little puddle +under a stone. He said to me,--'You grinned like an idiot.' He had done +the same."] + + + +LETTER 8. To HENRY MARTIN [1] + +July 22d, 1794. + +Dear Martin, + +From Oxford to Gloucester,+ to Ross,+ to Hereford, to Leominster, to +Bishop's Castle,+ to Montgomery, to Welshpool, Llanvelling,+ Llangunnog, +Bala,+ Druid House,+ Llangollin, Wrexham,++ Ruthin, Denbigh,+ St. Asaph, +Holywell,+ Rudland, Abergeley,+ Aberconway,+ Abber,+ over a ferry to +Beaumaris+ (Anglesea), Amlock,+ Copper Mines, Gwindu, Moeldon, over a +ferry to Caernarvon, have I journeyed, now philosophizing with Hucks, 1 +now melancholizing by myself, or else indulging those daydreams of +fancy, that make realities more gloomy. To whatever place I have affixed +the mark +, there we slept. The first part of our tour was intensely +hot--the roads, white and dazzling, seemed to undulate with heat--and +the country, bare and unhedged, presenting nothing but stone fences, +dreary to the eye and scorching to the touch. At Ross we took up our +quarters at the King's Arms, once the house of Mr. Kyrle, the celebrated +Man of Ross. I gave the window-shutter a few verses, Which I shall add +to the end of the letter. The walk from Llangunnog to Bala over the +mountains was most wild and romantic; there are immense and rugged +clefts in the mountains, which in winter must form cataracts most +tremendous; now there is just enough sun-glittering water dashed down +over them to soothe, not disturb the ear. I climbed up a precipice on +which was a large thorn-tree, and slept by the side of one of them near +two hours. + +At Bala I was apprehensive that I had caught the itch from a Welsh +democrat, who was charmed with my sentiments; he bruised my hand with a +grasp of ardour, and I trembled lest some discontented citizens of the +"animalcular" republic might have emigrated. Shortly after, in came a +clergyman well dressed, and with him four other gentlemen. I was asked +for a public character; I gave Dr. Priestley. The clergyman whispered +his neighbour, who it seems is the apothecary of the +parish--"Republicans!" Accordingly when the doctor, as they call +apothecaries, was to have given a name, "I gives a sentiment, gemmen! +may all republicans be "gull"oteened!" Up starts the democrat; "May all +fools be gulloteened, and then you will be the first!" Fool, rogue, +traitor, liar, &c. flew in each other's faces in hailstorms of +vociferation. This is nothing in Wales--they make if necessary +vent-holes for the sulphureous fumes of their temper! I endeavoured to +calm the tempest by observing that however different our political +opinions might be, the appearance of a clergyman assured me that we were +all Christians, though I found it rather difficult to reconcile the last +sentiment with the spirit of Christianity! "Pho!" quoth the clergyman; +"Christianity! Why we a'nt at "church" now, are we? The gentleman's +sentiment was a very good one, because it shows him to be sincere in his +principles." Welsh politics, however, could not prevail over Welsh +hospitality; they all shook hands with me (except the parson), and said +I was an open-speaking, honest-hearted fellow, though I was a bit of a +democrat. + +On our road from Bala to Druid House, we met Brookes and Berdmore. Our +rival pedestrians, a "Gemini" of Powells, were vigorously marching +onward, in a postchaise! Berdmore had been ill. We were not a little +glad to see each other. Llangollen is a village most romantically +situated; but the weather was so intensely hot that we saw only what was +to be admired--we could not admire. + +At Wrexham the tower is most magnificent; and in the church is a white +marble monument of Lady Middleton, superior, "mea quidem sententia", to +anything in Westminster Abbey. It had entirely escaped my memory, that +Wrexham was the residence of a Miss E. Evans, a young lady with whom in +happier days I had been in habits of fraternal correspondence; she lives +with her grandmother. As I was standing at the window of the inn, she +passed by, and with her, to my utter astonishment, her sister, Mary +Evans, "quam afflictim et perdite amabam",--yea, even to anguish. They +both started, and gave a short cry, almost a faint shriek; I sickened, +and well nigh fainted, but instantly retired. Had I appeared to +recognise her, my fortitude would not have supported me: + + Vivit, sed mihi non vivit--nova forte marita. + Ah, dolor! alterius nunc a cervice pependit. + Vos, malefida valete accensae insomnia mentis, + Littora amata valete; vale ah! formosa Maria. + +Hucks informed me that the two sisters walked by the window four or five +times, as if anxiously. Doubtless they think themselves deceived by some +face strikingly like me. God bless her! Her image is in the sanctuary of +my bosom, and never can it be torn from thence, but by the strings that +grapple my heart to life! This circumstance made me quite ill. I had +been wandering among the wild-wood scenery and terrible graces of the +Welsh mountains to wear away, not to revive, the images of the +past;--but love is a local anguish; I am fifty miles distant, and am not +half so miserable. + +At Denbigh is the finest ruined castle in the kingdom; it surpassed +everything I could have conceived. I wandered there two hours in a still +evening, feeding upon melancholy. Two well dressed young men were +roaming there. "I will play my flute here," said the first; "it will +have a romantic effect." "Bless thee, man of genius and sensibility," I +silently exclaimed. He sate down amid the most awful part of the ruins; +the moon just began to make her rays pre-dominant over the lingering +daylight; I preattuned my feelings to emotion;--and the romantic youth +instantly struck up the sadly pleasing tunes of "Miss Carey"--"The +British Lion is my sign--A roaring trade I drive on", &c. + +Three miles from Denbigh, on the road to St. Asaph, is a fine bridge +with one arch of great, great grandeur. Stand at a little distance, and +through it you see the woods waving on the hill-bank of the river in a +most lovely point of view. + +A "beautiful" prospect is always more picturesque when seen at some +little distance through an arch. I have frequently thought of Michael +Taylor's way of viewing a landscape between his thighs. Under the arch +was the most perfect echo I ever heard. Hucks sang "Sweet Echo" with +great effect. + +At Holywell I bathed in the famous St. Winifred's Well. It is an +excellent cold bath. At Rudland is a fine ruined castle. Abergeley is a +large village on the sea-coast. Walking on the sea sands I was surprised +to see a number of fine women bathing promiscuously with men and boys +perfectly naked. Doubtless the citadels of their chastity are so +impregnably strong, that they need not the ornamental bulwarks of +modesty; but, seriously speaking, where sexual distinctions are least +observed, men and women live together in the greatest purity. +Concealment sets the imagination a-working, and as it were, +"cantharadizes" our desires. + +Just before I quitted Cambridge, I met a countryman with a strange +walking-stick, five feet in length. I eagerly bought it, and a most +faithful servant it has proved to me. My sudden affection for it has +mellowed into settled friendship. On the morning of our leaving +Abergeley, just before our final departure, I looked for my stick in the +place in which I had left it over night. It was gone. I alarmed the +house; no one knew any thing of it. In the flurry of anxiety I sent for +the Crier of the town, and gave him the following to cry about the town +and the beach, which he did with a gravity for which I am indebted to +his stupidity. + +"Missing from the Bee Inn, Abergeley, a curious walking-stick. On one +side it displays the head of an eagle, the eyes of which represent +rising suns, and the ears Turkish crescents; on the other side is the +portrait of the owner in wood-work. Beneath the head of the eagle is a +Welsh wig, and around the neck of the stick is a Queen Elizabeth's ruff +in tin. All down it waves the line of beauty in very ugly carving. If +any gentleman (or lady) has fallen in love with the above described +stick, and secretly carried off the same, he (or she) is hereby +earnestly admonished to conquer a passion, the continuance of which must +prove fatal to his (or her) honesty. And if the said stick has slipped +into such gentleman's (or lady's) hand through inadvertence, he (or she) +is required to rectify the mistake with all convenient speed. God save +the king." + +Abergeley is a fashionable Welsh watering place, and so singular a +proclamation excited no small crowd on the beach, among the rest a lame +old gentleman, in whose hands was descried my dear stick. The old +gentleman, who lodged at our inn, felt great confusion, and walked +homewards, the solemn Crier before him, and a various cavalcade behind +him. I kept the muscles of my face in tolerable subjection. He made his +lameness an apology for borrowing my stick, supposed he should have +returned before I had wanted it, &c. &c. Thus it ended, except that a +very handsome young lady put her head out of a coach-window, and begged +my permission to have the bill which I had delivered to the Crier. I +acceded to the request with a compliment, that lighted up a blush on her +cheek, and a smile on her lip. + +We passed over a ferry to Aberconway. We had scarcely left the boat ere +we descried Brookes and Berdmore, with whom we have joined parties, nor +do we mean to separate. Our tour through Anglesea to Caernarvon has been +repaid by scarcely one object worth seeing. To-morrow we visit Snowdon. +Brookes, Berdmore, and myself, at the imminent hazard of our lives, +scaled the very summit of Penmaenmaur. It was a most dreadful +expedition. I will give you the account in some future letter. + +I sent for Bowles's Works while at Oxford. How was I shocked! Every +omission and every alteration disgusted taste, and mangled sensibility. +Surely some Oxford toad had been squatting at the poet's ear, and +spitting into it the cold venom of dulness. It is not Bowles; he is +still the same, (the added poems will prove it) descriptive, dignified, +tender, sublime. The sonnets added are exquisite. Abba Thule has marked +beauties, and the little poem at Southampton is a diamond; in whatever +light you place it, it reflects beauty and splendour. The "Shakespeare" +is sadly unequal to the rest. Yet in whose poems, except those of +Bowles, would it not have been excellent? Direct to me, to be left at +the Post Office, Bristol, and tell me everything about yourself, how you +have spent the vacation, &c. + +Believe me, with gratitude and fraternal friendship, + +Your obliged S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1: Long portions of this letter appear in a letter to Southey +of 15 September 1794. See "Letters", p. 74.] + +[Footnote 2: Hucks published, in 1795, an account of the holiday +entitled "Tour in North Wales".] + +On his return from this excursion Coleridge went, by appointment, to +Bristol for the purpose of meeting Southey, whose person and +conversation had excited in him the most lively admiration. This was at +the end of August or beginning of September. Southey, whose mother then +lived at Bath, came over to Bristol accordingly to receive his new +friend, who had left as deep an impression on him, and in that city +introduced Coleridge to Robert Lovell, a young Quaker, then recently +married to Mary Fricker, and residing in the Old Market. After a short +stay at Bristol, where he first saw Sarah Fricker, Mrs. Lovell's elder +sister, Coleridge accompanied Southey on his return to Bath. There he +remained for some weeks, principally engaged in making love, and in +maturing, with his friend, the plan, which he had for some time +cherished, of a social community to be established in America upon what +he termed a pantisocratical basis. + +Much discussion has taken place regarding the origin of Pantisocracy, +most writers on the subject attributing the scheme to Coleridge. A +perusal of the letters of Southey, however, leads to a different +conclusion. Southey was enamoured during his stay at Oxford with Plato, +and especially with the "Republic" of the Greek philosopher; and he +frequently quotes from the work or refers to its principles in his +correspondence with Grosvenor and Horace W. Bedford between 11th +November 1793 and 12th June 1794. Before his meeting with Southey no +trace of ideal Republicanism appears in the letters of Coleridge. His +leaning notwithstanding this was already towards Republicanism, and the +friendship struck up between him and Southey was a natural consequence +of flint coming into contact with steel. The next two letters, to +Southey, indicate the fiery nature of the young Republicans. + + + +LETTER 9. To SOUTHEY + +6 Sept. 1794. + +The day after my arrival I finished the first act: I transcribed it. The +next morning Franklin (of Pembroke Coll. Cam., a "ci-devant Grecian" of +our school--so we call the first boys) called on me, and persuaded me to +go with him and breakfast with Dyer, author of "The Complaints of the +Poor, A Subscription", &c. &c. I went; explained our system. He was +enraptured; pronounced it impregnable. He is intimate with Dr. +Priestley, and doubts not that the Doctor will join us. He showed me +some poetry, and I showed him part of the first act, which I happened to +have about me. He liked it hugely; it was "a nail that would drive...." +Every night I meet a most intelligent young man, who has spent the last +five years of his life in America, and is lately come from thence as an +agent to sell land. He was of our school. I had been kind to him: he +remembers it, and comes regularly every evening to "benefit by +conversation," he says. He says £2,000 will do; that he doubts not we +can contract for our passage under £400; that we shall buy the land a +great deal cheaper when we arrive at America than we could do in +England; "or why," he adds, "am I sent over here?" That twelve men may +"easily" clear 300 acres in four or five months; and that, for 600 +dollars, a thousand acres may be cleared, and houses built on them. He +recommends the Susquehanna, from its excessive beauty and its security +from hostile Indians. Every possible assistance will be given us; we may +get credit for the land for ten years or more, as we settle upon. That +literary characters make "money" there: &c. &c. He never saw a "bison" +in his life, but has heard of them: they are quite backwards. The +mosquitos are not so bad as our gnats; and, after you have been there a +little while, they don't trouble you much. + + + +LETTER 10. TO SOUTHEY + +18 Sept. 1794. + +Since I quitted this room what and how important events have been +evolved! America! Southey! Miss Fricker!... Pantisocracy! Oh! I shall +have such a scheme of it! My head, my heart, are all alive. I have drawn +up my arguments in battle array: they shall have the "tactician" +excellence of the mathematician, with the enthusiasm of the poet. The +head shall be the mass; the heart, the fiery spirit that fills, informs +and agitates the whole. SHAD GOES WITH US: HE IS MY BROTHER!! I am +longing to be with you: make Edith my sister. Surely, Southey, we shall +be frendotatoi meta frendous--most friendly where all are friends. She +must, therefore, be more emphatically my sister.... C----, the most +excellent, the most Pantisocratic of aristocrats, has been laughing at +me. Up I arose, terrible is reasoning. He fled from me, because "he +would not answer for his own sanity, sitting so near a madman of +genius." He told me that the strength of my imagination had intoxicated +my reason, and that the acuteness of my reason had given a directing +influ-* *ence to my imagination. Four months ago the remark would not +have been more elegant than just: now it is nothing. [1] + +[Footnote 1: This letter is given in full in "Letters", No. XXXIV.] + + +These letters show that Pantisocracy was now the all absorbing topic. + +The following letter written at this time by Coleridge to Mr. Charles +Heath, of Monmouth, is a curious evidence of his earnestness upon this +subject: + + + + +LETTER 11. To CHARLES HEATH OF MONMOUTH [1] + +(----1794). + +Sir, + +Your brother has introduced my name to you; I shall therefore offer no +apology for this letter. A small but liberalized party have formed a +scheme of emigration on the principles of an abolition of individual +property. Of their political creed, and the arguments by which they +support and elucidate it they are preparing a few copies--not as meaning +to publish them, but for private distribution. In this work they will +have endeavoured to prove the exclusive justice of the system and its +practicability; nor will they have omitted to sketch out the code of +contracts necessary for the internal regulation of the Society; all of +which will of course be submitted to the improvements and approbation of +each component member. As soon as the work is printed, one or more +copies shall be transmitted to you. Of the characters of the individuals +who compose the party I find it embarrassing to speak; yet, vanity +apart, I may assert with truth that they have each a sufficient strength +of head to make the virtues of the heart respectable, and that they are +all highly charged with that enthusiasm which results from strong +perceptions of moral rectitude, called into life and action by ardent +feelings. With regard to pecuniary matters it is found necessary, if +twelve men with their families emigrate on this system, that £2,000 +should be the aggregate of their contributions--but infer not from hence +that each man's "quota" is to be settled with the littleness of +arithmetical accuracy. No; all will strain every nerve; and then, I +trust, the surplus money of some will supply the deficiencies of others. +The "minutiae" of topographical information we are daily endeavouring to +acquire; at present our plan is, to settle at a distance, but at a +convenient distance, from Cooper's Town on the banks of the Susquehanna. +This, however, will be the object of future investigation. For the time +of emigration we have fixed on next March. In the course of the winter +those of us whose bodies, from habits of sedentary study or academic +indolence, have not acquired their full tone and strength, intend to +learn the theory and practice of agriculture and carpentry, according as +situation and circumstances make one or the other convenient. + +Your fellow Citizen, S. T. COLERIDGE. [Footnote: Letter XXXV is dated 19 +Sept. 1794.] + +[Footnote 1: One of the Pantisocrats.] + + +The members of the society at that time were Coleridge himself, Southey, +Lovell, and George Burnett, a Somersetshire youth and fellow collegian +with Southey. Toward the beginning of September, Coleridge left Bath and +went, for the last time, as a student, to Cambridge, apparently with the +view of taking his degree of B.A. after the ensuing Christmas. Here he +published "The Fall of Robespierre" ("Lit. Remains", i, p. +1), of which the first act was written by himself, and the second and +third by Mr. Southey, and the particulars of the origin and authorship +of which may be found stated in an extract from a letter of Mr. +Southey's there printed. The dedication to Mr. Martin is dated at Jesus +College, 22nd of September 1794. + +[The following is the Dedication:] + + + +LETTER 12. To HENRY MARTIN, ESQ., OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. +DEDICATORY LETTER TO THE "FALL OF ROBESPIERRE," A DRAMA IN THREE ACTS BY +COLERIDGE AND SOUTHEY. + +Dear Sir, + +Accept as a small testimony of my grateful attachment, the following +Dramatic Poem, in which I have endeavoured to detail, in an interesting +form, the fall of a man whose great bad actions have cast a disastrous +lustre on his name. In the execution of the work, as intricacy of plot +could not have been attempted without a gross violation of recent facts, +it has been my sole aim to imitate the impassioned and highly figurative +language of the French Orators, and to develop the characters of the +chief actors on a vast stage of horrors. + +Yours fraternally, S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Jesus College, September 22, 1794. + +[Note: Letters XXXVI-XLII follow No. 12.] + +This dedicatory letter is no doubt an apology for a play destitute of +dramatic art. The declamatory speeches may be an intentional imitation +of the harangues of the Revolutionaries, but they are more likely to be +the product of the inflation of youth. The redeeming feature of the play +is the beautiful little lyric, "Domestic Peace", which is in rhythm +an imitation of Collins' "How Sleep the Brave". + +The scheme of Pantisocracy was not much further forward at the close of +1794 than it had been in the summer; and Southey had been advised to try +it in Wales instead of on the banks of the Susquehanna. Coleridge writes +in December: + + + +LETTER 13. TO SOUTHEY +--Dec. 1794. + +For God's sake, my dear fellow, tell me what we are to gain by taking a +Welsh farm? Remember the principles and proposed consequences of +Pantisocracy, and reflect in what degree they are attainable by +Coleridge, Southey, Lovell, Burnett, and Co., some five men _going +partners_ together! In the next place, supposing that we have found +the preponderating utility of our aspheterising in Wales, let us by our +speedy and united inquiries discover the sum of money necessary. Whether +such a farm with so very large a house is to be procured without +launching our frail and unpiloted bark on a rough sea of anxieties? How +much money will be necessary for "furnishing" so large a house? How much +necessary for the maintenance of so large a family--eighteen people--for +a year at least?] + +[Note: Letters XLIII gives the full text of this Letter 13. Letters +XLIV-L follow 13.] + +In January 1795, he was to return--and then with Spring breezes to +repair to the banks of the Susquehanna! But his fate withstood;--he took +no degree, nor ever crossed the Atlantic. Michaelmas Term, 1794, was the +last he kept at Cambridge; the vacation following was passed in London +with Charles Lamb, and in the beginning of 1795 he returned with Southey +to Bristol, and there commenced man. + +The whole spring and summer of this year he devoted to public Lectures +at Bristol, making in the intervals several excursions in Somersetshire, +one memorial of which remains in the "Lines composed while climbing +Brockley Combe". It was in one of these excursions that Mr. Coleridge +and Mr.Wordsworth first met at the house of Mr. Pinney. [1] The first +six of those Lectures constituted a course presenting a comparative view +of the Civil War under Charles I and the French Revolution. Three of +them, or probably the substance of four or five, were published at +Bristol in the latter end of 1795, the first two together, with the +title of "Conciones ad Populum", and the third with that of "The Plot +Discovered". The eloquent passage in conclusion of the first of these +Addresses was written by Mr. Southey. The tone throughout them all is +vehemently hostile to the policy of the great minister of that day; but +it is equally opposed to the spirit and maxims of Jacobinism. It was +late in life that, after a reperusal of these "Conciones", Coleridge +wrote on a blank page of one of them the following words:--"Except the +two or three pages involving the doctrine of philosophical necessity and +Unitarianism, I see little or nothing in these outbursts of my youthful +zeal to retract; and with the exception of some flame-coloured epithets +applied to persons, as to Mr. Pitt and others, or rather to +personifications--(for such they really were to me)--as little to +regret." + +Another course of six Lectures followed, "On Revealed Religion, its +corruptions, and its political views". The Prospectus states--"that +these Lectures are intended for two classes of men, Christians and +Infidels;--the former, that they may be able to "give a reason for the +hope that is in them";--the latter, that they may not determine against +Christianity from arguments applicable to its corruptions only." Nothing +remains of these Addresses, nor of two detached Lectures on the Slave +Trade and the Hair Powder Tax, which were delivered in the interval +between the two principal courses. They were all very popular amongst +the opponents of the Governments; and those on religion in particular +were highly applauded by his Unitarian auditors, amongst whom Dr. and +Mrs. Estlin and Mr. Hort were always remembered by Coleridge with regard +and esteem. + +The Transatlantic scheme, though still a favourite subject of +conversation, was now in effect abandoned by these young Pantisocrats. +Mr. C. was married at St. Mary Redcliff Church to Sarah Fricker on the +4th of October, 1795, and went to reside in a cottage at Clevedon on the +Bristol Channel; and six weeks afterwards Mr. Southey was also married +to Edith Fricker, and left Bristol on the same day on his route to +Portugal. At Clevedon Mr. and Mrs. Coleridge resided with one of Mrs. +C.'s unmarried sisters and Burnett until the beginning of December. + +[Footnote 1: This statement of H. N. Coleridge, and a remark by +Wordsworth in a letter to Wrangham of November 20th, 1795, are the only +evidence on which rests the belief that Coleridge and Wordsworth met +before 1797. The letter is quoted in the "Athenaeum" of December 8th, +1894. See also Letter LXXXI, to Estlin, May 1798.] + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +THE WATCHMAN +(1795 to 1796) + +Ah! quiet dell! dear cot, and mount sublime! +I was constrained to quit you. Was it right, +While my unnumbered brethren toiled and bled, +That I should dream away th' entrusted hours +On rose-leaf beds pampering the coward heart +With feelings all too delicate for use? + * * * * * +I therefore go, and join head, heart and hand +Active and firm, to fight the bloodless fight +Of science, freedom, and the truth in Christ. + + +Coleridge had in the course of the summer of 1795 become acquainted with +that excellent and remarkable man, the late Thomas Poole of Nether +Stowey, Somerset. In a letter written to him on the 7th of October, C. +speaks of the prospect from his cottage, and of his future plans in the +following way: + + + +LETTER 14. To THOMAS POOLE + +My Dear Sir, + +God bless you-or rather God be praised for that he has blessed you! On +Sunday morning I was married at St. Mary's, Redcliff--from Chatterton's +church. The thought gave a tinge of melancholy to the solemn joy which I +felt, united to the woman, whom I love best of all created beings. We +are settled, nay, quite domesticated, at Clevedon,--our comfortable +cot! * * * The prospect around is perhaps more various than any in the +kingdom: mine eye gluttonizes. The sea, the distant islands, the +opposite coast!--I shall assuredly write rhymes, let the nine Muses +prevent it if they can. * * * I have given up all thoughts of the +Magazine for various reasons. It is a thing of monthly anxiety and +quotidian bustle. To publish a Magazine for one year would be nonsense, +and, if I pursue what I mean to pursue, my school-plan, I could not +publish it for more than one year. In the course of half a year I mean +to return to Cambridge--having previously taken my name off from the +University's control--and, hiring lodgings there for myself and wife, +finish my great work of "Imitations" in two volumes. My former +works may, I hope, prove somewhat of genius and of erudition; this will +be better; it will show great industry and manly consistency. At the end +of it I shall publish proposals for a School. * * * My next letter will +be long and full of something;--this is inanity and egotism. * * Believe +me, dear Poole, your affectionate and mindful--friend, shall I so soon +have to say? Believe me my heart prompts it. [1] S. T. COLERIDGE! + +In spite of this letter Coleridge had not abandoned the project of +starting a magazine. His school-plan, as well as a project to become +tutor to the sons of the Earl of Buchan at Edinburgh (see Letter to +George Dyer, "Bookman" for May 1910), came to nothing. A meeting +was held among his chief friends "one evening," says Cottle, "at the +Rummer Tavern, to determine on the size, price, and time of publishing, +with all other preliminaries essential to the launching this first-rate +vessel on the mighty deep. Having heard of the circumstance the next +day, I rather wondered at not having also been requested to attend, and +while ruminating on the subject, I received from Mr. C. the following +communication." + +[Footnote 1: Letter LI is our No. 14. LII is dated 13 November 1795.] + + + +LETTER 15. To COTTLE + +(--Dec. 1795). + +My dear Friend, + +I am fearful that you felt hurt at my not mentioning to you the proposed +"Watchman", and from my not requesting you to attend the meeting. +My dear friend, my reasons were these. All who met were expected to +become subscribers to a fund; I knew there would be enough without you, +and I knew, and felt, how much money had been drawn from you lately. + +God Almighty love you! + +S. T. C. + + +"It is unknown," says Cottle, "when the following letter was received +(although quite certain that it was not the evening in which Mr. +Coleridge wrote his "Ode to the Departing Year"), and it is printed +in this place at something of an uncertainty." The probable date is 1 +January 1796. + + + +LETTER 16. To COTTLE + +January 1st (1796). + +My dear Cottle, + +I have been forced to disappoint not only you, but Dr. Beddoes, on an +affair of some importance. Last night I was induced by strong and joint +solicitation, to go to a cardclub to which Mr. Morgan belongs, and, +after the playing was over, to sup, and spend the remainder of the +night: having made a previous compact, that I should not drink; however +just on the verge of twelve, I was desired to drink only one wine glass +of punch, in honour of the departing year; and, after twelve, one other +in honour of the new year. Though the glasses were very small, yet such +was the effect produced during my sleep, that I awoke unwell, and in +about twenty minutes after had a relapse of my bilious complaint. I am +just now recovered, and with care, I doubt not, shall be as well as ever +to-morrow. If I do not see you then, it will be from some relapse, which +I have no reason, thank heaven, to anticipate. + +Yours affectionately, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +[The Mr. Morgan referred to in the above letter was John James Morgan +with whom Coleridge afterwards lived in London, at Hammersmith, and at +Calne. Dr. Beddoes was the founder of the Pneumatic Institution, and the +friend of the Wedgwoods and Humphry Davy; and it was he who was +instrumental in introducing Coleridge to these acquaintances.] + +The monthly anxiety of a Magazine justly alarmed Coleridge on the 7th of +October; yet in the December following he courageously engaged to +conduct a weekly political Miscellany. This was _The Watchman_, of +which the following Prospectus was in that month printed and circulated. + +"To supply at once the places of a Review, Newspaper, and Annual +Register. + +"On Tuesday, the ist of March, 1796, will be published No. 1. price +fourpence, of a Miscellany, to be continued every eighth day, under the +name of "The Watchman", by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This Miscellany +will be comprised in two sheets, or thirty-two pages, closely printed in +8vo; the type, long primer. Its contents, 1:--A history of the domestic +and foreign policy of the preceding days. 2:--The speeches in both +Houses of Parliament; and, during the recess, select parliamentary +speeches from the commencement of the reign of Charles I. to the present +æra, with notes historical and biographical. 3:--Original essays and +poetry. 4:--Review of interesting and important publications. Its +advantages, 1. There being no advertisements, a greater quantity of +original matter will be given, and the speeches in Parliament will be +less abridged. 2. From its form it may be bound up at the end of a year, +and become an Annual Register. 3. This last circumstance may induce men +of letters to prefer this Miscellany to more perishable publications as +the vehicle of their effusions. 4. Whenever the Ministerial and +Opposition prints differ in their accounts of occurrences, etc. such +difference will always be faithfully stated." + +Mr. C. went to Bristol in the beginning of December for the purpose of +arranging the preliminaries of this undertaking, and at the close of +the month he set off upon the tour mentioned in Chapter X of the +"Biographia Literaria", to collect subscribers. It will be +remembered that he was at this time a professed Unitarian; and the +project of becoming a minister of that persuasion seems to have passed +through his head. He had previously preached, for the first time, two +sermons at Mr. Jardine's Chapel in Bath, the subjects being the Corn +Laws and the Hair Powder Tax. He appeared in the pulpit in a blue coat +and white waistcoat, and, according to Mr. Cottle's testimony, who was +present, Coleridge delivered himself languidly, and disappointed every +one. But there is no doubt that he subsequently preached upon many +occasions with very remarkable effect. The following extracts are from +letters written by Mr. C. in the month of January, 1796, during his tour +to his early and lasting friend, Mr. Josiah Wade of Bristol, and may +serve as a commentary on parts of the accounts given of the same tour in +the Biographia Literaria. + + +LETTER 17. To JOSIAH WADE + +Worcester, January, 1796. + +My dear Wade, + +We were five in number, and twenty-five in quantity. The moment I +entered the coach, I stumbled on a huge projection, which might be +called a belly with the same propriety that you might name Mount Atlas a +mole-hill. Heavens! that a man should be unconscionable enough to enter +a stage coach, who would want elbow room if he were walking on Salisbury +Plain. + +The said citizen was a most violent aristocrat, but a pleasant humorous +fellow in other respects, and remarkably well informed in agricultural +science; so that the time passed pleasantly enough. We arrived at +Worcester at half-past two: I, of course, dined at the inn, where I met +Mr. Stevens. After dinner I christianized myself, that is, washed and +changed, and marched in finery and clean linen to High Street. With +regard to business, there is no chance of doing anything at Worcester. +The aristocrats are so numerous, and the influence of the clergy is so +extensive, that Mr. Barr thinks no bookseller will venture to publish +"The Watchman". *** + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S.--I hope and trust the young citizeness is well, and also Mrs. Wade. +Give my love to the latter, and a kiss for me to Miss Bratinella. + + + +LETTER 18 + +Birmingham, January, 1796. + +My dear Friend, + +*** My exertions here have been incessant, for in whatever company I go, +I am obliged to be the figurante of the circle. Yesterday I preached +twice, and, indeed, performed the whole service, morning and afternoon. +There were about 1,400 persons present, and my sermons, (great part +extempore,) were preciously peppered with politics. I have here at least +double the number of subscribers I had expected. * * * + +[It was at Birmingham that Coleridge met the Tallow Chandler whom he has +immortalized in his "Biographia Literaria". The sketch of the "taperman +of lights" is one of the masterpieces of English humour.] + + +LETTER 19. To JOSIAH WADE + +Nottingham, January, 1796. + +My dear Friend, + +You will perceive by this letter I have changed my route. From +Birmingham on Friday last (four o'clock in the morning), I proceeded to +Derby, stayed there till Monday morning, and am now at Nottingham. From +Nottingham I go to Sheffield; from Sheffield to Manchester; from +Manchester to Liverpool; from Liverpool to London; from London to +Bristol. Ah, what a weary way! My poor crazy ark has been tossed to and +fro on an ocean of business, and I long for the Mount Ararat on which it +is to rest. At Birmingham I was extremely unwell; a violent cold in my +head and limbs confined me for two days. Business succeeded very +well;--about a hundred subscribers I think. + +At Derby, also, I succeeded tolerably well. Mr. (Joseph) Strutt, the +successor of Sir Richard Arkwright, tells me I may count on forty or +fifty in Derby. Derby is full of curiosities;--the cotton and silk +mills; Wright the painter, and Dr. Darwin,[l] the every thing +but Christian. Dr. Darwin possesses, perhaps, a greater range of +knowledge than any other man in Europe, and is the most inventive of +philosophical men. He thinks in a new train on all subjects but +religion. He bantered me on the subject of religion. I heard all his +arguments, and told him it was infinitely consoling to me, to find that +the arguments of so great a man, adduced against the existence of a God, +and the evidences of revealed religion, were such as had startled me at +fifteen, but had become the objects of my smile at twenty. Not one new +objection--not even an ingenious one! He boasted "that he had never read +one book in favour of such stuff, but that he had read all the works of +Infidels!" + +What would you think, Mr. Wade, of a man who, having abused and +ridiculed you, should openly declare that he had heard all that your +enemies had to say against you, but had scorned to inquire the truth +from any one of your friends? Would you think him an honest man? I am +sure you would not. Yet such are all the Infidels whom I have known. +They talk of a subject, yet are proud to confess themselves profoundly +ignorant of it. Dr. Darwin would have been ashamed to reject Hutton's +theory of the Earth without having minutely examined it;--yet what is +it to us, how the earth was made, a thing impossible to be known? This +system the Doctor did not reject without having severely studied it; +but all at once he makes up his mind on such important subjects, as +whether we be the outcasts of a blind idiot called Nature,[2] or the +children of an All wise and Infinitely Good God!--whether we spend a +few miserable years on this earth, and then sink into a clod of the +valley; or endure the anxieties of mortal life, only to fit us for the +enjoyment of immortal happiness! These subjects are unworthy a +philosopher's investigation! He deems that there is a certain self- +evidence in Infidelity, and becomes an Atheist by intuition. Well did +St. Paul say, "ye have an evil heart of unbelief". + +* * * What lovely children Mr. Barr of Worcester has! After church, in +the evening, they sat round and sang hymns so sweetly that they +overpowered me. It was with great difficulty that I abstained from +weeping aloud; and the infant in Mrs. B.'s arms leaned forward, and +stretched his little arms, and stared, and smiled. It seemed a picture +of heaven, where the different Orders of the blessed join different +voices in one melodious hallelujah; and the babe looked like a young +spirit just that moment arrived in heaven, startled at the seraphic +songs, and seized at once with wonder and rapture. * * * + +From your affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1: Erasmus Darwin, 1731-1802.] + +[Footnote 2: See poem, "Human Life", written about 1815.] + + + +LETTER 20 + +Sheffield, January, 1796. + +My very dear Friend, + +I arrived at this place late last night by the mail from Nottingham, +where I have been treated with kindness and friendship, of which I can +give you but a faint idea. I preached a charity sermon there last +Sunday. I preached in coloured clothes. With regard to the gown at +Birmingham (of which you inquire), I suffered myself to be +over-persuaded. First of all, my sermon being of so political a +tendency, had I worn my blue coat, it would have impugned Edwards. They +would have said, he had stuck a political lecturer in his pulpit. +Secondly, the society is of all sorts,--Socinians, Arians, Trinitarians, +etc., and I must have shocked a multitude of prejudices. And thirdly, +there is a difference between an inn and a place of residence. In the +first, your example is of little consequence; in a single instance only, +it ceases to operate as example; and my refusal would have been imputed +to affectation, or an unaccommodating spirit. + +Assuredly I would not do it in a place where I intended to preach often. +And even in the vestry at Birmingham, when they at last persuaded me, I +told them I was acting against my better knowledge, and should possibly +feel uneasy afterwards. So these accounts of the matter you must +consider as reasons and palliations, concluding, "I plead guilty, my +Lord!" Indeed I want firmness; I perceive I do. I have that within me +which makes it difficult to say, No, repeatedly to a number of persons +who seem uneasy and anxious. * * * + +My kind remembrances to Mrs. Wade. God bless her and you, and (like a +bad shilling slipped in between two guineas), your faithful and +affectionate friend, S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Note 1: Letter LIII is our 19.] + + + +LETTER 21 + +Manchester, January 7, 1796. My dear Friend, + +I arrived at Manchester last night from Sheffield, to which place I +shall only send about thirty numbers. I might have succeeded there, at +least equally well with the former towns, but I should injure the sale +of the "Iris", the editor of which paper, (a very amiable and +ingenious young man of the name of James Montgomery)[1] is now in prison +for a libel on a bloody-minded magistrate there. Of course I declined +publicly advertising or disposing of "The Watch man" in that town. + +This morning I called on Mr. -------- with H.'s letter. Mr. --------- +received me as a rider, and treated me with insolence that was really +amusing from its novelty. "Overstocked with these articles. "---------" +People always setting up some new thing or other. "---------" I read the +"Star" and another paper: what could I want with this paper, which +is nothing more?"--"Well, well, I'll consider of it." To these +entertaining "bons mots" I returned the following repartee--"Good +morning, Sir." * * * + +God bless you, S. T. C. + +[Footnote 1: The Poet, 1771-1854.] + + +Mr. C. went to Liverpool and was as successful there as elsewhere +generally in procuring subscribers to "The Watchman". The late Dr. +Crompton found him out, and became his friend and patron. His exertions, +however, at Liverpool were suddenly stopped by news of the critical +state of Mrs. C.'s health, and a pressing request that he would +immediately return to Bristol, whither Mrs. C. had now gone from +Clevedon. Coleridge accordingly gave up his plan of visiting London, and +left Liverpool on his homeward trip. From Lichfield he wrote to Mr. Wade +the following letter: + + + +LETTER 22 + +Lichfield, January, 1796. + +My dear Friend, + +* * * I have succeeded very well here at Lichfield. Belcher, bookseller, +Birmingham; Sutton, Nottingham; Pritchard, Derby; and Thomson, +Manchester; are the publishers. In every number of "The Watchman" there +will be printed these words, "Published in Bristol by the Author, S. T. +Coleridge, and sold, etc." + +I verily believe no poor fellow's idea-pot ever bubbled up so vehemently +with fears, doubts, and difficulties, as mine does at present. Heaven +grant it may not boil over, and put out the fire! I am almost heartless. +My past life seems to me like a dream, a feverish dream--all one gloomy +huddle of strange actions and dim-discovered motives;--friendships lost +by indolence, and happiness murdered by mismanaged sensibility. The +present hour I seem in a quick-set hedge of embarrassments. For shame! I +ought not to mistrust God; but, indeed, to hope is far more difficult +than to fear. Bulls have horns, lions have talons: + + +The fox and statesman subtle wiles ensure, +The cit and polecat stink and are secure; +Toads with their venom, doctors with their drug, +The priest and hedgehog in their robes are snug. +Oh, Nature! cruel step-mother and hard +To thy poor naked, fenceless child, the bard! +No horns but those by luckless Hymen worn, +And those, alas! not Amalthaea's horn! +With naked feelings, and with aching pride, +He bears the unbroken blast on every side; +Vampire booksellers drain him to the heart, +And scorpion critics cureless venom dart. + + S. T. C. + + +Coleridge on his return to Bristol resided for a short time on Redcliff +Hill, in a house occupied by Mrs. C.'s mother. He had procured upwards +of a thousand subscribers' names to "The Watchman", and had certainly +some ground for confidence in his future success. His tour had been a +triumph; and the impression made by his personal demeanour and +extraordinary eloquence was unprecedented, and such as was never effaced +from the recollection of those who met with him at this period. He seems +to have employed the interval between his arrival in Bristol and the 1st +of March--the day fixed for the appearance of "The Watchman"--in +preparing for that work, and also in getting ready the materials of his +first volume of poems, the copyright of which was purchased by Mr. +Cottle for thirty guineas. Coleridge was a student all his life; he was +very rarely indeed idle in the common sense of the term; but he was +constitutionally indolent, averse from continuous exertion externally +directed, and consequently the victim of a procrastinating habit, the +occasion of innumerable distresses to himself and of endless solicitude +to his friends, and which materially impaired, though it could not +destroy, the operation and influence of his wonderful abilities. Hence, +also, the fits of deep melancholy which from time to time seized his +whole soul, during which he seemed an imprisoned man without hope of +liberty. In February, 1796, whilst his volume was in the press, he wrote +the following letter to Mr. Cottle: + + + + +LETTER 23 + +My dear Cottle, + +I have this night and to-morrow for you, being alone, and my spirits +calm. I shall consult my poetic honour, and of course your interest, +more by staying at home than by drinking tea with you. I should be happy +to see my poems out even by next week, and I shall continue in stirrups, +that is, shall not dismount my Pegasus, till Monday morning, at which +time you will have to thank God for having done with your affectionate +friend always, but author evanescent, + +S. T. C. + +[The last letter is one of many short notes to Cottle explaining why he +was not making progress with the proposed volume of Poems. The next is +the concluding letter of the series, still apologizing for the delay. + + + + +LETTER 24. To COTTLE. + +Stowey, (--Feb. 1796.) + +My dear Cottle, + +I feel it much, and very uncomfortable, that, loving you as a brother, +and feeling pleasure in pouring out my heart to you, I should so seldom +be able to write a letter to you, unconnected with business, and +uncontaminated with excuses and apologies. I give every moment I can +spare from my garden and the Reviews (i.e.) from my potatoes and meat to +the poem ("Religious Musings"), but I go on slowly, for I torture the +poem and myself with corrections; and what I write in an hour, I +sometimes take two or three days in correcting. You may depend on it, +the poem and prefaces will take up exactly the number of pages I +mentioned, and I am extremely anxious to have the work as perfect as +possible, and which I cannot do, if it be finished immediately. The +"Religious Musings" I have altered monstrously, since I read them to you +and received your criticisms. I shall send them to you in my next. The +Sonnets I will send you with the "Musings". God love you! + +From your affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE.] + +Shortly afterwards, mistaking the object of a message from Mr. Cottle +for an application for "copy" for the press, Coleridge wrote the +following letter with reference to the painful subject: + + + +LETTER 25 + +Redcliff Hill, February 22, 1796. + +My dear Sir, + +It is my duty and business to thank God for all his dispensations, and +to believe them the best possible; but, indeed, I think I should have +been more thankful, if He had made me a journeyman shoemaker, instead of +an author by trade. I have left my friends; I have left plenty; I have +left that ease which would have secured a literary immortality, and have +enabled me to give to the public works conceived in moments of +inspiration, and polished with leisurely solicitude; and, alas! for what +have I left them? For--who deserted me in the hour of distress, and for +a scheme of virtue impracticable and romantic! So I am forced to write +for bread--write the flights of poetic enthusiasm, when every minute I +am hearing a groan from my wife! Groans, and complaints, and sickness! +The present hour I am in a quick-set hedge of embarrassment, and, +whichever way I turn, a thorn runs into me. The future is cloud and +thick darkness. Poverty, perhaps, and the thin faces of them that want +bread looking up to me! Nor is this all. My happiest moments for +composition are broken in upon by the reflection that I must make haste. +"I am too late." "I am already months behind." "I have received my pay +beforehand."----O wayward and desultory spirit of Genius, ill can'st +thou brook a taskmaster! The tenderest touch from the hand of obligation +wounds thee like a scourge of scorpions! + +I have been composing in the fields this morning, and came home to write +down the first rude sheet of my Preface, when I heard that your man had +brought a note from you. I have not seen it, but I guess its contents. I +am writing as fast as I can. Depend on it, you shall not be out of +pocket for me. I feel what I owe you, and, independently of this, I love +you as a friend,--indeed so much that I regret, seriously regret, that +you have been my copyholder. + +If I have written petulantly, forgive me. God knows I am sore all over. +God bless you! and believe me that, setting gratitude aside, I love and +esteem you, and have your interest at heart full as much as my own. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +On the 1st of March, 1796, "The Watchman" was published; it ended with +the tenth number on the 13th of May following. In March Mr. C. removed +to a house in Oxford Street in Kingsdown, and thence wrote the following +letter to Mr. Poole: + +[1: Letter LIV is our 25.] + + + + +LETTER 26 + +30th March, 1796. + +My dear Poole, + +For the neglect in the transmission of "The Watchman", you must blame +George Burnett, who undertook the business. I however will myself see it +sent this week with the preceding Numbers. I am greatly obliged to you +for your communication--(on the Slave Trade in No. V);--it appears in +this Number. I am anxious to receive more from you, and likewise to know +what you dislike in "The Watchman", and what you like, but particularly +the former. You have not given me your opinion of "The Plot Discovered". + +Since you last saw me, I have been well nigh distracted. The repeated +and most injurious blunders of my printer out of doors, and Mrs. +Coleridge's danger at home--added to the gloomy prospect of so many +mouths to open and shut, like puppets, as I move the string in the +eating and drinking way;--but why complain to you? Misery is an article +with which every market is so glutted that it can answer no one's +purpose to export it. + +I have received many abusive letters, post-paid, thanks to the friendly +malignants! But I am perfectly callous to disapprobation, except when it +tends to lessen profit. Then indeed I am all one tremble of sensibility, +marriage having taught me the wonderful uses of that vulgar commodity, +yclept Bread. "The Watchman" succeeds so as to yield a +"bread-and-cheesish" profit. Mrs. Coleridge is recovering apace, and +deeply regrets that she was deprived of the pleasure of seeing you. We +are in our new house, where there is a bed at your service whenever you +will please to delight us with a visit. Surely in Spring you might force +a few days into a sojourning with us. + +Dear Poole, you have borne yourself towards me most kindly with respect +to my epistolary ingratitude. But I know that you forbade yourself to +feel resentment towards me, because you had previously made my neglect +ingratitude. A generous temper endures a great deal from one whom it has +obliged deeply. + +My poems are finished. I will send you two copies the moment they are +published. In No. III of "The Watchman" there are a few lines entitled, +"The Hour when we shall meet again" ("Dim Hour! that sleep'st on +pillowing clouds afar"), which I think you will like. I have received +two or three letters from different "Anonymi", requesting me to give +more poetry. One of them writes thus:-- + + +"Sir, I detest your principles; your prose I think very +so so; but your poetry is so beautiful that I take in your +"Watchman" solely on account of it. In justice therefore +to me and some others of my stamp, I entreat you to give us +more verse, and less democratic scurrility. Your Admirer,--not +Esteemer." + + +Have you read over Dr. Lardner on the Logos? It is I think, scarcely +possible to read it, and not be convinced. I find that "The Watchman" +comes more easy to me, so that I shall begin about my Christian Lectures +(meaning a publication of the course given in the preceding year). I +will immediately order for you, unless you immediately countermand it, +Count Rumford's Essays; in No. V of "The Watchman" you will see why. +(That number contained a critique on the Essays.) I have enclosed Dr. +Beddoes's late pamphlets; neither of them as yet published. The Doctor +sent them to me.... My dutiful love to your excellent Mother, whom, +believe me, I think of frequently and with a pang of affection. God +bless you. I'll try and contrive to scribble a line and half every time +the man goes with "The Watchman" to you. + +N.B. The Essay on Fasting I am ashamed of--(in No. II of "The +Watchman");--but it is one of my misfortunes that I am obliged to +publish ex tempore as well as compose. God bless you. + +S. T. COLERIDGE.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter LV is our 26.] + + + +Two days afterwards Mr. Coleridge wrote to Mr. B. Flower, then the +editor of the "Cambridge Intelligencer", with whom he had been +acquainted at the University: + + + + +LETTER 27 + +April 1, 1796. + +Dear Sir, + +I transmitted to you by Mr. B---- a copy of my "Conciones ad Populum", +and of an Address against the Bills (meaning "The Plot Discovered"). I +have taken the liberty of enclosing ten of each, carriage paid, which +you may perhaps have an opportunity of disposing of for me;--if not, +give them away. The one is an eighteen-penny affair;--the other +ninepence. I have likewise enclosed the Numbers which have been hitherto +published of "The Watchman";--some of the Poetry may perhaps be +serviceable to you in your paper. That sonnet on the rejection of Mr. +Wilberforce's Bill in your Chronicle the week before last was written by +Southey, author of "Joan of Arc", a year and a half ago, and sent to me +per letter;-how it appeared with the late signature, let the plagiarist +answer.... I have sent a copy of my Poems--(they were not yet +published):--will you send them to Lunn and Deighton, and ask of them +whether they would choose to have their names on the title page as +publishers; and would you permit me to have yours? Robinson and, I +believe, Cadell, will be the London publishers. Be so kind as to send an +immediate answer. + +Please to present one of each of my pamphlets to Mr. Hall--(the late +Robert Hall, the Baptist). I wish I could reach the perfection of his +style. I think his style the best in the English language; if he have a +rival, it is Mrs. Barbauld. + +You have, of course, seen Bishop Watson's Apology for the Bible. It is a +complete confutation of Paine; but that was no difficult matter. The +most formidable Infidel is Lessing, the author of "Emilia Galotti";--I +ought to have written, "was", for he is dead. His book is not yet +translated, and is entitled, in German, "Fragments of an Anonymous +Author". It unites the wit of Voltaire with the subtlety of Hume and the +profound erudition of "our" Lardner. I had some thoughts of translating +it with an Answer, but gave it up, lest men, whose tempers and hearts +incline them to disbelief, should get hold of it; and, though the +answers are satisfactory to my own mind, they may not be equally so to +the minds of others. + +I suppose you have heard that I am married. I was married on the 4th of +October. + +I rest all my poetical credit on the "Religious Musings". Farewell; with +high esteem, yours sincerely, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +Benjamin Flower, the editor of the "Cambridge Intelligencer", printed +the first published version of the "Monody on Chatterton" in his Edition +of the Rowley Poems, 1794. He was also to have been the publisher of the +"Imitations of the Latin Poets", of which Coleridge spoke so often at +this time. Our next letter is from "The Watchman" of 1 April, in answer +to a correspondent. Godwin, whom Coleridge had hailed in one of his +sonnets in the "Morning Chronicle" (10 January, 1795) as one formed to +"illume a sunless world" by his "Political Justice" (1793), is here +attacked with some virulence. In after years Coleridge held a better +opinion of Godwin and wrote some of his finest letters to him. + + + +LETTER 28. TO CAIUS GRACCHUS. + +You have attacked me because I ventured to disapprove of Mr. Godwin's +Works: I notice your attack because it affords me an opportunity of +expressing more fully my sentiments respecting those principles.--I must +not however wholly pass over the former part of your letter. The +sentence "implicating them with party and calumniating opinions," is so +inaccurately worded, that I must "guess" at your meaning. In my first +essay I stated that literary works were generally reviewed by personal +friends or private enemies of the Authors. This I "know" to be fact; and +does the spirit of meekness forbid us to tell the truth? The passage in +my Review of Mr. Burke's late pamphlet, you have wilfully misquoted: +"with respect to the work in question," is an addition of your own. That +work in question I myself considered as mere declamation; and +"therefore" deemed it wofully inferior to the former production of the +venerable Fanatic.