PR 
 L(o5 
 
 QJornell Hniuetaitg Slibrarg 
 
 Jtljata, ■Nero ^ork 
 
 WORDSWORTH COLLECTION 
 
 MADE BY 
 
 CYNTHIA MORGAN ST. JOHN 
 ITHACA, N. Y. 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 VICTOR EMANUEL 
 
 CLASS OF 1919 
 1925 
 
LETTERS^ FROM THE LAKE POETS. 
 
 j^a^ ts nss, 
 
LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 LAKE POETS, 
 
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, WILLIAM 
 WORDSWORTH, ROBERT SOUTHEY, 
 
 DANIEL STUART, 
 
 Editor of THE MORNING POST and THE COURIER, 
 180O-1838. 
 
 PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION. 
 
 To Pope from Mr. Blount. 
 
 "Among my ambitions, that of being a sincere friend is one of 
 the chief : yet I will confess that I have a secret pleasure to have 
 some of my descendants know, that their Ancestor was great with 
 Mr. Pope." — Pope's Works, vol. viii. mdccll 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by WEST, NEWMAN AND CO., 
 
 54, HATTON GARDEN, E.C. 
 
 M 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COPYRIGHT . . . . vii 
 
 DANIEL STUART . ix 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER BY WILLIAM ERSKINE, ESQ. xiii 
 
 IbETTERS FROM S. T. COLERIDGE TO DANIEL STUART- 
 PART I. 1 800-1804 I 
 
 „ II. FROM HIS DEPARTURE TO THE MF:DI- 
 TERRANEAN TO THE PUBLISHING OF 
 " THE FRIEND " .... 27 
 
 „ III. CONCERNING THE PUBLICATION OF 
 
 " THE FRIEND " .... 85 
 
 „ IV. (LETTERS OF S. T. COLERIDGE TO 
 
 DANIEL STUART), 181I-1834 . . 189 
 
 LETTERS FROM WILLIAM WORDSWORTH TO DANIEL 
 
 STUART . .327 
 
 LETTERS FROM ROBERT SOUTHEY TO DANIEL STUART 387 
 POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY SENT TO DANIEL STUART 437 
 
 NOTE ON "THE FRIEND" 45 ^ 
 
 LIST OF ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS TO "THE FRIEND" 454 
 
The Copyright of the Letters of S. T. Coleridge 
 and of the Notes in this Vohime is the property 
 of Ernest Hartley Coleridge. 
 
 The Copyright of the Letters of W. Wordsworth 
 and of the Letters and Poems of R. South ey is 
 the property of the legal representatives of the writers. 
 
DANIEL STUART. 
 
 Daniel Stuart, to whom the following letters 
 were addressed, was born in Edinburgh November 
 i6, 1766, the youngest of several children. He 
 lost his father in infancy, and, on the death of 
 his mother, in 1778, he was sent up to London 
 to the care of his two elder brothers, vvho 
 were then engaged as Journalists, and who, with 
 their two unmarried sisters, were all keejing J0 
 house together in Charlotte Street, Portland 
 Place. His brothers, Charles and Peter, had 
 received their education at the High School, 
 Edinburgh, but, instead of placing their youngest 
 brother to a school, they apprenticed him on his 
 arrival in London to Sutton, the King's Printer, 
 in St. Martin's Lane, and made him otherwise 
 useful to themselves. Mr. Stuart in after life 
 much regretted the loss of a good classical 
 education. 
 
DANIEL STUART. 
 
 At this time James (afterwards Sir James) 
 Mackintosh, a young Scotchman, who like the 
 Stuarts had come up to seek his fortune in London, 
 was a frequent visitor at their house. By degrees 
 an attachment sprang up between him and 
 Catherine, the elder of the two sisters, which 
 ultimately led to their marriage in the year 1789. 
 This evept broke up the home, and on the younger 
 sister Elizabeth joining Mr. and Mrs. Mackintosh, 
 the brothers were left each to his own course. 
 
 In 1792 the Society of the Friends of the People 
 was set up under the patronage of Earl Grey and 
 other persons of position. Mackintosh was ap- 
 pointed Honorary Secretary, and Stuart as Deputy 
 Secretary had the use of the Society's rooms in 
 Frith Street, Soho, w^here, having much leisure, he 
 continued to write for The Morning Post and Argus, 
 and also, under Lord Lauderdale's instructions, 
 published some volumes of State Papers collected 
 from newspapers. He was paid at the rate of ;^5o 
 a volume, and was thus enabled to lay by a con- 
 siderable sum, with which, when the Society broke 
 up, he bought shares in The Morning Post, and in 
 1796 became sole editor. In 1801 he had a violent 
 
DANIEL STUART. - XI 
 
 attack of fever, from passing in the street the 
 mouth of an open drain, of which " the effluvium," 
 he said, *' struck him like a blow." The fever, 
 accompanied by delirium, lasted for several weeks, 
 and on his recovery he was so weakened as to be 
 for some time unfit for business. He retired to 
 Brompton, which was then considered suburban ! 
 sold The Morning Post, and the following year, 
 when his health was sufficiently re-established, 
 bought, together with Mr. Street, half-shares of 
 The Courier, Street being the active manager, 
 and taking the chief share of the work with its 
 responsibility. 
 
 In 1813 Mr, Stuart married (Mary Napier, 
 daughter of Major Andrew Schalch, of the Royal 
 Artillery), and the following year he bought the lease 
 of the house in Harley Street, where his family 
 have ever since resided. In 1817 he purchased 
 Wykham Park, an estate (in all about 300 acres) 
 near Banbury, which had formerly belonged to 
 the Dashwood family; and where the fine old 
 mansion, converted into farm-buildings, still re- 
 mained. Here, with his family, he henceforth 
 spent half the year ; became an active magistrate, 
 
Xll DANIEL STUART. 
 
 a Deputy-Lieutenant, and in 1823 served the 
 office of High Sheriff. In 1822 he had sold out all 
 his share and interest in The Courier, and thence- 
 forward retired into private life ; but he continued 
 to the last to take the keenest interest in politics 
 and all public events, and occasionally contributed 
 his remarks thereon to the public press. 
 
 For the next twenty years he enjoyed almost 
 uninterrupted good health and activity of mind 
 and body, until in November, 1842, the terrible 
 and sudden shock which he received at the news 
 of the death of his eldest son (a Lieutenant in the 
 33rd Regiment) from yellow fever, in the West 
 Indies, at once aged him, and broke him down. 
 His health gradually declined until the intense 
 heat of the summer of 1846 brought on an attack 
 of dysentery, which his constitution had no longer 
 the strength to resist, and, after several weeks' 
 illness, he breathed his last, August 25, in his 
 eightieth year. 
 
 He lies buried in Willesden Churchyard, where 
 his youngest son Arthur, in 1847, and his second 
 son, the Rev. Edward Stuart, of Munster Square, 
 in 1877, have since been laid beside him. 
 
 M.S. 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ERSKINE, Esq. 
 
 Edinburgh, November 2, 1848. 
 
 My dear Miss Stuart, — I have just concluded a 
 hasty perusal of the volume of letters of Coleridge, 
 Wordsworth, and Southey, which you so kindly 
 sent to me ; and I congratulate you most sincerely 
 on your having had the resolution to execute your 
 purpose of transcribing, and so I trust, of ultimately 
 preserving them. 
 
 It is indeed a very curious and valuable collec- 
 tion ; curious, as throwing so much light on the 
 early history of three very eminent men, and, so 
 far as relates to Coleridge of pourtraying the 
 depths and essence of his character better than 
 any narrative could have done. , . . 
 
XIV INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 
 
 While Coleridge is displayed at full length, a 
 complete psychological subject, the smaller self- 
 pourtraitures of Wordsworth and Southey are also 
 very interesting, and, I think, characteristic. Both 
 men of sound principle and strong talent ! Words- 
 worth perhaps showing a little of a recluse's un- 
 acquaintance with the trading world ; Southey full 
 of good sense and kindliness, and ever abounding 
 in good thoughts, expressed in a perfect English 
 style. But what above all must bring a flood of 
 satisfaction to your heart, is the high tone of your 
 father's feelings throughout ; the deep respect with 
 which they all look up to him as a good, generous, 
 and wise man, their patron, benefactor, and guide. 
 His generosity, his forbearance and long-suffering, 
 his readiness to forgive, and promptness to advise 
 and to assist in the most effective way, are very 
 striking, as well as the unfailing soundness of his 
 judgements. These men no doubt helped in a cer- 
 tain degree to raise the character of the Journals 
 conducted by your father; but who else had the 
 discernment to see the use that could be made of 
 literary talents, the penetration to select men of 
 superior attainments, and the liberality to reward 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER. XV 
 
 their communications to an extent, at that period, 
 unlooked for ? The whole volume of letters, my 
 dear Miss Stuart, is a most honourable monument 
 to your father's memory, and much gratified must 
 you be to think that it has been preserved, and 
 now placed, I hope, on a safe foundation. . . 
 Kindest remembrances to your mother, &c., &c. 
 Ever believe me, 
 
 Yours very affectionately, 
 
 Wm. Erskine. 
 
 Note. — The writer of the above, William Erskine, Esq., of Bombay, 
 was the son-in-law of Sir James Mackintosh, having married his 
 second daughter, Maitland, Mr. Stuart's niece. 
 
LETTERS FROM S. T. COLERIDGE 
 TO DANIEL STUART. 
 
LETTERS FROM S. T. COLERIDGE 
 TO DANIEL STUART. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 (1800 — 1804.) 
 
 Note. — "The first part of the correspondence with Cole- 
 ridge, or rather the wreck of it.— D. S. 1839." 
 
 Letter i. 
 
 " January, 1800." 
 Dear Stuart, — I have a particular reason for 
 begging you not to expect to see me till Sunday 
 evening. At that time you will see me, and I 
 will convince you that I am not trifling with your 
 patience ; and that what I am novv^ doing is to 
 secure the regularity of my future efforts with 
 you.— Yours, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JAN. 
 
 i 
 
 Letter 2. 
 
 ^'January, 1800." 
 Dear Stuart, — I am very unwell. If you are 
 pressed for the paragraph to-day, I will write it, 
 but I cannot come out ; but if it will do as well 
 to-morrow, so much the better; for in truth my 
 head is shockingly giddy. If you want matter, 
 Lamb has got plenty of " My Great Aunt's 
 Manuscript." — I would advise you, by all means, 
 to make it an article in The Morning Post. Please 
 send me the [effaced by the wafer], — Yours very 
 sincerely, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 P.S. — I will send you by Lamb this evening, 
 three or four paragraphs of seven or eight lines 
 each. 
 
 Letter 3. 
 
 "February, 1800." Eleven o'clock. 
 Dear Sir, — I feel more uncomfortably respect- 
 ing my conduct to you for these last ten days, than 
 I have had occasion to feel on any occasion for 
 these last twenty months. Your last note has 
 
l800j COLERIDGE, 
 
 just reached me. The former is here, but I have 
 not read it, haviug been out of London to avoid 
 interruptions. Whether we continue connected 
 or no, I consider myself as two full weeks' work 
 in your debt for that which I have already re- 
 ceived. These cursed Plays play the devil with 
 me. I have been writing from morning till night, 
 and almost half the night too, and yet get on too 
 slowly for the printer ; and Mr. Longman is kept 
 in constant [dread] that some rival translation 
 may pop out before mine. And besides this, my 
 wife and child leave London to-morrow ; and I 
 was particularly desirous to have done enough 
 to give me some claim to draw on him for the 
 few pounds which I must draw on him for their 
 journey. These things I mention, not as justifi- 
 cations of my breach of promise, but as palliations. 
 So much for the past. For the future, thus much. 
 In about four or five days I shall have finished 
 the first Play ; and that being finished, I may go 
 on more leisurely with the others. I shall then 
 be able to give you some assistance, probably 
 as much as you may want. A certain number 
 of Essays I consider myself bound to send you 
 
6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, in common honesty. After 
 these, if it be worth your while, I will do what I 
 can, only not for any regular stipend. That 
 harasses me. I know that hitherto I have re- 
 ceived from you much more than I have earned, 
 and this must not be. I have no objection to be 
 paid for what I do, but a great objection to be paid 
 for what I ought to do. This translation-Fag 
 has almost knocked me up, and I am so confused 
 that I scarcely know whether I have expressed 
 myself intelligibly. My wife goes to-morrow 
 evening, and I shall be at No. 36, Chapel St., 
 Pentonville. My papers you will be so kind as 
 to have left at your Office till they are called for, 
 but Mr. Wedgewood's must be sent among your 
 other papers. The Address — Jos. Wedgewood, 
 Esq., Cornwallis House, Clifton, Bristol. I will 
 certainly fill you out a good paper on Sun- 
 day. Mrs. Coleridge desires me to send her 
 respects, and to thank you for your civilities to 
 her. — Yours, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
l800] COLERIDGE. 
 
 Letter 4. {Supposed Spring, 1800.) 
 
 My dear Stuart, — A letter which I received 
 this afternoon, makes it proper for me to be off 
 to Stowey as soon as I can. You will hear from 
 me by Tuesday's post, at the farthest, and this 
 you may rely on, and I feel the inmost conviction 
 that I shall do more for you the ten days of my 
 absence, than if I had been in London. I have 
 borrowed five guineas of Mr. Howel,* which 
 you will be so good as to pay him ; and if you 
 want money, I have written on the other side a 
 draft for £25, which you will use if you have any 
 need. I am much your debtor at present ! but, 
 please God ! deliver me from this complaint, I 
 will soon work it out. — Yours sincerely, 
 
 Friday Night. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 5. 
 
 Tuesday, jfuly 11, 1800. 
 Dear Stuart, — Since I quitted you I have 
 
 * " I took a first floor for him in King Street, Covent Garden, at 
 my tailor's, Howell's, whose wife was a cheerful housewife, of 
 middle age, who I knew would nurse Coleridge as kindly as if he 
 were her son" (D. Stuart, Gefti. Mag., May, 1838). 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JULY 
 
 never been within 150 miles of London. I 
 left Grasmere with the intention indeed, but at 
 Kendal received letters which forced me Stowey- 
 ward. Since my re-arrival here, I have been 
 confined part of the time to my bed, by a sort of 
 rheumatic fever ; and till within this last brace 
 of days, my eyelids have been swollen and in- 
 flamed to a degree, which has made it imprudent 
 even to write a common letter. Why should I 
 have wished to shun you ? Surely we have 
 always behaved kindly and honourably to each 
 other. 
 
 Wordsworth's state of health at this present 
 time is such as to preclude all possibility of 
 writing for a Paper. As to myself, I will do what 
 I promised, the very first thing I do. This day 
 and to-morrow I must write letters. On Thurs- 
 day I will set to, and will not leave off, on my 
 word and honour, till I have done a second part 
 of Pitt and Buonaparte. With these I will write 
 you further whether or no I shall be able to 
 continue any species of regular connection with 
 your Paper. Whether I do or no, be assured 
 that, as a friend, I shall be at your service if 
 
i8oo] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 you wish an3^thing particular at any particular 
 time. 
 
 Wordsworth requests me to be very express in 
 the communication of his sincere thanks to you, 
 for the interest which you have been so kind as to 
 take in his poems. We are convinced you have 
 been of great service to the sale. A second 
 edition is now printing, with a second volume. 
 
 With regard to the Play business, Wordsworth 
 has a tragedy by him ; in my opinion, a most 
 masterly one. This he would transmit by you to 
 Mr. Sheridan, for Mr. Sheridan's opinion, pro- 
 vided YOU would engage that the copy shall be 
 returned to him; as he has but this one perfect 
 copy. Mr. Sheridan will see by this, of what 
 kind Mr. Wordsworth's dramatic talents are, and 
 if he should find the tragedy unfit for representa- 
 tion, he might put Mr. W. in the way of writing 
 a play, that should be fit for representation, by 
 pointing out to him the defects that render the 
 present one untheatrical. Mr. Sheridan's con- 
 ception of my obstinacy is a mistake. When I 
 sent my Play to him, I gave at the same time 
 expressly to him, the whole and absolute power 
 
10 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS [JULY 
 
 of alteration, addition and omission. I did 
 indeed defend some parts of my Play against 
 young Linley, but only as a Metaphysician ; never 
 supposing myself to have any voice or suffrage, 
 or even opinion, as to what was, or was not suited 
 for representation. After all, I never blamed Mr. 
 Sheridan for not bringing my Play on the Stage. 
 God knows my inmost heart, and knows that I 
 never for an hour together thought it likely to 
 succeed. I blamed Mr. Sheridan solely for taking 
 no kind of notice, even of the receipt of my 
 Play ; and for returning me no answer whatever ; 
 and for withholding from me the copy of my 
 Play, after repeated applications; and these 
 appHcations too, made at a time when I had no 
 copy in my possession, and wished to have dis- 
 posed of it to the Booksellers, when the £30 I 
 might have had for it, would have been a draft 
 of nepenthe and heavenly restoration to me. But 
 this is all gone by. I am convinced I have no 
 talents for so arduous a species of composition as 
 the Drama. I should wish you however, to state 
 the foregoing account to Mr. Sheridan. My 
 address henceforward will be — Mr. Coleridge, 
 
l8oo] COLERIDGE. 
 
 II 
 
 Greta Hall, Keswick, Cumberland. I move 
 thither on Tuesday next. N.B. — The newspapers 
 come very irregularly indeed. — Yours sincerely, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 6. 
 
 Keswick, " September, 1800." 
 Dear Stuart, — I have written five more Essays * 
 of the same length on this subject, namely, two 
 on the War as respecting agriculture ; one on 
 the raising of rents, in consequence of high prices 
 of provisions ; one on the riots ; and one on the 
 countenance which Government have given to 
 the calumnies, &c., of foolish people on the King's 
 proclamation, and the probable views of the 
 Minister. To-morrow I shall transmit you two ; 
 two on Tuesday, and the last on Wednesday or 
 Thursday. Immediately after these I will send 
 you without fail a second part of Pitt and 
 
 * These Essays, which were published in TAe Morning Post, Oct. 
 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 1800, were almost entirely the composition of Thomas 
 Poole. S. T. C. wrote an introduction to No. III. 
 
12 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 Buonaparte. Better late than never ! My 
 wife has given me another son,* but alas ! I fear 
 he will not live. She is now sobbing and crying 
 by the side of me. Be so good as to have my 
 papers directed to me — Mr. Coleridge, Greta Hall, 
 Keswick, Cumberland. As it is, I never see them 
 till too late. . . . 
 
 Letter 7. 
 
 October 2, iSoo, 
 Greta Hall, Keswick, Cumberland. 
 Dear Stuart, — I am prevented by Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge's distress concerning our infant, from trans- 
 cribing the fifth Essay on this blank paper. I 
 have sent you the third and fourth. I am fearful 
 the third is too long, especially if you print it, as 
 I confess I think it well deserves, leaded. In the 
 fifth and sixth Essays I return to the Monopolists 
 and the Riots, and advert on the conduct and 
 probable motives of Ministry. In the seventh I 
 take a survey of what is called the prosperity of 
 the kingdom. You may then republish Pitt, to 
 
 * Derwent Coleridge was born September 14, 1800. 
 
l800] COLERIDGE. I3 
 
 which I shall lead ; then you shall have a second 
 part of Pitt and Buonaparte. When these are 
 finished I should wish the whole to be pub- 
 lished together in the form of a pamphlet, but of 
 this you will be the best judge. I shall send you 
 the fifth Essay to-morrow. 
 
 I have by me, though in a rough state, a very 
 long letter to Sir Francis Burdett Jones," on the 
 subject of solitary imprisonment ; concerning 
 which I am in doubt, whether I shall publish it 
 just before the meeting of Parliament in the form 
 of a pamphlet, or whether I shall split [it] into a 
 series of letters, and send it forth in your Paper. 
 If I were convinced that it would be serviceable 
 to your Paper, I should not hesitate a moment ; 
 but although it will not, I trust, be found de- 
 ficient in eloquence indignant and pathetic, nor 
 in examples various, apt and entertaining, yet a 
 large part of it is devoted to the austerest meta- 
 physical reasoning, and this I suspect would ill 
 harmonize with the tastes of London coffee-house 
 
 * Mr. Francis Burdett, the father of the well-known politician, 
 married Eleanor, daughter and co-heir of WilHam Jones, Esq., of 
 Ramsbury Manor, Wilts. 
 
14 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 men and breakfast-table people of quality, oh 
 whom possibly your Paper depends in a great 
 degree. But if it would do your Paper no good, 
 no positive good I mean, I should be [sorry] that 
 a work, on which I had exerted so much thought, 
 should be inserted at all. I would far rather 
 send it to the Baronet in manuscript, and never 
 publish it. 
 
 Wordsworth's health declines constantly. In a 
 few days his poems will be published, with a long 
 poem of mine. Of course you will procure them. 
 iThe Preface contains our joint opinions on Poetry. 
 
 You will be so good as not to forget to have the 
 Newspaper addressed to me at Keswick. If these 
 Essays should please you and suit your purpose, 
 and if you have not [been] deterred by my long 
 silence from entering into any engagement with 
 me, I am willing to recommence my old occupa- 
 tion, binding myself down to send you six columns 
 a week ; any week in which I do not send at least 
 five columns, I should consent to be counted as 
 nothing. At all events, whether you enter on any 
 engagement or no, you would oblige by enclosing 
 to Mr. Godwin, The Polygon, Somers Town, ;^io 
 
l800] COLERIDGE. 
 
 15 
 
 in my name. Before this week has passed, I 
 trust I shall have done a good way towards 
 earning it. — Yours sincerely, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 8. 
 
 Greta Hall, Keswick, 
 Tuesday Night, October 7, 1800. 
 Dear Stuart, — The illness of my dear friend 
 Wordsworth called me peremptorily to Grasmere ; 
 I have this moment returned and found your 
 letter. To be known to Schiller was a thought 
 that passed across my brain and vanished. I 
 would not stir twenty yards out of my way to 
 know him. To see Buonaparte, I would doubtless 
 stir many a score miles ; but as I freely believe 
 you, so I trust you will believe jne when I say, 
 that his praise or admiration or notice, were it 
 even in my power to attain it, might amuse me, 
 but would gratify no higher feeling. If I know 
 my own heart, or rather if I be not profoundly 
 ignorant of it, I have not a spark of ambition ; and 
 though my vanity is flattered more than it ought 
 
l6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 to be by what Dr. Johnson calls " colloquial 
 prowess," yet it leaves me in my study. This is 
 no virtue in me, but depends on the accidental 
 constitution of my intellect, in which my taste in 
 judging is far, far more perfect than my power to 
 execute ; I do nothing but almost instantly its 
 defects and sillinesses come upon my mind and 
 haunt me till I am completely disgusted with my 
 performance, and wish myself a tanner or a printer, 
 or anything but an author. To-morrow you may 
 depend on my sending you two other numbers, 
 and Buonaparte shall not loiter. I should like 
 to see Mr. Street's character. I shall fill up these 
 blanks with a few poems. 
 
 Algous to Sappho.* 
 
 How sweet when crimson colours dart 
 
 Across a breast of snow, 
 To see that you are in the heart 
 
 That beats and throbs below. 
 
 All heaven is in a maiden's blush, 
 
 In which the soul doth speak, 
 That it was you who sent the flush 
 
 Into the maiden's cheek. 
 
 * Probably a juvenile poem composed many years before the date 
 of this letter, 
 
^O0l\ COLERIDGE. 
 
 17 
 
 Large stedfast eyes ! eyes gently rolled 
 
 In shades of changing blue, 
 How sweet are they, if they behold 
 
 No dearer sight than you ! 
 
 And can a lip more richly glow, 
 
 Or be more fair than this ? 
 The world will surely answer. No ! 
 
 I, SAPPHO, answer, Yes ! 
 
 Then grant one smile, though it should mean 
 
 A thing of doubtful birth ; 
 That I may say these eyes have seen 
 
 The fairest face on earth ! 
 
 Letter g. 
 
 Keswick, Saturday, May 16, 180 1. 
 Dear Stuart,— I should have been greatly 
 affected by the contents of your letter at any 
 time ; and at present I felt them with a ifellow- 
 feeling added to brotherly sympathy. You have 
 had misery enough of your own, and see enough 
 immediately around you for any profitable purpose 
 to which sufferance or compassion can conduce. 
 Were it not therefore necessary, in some sort as a 
 justification of my silence and inexertion, I should 
 feel no impulse to tell you, that since the first of 
 January, I have been with the exception of three 
 
 3 
 
l8 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 weeks and a few days, and this not continuous 
 but interspersed, confined to my bed with a 
 succession of disorders, i.e., Rheumatic fever 
 followed by Hydrocele, and since then by what is 
 called irregular or retrocedent Gout. My powers 
 of mind never forsook me, but the act of writing 
 (and in general of conversation) was wholly out of 
 my power. Since the last eight days I appear to 
 myself to be really recovering, but I have had so 
 many short recoveries of one, two, and three days 
 each, followed by such severe relapses, that verily 
 I am almost afraid to hope. But cheerful 
 thoughts come with genial sensations and Hope 
 is itself no mean medicine. 
 
 I thank you for your kindness in continuing to 
 send the paper to us. It has been a great 
 amusement to Mrs. Coleridge during her long 
 attendance on my sick bed ; and latterly to me. 
 It would give me more than a common pleasure 
 if I could write anything that would please you 
 or do you an atom of service. As to any terms 
 they are out of the question. My ill-health and 
 those habits of irresolution, which are perhaps the 
 worst bad consequences of ill-health, forbid me at 
 
i8oi] 
 
 COLERIDGE. ig 
 
 present to rely on myself, but if you would write 
 and point out to me any subjects, I would do 
 anything offhand for you with great pleasure. I 
 ask for subjects and a little information, for I am 
 wholly ignorant of the present state of the public 
 feeling. 
 
 In the question respecting the disfranchisement 
 of the Clergy it appeared to me [torn off]. 
 
 Letter id. 
 