--In what manner I could add to my numerous "ideal" +trophies by quoting a beautiful passage from the pages which I was +reviewing, I am ignorant. Perhaps the spirit of vanity lurked in the use +of the word ""I""--"ere "I" begin the task of blame." It is pleasant to +observe with what absurd anxiety this little monosyllable is avoided. +Sometimes "the present writer" appears as its substitute: sometimes the +modest author adopts the style of royalty, swelling and multiplying +himself into "We"; and sometimes to escape the egotistic phrases of "in +my opinion," or, "as I think," he utters dogmas, and positively +asserts--"exempli gratia": ""It is" a work, which, etc." You deem me +inconsistent, because, having written in praise of the metaphysician, I +afterwards appear to condemn the essay on political justice. Would an +eulogist of medical men be inconsistent, if he should write against +vendors of (what he deemed) poisons? Without even the formality of a +"since" or a "for" or a "because," you make an unqualified assertion, +that this essay will be allowed by all, except the prejudiced, to be a +deep, metaphysical work, though abstruse, etc. etc. Caius Gracchus must +have been little accustomed to abstruse disquisitions, if he deem Mr. +Godwin's work abstruse:--A chief (and certainly not a small) merit is +its perspicuous and "popular" language. My chapter on modern patriotism +is that which has irritated you. You condemn me as prejudiced--O this +enlightened age! when it can be seriously charged against an essayist, +that he is prejudiced in favour of gratitude, conjugal fidelity, filial +affection, and the belief of God and a hereafter!! + + + Of smart pretty fellows in Bristol are numbers, some + Who so modish are grown, that they think plain sense cumbersome; + And lest they should seem to be queer or ridiculous, + They affect to believe neither God nor "old Nicholas"![1] + + +I do consider Mr. Godwin's principles as vicious; and his book as a +pander to sensuality. Once I thought otherwise--nay, even addressed a +complimentary sonnet to the author, in the "Morning Chronicle", of which +I confess with much moral and poetical contrition, that the lines and +the subject were equally bad. I have since "studied" his work; and long +before you had sent me your contemptuous challenge, had been preparing +an examination of it, which will shortly appear in "The Watchman" in a +series of essays. You deem me an "enthusiast"--an enthusiast, I presume, +because I am not quite convinced with yourself and Mr. Godwin that mind +will be omnipotent over matter, that a plough will go into the field and +perform its labour without the presence of the agriculturist, that man +may be immortal in this life, and that death is an act of the +will!!!--You conclude with wishing that "The Watchman" "for the future +may be conducted with less prejudice and greater liberality:"--I ought +to be considered in two characters--as editor of the Miscellany, and as +a frequent contributor. In the latter I contribute what I believe to be +the truth; let him who thinks it error, contribute likewise, that where +the poison is, there the antidote may be. In my former, that is, as the +editor, I leave to the public the business of canvassing the nature of +the principles, and assume to myself the power of admitting or rejecting +any communications according to my best judgment of their style and +ingenuity. The Miscellany is open to all "ingenious" men whatever their +opinions may be, whether they be the disciples of Filmer, of Locke, of +Paley, or of Godwin. One word more of "the spirit of meekness." I meant +by this profession to declare my intention of attacking things without +expressing malignity to persons. I am young; and may occasionally write +with the intemperance of a young man's zeal. Let me borrow an apology +from the great and excellent Dr. Hartley, who of all men least needed +it. "I can truly say, that my free and unreserved manner of speaking has +flowed from the sincerity and earnestness of my heart." But I will not +undertake to justify all that I have said. Some things may be too hasty +and censorious; or however, be unbecoming my age and station. I heartily +wish that I could have observed the true medium. For want of candour is +not less an offence against the Gospel of Christ, than false shame and +want of courage in his cause. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1: The lines are by Coleridge.] + + + + +LETTER 29. TO MR. POOLE. + +11th April, 1796. + +My dear, very dear Friend, + +I have sent the 5th, 6th, and part of the 7th Number--all as yet +printed. Your censures are all right: I wish your praises were equally +so. The Essay on Fasts I am ashamed of. It was conceived in the spirit, +and clothed in the harsh scoffing, of an Infidel. You wish to have one +long essay;--so should I wish; but so do not my subscribers wish. I feel +the perplexities of my undertaking increase daily. In London and Bristol +"The Watchman" is read for its original matter,--the news and debates +barely tolerated. The people of Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, +etc., take it as a newspaper, and regard the essays and poems as +intruders unwished for and unwelcome. In short, each subscriber, instead +of regarding himself as a point in the circumference entitled to some +one diverging ray, considers me as the circumference, and himself as +the centre to which all the rays ought to converge. To tell you the +truth, I do not think "The Watchman" will succeed. Hitherto I have +scarcely sold enough to pay the expenses;--no wonder, when I tell you +that on the 200 which Parsons in Paternoster Row sells weekly, he gains +eight shillings more than I do. Nay, I am convinced that at the end of +the half year he will have cleared considerably more by his 200 than I +by the proprietorship of the whole work. + +Colson has been indefatigable in my service, and writes with such zeal +for my interests, and such warmth of sorrow for my sufferings, as if he +wrote with fire and tears. God bless him! I wish above all things to +realize a school. I could be well content to plod from morning to night, +if only I could secure a secure competence; but to toil incessantly for +uncertain bread weighs me down to earth. + +Your Night-dream has been greatly admired. Dr. Beddoes spoke in high +commendation of it. Your thoughts on Elections I will insert whenever +Parliament is dissolved. I will insert them as the opinions of a +sensible correspondent, entering my individual protest against giving a +vote in any way or for any person. If you had an estate in the swamps of +Essex, you could not prudently send an aguish man there to be your +manager,--he would be unfit for it;--you could not honestly send a hale +hearty man there, for the situation would to a moral certainty give him +the ague. So with the Parliament:--I will not send a rogue there; and I +would not send an honest man, for it is twenty to one that he will +become a rogue. + +Count Rumford's "Essays" you shall have by the next parcel. I thank you +for your kind permission with respect to books. I have sent down to you +"Elegiac Stanzas" by Bowles; they were given to me, but are altogether +unworthy of Bowles. I have sent you Beddoes's Essay on the merits of +William Pitt; you may either keep it, and I will get another for myself +on your account, or if you see nothing in it to library-ize it, send it +me back next Thursday, or whenever you have read it. My own "Poems" you +will welcome. I pin all my poetical credit on the "Religious Musings". +In the poem you so much admired in "The Watchman", for "Now life and +joy," read "New life and joy." (From "The Hour when we shall meet +again".) "Chatterton" shall appear modernized. Dr. Beddoes intends, I +believe, to give a course of Chemistry in a most "elementary" +manner,--the price, two guineas. I wish, ardently wish, you could +possibly attend them, and live with me. My house is most beautifully +situated; an excellent room and bed are at your service. If you had any +scruple about putting me to additional expense, you should pay me seven +shillings a week, and I should gain by you. + +Mrs. Coleridge is remarkably well, and sends her kind love. Pray, my +dear, dear Poole, do not neglect to write to me every week. Your +critique on "Joan of Arc" and the "Religious Musings" I expect. Your +dear mother I long to see. Tell her I love her with filial +respectfulness. Excellent woman! Farewell; God bless you and your +grateful and affectionate + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Mr. C.'s first volume of poems was published by Mr. Cottle in the +beginning of April, 1796, and his sense of the kind conduct of the +latter to him throughout the whole affair was expressed in the following +manner on a blank leaf in a copy of the work: + + + + +LETTER 30. + +Dear Cottle, + +On the blank leaf of my Poems I can most appropriately write my +acknowledgments to you for your too disinterested conduct in the +purchase of them. Indeed, if ever they should acquire a name and +character, it might be truly said the world owed them to you. Had it not +been for you, none perhaps of them would have been published, and some +not written. + +Your obliged and affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Bristol, April 15, 1796. + + +[Another project of Coleridge to earn a small sum to tide over financial +difficulties was to "Rumfordise" the cities of England. Coleridge +reviewed Rumford's Essays in "The Watchman" of 2nd April. Count Rumford +(Count of the Holy Roman Empire), had cleared certain cities of Austria +of beggars and vagabonds, and had established garden cities for the +soldiery practising agricultural pursuits and engaging in remunerative +occupations during their non-attendance at drill. What part of the +"Rumfordising" Coleridge proposed to apply to his native country does +not appear from the letter.] + + +LETTER 31. TO COTTLE + +(Apl. 1796.) + +My ever dear Cottle, + +Since I last conversed with you on the subject, I have been thinking +over again the plan I suggested to you, concerning the application of +Count Rumford's plan to the city of Bristol. I have arranged in my mind +the manner, and matter of the Pamphlet, which would be three sheets, and +might be priced at one shilling. + + Considerations + Addressed to the Inhabitants of Bristol, + on a subject of importance, + (unconnected with Politics.) + + BY S. T. C. + + +Now I have by me the history of Birmingham, and the history of +Manchester. By observing the names, revenues, and expenditures of their +different charities, I could easily alter the calculations of the +"Bristol Address", and, at a trifling expense, and a few variations, the +same work might be sent to Manchester and Birmingham. "Considerations +addressed to the inhabitants of Birmingham", etc. I could so order it, +that by writing to a particular friend, at both places, the pamphlet +should be thought to have been written at each place, as it certainly +would be "for" each place. I think therefore 750 might be printed in +all. Now will you undertake this? either to print it and divide the +profits, or (which indeed I should prefer) would you give me three +guineas, for the copyright? I would give you the first sheet on +Thursday, the second on the Monday following, the third on the Thursday +following. To each pamphlet I would annex the alterations to be made, +when the press was stopped at 250. + +God love you! + +S. T. C. + + +Cottle says regarding this project, "I presented Mr. C. with the three +guineas, but forbore the publication."] + + + + +LETTER 32. TO MR. COTTLE + +(April) 1796. + +My ever dear Cottle, + +I will wait on you this evening at nine o'clock, till which hour I am on +"Watch." Your Wednesday's invitation I of course accept, but I am rather +sorry that you should add this expense to former liberalities. + +Two editions of my "Poems" would barely repay you. Is it not possible to +get 25 or 30 of the "Poems" ready by to-morrow, as Parsons, of +Paternoster Row, has written to me pressingly about them? "People are +perpetually asking after them. All admire the poetry in the "Watchman"," +he says. I can send them with 100 of the first number, which he has +written for. I think if you were to send half a dozen "Joans of Arc" +(4to £1 1s. 0d.) on sale or return, it would not be amiss. To all the +places in the North we will send my "Poems", my "Conciones", and the +"Joans of Arc" together, "per" waggon. You shall pay the carriage for +the London and Birmingham parcels; I for the Sheffield, Derby, +Nottingham, Manchester, and Liverpool. + +With regard to the "Poems" I mean to give away, I wish to make it a +common interest; that is, I will give away a sheet full of Sonnets. +One to Mrs. Barbauld; one to Wakefield; one to Dr. Beddoes; one to +Wrangham--a college acquaintance of mine,--an admirer of me, and a +pitier of my principles;--one to George Augustus Pollen, Esq.; one to +C. Lamb; one to Wordsworth; one to my brother George, and one to Dr. Parr. +These Sonnets I mean to write on the blank leaf, respectively, of each +copy. * * * * God bless you, and + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +"The Sonnets," says Mr. Cottle, "never arrived." [But a pamphlet of 16 +pages, containing 28 Sonnets, was printed, the only extant copy of which +is in the Dyce Collection. "Poems", 1893, p. 544.] + + + + +LETTER 33. TO MR. POOLE + +6th May, 1796. + +My very dear Friend, + +The heart is a little relieved, when vexation converts itself into +anger. But from this privilege I am utterly precluded by my own +epistolary sins and negligences. Yet in very troth thou must be a +hard-hearted fellow to let me trot for four weeks together every +Thursday to the Bear Inn--to receive no letter. I have sometimes thought +that Milton the carrier did not deliver my last parcel, but he assures +me he did. + +This morning I received a truly fraternal letter from your brother +Richard of Sherborne, containing good and acceptable advice. He deems my +"Religious Musings" "too metaphysical for common readers." I answer--the +poem was not written for common readers. In so miscellaneous a +collection as I have presented to the Public, "singula cuique" should be +the motto. There are, however, instances of vicious affectation in the +phraseology of that poem;--"unshudder'd, unaghasted", for example. ("Not +in the poem now".) Good writing is produced more effectually by rapidly +glancing the language as it already exists than by a hasty recourse to +the mint of invention. The "Religious Musings" has more mind than the +Introduction of B. II. of "Joan of Arc", ("Destiny of Nations", Poet. W. +I. p. 98) but its versification is not equally rich. It has more +passages of sublimity, but it has not that diffused air of severe +dignity which characterizes my epic slice. Have I estimated my own +performances rightly? ... + +With regard to my own affairs they are as bad as the most rampant +philo-despot could wish in the moment of cursing. After No. XII I shall +cease to cry the state of the political atmosphere. It is not pleasant, +Thomas Poole, to have worked fourteen weeks for nothing--for nothing; +nay, to have given to the Public in addition to that toil, £45. When I +began the Watchman I had £40 worth of paper given to me; yet with this I +shall not have received a farthing at the end of the quarter. To be sure +I have been somewhat fleeced and over-reached by my London publisher. In +short, my tradesmen's bills for "The Watchman", including what paper I +have bought since the seventh number, the printing, etc., amount exactly +to £5 more than the whole of my receipts. "O Watchman, thou hast watched +in vain!"--said the Prophet Ezekiel, when, I suppose, he was taking a +prophetic glimpse of my sorrow-sallowed cheeks. + +My plans are reduced to two;--the first unpracticable,--the second not +likely to succeed. + +Plan 1. I am studying German, and in about six weeks shall be able to +read that language with tolerable fluency. Now I have some thoughts of +making a proposal to Robinson, the great London bookseller, of +translating all the works of Schiller, which would make a portly quarto, +on condition that he should pay my journey and my wife's to and from +Jena, a cheap German University where Schiller resides, and allow me two +guineas each quarto sheet, which would maintain me. If I could realize +this scheme, I should there study chemistry and anatomy, and bring over +with me all the works of Semler and Michaelis, the German theologians, +and of Kant, the great German metaphysician. On my return I would +commence a school for either young men at £105 each, proposing to +perfect them in the following studies in this order:--1. Man as an +Animal;--including the complete knowledge of anatomy, chemistry, +mechanics, and optics:--2. Man as an intellectual Being;--including the +ancient metaphysics, the system of Locke and Hartley--of the Scotch +philosophers--and the new Kantean system:--3. Man as a Religious +Being;--including an historic summary of all religions, and of the +arguments for and against natural and revealed religion. Then proceeding +from the individual to the aggregate of individuals, and disregarding +all chronology, except that of mind, I should perfect them: 1--in the +history of savage tribes; 2--of semi-barbarous nations; 3--of nations +emerging from semi-barbarism; 4--of civilized states; 5--of luxurious +states; 6--of revolutionary states; 7--of colonies. During these studies +I should intermix the knowledge of languages, and instruct my scholars +in "belles lettres", and the principles of composition. + +Now, seriously, do you think that one of my scholars, thus perfected, +would make a better senator than perhaps any one member in either of our +Houses?--Bright bubbles of the age--ebullient brain! Gracious Heaven! +that a scheme so big with advantage to this kingdom--therefore to +Europe--therefore to the world--should be demolishable by one +monosyllable from a bookseller's mouth! + +My second plan is to become a Dissenting Minister, and adjure politics +and casual literature. Preaching for hire is not right; because it must +prove a strong temptation to continue to profess what I may have ceased +to believe, "if ever" maturer judgment with wider and deeper reading +should lessen or destroy my faith in Christianity. But though not right +in itself, it may become right by the greater wrongness of the only +alternative--the remaining in neediness and uncertainty. That in the one +case I should be exposed to temptation is a mere contingency; that under +necessitous circumstances I am exposed to great and frequent temptations +is a melancholy certainty. + +Write, my dear Poole! or I will crimp all the rampant Billingsgate of +Burke to abuse you. Count Rumford is being reprinted. + +God bless you and + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +On Friday, the 13th of May, 1796, the tenth and last number of "The +Watchman" appeared--the Author having wisely accelerated the termination +of a hopeless undertaking, the plan of which was as injudicious as the +execution of it by him for any length of time impracticable. Of the 324 +pages, of which "The Watchman" consists, not more than a hundred contain +original matter by Coleridge, and this is perhaps more remarkable as a +test of the marvellous spring of his mind almost immediately afterwards +than for any very striking merit of its own. Still, however, the nascent +philosopher may be discovered in parts; and the Essay on the Slave +Trade, in the fourth number, may be justly distinguished as comprising a +perfect summary of the arguments applicable on either side of that +question. + +In the meantime Mr. Poole had been engaged in circulating a proposal +amongst a few common friends for purchasing a small annuity and +presenting it to Mr. Coleridge. The plan was not in fact carried into +execution;[1] but it was communicated to Mr. C. by Mr. Poole, and the +following letter refers to it:-- + +[Footnote 1: An error. A subscription annuity of £35 or £40 was +collected and paid to Coleridge in 1796 and 1797.] + + + + +LETTER 34. TO MR. POOLE + +12th May, 1796. + +Poole! The Spirit, who counts the throbbings of the solitary heart, +knows that what my feelings ought to be, such they are. If it were in my +power to give you anything, which I have not already given, I should be +oppressed by the letter now before me. But no! I feel myself rich in +being poor; and because I have nothing to bestow, I know how much I have +bestowed. Perhaps I shall not make myself intelligible; but the strong +and unmixed affection which I bear to you seems to exclude all emotions +of gratitude, and renders even the principle of esteem latent and inert. +Its presence is not perceptible, though its absence could not be +endured. + +Concerning the scheme itself I am undetermined. Not that I am ashamed to +receive;--God forbid! I will make every possible exertion; my industry +shall be at least commensurate with my learning and talents;--if these +do not procure for me and mine the necessary comforts of life, I can +receive as I would bestow, and, in either case--receiving or +bestowing--be equally grateful to my Almighty Benefactor. I am +undetermined therefore--not because I receive with pain and reluctance, +but--because I suspect that you attribute to others your own enthusiasm +of benevolence; as if the sun should say--"With how rich a purple those +opposite windows are burning!" But with God's permission I shall talk +with you on this subject. By the last page of No. X, you will perceive +that I have this day dropped "The Watchman". On Monday morning I will go +"per" caravan to Bridgewater, where, if you have a horse of tolerable +meekness unemployed, you will let him meet me. + +I should blame you for the exaggerated terms in which you have spoken of +me in the Proposal, did I not perceive the motive. You wished to make it +appear an offering--not a favour--and in excess of delicacy have, I +fear, fallen into some grossness of flattery. + +God bless you, my dear, very dear Friend. The widow is calm, and amused +with her beautiful infant. [1] We are all become more religious than we +were. God be ever praised for all things! Mrs. Coleridge begs her kind +love to you. To your dear Mother my filial respects. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [2] + +[Footnote 1: Mrs. Robert Lovell, whose husband had been carried off by a +fever, about two years after his marriage with my Aunt. S. C.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter LVI is our 34. LVII is dated 13 May, 1796.] + +The visit to Mr. Poole at Stowey was paid, and Mr. C. returned to +Bristol on the 20th of May, 1796. On his way back he wrote the following +letter to Mr. Poole from Bridgewater:-- + + + +LETTER 35 + +29th May, 1796. + +My dear Poole, + +This said caravan does not leave Bridgewater till nine. In the +market-place stand the hustings. I mounted, and pacing the boards, mused +on bribery, false swearing, and other foibles of election times. I have +wandered too by the river Parret, which looks as filthy as if all the +parrots in the House of Commons had been washing their consciences +therein. Dear Gutter of Stowey! Were I transported to Italian plains, +and lying by the side of a streamlet which murmured through an orange +grove, I would think of thee, dear Gutter of Stowey, and wish that I +were poring on thee! + +So much by way of rant. I have eaten three eggs, swallowed sundries of +tea and bread and butter, purely for the purpose of amusing myself, and +I have seen the horse fed. When at Cross, where I shall dine, I shall +think of your happy dinner celebrated under the auspices of humble +independence, supported by brotherly love. I am writing, you understand, +for no worldly purpose but that of avoiding anxious thoughts. Apropos of +honey-pie:--Caligula or Heliogabalus,[1] (I forget which,) had a dish of +nightingales' tongues served up. What think you of the stings of bees? +God bless you. My filial love to your mother, and fraternity to your +sister. Tell Ellen Cruikshanks, that in my next parcel to you I will +send my Haleswood Poem to her. Heaven protect her, and you, and Sara, +and your Mother, and--like a bad shilling passed off in a handful of +guineas--your affectionate friend and brother, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S. Don't forget to send by Milton my old clothes and linen that once +was clean--a pretty "periphrasis" that![2] + +[Footnote 1: Elagabalus.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter LVIII is our 35. LIX is dated 22 June 1796.] + + +The month of June, 1796, was spent in Bristol, and some negotiation took +place as to Mr. C.'s settling in Nottingham, the particulars of which +the Editor is unable to state. On the 4th of July Mr. Coleridge writes +to Mr. Poole. + + + +LETTER 36. TO MR. POOLE + +4th July, 1796. + +My very dear Poole, + +Do not attribute it to indolence that I have not written to you. +Suspense has been the real cause of my silence. Day after day I have +confidently expected some decisive letter, and as often have been +disappointed. "Certainly I shall have one to-morrow noon, and then I +will write." Thus I contemplated the time of my silence in its small +component parts, forgetful into what a sum total they were swelling. As +I have heard nothing from Nottingham notwithstanding I have written a +pressing letter, I have, by the advice of Cottle and Dr. Beddoes, +accepted a proposal of Mr. Perry's, the editor of the "Morning +Chronicle",--accepted it with a heavy and reluctant heart. On Thursday +Perry was at Bristol for a few hours, just time enough to attend the +dying moments of his associate in the editorship, Mr. Grey, whom Dr. +Beddoes attended. Perry desired Dr. B. to inform me that, if I would +come up to London and write for him, he would make me a regular +compensation adequate to the maintenance of myself and Mrs. Coleridge, +and requested an immediate answer by the post. Mr. Estlin, and +Charles Danvers, and Mr. Wade are or were all out of town;--I had no one +to advise with except Dr. Beddoes and Cottle. Dr. B. thinks it a good +opening on account of Grey's death; but I rather think that the +intention is to employ me as a mere hackney without any share of the +profits. However, as I am doing nothing, and in the prospect of doing +nothing settled, I was afraid to give way to the "omenings" of my heart; +and accordingly I accepted his proposal in general terms, requesting a +line from him expressing the particulars both of my proposed occupation +and stipend. This I shall receive to-morrow, I suppose; and if I do, I +think of hiring a horse for a couple of days, and galloping down to you +to have all your advice, which indeed, if it should be for rejecting the +proposals, I might receive by post; but if for finally accepting them, +we could not interchange letters in a time sufficiently short for +Perry's needs, and so he might procure another person possibly. At all +events I should not like to leave this part of England--perhaps for +ever--without seeing you once more. I am very sad about it, for I love +Bristol, and I do not love London; and besides, local and temporary +politics have become my aversion. They narrow the understanding, and at +least acidulate the heart; but those two giants, yclept Bread and +Cheese, bend me into compliance. I must do something. If I go, farewell, +Philosophy! farewell, the Muse! farewell, my literary Fame! + +My "Poems" have been reviewed. The "Monthly" has cataracted panegyric on +me; the "Critical" cascaded it, and the "Analytical" dribbled it with +civility. As to the "British Critic", they durst not condemn, and they +would not praise--so contented themselves with commending me as a +"poet", and allowed me "tenderness of sentiment and elegance of +fiction." I am so anxious and uneasy that I really cannot write any +further. My kind and fraternal love to your Sister, and my filial +respects to your dear Mother, and believe me to be in my head, heart, +and soul, yours most sincerely. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +The Editor can find no further trace of the proposed connection with the +"Morning Chronicle"; but almost immediately after the date of the +preceding letter, Mr. Coleridge received an invitation from Mrs. Evans, +then of Barley, near Derby, to visit her with a view to his undertaking +the education of her sons. He and Mrs. C. accordingly went to Barley, +where the matter was arranged to the satisfaction of both parties; and +Mr. C. returned to Bristol alone with the intention of visiting his +Mother and Brother at Ottery before leaving the south of England for +what promised to be a long absence. But this project, like others, ended +in nothing. The other guardians of Mrs. E.'s sons considered a public +education proper for them, and the announcement of this resolution to +Mr. C. at Bristol stopped his further progress, and recalled him to +Darley. After a stay of some ten days, he left Darley with Mrs. C., and +visited Mr. Thomas Hawkes at Mosely, near Birmingham, and thence he +wrote to Mr. Poole-- + + + + +LETTER 37. TO MR. POOLE + +August, 1796. + +My beloved Friend, + +I was at Matlock, the place monodized by Bowles, when your letter +arrived at Darley, and I did not receive it till near a week afterwards. +My very dear Poole, I wrote to you the whole truth. After the first +moment I was perfectly composed, and from that moment to the present +have continued calm and lighthearted. I had just quitted you, and I felt +myself rich in your love and esteem; and you do not know how rich I feel +myself. O ever found the same, and trusted and beloved! + +The last sentences of your letter affected me more than I can well +describe. Words and phrases which might perhaps have adequately +expressed my feelings, the cold-blooded children of this world have +anticipated and exhausted in their unmeaning gabble of flattery. I use +common expressions, but they do not convey common feelings. My heart has +thanked you. I preached on Faith yesterday. I said that Faith was +infinitely better than Good Works, as the cause is greater than the +effect,--as a fruitful tree is better than its fruits, and as a friendly +heart is of far higher value than the kindnesses which it naturally and +necessarily prompts. It is for that friendly heart that I now have +thanked you, and which I so eagerly accept; for with regard to +settlement, I am likely to be better off now than before, as I shall +proceed to tell you. + +I arrived at Darley on the Sunday.... Monday I spent at Darley. On the +Tuesday Mrs. Coleridge, Miss Willett, and I went in Mrs. Evans's +carriage to Matlock, where we stayed till Saturday.... Sunday we spent +at Darley, and on Monday Sara, Mrs. Evans, and myself visited Oakover, a +seat famous for a few first-rates of Raffael and Titian; thence to Ilam, +a quiet vale hung round with wood, beautiful beyond expression, and +thence to Dovedale, a place beyond expression tremendously sublime. +Here, in a cavern at the head of a divine little fountain, we dined on +cold meat, and returned to Darley, quite worn out with the succession of +sweet sensations. On Tuesday we were employed in packing up, and on +Wednesday we were to have set off.... But on the Wednesday Dr. Crompton, +who had just returned from Liverpool, called on me, and made me the +following proposal:--that if I would take a house in Derby and open a +day-school, confining my number to twelve scholars, he would send three +of his children on these terms--till my number should be completed, he +would allow me £100 a year for them;--when the number should be +complete, he would give £21 a year for each of them:--the children to be +with me from nine to twelve, and from two to five--the last two hours to +be employed with their writing or drawing-master, who would be paid by +the parents. He has no doubt but that I shall complete my number almost +instantly. Now 12 x 20 guineas = £252, and my mornings and evenings at +my own disposal = good things. So I accepted the offer, it being +understood that if anything better offered, I should accept it. There +was not a house to be got in Derby; but I engaged with a man for a house +now building, and which is to be completed by the 8th of October, for +£12 a year, and the landlord to pay all the taxes except the Poor Rates. +The landlord is rather an intelligent fellow, and has promised me to +Rumfordize the chimneys. The plan is to commence in November; the +intermediate time I spend at Bristol, at which place I shall arrive, by +the blessing of God, on Monday night next. This week I spend with Mr. +Hawkes, at Mosely, near Birmingham; in whose shrubbery I now write. I +arrived here on Friday, having left Derby on Friday. I preached here +yesterday. + +If Sara will let me, I shall see you for a few days in the course of a +month. Direct your next letter to S. T. C., Oxford Street, Bristol. My +love to your dear Mother and Sister, and believe me affectionately your +ever faithful friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +I shall write to my Mother and Brothers to-morrow. + + +At the same time Mr. C. wrote to Mr. Wade in terms similar to the above, +adding that at Matlock the time was completely filled up with seeing the +country, eating, concerts, etc. + + + + +LETTER 38 + +(--Sept. 1796.) + +"I was the first fiddle;--not in the concerts--but every where else, and +the company would not spare me twenty minutes together. Sunday I +dedicated to the drawing up my sketch of education, which I meant to +publish, to try to get a school!" He speaks of "the thrice lovely valley +of Ilam; a vale hung with beautiful woods all round, except just at its +entrance, where, as you stand at the other end of the valley, you see a +bare bleak mountain standing as it were to guard the entrance. It is +without exception the most beautiful place I ever visited." ... He +concludes:--"I have seen a letter from Mr. William Roscoe, author of the +"Life of Lorenzo the Magnificent"; a work in two 4to volumes (of which +the whole first edition sold in a month); it was addressed to Mr. +Edwards, the minister here, and entirely related to me. Of me and my +compositions he writes in terms of high admiration, and concludes by +desiring Mr. Edwards to let him know my situation and prospects, and +saying that if I would come and settle at Liverpool, he thought a +comfortable situation might be procured for me. This day Edwards will +write to him." + + +Whilst at Birmingham, on "The Watchman" tour, Mr. C. had been introduced +to Mr. Charles Lloyd, the eldest son of Mr. Lloyd, an eminent banker of +that place. At Mosely they met again, and the result of an intercourse +for a few days together was an ardent desire on the part of Lloyd to +domesticate himself permanently with a man whose conversation was to him +a revelation from Heaven. Nothing, however, was settled on this +occasion, and Mr. and Mrs. C. returned to Bristol in the beginning of +September. On the 24th of September he writes to Mr. Poole:-- + + + +LETTER 39. TO MR. POOLE + +24th September, 1796. + +My dear, very dear Poole, + +The heart thoroughly penetrated with the flame of virtuous friendship is +in a state of glory; but lest it should be exalted above measure, there +is given to it a thorn in the flesh. I mean that where the friendship of +any person forms an essential part of a man's happiness, he will at +times be pestered with the little jealousies and solicitudes of imbecile +humanity. Since we last parted I have been gloomily dreaming that you +did not leave me so affectionately as you were wont to do. Pardon this +littleness of heart, and do not think the worse of me for it. Indeed my +soul seems so mantled and wrapped round with your love and esteem, that +even a dream of losing but the smallest fragment of it makes me shiver, +as if some tender part of my nature were left uncovered and in +nakedness. + +Last week I received a letter from Lloyd, informing me that his parents +had given their joyful concurrence to his residence with me, but that, +if it were possible that I could be absent from home for three or four +days, his father wished particularly to see me. I consulted Mrs. +Coleridge, who advised me to go.... Accordingly on Saturday night I went +by the mail to Birmingham, and was introduced to the father, who is a +mild man, very liberal in his ideas, and in religion an allegorizing +Quaker.[1] I mean that all the apparently irrational parts of his sect +he allegorizes into significations, which for the most part you or I +might assent to. We became well acquainted, and he expressed himself +thankful to Heaven, "that his son was about to be with me." He said he +would write to me concerning money matters, after his son had been some +time under my roof. + +On Tuesday morning I was surprised by a letter from Mr. Maurice, our +medical attendant, informing me that Mrs. C. was delivered on Monday, +19th September, 1796, half-past two in the morning, of a son, and that +both she and the child were uncommonly well. I was quite annihilated +with the suddenness of the information, and retired to my room to +address myself to my Maker, but I could only offer up to Him the silence +of stupified feelings. I hastened home, and Charles Lloyd returned with +me. When I first saw the child, I did not feel that thrill and +overflowing of affection which I expected. I looked on it with a +melancholy gaze; my mind was intensely contemplative, and my heart only +sad. But when two hours after, I saw it at the bosom of its mother--on +her arm--and her eye tearful and watching its little features--then I +was thrilled and melted, and gave it the kiss of a Father. * * * * The +baby seems strong, and the old nurse has over-persuaded my wife to +discover a likeness to me in its face,--no great compliment to me; for +in truth I have seen handsomer babies in my lifetime. Its name is +David Hartley Coleridge. I hope that ere he be a man, if God destines +him for continuance in this life, his head will be convinced of, and his +heart saturated with, the truths so ably supported by that great master +of Christian Philosophy. + +Charles Lloyd wins upon me hourly; his heart is uncommonly pure, his +affections delicate, and his benevolence enlivened, but not sicklied, by +sensibility. He is assuredly a man of great genius; but it must be in a +"tete-a-tete" with one whom he loves and esteems that his colloquial +powers open:--and this arises not from reserve or want of simplicity, +but from having been placed in situations, where for years together he +met with no congenial minds, and where the contrariety of his thoughts +and notions to the thoughts and notions of those around him induced the +necessity of habitually suppressing his feelings. His joy and gratitude +to Heaven for the circumstance of his domestication with me, I can +scarcely describe to you; and I believe his fixed plans are of being +always with me. His father told me, that if he saw that his son had +formed habits of severe economy, he should not insist upon his adopting +any profession; as then his fair share of his (the father's) wealth +would be sufficient for him. + +My dearest Poole, can you conveniently receive Lloyd and me in the +course of a week? I have much, very much, to say to you, and to consult +with you about; for my heart is heavy respecting Derby; and my feelings +are so dim and huddled, that though I can, I am sure, communicate them +to you by my looks and broken sentences, I scarcely know how to convey +them in a letter. C. Lloyd also wishes much to know you personally. I +shall write on the other side of the paper two of his sonnets, composed +by him in one evening at Birmingham. The latter of them alludes to the +conviction of the truth of Christianity, which he had received from me. +Let me hear from you by post immediately, and give my kind love to your +sister and dear mother, and likewise my love to that young man with the +soul-beaming face, which I recollect much better than I do his name. +("Mr. Thomas Ward of Over Stowey".) God bless you, my dear friend, and +believe me with deep affection yours, + +S. T. COLERIDGE.[2] + +[Footnote 1: The relationship of Coleridge and the Lloyds is told fully +in "Charles Lamb and the Lloyds", by E. V. Lucas, 1898.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter LX is our 39.] + + +The reader of Coleridge's Poems will remember the beautiful lines "To a +young friend, on his proposing to domesticate with the Author". They +were written at this time and addressed to Lloyd; and it may be easily +conceived what a deep impression of delight they would make on a mind +and temperament so refined and enthusiastic as his. The Sonnet "To a +Friend who asked how I felt when the Nurse first presented my infant to +me"--is the metrical version of a passage in the foregoing letter. A +short time before the birth of little Hartley C., Mr. Southey had +returned to Bristol from Portugal, and was in lodgings nearly opposite +to Mr. Coleridge's house in Oxford Street. There had been a quarrel +between them on the occasion of the abandonment of the American scheme, +which was first announced by Mr. Southey, and he and Coleridge had +ceased to have any intercourse. But a year's absence had dissipated all +angry feelings, and after Mr. C.'s return from Birmingham in the end of +September, Southey took the first step, and sent over a slip of paper +with a word or two of conciliation.[1] This was immediately followed by +an interview, and in an hour's time these two extraordinary youths were +arm in arm again. They were indeed of essentially opposite tempers, +powers, and habits; yet each well knew and appreciated the +other,--perhaps even the more deeply from the contrast between them. +Circumstances separated them in after life; but Mr. Coleridge recorded +his testimony to Southey's character in the "Biographia Literaria", and +in his Will referred to it as expressive of his latest convictions. + +[In Ainger's "Letters of Charles Lamb" will be found a series of letters +by Lamb to Coleridge on various matters, literary and domestic, which +affords a good insight into the doings of Coleridge at this time. The +following beautiful letter by Coleridge was written on the occasion of +the death of Lamb's mother. + +[Footnote 1: The paper contained a sentence in English from Schiller's +Conspiracy of Fiesco at Genoa. "Fiesko! Fiesko! du Sumst einen Platz in +meiner Brust, den das Menschengeschlecht, dreifach genommen, nicht mehr +besetzen wird". "Fiesco! Fiesco! thou leavest a void in my bosom, which +the human race, thrice told, will never fill up." Act V, Sc. 16. S. C.] + + + + +LETTER 40. TO CHARLES LAMB[1] + +(29 Sept. 1796.) + +Your letter, my friend, struck me with a mighty horror. It rushed upon +me and stupified my feelings. You bid me write you a religious letter; I +am not a man who would attempt to insult the greatness of your anguish +by any other consolation. Heaven knows that in the easiest fortunes +there is much dissatisfaction and weariness of spirit; much that calls +for the exercise of patience and resignation; but in storms, like these, +that shake the dwelling and make the heart tremble, there is no middle +way between despair and the yielding up of the whole spirit unto the +guidance of faith. And surely it is a matter of joy, that your faith in +Jesus has been preserved; the Comforter that should relieve you is not +far from you. But as you are a Christian, in the name of that Saviour, +who was filled with bitterness and made drunken with wormwood, I conjure +you to have recourse in frequent prayer to "his God and your God," [2] +the God of mercies, and father of all comfort. Your poor father is, I +hope, almost senseless of the calamity; the unconscious instrument of +Divine Providence knows it not, and your mother is in heaven. It is +sweet to be roused from a frightful dream by the song of birds, and the +gladsome rays of the morning. Ah, how infinitely more sweet to be +awakened from the blackness and amazement of a sudden horror, by the +glories of God manifest, and the hallelujahs of angels. + +As to what regards yourself, I approve altogether of your abandoning +what you justly call vanities. I look upon you as a man, called by +sorrow and anguish and a strange desolation of hopes into quietness, and +a soul set apart and made peculiar to God; we cannot arrive at any +portion of heavenly bliss without in some measure imitating Christ. And +they arrive at the largest inheritance who imitate the most difficult +parts of his character, and bowed down and crushed under foot, cry in +fulness of faith, "Father, thy will be done." + +I wish above measure to have you for a little while here--no visitants +shall blow on the nakedness of your feelings--you shall be quiet, and +your spirit may be healed. I see no possible objection, unless your +father's helplessness prevent you, and unless you are necessary to him. +If this be not the case, I charge you write me that you will come. + +I charge you, my dearest friend, not to dare to encourage gloom or +despair--you are a temporary sharer in human miseries, that you may be +an eternal partaker of the Divine Nature. I charge you, if by any means +it be possible, come to me. + +I remain, your affectionate, + +S. T. COLERIDGE.[3] + +Of the next letter Cottle says:--"A second edition of Mr. Coleridge's +poems being demanded, I was under no obligation, the copyright being +mine, in publishing a second edition, to make Mr. Coleridge any payment, +alterations or additions being optional with him; but in his +circumstances, and to show that my desire was to consider Mr. C. even +more than myself, I promised him, on the sale of the second edition of +500, twenty guineas. The following was his reply: (not viewing the +subject quite in the right light; but this was of little consequence)." + + +[Footnote 1: The letter to which this is an answer is No. VIII of Canon +Ainger's "Letters of Lamb".] + +[Footnote 2: "Vide" St. John, ch. xx, ver. 17.] + +[Footnote 3: Letter LXI is our 40.] + + + + +LETTER 41. TO COTTLE + +Stowey, Oct. 18th, 1796. + +My dear Cottle, + +I have no mercenary feelings, I verily believe; but I hate bartering at +any time, and with any person; with you it is absolutely intolerable. I +clearly perceive that by giving me twenty guineas, on the sale of the +second edition, you will get little or nothing by the additional poems, +unless they should be sufficiently popular to reach a third edition, +which soars above our[1] wildest expectations. The only advantage you +can derive therefore from the purchase of them on such terms, is, +simply, that my poetry is more likely to sell when the whole may be had +in one volume, price 5 shillings., than when it is scattered in two +volumes; the one 4 shillings., the other possibly 3 shillings. In short, +you will get nothing directly, but only indirectly, from the probable +circumstance, that these additional poems added to the former, will give +a more rapid sale to the second edition than could otherwise be +expected, and cause it possibly to be reviewed at large. Add to this, +that by omitting every thing political, I widen the sphere of my +readers. So much for you. Now for myself. You must see, Cottle, that +whatever money I should receive from you, would result from the +circumstances that would give me the same, or more--if I published them +on my own account. I mean the sale of the poems. I can therefore have no +motive to make such conditions with you, except the wish to omit poems +unworthy of me, and the circumstance that our separate properties would +aid each other by the union; and whatever advantage this might be to me, +it would, of course, be equally so to you. The only difference between +my publishing the poems on my own account, and yielding them up to you; +the only difference, I say, independent of the above stated differences, +is, that, in one case, I retain the property for ever, in the other +case, I lose it after two editions. + +However, I am not solicitous to have any thing omitted, except the +sonnet to Lord Stanhope and the ludicrous poem;[1] only I should like to +publish the best pieces together, and those of secondary splendour, at +the end of the volume, and think this is the best quietus of the whole +affair. + +Yours affectionately, + +S. T. COLERIDGE.] + +[Footnote 1: "my" in "Early Recollections".] + +[Footnote 2: "Written before Supper".] + + +On the 1st of November, 1796, Coleridge wrote the following letter to +his friend: + + + +LETTER 42 + +November 1, 1796. + +My beloved Poole, + +Many "causes" have concurred to prevent my writing to you, but all +together they do not amount to a "reason". I have seen a narrow-necked +bottle, so full of water, that when turned up side down not a drop has +fallen out--something like this has been the case with me. My heart has +been full, yea, crammed with anxieties about my residence near you. I so +ardently desire it, that any disappointment would chill all my +faculties, like the fingers of death. And entertaining wishes so +irrationally strong, I necessarily have "day"-mair dreams that something +will prevent it--so that since I quitted you, I have been gloomy as the +month which even now has begun to lower and rave on us. I verily +believe, or rather I have no doubt that I should have written to you +within the period of my promise, if I had not pledged myself for a +certain gift of my Muse to poor Tommy: and alas! she has been too "sunk +on the ground in dimmest heaviness" to permit me to trifle. Yet +intending it hourly I deferred my letter "a la mode" the procrastinator! +Ah! me, I wonder not that the hours fly so sweetly by me--for they pass +unfreighted with the duties which they came to demand! + +* * * I wrote a long letter to Dr. Crompton, and received from him a +very kind letter, which I will send you in the parcel I am about to +convey by Milton. + +My "Poems" are come to a second edition, that is the first edition is +sold. I shall alter the lines of the "Joan of Arc", and make "one" poem +entitled "Progress of European Liberty, a Vision";--the first line +"Auspicious Reverence! hush all meaner song," etc. and begin the volume +with it. Then the "Chatterton,--Pixies' Parlour,--Effusions 27 and +28--To a young Ass--Tell me on what holy ground--The Sigh--Epitaph on an +Infant--The Man of Ross--Spring in a Village--Edmund--Lines with a poem +on the French Revolution"--Seven Sonnets, namely, those at pp. 45, 59, +60, 61, 64, 65, 66--"Shurton Bars--My pensive Sara--Low was our pretty +Cot--Religious Musings";--these in the order I have placed them. Then +another title-page with "Juvenilia" on it, and an advertisement +signifying that the Poems were retained by the desire of some friends, +but that they are to be considered as being in the Author's own opinion +of very inferiour merit. In this sheet will be "Absence--La +Fayette--Genevieve--Kosciusko--Autumnal Moon--To the +Nightingale--Imitation of Spenser--A Poem written in early youth". All +the others will be finally and totally omitted. It is strange that in +the "Sonnet to Schiller" I should have written--"that hour I would have +wished to 'die'--Lest--aught more mean might stamp me 'mortal';"--the +bull never struck me till Charles Lloyd mentioned it. The sense is +evident enough, but the word is ridiculously ambiguous. + +Lloyd is a very good fellow, and most certainly a young man of great +genius. He desires his kindest love to you. I will write again by +Milton, for I really can write no more now--I am so depressed. But I +will fill up the letter with poetry of mine, or Lloyd's, or Southey's. +Is your Sister married? May the Almighty bless her!--may he enable her +to make all her new friends as pure, and mild, and amiable as +herself!--I pray in the fervency of my soul. Is your dear Mother well? +My filial respects to her. Remember me to Ward. David Hartley Coleridge +is stout, healthy, and handsome. He is the very miniature of me. Your +grateful and affectionate friend and brother, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +Speaking of lines by Mr. Southey, called "Inscription for the Cenotaph +at Ermenonville",[1] written in his letter, Mr. C. says, "This is +beautiful, but instead of Ermenonville and Rousseau put Valchiusa and +Petrarch. I do not particularly admire Rousseau. Bishop Taylor, old +Baxter, David Hartley, and the Bishop of Cloyne are my men." + +The following Sonnet, transcribed in the foregoing Letter, has not been +printed. "It puts in," he says, "no claim to poetry, but it is a most +faithful picture of my feelings on a very interesting event." See the +Letter to Mr. Poole of 24th September, 1796. This Sonnet shows in a +remarkable way how little the Unitarianism, which Mr. C. professed at +this time, operated on his fundamental "feelings" as a catholic +Christian. + + + "On receiving a Letter informing me of the birth of a Son." + + When they did greet me Father, sudden awe + Weigh'd down my spirit: I retir'd and knelt + Seeking the throne of grace, but inly felt + No heavenly visitation upwards draw + My feeble mind, nor cheering ray impart. + Ah me! before the Eternal Sire I brought + Th' unquiet silence of confused thought + And hopeless feelings: my o'erwhelmed heart + Trembled, and vacant tears stream'd down my face. + And now once more, O Lord! to thee I bend, + Lover of souls! and groan for future grace, + That, ere my babe youth's perilous maze have trod, + Thy overshadowing Spirit may descend, + And he be born again, a child of God! + + +It was not till the summer of 1797 that the second edition Of Mr. C.'s +Poems actually appeared, before which time he had seen occasion to make +many alterations in the proposed arrangement of, and had added some of +his most beautiful compositions to, the collection. It is curious, +however, that he never varied the diction of the Sonnet to Schiller in +the particular to which he refers in the preceding Letter. [2] + +[Footnote 1: Afterwards included among the "Minor Poems" of Mr. S.--S. C.] + +[Footnote 2: See Dykes-Campbell's edition of Coleridge's "Poems", p. +572.] + + + +LETTER 43. To MR. POOLE + +5, November, 1796. + +Thanks, my heart's warm thanks to you, my beloved Friend, for your +tender letter! Indeed I did not deserve so kind a one; but by this time +you have received my last. To live in a beautiful country, and to enure +myself as much as possible to the labours of the field, have been for +this year past my dream of the day, my sigh at midnight. But to enjoy +these blessings near you, to see you daily, to tell you all my thoughts +in their first birth, and to hear yours, to be mingling identities with +you, as it were!--the vision-weaving Fancy has indeed often pictured +such things, but Hope never dared whisper a promise. Disappointment! +Disappointment! dash not from my trembling hand this bowl, which almost +touches my lips. Envy me not this immortal draught, and I will forgive +thee all thy persecutions! Forgive thee! Impious! I will bless thee, +black-vested minister of Optimism, stern pioneer of happiness! Thou hast +been the cloud before me from the day that I left the flesh-pots of +Egypt, and was led through the way of a wilderness--the cloud that had +been guiding me to a land flowing with milk and honey--the milk of +innocence, the honey of friendship! + +I wanted such a letter as yours, for I am very unwell. On Wednesday +night I was seized with an intolerable pain from my right temple to the +tip of my right shoulder, including my right eye, cheek, jaw, and that +side of the throat. I was nearly frantic, and ran about the house almost +naked, endeavouring by every means to excite sensation in different +parts of my body, and so to weaken the enemy by creating a division. It +continued from one in the morning till half-past five, and left me pale +and fainty. It came on fitfully, but not so violently, several times on +Thursday, and began severer threats towards night; but I took between 60 +and 70 drops of laudanum, and sopped the Cerberus just as his mouth +began to open. On Friday it only niggled, as if the Chief had departed, +as from a conquered place, and merely left a small garrison behind, or +as if he had evacuated the Corsica, and a few straggling pains only +remained. But this morning he returned in full force, and his name is +Legion. Giant-Fiend of a hundred hands, with a shower of arrowy +death-pangs he transpierced me, and then he became a Wolf and lay +gnawing my bones!--I am not mad, most noble Festus! but in sober sadness +I have suffered this day more bodily pain than I had before a conception +of. My right cheek has certainly been placed with admirable exactness +under the focus of some invisible burning-glass, which concentrated all +the rays of a Tartarean sun. My medical attendant decides it to be +altogether nervous, and that it originates either in severe application, +or excessive anxiety. + +My beloved Poole, in excessive anxiety I believe it might originate. I +have a blister under my right ear, and I take 25 drops of laudanum every +five hours, the ease and spirits gained by which have enabled me to +write to you this flighty, but not exaggerating, account. With a gloomy +wantonness of imagination I had been coquetting with the hideous +possibles of disappointment. I drank fears like wormwood--yea--made +myself drunken with bitterness; for my ever-shaping and distrustful mind +still mingled gall-drops, till out of the cup of Hope I almost poisoned +myself with Despair. + +Your letter is dated 2. November; I wrote to you on the 1st. Your Sister +was married on that day; and on that day I several times felt my heart +overflowed with such tendernesses for her, as made me repeatedly +ejaculate prayers in her behalf. Such things are strange. It may be +superstition to think about such correspondences; but it is a +superstition which softens the heart and leads to no evil. We will call +on your dear Sister as soon as I am quite well, and in the mean time I +will write a few lines to her. + +I am anxious beyond measure to be in the country as soon as possible. I +would it were possible to get a temporary residence till Adscombe is +ready for us. I wish we could have three rooms in William Poole's large +house for the winter. Will you try to look out for a fit servant for +us,--simple of heart, physiognomically handsome, and scientific in +vaccimulgence. That last word is a new one, but soft in sound, and full +of expression. Vaccimulgence! I am pleased with the word. Write to me +all things about yourself; where I cannot advise, I can console; and +communication, which doubles joy, halves sorrow. + +Tell me whether you think it at all possible to make any terms with +----.[1] You know, I would not wish to touch with the edge of the nail +of my great toe the line which should be but half a barley-corn out of +the circle of the most trembling delicacy! I will write to Cruikshank +tomorrow, if God permit me. God bless and protect you Friend! Brother! +Beloved! Sara's best love and Lloyd's. David Hartley is well. My filial +love to your dear Mother. Love to Ward. Little Tommy! I often think of +thee! S. T. COLERIDGE.[2] + +[Footnote 1: William Poole.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter LXII is our 43. Letters LXIII-LXX follow.] + +Charles Lloyd, spoken of in a letter of my father's in the last chapter +as "a young man of great genius," was born Feb. 12th, 1775, died at +Versailles Jan. 15th, 1839. He published sonnets and other poems in +conjunction with my Father and Mr. Lamb, in 1797, and these and Mr. +Lamb's were published together, apart from my Father's, the year +afterwards. "While Lamb," says Sergeant Talfourd, "was enjoying habits +of the closest intimacy with Coleridge in London, he was introduced by +him to a young poet whose name has often been associated with his-- +Charles Lloyd--the son of a wealthy banker at Birmingham, who had +recently cast off the trammels of the Society of Friends, and, smitten +with the love of poetry, had become a student at the University of +Cambridge. There he had been attracted to Coleridge by the fascination +of his discourse; and, having been admitted to his regard, was +introduced by him to Lamb. Lloyd was endeared both to Lamb and +Coleridge by a very amiable disposition and a pensive cast of thought; +but his intellect had little resemblance to that of either. He wrote, +indeed, pleasing verses and with great facility,--a facility fatal to +excellence; but his mind was chiefly remarkable for the fine power of +analysis which distinguishes his "London", and other of his later +compositions. In this power of discriminating and distinguishing-- +carried to a pitch almost of painfulness--Lloyd has scarcely ever been +equalled, and his poems, though rugged in point of versification, will +be found by those who will read them with the calm attention they +require, replete with critical and moral suggestions of the highest +value." + +Besides three or four volumes of poetry Mr. Lloyd wrote novels:--"Edmund +Oliver", published soon after he became acquainted with my Father, and +"Isabel" of later date. After his marriage he settled at the lakes. "At +Brathay," (the beautiful river Brathay near Ambleside,) says Mr. De +Quincey, "lived Charles Lloyd, and he could not in candour be considered +a common man. He was somewhat too Rousseauish, but he had in +conversation very extraordinary powers for analysis of a certain kind, +applied to the philosophy of manners, and the most delicate 'nuances' of +social life; and his Translations of Alfieri together with his own +poems, shew him to have been an accomplished scholar." + +My Mother has often told me how amiable Mr. Lloyd was as a youth; how +kind to her little Hartley; how well content with cottage accommodation; +how painfully sensitive in all that related to the affections. I +remember him myself, as he was in middle life, when he and his excellent +wife were most friendly to my brothers, who were school-fellows with +their sons. I did not at that time fully appreciate Mr. Lloyd's +intellectual character, but was deeply impressed by the exceeding +refinement and sensibility marked in his countenance and manners,--(for +he was a gentleman of the old school without its formality,)--by the +fluent elegance of his discourse, and, above all, by the eloquent +pathos, with which he described his painful mental experiences and wild +waking dreams, caused by a deranged state of the nervous system. _Le +ciel nous vend toujours les biens qu'il nous prodigue_. Nervous +derangement is a dear price to pay even for genius and sensibility. Too +often, even if not the direct effect of these privileges, it is the +accompanying drawback; hypochondria may almost be called the +intellectual man's malady. + +"The Duke D'Ormond", which was written 24 years before its publication +in 1822, that is in 1798, soon after Mr, Lloyd's residence at Stowey, +has great merit as a dramatic poem, in the delineation of character and +states of mind; the plot is forced and unnatural; not only that, but +what is worse, in point of effect, it is tediously subjective; and we +feel the actions of the piece to be improbable while the feelings are +true to nature; yet there is tragic effect in the scenes of the +'denouement'. I understand what it was in Mr. Lloyd's mind which Mr. De +Quincey calls 'Rousseauish'. He dwelt a good deal on the temptations to +which human nature is subject, when passions, not in themselves +unworthy, become, from circumstances, sins if indulged, and the source +of sin and misery; but the effect of this piece is altogether favourable +to virtue, and to the parent and nurse of virtue, a pious conviction of +the moral government of the world. The play contains an 'anatomy' of +passion, not a 'picture' of it in a concrete form, such as the works of +Richardson and of Rousseau present, a picture fitted to excite +'feelings' of baneful effect upon the mind, rather than to awaken +'thought', which counteracts all such mischief. Indeed I think no man +would have sought my Father's daily society who was not predominantly +given to reflection. What is very striking in this play is the character +of the heroine, whose earnest and scrupulous devotion to her mother +occasions the partial estrangement of her lover, d'Ormond, and, in its +consequences, an overwhelming misery, which overturns her reason and +causes her death, and thus, through remorse, works the conversion of +those guilty persons of the drama, who have been slaves to passion, but +are not all "enslaved, nor wholly vile." Strong is the contrast which +this play presents, in its exhibition of the female character, with that +of the celebrated French and German writers, who have treated similar +subjects. Men write,--I have heard a painter say, men even paint,--as +they feel and as they are. Goethe's Margaret has been thought equal to +Shakespeare's Ophelia and Desdemona; in some respects it is so; but it +is like a pot of sweet ointment into which some tainting matter has +fallen. I think no Englishman of Goethe's genius and sensibility would +have described a maiden, whom it was his intention to represent, though +frail on one point, yet lovely and gentle-hearted, as capable of being +induced to give her poor old mother a sleeping potion. "It will do her +no harm." But the risk!--affection gives the wisdom of the serpent +where there would else be but the simplicity of the dove. A true +Englishman would have felt that such an act, so bold and undaughterly, +blighted at once the lily flower, making it "put on darkness" and "fall +into the portion of weeds and out-worn faces." In Mr. Lloyd's youthful +drama even the dissipated Marchioness, who tempts and yields to +temptation, is made to play a noble part in the end, won back from sin +by generous feeling and strong sense: and the description of Julia +Villeneuve's tender care of her mother is so characteristic of the +author, that I cannot help quoting a part of it here, though it is not +among the powerful parts of the play. + +Describing how her aged parent's extreme infirmity rendered her +incapable, without a sacrifice, of leaving the small dwelling to which +she had been accustomed, and how this had prevented her even from +hinting her lover's proposal for their union, Julia says, + + + "Though blind +She loved this little spot. A happy wife +There lived she with her lord. It was a home +In which an only brother, long since dead, +And I, were educated: 'twas to her +As the whole world. Its scanty garden plot, +The hum of bees hived there, which still she heard +On a warm summer's day, the scent of flowers, +The honey-suckle which trailed around its porch, +Its orchard, field, and trees, her universe!-- +I knew she could not long be spared to me. +Her sufferings, when alleviated best, +Were most acute: and I could best perform +That sacred task. I wished to lengthen out,-- +By consecrating to her every moment,-- +Her being to myself! etc." + + "Could I leave her?-- +I might have seen her,--such was D'Ormond's plea-- +Each day. But who her evening hours could cheer? +Her long and solitary evening hours?-- +Talk her, or haply sing her, to her sleep? +Read to her? Smooth her pillow? Lastly make +Morning seem morning with a daughter's welcome? +For morning's light ne'er visited her eyes!-- +Well! I refused to quit her! D'Ormond grew +Absent, reserved, nay splenetic and petulant! +He left the Province, nor has he once sent +A kind enquiry so t' alleviate +His heavy absence." + + +"Beritola" is Italian in form, as much as Wieland's "Oberon", +but the spirit is that of the Englishman, Charles Lloyd; it contains the +same vivid descriptions of mental suffering, the same reflective display +of the lover's passion, the same sentiments of deep domestic tenderness, +uttered as from the heart and with a special air of reality, as "The +Duke D'Ormond" and the author's productions in general. The +versification is rather better than that of his earlier poems, but the +want of ease and harmony in the flow of the verse is a prevailing defect +in Mr. Lloyd's poetry, and often makes it appear prosaic, even where the +thought is not so. This pathetic sonnet is one of a very interesting +set, on the death of Priscilla Farmer, the author's maternal +grandmother, included in the joint volume: + + + "Oh, She was almost speechless! nor could hold + Awakening converse with me! (I shall bless + No more the modulated tenderness + Of that dear voice!) Alas, 'twas shrunk and cold + Her honour'd face! yet, when I sought to speak, + Through her half-open'd eyelids She did send + Faint looks, that said, 'I would be yet thy friend!' + And (O my chok'd breast!) e'en on that shrunk cheek + I saw one slow tear roll! my hand She took, + Placing it on her heart--I heard her sigh + 'Tis too, too much!' 'Twas Love's last agony! + I tore me from Her! 'Twas her latest look, + Her latest accents--Oh my heart, retain + That look, those accents, till we meet again!" + S. C. + +Meantime Coleridge had written to Charles Lloyd's father three letters +about his son, highly interesting as glimpses of his own character. +These letters were first published in "Charles Lamb and the Lloyds", by +E. V. Lucas. They are as follows: + + + + +LETTER 44. To CHARLES LLOYD, SEN. + +Dear Sir, + +As the father of Charles Lloyd you are of course in some measure +interested in any alteration of my schemes of life; and I feel it a kind +of Duty to give you my reasons for any such alteration. I have declined +my Derby connection, and determined to retire once for all and utterly +from cities and towns: and am about to take a cottage and half a dozen +acres of land in an enchanting Situation about eight miles from +Bridgewater. My reasons are--that I have cause to believe my Health would +be materially impaired by residing in a town, and by the close +confinement and anxieties incident to the education of children; that as +my days would be dedicated to Dr. Crompton's children, and my evenings +to a course of study with my admirable young friend, I should have +scarcely a snatch of time for literary occupation; and, above all, +because I am anxious that my children should be bred up from earliest +infancy in the simplicity of peasants, their food, dress, and habits +completely rustic. I never shall, and I never will, have any fortune to +leave them: I will leave them therefore hearts that desire little, heads +that know how little is to be desired, and hands and arms accustomed to +earn that little. I am peculiarly delighted with the 2ist verse of the +4th chapter of Tobit, "And fear not, my son! that we are made poor: for +thou hast much wealth, if thou fear God, and depart from all sin and do +that which is pleasing in His sight." Indeed, if I live in cities, my +children (if it please the All-good to preserve the one I have, and to +give me more), my children, I say, will necessarily become acquainted +with politicians and politics--a set of men and a kind of study which I +deem highly unfavourable to all Christian graces. I have myself erred +greatly in this respect; but, I trust, I have now seen my error. I have +accordingly snapped my squeaking baby-trumpet of sedition, and have hung +up its fragments in the chamber of Penitences. + +Your son and I are happy in our connection--our opinions and feelings +are as nearly alike as we can expect: and I rely upon the goodness of +the All-good that we shall proceed to make each other better and wiser. +Charles Lloyd is greatly averse from the common run of society--and so +am I--but in a city I could scarcely avoid it. And this, too, has aided +my decision in favour of my rustic scheme. We shall reside near a very +dear friend of mine, a man versed from childhood in the toils of the +Garden and the Field, and from whom I shall receive every addition to my +comfort which an earthly friend and adviser can give. + +My Wife requests to be remembered to you, if the word "remember" can be +properly used. You will mention my respects to your Wife and your +children, and believe that I am with no mean esteem and regard + +Your Friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Saturday, 15th Oct., 1796. + + + + +LETTER 45. To CHARLES LLOYD, SEN. + +Dear Sir, + +I received your letter, and thank you for that interest which you take +in my welfare. The reasons which you urge against my present plan are +mostly well-founded; but they would apply equally against any other +scheme of life which 'my' Conscience would permit me to adopt. I +might have a situation as a Unitarian minister, I might have lucrative +offices as an active Politician; but on both of these the Voice within +puts a firm and unwavering negative. Nothing remains for me but +schoolmastership in a large town or my present plan. To the success of +both, and indeed even to my 'subsisting' in either, health and the +possession of my faculties are necessary Requisites. While I possess +these Requisites, 'I know', I can maintain myself and family in the +COUNTRY; the task of educating children suits not the activity of my +mind, and the anxieties and confinement incident to it, added to the +living in a town or city, would to a moral certainty ruin that Health +and those faculties which, as I said before, are necessary to my gaining +my livelihood in 'any' way. Undoubtedly, without fortune, or trade, +or profession it is 'impossible' that I should be in any situation +in which I must not be dependent on my own health and exertions for the +bread of my family. I do not regret it--it will make me 'feel' my +dependence on the Almighty, and it will prevent my affections from being +made earthly altogether. I praise God in all things, and feel that to +His grace alone it is owing that I am 'enabled' to praise Him in +all things. You think my scheme 'monastic rather than Christian'. +Can he be deemed monastic who is married, and employed in rearing his +children?--who 'personally' preaches the truth to his friends and +neighbours, and who endeavours to instruct tho' Absent by the Press? In +what line of Life could I be more 'actively' employed? and what +titles, that are dear and venerable, are there which I shall not +possess, God permit my present resolutions to be realised? Shall I not +be an Agriculturist, an Husband, a Father, and a 'Priest' after the +order of 'Peace'? an 'hireless' Priest? "Christianity teaches +us to let our lights shine before men." It does so--but it likewise bids +us say, Our Father, lead us not [into] temptation! which how can he say +with a safe conscience who voluntarily places himself in those +circumstances in which, if he believe Christ, he must acknowledge that +it would be easier for a Camel to go thro' the eye of a needle than for +HIM to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven? Does not that man 'mock' +God who daily prays against temptations, yet daily places himself in the +midst of the most formidable? I meant to have written a few lines only +respecting myself, because I have much and weighty matter to write +concerning my friend, Charles Lloyd; but I have been seduced into many +words from the importance of the general truths on which I build my +conduct. + +While your Son remains with me, he will, of course, be acquiring that +knowledge and those powers of Intellect which are necessary as the +'foundation' of excellence in all professions, rather than the +immediate science of 'any'. 'Languages' will engross one or +two hours in every day: the 'elements' of Chemistry, Geometry, +Mechanics, and Optics the remaining hours of study. After tolerable +proficiency in these, we shall proceed to the study of 'Man' and of +'Men'--I mean, Metaphysics and History--and finally, to a thorough +examination of the Jewish and Christian Dispensations, their doctrines +and evidences: an examination necessary for all men, but peculiarly so +to your son, if he be destined for a medical man. A Physician who should +be even a Theist, still more a 'Christian', would be a rarity +indeed. I do not know 'one'--and I know a 'great many' +Physicians. They are 'shallow' Animals: having always employed +their minds about Body and Gut, they imagine that in the whole system of +things there is nothing but Gut and Body. * * * + +I hope your Health is confirmed, and that your Wife and children are +well. Present my well-wishes. You are blessed with children who are +'pure in Heart'--add to this Health, Competence, Social Affections, +and Employment, and you have a complete idea of Human Happiness. + +Believe me, + +With esteem and friendly-heartedness, + +Your obliged + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Monday, November 14th (1796). + + + + +LETTER 46. To CHARLES LLOYD, SEN. + +Dear Sir, + +I think it my duty to acquaint you with the nature of my connection with +your Son. If he be to stay with me, I can neither be his tutor or +fellow-student, nor in any way impart a regular system of knowledge. My +'days' I shall devote to the acquirement of 'practical' +husbandry and horticulture, that as "to beg I am ashamed," I may at +least be able "to dig": and my evenings will be fully employed in +fulfilling my engagements with the 'Critical Review' and 'New +Monthly Magazine'. If, therefore, your Son occupy a room in my +cottage, he will be there merely as a Lodger and Friend; and the only +money I shall 'receive' from him will be the sum which his +'board' and 'lodging' will cost 'me', and which, by an +accurate calculation, I find will amount to half a guinea a week, +'exclusive' of his washing, porter, cyder, spirits, in short any +potation beyond table-beer--these he must provide himself with. I shall +keep no servant. + +I must add that Charles Lloyd must 'furnish' his own bed-room. It +is not in my power to do it myself without running into debt; from which +may heaven amid its most angry dispensations preserve me! + +When I mentioned the circumstances which rendered my literary engagement +impracticable, when, I say, I first mentioned them to Charles Lloyd, and +described the severe process of simplification which I had determined to +adopt, I never dreamt that he would have desired to continue with me: +and when at length he did manifest such a desire, I dissuaded him from +it. But his feelings became vehement, and in the present state of his +health it would have been as little prudent as humane in me to have +given an absolute refusal. + +Will you permit me, Sir! to write of Charles Lloyd with freedom? I do +not think he ever will endure, whatever might be the consequences, to +practise as a physician, or to undertake any commercial employment. What +weight your authority might have, I know not: I doubt not he would +struggle to submit to it--but would he 'succeed' in any attempt to +which his temper, feelings, and principles are inimical? * * * What then +remains? I know of nothing but agriculture. If his attachment to it +'should' prove permanent, and he really acquired the steady +dispositions of a practical farmer, I think you could wish nothing +better for him than to see him married, and settled 'near you' as a +farmer. I love him, and do not think he will be well or happy till he is +married and settled. + +I have written plainly and decisively, my dear Sir! I wish to avoid not +only evil, but the 'appearances' of evil. This is a world of +calumnies! Yea! there is an imposthume in the large tongue of this world +ever ready to break, and it is well to prevent the contents from being +sputtered into one's face. My Wife thanks you for your kind inquiries +respecting her. She and our Infant are well--only the latter has met +with a little accident--a burn, which is doing well. + +To Mrs. Lloyd and all your children present my remembrances, and believe +me in all esteem and friendliness, Yours sincerely, S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] +Sunday, December 4, 1796. + +[Footnote 1: To this letter Mr. Lloyd seems to have returned the +question, How could Coleridge live without companions? The answer came +quickly, as we learn from a letter from Coleridge to Poole +{'Letters', I, p. 186}, in which he mentions Mr. Lloyd's query and +quotes his own characteristic reply: "I shall have six companions: My +Sara, my babe, my own shaping and disquisitive mind, my books, my +beloved friend Thomas Poole, and lastly, Nature looking at me with a +thousand looks of beauty, and speaking to me in a thousand melodies of +love. If I were capable of being tired with all these, I should then +detect a vice in my nature, and would fly to habitual solitude to +eradicate it." Coleridge's letter to Mr. Lloyd, containing this passage, +seems to have been lost. Note by E. V. Lucas.] + +The 'Ode to the Departing Year,' Coleridge tells us, was written on +24th, 25th, and 26th December, 1796. It was first printed in the +'Cambridge Intelligencer' of 31st December, and then republished, along +with the 'Lines to a Young Man who abandoned himself to a Causeless +Melancholy' (probably Charles Lloyd), in quarto form of 16 pages. It was +then prefaced by the following letter: + + + +LETTER 47. TO THOMAS POOLE, OF STOWEY. DEDICATION +TO THE "ODE TO THE DEPARTING YEAR." + +My dear Friend, + +Soon after the commencement of this month, the editor of the 'Cambridge +Intelligencer' (a newspaper conducted with so much ability, and such +unmixed and fearless zeal for the interests of piety and freedom, that I +cannot but think my poetry honoured by being permitted to appear in it) +requested me, by letter, to furnish him with some lines for the last day +of this year. I promised him that I would make the attempt; but almost +immediately after, a rheumatic complaint seized on my head, and +continued to prevent the possibility of poetic composition till within +the last three days. So in the course of the last three days the +following Ode was produced. In general, when an author informs the +public that his production was struck off in a great hurry, he offers an +insult, not an excuse. But I trust that the present case is an +exception, and that the peculiar circumstances which obliged me to write +with such unusual rapidity give a propriety to my professions of it: +"nec nunc eam apud te jacto, sed et ceteris indico; ne quis asperiore +limae carmen examinet, et a confuso scriptum et quod frigidum erat ni +statim traderem." (I avail myself of the words of Statius, and hope that +I shall likewise be able to say of any weightier publication, what 'he' +has declared of his Thebaid, that it had been tortured with a laborious +polish.) + +For me to discuss the 'literary' merits of this hasty composition were +idle and presumptuous. If it be found to possess that impetuosity of +transition, and that precipitation of fancy and feeling, which are the +'essential' excellencies of the sublimer Ode, its deficiency in less +important respects will be easily pardoned by those from whom alone +praise could give me pleasure: and whose minuter criticisms will be +disarmed by the reflection, that these lines were conceived "not in the +soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of Academic Groves, +but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow."[1] +I am more anxious lest the 'moral' spirit of the Ode should be mistaken. +You, I am sure, will not fail to recollect that among the ancients, the +Bard and the Prophet were one and the same character; and you 'know' +that although I prophesy curses, I pray fervently for blessings. +Farewell, Brother of my Soul! + + + --O ever found the same + And trusted and beloved! + + +Never without an emotion of honest pride do I subscribe myself + +Your grateful and affectionate friend, S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Bristol, December 26, 1796.] + +[Footnote 1: From the Preface to the first Edition of Johnson's +_Dictionary of the English Language._] + + + +CHAPTER IV + +CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITS OF COLERIDGE + +(From Mr. Wordsworth's Stanzas written in my Pocket-copy of +Thomson's 'Castle of Indolence'.) + + + With him there often walked in friendly guise, + Or lay upon the moss by brook or tree, + A noticeable Man with large grey eyes, + And a pale face that seemed undoubtedly + As if a blooming face it ought to be; + Heavy his low-hung lip did oft appear, + Deprest by weight of musing Phantasy; + Profound his forehead was, though not severe; + Yet some did think that he had little business here: + + Sweet heaven forefend! his was a lawful right: + Noisy he was, and gamesome as a boy; + His limbs would toss about him with delight, + Like branches when strong winds the trees annoy. + Nor lacked his calmer hours device or toy + To banish listlessness and irksome care; + He would have taught you how you might employ + Yourself; and many did to him repair,-- + And certes not in vain; he had inventions rare. + + +For Josiah Wade, the gentleman to whom the letters, placed at the +beginning of the last chapter, were written, the fine portrait of Mr. +Coleridge by Allston, (nearly full length, in oils,) was painted at Rome +in 1806,[1]--I believe in the spring of that year. Mr. Allston himself +spoke of it, as in his opinion faithfully representing his friend's +features and expression, such as they commonly appeared. His +countenance, he added, in his high poetic mood, was quite beyond the +painter's art: "it was indeed "spirit made visible"." + +Mr. Coleridge was thirty-three years old when this portrait was painted, +but it would be taken for that of a man of forty. The youthful, even +boyish look, which the original retained for some years after boyhood, +must rather suddenly have given place, to a premature appearance, first +of middle-agedness, then of old age, at least in his general aspect, +though in some points of personal appearance,--his fair smooth skin and +"large grey eyes," "at once the clearest and the deepest"--so a friend +lately described them to me,--"that I ever saw," he grew not old to the +last. Sergeant Talfourd thus speaks of what he was at three or four and +forty. "Lamb used to say that he was inferior to what he had been in his +youth; but I can scarcely believe it; at least there is nothing in his +early writing which gives any idea of the richness of his mind so +lavishly poured out at this time in his happiest moods. Although he +looked much older than he was, his hair being silvered all over, and his +person tending to corpulency, there was about him no trace of bodily +sickness or mental decay, but rather an air of voluptuous repose. His +benignity of manner placed his auditors entirely at their ease; and +inclined them to listen delighted to the sweet low tone in which he +began to discourse on some high theme. At first his tones were +conversational: he seemed to dally with the shallows of the subject and +with fantastic images which bordered it: but gradually the thought grew +deeper, and the voice deepened with the thought; the stream gathering +strength, seemed to bear along with it all things which opposed its +progress, and blended them with its current; and stretching away among +regions tinted with etherial colours, was lost at airy distance in the +horizon of fancy. Coleridge was sometimes induced to repeat portions of +'Christabel', then enshrined in manuscript from eyes profane, and gave a +bewitching effect to its wizard lines. But more peculiar in its beauty +than this was his recitation of 'Kubla Khan'. As he repeated the +passage-- + + + A damsel with a dulcimer + In a vision once I saw: + It was an Abyssinian maid, + And on her dulcimer she played + Singing of Mount Abora! + + +--his voice seemed to mount and melt into air, as the images grew more +visionary, and the suggested associations more remote."[2] + +Mr. De Quincey thus describes him at thirty-four, in the summer season +of 1807, about a year and a half after the date of Mr. Allston's +portrait. + +"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 shall describe. In height +he might seem to be above five feet eight: (he was in reality about an +inch and a half taller;) 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. I examined him +steadfastly for a minute or more: and it struck me that he saw neither +myself nor any 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 among +daylight realities. This little scene over, he received me with a +kindness of manner so marked that it might be called gracious. + +Coleridge led me to a drawing room and 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. And these +little points of business being settled, Coleridge, like some great +river, the Orellana, or the St. Lawrence, that had been checked and +fretted by rocks or thwarting islands, and 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." + +I will now present him as he appeared to William Hazlitt in the February +of 1798, when he was little more than five and twenty. + +"It was in January, 1798, that I rose one morning before daylight, to +walk ten miles in the mud, to hear this celebrated person preach. Never, +the longest day I have to live, shall I have such another walk as this +cold, raw, comfortless one, in the winter of the year 1798. 'Il y a des +impressions que ni le temps ni les circonstances peuvent effacer. +Dusse-je vivre des siecles entiers, le doux temps de majeunesse ne pent +renatre pour moi, ni s'effacer jamais dans ma memoire.' When I got +there, the organ was playing the hundredth psalm, and when it was done, +Mr. Coleridge rose and gave out his text. "He departed again into a +mountain 'himself alone'." As he gave out this text his voice 'rose like +a stream of rich distilled perfumes;' and when he came to the two last +words, which he pronounced loud, deep, and distinct, it seemed to me, +who was then young, as if the sounds had echoed from the bottom of the +human heart, and as if that prayer might have floated in solemn silence +through the universe. The idea of St. John came into my mind, of one +crying in the wilderness, who had his loins girt about, and whose food +was locusts, and wild honey. The preacher then launched into his +subject, like an eagle dallying with the wind. The sermon was upon peace +and war--upon church and state--not their alliance, but their +separation--on the spirit of the world, and the spirit of Christianity, +not as the same, but as opposed to one another. He talked of those who +had inscribed the cross of Christ on banners dripping with human gore. +He made a poetical and pastoral excursion,--and to shew the fatal +effects of war, drew a striking contrast between the simple shepherd +boy, driving his team afield, or sitting under the hawthorn, piping to +his flock, as though he should never be old, and the same poor country +lad, crimped, kidnapped, brought into town, made drunk at an alehouse, +turned into a wretched drummer-boy, with his hair sticking on end with +powder and pomatum, a long cue at his back, and tricked out in the +finery of the profession of blood. + + + Such were the notes our once loved poet sung: + + +and for myself, I could not have been more delighted if I had heard the +music of the spheres. Poetry and Philosophy had met together, Truth and +Genius had embraced, under the eye and with the sanction of Religion. +This was even beyond my hopes. I returned home well satisfied. The sun +that was still labouring pale and wan through the sky, obscured by thick +mists, seemed an emblem of the 'good cause'; and the cold dank drops of +dew, that hung half melted on the beard of the thistle, had something +genial and refreshing in them." [3] + + A glowing dawn was his, but noon's full blaze + Of 'perfect day' ne'er fill'd his heav'n with radiance. + Scarce were the flow'rets on their stems upraised + When sudden shadows cast an evening gloom + O'er those bright skies!--yet still those skies were lovely; + The roses of the morn yet lingered there + When stars began to peep,--nor yet exhaled + Fresh dew-drops glittered near the glowworm's lamp, + And many a snatch of lark-like melody + Birds of the shade trilled forth'mid plaintive warbling. + +The principal portraits of Coleridge are, besides the one by Allston +referred to by Sara Coleridge, engraved by Samuel Cousins, one by Peter +Vandyke, painted in 1795; one by Hancock, drawn in 1796; another by +Allston, unfinished, painted in Rome; one by C. R. Leslie, taken before +1819, one by T. Phillips, belonging to Mr. John Murray, engraved for the +frontispiece of Murray's edition of the 'Table Talk'; another by +Phillips, in the possession of William Rennell Coleridge, of Salston, +Ottery St. Mary; and a crayon sketch by George Dawe, now at The +Chanter's House. These portraits have often been engraved for +biographies and editions of Coleridge's 'Poems'. Vandyke's portrait +appears in Brandl's Life and Dykes-Campbell's edition of the 'Poems'; +Hancock's in the Aldine edition of the 'Poems'; and Leslie's in the Bohn +Library 'Friend' and in E. H. Coleridge's 'Letters of S. T. C'. +Allston's portrait of 1814 is given in Flagg's 'Life of Allston'. The +two best reproductions of Vandyke's and Hancock's portraits are to be +found in Cottle's 'Early Recollections'. + +A small portrait in oils (three replicas), taken by a Bristol artist, +'circ.' 1798, engraved for Moxon's edition of 1863. + +A portrait in oils by James Northcote, taken in 1804 for Sir G. +Beaumont, engraved in mezzotint by William Say. + +A portrait in oils taken at the Argyll Baths, 'circ.' 1828 (see +'Letters', 1895, ii, 758). + +A pencil sketch of S. T. C., et. 61, by J. Kayser (see 'Letters', ii, +frontispiece). + +[Bust by Spurzheim. Bust by Hamo Thornycroft, Westminster Abbey.] + + +[Footnote 1: An error of Sara Coleridge. This portrait was painted for +Wade in Bristol, 1814: and is now in the National Portrait Gallery +(Flagg's 'Life of Allston', pp. 105-7). The portrait of 1806 was given +to Allston's niece, Miss R. Charlotte Dana, Boston.] + +[Footnote 2: Talfourd's full description is found in "Final Memorials of +Ch. Lamb", last chapter.] + +[Footnote 3: Hazlitt's full description is found in 'Essays of William +Hazlitt', Camelot Series, pp. 18-38.] + + + + + +CHAPTER V + +STOWEY + + + Learning, power, and time, + (Too much of all) thus wasting in vain war + Of fervid colloquy. "Sickness,'tis true, + 'Whole years of weary days, besieged him close, + Even to the gates and inlets of his life!' + But it is true, no less, that strenuous, firm, + And with a natural gladness, he maintained + The citadel unconquered, and in joy + Was strong to follow the delightful Muse." + + +With the letter of Nov. 5, [1] the biographical sketch left by Mr. +Coleridge's late Editor comes to an end, and at the present time I can +carry it no further than to add, that in January, 1797, my Father +removed with his wife and child, the latter then four months' old, to a +cottage at Stowey, which was his home for three years; that from that +home, in company with Mr. and Miss Wordsworth, he went, in September, +1798, to Germany, and that he spent fourteen months in that country, +during which period the Letters called Satyrane's were written. + +[Footnote 1: No. 43. Sara Coleridge now continues the narrative for ten +lines.] + +Cottle, in his 'Reminiscences', says Mr. Coleridge sent him the +following letter from Stowey: + + + +LETTER 48 + +(January, 1797.) + +Dear Cottle, + +I write under great agony of mind, Charles Lloyd being very ill. He has +been seized with his fits three times in the space of seven days: and +just as I was in bed last night, I was called up again; and from twelve +o'clock at night, to five this morning, he remained in one continued +state of agonized delirium. What with bodily toil, exerted in repressing +his frantic struggles, and what with the feelings of agony for his +sufferings, you may suppose that I have forced myself from bed, with +aching temples, and a feeble frame.* * * + +We offer petitions, not as supposing we influence the Immutable; but +because to petition the Supreme Being, is the way most suited to our +nature, to stir up the benevolent affections in our hearts. Christ +positively commands it, and in St. Paul you will find unnumbered +instances of prayer for individual blessings; for kings, rulers, etc. +etc. We indeed should all join to our petitions: "But thy will be done, +Omniscient, All-loving Immortal God!" + +Believe [1] me to have towards you, the inward and spiritual gratitude +and affection, though I am not always an adept in the outward and +visible signs. + +God bless you, + +S. T. C. + +[Footnote 1: "My respects to your good mother, and to your father and +believe me," etc.--"Early Recollections".] + +The next letter refers to the second edition of the poems, and must have +been written early in January, 1797. + + + +LETTER 49 + +(3 January, 1797.) + +My dear Cottle, + +If you delay the press it will give me the opportunity I so much wish, +of sending my "Visions of the Maid of Arc" to Wordsworth, who lives [1] +not above twenty miles from this place; and to Charles Lamb, whose taste +and judgment, I see reason to think more correct and philosophical than +my own, which yet I place pretty high. * * * + +We arrived safe. Our house is set to rights. We are all--wife, +bratling, and self, remarkably well. Mrs. Coleridge likes Stowey, and +loves Thomas Poole and his mother, who love her. A communication has +been made from our orchard into T. Poole's garden, and from thence to +Cruikshank's, a friend of mine, and a young married man, whose wife is +very amiable, and she and Sara are already on the most cordial terms; +from all this you will conclude we are happy. By-the-bye, what a +delightful poem, is Southey's "Musings on a Landscape of Caspar +Poussin". I love it almost better than his "Hymn to the Penates". In his +volume of poems, the following, namely, + +"The Six Sonnets on the Slave Trade.--The Ode to the Genius of +Africa.--To my own Miniature Picture.--The Eight Inscriptions.--Elinor, +Botany-bay Eclogue.--Frederick", ditto.--"The Ten Sonnets". (pp. +107-116.) "On the death of an Old Spaniel.--The Soldier's Wife, +Dactylics,--The Widow, Sapphics.--The Chapel Bell.--The Race of +Banco.--"Rudiger". + +All these Poems are worthy the Author of "Joan of Arc". And + +"The Musings on a Landscape", etc. and "The Hymn to the Penates", + +deserve to have been published after "Joan of Arc", as proofs of +progressive genius. + +God bless you, + +S. T. C. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Wordsworth lived at Racedown, before he removed to +Allfoxden. (Cottle.)] [The dates of Letters 49 and 50 are determined by +that of a letter from Lamb to Coleridge of 5th January 1797 ("Ainger", +i, 57). Letter 49 implies that Coleridge was now acquainted with +Wordsworth. A letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Sara Coleridge of 7th Nov. +1845 (Knight's "Life of Wordsworth", i, iii) gives the date of the first +meeting of the poets as "about the year 1795." Professor Knight thinks +this should be 1796. In the letter of Wordsworth to Wrangham, referred +to in Note to Letter 13, Wordsworth does not say that he knew Coleridge +personally. Letter 49 is the only trustworthy "contemporary" evidence on +the subject.] + +After receiving Lamb's answer of 5th January, in which Lamb criticises +unfavourably the "Joan of Arc" lines ("Ainger", i, 57), Coleridge writes: + + + + +LETTER 50. TO COTTLE + +(10 January 1797). + +My dear Cottle, + +The lines which I added to my lines in the "Joan of Arc", have been so +little approved by Charles Lamb, to whom I sent them, that although I +differ from him in opinion, I have not heart to finish the poem. + +"Mr. Coleridge in the same letter," says Cottle, "thus refers to his +"Ode to the Departing Year"." + +* * * So much for an "Ode", which some people think superior to the +"Bard" of Gray, and which others think a rant of turgid obscurity; and +the latter are the more numerous class. It is not obscure. My "Religious +Musings" I know are, but not this "Ode". + +Coleridge, in 1797, as in 1796, was invariably behind time with his +"copy" for the second edition. He thus writes Cottle: + + + + +LETTER 51. TO COTTLE + +(Jany 1797). + +My dear Cottle, + +* * * On Thursday morning, by Milton, the Stowey carrier, I shall send +you a parcel, containing the book of my Poems interleaved, with the +alterations, and likewise the prefaces, which I shall send to you, for +your criticisms. * * * + + + + +LETTER 52. TO COTTLE + +Stowey, Friday Morning (1797). + +My dear Cottle. + +* * * If you do not like the following verses, or if you do not think +them worthy of an edition in which I profess to give nothing but my +choicest fish, picked, gutted, and cleaned, please to get some one to +write them out and send them, with my compliments to the editor of the +"New Monthly Magazine". But if you think as well of them as I do (most +probably from parental dotage for my last born) let them immediately +follow "The Kiss". + +God love you, + +S. T. C. + +TO AN UNFORTUNATE YOUNG WOMAN. + +WHOM I HAD KNOWN IN THE DAYS OF HER INNOCENCE. + + +Maiden! that with sullen brow, + Sitt'st behind those virgins gay; +Like a scorched, and mildew'd bough, + Leafless mid the blooms of May. + +Inly gnawing, thy distresses + Mock those starts of wanton glee; +And thy inmost soul confesses + Chaste Affection's majesty. + +Loathing thy polluted lot, + Hie thee, Maiden! hie thee hence! +Seek thy weeping mother's cot, + With a wiser innocence! + +Mute the Lavrac [1] and forlorn + While she moults those firstling plumes +That had skimm'd the tender corn, + Or the bean-field's od'rous blooms; + +Soon with renovating wing, + Shall she dare a loftier flight, +Upwards to the day-star sing, + And embathe in heavenly light. + + + +ALLEGORICAL LINES ON THE SAME SUBJECT. + + +Myrtle Leaf, that, ill besped, + Pinest in the gladsome ray, +Soiled beneath the common tread, + Far from thy protecting spray; + +When the scythes-man o'er his sheaf, + Caroll'd in the yellow vale, +Sad, I saw thee, heedless leaf, + Love the dalliance of the gale. + +Lightly didst thou, poor fond thing! + Heave and flutter to his sighs +While the flatterer on his wing, + Woo'd, and whisper'd thee to rise. + +Gaily from thy mother stalk + Wert thou danced and wafted high; +Soon on this unsheltered walk, + Flung to fade, and rot, and die! + + +[Footnote 1: The Skylark.] + + +Cottle subjected the two poems to severe criticism, and Coleridge +replied: + + + + +LETTER 53. TO COTTLE + +Wednesday morning, 10 o'clock. + +(January, 1797.) + +My dearest Cottle, + +* * * "Ill besped" is indeed a sad blotch; but after having tried at +least a hundred ways, before I sent the Poem to you, and often since, I +find it incurable. This first Poem is but a so so composition. I wonder +I could have been so blinded by the ardour of recent composition, as to +see anything in it. + +Your remarks are "perfectly just" on the "Allegorical lines", except +that, in this district, corn is as often cut with a scythe, as with a +hook. However, for ""Scythes-man"" read "Rustic". For ""poor fond +thing"," read "foolish thing", and for ""flung to fade, and rot, and +die"," read "flung to wither and to die". + +* * * * * + +Milton (the carrier) waits impatiently. + +S. T. C. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters LXXI-LXXII follow Letter 53.] + + +Only the second poem was included in the second edition. The next +letter, which contains an unrealized prophecy regarding Southey, speaks +of the joint partnership of the volume of 1797. + + + + +LETTER 54. TO COTTLE + +Stowey,--(Feby. or Mch. 1797.) + +My dear Cottle, + +* * * Public affairs are in strange confusion. I am afraid that I shall +prove, at least, as good a Prophet as Bard. Oh, doom'd to fall, my +country! enslaved and vile! But may God make me a foreboder of evils +never to come! + +I have heard from Sheridan, desiring me to write a tragedy. I have no +genius that way; Robert Southey has. I think highly of his "Joan of +Arc", and cannot help prophesying that he will be known to posterity, as +Shakspeare's great grandson. I think he will write a tragedy or +tragedies. + +Charles Lloyd has given me his Poems, which I give to you, on condition +that you print them in this Volume, after Charles Lamb's Poems; the +title page, "Poems, by S. T. Coleridge. Second Edition: to which are +added Poems, by C. Lamb, and C. Lloyd". C. Lamb's poems will occupy +about forty pages; C. Lloyd's at least one hundred, although only his +choice fish. + +P.S. I like your "Lines on Savage". + +God bless you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE." + +During his stay at Stowey, Coleridge remained a subscriber to Catcott's +Library, Bristol; and the following letter to the librarian is worth +preserving. + + + + +LETTER 55. TO COTTLE + +Stowey, May, 1797. + +My dear Cottle, + +I have sent a curious letter to George Catcott. He has altogether made +me pay five shillings! for postage, by his letters sent all the way to +Stowey, requiring me to return books to the Bristol Library. * * * * + +"Mr. Catcott, + +"I beg your acceptance of all the enclosed letters. You must not think +lightly of the present, as they cost me, who am a very poor man, five +shillings. + +"With respect to the "Bruck. Hist. Crit." although by accident they were +registered on the 23d of March, yet they were not removed from the +Library for a fortnight after; and when I received your first letter, I +had had the books just three weeks. Our learned and ingenious Committee +may read through two quartos, that is, one thousand and four hundred +pages of close printed Latin and Greek, in three weeks, for aught I know +to the contrary. I pretend to no such intenseness of application, or +rapidity of genius. + +"I must beg you to inform me, by Mr. Cottle, what length of time is +allowed by the rules and customs of our institution for each book. +Whether their contents, as well as their size, are consulted, in +apportioning the time; or whether, customarily, any time at all is +apportioned, except when the Committee, in individual cases, choose to +deem it proper. I subscribe to your library, Mr. Catcott, not to read +novels, or books of quick reading and easy digestion, but to get books +which I cannot get elsewhere,--books of massy knowledge; and as I have +few books of my own, I read with a common-place book, so that if I be +not allowed a longer period of time for the perusal of such books, I +must contrive to get rid of my subscription, which would be a thing +perfectly useless, except so far as it gives me an opportunity of +reading your little expensive notes and letters. + +"Yours in Christian fellowship, + +"S. T. COLERIDGE." + +Whether Coleridge had given Southey the opportunity to try his skill at +the drama or not does not appear; but the following letter to Cottle +shows that he had addressed himself to the task of composing a tragedy, +evidently "Osorio". + + + +LETTER 56. TO COTTLE + +Stowey, May, 1797. + +My dearest Cottle, + +I love and respect you as a brother, and my memory deceives me woefully, +if I have not evidenced, by the animated tone of my conversation when we +have been tete-a-tete, how much your conversation interested me. But +when last in Bristol, the day I meant to devote to you, was such a day +of sadness, I could do nothing. On the Saturday, the Sunday, and ten +days after my arrival at Stowey, I felt a depression too dreadful to be +described. + + + So much I felt my genial spirits droop, + My hopes all flat; Nature within me seemed + In all her functions, weary of herself, + + +Wordsworth's [1] conversation aroused me somewhat, but even now I am not +the man I have been, and I think I never shall. A sort of calm +hopelessness diffuses itself over my heart. Indeed every mode of life +which has promised me bread and cheese, has been, one after another, +torn away from me, but God remains. I have no immediate pecuniary +distress, having received ten pounds from Lloyd. I employ myself now on +a book of morals in answer to Godwin, and on my tragedy... + + +There are some poets who write too much at their ease, from the facility +with which they please themselves. They do not often enough + + + Feel their burdened breast + Heaving beneath incumbent Deity. + + +So that to posterity their wreaths will look unseemly. Here, perhaps, an +everlasting Amaranth, and, close by its side, some weed of an hour, +sere, yellow, and shapeless. Their very beauties will lose half their +effect, from the bad company they keep. They rely too much on story and +event, to the neglect of those lofty imaginings that are peculiar to, +and definite of the Poet. + +The story of Milton might be told in two pages. It is this which +distinguishes an epic poem from a romance in metre. Observe the march of +Milton; his severe application; his laborious polish; his deep +metaphysical researches; his prayer to God before he began his great +work; all that could lift and swell his intellect, became his daily +food. + +I should not think of devoting less than twenty years to an epic poem. +Ten years to collect materials and warm my mind with universal science. +I would be a tolerable Mathematician. I would thoroughly understand +Mechanics; Hydrostatics; Optics and Astronomy; Botany; Metallurgy; +Fossilism; Chemistry; Geology; Anatomy; Medicine; then the mind of man; +then the minds of men, in all Travels, Voyages, and Histories. So I +would spend ten years; the next five in the composition of the poem, and +the five last in the correction of it. So would I write, haply not +unhearing of that divine and nightly-whispering voice, which speaks to +mighty minds, of predestinated garlands, starry and unwithering. + +God love you. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S. David Hartley is well and grows. Sara is well, and desires a +sister's love to you. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Wordsworth at this time resided at Allfoxden House, two +or three miles from Stowey.--[Note by Cottle.]] + +"The following letter of Mr. C," says Cottle, "was in answer to a +request for some long-promised copy, and for which the printer +importuned." + + + + +LETTER 57. TO COTTLE + +Stowey (May), 1797. + +My dear, dear Cottle, + +Have patience, and everything shall be done. I think now entirely of +your brother:[1] in two days I will think entirely for you. By Wednesday +next you shall have Lloyd's other Poems, with all Lamb's, etc. etc. * * * + + +S. T. C. + +"A little before this time," says Cottle, "a singular occurrence +happened to Mr. C. during a pedestrian excursion into Somersetshire, as +detailed in the following letter to Mr. Wade." + +[Footnote 1: My brother, when at Cambridge, had written a Latin poem for +the prize: the subject, "Italia, Vastata," and sent it to Mr. Coleridge, +with whom he was on friendly terms, in MS. requesting the favour of his +remarks; and this he did about six weeks before it was necessary to +deliver it in. Mr. C. in an immediate letter, expressed his approbation +of the Poem, and cheerfully undertook the task; but with a little of his +procrastination, he returned the MS. with his remarks, just one day +after it was too late to deliver the poem in!--[Note by Cottle.]] + + + + +LETTER 58. TO WADE + +(May, 1797.) + +My dear friend, + +I am here after a most tiresome journey; in the course of which, a woman +asked me if I knew one Coleridge, of Bristol. I answered, I had heard of +him. "Do you know, (quoth she) that that vile jacobin villain drew away +a young man of our parish, one Burnett," etc. and in this strain did the +woman continue for near an hour; heaping on me every name of abuse that +the parish of Billingsgate could supply. I listened very particularly; +appeared to approve all she said, exclaiming, "dear me!" two or three +times, and, in fine, so completely won the woman's heart by my +civilities, that I had not courage enough to undeceive her. * * * + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S. You are a good prophet. Oh, into what a state have the scoundrels +brought this devoted kingdom. If the House of Commons would but melt +down their faces, it would greatly assist the copper currency--we should +have brass enough. + +Coleridge, like all the Return-to-Nature poets of the eighteenth +century, Thomson, Cowper, Burns, and others, was given to that +humanitarian regard for the lower creatures which brought forth such +poems as Burns's "Address to a Mouse" and Coleridge's own lines to a +"Young Ass". The following letter to Cottle is an amusing sample of that +humanitarianism. George Burnett, one of the pantisocrats, occasionally +resided with Coleridge, and during the latter's temporary absence from +Stowey had taken ill. On reaching Stowey, Coleridge wrote to Cottle. + + + + +LETTER 59. TO COTTLE + +Stowey (May, 1797). + +My dear friend, + +I found George Burnett ill enough, heaven knows, Yellow Jaundice--the +introductory symptoms very violent. I return to Bristol on Thursday, and +shall not leave till "all be done". + +Remind Mrs. Coleridge of the kittens, and tell her that George's brandy +is just what smuggled spirits might be expected to be, execrable! The +smack of it remains in my mouth, and I believe will keep me most +horribly temperate for half a century. He (Burnett) was bit, but I +caught the Brandiphobia.[1] (obliterations * * * * * * * + +--scratched out, well knowing that you never allow such things to pass, +uncensured. A good joke, and it slipped out most impromptu--ishly.) + +The mice play the very devil with us. It irks me to set a trap. By all +the whiskers of all the pussies that have mewed plaintively, or +amorously, since the days of Whittington, it is not fair. 'Tis telling a +lie. 'Tis as if you said, "Here is a bit of toasted cheese; come little +mice! I invite you!" when, oh, foul breach of the rites of hospitality! +I mean to assassinate my too credulous guests! No, I cannot set a trap, +but I should vastly like to make a Pitt--fall. (Smoke the Pun!) But +concerning the mice, advise thou, lest there be famine in the land. Such +a year of scarcity! Inconsiderate mice! Well, well, so the world wags. + +Farewell, S. T. C. + +P.S. A mad dog ran through our village, and bit several dogs. I have +desired the farmers to be attentive, and tomorrow shall give them, in +writing, the first symptoms of madness in a dog. + +I wish my pockets were as yellow as George's Phiz! + +[Footnote 1: It appears that Mr. Burnett had been prevailed upon by +smugglers to buy some prime cheap brandy, but which Mr. Coleridge +affirmed to be a compound of Hellebore, kitchen grease, and Assafoetida! +or something as bad.--[Cottle's note.]] + +The next letter must belong to the end of May or beginning of June. +Cottle's note shows that the second edition of the poems was now +published. + + + +LETTER 60. TO COTTLE + +Stowey (June), 1797. + +My dear Cottle, + +I deeply regret, that my anxieties and my slothfulness, acting in a +combined ratio, prevented me from finishing my "Progress of Liberty, or +Visions of the Maid of Orleans", with that Poem at the head of the +volume, with the "Ode" in the middle, and the "Religious Musings" at the +end. * * * + +In the "Lines on the Man of Ross", immediately after these lines, + + + He heard the widow's heaven-breathed prayer of praise, + He mark'd the shelter'd orphan's tearful gaze. + + +Please to add these two lines. + + + And o'er the portion'd maiden's snowy cheek, + Bade bridal love suffuse its blushes meek. + + +And for the line, + + + Beneath this roof, if thy cheer'd moments pass. + + +I should be glad to substitute this, + + + If near this roof thy wine-cheer'd moments pass. + + +"These emendations," Cottle adds, "came too late for admission in the +second edition; nor have they appeared in the last edition. They will +remain therefore for insertion in any future edition of Mr. Coleridge's +Poems." + +The exact date on which Coleridge and Wordsworth met in the year 1796 +has not been ascertained; but Coleridge speaks in the next letter as if +he was now well acquainted with Wordsworth. Coleridge had been at +Taunton early in June ('Letters, 220). On the 8th of June he wrote +to Cottle. + + + +LETTER 61. TO COTTLE + +(8th) June, 1797. + +My dear Cottle, + +I am sojourning for a few days at Racedown, Dorset, the mansion of our +friend Wordsworth; who presents his kindest respects to you. * * * + +Wordsworth admires my tragedy, which gives me great hopes. Wordsworth +has written a tragedy himself. I speak with heartfelt sincerity, and I +think, unblinded judgment, when I tell you that I feel myself a little +man by his side, and yet I do not think myself a less man than I +formerly thought myself. His drama is absolutely wonderful. You know I +do not commonly speak in such abrupt and unmingled phrases, and +therefore will the more readily believe me. There are, in the piece, +those profound touches of the human heart, which I find three or four +times in the 'Robbers' of Schiller, and often in Shakespeare, but +in Wordsworth there are no inequalities. * * * + +God bless you, and eke [1] + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [2] + +[Footnote 1: The reader will have observed a peculiarity in most of Mr. +Coleridge's conclusions to his letters. He generally says, "God bless +you, and, or eke, S. T. C." so as to involve a compound +blessing.