 Keswick, 
 Saturday evening, Sept. ig, 1801. 
 Dear Stuart, — I have received your very kind 
 letter with the half of the £30 note. Meaning 
 what I do by these words, I need not expatiate on 
 your liberality, &c. Southey, I am certain, never 
 thought otherwise, than that you had behaved 
 very handsomely with him ; and will I know be 
 more pleased with the 13 guineas, as an instance 
 of generosity in the thing itself, than for the 
 particular result to him. I will assuredly make 
 the attempt to write some good prose for you, but 
 I must first give the poetics a complete jog. I 
 
20 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT, 
 
 shall certainly labour to make the poems in general 
 suited to a daily morning Paper ; every short 
 poem, that has any merit in it at all, must be 
 suitable in its turn, whatever kind it may be of ; 
 but some kinds ought to recur more frequently 
 than others ; and these, of course, temporary and 
 potitical. What I have been doing since I first 
 wrote has been this ; to get together a fair stock 
 IN HAND of pcems, serious and ludicrous, tales, &c. ; 
 and to send these off as things always to be had ; 
 and then as the event, or occasion, or thought 
 rises, to send you, from time to time, something 
 OF the day and for the day. Southey and I do 
 well together in this line, for I have always fifty 
 subjects, with all the ideas thereunto appertaining, 
 but it is always a struggle with me to execute, and 
 this Southey performs, not only with rapidity, but 
 takes great pleasure in doing it. Have you seen 
 the Thalaba ? It is not altogether a poem 
 exactly to my taste ; there are, however, three 
 uncommonly fine passages in it. The first * in 
 Volume ist, beginning (page 130) at the words, 
 " It was the wisdom and the will of Heaven," 
 
 •f * See Book iii., stanzas 16-25. 
 
iSoi] COLERIDGE. 
 
 21 
 
 continued to the end of the 3rd hne, page 134 : 
 then omitting the intermediate pages, pass on to 
 page 147, and recommence with the words 
 " Their father is their priest," to the last Hne of 
 page 166, concluding with the words ''Of Thalaba 
 went by." This would be a really good extract, 
 and I am sure none of the Reviews will have 
 either feeling or taste to select. You will see 
 when you see the book, that the pages are almost 
 entirely filled up with notes, so that the number 
 of lines is not great. Should it however be too 
 great, you may begin it at page 150, and entitle it 
 " The love of Oneiza for Thalaba," extracted, &c. 
 
 The next extract * is in Volume 2, page 126, 
 beginning at the words, " All waste, no sign of 
 life," &c., to page 131, ending with the words 
 " She clapped her hands for joy." 
 
 The third passage t is very short, and uncom- 
 monly lyrical ; indeed in versification and 
 conception, superior to anything I have ever seen 
 of Southey's. It must begin at the third line of 
 page 142, Volume 2nd, and be entitled " Khawla," 
 or "The Enchantress's Incantation." " ' Go out, 
 
 * See Book viii., stanzas 22-30. f See Book ix., stanza 6, &c. 
 
22 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 ye lights; quoth Khawla," &c.— and go on to the 
 last words of page 143. 
 
 There should be a little note, saying, that Ebhs 
 is the Mahomedan name for the Evil Spirit. 
 These three passages are excellently suited for a 
 Paper, and woulc^ doubtless be of service to the 
 book. Longman will, of course, gladly send you 
 the books. 
 
 I feel myself much affected by the wish you 
 express, that I had applied to you in my 
 pecuniary distresses. Pinched we have been, no 
 doubt, for sickness increased my outgoings, while 
 it cut off all the resources that depended on my 
 own industry. But the evil day is gone by. I 
 have found that a little will go a good way, 
 if there is an absolute necessity for it. As to you, 
 dear Stuart ! I already consider myself, independ- 
 ently of this our new engagement, as your debtor ; 
 for I am not so blinded by authorship as to 
 believe, that what I have done is at all adequate 
 to the money I have received. But it is however 
 something in a world like this, to have a man 
 really attached to your interest, for your sake as 
 well as his own; and that man, believe me Stuart, 
 you have in me. 
 
l80l] COLERIDGE. 23 
 
 I have a favour to ask of you, which I am 
 almost ashamed to ask too. It is this — 
 Wordsworth and myself have one very dear 
 friend, to whom the pleasure of seeing a Paper 
 during the time I wrote in it, would be greater 
 than you can easily imagine. Would you send 
 a Paper for this next quarter to her ? Words- 
 worth will feel himself excited by his affections to 
 do something ; and whatever he does, I shall 
 conscientiously add, and not substitute, as a sort 
 of acknowledgment for this new debt. The 
 Paper must be directed— Miss S. Hutchinson, 
 Bishop's Middleham, Rushiford, Durham. My 
 children are both well, and their mother. We 
 expect Southey in a fortnight. Mrs. Southey 
 is with us. I am so much better that I begin 
 to hope that I may be well enough to pass 
 the winter near you. — Yours sincerely, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter ii. 
 
 Keswick, Sept. 30, 1801. 
 My dear Stuart, — I have been afraid, that my 
 
24 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JAN. 
 
 widow would have had to settle my i6 guineas 
 with you. I have had a frightful seizure of 
 the Cholera Morbus, or bilious cholic ; but the 
 danger is past, and I am assured that I shall be 
 much improved in my general health by [its 
 effects]. I write, that you may not wonder at 
 my silence. Perhaps you may not hear from me 
 for five or six days, as I really find it more 
 than merely expedient to lie in perfect calmness, 
 after so violent an agitation of the body and 
 the spirits. It can be, I suppose, of no great 
 importance when I begin with you. 
 
 I think more and more seriously of coming 
 to London. I am in bed. I cannot write any 
 further — but believe me, with great sincerity, 
 yours, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Of course I received on Thursday the half of 
 the note. 
 
 Letter 12. 
 
 January 19, 1802, Stowey. 
 Dear Stuart, — I shall be with you without 
 fail on Thursday morning at the latest. For 
 
l802j COLERIDGE. 25 
 
 the first ten days after my arrival at Stowey, 
 I had every morning a bowel attack which 
 laid my spirits prostrate ; but by a severe 
 adhesion to a certain regular diet and regimen, 
 I have, I hope, entirely got the better. I am 
 certainly exceedingly improved in health, spirits, 
 and activity, and as the proof of the pudding 
 is in the eating, I hope to bring some proofs 
 of it with me. Be so good as to let Mr. and 
 Mrs. Howel know of the day of my return. 
 I left a cheque for £2^ for you with them, as- 
 I did not like to leave town so heavily in 
 your debt. Mr. T. Wedgewood, who has been 
 with me at Poole's the whole time, informs 
 me that the Calcutta scheme is knocked on 
 the head, and with it Mackintosh's hopes in 
 that quarter. 
 
 What a pitiful note, that of Buonaparte's 
 
 to the legislature ! D the fellow !— Yours 
 
 sincerely, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 End of the First Part of Coleridge's Letters. 
 
PART II. 
 
 {from his departure to the mediterranean 
 to the publishing of " the friend.") 
 
 Letter 13. 
 
 Thursday, March 29, 1804, 
 
 Crown Inn, Portsmouth. 
 
 My dear Stuart, — I arrived here yesterday 
 
 morning between seven and eight, tolerably 
 
 w^ell, I v^^as going to say, but perhaps endur- 
 
 ably unv^^ell, would come nearer the truth. I 
 
 called on Boddington and [illegible] 's Agent 
 
 (having left your letter at Mottley's shop) ; he 
 made a very brisk and dextrous riddance of 
 me. Shortly after my return to my Inn, hav- 
 ing gained no other intelligence but the im- 
 portant one of the non-arrival of the Speedwell, 
 I had a call from Mottley, who expressed his 
 regret that he was absolutely engaged on a 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 party into the country that day, but he would 
 give the morning to me, and the whole of the 
 to-morrow, when he hoped I would dine with 
 him. Accordingly he took me all round the 
 Dockyard, and though I take but little pleasure 
 in these sights, yet I felt myself interested, 
 and that I had spent a remarkably instructive 
 morning. The evening I wrote a very long 
 letter to you, which was no doubt a great 
 relief to myself, but on reperusing it this 
 morning I felt that it would be oppressive to 
 you, and though I will not destroy it, yet I 
 shall not send it, at present at least. I can- 
 not, however, help saying how very much I 
 was touched this morning, by the tenderness 
 and unaffected goodness of your letter to me. 
 Mr. Mottley called, took me in his boat to the 
 huge hospital, and to Gosport, &c., and became 
 very communicative, pleasant and very very 
 civil and attentive. It is not possible that a 
 man could do more honour to a letter of recom- 
 mendation. I dine with him in about half an 
 hour. My ship is not yet arrived, and the wind 
 is against her. Yet it is thought that she will 
 
iSo4] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 29 
 
 come to-night, and it is possible that we may 
 sail on Saturday. 
 
 I have confident hopes that I shall not find 
 myself under the necessity of drawing for any- 
 thing more than I have already done ; much 
 less to exceed your first kind offer. One thing 
 only I have ventured to do. Northcote told 
 me that he could get his portrait of me admir- 
 ably copied, for four or five guineas, and I being 
 exceedingly desirous that my friends in the 
 north should possess a likeness of me, in case 
 of my death, have authorized him to have it 
 copied, if it continues to be admired as much 
 as it has been ; and if he, in his conscience, 
 can rely on the artist for a copy strictly honour- 
 able to the original, even though the original 
 should be lost. If he does it, he is to give a 
 check on you for ^^5 5s., the last liberty of this 
 kind that I shall ever take. 
 
 Lord St. Vincent is unpopular here, as every 
 man must be who detects and punishes jobs 
 and abuses. No man can deny that reforms 
 were wanting, and that he has made them. 
 And though the fortiter in re et suaviter in 
 
30 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 MODO, make a very pleasant punch, yet when 
 we cannot get it, we must put up with the 
 naked spirit. A strong potion was wanting. 
 
 I am more curious than interested about 
 Sheridan, but here comes Mottley. I shall write 
 again to-morrow. I am much better, better in 
 health and cheerfulness to-day than yesterday. 
 
 Believe me, dear Stuart, if I did not find, in 
 the very bottom of my soul, thorough esteem 
 and habitual affection for you, your multiplied 
 love and kindness to me would be a burden, 
 which my spirit could not endure ; but these 
 things are not thrown awa}^ if I deserve to be 
 and am, what I trust I am, your sincere friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 14. 
 
 " Portsmouth,'" Thursday, April 5, 1804. 
 My dear Stuart, — I have no other fear except 
 that your friendship may urge you further than 
 it ought to do. I never permit myself td form 
 an expectation in anything of this kind, con- 
 sequently I suffer no disappointment ; and as 
 
1804] COLERIDGE. 
 
 31 
 
 to Sheridan's promises, I shall as soon expect 
 my dreams to realize themselves ! Both may 
 do so hy chance. Indeed and indeed my dear 
 sir, the only strong feeling I have or ever have 
 had on this subject is that of your kindness, 
 in exerting yourself in a way, that neither you 
 nor I would do for ourselves. The wind pipes 
 loud and is point blank against us, and my 
 captain has just called here to let me know 
 that we cannot reach the ship with this 
 gale, else I was to have gone aboard this 
 afternoon. To-morrow I go, and may even sail, 
 if the wind blows a puff that makes it possible 
 it will be attempted. Mottley continues most 
 assiduously kind and attentive. 
 
 He is a man of much influence, and very much 
 and generally liked. I have every reason to 
 remember him with respect and sense of obliga- 
 tion, even abstracting all that goes to your 
 account, and striking off all the transferable debt. 
 I am in much better bodily health than when I 
 left you, notwithstanding that I live in a cloud 
 
32 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 of smoke, among loose livers and loose talkers, 
 with volleys of oaths rattling about my ears like 
 grape-shot, or whizzing by like so many bullets 
 with holes in them. They are a kind-hearted 
 people, prompt and hospitable, but from the con- 
 stant influx of sailors, the inhabitants are all 
 mock tars, and the whole town is a huge Man-of- 
 War of brick and mortar. 
 
 I was much pleased with the leading paragraph 
 on D'Enghien.* It was well written, and with 
 good feeling. 
 
 I probably shall write again ; but if I should be 
 hurried off and prevented, I shall only be deprived 
 of that which, be assured, is painful to me even 
 in a letter, the bidding you a last Farewell, for 
 I am, my dear Stuart, most wwfeignedly your 
 sincere friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 My direction even after I have sailed will be — 
 Mr. J. C. Mottley's, Portsmouth. You need not 
 add Bookseller, if you prefix J. C. to the surname. 
 Mottley will forward them to me free of expense, 
 and regularly. 
 
 * The Due D'Enghien was tried and shot, March 21, 1804. 
 
1804] COLERIDGE. 33 
 
 Letter 15. 
 
 On board the " Speedwell,'' at anchor in the 
 Bay of Gibraltar. 
 
 Saturday night, April 21, 1804. 
 My dear Stuart,— We dropped anchor half a 
 mile from the landing place of the Rock of Gib- 
 raltar on Thursday afternoon between four and 
 five ; a most prosperous voyage of eleven days. 
 And every day too, once always, often twice, we 
 were obliged to counterpoise our sails (in sea- 
 man's phrase, which I avoided, because I was not 
 sure of the spelling, to lay (or lie) by) for the 
 laggards of our flock. We set sail on Monday 
 morning at nine o'clock, April gth, with convoy, 
 and no rough weather. (We have never once 
 shipped a wave.) This is one of the quickest 
 passages that the Captains remember. You will 
 recollect that I wrote to you with some anxiety 
 respecting the non-arrival of any vessel from the 
 Downs ; and I confess that I felt some discontent 
 at our detention when the West Indian Convoy 
 set sail five days before us, the day after the 
 arrival of the Speedwell at Spithead. That convoy 
 
34 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 was driven by stress of weather, and as it is said, 
 by some error in the Commodore's compasses ; 
 half the ships [were] wrecked, and among the rest 
 the Commodore's, and he and great part of his 
 crew lost. It is impossible not to feel events like 
 these as something providential ; and though the 
 Reason denounces the notion as superstitious, and 
 indeed arrogant (for who are we, that we should 
 hQ favourites with Heaven, to the exclusion of the 
 West India ships ?) yet the feeling remains 
 neither greater nor less, common to all men what- 
 ever their opinions may be, and amid all dif- 
 ferences of knowledge and understanding. It 
 must therefore be right at the bottom, and pro- 
 bably needs only a wiser interpretation to appear 
 so. To cut short my sermon, what a number of 
 sad accidents in the Navy have occurred in the 
 last four or five months ! The day before yester- 
 day I saw a letter from Barcelona, giving an 
 account that the Swift cutter with dispatches to 
 Lord Nelson had been boarded by a French 
 Privateer, and the dispatches taken, her Captain 
 having been killed in the first moments of the 
 engagement; and the same letter conveyed the 
 
1804] COLERIDGE. 
 
 35 
 
 still more melancholy tidings of the utter loss of 
 the Hindostan by fire off the coast of Spain be- 
 tween this place and Toulon. All the crew were 
 saved — but four lost. I repeated this intelligence 
 at Griffith's Hotel on the Rock ; a naval officer 
 was present who appeared thunderstruck, evi- 
 dently much affected. He had come to Gibraltar 
 in the Hindostan, told me that the Captain had 
 shown him her invoice, chiefly of naval stores of 
 all kinds for Malta, with a hundred artificers, and 
 that they were valued at something more than 
 ;£'300,00Q. So valuable was she, and so very 
 deeply laden, that though she mounted forty or 
 fifty guns, she was not suffered to proceed hence 
 by herself, but had a Frigate appointed to convoy 
 her. Another gentleman, late from Malta, in- 
 formed me too, that they are in great distress for 
 these naval stores at Malta. It is possible that 
 you may not have heard this by a shorter channel, 
 therefore I have given so much of my paper to it. 
 And now of myself. I have not been sm-sick, 
 though four or five times a thwart blow of the sea 
 has jerked a dish of tea out of my stomach by an 
 action as merely mechanical, as it has more often 
 
36 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 jerked the tea out of the cup ; no nausea preceding, 
 no effect or even sensation accompanying, and no 
 uncomfortableness following it. But yet I have 
 been far from well. Our vessel, though of the 
 first class, and by far the best sailor of any mer- 
 chantman in the convoy, and always in the wake 
 or abreast of the Commodore, yet being deeply 
 laden with heavy goods (eighty-four large cannon 
 in the Hold for Trieste) rocked almost incessantly; 
 the two last days, and one day in the early part of 
 our voyage the only exceptions ; the wind then 
 bearing a beam, or on the side of the ship, steadied 
 it. The remaining eight days it was scarcely 
 endurable. I can only compare it to a wench 
 kept at home on some Fair Day, or great Holi- 
 day, to nurse a fretful infant, and who having 
 rocked it in vain, rocks it at length in spite. It 
 was to the last degree wearisome, and acted upon 
 me just as the Hiccough does ; it is no great pain 
 in itself, but it is vexatious from its impertinence, 
 permitting one to think of nothing but its own 
 villainous self. I had hoped that I should have 
 written a good deal, and wrote out with much 
 pomp of promise, a plan for the employment of 
 
I^04J COLERIbGfi. 3^ 
 
 my time ; to write in the morning, to fag Italian 
 after dinner (we always dine at one) and to try 
 and finish my " Christabel " in the quiet hours 
 between that and bed-time ; but alas ! alas ! I 
 have scarcely been able even to write a letter, and 
 all my reading has been confined to half a dozen 
 dialogues at the end of the Italian Grammar. 
 The cruel rocking took away from my hard bed, 
 one hard mattress upon boards, all sense of sup- 
 port. I seemed to be on a wave, and though it did 
 not make me sea-sick, yet it evidently diseased my 
 stomach, for I eat no morsel of solid animal food till 
 Wednesday last. The rocking ceased, the weather 
 was heavenly, and my natural appetite returned. 
 I took out with me some of the finest wine, and 
 of the oldest rum and brandy in the kingdom ; * but 
 excepting a single pint of wine mulled at two 
 different times, and both doses ejected, or rather 
 ejaculated instantly in statu quo, I tasted nothing 
 stronger than lemonade during our whole voyage 
 till the last day ; but for the last four days I have 
 been uncommonly well, and as is always the case 
 with me when I feel well, I have not the slightest 
 
 * A present from Sir George Beaumont- 
 
3^ LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 inclination to drink anything but a tumbler or two 
 of beer. I am indifferent to wine, and absolutely 
 dislike spirits. 
 
 Since we anchored I have passed nearly the 
 whole of each day in scrambling about on the 
 back of the rock, among the monkeys. I am a 
 match for them in climbing, but in hops and 
 flying leaps they beat me. You sometimes see 
 thirty or forty together of these our poor relations, 
 and you may be a month on the rock and go to 
 the back every day and not see one. Oh, my 
 dear friend ! it is a most interesting place, this ! 
 A rock which thins as it rises up, so that you can 
 sit a-straddle on almost any part of its summit, 
 between two and three miles from north to south. 
 
 Rude as this line 
 is, it gives you the 
 outline of its ap- 
 pearance, from the 
 sea close to it, tolerably accurately ; only, in 
 nature, it gives you very much the idea of a 
 rude statue of a lion couchant, like that in 
 the picture of the Lion and the Gnat, in the 
 common spelling-books ; or of some animal with 
 a grgat dip in the neck. The lion's head to- 
 
1^04] COLERIDGE. 
 
 39 
 
 wards the Spanish, his stiffened tail (4) to the 
 African. At (5) a range of Moorish towers and 
 wall begins; and at (6) the town begins, the 
 Moorish wall running straight down by the side 
 of it. Above the town, little gardens and neat 
 small houses are scattered here and there, wher- 
 ever they can force a bit of gardenable ground ; 
 and in these are poplars, with a profusion of 
 geraniums and other flowers unknown to me; and 
 their fences are most commonly that strange 
 vegetable monster, the prickly aloe, its leaves 
 resembling the head of a battledore, or the 
 wooden wings of a church-cherub, and one leaf 
 growing out of another. Under the Lion's Tail 
 is Europa Point, which is full of gardens and 
 pleasant trees; but the highest head of this 
 mountain is a heap of rocks, with the palm trees 
 growing in vast quantities in their interstices, 
 with many flowering weeds very often peeping out 
 of the small holes or slits in the body of the rock, 
 just as if they were growing in a bottle. To have 
 left England only eleven days ago, with two 
 flannel waistcoats on, and two others over them ; 
 with two flannel drawers under cloth pantaloons, 
 and a thick pair of yarn stockings; to have 
 
40 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 had no temptation to lay any part of these aside 
 during the whole voyage, and now to jfind myself 
 in the heat of an English summer, among flowers, 
 and seeking shade, and courting the sea-breezes ; 
 all the trees in rich foliage, and the corn knee 
 high, and so exquisitely green ! and to find myself 
 forced to retain only one flannel waistcoat, and 
 roam about in a pair of silk stockings and nan- 
 keen pantaloons, is a delightful transition. How 
 I shall bear the intensity of a Maltese or even a 
 Sicilian summer I cannot guess ; but if I get over 
 it, I am confident, from what I have experienced 
 the last four days, that their late autumn and 
 winter will almost re-create me. I could fill a 
 fresh sheet with the description of the singular 
 faces, dresses, manners, &c., &c., of the Spaniards, 
 Moors, Jews (who have here a peculiar dress 
 resembling a college dress), Greeks, Italians, 
 English, &c., that meet in the hot, crowded streets 
 of the town, or walk under the aspen poplars that 
 form an Exchange in the very centre. But words 
 would do nothing. I am sure that any young 
 man who has a turn for character-painting, might 
 pass a year on the Rock with infinite advantage. 
 
i8o4J 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 41 
 
 A dozen plates by Hogarth from this town ! We 
 are told that we shall not sail to-morrow evening. 
 The Leviathan leaves us and goes to join the 
 fleet, and the Maidstone Frigate is to convey us to 
 Malta. When you write, send one letter to me 
 at Mr. J. C. Mottley's, Portsmouth, and another 
 by the post to me at Dr. Stoddart's,* Malta, that 
 I may see which comes first. God grant that my 
 present health may continue, and then my after- 
 letters will be better worth the postage. But 
 even this scrawl will not be unwelcome to you, 
 since it tells you that I am safe, improving in my 
 health, and ever, ever, my dear Stuart, with true 
 affection, and willing gratitude, your sincere 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 16. 
 
 Jtdy 6, 1804, Malta. 
 
 My dear Stuart, — I wrote to you from Gibral- 
 tar. From thence to Malta I had a miserable 
 voyage indeed, with the exception of the last four 
 
 * Afterwards Sir John Stoddart, Chief Justice of Malta, 1826-39. 
 
I 
 
 42 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jULY 
 
 or five days. For two days I was so ill that I 
 expected to die. We left Gibraltar April 25th, 
 and after a tedious series of calms and light winds 
 and storm that drove us out of our course, 
 dropped anchor in the grand harbour of Valetta 
 in the afternoon of May i8th. Since then I have 
 never had these sharp illnesses, but have never- 
 theless been in a pitiable state of hopelessness 
 and heartlessness, increased probably by my 
 having no opportunity of either writing home, 
 or receiving letters from thence. But within the 
 last fortnight I have been much better, and have 
 at last, I hope and trust, learnt to manage myself. 
 I rise every morning and bathe at or before sun- 
 rise, force myself to regular meals, breakfast at 
 the Palace at 8 o'clock in the morning, and dine 
 there at 4 in the afternoon ; and though I am as 
 temperate as a man need be, I no longer live so 
 abstinently as I had done before. But, above all 
 things, I find my whole salvation depends on 
 being always either at work (not reading, for in 
 half an hour my stomach begins to be twitchy, my 
 breathing smothered, my eyes close in spite of my 
 will, and I fall into diseased and painful dozes, 
 
lS04J COLERIDGE. 
 
 43 
 
 but) actual poetry and composition, or in com- 
 pany. It is greatly in my favour that the hot 
 weather agrees with me. I have never feh a 
 moment's inconvenience from the heat, though it 
 has been hotter the last fortnight than at Calcutta 
 or Kingston, and the thermometer at 86° in the 
 shade ; and to-morrow I shall get into the coolest 
 and incomparably the pleasantest apartments in 
 the whole island, close under the observatory at 
 the Palace, and commanding from one or other of 
 the windows the main sea and the harbour with 
 all its thumb and finger cones, and the whole of the 
 towns of Valetta, Floriana, Vittoriosa, Senglea, 
 Burmola, and Citta Vecchia, in the distance. 
 Sir A. Ball is indeed in every respect as kind and 
 attentive to me as possible, so that on the whole 
 I am perfectly satisfied with the wisdom of the 
 plan. If I had recovered my health all at once, 
 I never could have believed there had been any 
 occasion for my leaving England. Now I know 
 that a change of climate, and an absence from a 
 [crowd] of inward distractions were necessary for 
 
 me. ... a regenerated creature 
 
 [Many lines effaced by discoloration.] 
 
44 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. tjULY 
 
 ... no occasion to draw on your kindness for 
 any money till the time of my return, and perhaps 
 
 not then 
 
 [Effaced by discoloration.'] 
 have enclosed some Sibylline Leaves which I 
 wrote for Sir A. B., who has sent them home to 
 the Ministry. They will give you my ideas on the 
 importance of the island, i.e., if you can read the 
 scrawl. If they appear just to you, and there should 
 be any which you have not anticipated, you will 
 of course take them, only not in the same words. 
 I am hurried now, having been kept hard at work 
 at the Palace, but by the next opportunity I trust 
 I shall have received letters from you, and that 
 I shall send you something in return worth 
 reading. It often soothes me to imagine that you 
 have spent, or are spending your summer at Kes- 
 wick, in Greta Hall. Wherever you are, may 
 God bless you ! A kind and true friend have you 
 been to me ! And if, at this distance from you, I 
 could think of you without emotion and a flow of 
 affectionate feeling, I should be ashamed of. . . . 
 [effaced.] S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 P.S. — If I live I shall be made a perfect [torn 
 
-^^°4] COLERIDGE. 45 
 
 ojf by the seal.] I consider my [torn off] of 
 diplomatic understrapper. Hid in Sir Alexander's 
 [torn off.] But this you will speak of to no one, 
 of course. I shall soon be able both to speak 
 and to write both [Maltese] and Italian. The 
 Maltese talk Arabic, mixed with Italian. Oh! 
 how I long for a letter from you ! to know your 
 opinion of the change of Ministry, &c., &c. 
 
 [This letter is in many places entirely effaced.] 
 
 Letter 17. 
 
 October 22, 1804, Syracuse. 
 My dear Stuart, — I have written you a long 
 letter this morning by way of Messina, and from 
 other causes am so done up and brain weary that 
 I must put you to the expense of this as almost a 
 blank, except that you will be pleased to observe 
 my attention to business in having written two 
 letters of advice, as well as transmitted first and 
 second of exchange for ^^50 which I have drawn 
 upon you, payable to order of Dr. Stoddart at 
 usance. I shall want no more for my return. I 
 
46 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 shall stay a month at Messina, and in that time 
 visit Naples. Supposing the letter of this morn- 
 ing to miss, I ought to repeat to you that I leave 
 the publication of the Pacquet which is waiting 
 for convoy at Malta for you, to your own opinion. 
 If the information appear new or valuable to you, 
 and the letters themselves entertaining, &c., 
 publish them ; only do not sell the copyright of 
 more than the right of two editions to the book- 
 seller. He will not give more, or much more for 
 the copyright of the whole. 
 