--[Cottle.]] + +[Footnote 2: Letter LXXIII is our 61.] + +Shakespeare evidently occupied an important place in Coleridge's mind +even at this early date. His discovery of rivals to the prince of +English dramatists in his friends Southey and Wordsworth only indicates +how largely Shakespeare already bulked in his view of the dramatic art. + +The next letter to Cottle is of a milder type, and leads up to an +interesting meeting, famous in the lives of Lamb, Coleridge, and +Wordsworth. + + +LETTER 62. TO COTTLE + +Stowey, June 29th, 1797. + +My very dear Cottle, + +***Charles Lamb will probably be here in about a fortnight. Could you +not contrive to put yourself in a Bridgwater coach, and T. Poole would +fetch you in a one-horse chaise to Stowey. What delight would it not +give us. *** + +Still more interesting is the often quoted letter describing Dorothy +Wordsworth. + + +LETTER 63. TO COTTLE + +Stowey (3-17 July), 1797. + +My dear Cottle, + +Wordsworth and his exquisite sister are with me. She is a woman indeed! +in mind I mean, and heart; for her person is such, that if you expected +to see a pretty woman, you would think her rather ordinary; if you +expected to see an ordinary woman, you would think her pretty! but her +manners are simple, ardent, impressive. In every motion, her most +innocent soul outbeams so brightly, that who saw would say, + + + Guilt was a thing impossible in her. + + +Her information various. Her eye watchful in minutest observation of +nature; and her taste, a perfect electrometer. It bends, protrudes, and +draws in, at subtlest beauties, and most recondite faults. + +She and W. desire their kindest respects to you. + +Give my love to your brother Amos. I condole with him in the loss of the +prize, but it is the fortune of war. The finest Greek Poem I ever wrote +lost the prize, and that which gained it was contemptible. An Ode may +sometimes be too bad for the prize, but very often too good. + +Your ever affectionate friend. + +S. T. C.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter LXXIV follows 63.] + +Dorothy Wordsworth's description of Coleridge whom she met now for the +first time is as follows: "You had a great loss," she wrote to a friend, +"in not seeing Coleridge. He is a wonderful man. His conversation teems +with soul, mind, and spirit. Then he is so benevolent, so good tempered +and cheerful, and, like William, interests himself so much about every +little trifle. At first I thought him very plain, that is, for about +three minutes. He is pale, thin, has a wide mouth, thick lips, and not +very good teeth, longish, loose-growing, half curling, rough, black +hair. But if you hear him speak for five minutes you think no more of +them. His eye is large and full, and not very dark, but grey, such an +eye as would receive from a heavy soul the dullest expression; but it +speaks every emotion of his animated mind: it has more of 'the poet's +eye in a fine frenzy rolling' than I ever witnessed. He has fine dark +eyebrows, and an overhanging forehead. + +"The first thing that was read after he came was William's new poem, +"The Ruined Cottage", with which he was much delighted; and after tea he +repeated to us two acts and a half of his tragedy, "Osorio". The next +morning William read his tragedy, "The Borderers"." (Knight's "Life of +Wordsworth", i, 111-112.) + + +The line Coleridge quotes in his description of Dorothy: + + + Guilt is a thing impossible in her + + +occurs in the additional verses Coleridge had written to the "Joan of +Arc" lines sent to Lamb. + +John Thelwall, one of the sturdy democrats of the time who had made no +small commotion with his Revolutionary principles, had also visited +Coleridge at Stowey in the summer of 1797. Coleridge had corresponded +with him before knowing him personally ("Letters", 202), chiefly about +politics, religion and books. Coleridge thus describes Thelwall to Wade. + + + + +LETTER 64. TO WADE + +Stowey (17-20 July), 1797. + +My very dear friend, + +* * * John Thelwall is a very warm-hearted, honest man; and disagreeing +as we do, on almost every point of religion, of morals, of politics, and +philosophy, we like each other uncommonly well. He is a great favorite +with Sara. Energetic activity of mind and of heart, is his master +feature. He is prompt to conceive, and still prompter to execute; but I +think he is deficient in that patience of mind which can look intensely +and frequently at the same subject. He believes and disbelieves with +impassioned confidence. I wish to see him doubting, and doubting. He is +intrepid, eloquent, and honest. Perhaps, the only acting democrat that +is honest, for the patriots are ragged cattle; a most execrable herd. +Arrogant because they are ignorant, and boastful of the strength of +reason, because they have never tried it enough to know its weakness. +Oh! my poor country! The clouds cover thee. There is not one spot of +clear blue in the whole heaven! + +My love to all whom you love, and believe me, with brotherly affection, +with esteem and gratitude, and every warm emotion of the heart, + +Your faithful + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +The next letter closes the visit of Thelwall. + + + + +LETTER 65. TO COTTLE + +Stowey, Sept. 1797. + +My very dear Cottle, + +Your illness afflicts me, and unless I receive a full account of you by +Milton, I shall be very uneasy, so do not fail to write. + +Herbert Croft is in Exeter gaol! This is unlucky. Poor devil! He must +now be unpeppered. We are all well. Wordsworth is well. Hartley sends a +grin to you? He has another tooth! + +In the wagon, there was brought from Bath, a trunk, in order to be +forwarded to Stowey, directed, "S. T. Coleridge, Stowey, near +Bridgwater." This, we suppose, arrived in Bristol on Tuesday or +Wednesday, last week. It belonged to Thelwall. If it be not forwarded to +Stowey, let it be stopped, and not sent. + +Give my kind love to your brother Robert, and "ax" him to put on his +hat, and run, without delay to the inn, or place, by whatever bird, +beast, fish, or man distinguished, where Parson's Bath wagon sets up. + +From your truly affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +In the beginning of September Coleridge was meditating a visit to his +favourite Bowles, whom, in spite of his youthful admiration, he had not +seen since he first saw him in Salisbury when a mere boy. ("Letters", +211.) + + + +LETTER 66. TO COTTLE + +(3 Sept., 1797.) + +I shall now stick close to my tragedy (called "Osorio"), and when I have +finished it, shall walk to Shaftesbury to spend a few days with Bowles. +From thence I go to Salisbury, and thence to Christchurch, to see +Southey. + +"This letter," Cottle says, "as was usual, has no date, but a letter +from Wordsworth determines about the time when Mr. C. had nearly +finished his Tragedy." + +September 13, 1797. + +"* * * Coleridge is gone over to Bowles with his Tragedy, which he has +finished to the middle of the 5th Act. He set off a week ago." + +J. Dykes Campbell in his Life of Coleridge asserts that the Tragedy of +"Osorio" was sent to Drury Lane "without much hope that it would be +accepted."[1] This, however, is inaccurate. The play was not sent; +Coleridge went to London with it, for he writes to Cottle in the +beginning of September: + +[Footnote 1: "Life", p. 78.] + + + +LETTER 67. TO COTTLE + +London (10-15 Sept.) 1797. + +Dear Cottle, + +If Mrs. Coleridge be in Bristol, pray desire her to write to me +immediately, and I beg you, the moment you receive this letter, to send +to No. 17, Newfoundland Street, to know whether she be there. I have +written to Stowey, but if she be in Bristol, beg her to write to me of +it by return of post, that I may immediately send down some + +cash for her travelling expenses, etc. We shall reside in London for the +next four months. + +God bless you, Cottle, I love you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P. S. The volume (second edition, Coleridge, Lloyd, and Lamb) is a most +beautiful one. You have determined that the three Bards shall walk up +Parnassus, in their best bib and tucker. [l] + +Coleridge's beautiful Sonnet to W. Linley, Sheridan's brother-in-law and +secretary, is dated 12 September, 1797, and Coleridge must have been in +London from about that date to 3 December, with perhaps an interval of +return between. The sonnet is dated from Donhead, in Wilts, whither +Coleridge had probably gone on a visit from London. Wordsworth's play +was presented to Covent Garden. An undated letter of Coleridge to +Cottle, which must have been written about the end of November, informs +us that it was through Coleridge the play was tried at Covent Garden. + +[Footnote 1: Letters LXXV-LXXVII follow 67.] + + +LETTER 68. TO COTTLE + +(28 Nov. 1797.) + +I have procured for Wordsworth's tragedy, an introduction to Harris, the +manager of Covent Garden, who has promised to read it attentively, and +give his answer immediately; and if he accepts it, to put it in +preparation without an hour's delay. + +A letter by Dorothy Wordsworth of 20th November[1] confirms the fact +that "The Borderers" was sent to Covent Garden. Both plays were +rejected, that of Coleridge on account of the obscurity of the last +three acts; and Coleridge wrote to Cottle his feelings on the occasion. + +[Footnote 1: Knight's "Life of Wordsworth", i, 127.] + + +LETTER 69. To COTTLE + +(2 Dec. 1797.) + +Dear Cottle, + +I have heard nothing of my Tragedy, except some silly remarks of +Kemble's, to whom a friend showed it; it does not appear to me that +there is a shadow of probability that it will be accepted. It gave me no +pain, and great pleasure, in finding that it gave me no pain. + +I had rather hoped than believed that I was possessed of so much +philosophical capability. Sheridan most certainly has not used me with +common justice. The proposal came from himself, and although this +circumstance did not bind him to accept the tragedy, it certainly bound +him to every, and that the earliest, attention to it. I suppose it is +snugly in his green bag, if it have not emigrated to the kitchen. + +I sent to the "Monthly Magazine" (1797), three mock Sonnets, in ridicule +of my own Poems, and Charles Lloyd's, and Lamb's, etc. etc. exposing +that affectation of unaffectedness, of jumping and misplaced accent, in +common-place epithets, flat lines forced into poetry by italics, +(signifying how well and mouthishly the author would read them) puny +pathos, etc. etc. The instances were almost all taken from myself, and +Lloyd, and Lamb. + +I signed them 'Nehemiah Higginbotham.' I think they may do good to our +young Bards. + +God love you, + +S. T. C. + +P. S. I am translating the "Oberon" of Wieland; it is a difficult +language, and I can translate at least as fast as I can construe. I have +made also a very considerable proficiency in the French language, and +study it daily, and daily study the German; so that I am not, and have +not been idle. * * * + +Coleridge had been introduced through Poole to the Wedgwoods; and +hearing that Coleridge was in need of funds, Tom Wedgwood offered +Coleridge £100, sending an order for the amount. Coleridge was now +meditating entering the Unitarian ministry, and was perplexed whether to +remain with Poetry or enter the pulpit. He writes to Cottle on the +occasion: + + + +LETTER 70. TO COTTLE + +Stowey (January, 1798.) + +My very dear friend, + +This last fortnight has been very eventful. I received one hundred +pounds from Josiah Wedgwood, in order to prevent the necessity of my +going into the ministry. I have received an invitation from Shrewsbury, +to be minister there; and after fluctuations of mind, which have for +nights together robbed me of sleep, and I am afraid of health, I have at +length returned the order to Mr. Wedgwood, with a long letter, +explanatory of my conduct, and accepted the Shrewsbury invitation. * * + +The next letter Cottle says refers to the Wedgwood Pension, but may be +about the rejection of the £100.[l] + +[Footnote 1: See Litchfield's "Tom Wedgwood", pp. 54-56.] + + +LETTER 71. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD[1] + +Shrewsbury, Friday night, (--January), 1798. + +My dear sir, + +I have this moment received your letter, and have scarcely more than a +moment to answer it by return of post. + +If kindly feeling can be repaid by kindly feeling, I am not your debtor. +I would wish to express the same thing which is big at my heart, but I +know not how to do it without indelicacy. As much abstracted from +personal feeling as possible, I honor and esteem you for that which you +have done. + +I must of necessity stay here till the close of Sunday next. On Monday +morning I shall leave it, and on Tuesday will be with you at Cote-House. + +Very affectionately yours, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +T. Wedgwood, Esq. + +[Footnote 1: Not in "Early Recollections".] + +The next letter refers to the offer of the Pension of £150 a year, which +the Wedgwoods conferred on Coleridge. + + + + +LETTER 72. TO COTTLE + +(24 January, 1798). + +My very dear Cottle, + +The moment I received Mr. T. Wedgwood's letter, I accepted his offer. +How a contrary report could arise, I cannot guess.... + +I hope to see you at the close of next week. I have been respectfully +and kindly treated at Shrewsbury. I am well, and now, and ever, + +Your grateful and affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter LXXVIII follows 72.] + + +The next letter is an amusing one coming from Coleridge. It is an +apology for the "Monody on the Death of Chatterton", which he wished to +discard from the second edition of his poems, but which Cottle insisted +on retaining among the poet's "choice fish, picked, gutted, and +cleaned." + + + + + +LETTER 73. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MONTHLY MAGAZINE" + +January 1798. + +Sir, + +I hope this letter may arrive time enough to answer its purpose. I +cannot help considering myself as having been placed in a very +ridiculous light by the gentlemen who have remarked, answered, and +rejoined concerning my "Monody on Chatterton". I have not seen the +compositions of my competitors (unless indeed the exquisite poem of +Warton's, entitled "The Suicide", refer to this subject), but this I +know, that my own is a very poor one. It was a school exercise, somewhat +altered; and it would have been omitted in the last edition of my poems +but for the request of my friend Mr. Cottle, whose property those poems +are. If it be not in your intention to exhibit my name on any future +month, you will accept my best thanks, and not publish this letter. But +if Crito and the Alphabet-men should continue to communicate on this +subject, and you should think it proper for reasons best known to +yourself to publish their communications, then I depend on your kindness +for the insertion of my letter; by which it is possible those your +correspondents may be induced to expend their remarks, whether +panegyrical or vituperative, on nobler game than on a poem which was, in +truth, the first effort of a young man, all whose poems a candid critic +will only consider as first efforts. + +Yours, with due respect, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Shrewsbury. + + +Coleridge, even at this date, shows signs of a Catholicism in literary +taste beyond the average man of his time; but it is an Intellectual +Hospitality to all sorts and conditions of minds and men rather than a +wide or deep enlightenment. + +He already manifested a tendency to read the most abstruse and +out-of-the-way books. He commissioned Thelwall to purchase for him +Iamblichus, Proclus, Sidonius Apollinaris, Plotinus, Ficino; and he read +Dupuis' huge "Origine de tous les Cultes", a fantastic work tracing the +genesis of all religions to the worship of the stars ("Letters", 181-2). +This love of recondite lore remained with him through life; but it was +his meeting with William and Dorothy Wordsworth that helped most at this +juncture to develop the possibilities within him. Wordsworth was one of +those who are lofty rather than wide, but who, by their self +concentration, act as a healthy corrective to the over-diffusiveness of +the Shakespearian type of mind.) + + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE LYRICAL BALLADS; GERMANY + + +Cottle's acquaintance with Coleridge led to his making friends with +Wordsworth, and in his "Early Recollections" and "Reminiscences", the +Bristol bookseller tells a few amusing tales about the poets. The +following is the best: + +"A visit to Mr. Coleridge, at Stowey, in the year 1797, had been the +means of my introduction to Mr. Wordsworth. Soon after our acquaintance +had commenced, Mr. W. happened to be in Bristol, and asked me to spend a +day or two with him at Allfoxden. I consented, and drove him down in a +gig. We called for Mr. Coleridge, Miss Wordsworth, and the servant, at +Stowey, and they walked, while we rode on to Mr. W.'s house at +Allfoxden, distant two or three miles, where we purposed to dine. A +London alderman would smile at our prepation, or bill of fare. It +consisted of philosophers' viands; namely, a bottle of brandy, a noble +loaf, and a stout piece of cheese; and as there were plenty of lettuces +in the garden, with all these comforts we calculated on doing very well. + +"Our fond hopes, however, were somewhat damped, by finding, that our +'stout piece of cheese' had vanished! A sturdy "rat" of a beggar, whom +we had relieved on the road, with his olfactories all alive, no doubt, +"smelt" our cheese, and while we were gazing at the magnificent clouds, +contrived to abstract our treasure! Cruel tramp! An ill return for our +pence! We both wished the rind might not choke him! The mournful fact +was ascertained a little before we drove into the courtyard of the +house. Mr. Coleridge bore the loss with great fortitude, observing, that +we should never starve with a loaf of bread and a bottle of brandy. He +now, with the dexterity of an adept, admired by his friends around, +unbuckled the horse, and, putting down the shafts with a jerk, as a +triumphant conclusion of his work, lo! the bottle of brandy that had +been placed most carefully behind us on the seat, from the force of +gravity, suddenly rolled down, and before we could arrest this +spirituous avalanche, pitching right on the stones, was dashed to +pieces. We all beheld the spectacle, silent and petrified! We might have +collected the broken fragments of glass, but the brandy; that was gone! +clean gone! + +"One little untoward thing often follows another, and while the rest +stood musing, chained to the place, regaling themselves with the Cognac +effluvium, and all miserably chagrined, I led the horse to the stable, +when a fresh perplexity arose. I removed the harness without difficulty, +but after many strenuous attempts, I could not get off the collar. In +despair, I called for assistance, when aid soon drew near. Mr. +Wordsworth first brought his ingenuity into exercise, but after several +unsuccessful efforts, he relinquished the achievement, as a thing +altogether impracticable. Mr. Coleridge now tried his hand, but showed +no more grooming skill than his predecessors; for after twisting the +poor horse's neck almost to strangulation, and to the great danger of +his eyes, he gave up the useless task, pronouncing that the horse's head +must have grown, (gout or dropsy!) since the collar was put on! 'for,' +he said 'It was a downright impossibility for such a huge Os Frontis to +pass through so narrow a collar!' Just at this instant the servant girl +came near, and understanding the cause of our consternation, 'La, +Master,' said she, 'you do not go about the work in the right way. You +should do like as this,' when turning the collar completely upside down, +she slipped it off in a moment, to our great humiliation and wonderment; +each satisfied, afresh, that there were heights of knowledge in the +world, to which we had not yet attained. + +"We were now summoned to dinner, and a dinner it was, such as every +"blind" and starving man in the three kingdoms would have rejoiced to +"behold". At the top of the table stood a superb brown loaf. The centre +dish presented a pile of the true coss lettuces, and at the bottom +appeared an empty plate, where the 'stout piece of cheese' "ought" to +have stood! (cruel mendicant!) and though the brandy was 'clean gone,' +yet its place was well, if not "better" supplied by an abundance of fine +sparkling Castalian champagne! A happy thought at this time started into +one of our minds, that some condiment would render the lettuces a little +more palatable, when an individual in the company, recollected a +question, once propounded by the most patient of men, 'How can that +which is unsavoury be eaten without "salt"?' and asked for a little of +that valuable culinary article. 'Indeed, sir,' Betty replied, 'I quite +forgot to buy salt.' A general laugh followed the announcement, in which +our host heartily joined. This was nothing. We had plenty of other good +things, and while crunching our succulents, and munching our crusts, we +pitied the far worse condition of those, perchance as hungry as +ourselves, who were forced to dine, off aether alone. For our next meal, +the mile-off village furnished all that could be desired, and these +trifling incidents present the sum and the result of half the little +passing disasters of life. + +"The "Lyrical Ballads" were published about Midsummer, 1798. In +September of the same year, Mr. Coleridge and Mr. Wordsworth left +England for Germany, and I quitted the business of a bookseller. Had I +not once been such, this book would never have appeared." + + +The reference in the following letter to a ballad of 340 lines has never +been explained by any biographer of Coleridge. The "Ancient Mariner" in +its first form extended to 658 lines. Some have surmised that the "Three +Graves" is meant; but this poem was 318 lines as published in 1809-1817. + + +LETTER 74. TO COTTLE + +Feb. 18, 1798. + +My dear Cottle, + +I have finished my Ballad, it is 340 lines; I am going on with my +"Visions": altogether (for I shall print two scenes of my Tragedy, as +fragments) I can add 1500 lines; now what do you advise? Shall I add my +Tragedy, and so make a second volume? or shall I pursue my first +intention of inserting 1500 in the third edition? If you should advise a +second volume, should you wish, "i.e.", find it convenient, to be the +purchaser? I ask this question, because I wish you to know the true +state of my present circumstances. I have received nothing yet from the +Wedgwoods, and my money is utterly expended. + +A friend of mine wanted five guineas for a little while, which I +borrowed of Poole, as for myself, I do not like therefore to apply to +him. Mr. Estlin has some little money I believe in his hands, but I +received from him before I went to Shrewsbury, fifteen pounds, and I +believe that this was an anticipation of the five guinea presents, which +my friends would have made in March. But (this affair of the Messrs. +Wedgwoods turning out) the money in Mr. Estlin's hand must go towards +repaying him that sum which he suffered me to anticipate. Meantime I owe +Biggs £5, which is heavy on my thoughts, and Mrs. F. has not been paid +her last quarter which is still heavier. As to myself, I can continue to +go on here, but this £10 I must pay somehow, that is £5 to Biggs, and £5 +to Mrs. F.... + +God bless you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S. This week I purpose offering myself to the Bridgwater Socinian +congregation, as assistant minister, without any salary, directly, or +indirectly; but of this say not a word to any one, unless you see Mr. +Estlin. + + +Coleridge sent his poem of the "Raven" to the "Morning Post" at this +time with the following curious letter to the Editor. The poem appeared +in the paper of 10th March. + + + + +LETTER 75. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MORNING POST", +WITH THE "RAVEN", A POEM. + +10 March, 1798. + +Sir, + +I am not absolutely certain that the following poem was written by +Edmund Spenser, and found by an angler buried in a fishing-box: + + + Under the foot of Mole, that Mountain hoar, + Mid the green alders, by the Mulla's shore; + + +but a learned Antiquarian of my acquaintance has given it as his opinion +that it resembles Spenser's minor poems as nearly as "Vortigern" and +"Rowena" the Tragedies of William Shakespeare. This poem must be read in +recitative, in the same manner as the "AEgloga Secunda" of the +"Shepherd's Calendar". + +CUDDY. + + +"The Latin motto," Cottle says, "prefixed to the second edition of Mr. +C.'s poems, puzzled everybody to know from what author it was derived. +One and another inquired of me, to no purpose, and expressed a wish that +Mr. C. had been clearer in his citation, as 'no one could understand +it.' On my naming this to Mr. Coleridge, he laughed heartily, and said, +"It was all a hoax. Not meeting," said he, "with a suitable motto, I +invented one, and with references purposely obscure, as will be +explained in the next letter." + + + + +LETTER 76. TO COTTLE + +March 8th, 1798. + +My dear Cottle, + +I have been confined to my bed for some days, through a fever occasioned +by the stump of a tooth, which baffled chirurgical efforts to eject, and +which, by affecting my eye, affected my stomach, and through that my +whole frame. I am better, but still weak, in consequence of such long +sleeplessness and wearying pains; weak, very weak. I thank you, my dear +friend, for your late kindness, and in a few weeks will either repay you +in money, or by verses, as you like. With regard to Lloyd's verses, it +is curious that I should be applied to, "to be persuaded to resign," and +in hopes that I might "consent to give up" (unknown by whom) a number of +poems which were published at the earnest request of the author, who +assured me, that the circumstance was of "no trivial import to his +happiness!" + +Times change and people change; but let us keep our souls in quietness! +I have no objection to any disposal of Lloyd's poems except that of +their being republished with mine. The motto which I had +prefixed--"Duplex, etc." from Groscollias, has placed me in a ridiculous +situation, but it was a foolish and presumptuous start of +affectionateness, and I am not unwilling to incur the punishment due to +my folly. By past experiences we build up our moral being. The Giant +Wordsworth--God love him! When I speak in the terms of admiration due to +his intellect, I fear lest these terms should keep out of sight the +amiableness of his manners. He has written near twelve hundred lines of +a blank verse, [1] superior, I hesitate not to aver, to anything in our +language which any way resembles it. God bless you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [2] + +[Footnote 1: "The Ruined Cottage", or "Tale of Margaret", afterwards +incorporated in the "Excursion".] + +[Footnote 2: Letter LXXIX is our 76, which see for full text.] + + + + +LETTER 77. TO WADE + +March 21st, 1798. + +My very dear friend, + +I have even now returned from a little excursion that I have taken for +the confirmation of my health, which had suffered a rude assault from +the anguish of the stump of a tooth which had baffled the attempts of +our surgeon here, and which confined me to my bed. I suffered much from +the disease, and more from the doctor; rather than again put my mouth +into his hands, I would put my hands into a lion's mouth. I am happy to +hear of, and should be most happy to see, the plumpness and progression +of your dear boy; but--yes, my dear Wade, it must be a but, much as I +hate the word but. Well,--but I cannot attend the chemical lectures. I +have many reasons, but the greatest, or at least the most ostensible +reason, is, that I cannot leave Mrs. C. at that time; our house is an +uncomfortable one; our surgeon may be, for aught I know, a lineal +descendant of Esculapius himself, but if so, in the repeated transfusion +of life from father to son, through so many generations, the wit and +knowledge, being subtle spirits, have evaporated.... + +Ever your grateful and affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + + +LETTER 78. TO COTTLE + +(Mch. or Apl. 1798.) + +My dear Cottle, + +I regret that aught should have disturbed our tranquillity; respecting +Lloyd, I am willing to believe myself in part mistaken, and so let all +things be as before. I have no wish respecting these poems, either for +or against re-publication with mine. As to the third edition, if there +be occasion for it immediately, it must be published with some +alterations, but no additions or omissions. The "Pixies", "Chatterton", +and some dozen others, shall be printed at the end of the volume, under +the title of Juvenile Poems, and in this case I will send you the volume +immediately. But if there be no occasion for the volume to go to press +for ten weeks, at the expiration of that time, I would make it a volume +worthy of me, and omit utterly near one-half of the present volume--a +sacrifice to pitch black oblivion. + +Whichever be the case, I will repay you the money you have paid for me, +in money, and in a few weeks; or if you should prefer the latter +proposal, "i.e.", the not sending me to the press for ten weeks, I +should insist on considering the additions, however large, as my payment +to you for the omissions, which, indeed, would be but strict justice. + +I am requested by Wordsworth, to put to you the following questions. +What could you, conveniently and prudently, and what would you give +for--first, our two Tragedies, with small prefaces, containing an +analysis of our principal characters? Exclusive of the prefaces, the +tragedies are, together, five thousand lines; which, in printing, from +the dialogue form, and directions respecting actors and scenery, are at +least equal to six thousand. To be delivered to you within a week of the +date of your answer to this letter; and the money which you offer, to be +paid to us at the end of four months from the same date; none to be paid +before, all to be paid then. + +Second.--Wordsworth's "Salisbury Plain", and "Tale of a Woman"; which +two poems, with a few others which he will add, and the notes, will make +a volume. This to be delivered to you within three weeks of the date of +your answer, and the money to be paid as before, at the end of four +months from the present date. + +Do not, my dearest Cottle, harass yourself about the imagined great +merit of the compositions, or be reluctant to offer what you can +prudently offer, from an idea that the poems are worth more. But +calculate what you can do, with reference simply to yourself, and answer +as speedily as you can; and believe me your sincere, grateful, and +affectionate friend and brother, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +Cottle offered thirty guineas each to Wordsworth and Coleridge for their +tragedies; but this offer, says Cottle, "after some hesitation was +declined from the hope of introducing one or both on the stage." Cottle +received the following letter soon after: + + + + +LETTER 79. TO COTTLE + +(14 Apl., 1798.) + +My dear Cottle, + +I never involved you in bickering, and never suspected you, in any one +action of your life, of practising guile against any human being, except +yourself. + +Your letter supplied only one in a link of circumstances, that informed +me of some things, and perhaps deceived me in others. I shall write +to-day to Lloyd. I do not think I shall come to Bristol for these +lectures of which you speak.[1] I ardently wish for the knowledge, but +Mrs. Coleridge is within a month of her confinement, and I cannot, I +ought not to leave her; especially as her surgeon is not a John Hunter, +nor my house likely to perish from a plethora of comforts. Besides, +there are other things that might disturb that evenness of benevolent +feeling, which I wish to cultivate. + +I am much better, and at present at Allfoxden, and my new and tender +health is all over me like a voluptuous feeling. God bless you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1: "Chemical Lectures," by Dr. Beddoes, delivered at the Red +Lodge [Cottle].] + +The origin of the volume of lyrical ballads is best told in Cottle's own +words. + +"Wordsworth," says Cottle, on his introduction by Coleridge at Stowey, +"read me many of his Lyrical Pieces, when I immediately perceived in +them extraordinary merit, and advised him to publish them, expressing a +belief that they would be well received. I further said he should be at +no risk; that I would give him the same sum which I had given to Mr. +Coleridge and to Mr. Southey, and that it would be a gratifying +circumstance to me, to have been the publisher of the first volumes of +three such poets as Southey, Coleridge, and Wordsworth; such a +distinction might never again occur to a Provincial bookseller. + +"To the idea of publishing he expressed a strong objection, and after +several interviews, I left him, with an earnest wish that he would +reconsider his determination. + +"Soon after Mr. Wordsworth sent me the following letter. + +'Allfoxden, 12th April, 1798. + +'My dear Cottle, + +'...You will be pleased to hear that I have gone on very rapidly adding +to my stock of poetry. Do come and let me read it to you, under the old +trees in the park. We have a little more than two months to stay in this +place. Within these four days the season has advanced with greater +rapidity than I ever remember, and the country becomes almost every hour +more lovely. God bless you, + +'Your affectionate friend, + +'W. WORDSWORTH.' + +"A little time after, I received an invitation from Mr. Coleridge to pay +himself and Mr. Wordsworth another visit. At about the same time, I +received the following corroborative invitation from Mr. Wordsworth. + +'Dear Cottle, + +'We look for you with great impatience. We will never forgive you if you +do not come. I say nothing of the "Salisbury Plain" till I see you. I am +determined to finish it, and equally so that you shall publish. + +'I have lately been busy about another plan, which I do not wish to +mention till I see you; let this be very, very soon, and stay a week if +possible; as much longer as you can. God bless you, dear Cottle, + +'Yours sincerely, + +'W. WORDSWORTH. + +'Allfoxden, 9th May, 1798.' + +"The following letter also on this subject, was received from Mr. +Coleridge. + + + + +LETTER 80. TO COTTLE + +(April, 1798.) + +My dear Cottle, + +Neither Wordsworth nor myself could have been otherwise than +uncomfortable, if any but yourself had received from us the first offer +of our Tragedies, and of the volume of Wordsworth's Poems. At the same +time, we did not expect that you could with prudence and propriety, +advance such a sum as we should want at the time we specified. In short, +we both regard the publication of our Tragedies as an evil. It is not +impossible but that in happier times, they may be brought on the stage: +and to throw away this chance for a mere trifle, would be to make the +present moment act fraudulently and usuriously towards the future time. + +My Tragedy employed and strained all my thoughts and faculties for six +or seven months; Wordsworth consumed far more time, and far more +thought, and far more genius. We consider the publication of them an +evil on any terms; but our thoughts were bent on a plan for the +accomplishment of which, a certain sum of money was necessary, (the +whole) at that particular time, and in order to this we resolved, +although reluctantly, to part with our Tragedies: that is, if we could +obtain thirty guineas for each, and at less than thirty guineas +Wordsworth will not part with the copyright of his volume of Poems. We +shall offer the Tragedies to no one, for we have determined to procure +the money some other way. If you choose the volume of Poems, at the +price mentioned, to be paid at the time specified, "i.e." thirty +guineas, to be paid sometime in the last fortnight of July, you may have +them; but remember, my dear fellow! I write to you now merely as a +bookseller, and intreat you, in your answer, to consider yourself only; +as to us, although money is necessary to our plan, (that of visiting +Germany) yet the plan is not necessary to our happiness; and if it were, +W. could sell his Poems for that sum to someone else, or we could +procure the money without selling the Poems. So I entreat you, again and +again, in your answer, which must be immediate, consider yourself only. + +Wordsworth has been caballed against "so long and so loudly", that he +has found it impossible to prevail on the tenant of the Allfoxden +estate, to let him the house, after their first agreement is expired, so +he must quit it at Midsummer. Whether we shall be able to procure him a +house and furniture near Stowey, we know not, and yet we must: for the +hills, and the woods, and the streams, and the sea, and the shores would +break forth into reproaches against us, if we did not strain every +nerve, to keep their poet among them. Without joking, and in serious +sadness, Poole and I cannot endure to think of losing him. + +At all events, come down, Cottle, as soon as you can, but before +Midsummer, and we will procure a horse easy as thy own soul, and we will +go on a roam to Linton and Linmouth, which, if thou comest in May, will +be in all their pride of woods and waterfalls, not to speak of its +august cliffs, and the green ocean, and the vast Valley of Stones, all +which live disdainful of the seasons, or accept new honours only from +the winter's snow. At all events come down, and cease not to believe me +much and affectionately your friend. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters LXXX-LXXXV follow letter 80.] + + + +"In consequence of these conjoint invitations, I spent a week with Mr. +C. and Mr. W. at Allfoxden house, and during this time, (beside the +reading of MS. poems) they took me to Linmouth, and Linton, and the +Valley of Stones.... + +"At this interview it was determined, that the volume should be +published under the title of "Lyrical Ballads" on the terms stipulated +in a former letter: that this volume should not contain the poem of +"Salisbury Plain", but only an extract from it; that it should not +contain the poem of "Peter Bell", but consist rather of sundry shorter +poems, and, for the most part, of pieces more recently written. I had +recommended two volumes, but one was fixed on, and that to be published +anonymously. It was to be begun immediately, and with the "Ancient +Mariner"; which poem I brought with me to Bristol. A day or two after I +received the following:" + + + + +LETTER 81. TO COTTLE + +(May, 1798.) + +My dear Cottle, + +You know what I think of a letter, how impossible it is to argue in it. +You must therefore take simple statements, and in a week or two, I shall +see you, and endeavour to reason with you. + +Wordsworth and I have duly weighed your proposal, and this is an answer. +He would not object to the publishing of "Peter Bell" or the "Salisbury +Plain", singly; but to the publishing of his poems in two volumes, he is +decisively repugnant and oppugnant. + +He deems that they would want variety, etc., etc. If this apply in his +case, it applies with ten-fold more force to mine. We deem that the +volumes offered to you, are, to a certain degree, one work in kind, +though not in degree, as an ode is one work; and that our different +poems are, as stanzas, good, relatively rather than absolutely: mark +you, I say in kind, though not in degree. As to the Tragedy, when I +consider it in reference to Shakespeare's, and to "one" other Tragedy, +it seems a poor thing, and I care little what becomes of it. When I +consider it in comparison with modern dramatists, it rises: and I think +it too bad to be published, too good to be squandered. I think of +breaking it up; the planks are sound, and I will build a new ship of the +old materials. + +The dedication to the Wedgwoods, which you recommend, would be +indelicate and unmeaning. If, after four or five years, I shall have +finished some work of importance, which could not have been written, but +in an unanxious seclusion, to them I will dedicate it; for the public +will have owed the work to them who gave me the power of that unanxious +seclusion. + +As to anonymous publications, depend on it, you are deceived. +Wordsworth's name is nothing to a large number of persons; mine stinks. +The "Essay on Man", the "Botanic Garden", the "Pleasures of Memory", and +many other most popular works, were published anonymously. However, I +waive all reasoning, and simply state it as an unaltered opinion, that +you should proceed as before, with the "Ancient Mariner". + +The picture shall be sent.[1] For your love gifts and bookloans accept +our hearty love. The "Joan of Arc" is a divine book; it opens lovelily. +I hope that you will take off some half dozen of our "Poems" on great +paper, even as the "Joan of Arc". + +Cottle, my dear Cottle, I meant to have written you an Essay on the +Metaphysics of Typography, but I have not time. Take a few hints, +without the abstruse reasons for them, with which I mean to favour you. +18 lines in a page, the line closely printed, certainly more closely +printed than those of the "Joan";[2] ("Oh, by all means, closer, "W. +Wordsworth"") equal ink, and large margins; that is beauty; it may even, +under your immediate care, mingle the sublime! And now, my dear Cottle, +may God love you and me, who am, with most unauthorish feelings, + +Your true friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S.--I walked to Linton the day after you left us, and returned on +Saturday. I walked in one day, and returned in one.[3] + +[Footnote 1: A portrait of Mr. Wordsworth, correctly and beautifully +executed, by an artist then at Stowey; now in my possession. [Cottle's +note.]] + + +[Footnote 2: "Joan of Arc", 4to first edition, had twenty lines in a +page. [Cottle.]] + +[Footnote 3: Letters LXXXVI-XCII follow 81.] + + +Coleridge has given his account of the origin of the "Lyrical Ballads" +in the fourteenth chapter of the "Biographia Literaria", and +Wordsworth's account is found in the Fenwick Note to "We are Seven". + +An estrangement with Charles Lamb and Charles Lloyd at this time took +place which has been the subject of many surmises as to its origin among +the biographers of Coleridge. The coldness with Lamb passed off by the +beginning of 1800 when Charles wrote to Coleridge in his customary +humorous vein; but Lloyd was not so soon taken back to favour. Southey +joined the cabal against Coleridge and encouraged the estrangement; but +he too was on friendly terms with Coleridge in the autumn of 1799. + +On the l4th May Coleridge's second child was born, named Berkeley, after +the idealist philosopher who had now displaced Hartley, who had been in +the ascendant when the first child was born. + +With the adoption of Berkeley as his pet philosopher, we can understand +Coleridge's determination to visit Germany. He had heard rumours of the +Kantean Philosophy, and wished to acquire thoroughly a knowledge of the +language of the Germans principally to be able to read Kant in the +original. This project Coleridge speaks of as early as 6th May, 1796 +(Letter 33); but it was only now when he enjoyed the support of the +Wedgwoods that he could afford to put it into execution. The volume of +"Lyrical Ballads" was published in the early part of the autumn of 1798; +and along with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Coleridge set sail from +Yarmouth. John Chester, a resident of Stowey, also accompanied them. + +Coleridge arrived at Cuxhaven on 19th September, from which place he +wrote Mrs. Coleridge an account of the voyage and his first impressions +of Germany. This account is more fully given in the "Letters of +Satyrane" in the "Biographia Literaria". He took up his quarters at +Ratzeburg, staying with the pastor of that town; while Wordsworth and +his sister went to Goslar. From Ratzeburg Coleridge repaired to +Gšttingen on 12th February, 1799, to attend lectures at the University. +He worked hard while in Göttingen to acquire a knowledge of the +literature of Germany, and made himself proficient in the dialects as +well as of classical German. He met two of the Parrys, brothers of the +Arctic explorer, at Gšttingen; and, later, Clement Carlyon, an +Englishman from Pembroke College, joined the group. Carlyon afterwards +in later life, in his "Early Years and Late Reflections", depicted +Coleridge as the life and soul of the party, incessantly talking, +discussing, and philosophizing, and diving into his pocket German +Dictionary for the right word. Carlyon devotes 270 pages of the first +volume of his book to Coleridge. + +Berkeley Coleridge died in February, and the news depressed Coleridge +and threw his studies for some time into disorder; but the Wordsworths +visited him at Gšttingen, and they had some talk about the future place +of their abode in England. The Wordsworths were desirous of staying in +the North of England; but Coleridge at this time had resolved to remain +at Stowey, to be near Poole, in whom he felt his "anchor", as he +expressed it. (J. Dykes-Campbell's "Life", chap, v.) + +Coleridge during his stay in Germany wrote a good many letters to his +wife, to Poole, and the Wedgwoods. We can quote only two fragments from +those to his wife, and the long one, "Over the Brocken". + + + + +LETTER 82. TO MRS. COLERIDGE + +14 Jany., 1799. + +The whole Lake of Ratzeburg is one mass of thick transparent ice--a +spotless Mirror of nine miles in extent! The lowness of the Hills, which +rise from the shores of the Lake, preclude the awful sublimity of Alpine +scenery, yet compensate for the want of it by beauties, of which this +very lowness is a necessary condition. Yester-morning I saw the lesser +Lake completely hidden by Mist; but the moment the Sun peeped over the +Hill, the mist broke in the middle, and in a few seconds stood divided, +leaving a broad road all across the Lake; and between these two Walls of +mist the sunlight "burnt" upon the ice, forming a road of golden fire, +intolerably bright! and the mist-walls themselves partook of the blaze +in a multitude of shining colours. This is our second Frost. About a +month ago, before the Thaw came on, there was a storm of wind; during +the whole night, such were the thunders and howlings of the breaking +ice, that they have left a conviction on my mind, that there are Sounds +more sublime than any Sight "can" be, more absolutely suspending the +power of comparison, and more utterly absorbing the mind's +self-consciousness in its total attention to the object working upon it. +Part of the ice which the vehemence of the wind had shattered, was +driven shore-ward and froze anew. On the evening of the next day, at +sun-set, the shattered ice thus frozen, appeared of a deep blue, and in +shape like an agitated sea; beyond this, the water, that ran up between +the great Islands of ice which had preserved their masses entire and +smooth, shone of a yellow green; but all these scattered Ice-islands, +themselves, were of an intensely bright blood colour--they seemed blood +and light in union! On some of the largest of these Islands, the +Fishermen stood pulling out their immense Nets through the holes made in +the ice for this purpose, and the Men, their Net-Poles, and their huge +Nets, were a part of the glory; say rather, it appeared as if the rich +crimson light had shaped itself into these forms, figures, and +attitudes, to make a glorious vision in mockery of earthly things. + +The lower Lake is now all alive with Skaters, and with Ladies driven +onward by them in their ice cars. Mercury, surely, was the first maker +of Skates, and the wings at his feet are symbols of the invention. In +skating there are three pleasing circumstances: the infinitely subtle +particles of Ice, which the Skate cuts up, and which creep and run +before the Skate like a low mist, and in sun-rise or sun-set become +coloured; second, the shadow of the Skater in the water seen through the +transparent Ice; and third, the melancholy undulating sound from the +Skate, not without variety; and when very many are skating together, the +sounds and the noises give an impulse to the icy Trees, and the woods +all round the Lake "tinkle"![1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter XCIII repeats 82, XCIV-XCVI follow.] + + + +LETTER 83. TO MRS. COLERIDGE + +Ratzeburg, 23 April, 1799. + +There is a Christmas custom here which pleased and interested me.--The +Children make little presents to their Parents, and to each other; and +the Parents to the Children. For three or four months before Christmas +the Girls are all busy, and the Boys save up their pocket-money, to make +or purchase these presents. What the Present is to be is cautiously kept +secret, and the Girls have a world of contrivances to conceal it--such +as working when they are out on visits and the others are not with them; +getting up in the morning before day-light, etc. Then on the evening +before Christmas day one of the Parlours is lighted up by the Children, +into which the Parents must not go: a great yew bough is fastened on the +Table at a little distance from the wall, a multitude of little Tapers +are fastened in the bough, but not so as to burn it till they are nearly +burnt out, and coloured paper, etc. hangs and flutters from the +twigs.--Under this Bough the Children lay out in great order the +presents they mean for their Parents, still concealing in their pockets +what they intend for each other. Then the Parents are introduced--and +each presents his little Gift--and then bring out the rest one by one +from their pockets, and present them with kisses and embraces.--Where I +witnessed this scene, there were eight or nine Children, and the eldest +Daughter and the Mother wept aloud for joy and tenderness; and the tears +ran down the face of the Father, and he clasped all his Children so +tight to his breast--it seemed as if he did it to stifle the sob that +was rising within him.--I was very much affected.--The Shadow of the +Bough and its appendages on the wall, and arching over on the Ceiling, +made a pretty Picture--and then the raptures of the "very" little Ones, +when at last the twigs and their needles began to take fire and +"snap"--O it was a delight for them!--On the next day, in the great +Parlour, the Parents lay out on the table the Presents for the Children: +a scene of more sober joy succeeds, as on this day, after an old custom, +the Mother says privately to each of her Daughters, and the Father to +his Sons, that which he has observed most praise-worthy and that which +was most faulty in their conduct.--Formerly, and still in all the +smaller Towns and Villages throughout North Germany, these Presents were +sent by all the Parents to some one Fellow who in high Buskins, a white +Robe, a Mask, and an enormous flax Wig, personates Knecht Rupert, i.e. +the Servant Rupert. On Christmas Night he goes round to every House and +says, that Jesus Christ, his Master, sent him thither--the Parents and +elder Children receive him with great pomp of reverence, while the +little ones are most terribly frightened--He then enquires for the +Children, and according to the character which he hears from the Parent, +he gives them the intended Present, as if they came out of Heaven from +Jesus Christ.--Or, if they should have been bad Children, he gives the +Parents a Rod, and in the name of his Master, recommends them to use it +frequently.--About seven or eight years old the Children are let into +the secret, and it is curious how faithfully they keep it![1] + + +["Over the Brocken" must occupy a chapter of itself.] + +[Footnote 1: Letter XCVII repeats 83, XCVIII follows.] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE RELIGION OF THE PINEWOODS + +Coleridge called the letters from Germany which he published in "The +Friend" of 1809 the "Letters of Satyrane". He was fond of masquerading +under the name of this allegorical personage of the "Faery Queen"; and +in his "Tombless Epitaph" he described himself as Idolocrastes Satyrane. +Under this disguise he looked upon himself as the spokesman of the Idea +of the Omnipresence of the Deity. In order to appreciate the following +beautiful letter, one of the finest Coleridge ever wrote, the reader +should peruse Coleridge's "Aeolian Harp", "Lines written on leaving a +Place of Retirement", "The Lime-Tree Bower", and Wordsworth's "Tintern +Abbey". Wordsworth's sonnet, "It is a beauteous evening", and +Coleridge's own "Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni", also +belong to the same feeling for the God of Nature, but they were composed +after the letter "Over the Brocken". + +Clement Carlyon, who is the chief authority for the life of Coleridge +during his stay at Gšttingen, gives a lively account of the ascent of +the Brocken, which took place on Whit Sunday, 12th May 1799. The party +visited the "magic circle of stones where the fairies assembled," and +halted for the first time at the village of Satzfeld, a romantic +village, "a bright moonlight at night, and the nightingale heard." +Coleridge was in high spirits, and kept talking all the way, discoursing +on his favourite topics. Sublimity was defined as a "suspension of the +powers of comparison"; "no animal but man can be struck with wonder"; +Shakespeare owed his success largely to the cheering breath of popular +applause, the enthusiastic gale of admiration. The English Divines were +applauded by Coleridge, Jeremy Taylor prominently; and a play by Hans +Sachs was preferred to a play of Kotzebue; from which he launched into a +discourse on Miracle plays. Coleridge's conversation was peppered with +puns, some of which Carlyon quotes. + +Carlyon also notices that their course up the mountain was impeded by +stunted firs; and he describes the dancing party of peasants with whom +Coleridge was so much taken. The party returned to Gottingen on 18th +May. Coleridge had written the day before to his wife. + + + + +LETTER 84. TO MRS. COLERIDGE + +Clausthal, 17 May 1799. + +Through roads no way rememberable, we came to Gieloldshausen, over a +bridge, on which was a mitred statue with a great crucifix in its arms. +The village, long and ugly; but the church, like most Catholic churches, +interesting; and this being Whitsun Eve, all were crowding to it, with +their mass-books and rosaries, the little babies commonly with coral +crosses hanging on the breast. Here we took a guide, left the village, +ascended a hill, and now the woods rose up before us in a verdure which +surprised us like a sorcery. The spring had burst forth with the +suddenness of a Russian summer. As we left Gottingen there were buds, +and here and there a tree half green; but here were woods in full +foliage, distinguished from summer only by the exquisite freshness of +their tender green. We entered the wood through a beautiful mossy path; +the moon above us blending with the evening light, and every now and +then a nightingale would invite the others to sing, and some or other +commonly answered, and said, as we suppose, "It is yet somewhat too +early!" for the song was not continued. We came to a square piece of +greenery, completely walled on all four sides by the beeches; again +entered the wood, and having travelled about a mile, emerged from it +into a grand plain--mountains in the distance, but ever by our road the +skirts of the green woods. A very rapid river ran by our side; and now +the nightingales were all singing, and the tender verdure grew paler in +the moonlight, only the smooth parts of the river were still deeply +purpled with the reflections from the fiery light in the west. So +surrounded and so impressed, we arrived at Prele, a dear little cluster +of houses in the middle of a semicircle of woody hills; the area of the +semicircle scarcely broader than the breadth of the village. + +* * * * * + +We afterwards ascended another hill, from the top of which a large plain +opened before us with villages. A little village, Neuhoff, lay at the +foot of it: we reached it, and then turned up through a valley on the +left hand. The hills on both sides the valley were prettily wooded, and +a rapid lively river ran through it. So we went for about two miles, and +almost at the end of the valley, or rather of its first turning, we +found the village of Lauterberg. Just at the entrance of the village, +two streams come out from two deep and woody coombs, close by each +other, meet, and run into a third deep woody coomb opposite; before you +a wild hill, which seems the end and barrier of the valley; on the right +hand, low hills, now green with corn, and now wooded; and on the left a +most majestic hill indeed--the effect of whose simple outline painting +could not give, and how poor a thing are words! We pass through this +neat little town--the majestic hill on the left hand soaring over the +houses, and at every interspace you see the whole of it--its beeches, +its firs, its rocks, its scattered cottages, and the one neat little +pastor's house at the foot, embosomed in fruit-trees all in blossom, the +noisy coomb-brook dashing close by it. We leave the valley, or rather, +the first turning on the left, following a stream; and so the vale winds +on, the river still at the foot of the woody hills, with every now and +then other smaller valleys on right and left crossing our vale, and ever +before you the woody hills running like groves one into another. We +turned and turned, and entering the fourth curve of the vale, we found +all at once that we had been ascending. The verdure vanished! All the +beech trees were leafless, and so were the silver birches, whose boughs +always, winter and summer, hang so elegantly. But low down in the +valley, and in little companies on each bank of the river, a multitude +of green conical fir trees, with herds of cattle wandering about, almost +every one with a cylindrical bell around its neck, of no inconsiderable +size, and as they moved--scattered over the narrow vale, and up among +the trees on the hill--the noise was like that of a great city in the +stillness of a sabbath morning, when the bells all at once are ringing +for church. The whole was a melancholy and romantic scene, that was +quite new to me. Again we turned, passed three smelting houses, which we +visited; a scene of terrible beauty is a furnace of boiling metal, +darting, every moment blue, green, and scarlet lightning, like serpents' +tongues!--and now we ascended a steep hill, on the top of which was St. +Andrias Berg, a town built wholly of wood. + +We descended again, to ascend far higher; and now we came to a most +beautiful road, which winded on the breast of the hill, from whence we +looked down into a deep valley, or huge basin, full of pines and firs; +the opposite hills full of pines and frs; and the hill above us, on +whose breast we were winding, likewise full of pines and firs. The +valley, or basin, on our right hand, into which we looked down, is +called the Wald Rauschenbach, that is, the Valley of the Roaring Brook; +and roar it did, indeed, most solemnly! + +The road on which we walked was weedy with infant fir-trees, an inch or +two high; and now, on our left hand, came before us a most tremendous +precipice of yellow and black rock, called the Rehberg, that is, the +Mountain of the Roe. Now again is nothing but firs and pines above, +below, around us! How awful is the deep unison of their undividable +murmur; what a one thing it is--it is a sound that impresses the dim +notion of the Omnipresent! In various parts of the deep vale below us, +we beheld little dancing waterfalls gleaming through the branches, and +now, on our left hand, from the very summit of the hill above us, a +powerful stream flung itself down, leaping and foaming, and now +concealed, and now not concealed, and now half concealed by the +fir-trees, till, towards the road, it became a visible sheet of water, +within whose immediate neighbourhood no pine could have permanent +abiding place. The snow lay every where on the sides of the roads, and +glimmered in company with the waterfall foam, snow patches and +waterbreaks glimmering through the branches in the hill above, the deep +basin below, and the hill opposite. Over the high opposite hills, so +dark in their pine forests, a far higher round barren stony mountain +looked in upon the prospect from a distant country. Through this scenery +we passed on, till our road was crossed by a second waterfall, or +rather, aggregation of little dancing waterfalls, one by the side of the +other for a considerable breadth, and all came at once out of the dark +wood above, and rolled over the mossy rock fragments, little firs, +growing in islets, scattered among them. The same scenery continued till +we came to the Oder Seich, a lake, half made by man, and half by nature. +It is two miles in length, and but a few hundred yards in breadth, and +winds between banks, or rather through walls, of pine trees. It has the +appearance of a most calm and majestic river. It crosses the road, goes +into a wood, and there at once plunges itself down into a most +magnificent cascade, and runs into the vale, to which it gives the name +of the "Vale of the Roaring Brook." We descended into the vale, and +stood at the bottom of the cascade, and climbed up again by its side. +The rocks over which it plunged were unusually wild in their shape, +giving fantastic resemblances of men and animals, and the fir-boughs by +the side were kept almost in a swing, which unruly motion contrasted +well with the stern quietness of the huge forest-sea every where else. + +* * * * * + +In nature all things are individual, but a word is but an arbitrary +character for a whole class of things; so that the same description may +in almost all cases be applied to twenty different appearances; and in +addition to the difficulty of the thing itself, I neither am, nor ever +was, a good hand at description. I see what I write, but, alas! I cannot +write what I see. From the Oder Seich we entered a second wood; and now +the snow met us in large masses, and we walked for two miles knee-deep +in it, with an inexpressible fatigue, till we came to the mount called +Little Brocken; here even the firs deserted us, or only now and then a +patch of them, wind-shorn, no higher than one's knee, matted and +cowering to the ground, like our thorn bushes on the highest sea-hills. +The soil was plashy and boggy; we descended and came to the foot of the +Great Brocken without a river--the highest mountain in all the north of +Germany, and the seat of innumerable superstitions. On the first of May +all the witches dance here at midnight; and those who go may see their +own ghosts walking up and down, with a little billet on the back, giving +the names of those who had wished them there; for "I wish you on the top +of the Brocken," is a common curse throughout the whole empire. Well, we +ascended--the soil boggy--and at last reached the height, which is 573 +toises [1] above the level of the sea. We visited the Blocksberg, a sort of +bowling-green, enclosed by huge stones, something like those at +Stonehenge, and this is the witches' ball-room; thence proceeded to the +house on the hill, where we dined; and now we descended. In the evening +about seven we arrived at Elbingerode. At the inn they brought us an +album, or stammbuch, requesting that we would write our names, and +something or other as a remembrance that we had been there. I wrote the +following lines, which contain a true account of my journey from the +Brocken to Elbingerode. + + + I stood on Brocken's sovran height, and saw + Woods crowding upon woods, hills over hills; + A surging scene, and only limited + By the blue distance. Wearily my way + Downward I dragged, through fir groves evermore + Where bright green moss moved in sepulchral forms, + Speckled with sunshine; and, but seldom heard, + The sweet bird's song become a hollow sound; + And the gale murmuring indivisibly, + Reserved its solemn murmur, more distinct + From many a note of many a waterbreak, + And the brook's chatter; on whose islet stones + The dingy kidling, with its tinkling bell, + Leapt frolicksome, or old romantic goat + Sat, his white beard slow waving. I moved on + With low and languid thought, for I had found + That grandest scenes have but imperfect charms + Where the eye vainly wanders, nor beholds + One spot with which the heart associates + Holy remembrances of child or friend, + Or gentle maid, our first and early love, + Or father, or the venerable name + Of our adored country. O thou Queen, + Thou delegated Deity of Earth, + O "dear, dear" England! how my longing eyes + Turned westward, shaping in the steady clouds + Thy sands and high white cliffs! Sweet native isle, + This heart was proud, yea, mine eyes swam with tears + To think of thee; and all the goodly view + From sovran Brocken, woods and woody hills + Floated away, like a departing dream, + Feeble and dim. Stranger, these impulses + Blame thou not lightly; nor will I profane, + With hasty judgment or injurious doubt, + That man's sublimer spirit, who can feel + That God is every where, the God who framed + Mankind to be one mighty brotherhood, + Himself our Father, and the world our home. + + +We left Elbingerode, May 14th, and travelled for half a mile through a +wild country, of bleak stony hills by our side, with several caverns, or +rather mouths of caverns, visible in their breasts; and now we came to +Rubilland,--Oh, it was a lovely scene! Our road was at the foot of low +hills, and here were a few neat cottages; behind us were high hills, +with a few scattered firs, and flocks of goats visible on the topmost +crags. On our right hand a fine shallow river about thirty yards broad, +and beyond the river a crescent hill clothed with firs, that rise one +above another, like spectators in an amphitheatre. We advanced a little +farther,--the crags behind us ceased to be visible, and now the whole +was one and complete. All that could be seen was the cottages at the +foot of the low green hill, (cottages embosomed in fruit trees in +blossom,) the stream, and the little crescent of firs. I lingered here, +and unwillingly lost sight of it for a little while. The firs were so +beautiful, and the masses of rocks, walls, and obelisks started up among +them in the very places where, if they had not been, a painter with a +poet's feeling would have imagined them. Crossed the river (its name +Bodi), entered the sweet wood, and came to the mouth of the cavern, with +the man who shews it. It was a huge place, eight hundred feet in length, +and more in depth, of many different apartments; and the only thing that +distinguished it from other caverns was, that the guide, who was really +a character, had the talent of finding out and seeing uncommon +likenesses in the different forms of the stalactite. Here was a +nun;--this was Solomon's temple;--that was a Roman Catholic +Chapel;--here was a lion's claw, nothing but flesh and blood wanting to +make it completely a claw! This was an organ, and had all the notes of +an organ, etc. etc. etc.; but, alas! with all possible straining of my +eyes, ears, and imagination, I could see nothing but common stalactite, +and heard nothing but the dull ding of common cavern stones. One thing +was really striking;--a huge cone of stalactite hung from the roof of +the largest apartment, and, on being struck, gave perfectly the sound of +a death-bell. I was behind, and heard it repeatedly at some distance, +and the effect was very much in the fairy kind,--gnomes, and things +unseen, that toll mock death-bells for mock funerals. After this, a +little clear well and a black stream pleased me the most; and multiplied +by fifty, and coloured ad libitum, might be well enough to read of in a +novel or poem. We returned, and now before the inn, on the green plat +around the Maypole, the villagers were celebrating Whit-Tuesday. This +Maypole is hung as usual with garlands on the top, and, in these +garlands, spoons, and other little valuables, are placed. The high +smooth round pole is then well greased; and now he who can climb up to +the top may have what he can get,--a very laughable scene as you may +suppose, of awkwardness and agility, and failures on the very brink of +success. Now began a dance. The women danced very well, and, in general, +I have observed throughout Germany that the women in the lower ranks +degenerate far less from the ideal of a woman, than the men from that of +man. The dances were reels and waltzes; but chiefly the latter. This +dance is, in the higher circles, sufficiently voluptuous; but here the +emotions of it were far more faithful interpreters of the passion, +which, doubtless, the dance was intended to shadow; yet, ever after the +giddy round and round is over, they walked to music, the woman laying +her arm, with confident affection, on the man's shoulders, or around his +neck. The first couple at the waltzing was a very fine tall girl, of two +or three and twenty, in the full bloom and growth of limb and feature, +and a fellow with huge whiskers, a long tail, and woollen night-cap; he +was a soldier, and from the more than usual glances of the girl, I +presumed was her lover. He was, beyond compare, the gallant and the +dancer of the party. Next came two boors: one of whom, in the whole +contour of his face and person, and, above all, in the laughably +would-be frolicksome kick out of his heel, irresistibly reminded me of +Shakespeare's Slender, and the other of his Dogberry. Oh! two such +faces, and two such postures! O that I were an Hogarth! What an enviable +gift it is to have a genius in painting! Their partners were pretty +lasses, not so tall as the former, and danced uncommonly light and airy. +The fourth couple was a sweet girl of about seventeen, delicately +slender, and very prettily dressed, with a full-blown rose in the white +ribbon that went round her head, and confined her reddish-brown hair; +and her partner waltzed with a pipe in his mouth, smoking all the while; +and during the whole of this voluptuous dance, his countenance was a +fair personification of true German phlegm. After these, but, I suppose, +not actually belonging to the party, a little ragged girl and ragged +boy, with his stockings about his heels, waltzed and danced;--waltzing +and dancing in the rear most entertainingly. But what most pleased me, +was a little girl of about three or four years old, certainly not more +than four, who had been put to watch a little babe, of not more than a +year old (for one of our party had asked), and who was just beginning to +run away, the girl teaching him to walk, and who was so animated by the +music, that she began to waltz with him, and the two babes whirled round +and round, hugging and kissing each other, as if the music had made them +mad. There were two fiddles and a bass viol. The fiddlers,--above all, +the bass violer,--most Hogarthian phizzes! God love them! I felt far +more affection for them than towards any other set of human beings I +have met with since I have been in Germany, I suppose because they +looked so happy! + +[Footnote 1: marked with an asterisk in the proofing (not the original +text), but not explained further.] + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +RETURN TO ENGLAND; "WALLENSTEIN", AND +THE "MORNING POST" + +On the 21st May, Coleridge wrote the following letter in which he +informs Josiah Wedgwood what he had done in Germany, and what he +expected to do with the knowledge which he had acquired there. + +LETTER 85. TO JOSIAH WEDGWOOD + +May 21st, 1799. Gottingen. + +My dear sir, + +I have lying by my side six huge letters, with your name on each of +them, and all, excepting one, have been written for these three months. +About this time Mr. Hamilton, by whom I send this and the little parcel +for my wife, was, as it were, setting off for England; and I seized the +opportunity of sending them by him, as without any mock-modesty I really +thought that the expense of the postage to me and to you would be more +than their worth. Day after day, and week after week, was Hamilton +going, and still delayed. And now that it is absolutely settled that he +goes to-morrow, it is likewise absolutely settled that I shall go this +day three weeks, and I have therefore sent only this and the picture by +him, but the letters I will now take myself, for I should not like them +to be lost, as they comprise the only subject on which I have had an +opportunity of making myself thoroughly informed, and if I carry them +myself, I can carry them without danger of their being seized at +Yarmouth, as all my letters were, yours to ---- excepted, which were, +luckily, not sealed. Before I left England, I had read the book of which +you speak. [1] I must confess that it appeared to me exceedingly +illogical. Godwin's and Condorcet's extravagancies were not worth +confuting; and yet I thought that the Essay on "Population" had not +confuted them. Professor Wallace, Derham, and a number of German +statistic and physico-theological writers had taken the same ground, +namely, that population increases in a geometrical, but the accessional +nutriment only in arithmetical ratio--and that vice and misery, the +natural consequences of this order of things, were intended by +providence as the counterpoise. I have here no means of procuring so +obscure a book, as Rudgard's; but to the best of my recollection, at the +time that the Fifth Monarchy enthusiasts created so great a sensation in +England, under the Protectorate, and the beginning of Charles the +Second's reign, Rudgard, or Rutgard (I am not positive even of the name) +wrote an Essay to the same purpose, in which he asserted, that if war, +pestilence, vice, and poverty, were wholly removed, the world could not +exist two hundred years, etc. Seiffmilts, [2] in his great work +concerning the divine order and regularity in the destiny of the human +race, has a chapter entitled a confutation of this idea; I read it with +great eagerness, and found therein that this idea militated against the +glory and goodness of God, and must therefore be false,--but further +confutation found I none!--This book of Seiffmilts has a prodigious +character throughout Germany; and never methinks did a work less deserve +it. It is in three huge octavos, and wholly on the general laws that +regulate the population of the human species--but is throughout most +unphilosophical, and the tables, which he has collected with great +industry, prove nothing. My objections to the Essay on Population you +will find in my sixth letter at large--but do not, my dear sir, suppose +that because unconvinced by this essay, I am therefore convinced of the +contrary. No, God knows, I am sufficiently sceptical, and in truth more +than sceptical, concerning the possibility of universal plenty and +wisdom; but my doubts rest on other grounds. I had some conversation +with you before I left England, on this subject; and from that time I +had purposed to myself to examine as thoroughly as it was possible for +me, the important question. Is the march of the human race progressive, +or in cycles? But more of this when we meet. + +What have I done in Germany? I have learned the language, both high and +low German, I can read both, and speak the former so fluently, that it +must be a fortune for a German to be in my company, that is, I have +words enough and phrases enough, and I arrange them tolerably; but my +pronunciation is hideous. 2ndly, I can read the oldest German, the +Frankish, and the Swabian. 3rdly. I have attended the lectures on +Physiology, Anatomy, and Natural History, with regularity, and have +endeavoured to understand these subjects. 4thly, I have read and made +collections for a history of the "Belles Lettres," in Germany, before +the time of Lessing: and 5thly, very large collections for a "Life of +Lessing"; to which I was led by the miserably bad and unsatisfactory +biographies that have been hitherto given, and by my personal +acquaintance with two of Lessing's friends. Soon after I came into +Germany, I made up my mind fully not to publish anything concerning my +Travels, as people call them; yet I soon perceived that with all +possible economy, my expenses would be greater than I could justify, +unless I did something that would to a moral certainty repay them. I +chose the "Life of Lessing" for the reasons above assigned, and because +it would give me an opportunity of conveying under a better name than my +own ever will be, opinions which I deem of the highest importance. +Accordingly, my main business at Gottingen has been to read all the +numerous controversies in which Lessing was engaged, and the works of +all those German poets before the time of Lessing, which I could not +afford to buy. For these last four months, with the exception of last +week, in which I visited the Hartz, I have worked harder than I trust in +God Almighty I shall ever have occasion to work again: this endless +transcription is such a body-and-soul-wearying purgatory. I shall have +bought thirty pounds' worth of books, chiefly metaphysics, and with a +view to the one work, to which I hope to dedicate in silence, the prime +of my life; but I believe and indeed doubt not, that before Christmas I +shall have repaid myself. [3] + +I never, to the best of my recollection, felt the fear of death but +once; that was yesterday when I delivered the picture to Hamilton. I +felt, and shivered as I felt it, that I should not like to die by land +or water before I see my wife and the little one; that I hope yet +remains to me. But it was an idle sort of feeling, and I should not like +to have it again. Poole half mentioned, in a hasty way, a circumstance +that depressed my spirits for many days:--that you and Thomas were on +the point of settling near Stowey, but had abandoned it. "God Almighty! +what a dream of happiness it held out to me!" writes Poole. I felt +disappointment without having had hope. + +In about a month I hope to see you. Till then may heaven bless and +preserve us! Believe me, my dear sir, with every feeling of love, +esteem, and gratitude, + +Your affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +(Josiah Wedgwood, Esq.) [4] + +[Footnote l: Malthas on Population, 1798.] + +[Footnote 2: Should be Syssmilch.] + +[Footnote 3: Cottle here omits a part of this letter about pecuniary +matters.] + +[Footnote 4: Letters XCIX-CIII follow Letter 85.] + + +It is interesting to compare this letter with that to Poole of 6th May +1796; it will be seen that Coleridge thus carried out his project of +three years before. He had been able to convince the Wedgwoods of the +desirability of introducing a knowledge of the German philosophy into +England to refute the philosophy of Hume and expose the shallowness of +the metaphysics of Locke and the Paley School of Theology. Tom Wedgwood +was himself a philosopher, and saw in Coleridge the champion of a new +basis of faith, and hence the friendship between them, and the support +of the Wedgwoods to Coleridge in carrying out his self-education. + +Coleridge returned to England about a month after the Wordsworths, in +July, 1799, and he reached Stowey before the 29th, when he wrote to +Southey, and the two worked in concert for the publication of an annual +started as the 'Annual Anthology', of which two volumes appeared, +one in 1799 and one in 1800, Coleridge contributing some of his poems to +the latter. 'The Devil's Thoughts', a conjoint squib which caused +some sensation was sent to the 'Morning Post' on 6th September. + +Coleridge spent a part of the Autumn of 1799 at Ottery St. Mary visiting +his mother and brothers. Coleridge then went to Southey at Exeter, and +they visited the ash dells round about Dartmoor together +('Letters', 305). Coleridge also saw Josiah Wedgwood at his seat of +Upcott on his way home; and on 15th October we find him back at Stowey +('Letters', 307). Still later he went north to see Wordsworth who +was staying at Sockburn on the Tees with the Hutchinsons. Cottle +accompanied them as far as Greta Bridge, where John Wordsworth joined +their company. Coleridge and William and John Wordsworth then went on +tour to the Lake District, visiting Grasmere, when Wordsworth made +arrangements to take a house at Townend (now known as Dove Cottage), and +came back to Sockburn (Knight's 'Life of Wordsworth', chap. xii). +It was at Sockburn that Coleridge first met Sarah Hutchinson; and here +it is conjectured he wrote his beautiful poem 'Love', which +appeared in its first form in the 'Morning Post', on 21st December +1799, prefaced with the following letter. + + + + + +LETTER 86. TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'MORNING POST' WITH +THE POEM 'LOVE', FIRST PUBLISHED AS 'INTRODUCTION TO +THE TALE OF THE DARK LADIE'. + +21 December, 1799. + +Sir, + +The following poem is the introduction to a somewhat longer one, for +which I shall solicit insertion on your next open day. The use of the +old ballad word 'Ladie' for Lady, is the only piece of obsoleteness +in it; and as it is professedly a tale of ancient times, I trust that +"the affectionate lovers of venerable antiquity," (as Cambden says) will +grant me their pardon, and perhaps may be induced to admit a force and +propriety in it. A heavier objection may be adduced against the Author, +that in these times of fear and expectation, when novelties +'explode' around us in all directions, he should presume to offer +to the public a silly tale of old-fashioned love; and five years ago, I +own, I should have allowed and felt the force of this objection. But, +alas! explosion has succeeded explosion so rapidly that novelty itself +ceases to appear new; and it is possible that now, even a simple story +wholly unspiced with politics or personality, may find some attention +amid the hubbub of Revolutions, as to those who have remained a long +time by the falls of Niagara, the lowest whispering becomes distinctly +audible. + +S. T. COLERIDGE.[1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter CIV follows 86.] + +This was followed on 10th January 1800 by the political verses +'Talleyrand to Lord Grenville', heralded by a letter as good as, if +not better than, the verses. + + + + +LETTER 87. TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'MORNING POST'. +WITH 'TALLEYRAND TO LORD GRENVILLE', A METRICAL +EPISTLE. + +10 January, 1800. + +Mr. Editor, + +An unmetrical letter from Talleyrand to Lord Grenville has already +appeared, and from an authority too high to be questioned: otherwise I +could adduce some arguments for the exclusive authenticity of the +following metrical epistle. The very epithet which the wise ancients +used, "'aurea carmina'" might have been supposed likely to have +determined the choice of the French minister in favour of verse; and the +rather when we recollect that this phrase of "golden verses" is applied +emphatically to the works of that philosopher who imposed 'silence' +on all with whom he had to deal. Besides, is it not somewhat improbable +that Talleyrand should have preferred prose to rhyme, when the latter +alone 'has got the chink'? Is it not likewise curious that in our +official answer no notice whatever is taken of the Chief Consul, +Bonaparte, as if there had been no such person existing; notwithstanding +that his existence is pretty generally admitted, nay that some have been +so rash as to believe that he has created as great a sensation in the +world as Lord Grenville, or even the Duke of Portland? But the Minister +of Foreign Affairs, Talleyrand, 'is' acknowledged, which, in our +opinion, could not have happened had he written only that insignificant +prose letter, which seems to precede Bonaparte's, as in old romances a +dwarf always ran before to proclaim the advent or arrival of knight or +giant. That Talleyrand's character and practices more resemble those of +some 'regular' Governments than Bonaparte's I admit; but this of +itself does not appear a satisfactory explanation. However, let the +letter speak for itself. The second line is supererogative in syllables, +whether from the oscitancy of the transcriber, or from the trepidation +which might have overpowered the modest Frenchman, on finding himself in +the act of writing to so 'great' a man, I shall not dare to +determine. A few notes are added by, + +Your servant, + +GNOME. + +P.S.--As mottoes are now fashionable, especially if taken from out of +the way books, you may prefix, if you please, the following lines from +Sidonius Apollinaris: + + Saxa, et robora, corneasque fibras + Mollit dulciloquiâ canorus arte! + + +Coleridge had arrived in London in the end of November (Dyke-Campbell's +'Life', 105); and Mrs. Coleridge and Hartley were also at 21, +Buckingham Street, Strand, on 9th December ('Letters', 318). He was now +a regular contributor to the 'Morning Post', Stuart, the proprietor +paying all expenses ('Letters', 310),[1] Coleridge, too, had made the +acquaintance of Godwin ('Letters', p. 316), whom he had castigated in +the 'Watchman', and who, he says, "is no great things in intellects; +but in heart and manner he is all the better for having been the +husband of Mary Wollstonecraft" ('Letters', 316). He began a +correspondence with Godwin, and of the eighteen letters by Coleridge to +him we are enabled to give nine. Lamb was the means of drawing +Coleridge and Godwin together, and in Lamb's letters of this period +('Ainger', i, 111, 113, 115), we find glimpses of Coleridge while +engaged on his translation of 'Wallenstein'. + +While in London Coleridge did not neglect his friends elsewhere; we +have interesting letters to the Wedgwoods, Poole, and Southey. The next +three letters are from London. + +[Footnote 1: For an account of Coleridge as a journalist see Mr. H. D. +Traill's 'Life of Coleridge', p. 79.] + + + + +LETTER 88. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +21, Buckingham Street, Strand, January, 1800. + +My dear sir, + +I am sitting by a fire in a rug great coat. Your room is doubtless to a +greater degree air tight than mine, or your notions of Tartarus would +veer round to the Greenlander's creed. It is most barbarously cold, and +you, I fear, can shield yourself from it, only by perpetual +imprisonment. If any place in the southern climates were in a state of +real quiet, and likely to continue so, should you feel no inclination to +migrate? Poor Southey, from over great industry, as I suspect, the +industry too of solitary composition, has reduced himself to a terrible +state of weakness, and is determined to leave this country as soon as he +has finished the poem on which he is now employed. 'Tis a melancholy +thing that so young a man, and one whose life has ever been so simple +and self-denying * * * + +O, for a peace, and the south of France! I could almost wish for a +Bourbon king, if it were only that Sieyes and Buonaparte might finish +their career in the old orthodox way of hanging. Thank God, "I have my +health perfectly", and I am working hard; yet the present state of human +affairs presses on me for days together, so as to deprive me of all my +cheerfulness. It is probable that a man's private and personal +connexions and interests ought to be uppermost in his daily and hourly +thoughts, and that the dedication of much hope and fear to subjects +which are perhaps disproportionate to our faculties and powers, is a +disease. But I have had this disease so long, and my early education was +so undomestic, that I know not how to get rid of it; or even to wish to +get rid of it. Life were so flat a thing without enthusiasm, that if for +a moment it leaves me, I have a sort of stomach sensation attached to +all my thoughts, "like those which succeed to the pleasurable operations +of a dose of opium". + +Now I make up my mind to a sort of heroism in believing the +progressiveness of all nature, during the present melancholy state of +humanity, and on this subject "I am now writing"; and no work on which I +ever employed myself makes me so happy while I am writing. + +I shall remain in London till April. The expenses of my last year made +it necessary for me to exert my industry, and many other good ends are +answered at the same time. Where I next settle I shall continue, and +that must be in a state of retirement and rustication. It is therefore +good for me to have a run of society, and that various and consisting of +marked characters. Likewise, by being obliged to write without much +elaboration, I shall greatly improve myself in naturalness and facility +of style, and the particular subjects on which I write for money are +nearly connected with my future schemes. My mornings I give to +compilations which I am sure cannot be wholly useless, and for which, by +the beginning of April I shall have earned nearly £150. My evenings to +the "Theatres", as I am to conduct a sort of Dramaturgy or series of +Essays on the Drama, both its general principles, and likewise in +reference to the present state of the English Theatres. This I shall +publish in the "Morning Post". My attendance on the theatres costs me +nothing, and Stuart, the Editor, covers my expenses in London. Two +mornings, and one whole day, I dedicate to these Essays on the possible +progressiveness of man, and on the principles of population. In April I +retire to my greater works,--"The Life of Lessing". My German chests are +arrived, but I have them not yet, but expect them from Stowey daily; +when they come I shall send a letter. + +I have seen a good deal of Godwin, who has just published a Novel. I +like him for thinking so well of Davy. He talks of him every where as +the most extraordinary of human beings he had ever met with. I cannot +say that, for I know "one" whom I feel to be the superior, but I never +met with so extraordinary a "young man". I have likewise dined with +Horne Tooke. He is a clear-headed old man, as every man must needs be +who attends to the real import of words, but there is a sort of +charlatanry in his manner that did not please me. He makes such a +mystery out of plain and palpable things, and never tells you any thing +without first exciting, and detaining your curiosity. But it were a bad +heart that could not pardon worse faults than these in the author of +"The Diversions of Purley". + +Believe me, my dear sir, with much affection + +Yours, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + +[Footnote 1: Letter CV follows our No. 88.] + + +LETTER 89. TO JOSIAH WEDGWOOD + +21, Buckingham Street, Feb. 1800. + +My dear sir, + +Your brother's health (Mr. Thomas Wedgwood) outweighs all other +considerations. Beyond a doubt he has made himself acquainted with the +degree of heat which he is to experience there (the West Indies). The +only objections that I see are so obvious, that it is idle in me to +mention them: the total want of men with whose pursuits your brother can +have a fellow feeling: the length and difficulty of the return, in case +of a disappointment; and the necessity of sea-voyages to almost every +change of scenery. I will not think of the yellow fever; that I hope is +quite out of all probability. Believe me, my dear friend, I have some +difficulty in suppressing all that is within me of affection and grief. +God knows my heart, wherever your brother is, I shall follow him in +spirit; follow him with my thoughts and most affectionate wishes. + +I read your letter, and did as you desired me. ---- [1] is very cool to +me. Whether I have still any of the leaven of the "Citizen," and +visionary about me--too much for his present zeal, or whether he is +incapable of attending * * * * As to his views, he is now gone to +Cambridge to canvass for a Fellowship in Trinity Hall. Mackintosh has +kindly written to Dr. Lawrence, who is very intimate with the Master, +and he has other interest. He is also trying hard, and in expectation of +a Commissionership of Bankruptcy, and means to pursue the law with all +ardour and steadiness. As to the state of his mind, it is that which it +was and will be. God love him! He has a most incurable forehead. ---- [2] +called on him and looking on his table, saw by accident a letter +directed to himself. + +Said he, "Why ---- [3] what letter is this for me? and from ----." [4] +"Yes I have had it some time." +"Why did you not give it me?" +"Oh, it wants some explanation first. You must not read it now, for I +can't give you the explanation now." +And ----,[5] who you know is a right easy-natured man, has not been able +to get his own letter from him to this hour! Of his success at +Cambridge, Caldwell, is doubtful, or more than doubtful. * * * + +So much of ----.[6] All that I know, and all I suspect that is to be +known. A kind, gentlemanly, affectionate hearted man, possessed of an +absolute talent for industry. Would to God, he had never heard of +Philosophy! + +I have been three times to the House of Commons; each time earlier than +the former; and each time hideously crowded. The two first days the +debate was put off. Yesterday I went at a quarter before eight, and +remained till three this morning, and then sat writing and correcting +other men's writing till eight--a good twenty four hours of unpleasant +activity! I have not felt myself sleepy yet. Pitt and Fox completely +answered my pre-formed ideas of them. The elegance and high finish of +Pitt's periods, even in the most sudden replies, is "curious," but that +is all. He argues but so so, and does not reason at all. Nothing is +rememberable of what he says. Fox possesses all the full and overflowing +eloquence of a man of clear head, clear heart, and impetuous feelings. +He is to my mind a great orator; all the rest that spoke were mere +creatures. I could make a better speech myself than any that I heard, +except Pitt and Fox. I reported that part of Pitt's which I have +enclosed in brackets, not that I report ex-officio, but my curiosity +having led me there, I did Stuart a service by taking a few notes. + +I work from morning to night, but in a few weeks I shall have completed +my purpose, and then adieu to London for ever. We newspaper scribes are +true galley-slaves. When the high winds of events blow loud and frequent +then the sails are hoisted, or the ship drives on of itself. When all is +calm and sunshine then to our oars. Yet it is not unflattering to a +man's vanity to reflect that what he writes at twelve at night, will +before twelve hours are over, have perhaps, five or six thousand +readers! To trace a happy phrase, good image, or new argument, running +through the town and sliding into all the papers. Few wine merchants can +boast of creating more sensation. Then to hear a favourite and +often-urged argument, repeated almost in your own particular phrases, in +the House of Commons; and, quietly in the silent self-complacence of +your own heart, chuckle over the plagiarism, as if you were monopolist +of all good reasons. But seriously, considering that I have newspapered +it merely as means of subsistence, while I was doing other things, I +have been very lucky. "The New Constitution; The Proposal for Peace; The +Irish Union;" etc. etc.; they are important in themselves, and excellent +vehicles for general truths. I am not ashamed of what I have written. + +I desired Poole to send you all the papers antecedent to your own; I +think you will like the different analyses of the French constitution. I +have attended Mackintosh's lectures regularly; he was so kind as to send +me a ticket, and I have not failed to profit by it. + +I remain, with grateful and most affectionate esteem, + +Your faithful friend + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Josiah Wedgwood, Esq.[7] + + +[Footnote 1: Basil Montagu.] + +[Footnote 2: John Pinney.] + +[Footnote 3: Montagu.] + +[Footnote 4: Wordsworth.] + +[Footnote 5: Pinney.] + +[Footnote 6: Montagu.] + +[Footnote 7: Letters CVI-CIX follow 89.] + + + + +LETTER 90. TO POOLE + +March, 1800. + +If I had the least love of money I could make almost sure of £2,000 a +year, for Stuart has offered me half shares in the two papers, the +"Morning Post" and "Courier", if I would devote myself with him to them. +But I told him that I would not give up the country, and the lazy +reading of old folios for two thousand times two thousand pound--in +short that beyond £250 a year I considered money as a real evil.-- + +I think there are but two good ways of writing--one for immediate and +wide impression, though transitory--the other for permanence. Newspapers +are the first--the best one can do is the second. That middle class of +translating books is neither the one nor the other. When I have settled +myself "clear", I shall write nothing for money but for the newspaper. +You of course will not hint a word of Stuart's offer to me. He has +behaved with abundant honour and generosity. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +KESWICK + +Coleridge had determined not to live in London; his engagement with +Stuart he regarded as only a temporary shift to clear off some debt +which he had incurred in his visit to Germany. After a short stay with +Lamb ("Ainger", i, 113), and a tour to the North to see Wordsworth (J. +Dykes Campbell's "Life", 113), he returned to Stowey, writing to Godwin +on 21st May. + +LETTER 91. TO GODWIN + +Wednesday, May 21, 1800. + +Dear Godwin, + +I received your letter this morning, and had I not, still I am almost +confident that I should have written to you before the end of the week. +Hitherto the translation of the "Wallenstein" has prevented me, not that +it engrossed my time, but that it wasted and depressed my spirits, and +left a sense of wearisomeness and disgust which unfitted me for anything +but sleeping or immediate society. I say this because I ought to have +written to you first; yet, as I am not behind you in affectionate +esteem, so I would not be thought to lag in those outward and visible +signs that both show and verify the inward spiritual grace. Believe me, +you recur to my thoughts frequently, and never without pleasure, never +without my making out of the past a little day-dream for the future. I +left Wordsworth on the 4th of this month; if I cannot procure a suitable +house at Stowey I return to Cumberland and settle at Keswick, in a house +of such prospect that if, according to you and Hume, impressions +constitute our being, I shall have a tendency to become a god, so +sublime and beautiful will be the series of my visual existence. But, +whether I continue here or migrate thither, I shall be in a beautiful +country, and have house-room and heart-room for you, and you must come +and write your next work at my house. My dear Godwin! I remember you +with so much pleasure, and our conversations so distinctly, that, I +doubt not, we have been mutually benefited; but as to your poetic and +physiopathic feelings, I more than suspect that dear little Fanny and +Mary have had more to do in that business than I. Hartley sends his love +to Mary. [1] "What, and not to Fanny?" "Yes, and to Fanny, but I'll +'have' Mary." He often talks about them. + +My poor Lamb, how cruelly afflictions crowd upon him! I am glad that you +think of him as I think: he has an affectionate heart, a mind "sui +generis"; his taste acts so as to appear like the unmechanic simplicity +of an instinct; in brief, he is worth an hundred men of mere talents. +Conversation with the latter tribe is like the use of leaden bells--one +wearies by exercise. Lamb every now and then "irradiates", and the beam, +though single and fine as a hair, yet is rich with colours, and I both +see and feel it. In Bristol I was much with Davy, almost all day. He +always talks of you with great affection, and defends you with a +friendly zeal. If I settle at Keswick he will be with me in the fall of +the year, and so must you: and let me tell you, Godwin, that four such +men as you, I, Davy, and Wordsworth, do not meet together in one house +every day in the year--I mean four men so distinct with so many +sympathies. I received yesterday a letter from Southey. He arrived at +Lisbon after a prosperous voyage, on the last day of April; his letter +to me is dated May-Day. He girds up his loins for a great history of +Portugal, which will be translated into Portuguese in the first year of +the Lusitanian Republic. + +Have you seen Mrs. Robinson [2] lately--how is she? Remember me in the +kindest and most respectful phrases to her. I wish I knew the +particulars of her complaint; for Davy has discovered a perfectly new +acid by which he has restored the use of limbs to persons who had lost +it for many years (one woman nine years), in cases of supposed +rheumatism. At all events, Davy says, it can do no harm in Mrs. +Robinson's case, and, if she will try it, he will make up a little +parcel and write her a letter of instructions, etc. Tell her, and it is +the truth, that Davy is exceedingly delighted with the two poems in the +"Anthology". + +N.B. Did you get my attempt at a tragedy from Mrs. Robinson? + +To Mrs. Smith I am about to write a letter, with a book; be so kind as +to inform me of her direction. + +Mrs. Inchbald I do not like at all; every time I recollect her I like +her less. That segment of a look at the corner of her eye--O God in +heaven! it is so cold and cunning. Through worlds of wildernesses I +would run away from that look, that "heart-picking" look! 'Tis +marvellous to me that you can like that woman. + +I shall remain here about ten days for certain. If you have leisure and +inclination in that time, write; if not, I will write to you where I am +going, or at all events whither I am gone. + +God bless you, and + +Your sincerely affectionate + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Mr. T. Poole's, + +N[ether] Stowey, Bridgwater. + +Sara desires to be remembered kindly to you, and sends a kiss to Fanny, +and "dear meek little Mary." + +[Footnote 1: Mrs. Shelley.] + +[Footnote 2: The celebrated Perdita. She died in the following +December.] + +Next month Coleridge wrote to Davy. + + + + +LETTER 92. TO HUMPHRY DAVY + +Saturday Morning, Mr. T. Poole's, Nether Stowey, Somerset. + +My dear Davy, + +I received a very kind letter from Godwin, in which he says that he +never thinks of you but with a brother's feeling of love and +expectation. Indeed, I am sure he does not. + +I think of translating Blumenbach's Manual of Natural History: it is +very well written, and would, I think, be useful both to students, as an +admirable direction to their studies, and to others it would supply a +general knowledge of the subject. I will state the contents of the book: +1. Of the naturalia in general, and their divisions into three kingdoms. +2. Of organised bodies in general. 3. Of animals in general. 4. Of the +mammalia. 5. Birds. 6. Amphibious. 7. Fishes. 8. Insects. 9. Worms. 10. +Plants. 11. Of minerals in general. 12. Of stones and earthy fossils. +13. Of mineral salts. 14. Combustible minerals. 15. Of metals. 16. +Petrifactions. At the end there is an alphabetical index, so that it is +at once a natural history and a dictionary of natural history. To each +animal, etc., all the European names are given, with of course the +scientific characteristics. I have the last edition, "i.e.", that of +April, 1799. Now, I wish to know from you, whether there is in English +already any work of one volume (this would make 800 pages), that renders +this useless. In short, should I be right in advising Longman to +undertake it? Answer me as soon as you conveniently can. Blumenbach has +been no very great discoverer, though he has done some respectable +things in that way, but he is a man of enormous knowledge, and has an +"arranging" head. Ask Beddoes, if you do not know. When you have +leisure, you would do me a great service, if you would briefly state +your metaphysical system of impressions, ideas, pleasures, and pains, +the laws that govern them, and the reasons which induce you to consider +them as essentially distinct from each other. My motive for this request +is the following:--As soon as I "settle", I shall read Spinoza and +Leibnitz, and I particularly wish to know wherein they agree with, and +wherein differ from you. If you will do this, I promise you to send you +the result, and with it my own creed. + +God bless you! + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Blumenbach's book contains references to all the best writers on each +subject. My friend, T. Poole, begs me to ask what, in your opinion, are +the parts or properties in the oak which tan skins? and is cold water a +complete menstruum for these parts or properties? I understand from +Poole that nothing is so little understood as the chemical theory of +tan, though nothing is of more importance in the circle of manufactures; +in other words, does oak bark give out to cold water all those of its +parts which tan? + +Coleridge and his family at last settled down at Greta Hall in July, +1800, and he thus writes to Josiah Wedgwood of the event. + + + + +LETTER 93. To JOSIAH WEDGWOOD + +July 24, 1800. + +My dear sir, + +I find your letter on my arrival at Grasmere, namely, dated on the 29th +of June, since which time to the present, with the exception of the last +few days, I have been more unwell than I have ever been since I left +school. For many days I was forced to keep my bed, and when released +from that incarceration, I suffered most grievously from a brace of +swollen eyelids, and a head into which, on the least agitation, the +blood was felt as rushing in and flowing back again, like the raking of +the tide on a coast of loose stones. However, thank God, I am now coming +about again. + +That Tom receives such pleasure from natural scenery strikes me as it +does you. The total incapability which I have found in myself to +associate any but the most languid feelings, with the God-like objects +which have surrounded me, and the nauseous efforts to impress my +admiration into the service of nature, has given me a sympathy with his +former state of health, which I never before could have had. I wish, +from the bottom of my soul, that he may be enjoying similar pleasures +with those which I am now enjoying with all that newness of sensation; +that voluptuous correspondence of the blood and flesh about me with +breeze and sun-heat, which makes convalescence more than repay one for +disease. + +I parted from Poole with pain and dejection, for him, and for myself in +him. I should have given Stowey a decided preference for a residence. It +was likewise so conveniently situated, that I was in the way of almost +all whom I love and esteem. But there was no suitable house, and no +prospect of a suitable house. + +* * * These things would have weighed as nothing, could I have remained +at Stowey, but now they come upon me to diminish my regret. Add to this, +Poole's determination to spend a year or two on the continent, in case +of a peace and his mother's death. God in heaven bless her! I am sure +she will not live long. This is the first day of my arrival at Keswick. +My house is roomy, situated on an eminence, a furlong from the town; +before it an enormous garden, more than two-thirds of which is rented as +a garden for sale articles; but the walks are ours. Completely behind +the house are shrubberies, and a declivity planted with flourishing +trees of ten or fifteen years' growth, at the bottom of which is a most +delightful shaded walk, by the river Greta, a quarter of a mile in +length. The room in which I sit commands from one window the +Bassenthwaite lake, woods, and mountains. From the opposite, the +Derwentwater and fantastic mountains of Borrowdale. Straight before is a +wilderness of mountains, catching and streaming lights and shadows at +all times. Behind the house, and entering into all our views, is +Skiddaw. + +My acquaintances here are pleasant, and at some distance is Sir Guilfred +Lawson's seat, with a very large and expensive library, to which I have +every reason to hope that I shall have free access. But when I have been +settled here a few days longer, I will write you a minute account of my +situation. Wordsworth lives twelve miles distant. In about a year's time +he will probably settle at Keswick likewise. It is no small advantage +here, that for two-thirds of the year we are in complete retirement. The +other third is alive and swarms with tourists of all shapes, and sizes, +and characters. It is the very place I would recommend to a novelist or +farce writer. Besides, at that time of the year there is always hope +that a friend may be among the number and miscellaneous crowd, whom this +place attracts. So much for Keswick. + +Have you seen my translation of "Wallenstein". It is a dull heavy play, +but I entertain hopes that you will think the language for the greater +part, natural, and good common sense English; to which excellence, if I +can lay fair claim in any work of poetry or prose, I shall be a very +singular writer, at least. I am now working at my "Introduction of the +Life of Lessing", which I trust will be in the press before Christmas, +that is, the "Introduction", which will be published first. God bless +you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Josiah Wedgwood, Esq. + + +To Davy Coleridge wrote on the succeeding day. + + + + +LETTER 94. TO DAVY + +Keswick, Friday Evening, July 25, 1800. + +My dear Davy + +Work hard, and if success do not dance up like the bubbles in the salt +(with the spirit lamp under it), may the Devil and his dam take success! +My dear fellow! from the window before me there is a great "camp" of +mountains. Giants seem to have pitched their tents there. Each mountain +is a giant's tent, and how the light streams from them. Davy! I "ache" +for you to be with us. + +W. Wordsworth is such a lazy fellow, that I bemire myself by making +promises for him: the moment I received your letter, I wrote to him. He +will, I hope, write immediately to Biggs and Cottle. At all events, +those poems must not as yet be delivered up to them, because that +beautiful poem, "The Brothers", which I read to you in Paul Street, I +neglected to deliver to you, and that must begin the volume. I trust, +however, that I have invoked the sleeping bard with a spell so potent, +that he will awake and deliver up that sword of Argantyr, which is to +rive the enchanter "Gaudyverse" from his crown to his foot. + +What did you think of that case I translated for you from the German? +That I was a well-meaning sutor who had ultra-crepidated[1] with more +zeal than wisdom!! I give myself credit for that word "ultra- +crepidated," it started up in my brain like a creation. I write to +Tobin by this post. Godwin is gone Irelandward, on a visit to Curran, +says the "Morning Post"; to Grattan, writes C. Lamb. + +We drank tea the night before I left Grasmere, on the island in that +lovely lake; our kettle swung over the fire, hanging from the branch of +a fir-tree, and I lay and saw the woods, and mountains, and lake all +trembling, and as it were idealized through the suble smoke, which rose +up from the clear, red embers of the fir-apples which we had collected: +afterwards we made a glorious bonfire on the margin, by some elder +bushes, whose twigs heaved and sobbed in the uprushing column of smoke, +and the image of the bonfire, and of us that danced round it, ruddy, +laughing faces in the twilight; the image of this in a lake, smooth as +that sea, to whose waves the Son of God had said, "Peace!" May God, and +all his sons, love you as I do. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Sara desires her kind remembrances. Hartley is a spirit that dances on +an aspen leaf; the air that yonder sallowfaced and yawning tourist is +breathing, is to my babe a perpetual nitrous oxide. Never was more +joyous creature born. Pain with him is so wholly transubstantiated by +the joys that had rolled on before, and rushed on after, that oftentimes +five minutes after his mother has whipt him, he has gone up and asked +her to whip him again.[2] + +[Footnote 1: "Ne sutor ultra crepidam."] + +[Footnote 2: Letter CX follows No. 94.] + +Coleridge was now as enamoured of the Lake District as he had been of +Stowey. On 22nd September he wrote to Godwin. + + + + +LETTER 95. TO GODWIN + +Monday, Sept. 22, 1800. + +Dear Godwin, + +I received your letter, and with it the enclosed note,[1] which shall be +punctually re-delivered to you on the first of October. + +Your tragedy [2] to be exhibited at Christmas! I have, indeed, merely +read through your letter; so it is not strange that my heart continues +beating out of time. Indeed, indeed Godwin, such a stream of hope and +fear rushed in on me, as I read the sentence, as you would not permit +yourself to feel! If there be anything yet undreamt of in our +philosophy; if it be, or if it be possible, that thought can impel +thought out of the usual limit of a man's own skull and heart; if the +cluster of ideas which constitute an identity, do ever connect and unite +into a greater whole; if feelings could ever propagate themselves +without the servile ministrations of undulating air or reflected light; +I seem to feel within myself a strength and a power of desire that might +dart a modifying, commanding impulse on a whole theatre. What does all +this mean? Alas! that sober sense should know no other way to construe +all this, than by the tame phrase, I wish you success! That which Lamb +informed you is founded on truth. Mr. Sheridan sent, through the medium +of Stuart, a request to Wordsworth to present a tragedy to his stage; +and to me a declaration, that the failure of my piece was owing to my +obstinacy in refusing any alteration. I laughed and Wordsworth smiled; +but my tragedy will remain at Keswick, and Wordsworth's is not likely to +emigrate from Grasmere. Wordsworth's drama is, in its present state, not +fit for the stage, and he is not well enough to submit to the drudgery +of making it so. Mine is fit for nothing, except to excite in the minds +of good men the hope "that the young man is likely to do better." In the +first moments I thought of re-writing it, and sent to Lamb for the copy +with this intent. I read an Act, and altered my opinion, and with it my +wish. + +Your feelings respecting Baptism are, I suppose, much like mine! At +times I dwell on Man with such reverence, resolve all his follies into +such grand primary laws of intellect, and in such wise so contemplate +them as ever-varying incarnations of the Eternal Life--that the Llama's +dung-pellet, or the cow-tail which the dying Brahmin clutches +convulsively, become sanctified and sublime by the feelings which +cluster round them. In that mood I exclaim, my boys shall be christened! +But then another fit of moody philosophy attacks me. I look at my +doted-on Hartley--he moves, he lives, he finds impulses from within and +from without, he is the darling of the sun and of the breeze. Nature +seems to bless him as a thing of her own. He looks at the clouds, the +mountains, the living beings of the earth, and vaults and jubilates! +Solemn looks and solemn words have been hitherto connected in his mind +with great and magnificent objects only: with lightning, with thunder, +with the waterfall blazing in the sunset. Then I say, shall I suffer him +to see grave countenances and hear grave accents, while his face is +sprinkled? Shall I be grave myself, and tell a lie to him? Or shall I +laugh, and teach him to insult the feelings of his fellow men? Besides, +are we not all in this present hour, fainting beneath the duty of Hope? +From such thoughts I stand up, and vow a book of severe analysis, in +which I shall tell "all" I believe to be truth in the nakedest language +in which it can be told. + +My wife is now quite comfortable. Surely you might come and spend the +very next four weeks, not without advantage to both of us. The very +glory of the place is coming on; the local genius is just arraying +himself in his higher attributes. But, above all, I press it because my +mind has been busied with speculations that are closely connected with +those pursuits that have hitherto constituted your utility and +importance: and, ardently as I wish you success on the stage, I yet +cannot frame myself to the thought that you should cease to appear as a +bold moral thinker. I wish you to write a book on the power of words, +and the processes by which human feelings form affinities with them--in +short, I wish you to "philosophize" Horne Tooke's system, and to solve +the great questions--whether there be reason to hold that an action +bearing the semblance of predesigning consciousness may yet be simply +organic, and whether a series of such actions are possible--and close on +the heels of this question would follow the old, "Is logic the essence +of thinking?"