 May God bless you ! I am, and shall be as 
 long as I exist, your truly grateful and affectionate 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 18. 
 
 Favoured by Captain Maxwell of the Artillery 
 N.B., an amiable mild man, who is prepared to 
 give you any information. 
 
 Malta, April 27, 1805. 
 Dear Stuart, — The above is a duplicate, or 
 
i8o5] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 47 
 
 rather a sex or septem-^XicdiiQ of an order sent off 
 within three weeks after my draft on you had 
 been given by me ; and very anxious I have been, 
 knowing that all or almost all of my letters have 
 failed. It seems like a judgment on me. For- 
 merly, when I had the sure means of conveying 
 letters, I neglected my duty through indolence 
 or procrastination. For the last year when, 
 having all my heart, all my hope in England, I 
 found no other gratification than that of writing 
 to Wordsworth and his family, his wife, sister, 
 and wife's sister ; to Southey, to you, to T. 
 Wedgewood, Sir G. Beaumont, &c. Indeed, I 
 have been supererogatory in some instances — but 
 an evil destiny has dogged them — one large and 
 (forgive my vanity!) rather important set of letters 
 to you on Sicily and Egypt were destroyed at 
 Gibraltar among the papers of the most excellent 
 man, Major Adye, to whom I had entrusted them 
 on his departure from Sicily, and who died of the 
 Plague FOUR DAYS after his arrival at Gibraltar. 
 But still was I afflicted (shame on me ! even to 
 violent weeping) when all my many, many letters 
 were thrown overboard from the Arrow, the 
 
48 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 Acheron, and a merchant vessel, to all which I had 
 entrusted them ; the last through my own over 
 care. For I delivered them to the Captain with 
 great pomp of seriousness, in my official character 
 as Public Secretary of the Islands." He took 
 them, and considering them as public papers, on 
 being close chased and expecting to be boarded, 
 threw them overboard; and he, however, escaped, 
 steering for Africa, and returned to Malta. But 
 regrets are idle things. 
 
 In my letter, which will accompany this, I have 
 detailed my health and all that relates to me. In 
 case however that letter should not arrive, I will 
 simply say, that till within the last two months 
 or ten weeks my health had improved to the 
 utmost of my hopes, though not without some 
 intrusions of sickness ; but latterly the loss of my 
 letters to England, the almost entire non-arrival 
 of letters from England, not a single one from 
 Mrs. Coleridge or Southey or you ; and only one 
 
 * A printed slip, cut from some public document, has been pre- 
 served in one of S. T. C. 's Note Books. It runs thus : 
 
 " Segreteria del Governo li 29 Gennajo. 1805. 
 
 Samuel T. Coleridge Seg? Pub. del. Commis. Regio. 
 G. N. Zammit Pro segretario. " 
 
1805] COLERIDGE. 
 
 49 
 
 from the Wordsworths, and that dated September 
 1804 ! my consequent heart-saddening anxieties, 
 and still, still m'ore, the depths which Captain 
 John Wordsworth's death sunk into my heart, ='= 
 and which I heard abruptly, and in the very 
 painfuUest way possible in a public company 
 — all these joined to my disappointment in my 
 expectation of returning to England by this 
 convoy, and the quantity and variety of my public 
 occupations from' eight o'clock in the morning to 
 five in the afternoon, having besides th-e most 
 anxious duty of writing public letters' and me- 
 morials, which belongs to my talents rather than 
 to my pro-tempo're offi-ce — these, and some other 
 causes that I cannot mention relative to my 
 affairs in England, have produced a sad change 
 indeed on my health ; but, however, I hope all 
 will be welK I have had a fever and it has 
 brought out boils on' my back which has greatly 
 weakened my stomach', but I hope for the best, 
 and it is~ my present intention to' return home 
 
 * "I can' say nothing higher of my ever-dear brother, than that 
 he was worthy of his sister, who is now weeping beside me, and 
 of the friendship of Coleridge " (Wordsworth to Sir G. Beaumont, 
 Feb. II, 1805). 
 
50 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 overland by Naples, Ancona, Trieste, &c., on or 
 about the second of next month. 
 
 The gentleman who will deliver this to you, is 
 Captain Maxwell of the Royal Artillery, a well 
 informed and very amiable countryman of yours. 
 He will give you any information you wish con- 
 cerning Malta. An intelligent friend of his, an 
 officer of sense and science, has entrusted to him 
 an essay on Lampedosa,* which I have advised 
 him to publish in a newspaper, leaving it to the 
 Editor to divide it. It may, perhaps, need a little 
 softening, but it is an accurate and well-reasoned 
 memorial. He only wishes to give lipuhlicity, and 
 to have not only his name concealed, but every 
 circumstance that could lead to a suspicion. If 
 after reading it you approve of it, you would 
 greatly oblige him by giving it a place in The 
 Courier. He is a sensible, independent man. For 
 all else to my other letter. — I am, dear Stuart, 
 with faithful recollections, your much obliged 
 and truly grateful friend and servant, 
 
 April 20, 1805. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * Lampedusa, an island midway between Malta and Tunis, was 
 ceded by Naples to Don Fernandez in 1802. 
 
1805] coleridge. 5 1 
 
 Letter 19. 
 
 May I, 1805. 
 M}' dear Stuart, — I have had three weeks and 
 more notice of the Convoy for England. The 
 first ten days or so I have been occupied with 
 public letters and memorials ; so much so as 
 to be at night almost too tired, my spirits too 
 exhausted to undress myself. The last eleven 
 or twelve days, I have been very ill ; worse 
 than I have been since my arrival in Malta 
 with the exception of a few days in Sicily. 
 The fever has ended in a number of boils 
 which have at length broken, and from being 
 torture, are now only troublesome ; but under 
 all this my stomach has been so injured, that I 
 have taken no solid food for a fortnight past, 
 and it is well for me if once a day I can keep 
 a little broth on my stomach. However I am 
 plainly though very slowly convalescent. Among 
 several causes of my illness, duly following or 
 crowning on each other, the loss of my whole 
 store of papers in the Arrow, Archeron, and a 
 merchant vessel m-ay be counted as not the 
 
52 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 least; havin'g had another, not unimportant 
 packet respecting Sicily, Egypt and Africa 
 directed to yo'u, and after your perusal, to Sir 
 George Beaumont, burnt at Gibraltar among 
 Major Adye's papers. But of the last parcel 
 (that is, in the Arrow) I had written the greater 
 part in times stolen from sleep. But enough ! 
 
 But would to heaven! I had never accepted my 
 office as Public Secretary, or the former of 
 Private Secretary. Even in a pecuniary point 
 of view, I might have gained twice as much, 
 and improved my reputation. But regrets are 
 idle! 
 
 Pray write to Mrs. Coleridge, and say that 
 my constitution is 1 hope improved by my 
 abode here ; but that accidents, partly of an 
 excess of official labour and anxiety, partly 
 from distress of mind at my not hearing from 
 my friends, and knowledge that they could not 
 have heard from me, &c., &c., &c., has pro- 
 duced sad alteration in me for the worse, but 
 that I shall dedicate the next three weeks to 
 an unceasing effort to recover ground ; and 
 
^^^5l COLERIDGE. 
 
 53 
 
 some time about the end of May (dependent of 
 course on vessels and the state of politics) I 
 have resolved to return home overland by 
 Naples, Ancona, Trieste and Germany ; that my 
 heart is almost broken that I could not go 
 home this convoy. All was resolved that 
 I should, but the gentleman, who is to be 
 Public Secretary here, still delays his arrival, 
 and may probably not come till July ; but I 
 have resolved, let the struggle cost what it 
 may, and even at the forfeiture of Sir A, 
 Ball's good will, to return home at the latter 
 end of May. I have the title and the palace 
 of the Public Secretary, but not half the 
 salary though I had a promise of the whole. 
 But the promises of one in office are what 
 every one knows them to be, and Sir A. B. 
 behaves to me with really personal fondness, 
 and with almost fatherly attention. I am one 
 of his family whenever my health permits me 
 to leave my own house. My dear Stuart, I 
 thank you for the Couriers ; they have (such 
 as have arrived) amused me greatly, and 
 indeed instructed me. For a long long space 
 
54 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [AUG. 
 
 of time I have received no letters from you. 
 Indeed, greatly as I am delighted by any 
 proof of your remembering me, I have no 
 need of them as remembrances of you ; for 
 I knovi^ that ti'll I die, or at least until my 
 reason and memory die, I shall always feel 
 all your kindness to me, and be w^ith firm 
 and grateful attachment, your affectionate 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 20. 
 
 Bell Inn, Friday Street, 
 Monday morning, August 18, 1806. 
 My dear Sir, — I arrived here from Stangate 
 Creek last night, a little after ten, and have 
 found myself so unusually better ever since I 
 leaped on land yester-afternoon, that I am glad 
 that neither my strength nor spirits enabled me 
 to write to you on my arrival in Quarantine on 
 the eleventh. Both the captain and my fellow- 
 passengers were seriously alarmed for my life ; 
 and indeed such have been my unremitting suffer- 
 
l8o6] COLERIDGE. 
 
 55 
 
 ings from pain, sleeplessness, loathing of food, 
 and spirits wholly despondent, that no motive 
 on earth short of an awful duty would ever pre- 
 vail on me to take any sea-voyage likely to be 
 longer than three or four days. I had rather 
 starve in a hovel, and if life through disease 
 become worthless, will choose a Roman death. 
 It is true I was very low before I embarked. . . . 
 To have been working so hard for eighteen 
 months in a business I detested ; to have been 
 flattered, and to have flattered myself that I 
 should, on striking the balance, have paid all 
 my debts and maintained both myself and family 
 during my exile out of my savings and earnings, 
 including my travels through Germany, through 
 which I had to the very last hoped to have 
 
 passed, and found myself ! But enough ! 
 
 I cannot charge my conscience with a single 
 extravagance, nor even my judgment with any 
 other imprudences than that of suffering one 
 good and great man to overpersuade me from 
 month to month to a delay which was gnawing 
 away my very vitals, and in being duped in 
 disobedience to my first feelings and previous 
 
56 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [AUG. 
 
 ideas by another diplomatic Minister. ... A 
 gentleman offered to take me without expense 
 to Rome, which I accepted with the full inten- 
 tion of staying only a forti;ight, and then retyrn- 
 ing to Naples to pass the winter. ... I left 
 everything but a good suit of clothes and rny 
 shirts, &c., all my letters of credit, mflinuscripts, 
 &c. I had not been ten days in Rome before 
 the French torrent rolled down on Naples. Al} 
 return was impossible, and ^11 transmission of 
 papers not onjy insecure, but being English 
 and many of them political, highly dapgerous 
 both to the sender and sendee. . . . But this is 
 only a fragment of a chapter of contents, and 
 I am too much agitated to write the details, but 
 will call on you as soon as my two or three 
 remaining [guineas] shall have put a decent hat 
 upon my head and shoes upon rny feet. I arn 
 literally afraid, even to cowardice, to ask for 
 any person or of any person. Including the 
 Quarantine we had fifty-five days of shipboard, 
 working up against head-winds, rptting and 
 sweating in calms or running under hard gales 
 with the dead lights secured. Frpm the captain 
 
l8o6j .COLERIDGE. 
 
 57 
 
 and my feljlowrpassenger I received every pos- 
 sible tenderness, only when I was very ill, they 
 laid their wise heads together, and the latter 
 in a letter to his father, begged him to inform 
 my family, that I had arrived, and he trusted 
 t^at they would soon see me in better health 
 ^nd spirits than when I had quitted them ; a 
 fetter which must have alarmed if they saw into 
 it, and wounded if they did not. I was not 
 informed of it till this morning. God bless 
 you, my dear sir ! I have yet cheerful hopeg 
 that Heaven wiU not suffer me to die degraded 
 by any other debts than those which it ever 
 has been, and ever will be, my joy and pride 
 still to pay and still to owe ; those of a truly 
 grateful heart, and to you among the first of 
 those to whom they aj:e due, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 21. 
 
 " 1806." Friday morning. 
 My dear Stuart,— Your letter of this morning 
 
58 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [AUG. 
 
 is not to be answered by words. There are acts 
 of friendship where it is better not to give birth 
 even to the whole of the inward feelings appro- 
 priate to them. What does not pass forth re- 
 mains within, and its own stillness sinks more 
 securely into us, and becomes one with our 
 habitual being. I shall avail myself of your 
 kind offer of your house at Brom.pton to-morrow, 
 chiefly for fear that Wordsworth may come up 
 to town after me. Otherwise I should not hesi- 
 tate to come down to you without delay — for 
 indeed, indeed, I sorely want counsel in many 
 things ; but in some I want counsel which none 
 but you of my friends can give me. Fortunately 
 I had perused with attention the few political 
 papers which I had with me aboard ship, the 
 very day before the Spanish privateer. Ruffian, 
 boarded us, and which occasioned, and indeed 
 necessitated the captain, to throw overboard his 
 and my papers promiscuously so that the con- 
 tent though not the language are fresh in my 
 memory. I likewise contrived to preserve two 
 pocket-books full of memoranda — each as large 
 as a large duodecimo volume — and a valuable 
 
l8o6J COLERIDGE. 
 
 59 
 
 paper on the present state of Egypt, much fuller 
 of facts, and more sober reasoning than the one 
 written for Sir A. B. to be sent to the Ministry. 
 I collected every fact from respectable eye- 
 witnesses, and not a few from Selim Effendi, 
 the Mameluke Minister at Malta, with whom I 
 was very intimate. For the rest of my papers 
 I must wait till they come from Malta, and 
 ought to be thankful . . . that they are not 
 now (mangled and distorted) brought to birth 
 in The Moniteur, bit by bit, by the forceps of 
 some literary accoucheur in Paris. My health 
 improves wonderfully. My captain, to whom I 
 owe my life, and who saw me this morning, 
 could scarcely believe his eyes. Almost imme- 
 diately on my landing health seemed to flow in 
 upon me, like mountain waters upon the dusty 
 pebbles of a vale stream after long-wanted rains. 
 In short, though no emolument could ever force 
 me again to the business, intrigue, form and 
 pomp of a public situation, yet beyond all doubt, 
 I have acquired a great variety of useful know- 
 ledge, quickness in discovering men's characters 
 and adroitness in dealing with them. I have 
 
6o LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 learnt the inside character of many eminent 
 living men, and know by heart the awkward and 
 wicked machinery by which all our affairs abroad 
 are carried on. In short, if I recover a steady 
 though imperfect health, I perhaps should have 
 no reason to regret my long absence ; not even 
 my perilous detention in Italy; for by my regular 
 attention to the best of the good things in Rome, 
 and associating almost wholly with the artists of 
 acknowledged highest reputation, I acquired more 
 insight into the Fine Arts in the three months than 
 I could have done in England in twenty years. 
 
 I am, my dear Stuart, gratefully, as I ought to 
 be, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 22. 
 
 " 1806." Monday. 
 My dear Stuart, — I arrived in town safe, but so 
 tired by the next evening, that I went to bed at 
 nine and slept till past twelve on Sunday. I can- 
 not keep off my mind from the last subject we 
 were talking about; though I have brought my 
 
l8o6] COLERIDGE. 6l 
 
 notions concerning it to hang so well on the balance 
 that I have in my own judgment few doubts as 
 to the relative weight of the arguments persuasive 
 and dissuasive. But of this " face to face." I 
 sleep at The Courier office, and shall institute and 
 carry on the inquiry into the characters of Mr. Pitt 
 and Mr. Fox, and having carried it to the Treaty of 
 Amiens, or rather to the recommencement of the 
 War, I propose to give a full and severe Critique 
 of the " Enquiry into the State of the Nation," 
 taking it for granted that this work does, on the 
 v^hole contain Mr. Fox's latest political creed ; 
 and this for the purpose of answering The Morning 
 Chronicle (!) assertions, that Mr. Fox was the 
 greatest and wisest statesman, that Mr. Pitt was 
 no statesman. I shall endeavour to show that 
 both were undeserving of that high character, but 
 that Mr. Pitt was the better; that the evils which 
 befell him were undoubtedly produced in great 
 measure by blunders and wickedness on the Con- 
 tinent, which it was almost impossible to foresee, 
 while the effects of Mr. Fox's measures must in and 
 of themselves produce calamity and degradation. 
 To confess the truth, I am by no means pleased 
 
62 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 with Mr. Street's character of Mr. Fox as a speaker 
 and man of intellect. As a piece of panegyric, it 
 falls woefully short of the Article in The Morning 
 Chronicle in style and selection of thoughts, and 
 runs at least equally far beyond the bounds of 
 truth. Persons who write in a hurry are very 
 liable to contract a sort of snipt, convulsive style, 
 that moves forward by short repeated pushes, with 
 iso-chronous asthmatic pants, " He — He — He — 
 He — ," or the like, beginning a dozen short sen- 
 tences, each making a period. In this way a man 
 can get rid of all that happens at any one time to 
 be in his memory, with very little choice in the 
 arrangement and no expenditure of logic in the 
 connection. However it is the matter more than 
 the manner that displeased me, for fear that what 
 I shall write for to-morrow's Courier may involve 
 a kind of contradiction. To one outrageous pas- 
 sage I persuaded him to add a note of amendment, 
 as it was too late to alter the Article itself. It 
 was impossible for me, seeing him satisfied with 
 the Article himself, to say more than that he 
 appeared to me to have exceeded in eulogy. But 
 beyond doubt in the political position occupied by 
 
l8o6] COLERIDGE. 63 
 
 The Courier, with so little danger of being antici- 
 pated by the other Papers in anything which it 
 ought to say, except some obvious points which 
 being common to all the papers can give credit 
 to none, it would have been better to have an- 
 nounced his death, and simply led the way for an 
 after disquisition by a sort of shy disclosure with 
 an appearance of suppression of the spirit with 
 which it could be conducted. 
 
 There are letters at the Post Office, Margate, 
 for me. Be so good as to send them to me, 
 directed to The Courier office. I think of going to 
 Mr. Smith's* to-morrow, or not at all. Whether 
 Mr. Fox's death t will keep Mr. S. in town, or call 
 him there, I do not know. At all events I shall 
 return by the time of your arrival. 
 
 May God bless you ! I am ever, my dear Sir, 
 as your obliged, so your affectionately grateful 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * Coleridge was at this time the guest of William Smith, M.P. 
 for Norwich, who lived at Parndon House, near Harlowe, in Essex. 
 It was partly through the advice and interest of Mr. Smith that 
 S. T. C. obtained his Lectureship at the Royal Institution. 
 
 t Charles James Fox died Sept. 13, 1806. 
 
64 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1806 
 
 Letter 23." 
 
 Endorsed " D. S., i< 
 Dear Stuart, — I have been both vexed and 
 mortified by this money blunder of mine relative 
 to your loan to Wordsworth. It was I own, an 
 imprudence, or rather a strange absence of mind 
 that I did not inquire of him the particulars, but 
 
 * This letter is printed in full in T/ie Gentleiua7i^ s Magazine 
 of June, 1838. The object of the publication of this and other 
 letters was to remove the false impression which, in Mr. Stuart's 
 judgment, a passage in the tenth chapter of the "Biographia 
 Literaria" and certairf paragraphs in "The Table Talk" were 
 likely to convey with regard to his relations with Coleridge. 
 I-t would be' improper within the limits of a note to discuss the 
 merits of t'he case, but it may be admitted that if Coleridge greatly 
 overestimated the amount of his services to The Morning Post and 
 The Courier, he did not put too high- a value on the quality of the 
 articles contributed. The " Biographia Literaria " was no doubt an 
 apologia pro vitd stcd, and conscious of great powers, a wide reputa- 
 tion, and of meagre and fragmentary achievements, he made the 
 very most of his Writings for thfe press. But there is nothing to 
 show that he intended to imply that he had been underpaid for his 
 services. He is defending hiiliself, not covertly attacking another. 
 In the first edition' of " The Table Talk" Stuart is spoken of as "a 
 knowing person," and the phrase, though far from being intentionally 
 offensive, lacks, as " the knowing person " justly divined, both the 
 respect and the tenderness which were due to a lifelong friendship 
 and to a noble and untiring generosity. 
 
l8o6] COLERIDGE. 65 
 
 SO it was. I had not connected our Scotch tour, 
 or indeed any time or occasion whatsoever with 
 this money. I had heard Wordsworth often and 
 Mrs. Wordsworth still oftener, express uneasiness 
 that the debt had been suffered to remain unpaid 
 so long ; and when I spoke to you about it, and 
 found from you that it was borrowed for our 
 journey into Scotland, I could recollect none of 
 the particulars. Nor can I now. But I am sure 
 that if you knew all that had passed and all that 
 I have suffered during the long interval you would 
 not be surprised by this defect and confusion of 
 memory, . . . 
 
 I have been so lucky as to discover among Mr. 
 Godwin's books the copy of my Tragedy, which I 
 had lent to poor dear Mrs. Robinson ; ''= the only 
 copy in existence that I know of. I was very 
 much pleased with it ; still more pleased that I 
 could see at once what its faults were, and that 
 a week's labour would completely remove them. 
 Sir George Beaumont read it about four years ago, 
 
 * Mrs. Robinson (" Perdita "), among other literary ventures, 
 published some volumes of poetry. An ode to celebrate the birth 
 of Derwent Coleridge was written only a few weeks before her 
 death, Dec. 28, 1800. 
 
 6 
 
66 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1806 
 
 and he expressed his full persuasion that with a 
 few alterations, which any person acquainted with 
 the mechanism of the stage might easily suggest, 
 it would act as well as it reads. I certainly will 
 correct it, and, changing both the title and the 
 names of the Dramatis Personce, procure it to be 
 presented to Covent Garden. . . . 
 
 I discovered the play in an odd way. I was 
 speaking with some asperity of Sheridan's late 
 conduct in Parliament, and Godwin with a half- 
 sneer implied that my resentment was the cause of 
 my dislike and that I confounded the patriot with 
 the Manager. I repelled the charge with warmth 
 and indeed I might have appealed to yoitr evi- 
 dence whether I ever wrote to you respecting Mr. 
 Sheridan, or spoke for many many years after with 
 the least vindictive feeling ; and whether I had not 
 (till the Coalition), always thought, spoke and 
 stood ready to write in his praise and support as a 
 public man. Indeed I distinctly recollect the 
 having written twice to you, desiring you to assure 
 Mr. Sheridan that I did not cherish the least re- 
 sentment on this account, and wished only to free 
 myself from the charges which he had brought 
 
i8o6] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 67 
 
 against me of vanity and obstinacy. Undoubtedly 
 I should be less than a man if I had not been 
 indignant, that within the last twelve months he 
 has made me an object of ridicule among persons 
 disposed to think well of me by misquoting a line,* 
 ridiculous enough in itself, and then asserting 
 that it was a fair specimen of the whole tragedy. 
 But I should have felt much more indignation if 
 any friend had been so treated, because I should 
 then have encouraged a feeling, which it being my 
 own case, I checked and repressed. As soon as 
 it is altered, I will beg you to look it over and 
 give me your opinion and advice, with the same 
 sincerity with which I am your obliged and affec- 
 tionate friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * In the Preface to the first edition of " The Remorse," 1813, 
 S.T. C. would have it that the line in " Osorio" on which Sheridan 
 based his famous jest was — 
 
 " Drip ! drip ! a ceaseless sound of water drops." 
 
 But the opening lines of Act iv. ran thus — 
 
 " Drip ! drip ! drip ! drip ! in such a place as this 
 It has nothing else to do but drip ! drip ! drip ! " 
 
 However, the misleading paragraph was omitted from later editions 
 of the Preface. It may be, indeed, that an alternative form which 
 had long since become familiar had dislodged from his treacherous 
 memory the original version. 
 
68 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 Letter 24.* 
 
 , Friday night, May, 1807. 
 My dear Stuart, — I am much affected at this 
 moment by the reiterated proofs of your (in my 
 experience, unexampled) kindness to me. But 
 I should sink for ever in my own mind, if I 
 did not deliver under my own hand to you, 
 what I have not failed to declare to others, 
 namely, that any services I may have performed 
 for you, were greatly overpaid at the moment, 
 and that the whole of the money I owe you, 
 is morally as well as nominally, a. true debt. 
 Deeply indeed am I convinced that you always 
 from personal kindness overrated the very little 
 which my own defects and the harass of domestic 
 misery permitted me to do. If I were on my 
 death-bed I should say that with regard to your 
 paper what I did must certainly have been of little 
 effect, and not improbably of none. The only con- 
 nection that I feel with you, as arising from myself, 
 is that I have had from the first a sincere affection 
 for you, and that I have in my inmost [heart] a deep 
 
 * This Letter appeared in full in T/ie Gentlemen^ s Magazine, June, 
 
1807] COLERIDGE. 69 
 
 and honest respect for you {increased by no doubt 
 but) by no means grounded on my gratitude to 
 you. I should be glad to believe that there were 
 two on earth as warmly and unmixedly attached 
 to you. Excuse me, my dear sir. I know this 
 is oppressive to you; but I felt it a duty that 
 I dared not resist, to declare under my own hand 
 to you, what (I trust) I never have been, never 
 shall be backward in declaring to others, the 
 true nature of your kindness to me, and of our 
 connection in general. As to the money, I have 
 a cheerful confidence that within the time I 
 stated I shall have repaid it ; but God in heaven 
 knows I would never repay it if I coidd suspect of 
 myself that the repayment would in the least 
 degree lessen my sense of obligation to you. I 
 beg you will keep this letter, and having requested 
 that, I shall be silent on this subject for the future. 
 
 With regard to Wordsworth's affair, I have 
 in vain racked my recollection. I can recollect 
 nothing indeed even of our tour. I cannot recall 
 a single image or conversation of the first week 
 or more. . . . 
 
 When your attention is open to it in the course 
 
I 
 
 70 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY, 1807 
 
 of three months, I shall avail myself of your 
 opinion and advice as to my play. If I had 
 seen half as much of the Theatre as you have, 
 I should have confidence in my own opinion 
 and I need not say therefore that I have great 
 confidence in yours. As to Mr. Sheridan, I 
 should feel more for an indifferent person than 
 for myself, if self has any share in my feelings. 
 But to have desired a young man struggling for 
 bread to write a Tragedy at twenty-three and 
 to have heard from him an unfeigned acknow- 
 ledgment of his unfitness, to have encouraged 
 him by promises of assistance and advice, to have 
 received the Play with a letter submitting it 
 blankly to his alterations, omissions, additions, as 
 if it had been his own MSS., yet still expressing 
 the author's acknowledgment that it was not 
 likely to suit the stage, and that a repulse would 
 create no disappointment, nay that he would even 
 consider himself as amply rewarded if only Mr. 
 Sheridan would instruct him as to the reason 
 of its unsuitableness — then to utterly neglect 
 this young man, to return no answer to his 
 letter soliciting the remission of the copy— all 
 
COLERIDGE. 71 
 
 this I had forgiven, and attributed to Mr. 
 Sheridan's general character and complexity of 
 anxious occupations — but, ten years afterwards, 
 to take advantage of a MSS. so procured, to 
 make the author ridiculous, and that among 
 those disposed to be his friends, and by a down- 
 right falsehood ! Suppose, my dear sir, this had 
 happened to you or to Wordsworth ? It is the 
 wanton cruelty of the thing that shocks me; 
 and for itself too, though few will give me credit 
 for it. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 25. 
 
 " 1808." Thursday night. 
 My dear Sir, — I enclose the letter as the best 
 explanation and advocate of my earnest wishes. 
 I have done everything which in my present 
 severe sufferings I can do. I have written to Sir 
 George Beaumont * to apply to Lord Mulgrave ; 
 
 * " Sara Hutchinson's and Mary Wordsworth's brother, after a 
 romance almost of strange and perilous adventures and sufferings, 
 has been pressed, and is nowin great distress on board of His Majesty's 
 ship ' Chichester' " (S. T. C. to Sir G. Beaumont, Feb. i8, 1808). 
 
73 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1808 
 
 I have written to his lordship's brother whom I 
 once met in company, and who was very atten- 
 tive to me ; and I have urged Mr. Clarkson im- 
 mediately to exert his interest with the Thorntons 
 and Wilberforce, to procure this poor unhappy 
 sufferer's release. Like most who are enemies 
 only to themselves, he has suffered more than 
 Rhadamanthus, or the judges of Hell in their 
 worst humours would have inflicted on him for 
 his imprudence. But I well know that lesser 
 dignities can do at once, what the first man in 
 power boggles at, and " really cannot transgress 
 the rule he has laid down." If by any interest 
 of yours, you can procure Henry Hutchinson's 
 liberation, you will have the fervent gratitude of 
 Mrs. Wordsworth and her sister whom, from 
 some strange circumstance which I am unable 
 to decipher (for unfeignedly I have the greatest 
 faith in your tact as to character) you have been 
 somehow or other, led to misunderstand. It is 
 not very probable that two men so unlike as 
 Wordsworth and myself, should have fallen into 
 the same error, both having known the same 
 object for eight or nine years, and he almost 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 73 
 
 always in the same house. ... If sense, sensi- 
 bility, sweetness of temper, perfect simplicity and 
 an unpretending nature joined to shrewdness and 
 entertainingness, make a valuable woman, Sarah 
 H. is so ; for the combination of natural shrewd- 
 ness and disposition to innocent humour joined 
 with her perfect simplicity and tenderness is what 
 distinguishes her from her sister, whose character 
 is of a more solemn cast. Had Captain Words- 1 
 worth lived I had hopes of seeing her blessedly 
 married, as well as prosperously ; but it is one 
 of the necessary results of a woman's having or ^ 
 acquiring feelings more delicate than those of 
 women in general, not to say of the same rank 
 in society, that it exceedingly narrows the always 
 narrow circle of their prospects, and makes it 
 a stroke of Providence when they are suitably 
 married. Oh ! to a man of sensibility, especially 
 if he have not the necessity of turmoiling in 
 life, and can really concentre his mind to quiet 
 enjoyment, there is no medium in marriage 
 between great happiness and thorough misery ; 
 but that happiness is so great, that all 
 
74 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 outward considerations become ridiculous to 
 a man who has enjoyed it. 
 
 ***** 
 
 It has led me into a digression very remote 
 from the subject of my letter, which yet, heaven 
 knows, has interested me as much as if H. H. 
 had been my own brother ; and especially indeed 
 from considerations of poor Mrs. Wordsworth's 
 alarming state of health, to whom the liberation 
 of her unfortunate brother would be a charm of 
 healing. 
 
 Unfeignedly your obliged and sincere friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 26.* 
 
 " April, 1808." 
 My dear Stuart, — If I did not feel and know 
 how much and how truly I loved and esteemed 
 you the weight of my obligations to you would 
 press heavy on my mind. I write to you now 
 simply and at once to ask you to permit me to 
 
 * This letter appeared in full in T/ie Gentlemen's Magazine, June, 
 1 8:58. 
 
^So8] COLERIDGE. 75 
 
 draw upon you for a sum not exceeding a hundred ' 
 pounds. . . . 
 
 I have less pride than most men I have known, 
 but I owe it to my sweet children and to my 
 friends, not to suffer myself to be treated igno- 
 miniously, or to be regarded as a hireling. Few 
 things oppress my conscience so much as myi 
 repeated non-performance of what I had engaged, 
 and God knows ! both meant and expected to have 
 done for you ; but in that instance, the delicacy 
 and generosity on your part towards me have 
 always alleviated, often removed the feeling. If 
 I was not self-satisfied, yet I had another object 
 before my mind in whose conduct I found an 
 unmixed satisfaction, and judging of you by 
 myself, I thought that the sincere and grateful 
 love I felt towards you, at and from the bottom 
 of my heart, and my exceeding anxiety to see 
 you happy, increasingly so, and more and 
 more worthy of being happy, formed a sort 
 of imperfect recompense. But to be insulted by 
 people to whom I had been under no obligation, 
 for whom you in reality (which is " I "to them) 
 had been paying, and to be treated as a shoe- 
 
76 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 maker or worse, namely, with the idea, "We 
 must not pay him all beforehand, or he may give 
 us the slip," as if I were a sharper, supposing 
 my powers to continue ; or, being without friends 
 interested in my honour, supposing sudden death 
 or incapacitating sickness — all this is rather too 
 bad. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Note by D.S. — "I gave^xoo on the 20th April, 1808. — 
 D.S." 
 
 Letter 27. 
 
 (Enclosed in the preceding letter.)-'' 
 
 Dear Friend, — I feel myself impelled to write 
 to you some ten sentences, on a subject so full 
 of anxious hope to you. . . . Exclusive of health, 
 virtue, and respectable connections, there seems 
 to me to be just four points, on which a wise 
 man ought to make calm and most deliberate 
 questions, and unless he can answer all four 
 queries in the affirmative he has no chance to be 
 
 * Compare Letter to a Young Lady enclosed in Letter to Allsop, 
 dated March 4, 1822. 
 
^^o8] COLERIDGE. 
 
 77 
 
 happy, and if he be a man of feeling, no possi- 
 bility even of being comfortable. 
 
 1st. — Is A a woman of plain good sense, as 
 manifested by sound judgment as to common / 
 occurrences of life, and common persons, and 
 either possessing information enough, or with 
 an understanding susceptible of acquiring it, 
 enough, I say, to be and to become a companion? 
 In few words, has she good sense with average 
 quickness of understanding ? 2ndly. — Is she of 
 a sympathizing disposition in general ? Does she 
 possess the sensibility that a good man expects 
 in an amiable woman ? 3rdly. — Has she that 
 steadiness of moral feeling, that simplicity un- 
 debauched by lust of admiration, that sense of 
 duty joined with a constancy of nature, which 
 enables her to concentrate her affections to their 
 proper objects, in their proper proportions and 
 relations ? to her sisters, brothers, parents, as 
 sisters, brothers, parents ; to her children, as her 
 children ; to her husband, as her husband. ... <. 
 4thly and lastly, — Are all these three classes of 
 necessary qualities combined with such manners ! 
 and such a person as is striking to you ? as suits 
 
78 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 your feelings and coalesces with your old associa- 
 tions as a man, as both a bodily and intellectual 
 man? 
 
 I feel a deep conviction that any man looking 
 soberly and watching patiently, might obtain a full 
 solution to all these queries, with scarce the 
 possibility of being deluded. He will see too 
 whether she is highly esteemed and deeply 
 beloved by her sisters, brothers, oldest friends, 
 &c. If there be an atmosphere of true affection 
 and domestic feelings in her family, he cannot 
 help himself breathing it and perceiving that he 
 breathes it. But alas ! alas ! It is because it 
 is the most important step in human life, that 
 therefore it so often happens that it is the only 
 one in which even wise men have acted foolishly 
 from haste, or passion, or inquietude from single- 
 ness, or mistaken notions of honour, leading them 
 to walk into the gulph with their eyes open. 
 God preserve my friend from this worst of 
 miseries ! God guide my friend to that best of 
 earthly goods, which makes us better by making 
 us happier, and again happier by making us 
 better ! 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 79 
 
 Written on the Fly-Leaf of a Folio 
 Edition of Milton's Prose Works. 
 
 Of Jeffries, in Pall Mall, Feb., 1791. 
 Bought for Mr. Stuart, March 28, 1808 ; price 
 three guineas. 
 
 If Great Britain remain independent (and oh ! 
 what extremes of guilt and folly must combine in 
 order to the loss, even of her paramounce !) the 
 prose Works of Milton will be more and more in 
 request. Hooker, Bacon, Harrington, Sidney, 
 Jer. Taylor, and these volumes (to which I would 
 add Sir Thomas Brown, if rich and peculiar 
 genius could wholly cover quaintness and pe- 
 dantry of diction) are the upper house of genuine 
 English prose classics. This present century, 
 among many worse things which cast a gloom 
 over its infancy, will be notoriotis in English 
 literature for the shameful incorrectness with 
 which booksellers (too ignorant, or too niggardly, 
 or both, to employ learned men in the business) 
 have edited the various Works of Bacon, Milton, 
 and a number of other Works of great size. The 
 
 / 
 
8o LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 i 
 
 late edition, in twelve volumes octavo of Lord 
 Bacon, and Anderson's " British Poets " in four- 
 teen volumes (thick octavo double-column, each 
 volume equal to two common quartos or even 
 three), are absolutely infamous for their errata. 
 In the former there exists one error in every 
 second, in the latter from three to half a dozen 
 of the WORST sort of blunders in every page 
 (Worst sort of blunders, i.e., those which substitute 
 a stupid sense for an exquisite beauty. Of the self- 
 conceit of ignorant compositors, instances* enough 
 might be collected from literary men to make a 
 volume, and a very entertaining one it would be). 
 This edition of Milton therefore by the excel- 
 lent and laborious Birch, corrected with a care 
 worthy of the praise of Milton himself, cannot 
 but rise in value ; and I dare prophecy that in 
 less than twenty years, it will be sold at not less 
 than ten guineas. I greatly prefer this folio to the 
 
 * Coleridge suffered more than once from what he called " The 
 Compositor's emendations." For instance, in "The Nightingale," 
 the famous line, "And one, low piping sound more sweet than all," 
 in the first edition of " Sibylline Leaves," 1817, reads thus — " And 
 one, low piping, sounds more sweet than all " ; and in " Work 
 without Hope," first published in 1826, " Slugs leave their lair " J 
 'was altered into " Stags leave their lair." 
 
i8o8] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 quarto edition of Milton, which some have bought 
 in order to have his prose Works uniform with 
 the fourth edition of his poetical Works, even 
 for the opposite reason. Admirable to the very 
 height of praise as Milton's prose works are, yet 
 they are of a party, in country, in religion, in 
 politics and even in morals (the Treatise on the 
 Power of Divorce), a party indeed, to which in all 
 respects I cleave, with head, heart, and body ; but 
 yet, it is a party. But his poetry belongs to the 
 whole world ! It is alike the property of the 
 churchman and the dissenter, "the Protestant and 
 the Catholic, the Monarchist and the Republican, 
 and of every country on earth except the kingdom 
 of Dahomey in Africa, for the present at least ; 
 and of France (as long as it shall be inhabited by 
 Frenchmen) for ever ! A mine of lead could 
 sooner take wing and mount aloft at the call of 
 the sun, with the dews and with the lark, than the 
 witty, discontinuous intellect, and sensual sum- 
 total of a Frenchman could soar up to religion, or 
 to Milton and Shakespeare. It is impossible. 
 Frenchmen are the Indigent, the natives of this 
 planet, and all the souls that are not wanderers 
 
 7 
 
82 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [mAR. 
 
 from other worlds, or destined for other worlds, 
 who are not mere probationers here, and birds of 
 passage — all the very own children of this earth, 
 enter into the wombs of Frenchwomen, from N., 
 E., S., W., and increase the population and 
 Empire of France. Russia (see note at the end) 
 provides such large supplies of French souls that 
 they probably will be commanded to abide where 
 they arise, and form a New France, a Nova Gallia, 
 as we have a New England in America, a Nova 
 Scotia. And alas ! even Great Britain sends 
 large colonies thither. What are the greater part 
 of the members of the two Houses of Parliament, 
 but souls passing through the stomach and intes- 
 tines of England, like mistletoe berries through 
 those of the thrush, or nutmegs in the Spice 
 Islands through those of the eastern Pigeon, in 
 order to be matured for germinating in France, 
 and becoming Frenchmen, some in the next, 
 some in the following generation ? And a few 
 (Mr. Fox for instance) may even take three or 
 four generations — sinking in each into a nearer 
 proximity, before the soul is completely unsouled 
 into a proper Gaul. This process is now so com- 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 83 
 
 mon, that every Englishman has cause for alarm, 
 lestj instead of singing with the angels, or beating 
 off imp-flies with his tail among the Infernals, his 
 spirit should, some fifty or a hundred years hence, 
 be dancing and crouching beneath the sceptre of 
 one of Napoleon's successors. I know no better 
 way by which he can assure himself of the con- 
 trary, and prove his election either to be a happy 
 angel hereafter, or at worst an honest English 
 Devil, than by his being sincerely conscious that 
 he reads with delight, feels, understands and 
 honours the following Works of Milton. This 
 being, it necessarily follows that he loves Sidney, 
 Harrington, Shakespeare, and the poet Milton. 
 348, Strand. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Note. — I write this, not from the accident of a 
 war with Russia, but from an intimate knowledge 
 of the Russian character, gained from two years' 
 intercourse with Russians of all ages and ranks 
 and of both sexes. The Russian is a thorough 
 Frenchman, without the Frenchman's wit. 
 
 End of Second Part of Coleridge's Letters. 
 
PART III. 
 
 (CONCERNING THE PUBLICATION OF 
 " THE FRIEND.")* 
 
 "A Weekly Essay by S. T. Coleridge." 
 
 {Extracted from a letter to a Correspondent^ 
 
 It is not unknown to you, that I have em- 
 ployed almost the whole of my life in acquiring 
 or endeavouring to acquire, useful knowledge, by 
 study, reflection, observation, and by cultivating 
 the society of my superiors in intellect, both at 
 home and in foreign countries. You know too 
 that at different periods of my life, I have not 
 only planned, but collected the materials for, many 
 Works on various and important subjects; so many 
 
 * The Prospectus was attached to the first number of The Friend, 
 which appeared June i, 1809. A great part of The Friend was 
 written by Miss Hutchinson, at Coleridge's dictation. The original 
 MS. is in the Forster Library, which forms part of the Kensington 
 Museum. 
 
86 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1808 
 
 indeed, that the number of my unrealized schemes, 
 and the mass of my miscellaneous fragments, 
 have often furnished my friends with a subject 
 of raillery, and sometimes of regret and reproof. 
 
 Waiving the mention of all private and acci- 
 dental hindrances, I am inclined to believe, that 
 this want of perseverance has been produced in 
 the main, by an over activity of thought, modified 
 by a constitutional indolence, which made it more 
 pleasant to me to continue acquiring, than to 
 reduce what I had acquired to a regular form. 
 Add too, that almost daily throwing off my 
 notices or reflections in desultory fragments, I 
 was still tempted onwards by an increasing sense 
 of the imperfection of my knowledge, and by the 
 conviction, that in order fully to comprehend and 
 develop any one subject, it was necessary that I 
 should make myself master of some other, which 
 again as regularly involved a third, and so on, 
 with an ever-widening horizon. Yet one habit, 
 formed during long absences from those with 
 whom I would converse with full sympathy, has 
 been of advantage to me — that of daily noting 
 down in my memorandum or commonplace books 
 
COLERIDGE. 87 
 
 both incidents and observations ; whatever had 
 occurred to me from without, and all the flux and 
 reflux of my mind within itself. The number 
 of these notices, and their tendency, miscellaneous 
 as they were to one common end (" qiUd sumus 
 et quid futiLri gigninmr^' what we are, and what 
 we are born to become ; and thus from the end of 
 our being to deditce its proper objects) first en- 
 couraged me to undertake the Weekly Essay, 
 of which you will consider this letter as the 
 Prospectus. 
 
 Not only did the plan seem to accord better 
 than any other with the nature of my own mind, 
 both in its strength and in its weakness ; but 
 conscious, that in upholding some principles both 
 of taste and philosophy, adopted by the great 
 men of Europe from the middle of the fifteenth 
 till towards the close of the seventeenth century. 
 I must run counter to the prejudices of many of 
 my readers {for old faith is often modern heresy). 
 I perceived too in a Periodical Essay, the most 
 likely means of winning instead of forcing my 
 way. Supposing truth on my side, the shock of 
 the first day might be so far lessened by reflec- 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [l 
 
 tions of the succeeding days as to procure for my 
 next Week's Essay a less hostile reception than 
 it would have met with, had it been only the next 
 chapter of a present volume. I hoped to disarm 
 the mind of those feelings which preclude con- 
 viction by contempt, and as it were, fling the 
 door in the face of reasoning by a presumption of 
 its absurdity. A motive too for honourable 
 ambition was supplied by the fact, that every 
 periodical Paper of the kind now attempted, 
 which had been conducted with zeal and ability, 
 was not only well received at the time, but has 
 become permanently, and in the best sense of the 
 word, popular. By honourable ambition I mean, 
 the strong desire to be useful, aided by the wish 
 to be generally acknowledged to have been so. 
 As I feel myself actuated in no ordinary degree 
 by this desire, so the hope of realizing it appears 
 less and less presumptuous to me, since I have 
 received from men of highest rank and established 
 character in the republic of letters, not only strong 
 encouragement as to my own fitness for the 
 undertaking, but likewise promises of support 
 from their own stores. 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 8g 
 
 The Object of The Friend, briefly and gene- 
 rally expressed, is :— To uphold those truths and 
 those merits which are founded in the nobler 
 and permanent parts of our nature, against the 
 caprices of fashion, and such pleasures as either 
 depend on transitory and accidental causes, or 
 are pursued from less worthy impulses. The 
 chief subjects of my own Essays will be : — 
 
 The true and sole ground of Morality or Virttie, as 
 distinguished from Prudence. 
 
 The origin and growth of moral impulses, as dis- 
 tingiiished from external and immediate motives. 
 
 The necessary dependence of taste on moral impulses 
 and habits; and the nature of taste {relatively to the 
 judgment in general, and to Genius) defined, illus- 
 trated, and applied. Under this head I comprise the 
 substance of the lectures given, and intended to have 
 been given, at the Royal Institution on the distin- 
 guished English Poets, in illustration of the general 
 principles of poetry ; together with s-uggestions con- 
 cerning the affinity of the fine arts to each other and 
 the principles common to them all. 
 
 The opening out of new objects of just admira- 
 
90 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1808 
 
 tion in our own language, and information of the 
 present state and past history of Swedish, Danish, 
 German, and Italian literatttre {to which, but as 
 supplied by a friend, I may add the Spanish, Portu- 
 guese and French), as far as the same has not been 
 already given to English readers, or is not to be 
 found in common French aitthors. 
 
 Characters met with in real life: — Anecdotes and 
 results of my own life and travels, S'C, S-c, as far as 
 they are illustrative of general moral laws, and have 
 no immediate bearing on personal or immediate 
 politics. 
 
 Education, in its widest sense, private and national. 
 
 Sources of consolation to the afflicted in misfortune, 
 or disease, or mental gloom, from the exertion and 
 right application of the reason, the imagination and 
 the moral sense, and new sources of enjoyment opened 
 out, or an attempt {as an illustrious friend once 
 expressed the thotight to me) to add sunshine to 
 daylight, by making the happy more happy. By 
 the words ^^ mental gloom" I refer especially to 
 doubt, or disbelief of the moral government of the 
 world, and the hopes connected with our religious 
 nature. 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 
 
 91 
 
 Such are the chief subjects in the development 
 of which, I hope to realize to a certain extent the 
 great object of my Essays. It will assuredly be 
 my endeavour, by as much variety as is consistent 
 with that object, to procure entertainment for my 
 readers as well as instruction ; yet I feel myself 
 compelled to hazard the confession, that such of 
 my readers as make the latter the paramount 
 motive for their encouragement of " The Friend " 
 will receive the largest portion of the former. I 
 have heard it said of a young lady — if you are told, 
 before you see her, that she is handsome, you 
 will think her ordinary ; if that she is ordinary, 
 you will think her handsome. I may perhaps 
 apply this remark to my own Essays. If in- 
 struction and the increase of honourable motives 
 and virtuous impulses be chiefly expected, there 
 will, I would fain hope, be felt no deficiency of 
 amusement ; but I must submit to be thought 
 dull by those, who seek amusement only. " The 
 Friend " will be distinguished from its celebrated 
 predecessors. The Spectator, &c., as to its plan, 
 chiefly by the greater length of the separate 
 Essays ; by their closer connection with each 
 
92 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [l 
 
 other ; by the predominance of one object, and 
 the common bearing of all to one end. 
 
 It would be superfluous to state that I shall 
 receive with gratitude any communications ad- 
 dressed to me, but it may be proper to say, that 
 all remarks or criticisms in praise or dispraise of 
 my contemporaries (to which however nothing 
 but a strong sense of a moral interest will ever 
 lead me) will be written by myself only; both 
 because I cannot have the same certainty con- 
 cerning the motives of others, and because I 
 deem it fit that such strictures should always be 
 attended by the name of their author, and that 
 one and the same person should be solely 
 responsible for the insertion as well as the 
 composition of the same. 
 
 I may not inaptly conclude this Prospectus with 
 a quotation from Petrarch " De Vita Solitaria " — 
 ** Crede mihi, non est parvse fiducias, polliceri 
 opem decertantibus, consilium dubiis, lumen cgecis, 
 spem dejectis, refrigeriurn fessis. Magna quidem 
 haec sunt, si fiant; parva, si promittantur. Verum 
 ego non tam aliis legem ponam, quam legem 
 vobis mese proprige mentis exponam : quam qui 
 
i8o8] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 93 
 
 probaverit, teneat; cui non placuerit, objiciat. 
 Optarem, fateor, talis esse, qui prodesse possem 
 quam plurimis." S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Each number will contain a sheet, large octavo. 
 The Price, each number one shilling. Names of 
 Subscribers and communications to be addressed 
 (Post paid) to Mr. Coleridge, Grasmere, Kendal. 
 
 The Friend will be stamped and sent by the 
 Post as the Newspapers. 
 
 Letter 28. 
 
 " December g, 1808.'" 
 If the large number of separate places should 
 make up for the few subscribers in each, " The 
 Friend " will then be stamped and sent by the 
 post as a newspaper, being printed on one sheet, 
 but on a paper of larger size, with forty lines in 
 a page instead of thirty-five, so that the quantity of 
 matter will remain the same. But if the list of sub- 
 scribers have been furnished chiefly by the greater 
 cities and towns, then the Essays will be forwarded 
 by every Saturday's mail from London in a Coach 
 Parcel, to some friend or bookseller in each place, 
 
94 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 My dear Stuart, — Scarcely when listening to 
 count the hour, have I been more perplexed by 
 the " Inopem me copia fecit " of the London 
 church clocks, than by the press of what I have 
 to say to you. I must do one at a time. Briefly, 
 a very happy change has taken place in my 
 health and spirits and mental activity since I 
 placed myself under the care and inspection of a 
 physician, and I dare say with confident hope 
 " Judge me from the ist January, 1809." 
 
 I send you the Prospectus, and intreat you to 
 do me all the good you can — which, like the 
 Lord's Prayer, is Thanksgiving in the disguise of 
 petition. If you think that it should be adver- 
 tized in any way, or if Mr. Street can do anything 
 for me — but I know you will do what you can. 
 
 I have received promises of contribution from 
 many tall fellows with big names in the world 
 of Scribes and count even Pharisees (two or 
 three Bishops) in my list of patrons. But 
 whether I shall have 50, 100, 500, or 1,000 sub- 
 scribers I am not able even to conjecture. All 
 must depend on the zeal of my friends, on which 
 I fear I have thrown more water than oil — but 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 95 
 
 some like the Greek fire burn beneath the 
 wave ! 
 
 Wordsworth has nearly finished a series of most 
 masterly Essays on the Affairs of Portugal and 
 Spain, and by my advice he will first send them 
 to you that if they suit The Courier they may be 
 inserted. 
 
 I have not heard from Savage, but I suppose 
 that he has printed a thousand of these Prospec- 
 tuses, and you may have any number from him. 
 He lives hard by some of the streets in Covent 
 Garden which I do not remember, but a note to 
 Mr. Savage, R. Institution, Alb. St., will find him. 
 
 May God Almighty bless you ! I feel that I 
 shall yet live to give proof of what is deep within 
 me towards you. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Grasmere, Kendal. 
 
 Letter 29. 
 
 Coleridge to Street.* 
 
 " December 10, 1808." Grasmere, Kendal, 
 
 Wednesday. 
 My dear Sir,— I cannot exactly decipher the 
 
 * Managing editor of T/ie Coimer. 
 