--in other words, "Is thinking possible without arbitrary +signs? or how far is the word arbitrary a misnomer? are not words, etc., +parts and germinations of the plant, and what is the law of their +growth?" In something of this order I would endeavour to destroy the old +antithesis of Words and Things, elevating, as it were, Words into +Things, and living things too. All the nonsense of vibrations, etc., you +would, of course, dismiss. + +If what I have here written appear nonsense to you, or common sense in a +harlequinade of "outre" expressions, suspend your judgment till we see +each other. + +Yours sincerely, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +I was in the country when "Wallenstein" was published. Longman sent me +down half-a-dozen--the carriage back the book was not worth. + +[Footnote 1: A loan often pounds.] + +[Footnote 2: "Antonio."] + +Coleridge had asked Godwin to stand godfather to his child, which +compliment Godwin declined. Hence the passage in the above letter on +Baptism. + +Davy now occupied a large part of Coleridge's attention. On 9th October +he wrote: + + + + + +LETTER 96. To DAVY + +Thursday night, October 9, 1800. + +My dear Davy, + +I was right glad, glad with a "stagger" of the heart, to see your +writing again. Many a moment have I had all my France and England +curiosity suspended and lost, looking in the advertisement front column +of the "Morning Post Gazetteer", for "Mr. Davy's Galvanic habitudes of +charcoal. ..." Upon my soul, I believe there is not a letter in those +words round which a world of imagery does not circumvolve; your room, +the garden, the cold bath, the moonlight rocks, Barristed, Moore, and +simple-looking Frere, and dreams of wonderful things attached to your +name--and Skiddaw, and Glaramara, and Eagle Crag, and you, and +Wordsworth, and me, on the top of them! I pray you do write to me +immediately, and tell me what you mean by the possibility of your +assuming a new occupation; [1] have you been successful to the extent of +your expectations in your late chemical inquiries? + +In your poem,[2] "impressive" is used for "impressible" or passive, is +it not? If so, it is not English; life "diffusive" likewise is not +English. The last stanza introduces "confusion" into my mind, and +despondency--and has besides been so often said by the materialists, +etc., that it is not worth repeating. If the poem had ended more +originally, in short, but for the last stanza, I will venture to affirm +that there were never so many lines which so uninterruptedly combined +natural and beautiful words with strict philosophic truths, "i.e.", +scientifically philosophic. Of the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, +and seventh stanzas, I am doubtful which is the most beautiful. Do not +imagine that I cling to a fond love of future identity, but the thought +which you have expressed in the last stanzas might be more grandly, and +therefore more consolingly exemplified. I had forgot to say that +sameness and identity are words too etymologically the same to be placed +so close to each other. + +As to myself, I am doing little worthy the relation. I write for Stuart +in the "Morning Post", and I am compelled by the god Pecunia, which was +one name of the supreme Jupiter, to give a volume of letters from +Germany, which will be a decent "lounge" book, and not an atom more. The +"Christabel" was running up to 1,300 lines, and was so much admired by +Wordsworth, that he thought it indelicate to print two volumes with his +name, in which so much of another man's was included; and which was of +more consequence, the poem was in direct opposition to the very purpose +for which the lyrical ballads were published, viz., an experiment to see +how far those passions which alone give any value to extraordinary +incidents were capable of interesting in and for themselves in the +incidents of common life. We mean to publish the "Christabel", +therefore, with a long blank-verse poem of Wordsworth's, entitled "The +Pedlar".[3] I assure you I think very differently of "Christabel". I +would rather have written "Ruth", and "Nature's Lady",[4] than a million +such poems. But why do I calumniate my own spirit by saying I would +rather? God knows it is as delightful to me that they "are" written. I +"know" that at present, and I "hope" that it "will" be so; my mind has +"disciplined" itself into a willing exertion of its powers, without any +reference to their comparative value. + +I cannot speak favourably of W.'s health, but indeed he has not done +common justice to Dr. Beddoes's kind prescriptions. I saw his +countenance darken, and all his hopes vanish, when he saw the +"prescriptions"--his "scepticism" concerning medicines! nay, it is not +enough "scepticism"! Yet, now that peas and beans are over, I have hopes +that he will in good earnest make a fair and full trial. I rejoice with +sincere joy at Beddoes's recovery. + +Wordsworth is fearful you have been much teazed by the printers on his +account, but you can sympathise with him. The works which I gird myself +up to attack as soon as money concerns will permit me, are the "Life of +Lessing", and the "Essay on Poetry". The latter is still more at my +heart than the former: its title would be an essay on the elements of +poetry--it would in reality be a "disguised" system of morals and +politics. + +When you write, and do write soon, tell me how I can get your essay on +the nitrous oxide. If you desired Johnson to have one sent to +Lackington's, to be placed in Mr. Crosthwaite's monthly parcel for +Keswick, I should receive it. Are your galvanic discoveries important? +What do they lead to? All this is "ultra crepidation", but would to +heaven I had as much knowledge as I have sympathy! My wife and children +are well; the baby was dying some weeks ago, so the good people would +have it baptized; his name is Derwent Coleridge, so called from the +river, for fronting our house the Greta runs into the Derwent. Had it +been a girl, the name should have been Greta. By the by, Greta, or +rather Grieta, is exactly the Cocytus of the Greeks; the word, literally +rendered in modern English, is, "The loud Lamenter;" to griet, in the +Cambrian dialect, signifying to roar aloud for grief or pain, and it +does "roar" with a vengeance! + +I will say nothing about Spring--a thirsty man tries to think of +anything but the stream when he knows it to be ten miles off! + +God bless you! Your most affectionate + +S. T. COLERIDGE.[5] + +Another letter to Godwin at this time indicates that Coleridge was still +expecting to be able to finish "Christabel", which as a completed poem, +Coleridge, as we have already seen, calculated would run up to 1,300 +lines. + +[Footnote 1: No doubt the leaving of the Pneumatic for the Royal +Institution.] + +[Footnote 2: That entitled, "Written after Recovery from a Dangerous +Illness." It is to be found in the "Memoirs of his Life", vol. i, p. +390. Coleridge's critical remarks apply to it as it was first written; +the words objected to are not to be found in it in its corrected printed +state.] + +[Footnote 1: A name changed to "The Excursion".] + +[Footnote 2: "Three years she grew in sun and shower."] + +[Footnote 5: Letter CXI is our 96.] + + + + +LETTER 97. TO GODWIN + +Monday, Oct. 13, 1800. + +Dear Godwin, + +I have been myself too frequently a grievous delinquent in the article +of letter-writing to feel any inclination to reproach my friends when, +peradventure, they have been long silent. But, this out of the question, +I did not expect a speedier answer; for I had anticipated the +circumstances which you assign as the causes of your delay. + +An attempt to finish a poem of mine for insertion in the second volume +of the "Lyrical Ballads", has thrown me so fearfully back in my bread +and beef occupations, that I shall scarcely be able to justify myself in +putting you to the expense of the few lines which I may be able to +scrawl in the present paper--but some parts in your letter interested me +deeply, and I wished to tell you so. First, then, you know Kemble, and I +do not. But my conjectural judgments concerning his character lead me to +persuade an absolute passive obedience to his opinion, and this, too, +because I would leave to every man his own trade. "Your" trade has been, +in the present instance, "first" to furnish a wise pleasure to your +fellow-beings in general, and, "secondly", to give Mr. Kemble and his +associates the power of delighting that part of your fellow-beings +assembled in a theatre. As to what relates to the first point, I should +be sorry indeed if greater men than Mr. Kemble could induce you to alter +a "but" to a "yet" contrary to your own convictions. Above all things, +an author ought to be sincere to the public; and, when William Godwin +stands in the title-page, it implies that W. G. approves that which +follows. Besides, the mind and finer feelings are blunted by such +obsequiousness. But in the theatre it is Godwin and Co. "ex professo". I +should regard it in almost the same light as if I had written a song for +Haydn to compose and Mara to sing; I know, indeed, what is poetry, but I +do not know so well as he and she what will suit his notes or her voice. +That actors and managers are often wrong is true, but still their trade +is "their" trade, and the presumption is in favour of their being right. +For the press, I should wish you to be solicitously nice; because you +are to exhibit before a larger and more respectable multitude than a +theatre presents to you, and in a new part, that of a poet employing his +philosophical knowledge practically. If it be possible, come, therefore, +and let us discuss every page and every line. + +Now for something which, I would fain believe, is still more important, +namely, the propriety of your future philosophical speculations. Your +second objection, derived from the present "ebb" of opinion, will be +best answered by the fact that Mackintosh and his followers have the +"flow". This is greatly in your favour, for mankind are at present gross +reasoners. They reason in a perpetual antithesis; Mackintosh is an +oracle, and Godwin therefore a fool. Now it is morally impossible that +Mackintosh and the sophists of his school can retain this opinion. You +may well exclaim with Job, "O that my adversary would write a book!" +When he publishes, it will be all over with him, and then the minds of +men will incline strongly to those who would point out in intellectual +perceptions a source of moral progressiveness. Every man in his heart is +in favour of your general principles. A party of dough-baked democrats +of fortune were weary of being dissevered from their fellow rich men. +They want to say something in defence of turning round. Mackintosh puts +that something into their mouths, and for awhile they will admire and +be-praise him. In a little while these men will have fallen back into +the ranks from which they had stepped out, and life is too melancholy a +thing for men in general for the doctrine of unprogressiveness to remain +popular. Men cannot long retain their faith in the Heaven "above" the +blue sky, but a Heaven they will have, and he who reasons best on the +side of the universal wish will be the most popular philosopher. As to +your first objection, that you are a logician, let me say that your +habits are analytic, but that you have not read enough of travels, +voyages, and biography--especially men's lives of themselves--and you +have too soon submitted your notions to other men's censures in +conversation. A man should nurse his opinions in privacy and +self-fondness for a long time, and seek for sympathy and love, not for +detection or censure. Dismiss, my dear fellow, your theory of Collision +of Ideas, and take up that of Mutual Propulsion. I wish to write more, +and state to you a lucrative job, which would, I think, be eminently +serviceable to your own mind, and which you would have every opportunity +of doing here. I now express a serious wish that you would come and look +out for a house. Did Stuart remit you £10. on my account? + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +I would gladly write any verses, but to a prologue or epilogue I am +absolutely incompetent. + +Coleridge was a tremendous walker and hill climber. The following letter +narrates a curious adventure in a storm among the mountains. + + + + +LETTER 98. TO DAVY + +October 18, 1800. + +My dear Davy, + +Our mountains northward end in the mountain Carrock--one huge, steep, +enormous bulk of stones, desolately variegated with the heath plant; at +its foot runs the river Calder, and a narrow vale between it and the +mountain Bowscale, so narrow, that in its greatest width it is not more +than a furlong. But that narrow vale is "so" green, "so" beautiful, +there are moods in which a man might weep to look at it, On this +mountain Carrock, at the summit of which are the remains of a vast Druid +circle of stones, I was wandering, when a thick cloud came on, and +wrapped me in such darkness, that I could not see ten yards before me, +and with the cloud a storm of wind and hail, the like of which I had +never before seen and felt. At the very summit is a cone of stones, +built by the shepherds, and called the Carrock Man. Such cones are on +the tops of almost all our mountains, and they are all called "men". At +the bottom of the Carrock Man I seated myself for shelter, but the wind +became so fearful and tyrannous, that I was apprehensive some of the +stones might topple down upon me, so I groped my way farther down and +came to three rocks, placed on this wise 1/3\2*** each one supported by +the other like a child's house of cards, and in the hollow and screen +which they made, I sate for a long while sheltered, as if I had been in +my own study in which I am now writing: there I sate with a total +feeling worshipping the power and "eternal link" of energy. The darkness +vanished as by enchantment; far off, far, far off to the south, the +mountains of Glaramara and Great Gable and their family appeared +distinct, in deepest, sablest "blue". I rose, and behind me was a +rainbow bright as the brightest. I descended by the side of a torrent, +and passed, or rather crawled (for I was forced to descend on all +fours), by many a naked waterfall, till fatigued and hungry (and with a +finger almost broken, and which remains swelled to the size of two +fingers), I reached the narrow vale, and the single house nestled in ash +and sycamores. I entered to claim the universal hospitality of this +country; but instead of the life and comfort usual in these lonely +houses, I saw dirt, and every appearance of misery--a pale woman sitting +by a peat fire. I asked her for bread and milk, and she sent a small +child to fetch it, but did not rise herself. I ate very heartily of the +black, sour bread, and drank a bowl of milk, and asked her to permit me +to pay her. "Nay," says she, "we are not so scant as that--you are right +welcome; but do you know any help for the rheumatics, for I have been so +long ailing that I am almost fain to die?" So I advised her to eat a +great deal of mustard, having seen in an advertisement something about +essence of mustard curing the most obstinate cases of rheumatism. But do +write me, and tell me some cure for the rheumatism; it is in her +shoulders, and the small of her back chiefly. I wish much to go off with +some bottles of stuff to the poor creature. I should walk the ten miles +as ten yards. With love and honour, + +My dear Davy, yours, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter CXII is our 98.] + + +The next letter relates how Coleridge wrote the Second Part of +"Christabel", which had been composed before 4th October (Dorothy +Wordsworth's "Journals", i, 51). + + + + +LETTER 99. TO JOSIAH WEDGWOOD + +Keswick, Nov. 1, 1800. + +My dear Sir, + +I would fain believe that the experiment which your brother has made in +the West Indies is not wholly a discouraging one. If a warm climate did +nothing but only prevented him from getting worse, it surely evidenced +some power; and perhaps a climate equally favourable in a country of +more various interest, Italy, or the South of France, may tempt your +brother to make a longer trial. If (disciplining myself into silent +cheerfulness) I could be of any comfort to him by being his companion +and attendant, for two or three months, on the supposition that he +should wish to travel, and was at a loss for a companion more fit, I +would go with him with a willing affection. You will easily see, my dear +friend, that I say this only to increase the range of your brother's +choice--for even in choosing there is some pleasure. + +There happen frequently little odd coincidences in time, that recall +momentary faith in the notion of sympathies acting in absence. I heard +of your brother's return, for the first time, on Monday last, the day on +which your letter is dated, from Stoddart. Had it rained on my naked +skin I could not have felt more strangely. The 300 or 400 miles that are +between us seemed converted into a moral distance; and I knew that the +whole of this silence I was myself accountable for; for I ended my last +letter by promising to follow it with a second and longer one, before +you could answer the first. But immediately on my arrival in this +country I undertook to finish a poem which I had begun, entitled +"Christabel", for a second volume of the "Lyrical Ballads". I tried to +perform my promise, but the deep unutterable disgust which I had +suffered in the translation of the accursed "Wallenstein", seemed to +have stricken me with barrenness; for I tried and tried, and nothing +would come of it. I desisted with a deeper dejection than I am willing +to remember. The wind from the Skiddaw and Borrowdale was often as loud +as wind need be, and many a walk in the clouds in the mountains did I +take; but all would not do, till one day I dined out at the house of a +neighbouring clergyman, and some how or other drank so much wine, that I +found some effort and dexterity requisite to balance myself on the +hither edge of sobriety. The next day my verse-making faculties returned +to me, and I proceeded successfully, till my poem grew so long, and in +Wordsworth's opinion so impressive, that he rejected it from his volume, +as disproportionate both in size and merit, and as discordant in its +character. In the mean time I had gotten myself entangled in the old +sorites of the old sophist,--procrastination. I had suffered my +necessary businesses to accumulate so terribly, that I neglected to +write to any one, till the pain I suffered from not writing made me +waste as many hours in dreaming about it as would have sufficed for the +letter writing of half a life. But there is something beside time +requisite for the writing of a letter--at least with me. My situation +here is indeed a delightful situation; but I feel what I have lost--feel +it deeply--it recurs more often and more painfully than I had +anticipated, indeed so much so, that I scarcely ever feel myself +impelled, that is to say, pleasurably impelled to write to Poole. I used +to feel myself more at home in his great windy parlour than in my own +cottage. We were well suited to each other--my animal spirits corrected +his inclination to melancholy; and there was something both in his +understanding and in his affections, so healthy and manly, that my mind +freshened in his company, and my ideas and habits of thinking acquired +day after day more of substance and reality. Indeed, indeed, my dear, +sir, with tears in my eyes, and with all my heart and soul, I wish it +were as easy for us all to meet as it was when you lived at Upcott. Yet +when I revise the step I have taken, I know not how I could have acted +otherwise than I did act. Everything I promised myself in this country +has answered far beyond my expectation. The room in which I write +commands six distinct landscapes--the two lakes, the vale, the river and +mountains, and mists, and clouds and sunshine, make endless +combinations, as if heaven and earth were for ever talking to each +other. Often when in a deep study, I have walked to the window and +remained there looking without seeing; all at once the lake of Keswick +and the fantastic mountains of Borrowdale, at the head of it, have +entered into my mind, with a suddenness as if I had been snatched out of +Cheapside and placed for the first time, in the spot where I stood--and +that is a delightful feeling--these fits and trances of novelty received +from a long known object. The river Greta flows behind our house, +roaring like an untamed son of the hills, then winds round and glides +away in the front, so that we live in a peninsula. But besides this +etherial eye-feeding we have very substantial conveniences. We are close +to the town, where we have respectable and neighbourly acquaintance, and +a most sensible and truly excellent medical man. Our garden is part of a +large nursery garden, which is the same to us and as private as if the +whole had been our own, and thus too we have delightful walks without +passing our garden gates. My landlord who lives in the sister house, for +the two houses are built so as to look like one great one, is a modest +and kind man, of a singular character. By the severest economy he raised +himself from a carrier into the possession of a comfortable +independence. He was always very fond of reading, and has collected +nearly 500 volumes, of our most esteemed modern writers, such as Gibbon, +Hume, Johnson, etc. etc. His habits of economy and simplicity, remain +with him, and yet so very disinterested a man I scarcely ever knew. +Lately, when I wished to settle with him about the rent of our house, he +appeared much affected, told me that my living near him, and the having +so much of Hartley's company were great comforts to him and his +housekeeper, that he had no children to provide for, and did not mean to +marry; and in short, that he did not want any rent at all from me. This +of course I laughed him out of; but he absolutely refused to receive any +rent for the first half-year, under the pretext that the house was not +completely furnished. Hartley quite lives at the house, and it is as you +may suppose, no small joy to my wife to have a good affectionate +motherly woman divided from her only by a wall. Eighteen miles from our +house lives Sir Guilfred Lawson, who has a princely library, chiefly of +natural history--a kind and generous, but weak and ostentatious sort of +man, who has been abundantly civil to me. Among other raree shows, he +keeps a wild beast or two, with some eagles, etc. The master of the +beasts at the Exeter 'Change, sent him down a large bear,--with it a +long letter of directions, concerning the food, etc. of the animal, and +many solicitations respecting other agreeable quadrupeds which he was +desirous to send to the baronet, at a moderate price, and concluding in +this manner: "and remain your honour's most devoted humble servant, J.P. +Permit me, sir Guilfred, to send you a buffalo and a rhinoceros." As +neat a postscript as I ever heard--the tradesmanlike coolness with which +these pretty little animals occurred to him just at the finishing of his +letter! You will in three weeks see the letters on the 'Rise and +Condition of the German Boors'. I found it convenient to make up a +volume out of my journey, etc. in North Germany--and the letters (your +name of course erased) are in the printer's hands. I was so weary of +transcribing and composing, that when I found those more carefully +written than the rest, I even sent them off as they were. + +* * * * * + +My littlest one is a very stout boy indeed. He is christened by the name +of "Derwent,"--a sort of sneaking affection you see for the poetical and +novellish, which I disguised to myself under the show, that my brothers +had so many children Johns, Jameses, Georges, etc. etc., that a handsome +Christian-like name was not to be had except by encroaching on the names +of my little nephews. If you are at Gunville at Christmas, I hold out +hopes to myself that I shall be able to pass a week with you there. I +mentioned to you at Upcott a kind of comedy that I had committed to +writing in part. This is in the wind. + +Wordsworth's second vol. of the 'Lyrical Ballads' will, I hope, and +almost believe, afford you as unmingled pleasure as is in the nature of +a collection of very various poems to afford to one individual mind. +Sheridan has sent to him too--requests him to write a tragedy for Drury +Lane. But W. will not be diverted by anything from the prosecution of +his great work. + +Southey's 'Thalaba', in twelve books, is going to the press. + +Remember me with great affection to your brother, and present my kindest +respects to Mrs. Wedgwood. Your late governess wanted one thing, which +where there is health is I think indispensable in the moral character of +a young person--a light and cheerful heart. She interested me a good +deal. She appears to me to have been injured by going out of the common +way without any of that imagination, which if it be a Jack o' Lanthorn +to lead us out of our way, is however, at the same time a torch to light +us whither we are going. A whole essay might be written on the danger of +thinking without images. God bless you, my dear sir, and him who is with +grateful and affectionate esteem, + +Yours ever, + +S. T. COLERIDGE + + +Josiah Wedgwood. + +Coleridge was still in money difficulties, and the following letter is +chiefly about his indebtedness to the Wedgwoods. + + + + +LETTER 100. TO JOSIAH WEDGWOOD + +November 12, 1800. + +My dear sir, + +I received your kind letter, with the £20. My eyes are in such a state +of inflammation that I might as well write blindfold, they are so +blood-red. I have had leeches twice, and have now a blister behind my +right ear. How I caught the cold, in the first instance, I can scarcely +guess; but I improved it to its present glorious state, by taking long +walks all the mornings, spite of the wind, and writing late at night, +while my eyes were weak. + +I have made some rather curious observations on the rising up of spectra +in the eye, in its inflamed state, and their influence on ideas, etc., +but I cannot see to make myself intelligible to you. Present my kindest +remembrance to Mrs. W. and your brother. Pray did you ever pay any +particular attention to the first time of your little ones smiling and +laughing? Both I and Mrs. C. have carefully watched our little one, and +noticed down all the circumstances, under which he smiled, and under +which he laughed, for the first six times, nor have we remitted our +attention; but I have not been able to derive the least confirmation of +Hartley's or Darwin's Theory. You say most truly, my dear sir, that a +pursuit is necessary. Pursuit, for even praiseworthy employment, merely +for good, or general good, is not sufficient for happiness, nor fit for +man. + +I have not at present made out how I stand in pecuniary ways, but I +believe that I have anticipated on the next year to the amount of Thirty +or Forty pounds, probably more. God bless you, my dear sir, and your +sincerely + +Affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Josiah Wedgwood, Esq. + +The publication of the "Wallenstein" had brought on Coleridge the odium +of being an advocate of the German Theatre, at this time identified with +the melo-dramatic sentimentalism of Kotzbue and his school. English +opinion did not then discriminate between a Schiller and a Kotzebue. The +following curious disclaimer appeared in the "Monthly Review" on 18th +November 1800. + + + + +LETTER 101. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "MONTHLY REVIEW". + +Greta Hall, Keswick, + +Nov. 18, 1800. + +In the review of my translation of Schiller's "Wallenstein" ("Rev". for +October), I am numbered among the partisans of the German theatre. As I +am confident there is no passage in my preface or notes from which such +an opinion can be legitimately formed, and as the truth would not have +been exceeded if the direct contrary had been affirmed, I claim it of +your justice that in your Answers to Correspondents you would remove +this misrepresentation. The mere circumstance of translating a +manuscript play is not even evidence that I admired that one play, much +less that I am a general admirer of the plays in that language. + +I remain, etc., + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +During the latter half of 1800 Dorothy Wordsworth's "Journal" contains +many entries showing that Coleridge and the Wordsworths were in frequent +communication with each other. Coleridge thought nothing of traversing +the dozen miles between Keswick and Dove Cottage by the highway, or over +the hill passes. Wordsworth and Dorothy, too, went often to Keswick, and +occasionally stayed with the Coleridges ("Grasmere Journals", i, 43-60). + +Amid these literary and poetic meetings between the poets and their +families, other correspondents were not forgotten by Coleridge. The +following two letters to Davy indicate that the poets were taking some +interest in science. + + + + +LETTER 102. TO DAVY + +Greta Hall, Tuesday night, December 2, 1800. + +My dear Davy, + +By an accident I did not receive your letter till this evening. I would +that you had added to the account of your indisposition the probable +causes of it. It has left me anxious whether or no you have not exposed +yourself to unwholesome influences in your chemical pursuits. There are +"few" beings both of hope and performance, but few who combine the "are" +and the "will be." For God's sake, therefore, my dear fellow, do not rip +open the bird that lays the golden eggs. I have not received your book. +I read yesterday a sort of medical review about it. I suppose Longman +will send it to me when he sends down the "Lyrical Ballads" to +Wordsworth. I am solicitous to read the latter part. Did there appear to +you any remote analogy between the case I translated from the German +Magazine and the effects produced by your gas? Did Carlisle[1] ever +communicate to you, or has he in any way published his facts concerning +"pain", which he mentioned when we were with him? It is a subject which +"exceedingly interests" me. I want to read something by somebody +expressly on "pain", if only to give an "arrangement" to my own +thoughts, though if it were well treated, I have little doubt it would +revolutionize them. For the last month I have been trembling on through +sands and swamps of evil and bodily grievance. My eyes have been +inflamed to a degree that rendered reading and writing scarcely +possible; and strange as it seems, the act of metre composition, as I +lay in bed, perceptibly affected them, and my voluntary ideas were every +minute passing, more or less transformed into vivid spectra. I had +leeches repeatedly applied to my temples, and a blister behind my +ear--and my eyes are now my own, but in the place where the blister was, +six small but excruciating boils have appeared, and harass me almost +beyond endurance. In the meantime my darling Hartley has been taken with +a stomach illness, which has ended in the yellow jaundice; and this +greatly alarms me. So much for the doleful! Amid all these changes, and +humiliations, and fears, the sense of the Eternal abides in me, and +preserves unsubdued my cheerful faith, that all I endure is full of +blessings! + +At times, indeed, I would fain be somewhat of a more tangible utility +than I am; but so I suppose it is with all of us--one while cheerful, +stirring, feeling in resistance nothing but a joy and a stimulus; +another while drowsy, self-distrusting, prone to rest, loathing our own +self-promises, withering our own hopes--our hopes, the vitality and +cohesion of our being! + +I purpose to have 'Christabel' published by itself--this I publish +with confidence--but my travels in Germany come from me now with mortal +pangs. Nothing but the most pressing necessity could have induced +me--and even now I hesitate and tremble. Be so good as to have all that +is printed of 'Christabel' sent to me per post. + +Wordsworth has nearly finished the concluding poem. It is of a mild, +unimposing character, but full of beauties to those short-necked men who +have their hearts sufficiently near their heads--the relative distance +of which (according to citizen Tourder, the French translator of +Spallanzani) determines the sagacity or stupidity of all bipeds and +quadrupeds. + +There is a deep blue cloud over the heavens; the lake, and the vale, and +the mountains, are all in darkness; only the 'summits' of all the +mountains in long ridges, covered with snow, are bright to a dazzling +excess. A glorious scene! Hartley was in my arms the other evening, +looking at the sky; he saw the moon glide into a large cloud. Shortly +after, at another part of the cloud, several stars sailed in. Says he, +"Pretty creatures! they are going in to see after their mother moon." + +Remember me kindly to King. Write as often as you can; but above all +things, my loved and honoured dear fellow, do not give up the idea of +letting me and Skiddaw see you. + +God love you! + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Tobin writes me that Thompson [2] has made some lucrative discovery. Do +you know aught about it? Have you seen T. Wedgwood since his return? [3] + +[Footnote 1: Afterwards Sir Antony, a distinguished surgeon.] + +[Footnote 2: The late Mr. James Thompson, of Clitheroe.] + +[Footnote 3: Letter CXIII is our 102; CXIV follows 102] + + + + +LETTER 103. TO DAVY + +February 3, 1801. + +My dear Davy-- + +I can scarcely reconcile it to my conscience to make you pay postage for +another letter. O, what a fine unveiling of modern politics it would be +if there were published a minute detail of all the sums received by +Government from the Post establishment, and of all the outlets in which +the sums so received flowed out again; and, on the other hand, all the +domestic affections that had been stifled, all the intellectual progress +that would have been, but is not, on account of the heavy tax, etc., +etc. The letters of a nation ought to be paid for as an article of +national expense. Well! but I did not take up this paper to flourish +away in splenetic politics. A gentleman resident here, his name Calvert, +an idle, good-hearted, and ingenious man, has a great desire to commence +fellow-student with me and Wordsworth in chemistry. He is an intimate +friend of Wordsworth's, and he has proposed to W. to take a house which +he (Calvert) has nearly built, called Windy Brow, in a delicious +situation, scarce half a mile from Greta Hall, the residence of S. T. +Coleridge, Esq., and so for him (Calvert) to live with them, 'i.e.', +Wordsworth and his sister. In this case he means to build a little +laboratory, etc. Wordsworth has not quite decided, but is strongly +inclined to adopt the scheme, because he and his sister have before +lived with Calvert on the same footing, and are much attached to him: +because my health is so precarious and so much injured by wet, and his +health, too, is like little potatoes, no great things, and therefore +Grasmere ("thirteen" miles from Keswick) is too great a distance for us +to enjoy each other's society, without inconvenience, as much as it +would be profitable for us both: and likewise because he feels it more +necessary for him to have some intellectual pursuit less closely +connected with deep passion than poetry, and is of course desirous, too, +not to be so wholly ignorant of knowledge so exceedingly important. +However, whether Wordsworth come or no, Calvert and I have determined to +begin and go on. Calvert is a man of sense and some originality, and is +besides what is well called a handy man. He is a good practical +mechanic, etc., and is desirous to lay out any sum of money that is +necessary. You know how long, how ardently I have wished to initiate +myself in Chemical science, both for its own sake, and in no small +degree likewise, my beloved friend, that I may be able to sympathize +with all that you do and think. Sympathize blindly with it all I do even +"now", God knows! from the very middle of my heart's heart, but I would +fain sympathize with you in the light of knowledge. This opportunity is +exceedingly precious to me, as on my own account I could not afford the +least additional expense, having been already, by long and successive +illnesses, thrown behindhand, so much, that for the next four or five +months, I fear, let me work as hard as I can, I shall not be able to do +what my heart within me "burns" to do, that is, to "concenter" my free +mind to the affinities of the feelings with words and ideas under the +title of "Concerning Poetry, and the nature of the Pleasures derived +from it". I have faith that I do understand the subject, and I am sure +that if I write what I ought to do on it, the work would supersede all +the books of metaphysics, and all the books of morals too. To whom shall +a young man utter "his pride", if not to a young man whom he loves? + +I beg you, therefore, my dear Davy, to write to me a long letter when +you are at leisure, informing me:--Firstly, What books it will be well +for me and Calvert to purchase. Secondly, Directions for a convenient +little laboratory. Thirdly, To what amount apparatus would run in +expense, and whether or no you would be so good as to superintend its +making at Bristol. Fourthly, Give me your advice how to "begin". And, +fifthly, and lastly, and mostly, do send a "drop" of hope to my parched +tongue, that you will, if you can, come and visit me in the spring. +Indeed, indeed, you ought to see this country, this beautiful country, +and then the joy you would send into me! + +The shape of this paper will convince you with what eagerness I began +this letter; I really did not see that it was not a sheet. + +I have been 'thinking' vigorously during my illness, so that I cannot +say that my long, long wakeful nights have been all lost to me. The +subject of my meditations has been the relations of thoughts to +things--in the language of Hume, of ideas to impressions. I may be truly +described in the words of Descartes: I have been "res cogitans, id est, +dubitans, affirmans, negans, pauca intelligens, multa ignorans, volens, +nolens, imaginans etiam, et sentiens." I please myself with believing +that you will receive no small pleasure from the result of these +broodings, although I expect in you (in some points) a determined +opponent, but I say of my mind in this respect: "Manet imperterritus +ille hostem magnanimum opperiens, et mole sua stat." Every poor fellow +has his proud hour sometimes, and this I suppose is mine. + +I am better in every respect than I was, but am still 'very feeble'. The +weather has been woefully against me for the last fortnight, having +rained here almost incessantly. I take quantities of bark, but the +effect is (to express myself with the dignity of science) "x" = 0000000, +and I shall not gather strength, or that little suffusion of bloom which +belongs to my healthy state, till I can walk out. + +God bless you, my dear Davy! and + +Your ever affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +P.S.--An electrical machine, and a number of little nicknacks connected +with it, Mr. Calvert has.--"Write".[1] + +[Footnote l: Letter CXV is our 103.] + + +Josiah Wade, the early Bristol friend of Coleridge, who probably was one +of the three friends who assisted him with funds to start 'The +Watchman', was now intending to travel in Germany. He applied to +Coleridge for advice regarding the mode of travelling, and Coleridge +tendered his counsel in the following characteristic epistle. + + + + +LETTER 104. To JOSIAH WADE + +March 6, 1801. + +My very dear friend, + +I have even now received your letter. My habits of thinking and feeling, +have not hitherto inclined me to personify commerce in any such shape, +so as to tempt me to turn pagan, and offer vows to the goddess of our +isle. But when I read that sentence in your letter, "The time will come +I trust, when I shall be able to pitch my tent in your neighbourhood," I +was most potently commanded [1] to a breach of the second +commandment, and on my knees, to entreat the said goddess to touch your +bank notes and guineas with her magical multiplying wand. I could offer +such a prayer for you, with a better conscience than for most men, +because I know that you have never lost that healthy common sense, which +regards money only as the means of independence, and that you would +sooner than most men cry out, enough! enough! To see one's children +secured against want, is doubtless a delightful thing; but to wish to +see them begin the world as rich men, is unwise to ourselves, for it +permits no close of our labours, and is pernicious to them; for it +leaves no motive to their exertions, none of those sympathies with the +industrious and the poor, which form at once the true relish and proper +antidote of wealth. + +* * * Is not March rather a perilous month for the voyage from +Yarmouth to Hamburg? Danger there is very little, in the packets, but I +know what inconvenience rough weather brings with it; not from my own +feelings, for I am never sea-sick, but always in exceeding high spirits +on board ship, but from what I see in others. But you are an old sailor. +At Hamburg I have not a shadow of acquaintance. My letters of +introduction produced for me, with one exception, viz., Klopstock, the +brother of the poet, no real service, but merely distant and +ostentatious civility. And Klopstock will by this time have forgotten my +name, which indeed he never properly knew, for I could speak only +English and Latin, and he only French and German. At Ratzeburg, 35 +English miles N.E. from Hamburg, on the road to Lubec, I resided four +months; and I should hope, was not unbeloved by more than one family, +but this is out of your route. At Gottingen I stayed near five months, +but here I knew only students, who will have left the place by this +time, and the high learned professors, only one of whom could speak +English; and they are so wholly engaged in their academical occupations, +that they would be of no service to you. Other acquaintance in Germany I +have none, and connexion I never had any. For though I was much +entreated by some of the Literati to correspond with them, yet my +natural laziness, with the little value I attach to literary men, as +literary men, and with my aversion from those letters which are to be +made up of studied sense, and unfelt compliments, combined to prevent me +from availing myself of the offer. Herein, and in similar instances, +with English authors of repute, I have ill consulted the growth of my +reputation and fame. But I have cheerful and confident hopes of myself. +If I can hereafter do good to my fellow-creatures as a poet, and as a +metaphysician, they will know it; and any other fame than this, I +consider as a serious evil, that would only take me from out the number +and sympathy of ordinary men, to make a coxcomb of me. + +As to the inns or hotels at Hamburg, I should recommend you to some +German inn. Wordsworth and I were at the "Der Wilde Man," and dirty as +it was, I could not find any inn in Germany very much cleaner, except at +Lubec. But if you go to an English inn, for heaven's sake, avoid the +"Shakspeare," at Altona, and the "King of England," at Hamburg. They are +houses of plunder rather than entertainment. "The Duke of York" hotel, +kept by Seaman, has a better reputation, and thither I would advise you +to repair; and I advise you to pay your bill every morning at breakfast +time: it is the only way to escape imposition. What the Hamburg +merchants may be I know not, but the tradesmen are knaves. Scoundrels, +with yellow-white phizzes, that bring disgrace on the complexion of a +bad tallow candle. Now as to carriage, I know scarcely what to advise; +only make up your mind to the very worst vehicles, with the very worst +horses, drawn by the very worst postillions, over the very worst roads, +and halting two hours at each time they change horses, at the very worst +inns; and you have a fair, unexaggerated picture of travelling in North +Germany. The cheapest way is the best; go by the common post wagons, or +stage coaches. What are called extraordinaries, or post-chaises, are +little wicker carts, uncovered, with moveable benches or forms in them, +execrable in every respect. And if you buy a vehicle at Hamburg, you can +get none decent under thirty or forty guineas, and very probably it will +break to pieces on the infernal roads. The canal boats are delightful, +but the porters everywhere in the United Provinces, are an impudent, +abominable, and dishonest race. You must carry as little luggage as you +well can with you, in the canal boats, and when you land, get +recommended to an inn beforehand, and bargain with the porters first of +all, and never lose sight of them, or you may never see your portmanteau +or baggage again. + +My Sarah desires her love to you and yours. God bless your dear little +ones! Make haste and get rich, dear friend! and bring up the little +creatures to be playfellows and school-fellows with my little ones! + +Again and again, sea serve you, wind speed you, all things turn out good +to you! God bless you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [2] + + +John Stoddart, a friend of Coleridge, visited him while at Keswick in +the month of October, 1800, and saw the Wordsworths at Grasmere (Dorothy +Wordsworth's 'Journal', i, 55)--It was then that Stoddart obtained a +copy of 'Christabel', and read it shortly afterwards [3] to Sir Walter +Scott, then busy with his 'Border Minstrelsy'. The beauty of +'Christabel' touched Sir Walter's romantic imagination, and echoes of +the poem are discernible in the 'Lay of the Last Minstrel' and the +'Bridal of Tryermain'. + +But Coleridge, in spite of many attempts, could not complete the piece, +and had to give up the endeavour. In a letter to Godwin of 25th March +1801, Coleridge thus laments what was practically the end of his career +as a poet: + +[Footnote 1: "Tempted," E.R., ii, 18.] + +[Footnote 2: Letters CXVI-CXVII follow 104.] + +[Footnote 3: In 1802.] + + + + +LETTER 105. To GODWIN. + +Wednesday, March 25, 1801. + +Dear Godwin, + +I fear your tragedy [1] will find me in a very unfit state of mind to +sit in judgment on it. I have been during the last three months +undergoing a process of intellectual exsiccation. During my long illness +I had compelled into hours of delight many a sleepless painful hour of +darkness by chasing down metaphysical game, and since then I have +continued the hunt, till I found myself, unaware, at the root of pure +mathematics, and up that tall smooth tree, whose few poor branches are +all at the very summit, am I climbing by pure adhesive strength of arms +and thighs, still slipping down, still renewing my ascent. You would not +know me! All sounds of similitude keep at such a distance from each +other in my mind, that I have forgotten how to make a rhyme. I look at +the mountains (that visible God Almighty that looks in at all my +windows)--I look at the mountains only for the curves of their outlines; +the stars, as I behold them, form themselves into triangles; and my +hands are scarred with scratches from a cat, whose back I was rubbing in +the dark in order to see whether the sparks from it were refrangible by +a prism. The Poet is dead in me; my imagination (or rather the Somewhat +that had been imaginative) lies like a cold snuff on the circular rim of +a brass candlestick, without even a stink of tallow to remind you that +it was once clothed and mitred with flame. That is past by. I was once a +volume of gold leaf, rising and riding on every breath of Fancy, but I +have beaten myself back into weight and density, and now I sink in +quicksilver and remain squat and square on the earth amid the hurricane +that makes oaks and straws join in one dance, fifty yards high in the +element. + +However I will do what I can. Taste and feeling have I none, but what I +have, give I unto thee. But I repeat that I am unfit to decide on any +but works of severe logic. + +I write now to beg that, if you have not sent your tragedy, you may +remember to send 'Antonio' with it, which I have not yet seen, and +likewise my Campbell's 'Pleasures of Hope', which Wordsworth wishes to +see. + +Have you seen the second volume of the 'Lyrical Ballads', and the +preface prefixed to the first? I should judge of a man's heart and +intellect precisely according to the degree and intensity of the +admiration with which he read these poems. Perhaps, instead of heart I +should have said Taste; but, when I think of 'The Brothers', of 'Ruth', +and of 'Michael', I recur to the expression and am enforced to say +heart. If I die, and the booksellers will give you anything for ray +life, be sure to say, "Wordsworth descended on him like the [Greek: +Gnothi seauton] from heaven; by showing to him what true poetry was, he +made him know that he himself was no Poet." + +In your next letter you will, perhaps, give me some hints respecting +your prose plans. + +God bless you, and + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Greta Hall, Keswick. + +P.S.--What is a fair price--what might an author of reputation fairly +ask from a bookseller, for one edition, of a thousand copies, of a +five-shilling book? + +[I congratulate you on the settlement of Davy in London. I hope that his +enchanting manners will not draw too many idlers about him, to harass +and vex his mornings.] + + +[Footnote: 1 This tragedy was entitled Abbas.] + + + + +PART II + + +THE PERMANENT + +I will write for "The Permanent", or not at all." (Letter to Sir G. +Beaumont, "Coleorton Memorials", ii, 162.) "Woe is me! that at 46 I am +under the necessity of appearing as a lecturer, and obliged to regard +every hour given to "The Permanent", whether as poet or philosopher, an +hour stolen from others as well as from my own maintenance." (Letter to +Mudford, Brandl's "Life of Coleridge", p. 359.) + +* * * * * + +The conventional view of Coleridge that opium killed the poet in him +does not commend itself to the scientific consciousness. Opium has the +tendency to stimulate rather than to deaden the poetic imagination, as +the history of De Quincey can testify; and one of Coleridge's most +imaginative pieces, "Kubla Khan", is said to have been occasioned by an +overdose of the drug. + +The poet in Coleridge was extinguished by a very different thing than +opium. Coleridge's poetic faculty was suspended by the loss of hope and +also by the growth of his intellect, by the development of his reasoning +and philosophic powers, and by the multiplication of the interests which +appealed to him, and the many problems which presented themselves for +his solution. He was, constitutionally, the most comprehensive mind of a +new age, and just because he was its greatest thinker he was perplexed +and attracted by the majority of the problems which arose around him, +and which he himself helped to raise. Poetry, the poetry of the Romantic +Movement, in which he far excelled all his contemporaries, was no longer +capable of grappling with the philosophic, theological, political and +social questions now on the horizon or which Coleridge felt would soon, +by the development of international affinities, be on the horizon of the +English mind. Hence Coleridge's thirst for the new lore of the German +philosophy, which seemed to him to supply a want in the Intellectualism +of his native country. + +In spite of this, Coleridge knew that in being deserted by the poetic +spirit, he was leaving a high artistic realm for one of lesser glory; +and hence his letter to Godwin of 25th March 1801, and, later on, his +dirge over himself in "Dejection". + +Coleridge, in choosing to follow Wordsworth to the Lake District in +preference to remaining at Nether Stowey with Poole, had experienced +some contrition, for Poole, after all, was a more profound appreciator +of his many-sidedness and the Cervantean vein of his character than +Wordsworth, who appreciated Coleridge only from that side of him which +resembled himself. + +Tom Poole regretted, like others, that Coleridge had no permanent +calling, or could not fix upon an undertaking worthy of his powers. +Poole looked upon Coleridge's devotion to journalism while he was +engaged upon the "Morning Post" as a "turning aside of his powers from +higher ends" ("T. Poole and his Friends", ii, 2), and wished him to give +himself up to something more "permanently" useful to society ("T. Poole +and his Friends", ii, 3). The correspondence of Coleridge and Poole from +1800 onwards, often turns upon the subject ("T. Poole and his Friends", +ii, 66, 68, 122, 177, 187, 205, 226, 247); and Coleridge admitted a +"distracting manifoldness" in his objects and attainments ("T. Poole and +his Friends", ii, 122). "You," said Coleridge, "are nobly employed--most +worthy of you. "You" are made to endear yourself to mankind as an +immediate benefactor: I must throw my bread on the waters" ("T. Poole +and his Friends", ii, 122). + +While engaged in these argumentations with his best friend, Coleridge +was striving to think out in his deep philosophic and musing mind many +problems of the time; and there arose in his imagination the Idea of the +Permanent. He was henceforth no longer the Poet of Romanticism, whose +significance he had exhausted, but the philosopher of the Permanent, +which presented itself as a splendid possibility in all departments of +human knowledge and activity. In his prose works and letters we find a +continual reference to what Coleridge now calls "The Permanent"--the +permanent principles of Morals, Philosophy, and Religion, and of the +permanent principles of criticism as applied to Poetry and the Fine +Arts. Everything is now adjusted by Coleridge to this idea. Art, morals, +religion, and politics are tried by its standard, to find if they are +founded in the permanent principles of human nature. + +It is in the light of this Idea, the ideal of Coleridge's later life, +that we must judge Coleridge and weigh him. To continue to see in opium +the sole or even the principal cause of his failure, is to misjudge him +altogether. To compare him with others of different powers who +accomplished more in one direction in the matter of literary output, +with Sir Walter Scott or Byron, for instance, is misleading. It is the +man of profound genius, who in his own time, is feeling on all sides +into the Future, who is least likely to give forth "finished +productions," as they are called, in which the subjects of which they +treat are often exhausted, and please the ear of the Present. Coleridge +is such a man of genius; nearly all his works are fragmentary, +unfinished, suggestive rather than "complete," just because they verge +upon that Transcendentalism which he was the first to make audible to +English ears in his day. Ill health, and opium in conjunction with ill +health, contributed no doubt to enfeeble his utterance; but to assert +that opium was the cause or the main cause of Coleridge's inability to +do what he wanted himself to do, or what his friends and contemporaries +expected him to do, is a gross perversion of the facts of the case. +Coleridge's inability arose from his multiplicity of motive, his +visionary faculty of seeing in the light of a new principle a host of +problems rise up on all sides, all claiming recognition and solution. +"That is the disease of my mind--it is comprehensive in its conceptions, +and wastes itself in the contemplations of the many things which it +might do." (Letter to Poole, 4th January 1799, "Letters", p. 270). A +greater than Coleridge had felt this tendency before him, and created +as its embodiment "Hamlet"; and Coleridge has been called the Hamlet of +literature. + + + +CHAPTER X + + +ILL HEALTH; SOUTHEY COMES TO KESWICK + +On 13th April 1801 Coleridge wrote to Southey the +following letter, and Southey replied in cordial terms, +from which it will be gathered a reconciliation had been +made since the Lloyd and Lamb quarrel. [1] + +[Footnote 1: See "Letters", vol. i, 304.] + + + + + +LETTER 106. TO ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ. + +Greta Hall, Keswick; April 13. 