96 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 exact tone you wish The Courier to have respect- 
 ing the Cintra Convention and Court of Enquiry, 
 but I see plainly by X. Y.'s admirable letters that 
 you maintain an independence truly honourable 
 to you, which pleased me the more because — 
 allow me the privilege of an old friend — I was 
 sadly grieved by three or four paragraphs written 
 in your own editorial character ; especially that 
 defence of the Duke of Portland . . . Forgive 
 me this freedom, for it is out of my power not to 
 feel just the same interest in The Courier as if it 
 were at once my own property and of my own 
 writing. Yet, if I did not greatly like what you 
 write in general, I should neither have the courage 
 nor feel the impulse, nor perceive any motive for 
 a specific censure. The Court of Enquiry appears 
 to me a process intended to kill the quicksilver of 
 popular feeling by the saliva of drivellers. Not a 
 question concerning tlie Terms of this confluent 
 smallpox of unparalleled infamy ; but an identical 
 proposition, gravely worded as a query — to 
 wit, " Do you not think that the Convention 
 (that is the allowing the French to go out of 
 Portugal) allowed the French to go out of 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 97 
 
 Portugal ? " Oh ! shame ! shame ! This is the 
 true question. Wretches ! you were sent to 
 deliver Portugal from the French ; why then did 
 you deliver the French out of Portugal ? Sir A. 
 W.'s ''not a man is yet arrived" stamps his 
 character for ever ! Buonaparte were a fool if he 
 sent Junot's army immediately into Spain. They 
 are doing him more service in France, where 
 every soldier with his plunder is acting the part 
 of a recruiting sergeant. Wordsworth has nearly 
 finished a series of most masterly Essays on this 
 subject, and I shall send the two first to Mr. 
 Stuart by the next post, and the others as soon 
 as ever I hear from him or you. Believe me, 
 dear Street, an awful time is coming on with 
 hasty strides. G. Britain cannot remain alto- 
 gether in its present state. The Ministers, 
 absolute menials of the Royal Person, and the 
 actual State agency in the hands of those who 
 are under no actual responsibility. I can despise 
 as heartily as you, and every man of sense the 
 disgusting trash of Westminster Meetings, but yet 
 it were blindness not to perceive that in the people 
 of England, not the populace, apud populum non 
 
I 
 
 98 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 plehem, there is a heaving and a fermentation, as 
 different from the vulgar seditions of Correspond- 
 ing Societies and Manchester Clubs, as A. Sidney 
 from Home Tooke. Never were a nation more 
 uniform in their contentment w^ith, and gratitude 
 for their glorious constitution. They are not 
 even earnest about any reform in its shape. Let 
 them but see the actual managers of their affairs, 
 actually responsible, and that most wise principle, 
 " The king can do no wrong," restored to its true 
 meaning, and they have not a public wish un- 
 
 gratified. But W B D ! * So much for 
 
 politics. Now for my own concerns. . . . Now 
 you see that this w^ork [The Friend] is of the 
 last importance to me, and if anything can, this 
 does justify me in calling on my friends to do 
 me what good they can. . . . Oh, dear sir ! do 
 vi^hat you can for me ! I have not enjoyed 
 such steady quietness of heart and activity of 
 mind for many years as I am now enjoying ; 
 and if I can succeed in this, I shall yet live to 
 pay my debts of love, as well as justice to my 
 friends. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * W B D ! stand for Whitelock, Sir Harry Burrard, 
 
 Sir Hew Dalrymple. 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 99 
 
 Letter 30. 
 
 There is an error of the Press in the former 
 Prospectus sent to you uncorrected. 
 
 Swiday, Noon, 
 My dear Stuart, — Though I trust as well as 
 hope that I shall receive a letter from you by 
 to-night's post, yet we cannot get it till ten 
 o'clock at night and then only by walking to 
 Rydale (three miles from our house), and can 
 answer it, so as to leave Kendal by the Tuesday^ s post 
 (for all Monday the Post loiters at Hawkshead) 
 only by writing as many lines as we can persuade 
 the man to stay minutes in the cottage at which 
 he leaves the letters. We receive letters four 
 times a week. The letters of one post on Tues- 
 day, of one post on Wednesday, of one on Friday 
 and of three posts on Sunday night, so that a 
 letter written from London on Friday, reaches us 
 as soon as one written on Wednesday or Thurs- 
 day. Therefore if you are writing to us by 
 Wednesday's post, and could recollect to direct 
 that letter to Keswick (Greta Hall), we should 
 
100 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1808 
 
 receive it by the Carrier with our Newspapers on 
 Saturday instead of Sunday night, and save a day 
 in the answering. 
 
 On the other side, I have written (i.e., proposed) 
 a short advertisement for the Newspapers, leaving 
 to 3^ou if you approve of it, to fill up the blanks. 
 I have received half a dozen letters complaining 
 of the non-receipt of the Prospectuses, in each of 
 which is said, " I am sure I could have got 30, 
 or 50, or 100 subscribers." But your information 
 concerning the Stamp Office has sadly per- 
 plexed me. First of all, I had fully made up my 
 mind to printing "the Friend" on one sheet 
 ONLY. Was the determination of the Stamp 
 Office influenced by the proposal of printing it on 
 one sheet and a quarter ? Secondly, and of more 
 importance, of the Subscribers hitherto procured 
 (180), two-thirds and more live scattered, or 
 where booksellers' parcels do not come above once 
 a month. If the Essay be not stamped, how can 
 it be delivered to these ? Would the Stamp Office 
 refuse to stamp the Work, and so give it the privi- 
 lege of being sent by the post ? Would they 
 stamp a given number ? I have reason to 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 
 
 lOI 
 
 believe, that either from Perceval or Lord Mul- 
 grave, I could procure any recommendation for 
 any favour, not illegal. 
 
 Monday night. 
 My dear Stuart, — So far I had written when 
 Sara Hutchinson's illness stopped me, both by the 
 necessary attendance on her, and by the weight 
 on my spirits ; and a heavy and continued rain 
 prevented any one's going to Rydale, so that I did 
 not receive your letter till this evening. You will 
 long ere this, (on Friday morning I calculate) 
 .have received Wordsworth's second Essay, re- / 
 V written by me, and in som^e parts recomposed. I 
 have twice read your letter, and have nothing to 
 reply, but that you are in possession of all the 
 facts ; the principal one that, of the i8o sub- 
 scribers already procured, by far the greater part 
 are not resident in great towns. Do you there- 
 fore, dear and honoured friend ! decide for me at 
 once. Be assured (from the very inmost of my 
 heart I say it) as beforehand I have no other 
 feeling but that of perfect confidence, so in the 
 retrospect I never shall, or can have any other 
 feelings, than those of affection and gratitude. 
 
102 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [l 
 
 i 
 
 The tears are in my eyes as I write, so that I can 
 scarce see my paper. I would I could convey to 
 you, as by intuition, how much I love and esteem 
 you! 
 
 I daresay I have erred in prematurely propa- 
 gating my Prospectuses. The number however 
 has been so small that much harm cannot have 
 been done ; and many persons have since written 
 to me asking me for them. When I entered on 
 the plan I resolved (and have been since employing 
 myself, so as to enable myself to execute it) that 
 the printer should always have four numbers 
 beforehand. Finally if it be not, as I suppose it 
 is not, practicable, to have 300 stamped (for I 
 have every reason to believe that I shall have that 
 number of scattered subscribers) and the others 
 for London and the great cities unstamped, you 
 will decide whether or none, and according to 
 your decision, set the thing agoing when and how 
 you think proper. . . . 
 
 To return to The Friend. There is certainly 
 nothing in the Work that could make the num- 
 bers more interesting this day than this day fort- 
 night ; but then the pleasure of being able to 
 
lSo8] COLERIDGE. 
 
 103 
 
 expect its arrival on a given day, the difference of 
 one arriving at a time inst&3.doifoti,r shillings at once, 
 in all those places where booksellers' parcels arrive 
 monthly only ; and the comfort of having a thing 
 come as a newspaper, and with the newspapers, 
 are great influences. Would it be prudent or 
 practicable to have the whole stamped at first, and 
 then after eight or ten numbers to adopt the other 
 plan if a great majority of the sale was found to 
 be in London and the great cities ? That passage 
 in the Espriella of Southey,* which I so bitterly 
 
 /reprobated to you, has deprived me at least of a 
 hundred subscribers in Birmingham. Southey's 
 life would be in danger were he in Birmingham, 
 and known to be there. 
 
 I feel and have not ceased to feel how much I 
 ask, in asking you, without any further reference 
 to me, to decide for me. My private friends 
 living scattered, or in small towns (and my sub- 
 
 * The allusion is to the " Letters from England by Don Manuel 
 Alvarez Espriella, translated from the Spanish " (London, 1808). 
 Letter 36, vol. ii. p. 56-73, contains a description of Birmingham, 
 The noise and filth of the streets, the miserable condition of the 
 workpeople, and the " systematic roguery " of Birmingham manu- 
 facturers are severely dealt with. 
 
104 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 scribers hitherto having been procured by those 
 friends) are doubtless no fair presumption of the 
 nature of the sale in general. I have about 
 tv^enty swelling names of Earls and Countesses 
 and Bishops. I write thus undigestedly, because 
 a person is going off by daybreak to-morrov^ to 
 Keswick and I save one post at least. — God bless 
 you and S. T. C. 
 
 The very post by which your letter was re- 
 ceived, Wordsworth sent the Essay, and the 
 answer to your questions. 
 
 D. Stuart to the Stamp Office. 
 
 Courier Office, 348, Strand. 
 Gentlemen, — A friend of mine proposes publish- 
 ing a Weekly Paper ; not a newspaper, but a 
 paper on the plan of The Spectator, of which I 
 have the honour of enclosing a Prospectus. A 
 doubt has arisen in my mind whether it will not 
 be considered by your honourable board as a news- 
 paper, be obliged to pay the stamp duty; and the 
 proprietor, printer, and publisher, be obliged to 
 register, &c. You will oblige me by solving this 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. I05 
 
 doubt, and saying whether, if published every 
 second week instead of every Saturday, it would 
 still be regarded by you as a newspaper. — I have 
 the honour of being respectfully. Gentlemen, your 
 humble servant, D. Stuart. 
 
 December igth, 1808. 
 
 to the honble. the commissioners of 
 His Majesty's Stamp Revenues. 
 
 ( Written on the back of the preceding letter^ 
 
 " If the proposed plan be strictly adhered to it 
 is not a newspaper. — H. B. It must pay duty as a 
 pamphlet according to the number of sheets, and 
 the duty for the several advertisements published 
 therein. S. O. 
 
 " December 2^, 1808." 
 
 Sir, — I can have no objection to publish this 
 periodical Work ; and every attention on my part 
 to give publicity to the undertaking may be relied 
 upon. — I am, Sir, your very obedient servant, 
 
 H. J. Clement. 
 
 201, Strand, i^th January, 1809. 
 
I 
 
 lo6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 Letter 31. 
 
 " Post Mark, Dec. 17, i 
 Dear Stuart, — 
 
 [Bttsiness details.] 
 I do not write in this Work for the mul- 
 titude of men but for those who either by rank 
 or fortune, or official situation or by talents and 
 habits of reflection, are to influence the multi- 
 tude. I write to found true principles, to oppose 
 false principles in legislation, philosophy, morals, 
 international law. Cobbett sells his sheet for ten- 
 pence. Now he differs from me in two things 
 mainly ; he applies to the passions that are 
 gratified by curiosity, sharp and often calumnious 
 personality, the politics and the events of the day, 
 and the names and characters of notorious con- 
 temporaries. From all these topics I not only 
 abstain as from guilt, but to strangle these 
 passions by the awakening of the noble germ in 
 human nature is my express and paramount 
 object. Now three-fourths of English readers are 
 led to purchase periodical works, even those pro- 
 fessedly literary, by the expectation of having 
 these passions gratified ; of which we have a 
 
i8o8] 
 
 COLERIDGE. I07 
 
 melancholy proof in the great sale of the Edin- 
 hurgh Review (which, thank God ! has received a 
 deadly stab by X. Y's. Essays in The Courier, as I 
 have just heard from a friend of the Editor's and 
 himself a writer in the E. R.). All these readers 
 I give up. Secondly — he fills himself not one 
 half of his Journal. The rest is but reprinting, 
 or stupid letters from correspondents. And his 
 own letters, what are they ? In general conver- 
 sational comments on large extracts from the 
 morning papers ; at all events the careless 
 passionate talk of a man (of robust common 
 sense but grossly ignorant and under the warp of 
 heat and prejudice) on the subjects furnished by 
 the day. / bring the results of a life of intense 
 study and unremitted meditation, of toil and 
 travel, and great and unrepaid expense. Those 
 to whom these reasons (were there no other) 
 would not justify me in selling the Work stamped 
 for a shilling, i.e., twopence more, I neither expect 
 nor wish to have among my subscribers. 
 
 Dear Friend ! . . . 
 
 It is my wish to have it stamped and circulated 
 just as Cobbett or BelVs Messenger, and if you called 
 
I08 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 on George Ward in Paternoster Row, I doubt not 
 he would be the London Publisher, but I dare do 
 nothing on a subject so very important without 
 your advice. But as time is so important now, 
 whatever you think advisable, do it ; and be quite 
 certain that I shall think it the best possible. 
 
 If you knew the quickening and the throb in 
 the pulse of my hope when I think of you, and 
 anticipate that I shall shortly show myself, in 
 everything what you have a right to expect from 
 me, you would know that it was from the bottom 
 of my heart that in a late letter to Perry of The 
 Morning Chronicle, acknowledging one late and 
 some former attentions to me (before my marriage) 
 I mentioned you, (as from the nature of the 
 occasion I was obliged to do) as *' the wisest 
 adviser, and the most steady, disinterested and 
 generous friend that heaven ever bestowed on 
 man." S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 A Wordsworth's first Essay, I hope the two first, 
 will be sent to you by this, or the following post. 
 Will you ask Street, if it is not to be a secret, 
 who X. Y. is ? 
 
l8o8] COLERIDGE. 
 
 109 
 
 Letter 32. 
 
 Grasmcre, December 38, 1808, 
 Wednesday night. 
 
 My dear Stuart, — I wish it was as endurable to 
 you to hear, as it would be pleasant to me to 
 express the various personal feelings with which I 
 read your letters. Wordsworth coolly observed to 
 me, " You had a wise and kind friend ; you were 
 yourself well aware of his general knowledge of 
 the world and his particular familiarity with 
 things of this kind, and you did not avail yourself 
 of it. What else could you expect ? " This is 
 true no doubt. . . . 
 
 To publish " The Friend " monthly would not 
 answer my moral purposes so well ; you can judge 
 better than I whether it would be equally profit- 
 able to me. If I publish it on one sheet (as I had 
 for some time determined to do) and have it 
 stamped, could I not send off the sheet by the 
 post, to the subscribers of my own procuring who 
 have sent me their names and address ? Mr. 
 Curwen has offered me his name to frank it with. 
 What have the Newsmen to do with these ? But 
 
no LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 rather my dear friend, do you tell me what I 
 should do that must be done by me, and I will 
 immediately do it without a further question. 
 Wherever my opinion or assent alone is wanted, 
 that is already pre-included in whatever your 
 opinion is, or may hereafter be. The future 
 Prospectuses should be printed from this copy, but 
 make any alterations, omissions, or additions you 
 think right. I wrote in the form of an extract 
 from a letter to a correspondent, as the less of two 
 evils ; that is in some measure to cover over the 
 indelicacy of speaking of myself to strangers and 
 to the public ; and yet without speaking thus, I 
 did not know how to explain my motives, or the 
 grounds of my fitness for this specific undertaking. 
 But I will try to alter it into the form of an 
 address to the public, and at all events will draw 
 up the short advertisewxnt immediately. I am 
 J afraid that Wordsworth's fifth cannot go off, as 
 was intended, in this frank. It is finished, all but 
 the corrections, but his head and [stomach'] have 
 been disordered the whole day till late this 
 evening. Consequently, such are our posts, it 
 cannot go off from Kendal till Saturday morning. 
 
l8o8j COLERIDGE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 In begging you to write to me, article by article, 
 what had better be done, I have no wish of 
 evading trouble or thought ; but I have uncon- 
 ditional confidence in your opinion, none in my 
 own ; and if you think at all, I imagined it would 
 be easier for you to frame the whole scheme and 
 skeleton of Agenda, of the things to be done and 
 the things not to be done, than to supply frag- 
 ments. I have at present a hundred names, and 
 more, and have reason to beheve that I shall 
 procure at least 150 more. Whenever the Pro- 
 spectuses are printed, be so good as to order a 
 hundred to be sent to Basil Montagu, Esq., 
 Lincoln's Inn ; and likewise twenty or thirty to 
 Mr. T. Monkhouse, 21, Budge Row. Montagu 
 has asked by letter for a hundred Prospectuses, 
 and both assured me they expected to procure me 
 a hundred subscribers. If a hundred be procured 
 between them, it will be well. As to politics I 
 cannot imagine a definite legal meaning of the 
 word — ra TroXiTiKa signifies in Greek, whatever 
 relates to the duties and interests of the State, 
 and its citizens — but as to anything, ordinarily 
 understood by Politics, I have as little to do with 
 
112 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC, I 
 
 it, as with News. You will tell me for what date 
 (you think) I may mention to announce the Essay. 
 I have as yet received no accounts from any of 
 the chief towns. I meant the type to be the same 
 sort with that of this Prospectus, 35 lines in a 
 page and about 40 letters in a line ; to be printed 
 as a book, not as Cobbett's, or as a Magazine. 
 — May God bless you and your obliged and affec- 
 tionate friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 The names of the persons who have been long 
 expecting Prospectuses, and the numbers to be 
 sent, I wrote in my letter to Mr. Street. I never 
 conjectured X. Y. till the last but one, and that 
 only after I had read the last, but was reading 
 again the former. Then certain phrases all at 
 once suggested to me that you might be the 
 author. This was on Monday night. The Pro- 
 spectuses that were to be sent to G. Caldwell, Esq., 
 Jesus College, Cambridge, are to be sent to the 
 Rev. T. Castley, Jesus College, Cambridge, and 
 those for Mr, Clarkson, not to be sent to Bury. 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. II3 
 
 Letter 33. 
 
 Posted January 23, 1809. 
 Grasmere, Kendal, Wednesday night. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I am so much in the habit, 
 and alas with too much reason of beheving 
 myself in the wrong that I often accede to blame 
 without examination. . . . 
 
 So much for the past. For the future, the more 
 I reflect the more I am perplexed relatively to the 
 question of stamping or not stamping. Words- 
 worth can find his way out of the difficulty no 
 better than myself. Let me premise, that no 
 arguments which occur to me on either side are 
 equal in force and impression on my mind, to 
 the deep sense I have of my general ignorance. 
 Otherwise I confess, the reasons for stamping the 
 Work would form the heavier weight in the scale. 
 These reasons I will briefly enumerate to you ; 
 but the utter self-distrust which disturbs the whole 
 balance, without being either in the one scale or 
 the other, I cannot convey to you adequately. Yet 
 if these reasons should not appear of due force to 
 your understanding, and yet make you hesitate in 
 
 9 
 
114 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JAN. 
 
 determining as you otherwise would have deter- 
 mined, I shall have cause to regret bitterly that 
 I ever mentioned them. On my soul, if every 
 argument which my experience or reflection could 
 suggest pleaded for A, and your calm opinion 
 decided for B, it would not only counterbalance 
 all the former in my steady judgment, but I should 
 instantly proceed to act on the plan B with most 
 unclouded and cheerful confidence. To this my 
 nature inclines me, and in this my constant expe- 
 rience abundantly justifies my nature. Excuse 
 these professions, dear Stuart ! The very great 
 importance of the affair alike to my worldly and 
 my moral interests, as they are the main cause 
 and occasion of them, so let them be the apology. 
 I suppress my feelings of esteem and gratitude 
 towards you twenty times for once that I utter 
 them. The reasons in favour of stamping are — 
 First. That my subscribers have been hitherto two 
 in three, such as reside where no regular commu- 
 nication exists, except the Post. A fortnight or 
 more, often elapses before they procure their 
 Reviews or Magazines, after their arrival in the 
 monthly booksellers' parcels. 2ndly. The arrival 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. II5 
 
 of four at a time (four shillings for four sheets) 
 not only will make the price obtrude itself and be 
 felt, but all that particular pleasure of having to 
 expect an amusement on a particular day, and of 
 being able to count upon it among the little enjoy- 
 ments of the week, is done away. 3rdly. This class 
 of readers will not only as I have some reason 
 to think, form a large proportion of my customers, 
 but they are the very persons whom I look for- 
 ward to with most satisfaction as the most likely 
 to be gratified by my writings, and to be bene- 
 fited, and to spread the benefit. 4thly. If the 
 Essay be not stamped, can I without fair impu- 
 tation of cupidity bordering on dishonesty or men- 
 dicancy, charge a shilling for a single sheet ? I 
 might indeed urge much in favour of the costs of 
 time, thought, study, personal labour in travels, &c., 
 &c. ; of money sunk as it were in the preparing 
 myself for such a Work, even as a Counsellor and 
 Physician justify their fees, not by the particular 
 effort or time expended in any one particular case, 
 but by the expenses and talents previously applied. 
 But this is not an admitted plea in the literary 
 world. The course of the Trade has once for all 
 
Il6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jAN. 
 
 settled that the price attached to books, should be 
 proportioned to the quantity and to the quality of 
 the paper, the printing, and the plates (if any). 
 5th. If the book were printed at Kendal, stamped 
 as the provincial Papers are, I could easily procure 
 a young steady man to devote one day in the week 
 to send them off, each one in its own involucrum, 
 and with its own direction, as The Courier from 
 your office ; and by having the date of payment 
 at twenty or forty weeks, and on the week before 
 affixing an advertisement (which would be paid 
 for at the Stamp Office, desiring the Subscribers 
 to remit to me the one or two pound note (or 
 where there were many in the same place, to be 
 paid to some one acquaintance) the money con- 
 cerns might perhaps be settled without much 
 trouble — considering, which should not be over- 
 looked, the probable character of those who would 
 take in my Work. 6th. It appears to Wordsworth 
 as well as to me, that in a Work like mine the 
 newsmen could do little ; it has nothing of the 
 character or attractions of a Newspaper ; it would 
 seldom indeed be taken in b}^ chance or indiffer- 
 ence — and I must rely chiefly on advertisements. 
 
l8og] COLERIDGE, II7 
 
 With regard to the printer's and pubhsher's 
 bonds, I have Httle doubt that I could effect this 
 easily ; that G. Ward in London has such confi- 
 dence in my v/ord that there were to be neither 
 politics nor advertisements that he would under- 
 take the London publishing. I have not written 
 to him, because I would in nothing interfere 
 with your kind offices. N.B. On reason 5, I 
 lay no weight. It is indeed not properly classed 
 by me among the reasons. I mean it only as 
 a simple query, or datum, for deliberation. If 
 there be advantages in the printing and publish- 
 ing it in the first instance in London, I waive 
 the notion at once. I have desired Mr, Clarkson 
 to call on you. The great point I would have 
 kept in view is the distinctive character of "The 
 Friend." It is not to be a Newspaper; it is not 
 even a Work meant to attract and amuse the 
 ordinary crowd of readers ; it is a Work for the 
 development of Principles. And though I shall 
 write as eloquently and splendidly as my portion 
 of genius enables me, yet I never will sacrifice 
 groundedness, to entertainingness. For the latter 
 I chiefly rely on skill of illustration by similes, 
 facts, and interesting anecdotes. 
 
Il8 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jAN. 
 
 I have been long most deeply interested in 
 the American affairs. If I cannot draw out my 
 thoughts in full and orderly array, I will at all 
 events in a post or two, send you the substance 
 of my reflections irregularly and in hints. I by 
 no means approved either of the matter, or the 
 tone of Mr. Canning's State Paper, It was to me 
 the Work of an insolent and womanish mind ; an 
 air of low triumph in it that could do no good, 
 and in the present instance would try and exaspe- 
 rate. Permit me to add that I very warmly 
 admired the article in The Courier, respecting the 
 private letters calumniating the Spaniards. Indeed 
 many things in the latter Papers have much 
 pleased me. What I most desiderate in The 
 Courier is steadiness and consistency. It is an 
 immense [power] and we are morally answerable 
 in proportion. I [like yon] would always lean 
 towards the Government for many reasons, besides 
 the aversion we both have to their only effectual 
 rivals, or possible substitutes. — God bless you. 
 
 S. T. C. 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. 
 
 iig 
 
 Letter 34. 
 
 ''Posted January 28." 
 Monday noon, January 23, i8og. 
 My dear Stuart,— In answer to that part of 
 your letter (which I have just now received) 
 respecting Wordsworth's copy, I thought I had 
 explained to you the misery of our Post. It is 
 not once in ten times that we can answer by the 
 same Post that brings the letter. For instance, 
 yours of Thursday reached me at Monday noon ; 
 for the bitterness of the raw frosty wind made it 
 impracticable for me to walk three miles to, and 
 three miles back again, so as to meet the letter 
 carrier at Rydale at ten o'clock at night ; and 
 unless I can get to Keswick to-night, which I 
 meant to do, but begin to fear that I cannot get 
 a horse, the letter cannot leave Kendal or Penrith 
 till Wednesday morning. Our other days are on 
 the same scale of delay ; equal delays in receiving 
 and being able to answer letters. In every instance 
 Wordsworth has sent off his answer the first 
 moment possible, and has twice walked out to the 
 
120 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JAN. 
 
 Carrier's house after two o'clock in the morning. 
 He is very busy at his Work. 
 
 Tuesday afternoon. 
 I walked into Keswick, and shall return to- 
 morrow, or Thursday. As to the Prospectuses ! 
 Heaven knows ! I am impatient about nothing. 
 I have neither spirits enough, nor hope enough; 
 but it is my friends who are impatient. Three 
 letters I have received in as many days, each 
 having words to this purpose. " Without the 
 Prospectuses we can do nothing." " I have pro- 
 cured so many subscribers, but had I Prospectuses 
 I could have decupled them." As soon as I re- 
 ceived yours, I decided at once in favour of the 
 Newspaper plan, to be printed at Kendal; the 
 Bonds, &c., I shall find no difficulty in, except 
 perhaps the printer's, but I shall send off a letter 
 to-night to set that a-going. I would therefore 
 have it advertised immediately, in as short a form 
 as you like. Clement, Milford Lane, opposite 
 St. Clements, London. Constable, Edinburgh. 
 Soutby, Penrith. Pennington, Kendal. Shepherd, 
 Bristol. Woolan, Exeter. Miss Gales, Sheffield. 
 Ford, Manchester. More booksellers' names I 
 
l8og] COLERIDGE. 121 
 
 have not at present, but by calling on Longman, 
 he or his partners would doubtless mention the 
 booksellers in the principal towns. The day of its 
 appearance to be the first Saturday in March ; i.e., 
 it is to be in London on that day, but the same 
 Prospectuses should be sent, two hundred, to Mr. 
 Clarkson at Mr. Allen's, Plough Court, Lombard 
 Street, and fifty to Mr. T. Poole, Stowey near 
 Bridgewater, by any of the Coaches that pass 
 through Bridgewater ; and a hundred to the Rev. 
 T. Castley, Jesus College, Cambridge. The others 
 as before given, Montagu, T. Monkhouse, &c. 
 
 The next thing I must request is to be informed 
 concerning the mode of having down the stamped 
 paper, and in what way the stamp money is paid ? 
 Whether always ready money, or whether any 
 credit is given ? Likewise whether it will be 
 illegal if I print off unstamped sheets, not for 
 weekly sale, but to be bound up in different sized 
 volumes, so that persons who begin to take in the 
 Work in July for instance, may six months after 
 the first number, procure the preceding numbers. 
 
 Something perhaps should be said in the 
 advertisements, concerning the mode of payment, 
 
122 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 but what ? i' faith I do not know. Those hving 
 in retired places, I would have remit the ^i every 
 twenty weeks, and when these are in considerable 
 number in one place, to the bookseller perhaps, 
 though in most principal places I could procure a 
 private friend to take the trouble. 
 
 I shall wait for instructions from you, to whom, 
 and in what form the Bond and Securities are to 
 be performed and whatever else may be proper 
 for me to do. — May God bless you and 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 35. 
 
 " Feb. 10, 1809." 
 Dear Stuart, — -Indeed, indeed, / never had any 
 impatience. / never did attach any importance to 
 the Prospectuses. But it is my friends. And when 
 you consider how large a proportion of my sub- 
 scribers are procured by private friends, you will 
 agree with me that I could say nothing in objec- 
 tion when they tell me, " With Prospectuses we 
 could do so and so ; without them nothing." 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. I23 
 
 The paper must be stamped and sent down 
 from London direct to the Printer. The distributor 
 has nothing to do with it. Will 5'ou be so good as 
 to fix upon such a size and quality as appears 
 proper to you. But after twice coming into 
 Kendal, I have now received a final answer from 
 old Mr. Pennington, the only man short of Liver- 
 pool capable of executing the work, declining from 
 no other objection than his age and intentions of 
 leaving off business altogether shortly. 
 
 I send this hasty scrawl lest you should wonder 
 at my silence. I am very glad indeed that you 
 are so much pleased with William's pamphlet. 
 When I get home I will write at leisure. — Dear 
 friend, may God bless you ! and your affectionate 
 and grateful 
 
 Kendal. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 I am just about to mount my horse for 
 Grasmere. 
 
124 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [fEB. 
 
 Letter 36. 
 
 " Posted February 37, 1809." 
 
 Wednesday morning. 
 My dear Stuart, — Had I received less strong 
 proofs of your kindness, I should have good reason 
 to fear that these successive disappointments 
 would weary you out. My best comfort is that I 
 cannot attribute them to any indolence or remiss- 
 ness on my part. Thus however the matter 
 stands at present. Old Mr. Pennington of 
 Kendal has finally declined the being printer and 
 publisher of "The Friend"; and I have every 
 reason to believe that no one else nearer than 
 Liverpool is capable of undertaking the Work 
 without sending for new types, &c., from London; 
 consequently mjy alternative lies between two 
 plans, as the only ones possible. The first, that 
 of having the Work printed and published in Lon- 
 don, which would occasion a serious deduction 
 from the profits ; (for at Kendal the publishing, 
 wrapping up, directing and sending off per post 
 would not have cost me sixpence) and the second, 
 the setting up a press at Grasmeie, and the pro- 
 
l8og] COLERIDGE. 
 
 125 
 
 curing a good steady young man from Liverpool 
 or London, who would be at once (as is almost 
 universally the case out of London) Compositor 
 and Pressman. Independently of " The Friend;' 
 we had intended to do this. I believe you have 
 seen Mr. De Quincey at The Courier office with me. 
 Ho ! he was the very short and boyish looking 
 modest man whom I introduced to you in Cuthell's 
 shop, and afterwards gave you his character, &c. 
 He has been on a visit at our house for three 
 months, and has now taken Wordsworth's old 
 cottage, which he is fitting up and means to 
 tenant for some years. Besides his erudition he 
 has a great turn for manual operations ; and is, 
 even to something of old bachelor preciseness, 
 accurate and regular in all he does. It is his 
 /determination to have printed under his own eye, 
 / immaculate editions of such of the eminently great 
 I Classics, English and Greek, as most need it ; and 
 I to begin with the poetic Works of Milton. Old 
 Pennington, who is a truly worthy and respectable 
 old man, highly approved of the plan ; and made 
 out by calculation, that for the printing of " The 
 Friend " a hundred pounds would be ample both 
 
126 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 for the fonts of type, the press, and the fitting up, 
 &c. Now the objections, as far as " The Friend " 
 is concerned, are these, ist, The delay and un- 
 certainty in the procuring, and after, character of 
 the Compositor. 2nd, The probability that none 
 of the great letter founders may have any fonts of 
 suitable types on hand. That no press, one of 
 Lord Stanhope's construction it should be, can be 
 procured ready made ; and that the delay in the 
 execution of all orders both for types and presses 
 is so enormous (from four months to a year I 
 have been given to understand) that even were I 
 to put off the commencement of the Work to the 
 ist of May, I might still meet with a new and 
 heavier disappointment. The questions therefore 
 on which I do indeed need your advice are — ist, 
 Sitpposing that workmen, types, press, &c., &c., 
 were procurable instantly, i.e., as soon as the 
 waggon could convey them, is the scheme of 
 printing the Work at Grasmere an advisable one ? 
 2nd, What are the chances for and against such 
 a supposition ? This I should hope might be 
 answered positively in the course of a forenoon, 
 by sending a man with the proper letters of precise 
 
iSog] 
 
 COLERIDGE. 
 
 127 
 
 enquiry, to the different letter founders and press 
 makers. 
 
 If you consider the scheme as impracticable at 
 least at present, and for the first year of "The 
 Friend,'' nothing remains but instantly to procure 
 a printer and publisher in London, who will con- 
 sent to give the proper Bonds, and to make the 
 best terms with him possible. Depend upon it, if 
 you consider the plan as unwise, there is not a 
 soul in this family who will think otherwise. 
 
 I assure you, my dear Stuart, that I am faint 
 and sick at heart with these Alps upon Alps of 
 hindrances and uncertainties. 
 
 Wardle's" affair turns out just as both myself 
 and Wordsworth foresaw. . . . But I have no 
 heart to write about anything at this present 
 moment. — God bless you and 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * Colonel Wardle, a Welsh colonel of militia, led the attack in 
 the House of Commons against the Duke of York with regard to 
 the undue influence in military appointments of the notorious Mrs. 
 Clarke. 
 
128 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 Letter ■^']. 
 
 Posted February i8, iSog. 
 Dear Stuart,— 
 
 [Printing details.] 
 Besides it was and I trust is to be a newspaper. 
 It would weary us both to repeat the weighty 
 arguments which have decided this point in both 
 our judgments. From the pecuHar nature of the 
 Work, and from the particular complexion of those 
 who will form the best, and perhaps the largest 
 part of my customers, there can be no other mode 
 of circulating it everywhere and weekly, except by 
 the post ; and to receive four at once (in many 
 places six or eight) would destroy the very cha- 
 racter of the publication. By that decision there- 
 fore, it having met with your concurrence, and 
 having been confirmed by unanswerable arguments 
 adduced by you, in addition to my own reasonings, 
 I must abide. 
 
 =;: * * * *■ 
 
 But were it otherwise I should still remain by my 
 resolution, even though I were obliged to defer 
 the work till types could be procured from London. 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. 
 
 129 
 
 There are three plans possible, ist. To seek out 
 a printer and publisher who will consent to give 
 the legal bonds in London, and to make the 
 best terms with him possible. If Mr. Clement 
 will not do this, I think that George Ward would. 
 2nd. To have it printed at Penrith where there is 
 a very clever young 
 
 16 February, Penrith. 
 (I return to-morrow.) While writing the last 
 sentence I received a letter from Penrith, that 
 Brown was both able and willing to print and 
 publish "The Friend." In consequence on Sunday, 
 I walked from Grasmere over the mountains (Oh, 
 heavens ! what a journey !) hither, and arrived at 
 last limping, having sprained my knee in leaping 
 a brook, and slipping on the opposite bank, twisted 
 my left leg outward. However I am perfectly 
 satisfied with Brown's character, proposals, and 
 capability ; and have accordingly agreed with him 
 to be my printer and publisher. His name is 
 Mr. John Brown, Printer and Stationer, Penrith. 
 I have resolved to commence the Work on the 
 first of April. 
 
 10 
 
130 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 On your kindness, dear Friend, I must now call 
 to find me out the proper paper, which should be 
 of course very ^ood, and the means of procuring 
 it stamped. An attorney (Antony Harrison) in- 
 formed me that if I procured it from the Stamp 
 Office, as a Newpaperist, I should have a draw- 
 back of sixteen per cent. ; but of all these things 
 I am ignorant, only I know to a certainty that 
 both Ware (the Whitehaven paper) and both the 
 Carlisle papers receive their stamped paper from 
 London directly ; and I am advised, if it can be 
 procured immediately, to have a considerable 
 quantity sent by sea to Stockton, directed to Mr. 
 John Hutchinson, with S. T. C. on the corner of 
 the box. 
 
 On what terms, payment, &c., it is to be pro- 
 cured, you will be so good as to inform me. I 
 have written to Davy, requesting that the money 
 due to me [from the R, Inst.] may be paid at your 
 office to your name. 
 
 I never once dreamt of receiving any money 
 beforehand. It must have been carelessness in my 
 language, which could have suggested this idea to 
 you. What money may be necessary to carry on 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I3I 
 
 the Work for the first twenty weeks, I doubt not 
 I shall be able to procure. I write in great pain 
 from my knee which is very seriously injured. 
 Such a passage, you can have scarce a concep- 
 tion of. Ice, half frozen snow, floods, and the 
 impossibility of remitting attention, nay anxiety, 
 for a single step. I never paused once, except 
 the few minutes I lay sprawling in torture and 
 yet was five hours in reaching Luff's '■'• house, which 
 is ten miles from Wordsworth's. However I am 
 at ease in mind, and in my next hope to give you 
 some little proof of it. 
 
 I was pleased, a little flattered perhaps, by your 
 letter to Southey ; it was almost verball}^ coinci- 
 dent with what I had written a few days before. 
 — May God bless you and your affectionately 
 grateful, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * Captain Luff, for many years a resident at Patterdale, near 
 Ullswater, was held in esteem for the energy with which he pro- 
 cured the enrolment of large companies of volunteers. Words- 
 worth and Coleridge were often visitors at his house. For his 
 account of the death of Charles Cough, on Helvellyn, and the 
 fidelity of the famous spaniel, see "Coleorton Letters," vol. i, 
 p. 97. 
 
132 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 Letter 38. 
 
 " Feb. 1809." 
 Please to direct your answer — Mr. Antony Har- 
 rison, Penrith, Cumberland (for Mr. Coleridge). 
 
 My dear Stuart, — I hope you received mine 
 from Penrith, in which I informed you — ist. 
 That I had settled with Mr. Brown of Penrith to 
 print " The Friend," and be the nominal publisher, 
 at £1 3s. od. for five hundred, and £1 7s. od. for a 
 number not exceeding one thousand. 2nd. That 
 the stamped paper must be had from London. 
 There are stationers who, upon orders, provide it ; 
 but I am told that if I order the stamps myself 
 as a newspaper, I am allowed a considerable 
 drawback. Is this the case ? Will you be so 
 good as to choose out a large octavo size of good 
 quality, and to direct it to be stamped in the most 
 advisable way ; and to let me know how these 
 matters are to be carried on between the paper 
 merchant, Stamp Office, and myself, as to im- 
 mediate payment, or at what date, &c. 3rd. I 
 have resolved to commence it on the ist April. 
 4th. I have written to Wilkin, the Distributor of 
 
iSogI COLfiRIDGE. 133 
 
 Stamps for the district. . . . his letter dated the 
 i6th reached me this morning the 27th ; and when 
 it came said " it could say nothing, because it 
 knew nothing ; but that I must apply to the 
 Stamp Office in London, to send him down the 
 necessary directions." I had been extremely 
 unwell for eight days preceding this, so as to be 
 incapable of sitting upright for half an hour to- 
 gether. It was well the letter did not reach me 
 then. Me, unused to business ! A succession of 
 these vexations harass me out of my philosophy. 
 I find the writing of the Essays quite delightful, 
 by comparison with the troubles of setting up shop. 
 Now what can I do ? In what way can I apply 
 to the Stamp Directors ? All I can say, I write 
 on the opposite page. I entreat you, my dear 
 Stuart, to do what you can, as soon as possible, 
 to relieve me from this embarrassment. I shall 
 write immediately to Wilkin to urge him to write 
 himself to the Stamp Office to get the necessary 
 information. . . . 
 
 Then as to advertising, I must leave it to you. 
 1 wrote to desire that £60 might be paid in to you 
 from the Royal Institution. 
 
134 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 I hope the time is coming when I shall sub- 
 scribe myself with more ease of mind, though 
 never with greater depth of heart, my dear Stuart, 
 — Your obliged and affectionate friend, 
 
 Grasmere, Kendal. S. T. Coleridge, 
 
 I, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Proprietor and 
 Editor of the Weekly Newspaper entitled " The 
 Friend," reside in Grasmere in the County of 
 Westmoreland and intend residing there. 
 
 John Brown, Printer and Bookseller, the printer 
 and publisher of the said Weekly Newspaper, re- 
 sides in Penrith in the County of Cumberland 
 and intends residing there. 
 
 William Wordsworth Esq., Mr. Coleridge's 
 first Security, resides in Grasmere in the County 
 of Westmoreland and intends residing there. 
 
 Robert Southey Esq., second Security, resides 
 at Keswick in the County of Cumberland and 
 intends residing there. 
 
 William Wilkins Esq., resident at Appleby in 
 the County of Cumberland, and His Majesty's 
 Distributor of Stamps for that District, solicits 
 information of the Board of the Stamp Office in 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. 135 
 
 what manner he is to comply with the written 
 request of Mr. Coleridge, containing the above 
 names as ready to sign, to know when the Bonds, 
 &c., will be ready for signature. Mr. Wilkins is 
 ignorant of the nature of the Bonds, and of the 
 sum requisite to be stated in them, and the 
 Securities. 
 
 Letter 39. 
 
 Penrith, lyth March, 1809. 
 My dear Stuart, — I have waited here in the 
 daily and anxious hope of hearing from you in 
 answer to my last letters. Everything here is 
 ready ; the printer, the publisher, the type, the 
 bonds, &c. I have more than three hundred sub- y/ 
 scribers, though there have been no advertise- 
 ments. And eagerly have I hoped to hear from 
 you concerning the paper. I am told that Four- 
 drinier is the stationer who commonly supplies 
 stamped paper. Mr. Bernard ''■ informed me that 
 ;£"6o was ready to be paid to my order, and I re- 
 quested it to be paid to you. Oh ! dear friend, on 
 
 * Afterwards Sir T. Bernard, the founder of the Royal 
 Institution- 
 

 136 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 this business my whole prospect is set. I pray 
 you, do set me going. I am ready with Essays 
 full and written out. / can begin whenever the 
 paper arrives, and it is deemed advisable. Should 
 it be said on the first of May ? 
 
 Forgive me if I write anxiously, for indeed I am 
 ready to sink under the successive anxieties and 
 disappointments I have suffered, but God knows I 
 am always affectionately your not less grateful 
 than obliged friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 40. 
 
 Posted March 31, 1809. 
 My dear friend, — I have been severely indisposed, 
 knocked up indeed, with a complaint of a conta- 
 gious nature called the Mumps ; preceded by most 
 distressing low spirits, or rather, absence of all 
 spirits, and accompanied with deafness and stupi- 
 fying perpetual echo in the ear. But it is going 
 off. Little John Wordsworth was attacked with 
 it last year when I was in London, and from the 
 stupor with which it suffuses the eyes and look, it 
 was cruelly mistaken for water on the brain. It 
 
l8og] COLERIDGE, 
 
 137 
 
 has been brought here a second time by some 
 miners and is a disease with little danger and no 
 remedy. 
 
 I attributed your silence to its right cause, and 
 I assure you when I was at Penrith and Kendal 
 it was very pleasant to me to hear how universally 
 the conduct of The Courier was extolled ; indeed 
 you have behaved most nobly, and it is impossible 
 but that you must have had a great weight in the 
 displacing of that prime grievance of grievances. 
 Among many reflections that kept crowding on 
 my mind during the trial,* this was perhaps the 
 chief — What if, after a long, long reign, some 
 titled sycophant should whisper to Majesty, " By 
 what means do your Ministers manage the Legis- 
 lature ? " "By the distribution of patronage, 
 according to the influence of individuals who claim 
 it." " Do this yourself, or by your own family, 
 and you become independent of parties, and your 
 Ministers are your servants. The Army under a 
 favourite son, the Church with a wife, &c. &c." 
 Good heavens ! the very essence of the Constitu- 
 
 * The parliamentary investigation of the charges and allegations 
 with regard to the military patronage of the Duke of York. 
 

 138 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 tion is unmoulded, and the venerable motto of our 
 liberty, "The king can do no wrong," becomes 
 nonsense and blasphemy. As soon as ever my 
 mind is a little at ease, I will put together the 
 fragments I have written on this subject, and if 
 Wordsworth have not anticipated me, add to it 
 some thoughts on the effect of the military prin- 
 ciple. We owe something to Whitbread for his 
 quenching at the first smell a possible fire. How 
 is it possible that a man apparently so honest 
 can talk and think as he does respecting France, 
 peace, and Buonaparte ? . . . 
 
 On Thursday Wordsworth, Southey and my- 
 self with the printer and publisher, go to Appleby 
 to sign and seal, which paper, &c., will of course 
 be immediately dispatched to London. I doubt 
 not but that the £60 will be now paid at The 
 Courier office in a few days ; and as soon as you 
 will let me know whether the stamped paper is to 
 be paid for necessarily in ready money, or with 
 what credit, I shall instantly write to some of my 
 friends to advance me what is absolutely neces- 
 sary. I can only say I am ready and eager to 
 commence, and that I earnestly hope to see "The 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I39 
 
 / 
 
 Friend " advertised shortly for the first of May. As 
 to the Paper, how and from whom, and what and 
 in what quantity, I must again leave to your judg- 
 ment, and recommend to your affection for me. I 
 have reason to believe that I shall commence with 
 500 names. 
 
 I write from Keswick. Mrs. Southey was 
 delivered yester-morning of a girl.* I forgot to 
 say, that I have been obliged to purchase, and 
 have paid for, a font of types of Small Pica, the 
 same with the London Prospectus, from Wilson's 
 of Glasgow. I was assured they would cost only 
 from ;^25 to £2^, instead of which £^^ odd. — God 
 bless you and S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Tuesday night. 
 
 Letter 41. 
 
 " Posted April 7, 1809." 
 My dear Stuart,— I received your Penrith letter 
 at Keswick, and should have answered it last 
 night, but that I wished, previously, to consult 
 
 * Bertha Southey was born March 27, 1809. 
 
140 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 Southey and Wordsworth. Having done this, I 
 write (with as much satisfaction, as it is possible 
 for me to feel on any point, in which I do not 
 accede to your advice immediately) that I think 
 it will not be wise or right for me to commence 
 till the first of May, for these reasons, ist. 
 Because I had settled this time with Brown, the 
 Printer; and he has made his arrangements in 
 that expectation. 2nd. Because I had informed 
 Wrangham,* Poole, my brother, Mr. Clarkson, and 
 some others, that it would appear on the first of 
 May, neither sooner nor later. Now it is almost im- 
 practicable to write to them, and receive answers 
 from all, with the list of names which they are 
 procuring, by the 15th; and I know enough of some 
 of them to know that they would be offended at not 
 receiving the first number, as soon as published. 
 3rd. It would seem proper to give a longer time, 
 both for the possible effect of the London ad- 
 vertisements and for receiving the lists from 
 
 * ' ' Wrangham — a college acquaintance of mine, — an 
 
 admirer of me, and a pitier of my principles " (S. T. C. to Cottle, 
 
 [April] 1796). The Rev. Francis Wrangham was Archdeacon 
 
 ! of Cleveland, and held other Church Preferment. He died in 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I4I 
 
 different towns. Yet if it should have been 
 advertised before this letter reaches you, and the 
 15th announced as the day, I will sacrifice every- 
 thing and bring it out on that day. 
 
 I have not received any letter from Grasmere 
 to-day, but think it almost certain that one has 
 arrived from Bernard in answer to my pressing 
 request, either to inform me that the ;£'6o has 
 been paid, or explaining the cause (reason there 
 can be none) of the delay. 
 
 I thank you, as I ought for your kindness in 
 proposing to insert the Prospectus entire in The 
 Coitrier. Once would be enough ; and for the 
 others, a simple annunciation of the Work, stating 
 only, that it is meant to exclude personal politics. 
 But something ought to be said concerning the 
 mode of payment ; and this indeed I had in- 
 tended to have placed as the 4th and strongest 
 reason for delay till the ist of next month ; be- 
 cause till I have the lists from my friends (which 
 v^^iil arrive in about eight days) I cannot form any 
 plan as to my agents in each centre of each 
 vicinity, to receive the money, which I wish to 
 have paid every twenty weeks. But if each 
 
142 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 person were to send -^i in a letter, the expense 
 of postage would swallow up the profits. I 
 therefore wish it to be said in the advertisements, 
 that the mode of payment will be stated to the 
 Subscribers in the first number. 
 
 Now for a few words of Politics. Cobbett 
 ought to be censured, for his unfair attack upon 
 Palafox.* His remarks on the Supreme Junta are 
 perhaps just ; at least I always thought that their 
 main blunder, the queen bee in the hive of their 
 mismanagement, has been the not assembling 
 the Cortes. This I could amply illustrate by 
 facts from the Dutch in their wars against Philip 
 II. + (by the bye, I have written, and will send you 
 in a few days, an interesting parallelism between 
 that war and the present attempt of Spain) and 
 
 * Marshal Lannes entered Saragossa, March 5, 1809. Palafox, 
 in violation of the Marshal's pledge, was taken prisoner by the 
 French. 
 
 t Eight Letters " On the Spaniards " were contributed by Cole- 
 ridge to The Courier, and published in December, 1809, and Januar)% 
 1810. Letters ii., iii., iv., v. institute a comparison between the 
 resistance of the Low Countries to the tyranny of Philip IL and 
 the struggle of Spain with Napoleon. Coleridge wished these 
 Letters to be regarded as a kind of supplement to Wordsworth's 
 pamphlet on the Convention of Cintra. 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I43 
 
 the American Revolution. But mercy ! to charge 
 the Commander of a besieged city, so besieged 
 and so defended as Saragossa, with the crime 
 of not allowing a treacherous trifling minority, 
 certainly not one in twenty, to take advantage of 
 momentary panics by libels and lampoons. Why! 
 he might as well recommend the liberty of the 
 pen to a Man of War at the commencement of an 
 Action ! Another point : Is not the conduct of 
 the E. Indian Company* cruel and unjust in 
 punishing innocent individuals for their own 
 neglect, and for a thing not made criminal by 
 law? Is not this ex post facto YQngQd.nce ? And is 
 not the whole a mere tub for the whale ? It may 
 prevent one mode of venality which is not cor- 
 ruption (and hard to say what harm it can do), 
 but the worst sort of corruption it increases 
 rather than prevents — the purchase of conscience 
 and political dependents. But I will write at 
 large to you on this subject, for I am convinced 
 that it is meant to draw the public mind off from 
 
 * An order had recently been issued by the Directors of the 
 East India Company cancelling civil appointments which had 
 been obtained by purchase, and disqualifying the holders for future 
 service {vnie Annual Register for April 5, 1809). 
 
144 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 the true desideratum, the re-establishment of an 
 actual dependence of the officers and servants of 
 the Government on Parliament, and of the 
 Parliament on the people, populum not plebem — 
 the people not the mob. If you could meet with 
 Trenchard's" famous old pamphlet on Standing 
 Armies, I wish you would send it to me. I could 
 then state what therein was false, what true but 
 obsolete, what true and existing, and what may 
 be said additionally. The panegyric on the im- 
 provement of the army under the D. of Y. is 
 half false at least — the omissions are most grievous. 
 Do you remember some anecdote I told you of 
 Devaux at Rome, relative to Wyndham ? t 
 
 S. T. C. 
 
 Letter 42. 
 
 Saturday, i^th April, 1809. 
 Dear Stuart, — I am sorry to be forced to 
 trouble you with a double postage, in order to 
 
 * John Trenchard, a Secretary of State in the reign of William 
 IIL, published in 1698 two tracts against standing armies. 
 
 t Windham, Secretary for War in the Ministry " of all the 
 talents." 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. 
 
 145 
 
 convey to you the enclosed receipt. It would 
 have been sent earlier, but I was at Mr. Curwen's 
 at Workington Hall when it arrived at Grasmere, 
 and am just returned. This very moment I have 
 received a striking proof, though in a trifling way, 
 of the importance of a leading paragraph. The 
 Courier has not arrived half an hour, and yet 
 three of the family, each unknown to the other, 
 have come into my study exclaiming, " Have you 
 seen The Courier? It has no leading paragraph. 
 Why! there's nothing in the paper!" That I 
 cannot assent to, for I was much struck with the 
 proof it contains of one of my old opinions, 
 namely of the superiority of our Naval Com.- 
 manders as Diplomatists to our Generals. The 
 latter seem always to look forward to the time 
 when they shall be in the same situation with the 
 capitulators, and always show far more fellow- 
 feeling for the enemy, however bloody and 
 rapacious, than for the oppressed or for the 
 Majesty of their country. The sailors act like 
 men with whom to be conquered is an unknown 
 thought, and who sacrifice their own pride and 
 that of their country to no other claims than 
 
 II 
 
146 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 those of justice and common humanity. I was 
 much amused with Meliish's speech at the 
 Middlesex Meeting.* Had I been present, I would 
 have quoted the following apposite passage from 
 an obscure little tract of the famous De Foe. 
 " Probability clear; proof positive ; circumstances 
 concurring. He that would not hang a thief on 
 these three heads ought to be hanged himself. 
 He that will doubt after these three heads have 
 been thus cleared up, will doubt for ever; and 
 must expect to have all men doubt both his own 
 honesty and his understanding." It grieved me 
 to see Wardle, blending his yet transparent 
 character with the muddy yet shallow stream of 
 the Whig Club. If his own good sense and a 
 moment's reflection on the necessary consequences 
 of the infamous Fox and Grenville Ministry, had 
 not taught him, he might have learnt even from 
 Cobbett that the influence of Parliamentary parties 
 is in its evanescent state in the mind of the English 
 nation ; and that he would be more trusted and 
 
 * At a meeting of the Freeholders of Middlesex which was held 
 at this time resolutions were passed commendatory of the action of 
 Colonel Wardle, Sir Samuel Romilly, and others in recording their 
 vote against the conduct of the Duke of York. 
 