1801. + +My dear Southey, + +I received your kind letter on the evening before last, and I trust that +this will arrive at Bristol just in time to rejoice with them that +rejoice. Alas! you will have found the dear old place sadly "minus"ed by +the removal of Davy. It is one of the evils of long silence, that when +one recommences the correspondence, one has so much to say that one can +say nothing. I have enough, with what I have seen, and with what I have +done, and with what I have suffered, and with what I have heard, +exclusive of all that I hope and all that I intend--I have enough to +pass away a great deal of time with, were you on a desert isle, and I +your "Friday". But at present I purpose to speak only of myself +relatively to Keswick and to you. + +Our house stands on a low hill, the whole front of which is one field +and an enormous garden, nine-tenths of which is a nursery garden. Behind +the house is an orchard, and a small wood on a steep slope, at the foot +of which flows the river Greta, which winds round and catches the +evening lights in the front of the house. In front we have a giant's +camp--an encamped army of tent-like mountains, which by an inverted arch +gives a view of another vale. On our right the lovely vale and the +wedge-shaped lake of Bassenthwaite; and on our left Derwentwater and +Lodore full in view, and the fantastic mountains of Borrodale. Behind us +the massy Skiddaw, smooth, green, high, with two chasms and a tentlike +ridge in the larger. A fairer scene you have not seen in all your +wanderings. Without going from our own grounds we have all that can +please a human being. As to books, my landlord, who dwells next door,[1] +has a very respectable library, which he has put with mine; histories, +encyclopaedias, and all the modern gentry. But then I can have, when I +choose, free access to the princely library of Sir Guilfred Lawson, +which contains the noblest collection of travels and natural history of, +perhaps, any private library in England; besides this, there is the +Cathedral library of Carlisle, from whence I can have any books sent to +me that I wish; in short, I may truly say that I command all the +libraries in the county. ... + +Our neighbour is a truly good and affectionate man, a father to my +children, and a friend to me. He was offered fifty guineas for the house +in which we are to live, but he preferred me for a tenant at +twenty-five; and yet the whole of his income does not exceed, I believe, +£200 a year. A more truly disinterested man I never met with; severely +frugal, yet almost carelessly generous; and yet he got all his money as +a common carrier[2], by hard labour, and by pennies. He is one instance +among many in this country of the salutary effect of the love of +knowledge--he was from a boy a lover of learning. The house is full +twice as large as we want; it hath more rooms in it than Allfoxden; you +might have a bed-room, parlour, study, etc., etc., and there would +always be rooms to spare for your or my visitors. In short, for +situation and convenience,--and when I mention the name of Wordsworth, +for society of men of intellect,--I know no place in which you and Edith +would find yourselves so well suited. + +S. T. C. + + + +[Footnote 1: Greta Hall was at this time divided into two houses, which +were afterwards thrown together.] + +[Footnote 2: This person, whose name was Jackson, was the "master" in +Wordsworth's poem of 'The Waggoner', the circumstances of which are +accurately correct.] + + +The remainder of this letter, as well as another of later date, was +filled with a most gloomy account of his own health, to which Southey +refers in the commencement of his reply. + + + +SOUTHEY TO COLERIDGE + +Bristol, July 11, 1801. + +Yesterday I arrived, and found your letters; they did depress me, but I +have since reasoned or dreamt myself into more cheerful anticipations. I +have persuaded myself that your complaint is gouty; that good living is +necessary, and a good climate. I also move to the south; at least so it +appears: and if my present prospects ripen, we may yet live under one +roof. ... + +You may have seen a translation of "Persius", by Drummond, an M.P. This +man is going ambassador, first to Palermo and then to Constantinople: if +a married man can go as his secretary, it is probable that I shall +accompany him. I daily expect to know. It is a scheme of Wynn's to +settle me in the south, and I am returned to look about me. My salary +will be small--a very trifle; but after a few years I look on to +something better, and have fixed my mind on a consulship. Now, if we go, +you must join us as soon as we are housed, and it will be marvellous if +we regret England. I shall have so little to do, that my time may be +considered as wholly my own: our joint amusements will easily supply us +with all expenses. So no more of the Azores; for we will see the Great +Turk, and visit Greece, and walk up the Pyramids, and ride camels in +Arabia. I have dreamt of nothing else these five weeks. As yet every +thing is so uncertain, for I have received no letter since we landed, +that nothing can be said of our intermediate movements. If we are not +embarked too soon, we will set off as early as possible for Cumberland, +unless you should think, as we do, that Mahomet had better come to the +mountain; that change of all externals may benefit you; and that bad as +Bristol weather is, it is yet infinitely preferable to northern cold and +damp. Meet we must, and will. + +You know your old Poems are a third time in the press; why not set forth +a second volume? * * * Your "Christabel", your "Three Graces",[1] which +I remember as the very consummation of poetry. I must spur you to +something, to the assertion of your supremacy; if you have not enough to +muster, I will aid you in any way--manufacture skeletons that you may +clothe with flesh, blood, and beauty; write my best, or what shall be +bad enough to be popular;--we will even make plays "a-la-mode" +Robespierre. * * * Drop all task-work, it is ever unprofitable; the same +time, and one twentieth part of the labour, would produce treble +emolument. For "Thalaba" I received £115; it was just twelve months' +"intermitting" work, and the after-editions are my own. ... + +I feel here as a stranger; somewhat of Leonard's feeling. God bless +Wordsworth for that poem![2] What tie have I to England? My London +friends? There, indeed, I have friends. But if you and yours were with +me, eating dates in a garden at Constantinople, you might assert that we +were in the best of all possible places; and I should answer, Amen: and +if our wives rebelled, we would send for the chief of the black eunuchs, +and sell them to the Seraglio. Then should Moses [3] learn Arabic, and we +would know whether there was anything in the language or not. We would +drink Cyprus wine and Mocha coffee, and smoke more tranquilly than ever +we did in the Ship in Small Street. + +Time and absence make strange work with our affections; but mine are +ever returning to rest upon you. I have other and dear friends, but none +with whom the whole of my being is intimate--with whom every thought and +feeling can amalgamate. Oh! I have yet such dreams! Is it quite clear +that you and I were not meant for some better star, and dropped, by +mistake, into this world of pounds, shillings, and pence? ... + + +God bless you! + +ROBERT SOUTHEY. + +[Footnote 1: "The Three Graves".] + +[Footnote 2: "The Brothers" is the title of this poem.] + +[Footnote 3: Hartley Coleridge.] + + + +SOUTHEY TO COLERIDGE + +July 25. + +In about ten days we shall be ready to set forward for Keswick; where, +if it were not for the rains, and the fogs, and the frosts, I should, +probably, be content to winter; but the climate deters me. It is +uncertain when I may be sent abroad, or where, except that the south of +Europe is my choice. The appointment hardly doubtful, and the probable +destination Palermo or Naples. We will talk of the future, and dream of +it, on the lake side. * * * I may calculate upon the next six months at +my own disposal; so we will climb Skiddaw this year, and scale Etna the +next; and Sicilian air will keep us alive till Davy has found out the +immortalising elixir, or till we are very well satisfied to do without +it, and be immortalised after the manner of our fathers. My pocket-book +contains more plans than will ever be filled up; but whatever becomes of +those plans, this, at least, is feasible. * * * Poor H----, he has +literally killed himself by the law: which, I believe, kills more than +any disease that takes its place in the bills of mortality. Blackstone +is a needful book, and my Coke is a borrowed one; but I have one law +book whereof to make an auto-da-fe; and burnt he shall be: but whether +to perform that ceremony, with fitting libations, at home, or fling him +down the crater of Etna directly to the Devil, is worth considering at +leisure. + +I must work at Keswick; the more willingly, because with the hope, +hereafter, the necessity will cease. My Portuguese materials must lie +dead, and this embarrasses me. It is impossible to publish any thing +about that country now, because I must one day return there,--to their +libraries and archives; otherwise I have excellent stuff for a little +volume; and could soon set forth a first vol. of my History, either +civil or literary. In these labours I have incurred a heavy and serious +expense. I shall write to Hamilton, and review again, if he chooses to +employ me. * * * It was Cottle who told me that your Poems were +reprint"ing" in a "third" edition: this cannot allude to the "Lyrical +Ballads", because of the number and the participle present. * * * I am +bitterly angry to see one new poem [1] smuggled into the world in the +"Lyrical Ballads", where the 750 purchasers of the first can never get +at it. At Falmouth I bought Thomas Dermody's "Poems", for old +acquaintance sake; alas! the boy wrote better than the man! * * * Pye's +"Alfred" (to distinguish him from Alfred the pious [2]) I have not yet +inspected; nor the wilful murder of Bonaparte, by Anna Matilda; nor the +high treason committed by Sir James Bland Burgess, Baronet, against our +lion-hearted Richard. Davy is fallen stark mad with a play, called the +"Conspiracy of Gowrie", which is by Rough; an imitation of "Gebir", with +some poetry; but miserably and hopelessly deficient in all else: every +character reasoning, and metaphorising, and metaphysicking the reader +most nauseously. By the by, there is a great analogy between hock, +laver, pork pie, and the "Lyrical Ballads",--all have a "flavour", not +beloved by those who require a taste, and utterly unpleasant to +dram-drinkers, whose diseased palates can only feel pepper and brandy. I +know not whether Wordsworth will forgive the stimulant tale of +"Thalaba",--'tis a turtle soup, highly seasoned, but with a flavour of +its own predominant. His are sparagrass (it ought to be spelt so) and +artichokes, good with plain butter, and wholesome. + +I look on "Madoc" with hopeful displeasure; probably it must be +corrected, and published now; this coming into the world at seven months +is a bad way; with a Doctor Slop of a printer's devil standing ready for +the forced birth, and frightening one into an abortion. * * * Is there +an emigrant at Keswick, who may make me talk and write French? And I +must sit at my almost forgotten Italian, and read German with you; and +we must read Tasso together. + +God bless you! + +Yours, + +R. S. + + +[Footnote 1: Coleridge's poem of "Love".] + +[Footnote 2: This alludes to Mr. Cottle's "Alfred".] + + +The next two letters to Davy indicate that Coleridge's health was now of +the worst, and that he was thinking seriously of emigrating for some +time. + + + + +LETTER 107. TO DAVY + +Monday, May 4, 1801. + +My dear Davy, + +I heard from Tobin the day before yesterday--nay, it was Friday. From +him I learn that you are giving lectures on galvanism. Would to God I +were one of your auditors! My motive muscles tingled and contracted at +the news, as if you had bared them, and were 'zincifying' their +life-mocking fibres. + +When you have leisure and impulse--perfect leisure and a complete +impulse--write to me, but only then. For though there does not exist a +man on earth who yields me greater pleasure by writing to me, yet I have +neither pain nor disquietude from your silence. I have a deep faith in +the guardianship of Nature over you--of the Great Being whom you are +manifesting. Heaven bless you, my dear Davy! + +I have been rendered uneasy by an account of the Lisbon packet's +non-arrival, lest Southey should have been on board it. Have you heard +from him lately? + +It would seem affectation to write to you and say nothing of my health; +but in truth I am weary of giving useless pain. Yesterday I should have +been incapable of writing you this scrawl, and to-morrow I may be as +bad. "'Sinking, sinking, sinking!' I feel that I am 'sinking'." My +medical attendant says that it is irregular gout, with nephritic +symptoms. 'Gout', in a young man of twenty-nine!! Swollen knees, and +knotty fingers, a loathing stomach, and a dizzy head. Trust me, friend, +I am at times an object of moral disgust to my own mind! But that this +long illness has impoverished me, I should immediately go to St. +Miguels, one of the Azores--the baths and the delicious climate might +restore me--and if it were possible, I would afterwards send over for my +wife and children, and settle there for a few years; it is exceedingly +cheap. On this supposition Wordsworth and his sister have with generous +friendship offered to settle there with me--and happily our dear Southey +would come too. But of this I pray you, my dear fellow, do not say a +syllable to any human being, for the scheme, from the present state of +my circumstances, is rather the thing of a "wish" than of a "hope". + +If you write to me, pray in a couple of sentences tell me whether +Herschell's thermometric "spectrum" (in the "Philos. Trans.") will lead +to any revolution in the chemical philosophy. As far as "words" go, I +have become a formidable chemist--having got by heart a prodigious +quantity of terms, etc., to which I attach "some" ideas, very scanty in +number, I assure you, and right meagre in their individual persons. That +which must discourage me in it is, that I find all "power" of vital +attributes to depend on modes of "arrangement", and that chemistry +throws not even a distant rushlight glimmer upon this subject. The +"reasoning", likewise, is always unsatisfactory to me. I am perpetually +saying, probably there are many agents hitherto undiscovered. This +cannot be reasoning: we must have a deep conviction that all the "terms" +have been exhausted. This is saying no more than that (with Dr. +Beddoes's leave) chemistry can never possess the same kind of certainty +with the mathematics--in truth, it is saying nothing. I grow, however, +exceedingly interested in the subject. + +God love you, my dear friend! From Tobin's account, I fear that I must +give up a very sweet vision--that of seeing you this summer. The summer +after, my ghost perhaps may be a gas. + +Yours affectionately, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter CXVIII follows No. 107.] + + + + +LETTER 108. TO DAVY + +Greta Hall, Keswick, May 20, 1801. + +My dear Davy, + +Though we of the north must forego you, yet I shall rejoice when I +receive a letter from you from Cornwall. I must believe that you have +made some important discoveries in galvanism, and connected the facts +with other more interesting ones, or I should be puzzled to conceive how +that subject could furnish matter for more than one lecture. If I +recollect aright, you have identified it with electricity, and that +indeed is a wide field. I shall dismiss my 'British Critic' and take in +'Nicholson's Journal', and then I shall know something about you. I am +sometimes apprehensive that my passion for science is scarcely true and +genuine--it is but 'Davyism'! that is, I fear that I am more delighted +at 'your' having discovered facts than at the facts having been +discovered. + +My health is better. I am indeed eager to believe that I am really +beginning to recover, though I have had so many short recoveries +followed by severe relapses, that I am at times almost afraid to hope. +But cheerful thoughts come with genial sensations; and hope is itself no +mean medicine. + +I am anxious respecting Robert Southey. Why is he not in England? +Remember me kindly to Tobin. As soon as I have anything to communicate I +will write to him. But, alas! sickness turns large districts of time +into dreary uniformity of sandy desolation. Alas, for Egypt--and Menou! +However, I trust the 'English' will keep it, if they take it, and +something will be gained to the cause of human nature. + +Heaven bless you! + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +The next letter to Godwin renews his complaints about health. + + + + +LETTER 109. To GODWIN + +Greta Hall, Keswick. + +Dear Godwin, + +I have had, during the last three weeks, such numerous interruptions of +my "uninterrupted rural retirement," such a succession of visitors, both +indigenous and exotic, that verily I wanted both the time and composure +necessary to answer your letter of the first of June--at present I am +writing to you from my bed. For, in consequence of a very sudden change +in the weather from intense heat to a raw and scathing chillness, my +bodily health has suffered a relapse as severe as it was unexpected.... + +I have not yet received either "Antonio", or your pamphlet, in answer to +Dr. Parr and the Scotch gentleman [1] (who is to be professor of morals +to the young nabobs at Calcutta, with an establishment of £3,000 a +year!). Stuart was so kind as to send me Fenwick's review of it in a +paper called the "Albion", and Mr. Longman has informed me that, by your +orders, the pamphlet itself has been left for me at his house. The +extracts which I saw pleased me much, with the exception of the +introduction, which is incorrectly and clumsily worded. But, indeed, I +have often observed that, whatever you write, the first page is always +the worst in the book. I wish that instead of six days you had employed +six months, and instead of a half-crown pamphlet, had given us a good +half-guinea octavo. But you may yet do this. It strikes me, that both in +this work, and in the second edition of the "Political Justice", your +retractations have been more injudicious than the assertions or dogmas +retracted. But this is no fit subject for a mere letter. If I had time, +which I have not, I would write two or three sheets for your sole +inspection, entitled "History of the Errors and Blunders of the Literary +Life of William Godwin". To the world it would appear a paradox to say +that you are at all too persuadable, but you yourself know it to be the +truth. + +I shall send back your manuscript on Friday, with my criticisms. You say +in your last, "How I wish you were here!" When I see how little I have +written of what I could have talked, I feel with you that a letter is +but "a mockery" to a full and ardent mind. In truth I feel this so +forcibly that, if I could be certain that I should remain in this +country, I should press you to come down, and finish the whole in my +house. But, if I can by any means raise the moneys, I shall go in the +first vessel that leaves Liverpool for the Azores (St. Michael's, to +wit), and these sail at the end of July. Unless I can escape one English +winter and spring I have not any rational prospect of recovery. You +"cannot help regarding uninterrupted rural retirement as a principal +cause" of my ill health. My ill health commenced at Liverpool, in the +shape of blood-shot eyes and swollen eyelids, while I was in the daily +habit of visiting the Liverpool literati--these, on my settling at +Keswick, were followed by large boils in my neck and shoulders; these, +by a violent rheumatic fever; this, by a distressing and tedious +hydrocele; and, since then, by irregular gout, which promises at this +moment to ripen into a legitimate fit. What uninterrupted rural +retirement can have had to do in the production of these outward and +visible evils, I cannot guess; what share it has had in consoling me +under them, I know with a tranquil mind and feel with a grateful heart. +O that you had now before your eyes the delicious picture of lake, and +river, and bridge, and cottage, and spacious field with its pathway, and +woody hill with its spring verdure, and mountain with the snow yet +lingering in fantastic patches upon it, even the same which I had from +my sick bed, even without raising my head from the pillow! O God! all +but dear and lovely things seemed to be known to my imagination only as +words; even the forms which struck terror into me in my fever-dreams +were still forms of beauty. Before my last seizure I bent down to pick +something from the ground, and when I raised my head, I said to Miss +Wordsworth, "I am sure, Rotha, that I am going to be ill;" for as I bent +my head there came a distinct, vivid spectrum upon my eyes; it was one +little picture--a rock, with birches and ferns on it, a cottage backed +by it, and a small stream. Were I a painter I would give an outward +existence to this, but it will always live in my memory. + +By-the-bye, our rural retirement has been honoured by the company of Mr. +Sharp, and the poet Rogers; the latter, though not a man of very +vigorous intellect, won a good deal both on myself and Wordsworth, for +what he said evidently came from his own feelings, and was the result of +his own observation. + +My love to your dear little one. I begin to feel my knee preparing to +make ready for the reception of the Lady Arthritis. God bless you and + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Tuesday Evening, June 23, 1801. [2] + +[Footnote 1: Mackintosh] + +[Footnote 2: Letters CXIX-CXXII follow No. 109.] + + +Coleridge, for want of funds, was unable for the present to carry out +his project of going abroad, and the next letter to Davy tells us that +he had resolved to go to London instead, and write for the daily papers +again. + + + + +LETTER 110. To DAVY + +Greta Hall, Keswick, Cumberland, October 31, 1801. + +My dear Davy, + +I do not know by what fatality it has happened, but so it is; that I +have thought more often of you, and I may say, "yearned" after your +society more for the last three months than I ever before did, and yet I +have not written to you. But you know that I honour you, and that I love +whom I honour. Love and esteem with me have no dividual being; and +wherever this is not the case, I suspect there must be some lurking +moral superstition which nature gets the better of; and that the real +meaning of the phrase "I love him though I cannot esteem him," is--I +esteem him, but not according to my system of esteem. But you, my dear +fellow, 'all' men love and esteem--which is the only suspicious part of +your character--at least according to the 5th chapter of St. +Matthew.--God bless you. + +And now for the business of this letter. 'If I can', I leave this place +so as to be in London on Wednesday, the 11th of next month; in London I +shall stay a fortnight; but as I am in feeble health, and have a perfect +'phobia' of inns and coffee-houses, I should rejoice if you or Southey +should be able to offer me a bed-room for the fortnight aforesaid. From +London I move southward. Now for the italicized words 'if I can'. The +cryptical and implicit import of which is--I have a damned thorn in my +leg, which the surgeon has not been yet able to extract--and but that I +have metaphysicized most successfully on 'Pain', in consequence of the +accident, by the Great Scatterer of Thoughts, I should have been half +mad. But as it is I have borne it 'like a woman', which, I believe, to +be two or three degrees at least beyond a 'stoic'. A suppuration is +going on, and I endure in hope. + +I have redirected some of Southey's letters to you, taking it for +granted that you will see him immediately on his arrival in town; he +left us yesterday afternoon. Let me hear from you, if it be only to say +what I know already, that you will be glad to see me. O, dear friend, +thou one of the two human beings of whom I dare hope with a hope, that +elevates my own heart. O bless you! + +S.T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters CXXIII-CXXXI follow No. 110.] + + + +Sir Humphry Davy's description of Coleridge at this date is well known, +and we must quote it; "Coleridge has left London for Keswick. During his +stay in town I saw him seldomer than usual; when I did see him, it was +generally in the midst of large companies, where he is the image of +power and activity. His eloquence is unimpaired: perhaps it is softer +and stronger. His will is less than ever commensurate with his ability. +Brilliant images of greatness float upon his mind, like images of the +morning clouds on the waters. Their forms are changed by the motions of +the waves, they are agitated by every breeze, and modified by every +sunbeam. He talked in the course of an hour of beginning three works; he +recited the poem of 'Christabel' unfinished, and as I had before heard +it. What talent does he not waste in forming visions, sublime, but +unconnected with the real world! I have looked to his efforts, as to the +efforts of a creating being; but as yet he has not laid the foundation +for the new world of intellectual forms" ('Fragmentary Remains', p. 74). + +Southey had now returned from Portugal, and was also in London +('Southey's Letters', i, 183). It was not till September, 1803, that +Southey came to Keswick ('Southey's Letters', i, 229-31). During the +interval Coleridge had written various things for the 'Morning Post', +the most outstanding contributions being the two powerful letters to Fox +of 4th and 9th November 1802, written on the occasion of that statesman +going to Paris and paying court to Napoleon. The next eight letters to +Thomas Wedgwood give the best impression of Coleridge between October +1802 and February 1803. + + + + + +Letter 111 To Thomas Wedgwood + +Keswick, Oct. 20, 1802. + +My dear sir, + +This is my birthday, my thirtieth. It will not appear wonderful to you, +when I tell you, that before the arrival of your letter, I had been +thinking with a great weight of different feelings, concerning you, and +your dear brother, for I have good reason to believe, that I should not +now have been alive, if in addition to other miseries, I had had +immediate poverty pressing upon me. I will never again remain silent so +long. It has not been altogether indolence, or my habit of +procrastination which have [1] kept me from writing, but an eager +wish,--I may truly say, a thirst of spirit, to have something honourable +to tell you of myself. + +At present I must be content to tell you something cheerful. My health +is very much better. I am stronger in every respect, and am not injured +by study, or the act of sitting at my writing desk; but my eyes suffer +if at any time I have been intemperate in the use of candle-light. This +account supposes another, namely, that my mind is calm, and more at +ease. My dear sir, when I was last with you at Stowey, my heart was +often full, and I could scarcely keep from communicating to you the tale +of my distresses, but could I add to your depression, when you were low? +or how interrupt, or cast a shade on your good spirits, that were so +rare, and so precious to you? ... + + +I found no comfort but in the driest speculations;--in the 'Ode to +Dejection', which you were pleased with. These lines, in the original, +followed the line "My shaping spirit of imagination,"-- + + + 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 + And that which suits a part infests the whole, + And now is almost grown the temper [2] of my soul. + + + +I give you these lines for the spirit, and not for the poetry. ... + + +But better days are arrived, and are still to come, I have had +Visitations of Hope--that I may yet be something of which those who love +me may be proud. + +I cannot write that without recalling dear Poole. I have heard twice, +and written twice, and I fear by a strange fatality, one of the letters +will have missed him. Leslie [3] was here some time ago. I was very much +pleased with him. And now I will tell you what I am doing. I dedicate +three days in the week to the 'Morning Post', and shall hereafter write, +for the far greater part, such things as will be of as permanent +interest as any thing I can hope to write; and you will shortly see a +little essay of mine, justifying the writing in a newspaper. + +My comparison of the French with the Roman Empire was very favourably +received. The poetry which I have sent is merely the emptying out of my +desk. The epigrams are wretched indeed, but they answered Stuart's +purpose, better than better things. I ought not to have given any +signature to them whatsoever. I never dreamt of acknowledging either +them, or the 'Ode to the Rain'. As to feeble expressions, and unpolished +lines--there is the rub! Indeed, my dear sir, I do value your opinion +very highly. I think your judgment on the sentiment, the imagery, the +flow of a poem, decisive; at least, if it differed from my own, and if +after frequent consideration mine remained different, it would leave me +at least perplexed. For you are a perfect electrometer in these +things--but in point of poetic diction, I am not so well satisfied that +you do not require a certain aloofness from the language of real life, +which I think deadly to poetry. + +Very soon however I shall present you from the press with my opinions +full on the subject of style, both in prose and verse; and I am +confident of one thing, that I shall convince you that I have thought +much and patiently on the subject, and that I understand the whole +strength of my antagonist's cause. For I am now busy on the subject, and +shall in a very few weeks go to press with a volume on the prose +writings of Hall, Milton, and Taylor; and shall immediately follow it up +with an essay on the writings of Dr. Johnson and Gibbon, and in these +two volumes I flatter myself I shall present a fair history of English +Prose. If my life and health remain, and I do but write half as much, +and as regularly as I have done during the last six weeks, this will be +finished by January next; and I shall then put together my +memorandum-book on the subject of Poetry. In both I have endeavoured +sedulously to state the facts and the differences clearly and +accurately; and my reasons for the preference of one style to another +are secondary to this. + +Of this be assured, that I will never give any thing to the world in +'propria persona' in my own name which I have not tormented with the +file. I sometimes suspect that my foul copy would often appear to +general readers more polished than my fair copy. Many of the feeble and +colloquial expressions have been industriously substituted for others +which struck me as artificial, and not standing the test; as being +neither the language of passion, nor distinct conceptions. Dear sir, +indulge me with looking still further on in my literary life. + +I have, since my twentieth year, meditated an heroic poem on the 'Siege +of Jerusalem', by Titus. This is the pride and the stronghold of my +hope, but I never think of it except in my best moods. The work to which +I dedicate the ensuing years of my life, is one which highly pleased +Leslie, in prospective, and my paper will not let me prattle to you +about it. I have written what you more wished me to write, all about +myself. + +Our climate (in the north) is inclement, and our houses not as compact +as they might be, but it is a stirring climate, and the worse the +weather, the more unceasingly entertaining are my study windows, and the +month that is to come is the glory of the year with us. A very warm +bed-room I can promise you, and one at the same time which commands the +finest lake and mountain view. If Leslie could not go abroad with you, +and I could in any way mould my manners and habits to suit you, I should +of all things like to be your companion. Good nature, an affectionate +disposition, and so thorough a sympathy with the nature of your +complaint, that I should feel no pain, not the most momentary, at being +told by you what your feelings require at the time in which they +required it; this I should bring with me. But I need not say that you +may say to me,--"You don't suit me," without inflicting the least +mortification. Of course this letter is for your brother, as for you; +but I shall write to him soon. God bless you, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + +[Footnote 1: 'Sic.'] + +[Footnote 2: Cottle prints "temple," an error.] + +[Footnote 3: The eminent Edinburg Professor. For three years the private +tutor of Mr. T. Wedgwood (Cottle). [For further information regarding +John, aftwards Sir John, Leslie (1766-1832) see 'Tom Wedgwood' by +Lichfield.]] + + + + +LETTER 112. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +Keswick, November 3, 1802. + +Dear Wedgwood, + +It is now two hours since I received your letter; and after the +necessary consultation, Mrs. Coleridge herself is fully of opinion that +to lose time is merely to lose spirits. Accordingly I have resolved not +to look the children in the face, (the parting from whom is the +downright bitter in the thing) but to go to London by to-morrow's mail. +Of course I shall be in London, God permitting, on Saturday morning. I +shall rest that day, and the next, and proceed to Bristol by the Monday +night's mail. At Bristol I will go to "Cote-House"[1] At all events, +barring serious illness, serious fractures, and the et cetera of serious +unforeseens, I shall be at Bristol, Tuesday noon, November 9. + +You are aware that my whole knowledge of French does not extend beyond +the power of limping slowly, not without a dictionary crutch, through an +easy French book: and that as to pronunciation, all my organs of speech, +from the bottom of the Larynx to the edge of my lips, are utterly and +naturally anti-Gallican. If only I shall have been any comfort, any +alleviation to you I shall feel myself at ease--and whether you go +abroad or no, while I remain with you, it will greatly contribute to my +comfort, if I know you will have no hesitation, nor pain, in telling me +what you wish me to do, or not to do. + +I regard it among the blessings of my life, that I have never lived +among men whom I regarded as my artificial superiors: that all the +respect I have at any time paid, has been wholly to supposed goodness, +or talent. The consequence has been that I have no alarms of pride; no +"cheval de frise" of independence. I have always lived among equals. It +never occurs to me, even for a moment, that I am otherwise. If I have +quarrelled with men, it has been as brothers or as school-fellows +quarrel. How little any man can give me, or take from me, save in +matters of kindness and esteem, is not so much a thought or conviction +with me, or even a distinct feeling, as it is my very nature. Much as I +dislike all formal declarations of this kind, I have deemed it well to +say this. I have as strong feelings of gratitude as any man. Shame upon +me if in the sickness and the sorrow which I have had, and which have +been kept unaggravated and supportable by your kindness, and your +brother's (Mr. Josiah Wedgwood) shame upon me if I did not feel a +kindness, not unmixed with reverence towards you both. But yet I never +should have had my present impulses to be with you, and this confidence, +that I may become an occasional comfort to you, if, independently of all +gratitude, I did not thoroughly esteem you; and if I did not appear to +myself to understand the nature of your sufferings; and within the last +year, in some slight degree to have felt myself, something of the same. + +Forgive me, my dear sir, if I have said too much. It is better to write +it than to say it, and I am anxious in the event of our travelling +together that you should yourself be at ease with me, even as you would +with a younger brother, to whom, from his childhood you had been in the +habit of saying, "Do this Col." or "don't do that." All good be with +you. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq.[2] + +[Footnote: 1 Westbury, near Bristol, the then residence of Mr. John +Wedgwood.] + +[Footnote 2: Letters CXXXII-CXXXIV follow 112.] + + + +LETTER 113. To THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +Keswick, January 9, 1803. + +My dear Wedgwood, + +I send you two letters, one from your dear sister, the second from +Sharp, by which you will see at what short notice I must be off, if I go +to the "Canaries", If your last plan continue in full force, I have not +even the phantom of a wish thitherward struggling, but if aught have +happened to you, in the things without, or in the world within, to +induce you to change the place, or the plan, relatively to me, I think I +could raise the money. But I would a thousand-fold rather go with you +whithersoever you go. I shall be anxious to hear how you have gone on +since I left you. You should decide in favour of a better climate +somewhere or other. The best scheme I can think of, is to go to some +part of Italy or Sicily, which we both liked. I would look out for two +houses. Wordsworth and his family would take the one, and I the other, +and then you might have a home either with me, or if you thought of Mr. +and Mrs. Luff, under this modification, one of your own; and in either +case you would have neighbours, and so return to England when the home +sickness pressed heavy upon you, and back to Italy when it was abated, +and the climate of England began to poison your comforts. So you would +have abroad in a genial climate, certain comforts of society among +simple and enlightened men and women; and I should be an alleviation of +the pang which you will necessarily feel, as often as you quit your own +family. + +I know no better plan: for travelling in search of objects is at best a +dreary business, and whatever excitement it might have had, you must +have exhausted it. God bless you, my dear friend. I write with dim eyes, +for indeed, indeed, my heart is very full of affectionate sorrowful +thoughts toward you. + +I write with difficulty, with all the fingers but one of my right hand +very much swollen. Before I was half up the "Kirkstone" mountain, the +storm had wetted me through and through, and before I reached the top it +was so wild and outrageous, that it would have been unmanly to have +suffered the poor woman (guide) to continue pushing on, up against such +a torrent of wind and rain: so I dismounted and sent her home with the +storm in her back. I am no novice in mountain mischiefs, but such a +storm as this was, I never witnessed, combining the intensity of the +cold, with the violence of the wind and rain. The rain drops were pelted +or slung against my face by the gusts, just like splinters of flint, and +I felt as if every drop cut my flesh. My hands were all shrivelled up +like a washer-woman's, and so benumbed that I was obliged to carry my +stick under my arm. O, it was a wild business! Such hurry skurry of +clouds, such volleys of sound! In spite of the wet and the cold, I +should have had some pleasure in it, but for two vexations; first, an +almost intolerable pain came into my right eye, a smarting and burning +pain; and secondly, in consequence of riding with such cold water under +my seat, extremely uneasy and burthensome feelings attacked my groin, so +that, what with the pain from the one, and the alarm from the other, I +had "no enjoyment at all"! + +Just at the brow of the hill I met a man dismounted, who could not sit +on horse-back. He seemed quite scared by the uproar, and said to me, +with much feeling, "O sir, it is a perilous buffeting, but it is worse +for you than for me, for I have it at my back." However I got safely +over, and immediately all was calm and breathless, as if it was some +mighty fountain put on the summit of Kirkstone, that shot forth its +volcano of air, and precipitated huge streams of invisible lava down the +road to Patterdale. + +I went on to Grasmere. [1] I was not at all unwell, when I arrived +there, though wet of course to the skin. My right eye had nothing the +matter with it, either to the sight of others, or to my own feelings, +but I had a bad night, with distressful dreams, chiefly about my eye; +and waking often in the dark I thought it was the effect of mere +recollection, but it appeared in the morning that my right eye was +blood-shot, and the lid swollen. That morning however I walked home, and +before I reached Keswick, my eye was quite well, but "I felt unwell all +over". Yesterday I continued unusually unwell all over me till eight +o'clock in the evening. I took no "laudanum or opium", but at eight +o'clock, unable to bear the stomach uneasiness and achings of my limbs, +I took two large tea-spoons full of Ether in a wine glass of camphorated +gum-water, and a third teaspoon full at ten o'clock, and I received +complete relief; my body calmed; my sleep placid; but when I awoke in +the morning, my right hand, with three of the fingers, was swollen and +inflamed. The swelling in the hand is gone down, and of two of the +fingers somewhat abated, but the middle finger is still twice its +natural size, so that I write with difficulty. This has been a very +rough attack, but though I am much weakened by it, and look sickly and +haggard, yet I am not out of heart. Such a 'bout'; such a "periless +buffetting," was enough to have hurt the health of a strong man. Few +constitutions can bear to be long wet through in intense cold. I fear it +will tire you to death to read this prolix scrawled story. + +Affectionately dear Friend, Yours ever, + +S. T. COLERIDGE.[2] + + +[Footnote 1: The then residence of Mr. Wordsworth. [Cottle.]] + +[Footnote 2: Letter CXXXV is our No. 110.] + + + + + +LETTER 114. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +Friday night, Jan. 14, 1803 + +Dear Friend, + +I was glad at heart to receive your letter, and still more gladdened by +the reading of it. The exceeding kindness which it breathed was +literally medicinal to me, and I firmly believe, cured me of a nervous +rheumatic affection, the acid and the oil, very completely at +Patterdale; but by the time it came to Keswick, the oil was all atop. + +You ask me, "Why, in the name of goodness, I did not return when I saw +the state of the weather?" The true reason is simple, though it may be +somewhat strange. The thought never once entered my head. The cause of +this I suppose to be, that (I do not remember it at least) I never once +in my whole life turned back in fear of the weather. Prudence is a +plant, of which I no doubt possess some valuable specimens, but they are +always in my hothouse, never out of the glasses, and least of all things +would endure the climate of the mountains. In simple earnestness, I +never find myself alone, within the embracement of rocks and hills, a +traveller up an alpine road, but my spirit careers, drives, and eddies, +like a leaf in autumn; a wild activity of thoughts, imaginations, +feelings, and impulses of motion rises up from within me; a sort of +bottom wind, that blows to no point of the compass, comes from I know +not whence, but agitates the whole of me; my whole being is filled with +waves that roll and stumble, one this way, and one that way, like things +that have no common master. I think that my soul must have pre-existed +in the body of a chamois chaser. The simple image of the old object has +been obliterated, but the feelings, and impulsive habits, and incipient +actions, are in me, and the old scenery awakens them. + +The further I ascend from animated nature, from men, and cattle, and the +common birds of the woods and fields, the greater becomes in me the +intensity of the feeling of life. Life seems to me then an universal +spirit, that neither has, nor can have an opposite. "God is everywhere," +I have exclaimed, and works everywhere, and where is there room for +death? In these moments it has been my creed, that death exists only +because ideas exist; that life is limitless sensation; that death is a +child of the organic senses, chiefly of the sight; that feelings die by +flowing into the mould of the intellect becoming ideas, and that ideas +passing forth into action, reinstate themselves again in the world of +life. And I do believe that truth lies in these loose generalizations. I +do not think it possible that any bodily pains could eat out the love of +joy, that is so substantially part of me, towards hills, and rocks, and +steep waters; and I have had some trial. + +On Monday night I had an attack in my stomach and right side, which in +pain, and the length of its continuance appeared to me by far the +severest I ever had. About one o'clock the pain passed out of my +stomach, like lightning from a cloud, into the extremities of my right +foot. My toe swelled and throbbed, and I was in a state of delicious +ease, which the pain in my toe did not seem at all to interfere with. On +Tuesday I was uncommonly well all the morning, and ate an excellent +dinner; but playing too long and too rompingly with Hartley and Derwent, +I was very unwell that evening. On Wednesday I was well, and after +dinner wrapped myself up warm, and walked with Sarah Hutchinson, to +Lodore. I never beheld anything more impressive than the wild outline of +the black masses of mountain over Lodore, and so on to the gorge of +Borrowdale. Even through the bare twigs of a grove of birch trees, +through which the road passes; and on emerging from the grove a red +planet, so very red that I never saw a star so red, being clear and +bright at the same time. It seemed to have sky behind it. It started, as +it were from the heavens, like an eye-ball of fire. I wished aloud at +that moment that you had been with me. + +The walk appears to have done me good, but I had a wretched night; +shocking pains in my head, occiput, and teeth, and found in the morning +that I had two blood-shot eyes. But almost immediately after the receipt +and perusal of your letter the pains left me, and I am bettered to this +hour; and am now indeed as well as usual saving that my left eye is very +much blood-shot. It is a sort of duty with me, to be particular +respecting facts that relate to my health. I have retained a good sound +appetite through the whole of it, without any craving after exhilarants +or narcotics, and I have got well as in a moment. Rapid recovery is +constitutional with me; but the former circumstances, I can with +certainty refer to the system of diet, abstinence from vegetables, wine, +spirits, and beer, which I have adopted by your advice. + +I have no dread or anxiety respecting any fatigue which either of us is +likely to undergo, even in continental travelling. Many a healthy man +would have been laid up with such a bout of thorough wet, and intense +cold at the same time, as I had at Kirkstone. Would to God that also for +your sake I were a stronger man, but I have strong wishes to be with +you. I love your society, and receiving much comfort from you, and +believing likewise that I receive much improvement, I find a delight +very great, my dear friend! indeed it is, when I have reason to imagine +that I am in return an alleviation to your destinies, and a comfort to +you. I have no fears and am ready to leave home at a two days' warning. +For myself I should say two hours, but bustle and hurry might disorder +Mrs. Coleridge. She and the three children are quite well.[1] + +I grieve that there is a lowering in politics. The 'Moniteur' contains +almost daily some bitter abuse of our minister and parliament, and in +London there is great anxiety and omening. I have dreaded war from the +time that the disastrous fortunes of the expedition to Saint Domingo, +under Le Clerc, was known in France. Write me one or two lines, as few +as you like. + +I remain, my dear Wedgwood, with most affectionate esteem, and grateful +attachment, + +Your sincere friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + +[Footnote 1: Sara had been born 23rd December 1802.] + + + + +LETTER 115. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +Nether Stowey, Feb. 10, 1803. + +Dear Wedgwood, + +Last night Poole and I fully expected a few lines from you. When the +newspaper came in, without your letter, we felt as if a dull neighbour +had been ushered in after a knock at the door which had made us rise up +and start forward to welcome some long absent friend. Indeed in Poole's +case, this simile is less over-swollen than in mine, for in contempt of +my convictions and assurance to the contrary, Poole, passing off the +Brummagem coin of his wishes for sterling reasons, had persuaded himself +fully that he should see you in 'propria persona'. The truth is, we had +no right to expect a letter from you, and I should have attributed your +not writing to your having nothing to write, to your bodily dislike of +writing, or, though with reluctance, to low spirits, but that I have +been haunted with the fear that your sister is worse, and that you are +at Cote-House, in the mournful office of comforter to your brother. God +keep us from idle dreams. Life has enough of real pains. + +I wrote to Captain Wordsworth to get me some Bang. The captain in an +affectionate letter answers me: "The Bang if possible shall be sent. If +any country ship arrives I shall certainly get it. We have not got +anything of the kind in our China ships." If you would rather wait till +it can be brought by Captain Wordsworth himself from China, give me a +line that I may write and tell him. We shall hope for a letter from you +to-night. I need not say, dear Wedgwood, how anxious I am to hear the +particulars of your health and spirits. + +Poole's account of his conversations, etc., in France, are very +interesting and instructive. If your inclination lead you hither you +would be very comfortable here. But I am ready at an hour's warning; +ready in heart and mind, as well as in body and moveables. + +I am, dear Wedgwood, most truly yours, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + + + + +LETTER 116. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD. + +Stowey, Feb. 10, 1803. + +My dear Wedgwood, + +With regard to myself and my accompanying you, let me say thus much. My +health is not worse than it was in the North; indeed it is much better. +I have no fears. But if you fear that, my health being what you know it +to be, the inconveniences of my being with you will be greater than the +advantages; (I feel no reluctance in telling you so) [1] it is so +entirely an affair of spirits and feeling that the conclusion must be +made by you, not in your reason, but purely in your spirit and feeling. +Sorry indeed should I be to know that you had gone abroad with one, to +whom you were comparatively indifferent. Sorry if there should be no one +with you, who could with fellow-feeling and general like-mindedness, +yield you sympathy in your sunshiny moments. Dear Wedgwood, my heart +swells within me as it were. I have no other wish to accompany you than +what arises immediately from my personal attachment, and a deep sense in +my own heart, that let us be as dejected as we will, a week together +cannot pass in which a mind like yours would not feel the want of +affection, or be wholly torpid to its pleasurable influences. I cannot +bear to think of your going abroad with a mere travelling companion; +with one at all influenced by salary, or personal conveniences. You will +not suspect me of flattering you, but indeed dear Wedgwood, you are too +good and too valuable a man to deserve to receive attendance from a +hireling, even for a month together, in your present state. + +If I do not go with you, I shall stay in England only such time as may +be necessary for me to raise the travelling money, and go immediately to +the south of France. I shall probably cross the Pyrenees to Bilboa, see +the country of Biscay, and cross the north of Spain to Perpignan, and so +on to the north of Italy, and pass my next winter at Nice. I have every +reason to believe that I can live, even as a traveller, as cheap as I +can in England. God bless you. I will repeat no professions, even in the +superscription of a letter. You know me, and that it is my serious, +simple wish, that in everything respecting me, you would think +altogether of yourself, and nothing of me, and be assured that no +resolve of yours, however suddenly adopted, or however nakedly +communicated, will give me any pain, any at least arising from my own +bearings. + +Yours ever, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + +P. S. Perhaps Leslie will go with you. + +[Footnote 1: Should be "Feel no reluctance in telling me so."] + + + + +LETTER 117. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD. + +Poole's, Feb. 17, 1803. + +My dear Wedgwood, + +I do not know that I have anything to say that justifies me in troubling +you with the postage and perusal of this scrawl. I received a short and +kind letter from Josiah last night. He is named the sheriff. Poole, who +has received a very kind invitation from your brother John, in a letter +of last Monday, and which was repeated in last night's letter, goes with +me, I hope in the full persuasion that you will be there (at Cote-House) +before he be under the necessity of returning home. Poole is a very, +very good man, I like even his incorrigibility in little faults and +deficiencies. It looks like a wise determination of nature to let well +alone. + +Are you not laying out a scheme which will throw your travelling in +Italy, into an unpleasant and unwholesome part of the year? From all I +can gather, you ought to leave this country at the first of April at the +latest. But no doubt you know these things better than I. If I do not go +with you, it is very probable we shall meet somewhere or other. At all +events you will know where I am, and I can come to you if you wish it. +And if I go with you, there will be this advantage, that you may drop me +where you like, if you should meet any Frenchman, Italian, or Swiss, +whom you liked, and who would be pleasant and profitable to you. But +this we can discuss at Gunville. + +As to ----,[1] I never doubted that he means to fulfil his engagements +with you, but he is one of those weak moralled men, with whom the +meaning to do a thing means nothing. He promises with ninety parts out +of a hundred of his whole heart, but there is always a speck of cold at +the core that transubstantiates the whole resolve into a lie. + +I remain in comfortable health,--warm rooms, an old friend, and +tranquillity, are specifics for my complaints. With all my ups and downs +I have a deal of joyous feeling, and I would with gladness give a good +part of it to you, my dear friend. God grant that spring may come to you +with healing on her wings. + +God bless you, my dear Wedgwood. I remain with most affectionate esteem, +and regular attachment, and good wishes. + +Yours ever, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + +P. S. If Southey should send a couple of bottles, one of the red +sulphate, and one of the compound acids for me, will you be so good as +to bring them with you? + +[Footnote 1: Mackintosh.] + + + +LETTER 118. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD. + +Stowey, Feb. 17, 1803. + +My dear Wedgwood, + +Last night I received a four ounce parcel letter, by the post, which +Poole and I concluded was the mistake or carelessness of the servant, +who had put the letter into the post office, instead of the coach +office. I should have been indignant, if dear Poole had not set me +laughing. On opening it, it contained my letter from Gunville, and a +small parcel of "Bang," from Purkis. I will transcribe the parts of his +letter which relate to it. + + +Brentford, Feb. 7, 1803. + +My dear Coleridge, + +I thank you for your letter, and am happy to be the means of obliging +you. Immediately on the receipt of yours, I wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, +who I verily believe is one of the most excellent and useful men of this +country, requesting a small quantity of Bang, and saying it was for the +use of Mr. T. Wedgwood. I yesterday received the parcel which I now +send, accompanied with a very kind letter, and as part of it will be +interesting to you and your friend, I will transcribe it. "The Bang you +ask for is the powder of the leaves of a kind of hemp that grows in the +hot climates. It is prepared, and I believe used, in all parts of the +east, from Morocco to China. In Europe it is found to act very +differently on different constitutions. Some it elevates in the extreme; +others it renders torpid, and scarcely observant of any evil that may +befal them. In Barbary it is always taken, if it can be procured, by +criminals condemned to suffer amputation, and it is said, to enable +those miserables to bear the rough operations of an unfeeling +executioner, more than we Europeans can the keen knife of our most +skilful chirurgeons. This it may be necessary to have said to my friend +Mr. T. Wedgwood, whom I respect much, as his virtues deserve, and I know +them well. I send a small quantity only as I possess but little. If +however, it is found to agree, I will instantly forward the whole of my +stock, and write without delay to Barbary, from whence it came, for +more." + +Sir Joseph adds, in a postscript: "It seems almost beyond a doubt, that +the Nepenthe was a preparation of the Bang, known to the Ancients." + + +Now I had better take the small parcel with me to Gunville; if I send it +by the post, besides the heavy expense, I cannot rely on the Stowey +carriers, who are a brace of as careless and dishonest rogues as ever +had claims on that article of the hemp and timber trade, called the +gallows. Indeed I verily believe that if all Stowey, Ward excepted, does +not go to hell, it will be by the supererogation of Poole's sense of +honesty.