J 
 
 J 
 
 1809] COLERIDGE. I47 
 
 possess more real power by attaching himself to 
 the existing administration in all ordinary 
 matters; and yet permit me to say that your 
 opinion of Mr. Canning is one of the very very 
 few in which my present convictions are different 
 from yours. I never can think that Statesman a 
 great man, who, to defend a measure, will assert, 
 not once but repeatedly, that state-policy cannot 
 and ought not to be always regulated by morality. 
 I should not hesitate at the promise of proving 
 the Danish Expedition strictly moral, and in the 
 true spirit of the Law of Nations 
 
 I should think that once at least more, a short 
 advertisement should be put into The Times, 
 Morning Chronicle, Morning Post, The Courier, and 
 The Star, each on a different day to this effect : 
 
 *' On Saturday, 7th May, will be published, to V 
 be continued weekly, No. i of ' The Friend,'' a 
 literary, moral, and political Paper, but excluding 
 personal and party politics, and the events of the 
 day, by S. T. Coleridge. Orders to be sent to 
 as before, &c., &c., &c." 
 
148 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 When I say published, I mean it will appear 
 in London and in all other places equi-distant 
 from Penrith on that day ; for it will be sent from 
 Penrith by Thursday's post ; but I did not know, 
 how to express it with brevity. It would be ad- 
 vantageous too, to add, " or to the principal book- 
 sellers in each vicinity, who are requested to 
 transmit the names by the 4th of May, if possible." 
 If any names have been left at Clement's, he will 
 be so good as to send them, as soon as possible. 
 I wish I knew some person at Plymouth and 
 Portsmouth, who would interest themselves for 
 me. The mode of paying the money will be 
 announced in the first number. God grant, my 
 dear Stuart, that I may live, and have health to 
 thank you for all the trouble you have taken for 
 me, in that way which will I know most gratify 
 you, by going on resolutely, and with honour to 
 myself and friends. — I am ever as affectionately 
 as gratefully your obliged friend, 
 
 Keswick. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 I return to Grasmere to-morrow. 
 
1809] coleridge. 149 
 
 Letter 43. 
 
 " Posted April 21, 1809." 
 Dear Stuart, — I have this moment heard from 
 Brown at Penrith that no stamped paper has 
 arrived. The sharpness of the frost-wind, and 
 the snow storms have kept me still at Keswick, 
 but the present clearness of the sky holds out 
 a sort of promise, that I shall be able to walk 
 to Grasmere to-morrow. Your letter that in- 
 formed me of the stamped sheets having been 
 sent off from London for Penrith happens to be 
 at Grasmere, so that the anxiety which urges 
 me to trouble you with yet another application, 
 rests wholly on my recollection that the paper 
 was to have arrived in ten days from the date of 
 your letter. Indeed I must be accurate, because 
 I now remember, you advised me to commence 
 " The Friend " on the 15th, i.e., last Saturday. 
 Ignorant too of course, of the size and quality 
 of the paper you had ordered to be forwarded, I 
 have not been able to write to Mr. Fourdrinier ; 
 only, last night I wrote to Basil Montagu, begging 
 him to learn the size and sort from you, and then 
 
150 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS, [APRIL 
 
 to wait on Mr. F. in my name, and try to settle 
 with him for the regular supply. 
 
 I have ordered a small quantity from Penning- 
 ton, in case of an utter failure, and my printer 
 must take oath as to the stamps ; but it will 
 be excessively awkward for the first number. 
 
 Indeed it was very thoughtless in me, not to 
 leave word with Brown to inform me of the arrival 
 or non-arrival of the Stamps on the time an- 
 nounced ; but at first, overwhelmed by the cursed 
 J Mumps and accompanying deafness, and since 
 then absorbed in composition, I suffered myself 
 to take it for granted that the parcel had arrived. 
 I hope they have not mistaken Penrith, Cumber- 
 land for Penrith in Cornwall. 
 
 I enclosed a receipt for the £bo in a letter to 
 you, the last post but one ; and at the same time 
 sent a rude sketch of a shorter advertisement, to 
 appear on different days in different papers, or 
 according to your better judgment. All here are 
 well, except that the imp, the Mumps * has 
 
 J* "A ridiculous disorder called the Mumps, has nearly gone 
 through the house, and visited me in its way " (R. Sou they to S. 
 W. White, April 21, 1809). 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. ^5! 
 
 got into Southey and into his youngest girl but 
 one. 
 
 Oh God ! to read the Life of Gustavus Adolphus, 
 by Harte (a book I earnestly recommend to you) 
 or the Memoirs * of Colonel (or Captain) George 
 Carleton, which contains the best existing ac- 
 count of Lord Peterborough's campaign t in the 
 north of Spain, and then to think of the very 
 best of our present soldiers, almost inspires the 
 melancholy idea that we are predestined to be 
 baffled. Oh! heaven! my head is thronged with 
 thoughts, my heart swells with emotions for an 
 hour daily after the receipt of The Courier. 
 
 God bless you and your affectionate friend, 
 
 vS. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Keswick, Tuesday evening, i8th April, i8og. 
 Our Grocer here informs Mrs. Coleridge that 
 nothing can be more irregular than packages sent 
 
 * The "Military Memoirs" of Captain George Carleton were 
 published for the first time in 1743. The work has been included 
 in the list of Defoe's Fiction, but on insufficient grounds. Sir 
 Walter Scott brought out a new edition of The Memoirs in 1808-9. 
 
 t In 1705. 
 
152 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 per waggon to Penrith, through the Yorkshire road; 
 and that for this reason they have their goods 
 alwa3's sent by the Kendal waggon, which may 
 then go on to Penrith. In case of the necessity 
 of another parcel, it had better be directed — Mr. 
 Cookson,* Kendal, with S. T. C. on the corner ; 
 and I shall have written to him to forward it to 
 Brown instantly. But when things go by sea, 
 by Stockton-upon-Tees, Brown, Penrith, is better 
 than any intermediate direction to J. Hutchinson. 
 
 Letter 44. 
 
 " Posted April 27, i8og." 
 
 Greta Hall, Keswick. 
 My dear Stuart, — I have been writing a very 
 long letter to you in answer to your last, and as 
 suggested by some of the last Couriers. The 
 chief points first — On the state of parties in and 
 out of Parliament. Secondly — The question of 
 Reform in the Representation, and, supposing it 
 right and needful, whether it can be accomplished 
 without Associations ; what the danger of these 
 
 * Wordsworth's mother was a Cookson. 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I53 
 
 are and whether by any regulations they may be 
 precluded. . . . 
 
 But as I cannot finish it by this post, yet am 
 oppressed with anxiety concerning the paper which 
 is not yet arrived, I write now merely to request 
 you in the advertisements to announce Saturday 
 May 14th instead of the 7th, if it be not too 
 late, i.e., if you shall not have advertised before 
 this letter reaches you. 
 
 I shall not now return to Grasmere till the first 
 number is published. . . . 
 
 But I must conclude. — God bless you and your 
 obliged friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 45.* 
 
 Tuesday morning. 
 
 Dear Stuart, — William received your letter 
 
 this morning at eleven o'clock. We have been 
 
 hard at work ever since. It is now nearly three 
 
 in the morning. However, the Essay has pro- 
 
 * If, as S. T. C- seems to imply, this letter was written shortly 
 after the death of Dr. Beddoes (Dec. 28, 1808), it should precede 
 Letter 33. 
 
154 LETTERS OF LAkE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 bably benefited by the accident. At all events 
 it has been increased in size. We are very sorry 
 you should have had so much, or indeed any 
 anxiety about the loss of the papers, which has 
 been so easily repaired. You will accept W.'s 
 best thanks for your kindness as to the Pamphlet. 
 He cannot guess what he ought to expect in 
 justice being without all grounds, on which to form 
 an opinion ; but he is willing to take the risk on 
 himself, and thinks that the price bargained for, 
 ought to be conditional, and proportionate to the 
 number of copies sold. The name shall be given, 
 and THAT may be told the publisher; but W. does 
 not think it necessary to mention his name to 
 him during the bargain, as he will have a fair 
 sample of the goods before him ; but this, how- 
 ever, he leaves to your judgment. If you think 
 it will be better, mention it. Advertising, choice 
 of publisher (for he is under no obligation, or 
 even tie of delicacy to any one), he leaves to your 
 kindness and discretion. So much for William. 
 I am too much tired to write concerning myself, 
 but I shall write to-morrow. May God bless 
 you ! I have received a very severe and very 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. 
 
 155 
 
 abrupt blow, in the death of Dr. Beddoes.* He 
 was good and beneficent to all men ; but to me, 
 he was tender and affectionate. Few events have 
 taken out so much hope from my life. — Your 
 obliged and affectionately grateful friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 46. 
 
 Tuesday night, May 2, i8og, 
 
 Greta Hall, Keswick. 
 My dear Stuart, — I both respect and have an 
 affection for Mr. De Quincey, but saw too much 
 of his turn of mind, anxious yet dilatory, confused 
 from over accuracy, and at once systematic and 
 labyrinthine, not fully to understand how great a 
 plague he might easily be to a London printer; 
 his natural tediousness made yet greater by his 
 zeal and fear of not discharging his trust ; and 
 superadded to Wordsworth's own Sibyl's leaves,! 
 
 * Thomas Beddoes, the founder of the Pneumatic Institution at 
 Bristol, and the author of numerous scientific and medical works, 
 was one of Coleridge's earliest friends. 
 
 t The first portion of Wordsworth's "Convention of Cintra" ap- 
 peared in TAe Courier during the months of November-December, 
 1808. The preface to the Pamphlet is dated May 20,1809. 
 
156 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 I blown about by the changeful winds of an anxious 
 ( author's second thoughts. Wordsworth, however, 
 has received impressions of a very different sort, 
 which if I had known, I should not perhaps have 
 stated my own quite so freely as I did in my letter 
 to him, on my receipt of yours. Mr. De Quincey 
 has informed him, that the compositor has been 
 [ drunk ever since Easter week ; in one of the 
 j weeks attending at the printing office only two 
 days, during which time he must have been 
 ; in a state of intoxication, as the proofs were 
 sent with the omission of whole sentences ; and 
 j Mr. Baldwin either could not or would not set 
 \ another man to the work, though frequently 
 requested to do so. They have certainly had 
 reason to complain of chopping and changing 
 in one instance ; but for these last five weeks 
 there has not been the slightest alteration made 
 either in the text or the notes ; nor a word 
 altered in the proofs when returned, and only 
 the punctuation in six places ! ! Such is Mr. 
 De Quincey's statement as given me by Words- 
 worth in his note of this morning ; but of what 
 date Mr. De Q.'s letter is I know not. I have 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I57 
 
 written to W. stating honestly my convictions, 
 that he will not find Baldwin so much in the 
 wrong as he now believes, and that he ought/ 
 to bring before his fancy all his own copy, from! 
 the beginning of the Work, and compare it in! 
 his mind's eye, with the sort of copy, and the] 
 mode of receiving it to which Baldwin had beenj 
 probably accustomed. That to Mr. De Q.'s posi- 
 tive statement, it was impossible for me to offer 
 doubts or objections ; but yet I cannot blame myself 
 for having, anterior to it, received strong impres- 
 sions, from an account, so strictly correspondent 
 to my own experience, of Mr. De Quincey's 
 particularities ; especially, as the wish to excuse 
 the neglect of a vicious drunken journeyman, 
 appeared to me a very unlikely temptation to 
 a respectable tradesman, to impose a falsehood 
 on a man like you. That Wordsworth has not 
 been quite pleased with my first letter, and will 
 be still less so with my letter of to-day, I know ; 
 but that soon passes off, and I do not wonder 
 that he is very much vexed at the delay ; and 
 not easily to admit oneself to be in fault, is 
 as often the mark of a valuable, as of an 
 
158 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 obstinate mind. But I am grieved that you 
 should have had any superfluous trouble and 
 uneasiness, and entreat you, if you write to 
 Wordsworth, to take no notice of any part of 
 this letter, excepting the bare facts asserted in 
 Mr. De Quincey's statement ; and simply, to 
 divide what has come within your own knowledge 
 (if anything) from what has been told you by 
 Baldwin, if it be your wish to write on it at all. 
 
 After the instances I saw, of Mr. De Q.'s 
 marvellous slowness in writing a note to a 
 Pamphlet, when at Grasmere, the sum and 
 'meaning of which I had dictated in better and 
 more orderly sentences in five minutes, a.nd 
 considering the superlative importance of dis- 
 patch since that time, I can never retract my 
 expression of vexation and surprise, that W. 
 should have entrusted anything to him, beyond 
 the mere correction of the Proofs. But an un- 
 wise anxiety to let nothing escape, has been 
 1 the rock on which W. has split ; whereas had 
 he brought it out, such as it was, he might 
 now have been adding all he wished to a second 
 edition. But so it is ! We cannot be perfect. 
 
iSogj COLERIDGE. I59 
 
 I do far worse, both for myself and others, 
 by indifference about my compositions, and what 
 is thought or said of them, than he by over- 
 irritability. His is a more rational fault, and 
 linked to better qualities. 
 
 And now for my own affairs. No news of 
 the paper ; none ! What must be done, my 
 dear friend ? Would it not be advisable to 
 send off 600 sheets by the Penrith coach, if 
 they could be procured immediately ? If they 
 were booked and seen sent off on Saturday, 
 they would arrive in Penrith on Monday ; and 
 as the sheet will be ready set, I would then by 
 all means, advertise in one Paper at last, on 
 Saturday, its appearance for the ensuing Satur- 
 day ; or else I shall be charged with making 
 fools of my Subscribers. I have sent the Hull 
 Paper, that contains an advertisement put in 
 by one of my zealous friends ; and therefore I 
 so much wish that, if possible, an advertise- 
 ment should appear in the Saturday's Courier, 
 announcing it for Saturday, May 13, supposing 
 that the paper can be sent off per coach on 
 Saturday. At all events, another parcel of 
 
l60 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 J 
 
 paper ought to be sent off immediately, and 
 by the Kendal Waggon direct, directed to Mr. 
 Cookson, Manufacturer, Kendal, with I.B. on 
 one corner. Mr. C. will be certain of receiving 
 it instantly on its arrival, and will forward it 
 to Brown without an hour's delay. I have 420 
 names, and shall receive at least twenty more 
 in a day or two. I think therefore of printing 
 500, as I am desired to send a dozen or more 
 to Oxford, to Clement, to Newcastle, &c. 
 
 Again and again, my dear Stuart, let me 
 assure you how sensible I am of the multiplied 
 trouble I occasion you ; and my best consolation 
 is, that it has not been increased by any fault 
 of mine. To-morrow of subjects of more general 
 interest. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 I go to Penrith on Thursday, and stay there 
 a week. My address at Mr. Brown's, Booksellers. 
 
 Letter 47. 
 
 "Posted May 8, 1809," 
 
 Friday night. 
 My dear Stuart, — The paper is come, I have 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. iGt 
 
 this moment received the tidings. The original 
 mistalce was, in sending it by Halifax. It should 
 have gone to Kendal direct from the Bull and 
 Mouth. I am so feeble from the effect of a 
 severe bilious attack, that I can scarcely sit in 
 the attitude of writing three minutes together, 
 and yet I do so earnestly desire to commu- 
 nicate my thoughts and feelings to you respect- 
 ing the two last Couriers relative to Sir Francis 
 Burdett. ... 
 
 But I am too feeble to write more. I dis- 
 approve of more in the late public meetings 
 than I approve. Sir F. B.'s speech at the 
 meeting is full of dangerous sophistry. These 
 are the men and these the means by which 
 the great blessing of a Reform in Parliament 
 will be baffled. Oh ! that I could but have 
 one long evening's conversation with you ! . . . 
 
 I cannot agree with Street that Lord Auck- 
 land's Divorce Bill is wise or proper. I think 
 it cruel and yet nugatory. The law should be 
 slow to interfere in cases in which the crimi- 
 nality of the act is so infinitely modified by 
 difference of circumstances, and where the true 
 
 12 
 
l62 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [mAY 
 
 circumstances can rarely be known except to 
 God, and those who either cannot or will 
 not disclose them. But of this I shall discourse 
 in "The Friend." 
 
 I write in great pain — but I doubt not I shall 
 be well to-morrow . . . [illegible] . . . . — Your 
 affectionate and grateful, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Does not the law making brokerage in offices 
 penal, frustrate itself by precluding all convic- 
 tion ? For every person concerned will have 
 a legal right to withhold his evidence as crimi- 
 nating himself ; and after all, what is the 
 advantage to the nation ? That Lord A. or B. 
 having no motive will give a place to his butler, 
 or employ it as a means of Parliamentary in- 
 fluence, instead of disposing of it to a man of 
 some property who wishes to sink his property 
 in that mode of being useful ? Where is the 
 presumption that a man will prove a bad cadet 
 whose inclinations have led him to give ^looo 
 or more in order to become a cadet ? After all, 
 'tis but a tub for the Whale, to divert it from 
 things of real importance to freedom and security. 
 
l8og] COLERIDGE. 163 
 
 Letter 48, 
 
 Posted June 6, 1809. 
 My dear Stuart, — It excited no wonder in me 
 that your patience was quite exhausted by my 
 frequent appHcations to you concerning " The 
 Friend," and God knows how reluctantly, and 
 with lingering and often imprudent delays, I made 
 each separate request. And if I had indulged my 
 own feelings instead of regarding yours, I should 
 have expressed my deep sense of my obligations 
 to you more frequently, and with warmth more 
 proportioned to them. . . . 
 
 ■>]< ;Ic :^ :{; ij; *^ 
 
 ■ 
 
 It was by just such another unpermitted and 
 
 I unknown application of Wordsworth,* some eight 
 
 I years ago to T. Poole, that there existed for 
 
 ■ years a healed indeed but yet scarred wound 1 
 
 between me and Poole ; the man who with 
 
 Wordsworth and yourself I have always placed 
 
 in the upper class of my attachments. 
 
 Forgive me for thus opening out my heart to 
 
 * See letter of S. T. C. to Poole, October 5, 1801 ("Thomas 
 Poole and his Friends," vol. ii. p. 66). 
 
164 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 you, and let it drop. You know me well enough 
 to be assured that it is impossible that I should 
 ever cease to love and honour you, or cherish for 
 an hour a feeling inconsistent with sincere friend- 
 ship and manly gratitude. 
 
 I have not seen or heard from Wordsworth for 
 a month past. Southey, who passed through 
 Penrith yesterday on his way to Durham, left his 
 pamphlet for me which I have not yet read. I 
 rejoice that by your last letter you seem to enter- 
 tain confidence of its success. 
 
 * * ■ * * * 
 
 My opinions on the subject of Reform differ 
 very widely from Wordsworth's but they are my 
 
 sincere convictions. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 I think attacks on Burdettism more likely to 
 do good than attacks on Burdett himself, whose 
 private character is said to be very amiable. 
 
 I have received a most interesting letter from 
 Captain Pasley * of which hereafter. 
 
 * Afterwards Major-General Sir C. W. Pasley, K.C.B. For a 
 long letter addressed to Captain Pasley by Wordsworth, in reply to 
 his essay on the " Military Policy and Institutions of the British 
 Empire,' see Bp. Wordsworth's "Life of W. Wordsworth," vol. 
 i. p. 406. 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. 165 
 
 I return to Grasmere the day after to-morrow. 
 Direct therefore as before — Grasmere, Kendal. 
 God bless you and your affectionate, 
 June 4, 1809, Penrith. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 49. 
 
 June 13, 1809, Grasmere, Kendal. 
 
 Dear Stuart, — I left Penrith Monday noon, 
 and, prevented by the heavy rain from crossing 
 Grisedale Tarn * (near the summit of Helvellyn, 
 and our most perilous and difficult Alpine Pass), 
 the same day I slept at Luff's, and crossed it 
 yester morning, and arrived here by breakfast 
 time. I was sadly grieved at Wordsworth's ac- 
 count of your late sorrows and troubles. . . . 
 
 I cannot adequately express how much I am 
 concerned lest anything I wrote in my last letter 
 (though God knows under the influence of no one 
 feeling which you would not wish me to have) 
 should chance to have given you any additional 
 unpleasantness, however small. Would that I 
 
 * The height of the pass is 1,929 feet. 
 
l66 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. ^jUNE 
 
 had worthier means than words and professions 
 of proving to you what my heart is. . . . 
 
 I rise every morning at five, and work three 
 hours before breakfast, either in letter-writing or 
 serious composition. . . . 
 
 I take for granted that more than the poor £60 
 has been expended in the paper I have received. 
 But I have written to Mr. Clarkson to see what 
 can be done ; for it would be a sad thing to give 
 it all up now I am going on so well merely for 
 want of means to provide the first twenty weeks 
 paper. My present stock will not quite suffice for 
 three numbers. I printed 620 of No. i, and 650 
 of No. 2, and so many more are called for that I 
 shall be forced to reprint both as soon as I hear 
 from Clarkson. The proof sheet of No. 3 goes 
 back to-day, and with it the copy of No. 4, so that 
 henceforth we shall be secure of regularity ; in- 
 deed it was not all my fault before, but the 
 printer's inexperience and the multitude of errors, 
 though from a very decent copy, which took him 
 a full day and more in correcting. I had altered 
 my plan for the Introductory Essays after my 
 arrival at Penrith, which cost me exceeding 
 
l809J COLERIDGE. 167 
 
 trouble ; but the numbers to come are in a very 
 superior style of polish and easy intelligibility. 
 The only thing at present which I am under the 
 necessity of applying to you for respects Clement. 
 It may be his interest to sell " The Friend " at his 
 shop, and a certain number will always be sent ; 
 but I am quite in the dark as to what profits he 
 expects. Surely not book-profits for a newspaper 
 that can circulate by the post ? And it is cer- 
 tainly neither my interest, nor that of the regular 
 purchasers of " The Friend," to have it bought at 
 a shop, instead of receiving it as a franked letter. 
 All I want to know is his terms, for I have quite 
 a horror of booksellers, whose mode of carrying 
 ^on trade in London is absolute rapacity. . . . 
 
 On this ruinous plan poor Southey has been 
 toiling for years, with an industry honourable to 
 human nature, and must starve upon it were it 
 not for the more profitable employment of review- 
 ing; a task unworthy of him, or even of a man 
 with not one half of his honour and honesty. 
 
 I have just read Wordsworth's pamphlet, and 
 more than fear that your friendly expectations of 
 its sale and influence have been too sanguine. 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. LJUNE 
 
 Had I not known the author I would willingly have 
 travelled from St. Michael's Mount to Johnny 
 Groat's House on a pilgrimage to see and rever- 
 ence him. But from the public I am appre- 
 hensive, first, that it will be impossible to rekindle 
 an exhausted interest respecting the Cintra 
 Convention, and therefore that the long porch 
 may prevent readers from entering the Temple. 
 Secondly, that, partly from Wordsworth's own 
 style, which represents the chain of his thoughts 
 and the movements of his heart, admirably for me 
 and a few others, but I fear does not possess the 
 more profitable excellence of translating these 
 down into that style, which might easily convey 
 them to the understandings of common readers, 
 and partly from Mr. De Quincey's strange and 
 most mistaken system of punctuation. The 
 periods are often alarmingly long, perforce of 
 their construction, but De Quincey's punctuation 
 has made several of them immeasurable, and per- 
 plexed half the rest. Never was a stranger whim 
 than the notion that , ; : and . could be made 
 logical symbols, expressing all the diversities of 
 logical connection. But lastly, I fear that 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. l6g 
 
 readers, even of judgment, may complain of a 
 want of shade and background ; that it is all 
 foreground, all in hot tints ; that the first note is 
 pitched at the height of the instrument, and never 
 suffered to sink ; that such depth of feeling is so 
 incorporated with depth of thought, that the 
 attention is kept throughout at its utmost strain 
 and stretch ; and^but this for my own feeling. 
 I could not help feeling that a considerable part 
 is almost a self-robbery from some great philo* 
 sophical poem, of which it would form an appro- 
 priate part, and be fitlier attuned to the high 
 dogmatic eloquence, the oracular [tone] of im-l 
 passioned blank verse. In short, cold readers, 
 conceited of their supposed judgment, on the 
 score of their possessing nothing else, and for that 
 reason only, taking for granted that they must 
 have judgment, will abuse the book as positive 
 violent, and " in a mad passion ; " and readers of 
 sense and feeling will have no other dread, than 
 that the Work (if it should die) would die of a 
 plethora of the highest qualities of combined 
 philosophic and poetic genius. The Apple Pie 
 they may say is made all of Quinces* I much ad- 
 
170 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 mired our young friend's note * on Sir John Moore 
 and his despatch ; it was excellently arranged and 
 urged. I have had no opportunity, as yet, to speak 
 a word to Wordsworth himself about it ; I wrote 
 to you as usual in full confidence. 
 
 I shall not be a little anxious to have your 
 opinion of my third number. Lord Lonsdale 
 blames me for excluding party politics and the 
 events of the day from my plan. I exclude both 
 the one and the other, only as far as they are 
 merely party, i.e., personal and temporal interests, 
 or merely events of To-day, that are defunct in the 
 To-morrow. I flatter myself, that I have been the 
 first, who will have given a calm, disinterested 
 account of our Constitution as it really is, and 
 how it is so, and that, I have more radically than 
 has been done before, shown the unstable and 
 boggy grounds on which all systematic reformers 
 hitherto have stood. But be assured that I shall 
 give up this opinion with joy, and consider a truer 
 view of the question a more than recompense 
 
 * The Appendix, a portion of the work which Mr. Wordsworth 
 regarded as executed in a masterly manner, was drawn up by Mr. 
 De Quincey, who revised the proofs of the whole (" Life of Words- 
 worth," vol. i. p. 354. 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. 1^1 
 
 for the necessity of retracting what I have 
 written. 
 
 God bless you ! Do, pray, let me hear from you 
 though only three lines, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 50. 
 
 " Posted Sept. 15, 1809." 
 