--Charitable! + +We will have a fair trial of Bang. Do bring down some of the Hyoscyamine +pills, and I will give a fair trial of Opium, Henbane, and Nepenthe. +By-the-bye I always considered Homer's account of the Nepenthe as a +'Banging' lie. + +God bless you, my dear friend, and + +S.T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter CXXXVI follows 118.] + + +The last four letters were written from Stowey, whither Coleridge had +gone on a visit to Poole. + +During the same period some events had taken place which changed the +aspect of things. He had become acquainted with William Sotheby, the +poet, translator of Homer and Wieland, to whom he communicated in long +letters his views on Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction, indicating a +widening divergence from his brother poet. He had also made for the +satisfaction of Sotheby a translation in blank verse of Gessner's 'Erste +Schiffer', which has been lost ('Letters', 369-401). He had likewise +paraphrased one of Gessner's Idylls, published as the 'Picture of The +Lover's Resolution', in the 'Morning Post' of 6th September 1802. +'Dejection, an Ode', the 'Hymn before Sunrise', and the beautiful +dramatic fragment, the 'Night Scene', are the last products of +Coleridge's chilled poetic imagination. A third edition (1803) of the +Early Poems was issued under the superintendence of Lamb ('Ainger', i, +199-206). He had made a second tour in Wales in company with Tom +Wedgwood in November and December 1802 ('Letters', 410-417) returning to +find that Sara had been born on 23rd December 1802. In August 1803 +Coleridge went on tour to Scotland with the Wordsworths ('Letters', 451, +and Dorothy Wordsworth's 'Journal'). It is impossible for us to give all +the correspondence of this busy, mental period, but on 4th June 1803, +Coleridge writes to Godwin. + + + + + +LETTER 119. To GODWIN + +Saturday Night, June 4, 1803. + +Greta Hall, Keswick. + +My dear Godwin, + +I trust that my dear friend, C. Lamb, will have informed you how +seriously ill I have been. I arrived at Keswick on Good Friday, caught +the influenza, have struggled on in a series of convalescence and +relapse, the disease still assuming new shapes and symptoms; and, though +I am certainly better than at any former period of the disease, and more +steadily convalescent, yet it is not mere 'low spirits' that makes me +doubt whether I shall ever wholly surmount the effects of it. I owe, +then, explanation to you, for I quitted town, with strong feelings of +affectionate esteem towards you, and a firm resolution to write to you +within a short time after my arrival at my home. During my illness I was +exceedingly affected by the thought that month had glided away after +month, and year after year, and still had found and left me only +'preparing' for the experiments which are to ascertain whether the hopes +of those who have hoped proudly of me have been auspicious omens or mere +delusions; and the anxiety to realize something, and finish something, +has, no doubt, in some measure retarded my recovery. I am now, however, +ready to go to the press with a work which I consider as introductory to +a 'system', though to the public it will appear altogether a thing by +itself. I write now to ask your advice respecting the time and manner of +its publication, and the choice of a publisher, I entitle it + +'Organum Vera Organum, or an Instrument of Practical Reasoning in the +Business of Real Life'; [1] to which will be prefixed, +1. A familiar introduction to the common system of Logic, namely, that +of Aristotle and the Schools. +2. A concise and simple, yet full statement of the Aristotelian Logic, +with reference annexed to the authors, and the name and page of the work +to which each part may be traced, so that it may be at once seen what is +Aristotle's, what Porphyry's, what the addition of the Greek +Commentators, and what of the Schoolmen. +3. An outline of the History of Logic in general, + 1st Chapter. The Origin of Philosophy in general, and of Logic 'speciatim'. + 2d Chap. Of the Eleatic and Megaric Logic. + 3d Chap. of the Platonic Logic. + 4th Chap, of Aristotle, containing a fair account of the "*[Greek: + Orhganon]--of which Dr. Reid, in 'Kaimes' Sketches of Man', has given + a most false, and not only erroneous, but calumnious statement--in as + far as the account had not been anticipated in the second part of my + work, namely, the concise and simple, yet full, etc. etc. + 5th Chap. A philosophical examination of the truth and of the value of + the Aristotelian System of Logic, including all the after-additions to + it. + 6th Chap. On the characteristic merits and demerits of Aristotle and + Plato as philosophers in general, and an attempt to explain the fact + of the vast influence of the former during so many ages; and of the + influence of Plato's works on the restoration of the Belles Lettres, + and on the Reformation. + 7th Chap. Raymund Lully. + 8th Chap. Peter Ramus. + 9th Chap. Lord Bacon, or the Verulamian Logic. both Chap. Examination + of the same, and comparison of it with the Logic of Plato (in which I + attempt to make it probable that, though considered by Bacon himself + as the antithesis and the antidote of Plato, it is 'bona fide' the + same, and that Plato has been misunderstood).[2] + 10th Chap. Descartes, + 11th Chap. Condillac, and a philosophical examination of 'his' logic, + 'i.e.' the logic which he basely purloined from Hartley. +Then follows my own 'Organum Vera Organum', which consists of a +*[Greek: Eustaema] of all 'possible' modes of true, probable, and false +reasoning, arranged philosophically, 'i.e.' on a strict analysis of +those operations and passions of the mind in which they originate, or by +which they act; with one or more striking instances annexed to each, +from authors of high estimation, and to each instance of false +reasoning, the manner in which the sophistry is to be detected, and the +words in which it may be exposed. + +The whole will conclude with considerations of the value of the work, or +its practical utility in scientific investigations (especially the first +part, which contains the strictly demonstrative reasonings, and the +analysis of all the acts and passions of the mind which may be employed +to the discovery of truth) in the arts of healing, especially in those +parts that contain a catalogue, etc. of probable reasoning; lastly, to +the senate, the pulpit, and our law courts, to whom the whole--but +especially the latter three-fourths of the work, on the probable and the +false--will be useful, and finally instructive, how to form a +commonplace book by the aid of this Instrument, so as to read with +practical advantage, and (supposing average talents) to 'ensure' a +facility and rapidity in proving and in computing. I have thus amply +detailed the contents of my work, which has not been the labour of one +year or of two, but the result of many years' meditations, and of very +various reading. The size of the work will, printed at thirty lines a +page, form one volume octavo, 500 pages to the volume; and I shall be +ready with the first half of the work for the printer at a fortnight's +notice. Now, my dear friend, give me your thoughts on the subject: would +you have me to offer it to the booksellers, or, by the assistance of my +friends, print and publish on my own account? If the former, would you +advise me to sell the copyright at once, or only one or more editions? +Can you give me a general notion what terms I have a right to insist on +in either case? And, lastly, to whom would you advise me to apply? +Phillips is a pushing man, and a book is sure to have fair play if it be +his 'property'; and it could not be other than pleasant to me to have +the same publisher with yourself, 'but'----. Now if there be anything of +impatience, that whether truth and justice ought to follow that "'but'" +you will inform me. It is not my habit to go to work so seriously about +matters of pecuniary business; but my ill health makes my life more than +ordinarily uncertain, and I have a wife and three little ones. If your +judgment leads you to advise me to offer it to Phillips, would you take +the trouble of talking with him on the subject, and give him your real +opinion, whatever it may be, of the work and of the powers of the +author? + +When this book is fairly off my hands, I shall, if I live and have +sufficient health, set seriously to work in arranging what I have +already written, and in pushing forward my studies and my investigations +relative to the 'omne scibile' of human nature--'what' we are, and 'how +we become' what we are; so as to solve the two grand problems--how, +being acted upon, we shall act; how, acting, we shall be acted upon. But +between me and this work there may be death. + +I hope your wife and little ones are well. I have had a sick family. At +one time every individual--master, mistress, children, and +servants--were all laid up in bed, and we were waited on by persons +hired from the town for the week. But now all are well, I only excepted. +If you find my paper smell, or my style savour of scholastic quiddity, +you must attribute it to the infectious quality of the folio on which I +am writing--namely, 'Scotus Erigena de Divisione Naturae', the +forerunner, by some centuries, of the schoolmen. I cherish all kinds of +honourable feelings towards you; and I am, dear Godwin, + +Yours most sincerely, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1 Extant in MS. See 'Athenaeum', 26th October 1895.] + +[Footnote 2: See the 'Friend', Bohn Library, pp. 319-345.] + + + + +You know the high character and present scarcity of 'Tuckers Light of +Nature'. "I have found in this writer" (says Paley, in his preface to his +'Moral and Political Philosophy') "more original thinking and +observation upon the several subjects he has taken in hand than in any +other, not to say in all others put together". His talent also for +illustration is unrivalled. But his thoughts are diffused through a +long, various, and irregular work. And a friend of mine, every way +calculated by his taste and private studies for such a work,[1] is +willing to abridge and systematize that work from eight to two +volumes--in the words of Paley, "to dispose into method, to collect into +heads and articles, and to exhibit in more compact and tangible masses, +what in that otherwise excellent performance is spread over too much +surface." I would prefix to it an essay containing the whole substance +of the first volume of Hartley; entirely defecated from all the +corpuscular hypothesis, with more illustrations. I give my name to the +essay. Likewise I will revise every sheet of the abridgment. I should +think the character of the work, and the above quotations from so high +an authority (with the present public, I mean) as Paley, would ensure +its success. If you will read or transcribe, and send this to Mr. +Phillips, or to any other publisher (Longman and Rees excepted) you +would greatly oblige me; that is to say, my dear Godwin, you would +essentially serve a young man of profound genius and original mind, who +wishes to get his 'Sabine' subsistence by some employment from the +booksellers, while he is employing the remainder of his time in nursing +up his genius for the destiny which he believes appurtenant to it. "Qui +cito facit, bis facit." Impose any task on me in return. [2] + +[Footnote 1: Hazlitt. The abridgment was made, and published in 1807.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter CXXXVII follows 119.] + + + +Godwin published his 'Life of Chaucer' in 1803. The next letter refers +to this work. + + + + +LETTER 120. TO GODWIN + +Friday, July 10, 1803. + +Greta Hall. + +My dear Godwin, + +Your letter has this moment reached me, and found me writing for Stuart, +to whom I am under a positive engagement to produce three essays by the +beginning of next week. To promise, therefore, to do what I could not do +would be worse than idle; and to attempt to do what I could not do well, +from distraction of mind, would be trifling with my time and your +patience. If I could convey to you any tolerably distinct notion of the +state of my spirits of late, and the train or the sort of my ideas +consequent on that state, you would feel instantly that my +non-performance of the promise is matter of 'regret' with me indeed, but +not of 'compunction'. It was my full intention to have prepared +immediately a second volume of poems for the press; but, though the +poems are all either written or composed, excepting only the conclusion +of one poem (equal to four days' common work) and a few corrections, and +though I had the most pressing motives for sending them off, yet after +many attempts I was obliged to give up the very hope--the attempts acted +so perniciously on my disorder. + +Wordsworth, too, wished, and in a very particular manner expressed the +wish, that I should write to him at large on a poetic subject, which he +has at present 'sub malleo ardentem et ignitum'. I made the attempt, but +I could not command my recollections. It seemed a dream that I had ever +'thought' on poetry, or had ever written it, so remote were my trains of +ideas from composition or criticism on composition. These two instances +will, in some manner, explain my non-performance; but, indeed, I have +been very ill, and that I have done anything in any way is a subject of +wonder to myself, and of no causeless self-complacency. Yet I am anxious +to do something which may convince you of my sincerity by zeal: and, if +you think that it will be of any service to you, I will send down for +the work; I will instantly give it a perusal 'con amore'; and partly by +my reverential love of Chaucer, and partly from my affectionate esteem +for his biographer (the summer, too, bringing increase of health with +it), I doubt not that my old mind will recur to me; and I will forthwith +write a series of letters, containing a critique on Chaucer, and on the +'Life of Chaucer', by W. Godwin, and publish them, with my name, either +at once in a small volume, or in the 'Morning Post' in the first +instance, and republish them afterwards. + +The great thing to be done is to present Chaucer stripped of all his +adventitious matter, his translations, etc.; to analyse his own real +productions, to deduce his province and his rank; then to compare him +with his contemporaries, or with immediate prede- and suc- cessors, first +as an Englishman, and secondly as a European; then with Spenser and with +Shakespeare, between whom he seems to stand mid-way, with, however, a +manner of his own which belongs to neither, with a manner and an +excellence; lastly, to compare Dante and Chaucer, and inclusively +Spenser and Shakespere, with the ancients, to abstract the +characteristic differences, and to develop the causes of such +differences. (For instance, in all the writings of the ancients I +recollect nothing that, strictly examined, can be called humour; yet +Chaucer abounds with it, and Dante, too, though in a very different way. +Thus, too, the passion for personifications and, "me judice", strong, +sharp, practical good sense, which I feel to constitute a strikingly +characteristic difference in favour of the "feudal" poets.) As to +information, I could give you a critical sketch of poems, written by +contemporaries of Chaucer, in Germany; an epic to compare with his +"Palamon", and tales with his Tales, descriptive and fanciful poems with +those of the same kind in our own poet. In short, a Life of Chaucer +ought, in the work itself, and in the appendices of the work, to make +the poet explain his age, and to make the age both explain the poet, and +evince the superiority of the poet over his age. I think that the +publication of such a work would do "your" work some little service, in +more ways than one. It would occasion, necessarily, a double review of +it in all the Reviews; and there is a large class of fashionable men who +have been pleased of late to take me into high favour, and among whom +even my name might have some influence, and my praises of you weight. +But let me hear from you on the subject. + +Now for my own business. As soon as you possibly can do something +respecting the abridgment of Tucker,[1] do so; you will, on my honour, +be doing "good", in the best sense of the word! Of course I cannot wish +you to do anything till after the 24th, unless it should be "put" in +your way to read that part of the letter to Phillips. + +As to my own work, let me correct one or two conceptions of yours +respecting it. I could, no doubt, induce my friends to publish the work +for me, but I am possessed of facts that deter me. I know that the +booksellers not only do not encourage, but that they use unjustifiable +artifices to injure works published on the authors' own account. It +never answered, as far as I can find, in any instance. And even the sale +of a first edition is not without objections on this score--to this, +however, I should certainly adhere, and it is my resolution. But I must +do something immediately. Now, if I knew that any bookseller would +purchase the first edition of this work, as numerous as he pleased, I +should put the work out of hand at once, "totus in illo". But it was +never my intention to send one single sheet to the press till the whole +was "bona fide" ready for the printer--that is, both written, and fairly +written. The work is half written "out", and the materials of the other +half are all in paper, or rather on papers. I should not expect one +farthing till the work was delivered entire; and I would deliver it at +once, if it were wished. But, if I cannot engage with a bookseller for +this, I must do something else "first", which I should be sorry for. +Your division of the sorts of works acceptable to booksellers is just, +and what has been always my own notion or rather knowledge; but, though +I detailed the whole of the contents of my work so fully to you, I did +not mean to lay any stress with the bookseller on the first half, but +simply state it as preceded by a familiar introduction, and critical +history of logic. On the work itself I meant to lay all the stress, as a +work really in request, and non-existent, either well or ill-done, and +to put the work in the "same class" with "Guthrie" and books of +practical instruction--for the universities, classes of scholars, +lawyers, etc. etc. Its profitable sale will greatly depend on the +pushing of the booksellers, and on its being considered as a "practical" +book, "Organum vere Organum", a book by which the reader is to acquire +not only knowledge, but likewise "power". I fear that it may extend to +seven hundred pages; and would it be better to publish the Introduction +of History separately, either after or before? God bless you, and all +belonging to you, and your Chaucer. All happiness to you and your wife. + +Ever yours, S. T. C. + +P.S. If you read to Phillips any part of my letter respecting my own +work, or rather detailed it to him, you would lay all the stress on the +"practical". + +[Footnote 1: Godwin exerted himself actively in the matter, as appears +by the correspondence of Charles Lamb.] + +The ambitious scheme of the letters to Godwin did not exhaust +Coleridge's projects at this season. To Southey he wrote: + + + + + +LETTER 121. To SOUTHEY [1] + +Keswick, July, 1803. + +My dear Southey, + +... I write now to propose a scheme, or rather a rude outline of a +scheme, of your grand work. What harm can a proposal do? If it be no +pain to you to reject it, it will be none to me to have it rejected. I +would have the work entitled "Bibliotheca Britannica", or an History of +British Literature, bibliographical, biographical, and critical. The two +"last" volumes I would have to be a chronological catalogue of all +noticeable or extant books; the others, be the number six or eight, to +consist entirely of separate treatises, each giving a critical +biblio-biographical history of some one subject. I will, with great +pleasure, join you in learning Welsh and Erse: and you, I, Turner, and +Owen, might dedicate ourselves for the first half year to a complete +history of all Welsh, Saxon, and Erse books that are not translations, +that are the native growth of Britain. If the Spanish neutrality +continues, I will go in October or November to Biscay, and throw light +on the Basque. + +Let the next volume contain the history of "English" poetry and poets, +in which I would include all prose truly poetical. The first half of the +second volume should be dedicated to great single names, Chaucer and +Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton and Taylor, Dryden and Pope; the poetry of +witty logic,--Swift, Fielding, Richardson, Sterne: I write "par hasard", +but I mean to say all great names as have either formed epochs in our +taste, or such, at least, as are representative; and the great object to +be in each instance to determine, first, the true merits and demerits of +the "books"; secondly, what of these belong to the age--what to the +author "quasi peculium". The second half of the second volume should be +a history of poetry and romances, everywhere interspersed with +biography, but more flowing, more consecutive, more bibliographical, +chronological, and complete. The third volume I would have dedicated to +English prose, considered as to style, as to eloquence, as to general +impressiveness; a history of styles and manners, their causes, their +birth-places and parentage, their analysis. + +These three volumes would be so generally interesting, so exceedingly +entertaining, that you might bid fair for a sale of the work at large. +Then let the fourth volume take up the history of metaphysics, theology, +medicine, alchemy, common, canon, and Roman law, from Alfred to Henry +VII.; in other words, a history of the dark ages in Great Britain. The +fifth volume--carry on metaphysics and ethics to the present day in the +first half; the second half, comprise the theology of all the reformers. +In the fourth volume there would be a grand article on the philosophy of +the theology of the Roman Catholic religion. In this (fifth volume), +under different names,--Hooker, Baxter, Biddle, and Fox,--the spirit of +the theology of all the other parts of Christianity. The sixth and +seventh volumes must comprise all the articles you can get, on all the +separate arts and sciences that have been treated of in books since the +Reformation; and, by this time, the book, if it answered at all, would +have gained so high a reputation, that you need not fear having whom you +liked to write the different articles--medicine, surgery, chemistry, +etc., etc., navigation, travellers, voyagers, etc., etc. If I go into +Scotland, shall I engage Walter Scott to write the history of Scottish +poets? Tell me, however, what you think of the plan. It would have one +prodigious advantage: whatever accident stopped the work, would only +prevent the future good, not mar the past; each volume would be a great +and valuable work "per se". Then each volume would awaken a new +interest, a new set of readers, who would buy the past volumes of +course; then it would allow you ample time and opportunities for the +slavery of the catalogue volumes, which should be at the same time an +index to the work, which would be, in very truth, a pandect of +knowledge, alive and swarming with human life, feeling, incident. By the +bye, what a strange abuse has been made of the word encyclopaedia! It +signifies, properly, grammar, logic, rhetoric, and ethics and +metaphysics, which last, explaining the ultimate principles of +grammar--log., rhet., and eth.--formed a circle of knowledge. * * * To +call a huge unconnected miscellany of the "omne scibile", in an +arrangement determined by the accident of initial letters, an +encyclopaedia, is the impudent ignorance of your Presbyterian bookmakers. +Good night! + +God bless you! S. T. C. + +[Footnote 1: Southey's biographer says regarding this scheme: "Soon +after the date of the letter, my father paid a short visit to London, +the chief purpose of which was to negotiate with Messrs. Longman and +Rees respecting 'the management of a "Bibliotheca Britannica" upon a +very extensive scale, to be arranged chronologically, and made a +readable book by biography, criticism, and connecting chapters, to be +published like the Cyclopaedia in parts.'"] + + + + +SOUTHEY TO S. T. COLERIDGE, ESQ. + +Bristol, Aug. 3, 1803. + +Dear Coleridge, + +I meant to have written sooner; but those little units of interruption +and preventions, which sum up to as ugly an aggregate as the items in a +lawyer's bill, have come in the way. ... + +Your plan is too good, too gigantic, quite beyond my powers. If you had +my tolerable state of health, and that love of steady and productive +employment which is now grown into a necessary habit with me, if you +were to execute and would execute it, it would be, beyond all doubt, the +most valuable work of any age or any country; but I cannot fill up such +an outline. No man can better feel where he fails than I do; and to rely +upon you for whole quartos! Dear Coleridge, the smile that comes with +that thought is a very melancholy one; and if Edith saw me now, she +would think my eyes were weak again, when, in truth, the humour that +covers them springs from another cause. + +For my own comfort, and credit, and peace of mind, I must have a plan +which I know myself strong enough to execute. I can take author by +author as they come in their series, and give his life and an account of +his works quite as well as ever it has yet been done. I can write +connecting paragraphs and chapters shortly and pertinently, in my way; +and in this way the labour of all my associates can be more easily +arranged. ... And, after all, this is really nearer the actual design +of what I purport by a bibliotheca than yours would be,--a book of +reference, a work in which it may be seen what has been written upon +every subject in the British language: this has elsewhere been done in +the dictionary form; whatever we get better than that form--"ponemus +lucro". [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letter CXXXVIII is our 121. CXXXIX-CXLII follow 121.] + + +To Thomas Wedgwood Coleridge, on his return from the Scotch tour, wrote: + + + + +LETTER 122. To THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +Keswick, September 16, 1803. + +My dear Wedgwood, + +I reached home on yesterday noon. William Hazlitt, is a thinking, +observant, original man; of great power as a painter of +character-portraits, and far more in the manner of the old painters than +any living artist, but the objects must be before him. He has no +imaginative memory; so much for his intellectuals. His manners are to +ninety-nine in one hundred singularly repulsive; brow-hanging; +shoe-contemplating--strange. Sharp seemed to like him, but Sharp saw +him only for half an hour, and that walking. He is, I verily believe, +kindly-natured: is very fond of, attentive to, and patient with +children, but he is jealous, gloomy, and of an irritable pride. With all +this there is much good in him. He is disinterested; an enthusiastic +lover of the great men who have been before us. He says things that are +his own, in a way of his own: and though from habitual shyness, and the +outside of bear skin, at least of misanthropy, he is strangely confused +and dark in his conversation, and delivers himself of almost all his +conceptions with a "Forceps", yet he "says" more than any man I ever +knew (you yourself only excepted) of that which is his own, in a way of +his own; and often times when he has warmed his mind, and the juice is +come out, and spread over his spirits, he will gallop for half an hour +together, with real eloquence. He sends well-feathered thoughts straight +forward to the mark with a twang of the bow-string. If you could +recommend him as a portrait painter, I should be glad. To be your +companion, he is, in my opinion utterly unfit. His own health is fitful. + +I have written as I ought to do: to you most freely. You know me, both +head and heart, and I will make what deductions your reasons may dictate +to me. I can think of no other person (for your travelling +companion)--what wonder? For the last years, I have been shy of all new +acquaintance. + + + To live beloved is all I need, + And when I love, I love indeed. + + +I never had any ambition, and now, I trust I have almost as little +vanity. + +For five months past my mind has been strangely shut up. I have taken +the paper with the intention to write to you many times, but it has been +one blank feeling;--one blank idealess feeling. I had nothing to +say;--could say nothing. How dearly I love you, my very dreams make +known to me. I will not trouble you with the gloomy tale of my health. +When I am awake, by patience, employment, effort of mind, and walking, I +can keep the Fiend at arm's length, but the night is my Hell!--sleep my +tormenting Angel. Three nights out of four, I fall asleep, struggling to +lie awake, and my frequent night-screams have almost made me a nuisance +in my own house. Dreams with me are no shadows, but the very calamities +of my life. * * * + +In the hope of drawing the gout, if gout it should be, into my feet, I +walked previously to my getting into the coach at Perth, 263 miles, in +eight days, with no unpleasant fatigue; and if I could do you any +service by coming to town, and there were no coaches, I would undertake +to be with you, on foot in seven days. I must have strength somewhere. +My head is indefatigably strong: my limbs too are strong: but acid or +not acid, gout or not gout, something there is in my stomach. * * * + +To diversify this dusky letter, I will write an "Epitaph", which I +composed in my sleep for myself while dreaming that I was dying. To the +best of my recollection I have not altered a word. + + + Here sleeps at length poor Col. and without screaming + Who died, as he had always lived, a dreaming: + Shot dead, while sleeping, by the gout within, + Alone, and all unknown, at E'nbro' in an Inn. + + +It was Tuesday night last, at the Black Bull, Edinburgh. Yours, dear +Wedgwood, gratefully, and + +Most affectionately, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +Thomas Wedgwood, Esq. + + +The character of Hazlitt in this letter is as good as anything in La +Bruyere. The next letter (without date in Cottle's "Reminiscences", but +which must be 1803) is to Miss Cruikshank, of Nether Stowey. The +Penelope referred to is Penelope Poole, the cousin of Tom Poole. + + + +LETTER 123. To MISS CRUIKSHANK + +(No date, supposed to be 1803.[1]) + +My dear Miss Cruikshank, + +With the kindest intentions, I fear you have done me some little +disservice, in borrowing the first edition of my poems from Miss B--. I +never held any principles indeed, of which, considering my age, I have +reason to be ashamed. The whole of my public life may be comprised in +eight or nine months of my 22nd year; and the whole of my political sins +during that time, consisted in forming a plan of taking a large farm in +common, in America, with other young men of my age. A wild notion +indeed, but very harmless. + +As to my principles, they were, at all times, decidedly anti-jacobin and +anti-revolutionary, and my American scheme is a proof of this. Indeed at +that time, I seriously held the doctrine of passive obedience, though a +violent enemy of the first war. Afterwards, and for the last ten years +of my life, I have been fighting incessantly in the good cause, against +French ambition, and French principles; and I had Mr. Addington's +suffrage, as to the good produced by my Essays, written in the "Morning +Post", in the interval of the peace of Amiens, and the second war, +together with my two letters to Mr. Fox. [2] + +Of my former errors, I should be no more ashamed, than of my change of +body, natural to increase of age; but in that first edition, there was +inserted (without my consent!) a Sonnet to Lord Stanhope, in direct +contradiction, equally, to my "then", as to my present principles. A +Sonnet written by me in ridicule and mockery of the bloated style of +French jacobinical declamation, and inserted by Biggs, (the fool of a +printer,) in order forsooth, that he might send the book, and a letter +to Earl Stanhope; who, to prove that he was not mad in all things, +treated both book and letter with silent contempt. I have therefore sent +Mr. Poole's second edition, and if it be in your power, I could wish you +to read the "dedication to my brother," at the beginning, to Lady E. +Perceval, to obtain whose esteem, so far at least as not to be +confounded with the herd of vulgar mob flatterers, I am not ashamed to +confess myself solicitous. + +I would I could be with you, and your visitors. Penelope, you know, is +very high in my esteem. With true warmth of heart, she joins more +strength of understanding; and, to steady principle, more variety of +accomplishments, than it has often been my lot to meet with among the +fairer sex. When I praise one woman to another I always mean a +compliment to both. My tenderest regards to your dear mother, whom I +really long to spend a few hours with, and believe me with sincere good +wishes, + +Yours, etc., + +S. T. COLERIDGE [3] + +[Footnote 1: Dated "1807" in "Early Recollections".] + +[Footnote 2: It appears from Sir James Macintosh's Life, published by +his son, that a diminution of respect towards Sir James was entertained +by Mr. Fox, arising from the above two letters of Mr. Coleridge, which +appeared in the "Morning Post". Some enemy of Sir James had informed Mr. +Fox that these two letters were written by Macintosh, and which +exceedingly wounded his mind. Before the error could be corrected, Mr. +Fox died. This occurrence was deplored by Sir James, in a way that +showed his deep feeling of regret, but which, as might be supposed, did +not prevent him from bearing the amplest testimony to the social worth +and surpassing talents of that great statesman. Mr. Coleridge's Bristol +friends will remember that once Mr. Fox was idolized by him as the +paragon of political excellence; and Mr. Pitt depressed in the same +proportion. [Note by Cottle.]] + +[Footnote 3: Letter CXLIII follows 123.] + + + +In the beginning of 1804 we find Coleridge in London, whither Poole, +too, had gone to superintend the compilation of an Abstract on the +condition of the Poor Laws. + + + +LETTER 124. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +16, Abingdon Street, Westminster, Jan. 1804. + +My dear friend, + +Some divines hold, that with God to think, and to create, are one and +the same act. If to think, and even to compose had been the same as to +write with me, I should have written as much too much as I have written +too little. The whole truth of the matter is, that I have been very, +very ill. Your letter remained four days unread, I was so ill. What +effect it had upon me I cannot express by words. It lay under my pillow +day after day. I should have written forty times, but as it often and +often happens with me, my heart was too full, and I had so much to say +that I said nothing. I never received a delight that lasted longer upon +me--"Brooded on my mind and made it pregnant," than (from) the six last +sentences of your last letter,--which I cannot apologize for not having +answered, for I should be casting calumnies against myself; for, for the +last six or seven weeks, I have both thought and felt more concerning +you, and relating to you, than of all other men put together. + +Somehow or other, whatever plan I determined to adopt, my fancy, +good-natured pander of our wishes, always linked you on to it; or I made +it your plan, and linked myself on. I left my home, December 20, 1803, +intending to stay a day and a half at Grasmere, and then to walk to +Kendal, whither I had sent all my clothes and viatica; from thence to go +to London, and to see whether or no I could arrange my pecuniary +matters, so as leaving Mrs. Coleridge all that was necessary to her +comforts, to go myself to Madeira, having a persuasion, strong as the +life within me, that one winter spent in a really warm, genial climate, +would completely restore me. Wordsworth had, as I may truly say, forced +on me a hundred pounds, in the event of my going to Madeira; and Stuart +had kindly offered to befriend me. During the days and affrightful +nights of my disease, when my limbs were swollen, and my stomach refused +to retain the food--taken in in sorrow, then I looked with pleasure on +the scheme: but as soon as dry frosty weather came, or the rains and +damps passed off, and I was filled with elastic health, from crown to +sole, then the thought of the weight of pecuniary obligation from so +many people reconciled me; but I have broken off my story. + +I stayed at Grasmere (Mr. Wordsworth's) a month; three fourths of the +time bed-ridden;--and deeply do I feel the enthusiastic kindness of +Wordsworth's wife and sister, who sat up by me, one or the other, in +order to awaken me at the first symptoms of distressful feeling; and +even when they went to rest, continued often and often to weep and watch +for me even in their dreams. I left them January the 14th, and have +spent a very pleasant week at Dr. Crompton's, at Liverpool, and arrived +in London, at Poole's lodgings, last night at eight o'clock. + +Though my right hand is so much swollen that I can scarcely keep my pen +steady between my thumb and finger, yet my stomach is easy, and my +breathing comfortable, and I am eager to hope all good things of my +health. That gained, I have a cheering, and I trust prideless confidence +that I shall make an active, and perseverant use of the faculties and +requirements that have been entrusted to my keeping, and a fair trial of +their height, depth, and width. Indeed I look back on the last four +months with honest pride, seeing how much I have done, with what steady +attachment of mind to the same subject, and under what vexations and +sorrows, from without, and amid what incessant sufferings. So much of +myself. When I know more, I will tell you more. + +I find you are still at Cote-house. Poole tells me you talk of Jamaica +as a summer excursion. If it were not for the voyage, I would that you +would go to Madeira, for from the hour I get on board the vessel, to the +time that I once more feel England beneath my feet, I am as certain as +past and present experience can make me, that I shall be in health, in +high health; and then I am sure, not only that I should be a comfort to +you, but that I should be so without diminution of my activity, or +professional usefulness. Briefly, dear Wedgwood! I truly and at heart +love you, and of course it must add to my deeper and moral happiness to +be with you, if I can be either assistance or alleviation. If I find +myself so well that I defer my Madeira plan, I shall then go forthwith +to Devonshire to see my aged mother, once more before she dies, and stay +two or three months with my brothers. But, wherever I am, I never suffer +a day, (except when I am travelling) to pass without doing something. + +Poole made me promise that I would leave one side for him. God bless +him! He looks so worshipful in his office, among his clerks, that it +would give you a few minutes' good spirits to look in upon him. Pray you +as soon as you can command your pen, give me half a score lines, and now +that I am loose, say whether or no I can be any good to you. + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters CXLIV-CXLVI follow 124.] + + + + +LETTER 125. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + + +16, Abingdon Street, Westminster, Jan. 28, 1804. + +My dear friend, + +It is idle for me to say to you, that my heart and very soul ache with +the dull pain of one struck down and stunned. I write to you, for my +letter cannot give you unmixed pain, and I would fain say a few words to +dissuade you. What good can possibly come of your plan? Will not the +very chairs and furniture of your room be shortly more, far more +intolerable to you than new and changing objects! more insufferable +reflectors of pain and weariness of spirit? Oh, most certainly they +will! You must hope, my dearest Wedgwood; you must act as if you hoped. +Despair itself has but that advice to give you. Have you ever thought of +trying large doses of opium, a hot climate, keeping your body open by +grapes, and the fruits of the climate? Is it possible that by drinking +freely, you might at last produce the gout, and that a violent pain and +inflammation in the extremities might produce new trains of motion and +feeling in your stomach, and the organs connected with the stomach, +known and unknown? Worse than what you have decreed for yourself cannot +well happen. Say but a word and I will come to you, will be with you, +will go with you to Malta, to Madeira, to Jamaica, or (if the climate, +of which, and its strange effects, I have heard wonders, true or not) to +Egypt. + +At all events, and at the worst even, if you do attempt to realize the +scheme of going to and remaining at Gunville, for God's sake, my dear +dear friend, do keep up a correspondence with one or more; or if it were +possible for you, with several. I know by a little what your sufferings +are, and that to shut the eyes, and stop up the ears, is to give one's +self up to storm and darkness, and the lurid forms and horrors of a +dream. I scarce know why it is; a feeling I have, and which I can hardly +understand. I could not endure to live if I had not a firm faith that +the life within you will pass forth out of the furnace, for that you +have borne what you have borne, and so acted beneath such +pressure--constitutes you an awful moral being. I am not ashamed to pray +aloud for you. + +Your most affectionate friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [1] + +[Footnote 1: Letters CXLVII-CXLIX follow 125.] + + +These letters on the Pains of Sleep are followed by one to Davy on the +non-sympathy of the well with the sick. + + + +LETTER 126. TO DAVY + +Tuesday morning, 7, Barnard's Inn, Holborn. [1] + +My dear Davy, + +I trusted my cause last Sunday, I fear, to an unsympathizing agent. To +Mr. Tuffin I can scarcely think myself bound to make a direct apology, +as my promise was wholly conditional. This I did, not only from general +foresight, but from the possibility of hearing from you, that you had +not been able to untie your former engagement. To you, therefore, I owe +the apology: and on you I expressly and earnestly desired Tobin to call +and to explain for me, that I had been in an utterly incompatible state +of bodily feeling the whole evening at Mr. Renny's; that I was much hurt +by the walk home through the wet; instantly on my return here had an attack +in my bowels; that this had not wholly left me, and therefore that I +could not come, unless the weather altered. By which I did not mean +merely its 'holding up' (though even this it did not do at four o'clock +at Barnard's Inn, the sleety rain was still falling, though slightly), +but the drying up of the rawness and dampness, which would infallibly +have diseased me, before I had reached the Institution--not to mention +the effect of sitting a long evening in damp clothes and shoes on an +invalid, scarcely recovered from a diarrhoea. I have thought it fit to +explain at large, both as a mark of respect to you, and because I have +very unjustly acquired a character for breaking engagements, entirely +from the non-sympathy of the well with the sick, the robust with the +weakly. It must be difficult for most men to conceive the extreme +reluctance with which I go at all into 'company', and the unceasing +depression which I am struggling up against during the whole time I am +in it, which too often makes me drink more 'during dinner' than I ought +to do, and as often forces me into efforts of almost obtrusive +conversation, 'acting' the opposite of my real state of mind in order to +arrive at a medium, as we roll paper the opposite way in order to +smoothe it. + +Be so good as to tell me what hour you expect Mr. Sotheby on Thursday. + +I am, my dear Davy, with sincere and affectionate esteem, yours ever, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1: The twopenny post-mark is that of 6th March, 1804.] + + +Amid these letters, complaining of ill health and full of apologies for +broken engagements, Coleridge could write genuine literary criticisms of +the first order. The following letter addressed to Sarah Hutchinson is +his opinion of Sir Thomas Browne. He had presented her with a copy of +'Religio Medici' with copious annotations (see 'Athenaeum', 30 May 1896, +p. 714). + + + + +LETTER 127. TO SARAH HUTCHINSON + +March 10th, 1804, + +Sat. night, 12 o'clock. + +My dear---- + +Sir Thomas Browne is among my first favorites, rich in various +knowledge, exuberant in conceptions and conceits, contemplative, +imaginative; often truly great and magnificent in his style and diction, +though doubtless too often big, stiff, and hyperlatinistic: thus I might +without admixture of falsehood, describe Sir T. Browne and my +description would have only this fault, that it would be equally, or +almost equally, applicable to half a dozen other writers, from the +beginning of the reign of Elizabeth to the end of Charles II. He is +indeed all this; and what he has more than all this peculiar to himself, +I seem to convey to my own mind in some measure by saying,--that he is a +quiet and sublime enthusiast with a strong tinge of the fantast,--the +humourist constantly mingling with, and flashing across, the +philosopher, as the darting colours in shot silk play upon the main dye. +In short, he has brains in his head which is all the more interesting +for a little twist in the brains. He sometimes reminds the reader of +Montaigne, but from no other than the general circumstances of an +egotism common to both; which in Montaigne is too often a mere amusing +gossip, a chit-chat story of whims and peculiarities that lead to +nothing,--but which in Sir Thomas Browne is always the result of a +feeling heart conjoined with a mind of active curiosity,--the natural +and becoming egotism of a man, who, loving other men as himself, gains +the habit, and the privilege of talking about himself as familiarly as +about other men. Fond of the curious, and a hunter of oddities and +strangenesses, while he conceived himself, with quaint and humourous +gravity a useful inquirer into physical truth and fundamental +science,--he loved to contemplate and discuss his own thoughts and +feelings, because he found by comparison with other men's, that they too +were curiosities, and so with a perfectly graceful and interesting ease +he put them too into his museum and cabinet of varieties. In very truth +he was not mistaken:--so completely does he see every thing in a light +of his own, reading nature neither by sun, moon, nor candle light, but +by the light of the faery glory around his own head; so that you might +say that nature had granted to him in perpetuity a patent and monopoly +for all his thoughts. Read his "Hydriotaphia" above all:--and in +addition to the peculiarity, the exclusive Sir-Thomas-Browne-ness of all +the fancies and modes of illustration, wonder at and admire his +entireness in every subject, which is before him--he is "totus in illo"; +he follows it; he never wanders from it,--and he has no occasion to +wander;--for whatever happens to be his subject, he metamorphoses all +nature into it. In that "Hydriotaphia" or Treatise on some Urns dug up +in Norfolk--how earthy, how redolent of graves and sepulchres is every +line! You have now dark mould, now a thigh-bone, now a scull, then a bit +of mouldered coffin! a fragment of an old tombstone with moss in its +"hic jacet";--a ghost or a winding sheet--or the echo of a funeral psalm +wafted on a November wind! and the gayest thing you shall meet with +shall be a silver nail or gilt "Anno Domini" from a perished coffin top. +The very same remark applies in the same force to the interesting, +though the far less interesting, Treatise on the Quincuncial Plantations +of the Ancients. There is the same attention to oddities, to the +remotenesses and "minutiae" of vegetable terms,--the same entireness of +subject. You have quincunxes in heaven above, quincunxes in earth below, +and quincunxes in the water beneath the earth; quincunxes in deity, +quincunxes in the mind of man, quincunxes in bones, in the optic nerves, +in roots of trees, in leaves, in petals, in every thing. In short, first +turn to the last leaf of this volume, and read out aloud to yourself the +last seven paragraphs of Chap. V. beginning with the words "More +considerables," etc. But it is time for me to be in bed, in the words of +Sir Thomas, which will serve you, my dear, as a fair specimen of his +manner.--"But the quincunx of heaven--(the Hyades or five stars about +the horizon at midnight at that time)--runs low, and 'tis time we close +the five ports of knowledge: we are unwilling to spin out our waking +thoughts into the phantasmes of sleep, which often continueth +precogitations,--making tables of cobwebbes, and wildernesses of +handsome groves. To keep our eyes open longer were but to act our +Antipodes. The huntsmen are up in America, and they are already past +their first sleep in Persia." Think you, my dear Friend, that there ever +was such a reason given before for going to bed at midnight;--to wit, +that if we did not, we should be acting the part of our Antipodes! And +then "the huntsmen are up in America."--What life, what fancy!--Does the +whimsical knight give us thus a dish of strong green tea, and call it an +opiate! I trust that you are quietly asleep-- + + + And that all the stars hang bright above your dwelling, + Silent as tho' they watched the sleeping earth! [1] + + + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +[Footnote 1: From 'Dejection: An Ode', the "Lady" of the later version +of which was Sarah Hutchinson. See Knight's 'Life of Wordsworth', ii. +86.] + +Coleridge now wrote to Tom Wedgwood of his determination to go to Malta. +Stoddart, his old friend, had invited him thither. + + + + + +LETTER 128. TO THOMAS WEDGWOOD + +(24) March, 1804. + +My dear friend, + +Though fearful of breaking in upon you after what you have written to +me, I could not have left England without having written both to you and +your brother, at the very moment I received a note from Sharp, informing +me that I must instantly secure a place in the Portsmouth mail for +Tuesday, and if I could not, that I must do so in the light coach for +Tuesday's early coach. + +I am agitated by many things, and only write now because you desired an +answer by return of post. I have been dangerously ill, but the illness +is going about, and not connected with my immediate ill health, however +it may be with my general constitution. It was the cholera-morbus. But +for a series of the merest accidents I should have been seized in the +streets, in a bitter east wind, with cold rain; at all events have +walked through it struggling. It was Sunday-night. + +I have suffered it at Tobin's; Tobin sleeping out at Woolwich. No fire, +no wine or spirits, or medicine of any kind, and no person being within +call, but luckily, perhaps the occasion would better suit the word +providentially, Tuffin, calling, took me home with him. * * * I tremble +at every loud sound I myself utter. But this is rather a history of the +past than of the present. I have only enough for memento, and already on +Wednesday I consider myself in clear sunshine, without the shadow of the +wings of the destroying angel. + +What else relates to myself, I will write on Monday. Would to heaven you +were going with me to Malta, if it were but for the voyage! With all +other things I could make the passage with an unwavering mind. But +without cheerings of hope. Let me mention one thing; Lord Cadogan was +brought to absolute despair, and hatred of life, by a stomach complaint, +being now an old man. The symptoms, as stated to me, were strikingly +like yours, excepting the nervous difference of the two characters; the +flittering fever, etc. He was advised to reduce lean beef to a pure +jelly, by Papin's digester, with as little water as could secure it from +burning, and of this to take half a wine glass 10 or 14 times a day. +This and nothing else. He did so. Sir George Beaumont saw, within a few +weeks a letter from himself to Lord St. Asaph, in which he relates the +circumstance of his perseverence in it, and rapid amelioration, and +final recovery. "I am now," he says, "in real good health; as good, and +in as cheerful spirits as I ever was when a young man." + +May God bless you, even here, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + + +Before Coleridge left for Malta, Humphry Davy wrote the following +beautiful letter to Coleridge, and Coleridge replied in a letter equally +beautiful in its self-portraiture. + + +Royal Institution, Twelve o'clock, Monday. + +My dear Coleridge, + +My mind is disturbed, and my body harassed by many labours; yet I cannot +suffer you to depart, without endeavouring to express to you some of the +unbroken and higher feelings of my spirit, which have you at once for +their cause and object. + +Years have passed since we first met; and your presence, and +recollections in regard to you, have afforded me continued sources of +enjoyment. Some of the better feelings of my nature have been elevated +by your converse; and thoughts which you have nursed, have been to me an +eternal source of consolation. + +In whatever part of the world you are, you will often live with me, not +as a fleeting idea, but as a recollection possessed of creative +energy,--as an imagination winged with fire, inspiring and rejoicing. + +You must not live much longer without giving to all men the proof of +power, which those who know you feel in admiration. Perhaps at a +distance from the applauding and censuring murmurs of the world, you +will be best able to execute those great works which are justly expected +from you: you are to be the historian of the philosophy of feeling. Do +not in any way dissipate your noble nature! Do not give up your +birthright! + +May you soon recover perfect health--the health of strength and +happiness! May you soon return to us, confirmed in all the powers +essential to the exertion of genius. You were born for your country, and +your native land must be the scene of your activity. I shall expect the +time when your spirit, bursting through the clouds of ill health, will +appear to all men, not as an uncertain and brilliant flame, but as a +fair and permanent light, fixed, though constantly in motion,--as a sun +which gives its fire, not only to its attendant planets, but which sends +beams from all its parts into all worlds. + +May blessings attend you, my dear friend! Do not forget me: we live for +different ends, and with different habits and pursuits; but our feelings +with regard to each other have, I believe, never altered. They must +continue; they can have no natural death; and, I trust, they can never +be destroyed by fortune, chance, or accident. + +H. DAVY. + + + + +LETTER 129. TO DAVY + +Sunday, March 25, 1804. + +My dear Davy, + +I returned from Mr. Northcote's, having been diseased by the change of +weather too grievously to permit me to continue sitting, for in those +moods of body brisk motion alone can prevent me from falling into +distempered sleep. I came in meditating a letter to you, or rather the +writing of the letter, which I had meditated yesterday, even while you +were yet sitting with us. But it would be the merest confusion of my +mind to force it into activity at present. Yours of this morning must +have sunken down first, and must have found its abiding resting-place. +O, dear friend! blessed are the moments, and if not moments of +"humility", yet as distant from whatever is opposite to humility, as +humility itself, when I am able to hope of myself as you have dared hope +of and for me. Alas! they are neither many nor of quick recurrence. +There "is" a something, an essential something, wanting in me. I feel +it, I "know" it--though what it is, I can but guess. I have read +somewhere, that in the tropical climates there are annuals as lofty and +of as an ample girth as forest trees:--So by a very dim likeness I seem +to myself to distinguish Power from Strength--and to have only the +former. But of this I will speak again: for if it be no reality, if it +be no more than a disease of my mind, it is yet deeply rooted and of +long standing, and requires help from one who loves me in the light of +knowledge. I have written these lines with a compelled understanding, my +feelings otherwhere at work--and I fear, unwell as I am, to indulge my +[1] deep emotion, however ennobled or endeared. Dear Davy! I have always +loved, always honoured, always had faith in you, in every part of my +being that lies below the surface; and whatever changes may have now and +then "rippled" even upon the surface, have been only jealousies +concerning you in behalf of all men, and fears from exceeding great +hope. I cannot be prevented from uttering and manifesting the strongest +convictions and best feelings of my nature by the incident, that they of +whom I think so highly, esteem me in return, and entertain reciprocal +hopes. No! I would to God, I thought it myself even as you think of me, +but.... + +So far had I written, my dear Davy, yesterday afternoon, with all my +faculties beclouded, writing mostly about myself--but, Heaven knows! +thinking wholly about you. I am too sad, too much dejected to write what +I could wish. Of course I shall see you this evening here at a quarter +after nine. When I mentioned it to Sir George, "Too late," said he; "no, +if it were twelve o'clock, it would be better than his not coming." They +are really kind and good [Sir George and Lady Beaumont]. Sir George is a +remarkably 'sensible' man, which I mention, because it 'is' +somewhat REMARKABLE in a painter of genius, who is at the same time a +man of rank and an exceedingly amusing companion. + +I am still but very indifferent--but that is so old a story that it +affects me but little. To see 'you' look so very unwell on +Saturday, was a new thing to me, and I want a word something short of +affright, and a little beyond anxiety, to express the feeling that +haunted me in consequence. + +I trust that I shall have time, and the greater spirit, to write to you +from Portsmouth, a part at least of what is in and upon me in my more +genial moments. + +But always I am and shall be, my dear Davy, with hope, and esteem, and +affection, the aggregate of many Davys, + +Your sincere friend, + +S. T. COLERIDGE. [2] + + +[Footnote 1: Perhaps "any" is the right word here.] + +[Footnote 2: Letter CL follows, 129.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 1. +by Coleridge, ed. Turnbull + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIOGRAPHIA EPISTOLARIS, VOLUME 1. *** + +This file should be named 8210-8.txt or 8210-8.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8bio111.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8bio110a.txt + +Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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