 Grasmere, KendaL 
 Dear Stuart,— I pray you attribute to no other 
 than the true cause my long silence, which indeed 
 has not only not been intentional, but most oppo- 
 site to my intention. But I have been in a con- 
 stant state of perplexity, and this to me is always 
 a state of stupor, during which day after day 
 vanishes as in a dream. I have not been idle or 
 misemploying my industry for I have been getting 
 on with " The Friend," am months beyond the 
 printer, and have been so far successful that there 
 is no one of the numbers that is not more enter- 
 taining and lively than the very best of the first 
 five. But I do not know what to do with regard 
 to the paper. I have twice written to Brown 10 
 send me an account of all the stamped paper 
 
172 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 which he has hitherto received ; and the waiting 
 for this in order to send it to you has been one 
 among others of the temptations and lulling 
 thoughts that enabled me to put off the writing 
 to you, and indeed to everybody else. When I 
 began the publication, I had foolishly taken it for 
 granted that I could purchase the stamped paper 
 for the first twenty weeks on credit . . . and 
 only by Montagu's last letter, did I learn 
 positively that the paper could not be had for 
 ready money. In the meantime I had neither 
 heart nor pretence to write to you who had already 
 done everything that had been done. . . . 
 I have paper for just three numbers more. Brown 
 informs me that Clement refuses to send the Work 
 to Subscribers, or the Subscribers' names to me or 
 to Brown. In short I feel all over me like a bird 
 whose plumage is beclammed and wings glued to 
 its body with bird-lime. What I can do by the 
 exertion of all my intellectual powers I was never 
 more willing to do, but never less able to bear up 
 against want of outward means, aggravated by a 
 consciousness of already heaped-up and unrequited 
 oblig-ations. But in the letter which I have sent 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I73 
 
 to Penrith to be enclosed in Brown's account of 
 the paper received and expended, I have said all 
 that I could, in reply to yours more clearly. 
 
 I suffered great anguish from the belief of 
 Pasley's death. In order to make this letter 
 worth the postage, I have had transcribed cer- 
 tain passages from his three last letters written 
 before and since the expedition for your own 
 private amusement, and because I see a greater 
 tendency in The Courier to throw the blame on the 
 Earl of Chatham than I conceive just. — With a 
 heavy heart I conclude, dear Stuart, your ever 
 grateful and sincerely affectionate, 
 
 Monday night. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 51.* 
 
 "1809." Grasinere, Kendal, 
 
 Wednesday night, 27 September. 
 Dear Stuart, — Miss Hutchinson is copying out 
 (what I trust you will think) an interesting Article 
 for The Courier on the grounds of hope and fear 
 
 * See Gentleman'' s Magazine, June, 1838. 
 
174 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 in a war of a nation against armies, as illustrated 
 by the close analogy between the present Spanish 
 Revolution, and that of the Belgic Provinces 
 against Philip 11. I have drawn my facts from a 
 very scarce and valuable Latin Work,* written by 
 a contemporary, during the first eight or nine 
 years of the insurrection ; a man of high trust 
 in the Spanish Diplomacy, consequently in the 
 Hispano-Austrian interest. This article alone 
 __will convince you how little Watson's History of 
 P. II. deserves the name of "admirable.'" It 
 is in truth, a contemptible book. The style 
 villainous ! but as to industry and research, he is 
 neither worse nor better than Hume and Robert- 
 son. It is to me a most painful duty to be obliged 
 to point out, as if Southey does not I shall feel 
 myself obliged to do, the shameful carelessness 
 and idleness of our English Historians. Could 
 you believe it ? Yet you will see a splendid naval 
 victory of the English over the Spaniards re- 
 corded by a Spanish historian, not one word about 
 which is to be found in Hume, Carte, or Rapin, 
 nor in Watson ! History has occupied but little 
 
 * " Leo Belgicus. " 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I75 
 
 of my attention, yet with my little knowledge 
 derived from contemporary writers, in the Latin, 
 German, and Spanish languages, (which last I 
 have lately made myself master of) I could fill an 
 octavo volume with the blunders and omissions of 
 Robertson and Watson, while Harte's Gustavus 
 Adolphus, and Carleton's Memoirs (both of which 
 I earnestly advise you to procure, and carefully to 
 peruse) lie on stalls unread. That cursed phrase, 
 the dignity of History, has made our late histories, 
 nothing but pompous dull romances. All must be 
 beat down into one monotonous style, and all the 
 life and reality and character of men and things 
 destroyed. At the same time I send you another 
 letter from Pasley which however you will be so 
 good as to show to no one ; the reasons for which 
 the letter itself will present to you. I shall draw 
 from him immediately all his grounds for his 
 advancement of his former opinion concerning 
 Flushing. One of the geniuses of whom he gives 
 so doleful a picture I was introduced to at Gib- 
 raltar and I can pledge my own experience for his 
 being a rotten ripe blockhead. De Quincey is going 
 into Spain with a Mr. Wilson, a neighbour of ours. 
 
176 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 / 
 
 And now for myself! I have waited and hoped, 
 till my heart is sick, for a letter from you. I 
 print weekly 644, of which 632 are sent off by the 
 post. Brown has received four separate parcels of 
 paper, and there is now only enough remaining for 
 another number. For God's sake do not abandon 
 me now ! Need I say that one of my great objects 
 in carrying on this Work is to enable me to repay 
 by degrees what I owe you ? And that (after 
 paying Brown) the whole of my receipts for the 
 past twenty weeks shall be paid into your hands 
 for the past paper and that which is to come. At 
 all events do send to Brown immediately, and per 
 Coach Stamps for two numbers that I may have 
 time to beg pecuniary assistance elsewhere, if it 
 be decidedly inconvenient to you to hold me up 
 till I can walk of myself. God knows it makes 
 me so sick at heart that I must thus importune 
 you, and throw the burden of my wants on yon 
 wholly, that I feel my hand sink away from the 
 paper while I write. But the repayment is certain 
 in this case, and at the distance of but a few 
 weeks ; and without it I am ruined and disgraced, 
 where I might perhaps build myself up, and re- 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I77 
 
 cover the good opinion of all my friends respecting 
 my perseverance and reliability. It would be of 
 the greatest service to me, to have likewise 1,500 
 sheets of the same paper unstamped, in order that 
 . . . [illegible] . . . 
 
 Do pray let me hear from you. I am fully 
 aware that the Numbers hitherto are in too hard 
 and laborious a style, but I trust you will find 
 Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 10 greatly improved, and that 
 every number after these will become more and 
 more entertaining. . . . 
 
 Be so good as to have the next number adver- 
 tised in The Courier, and some one other paper on 
 some other day. . . . We are all greatly dejected 
 by the present state of men and measures and the 
 utter hopelessness of better. Good God ! what 
 a disgrace to the nation ! A duel * between two 
 Cabinet Ministers, on Cabinet disputes ! ! And 
 not a breathing of its hideous vulgarity and immo- 
 rality in any one of the papers ! Is it possible 
 that such minds can be left to govern the one of 
 the two . . . [illegible]. 
 
 * The famous duel between Canning and Lord Castlereagh took 
 place Sept. 22, 1809. 
 
 13 
 
178 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 Letter 52. 
 
 Saturday night, Sept. 30, 1809. 
 Grasmere, Kendal. 
 My dear Stuart, — I received yours of the 25th 
 this evening, just in time to direct my answer 
 to Cheltenham. The Article on the Belgic and 
 Spanish Revolution, I will send forthwith to Mr. 
 Street. Neither I, nor any of us, can make out 
 what letter you allude to as your last, and as 
 containing a plan of proceeding for me. The 
 letter which I sent to Brown for you, I ordered 
 back again — indeed all my latter letters to you 
 have been written in far too tumultuous and 
 uneasy a state of mind. With regard to the 
 Work, the running of one number into another I 
 shall carefully avoid for the future, and if I cannot 
 include the whole subject in one number, I will 
 take care to divide it polypus-like, so that each 
 part may have a head and a tail of its own, and 
 I feel confident that my Essays will increase in 
 interest. It was in the necessity of the plan, and 
 I stated it as such in the first number, page 7, 
 that my foundations could not be as attractive as 
 
iSog] COLERIDGE. I79 
 
 I hoped to make the superstructure. My twelfth 
 number will be on the vulgar errors respecting 
 taxation, which I trust will be both interesting 
 and useful. For there are so many and such 
 grievous evils in the constitution of our Govern- 
 ment, in all things relating to foreign affairs and 
 an external empire, that it is of first-rate impor- 
 tance that the public discontent should not be 
 diverted to false objects. 
 
 The letter to which you refer has been found 
 dated the 25th of June last. As I read it, to my 
 astonishment, I found the most important pas- 
 sages quite new to me ; and on expressing this 
 discovered that this was the letter which had 
 been read to me one day when I happened to be 
 very unwell and in bed ; and that these had not 
 been read under the notion of not agitating me at 
 that time, and that they had forgotten to apprize 
 me of them afterwards. . . . 
 
 [Business details.] 
 But I am so agitated that I must defer what I 
 have to say to another time. — God bless you and 
 yours most affectionately, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
l8o LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. 
 
 Letter 53. 
 Coleridge to Street. 
 
 [Date tmcertain.] 
 My dear Sir, — The bearer is Mr. Henry Hut- 
 chinson of whom I wrote to you in my last ; and 
 who will thank you in person for your kind exer- 
 tions in his behalf, when he was at Cork. If you 
 can give him any advice or information I am con- 
 fident you will do it even for my sake; but still 
 more confident should I be if you had read the 
 history of his adventures during i8o5 and 1807, 
 which I shall shortly insert in my republica- 
 tion of my review on Clarkson's History of the 
 Abolition in The Edinburgh Review* which was 
 most shamefully mutilated ; but in two para- 
 graphs added (in a vulgar style of rancid common- 
 place Metaphors) made to contradict myself; first 
 in a nauseous and most false ascription of the 
 
 supremacy of merit to and secondly in an attack 
 
 on Mr. Pitt's sincerity, substituted for a paragraph 
 in which I had both defended it and him and 
 
 * Edinlmrgh Review, June, 1 808. 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. 181 
 
 proved that of all the parliamentary friends of 
 the Africans he was the most efficient. With the 
 exception of these paragraphs, I trust you will 
 read the Review with some satisfaction, even as 
 it now stands ; but in the republication it will 
 be augmented and be at least double its present 
 length. 
 
 I am hard at work, and feel a pleasure and 
 eagerness in it which I have not known for years J 
 a consequence and reward of my courage in at 
 length overcoming the fear of dying suddenly in 
 my sleep which, Heaven knows, alone seduced me 
 into the fatal habit, &c. . . . 
 
 If I entirely recover I shall deem it a sacred duty 
 to publish my cure, though without my name, for 
 the practice of taking opium is dreadfully spread. 
 Throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire it is the 
 / common dram of the lower orders of people. In 
 the small town of Thorpe the druggist informed 
 me that he commonly sold on market days two or 
 three pound of opium and a gallon of laudanum, 
 all among the labouring classes. Surely this 
 demands legislative interference. 
 
 If I can on any important subject render you 
 
l82 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 service I can now venture to offer my powers to 
 you without fear of disappointing you. — Yours 
 affectionately and gratefully, 
 
 September, Grasmere. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 54.* 
 
 2 October, 1809. 
 My dear Stuart, — I am confident that in the 
 present business you will confine the right and 
 wrong as far as it concerns me to the present 
 business ... 
 
 [Business details.] 
 As I am so far beforehand with The Friend, 1 
 should have been right glad to have worked for 
 The Courier, and have sent it two essays weekly 
 on a variety of subjects too much connected with 
 persons and immediate events to fit them for my 
 own Work ; so as to have greatly reduced at least 
 the final balance at the 20th week ; and Street 
 will see from the Article sent to him, how far I 
 should be likely to serve the paper. But I sup- 
 
 * For complete text of this Letter, see Gentlema7i s Magazine, 
 June, 1838. 
 
l8og] COLERIDGE. 1S3 
 
 pose the great sale of The Courier raises it above 
 the want of hterary assistance ; and I could not 
 write in any strict harmony with the tune pre- 
 dominant in the leading paragraphs of late. How- 
 ever if he thought that what / with my principles, 
 as Anti-Jacobin, Anti- Buonaparte, &c., as his 
 own, but with a dread and contempt of the present 
 Ministry, only less than that of the last, [coidd 
 write] would be serviceable, I would undertake to 
 furnish him two columns twice a week, for the 
 next twelve weeks ; sometimes taking the events 
 of the day, and sometimes retrospective matter; 
 for instance, the state of Sweden, and the causes 
 of its present condition ; of Russia, concerning 
 which I have received valuable information from 
 a gentleman lately arrived, who had been resident 
 in Petersburg [some] years; of Germany in general; 
 of Spain, and the Mediterranean. Whatever you 
 may think of this plan, you will agree with me, 
 that The Courier needs a little brightening up. 
 
 But whatever may or may not come of all this, 
 " The Friend " inclusive, let me conjure you dear 
 Stuart, not to suffer any of these things to connect 
 permanent feelings of displeasure or diminished 
 
184 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 kindness with my name in 3'our mind. Indeed, 
 indeed if you could read my heart it would be 
 impossible. For I am, as I always have been, 
 most sincerely and affectionately, your obliged 
 and grateful friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 55. 
 
 9 October, i8og. 
 My dear Stuart, — Among my faults, that of 
 feeling offence, even at the moment, from advice 
 given me with any tolerable kindness, was never 
 one ; and from you I have never received any 
 advice without a sense of affection and pleasure. 
 But, indeed, indeed, in the present instance, you 
 have supposed a motive in my mind of which I 
 had never dreamt. From the commencement of 
 " The Friend " to the present hour, I have never 
 heard one word concerning it, either by letter or 
 by word of mouth, except some raptures from Lady 
 Beaumont, and a passage in Mr. Wedgewood's 
 letter corresponding with yours, concerning its 
 occasional obscurity, and the error of running 
 one number into another. In Grasmere, and with 
 
iSogJ COLERIDGE. 185 
 
 such a circuitous post, and seeing The Coicrier only 
 very irregularly, never seeing any Review, and 
 having no literary correspondence, what difference 
 would there be between a week and a month to 
 my vanity, supposing it interested ? Whereas, 
 Heaven knows, I have been agitated by too many 
 painful thoughts to have room for so pleasant a 
 feeling (as I rather guess than know it to be) with 
 respect to literary matters. I have read over all 
 your letters. At first your advice was decisively 
 in favour of the present plan ; afterwards you 
 doubted ; in a third letter your opinions were 
 balanced, but the trembling of the scale was 
 rather against it. But by that time I had four 
 hundred subscribers on the present plan, without 
 the least certainty that they would continue so on 
 any other ; and this was my sole motive added to 
 the conviction, which some of your former argu- 
 ments had produced, both on my mind and on 
 Wordsworth's. And still I confess that if the 
 Work goes on, it seems to me the better, to 
 mention one among other more important [reasons] 
 because there are a number of persons who like 
 to have the newspaper feeling, of receiving a Paper 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 at their own doors without trouble on a particular 
 day. The error of running one number into 
 another, I shall avoid as much as possible. And 
 yet, how often does Cobbett break off and re- 
 commence ! or did at least, for I have not seen 
 his Journal for many many months. Any other 
 lapses will never occur from any fault of mine ; 
 and were pardonable in the commencement of a 
 Work under so many disadvantages. So, with 
 regard to the Prospectuses, as I have more than 
 once told you, it was not / in my restlessness, but 
 the number of letters which I received ; — " With- 
 out Prospectuses I can do nothing ; with them, I 
 am sure of gaining you thirty, fifty, one said a 
 hundred, subscribers." Now, my dear Stuart, I 
 appeal to yourself, whether, being new to an 
 undertaking, and receiving such boisterous re- 
 quests, you might not have mildly echoed them 
 without any restlessness, or precipitancy of idle 
 doing-ness in your own mind ? 
 
 Oh, dear Friend ! it would be far, far better for 
 me, if I had a little more of that vanity, a little 
 more interest in the opinions people entertain of 
 my talents, &c., instead of its being all uphill 
 
1809] COLERIDGE. 187 
 
 work with me. I once was fond of feeling my 
 powers perhaps in conversation, though even then, 
 it was more than one half a pleasure in sympathy 
 as was proved by my never taking but one side of 
 a question and always talking in full earnest. 
 But be it what it will, even that is past away ! 
 
 I doubt not I shall be able to get on till the 
 twentieth number. Before that time, I shall 
 address my subscribers and at the time of their 
 payment collect their suffrages whether they would 
 prefer the work monthly at a hundred pages and 
 subtracting the stamp ? . . . 
 
 [Business details.] 
 
 Would to God I could but talk with you though 
 it were only for an hour ! for letters do little more 
 than multiply misunderstandings. 
 
 My heart aches at the state of the country. 
 Two Cabinet Ministers dtielling on Cabinet 
 measures ! It is wringing the dregs of the last 
 drops of degradation. But to combine a con- 
 stitution altogether fitted for legal freedom, 
 tranquillity and commercial activity at home with 
 the production of individual greatness, and with 
 choice of the very man for the very place in all 
 
l88 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT., l8og. 
 
 departments, both which are necessary for mam- 
 taining an empire and dignity abroad, is a State 
 riddle that yet remains to be solved. The sole 
 good in the power of individuals is to enlighten 
 the mind of the public as far as they can, and to 
 draw off the well intentioned from false scents. — 
 God bless you and your affectionate and sincere 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 End of Part Three of Coleridge's Letters. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 {LETTERS OF S. T. COLERIDGE TO DANIEL STUART 
 FROM 1811 TO 1834.) 
 
 Letter 56.* 
 
 ''April, 18 1 1." Sunday morning. 
 Dear Stuart, — I arrived safe at my lodgings 
 about half-past twelve. . . . 
 
 [Health details.] 
 Perfect health I do not expect ever to have, but 
 experience has convinced me . . . that by getting 
 up early . . . and by living in a family! where my 
 social affections are kept alive, I may henceforth 
 and for some years, enjoy such a portion of health 
 as will enable me to perform all my literary duties 
 
 * The latter part of this letter is printed in Gentlemaii's Maga- 
 zine, June, 1838. 
 
 t The family consisted of Mr. J. J. Morgan, his wife, and his 
 wife's sister. Miss Charlotte Brent, who were living at this time at 
 No. 7, Portland Place, Plammersmith, 
 
igo LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 quietly and systematically. The quickness with 
 which I pass from illness into my best state of 
 health is astonishing, and makes me think it 
 impossible that I should have been so ill the day, 
 or the day before. But this childlike suddenness 
 of convalescence is I believe symptomatic of those 
 . . , who have at the same time more power of the 
 nervous, than strength of the muscular system. 
 
 So much for the past ! For the present and 
 future I wish most anxiously to have your advice 
 and assistance. . . . 
 [Then follows among other matter an accoimt of his 
 
 misunderstanding with Wordsworth.] 
 I have however an alternation in my power, if only 
 I could procure any regular situation which might 
 employ me, and my pen from nine till two — five or 
 even six days a week. In this case I could settle 
 myself with comfort to my own feelings and with 
 perfect propriety, as a member of Morgan's family. 
 In this letter I address you, dear Stuart, in a two- 
 fold character — First, as my friend ; secondly, as 
 I would any other person — Perry or Walter. As 
 the former I am sure you will give me the best 
 advice in your power, but in the latter character 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. I9I 
 
 I wish nothing but the mere fact of advantage or 
 disadvantage, convenience or inconvenience rela- 
 tively to yourself. But it struck me that by 
 devoting myself for the next half-year to The 
 Courier, as a regular duty, I might prove useful 
 to the paper, as, if it were desirable, I could be 
 at the office every morning by half-past nine, to 
 read over all the morning papers, &c., and point out 
 whatever seemed valuable to Mr. Street ; that I 
 might occasionally write the leading paragraph 
 when he might wish to go into the city, or to the 
 public offices ; and besides this I would carry on 
 a series of articles, a column and a half, or two 
 columns each, independent of small paragraphs, 
 poems, &c., as would fill whatever room there was 
 in The Courier, whenever there was room. In 
 short, I would regularly furnish six columns to 
 Mr. Street which he might suffer to accumulate 
 in busy times. I have thought that this might 
 perhaps be pleasing to Mr. Street, as I should 
 have no pretence to any control or intermeddle- 
 ment ; but merely during a certain space of time 
 be in part his assistant, and in part a political 
 writer in the service of the paper. Should the 
 
192 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 plan seem feasible to you in itself, and your 
 objections rest chiefly on your fears as to my 
 steadiness, I can only say, give me a month's trial. 
 I am very uneasy about the payment of my 
 Annuity Assurance ; even in London there is far 
 more owing to me than that amounts to, and 
 this I doubt not I shall be able to collect, as soon 
 as my mind is once at ease, and anything is but 
 settled. Besides, as soon as Southey brings up 
 my MSS. I am sure of being able to sell them for 
 more or less. But I am interrupted. I hope to 
 see you to-morrow morning, either at Brompton, 
 or at The Courier Office. — God bless you and 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 57.* 
 
 ''May 5, 1811." 
 
 Dear Stuart, — I called on Mr. Street, stated and 
 
 particularized my proposal, and found a full, and 
 
 in all appearance, a warm assent. I told him that 
 
 I had previously spoken to you, not as ignorant 
 
 * The first portion of this Letter appeared in The Gentleman^ s 
 Magazine, June, 1838. 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. 193 
 
 that the choice and decision would of course rest 
 on him as the acting partner, and who would suffer 
 all the annoyance from the possible irregularity, or 
 unquiet temper of any employe in your joint service, 
 but merely as a mode of applying to him. He 
 expressed himself highly pleased, both at the 
 thought of my assistance in general, and with the 
 specific plan of assistance, and there was no doubt, 
 he said, it would be of great service to the Paper. 
 I answered that I hoped it would prove no dis- 
 service ; but that I calculated more on the relief 
 which I trusted he would receive from my attend- 
 ance, and on the ease of mind which the certainty 
 of having an honest and zealous vicegerent would 
 afford him, in case sickness, or other unforeseen 
 accidents should keep him away from the imme- 
 diate superintendence of The Courier for two or 
 three days or weeks. As to weekly salary he 
 said nothing, and I said nothing, except that he 
 would talk with you, and there was no doubt, that 
 all this would be settled to our mutual satisfaction. 
 I shall therefore, unless I hear to the contrary, 
 commence my attendance to-morrow at % past 8. 
 Not that I could not or would not come 
 
 14 
 
194 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 earlier, the weather permitting, but because the 
 Stage passes Portland Place at twenty minutes 
 after seven, and it is well to mention the latest 
 hour as the regular one. 
 
 I have written to Keswick to calm Mrs. Cole- 
 ridge's disquietudes concerning the Annuity ; and 
 at the same time to order my MSS. up, and a 
 hundred sets of " The Friend." . . . 
 
 [Booksellers.] 
 But great as my affection may be for the Angels of 
 Paternoster Row that sit in the appropriate shape 
 of Cormorants on the Tree of knowledge I am sel- 
 fish enough to have a still greater for S. T. C. and 
 his three little ones. I shall therefore finish off 
 the next number of " The Friend " which will 
 contain a full detail of the plan of a Monthly 
 Work including " The Friend," continued with a 
 full catalogue of the Chapters of the subjects to be 
 investigated in the philosophical O'.e., metaphysical, 
 moral and religious) and the literary departments 
 of the Work. With this, which I will first show 
 you, I shall call on Baldwin, who some time ago 
 proposed the thing to me of his own accord. As 
 soon as this can be settled, I shall then begin to 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. I95 
 
 collect the money due to me, and be able to repay 
 you my more recent obligations. 
 
 I called in Brompton Row yesterday a few 
 minutes after you had left your house. Hence- 
 forward the afternoons and evenings, I shall be at 
 Hammersmith. 
 
 Believe me, dear Stuart, with grateful and 
 
 affectionate esteem, your sincere friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 Simday, 5 May, 181 1. 
 
 7, Portland Place, Hammersmith. 
 
 Letter 58.* 
 
 Tuesday, June 4, 181 1. 
 Dear Stuart, — I brought your umbrella in with 
 me yester-morning, but, having forgotten it at 
 leaving Portland Place, sent the coachman back 
 for it, who brought what appeared to me not the 
 same. On returning, however, with it, I could 
 find no other, and it is certainly as good or better, 
 but looks to me as if it were not equally new, and 
 
 * The greater portion of this Letter is printed in The Gentleman'' s 
 Magazine, June, 1838. 
 
ig6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 as if it had far more silk in it. I will, however, 
 leave it at Brompton, and if by any inexplicable 
 circumstance, it should not prove the same, you 
 must be content with the substitute. The family 
 at Portland Place caught at my doubts as to the 
 identity of it. I had hoped to have seen you this 
 morning, it being a leisurely time in respect of 
 fresh tidings, to have submitted to you two Essays, 
 one on the Catholic Question," and the other on 
 Parliamentary Reform, addressed as a letter (from 
 a correspondent) to the noblemen and members of 
 Parliament, who had associated for this purpose. 
 The former does not exceed two columns, the 
 latter is somewhat longer. But after the middle 
 of this month it is probable that the Paper will be 
 more open to a series of Articles on less momen- 
 tary, though still, contemporary interests. Mr. 
 Street seems highly pleased with what I have 
 written this morning on the battle of the i6th 
 (May),t though I apprehend, the whole cannot be 
 
 * Three Letters on the Catholic Question appeared in 77/,? 
 Cotiricr, Sept. 3, Sept. 21, Sept. 26, iSii. 
 
 t The Battle of Albuera. Articles on the battle appeared in 
 The Courier on June 5 and June 6, 181 1 ("Essays on his own 
 Times," vol. iii. 802). 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. 
 
 197 
 
 inserted. I am as I ought to be, most cautious 
 and shy in recommending anything, otherwise, I 
 should have requested Mr. Street to give insertion 
 to the SSs. respecting Holland, and the nature of 
 Buonaparte's resources, ending with the necessity 
 of ever re-fuelling the moral feelings of the people 
 as to the monstrosity of the giant fiend that 
 menaces them, [with an] allusion to Judge Grose's* 
 opinion onDrakardt before the occasion had passed 
 away from the public memory. So too if the Duke's 
 return is to be discussed at all, the Article should 
 be published before Lord Milton's motion. t For 
 though in a complex and widely controverted 
 question, where hundreds rush into the field of 
 combat, it is wise to defer it till the Debates in 
 Parliament have shown what the arguments are 
 on which most stress is laid by men in common, as 
 
 * " That a judge should have regarded as an aggravation of 
 a libel on the British Army, the writer's having written against 
 Buonaparte, is an act so monstrous," &c. ("Buonaparte," Cotirier, 
 June 29, 181 1 : " Essays on his own Times," vol. iii. 810). 
 
 t John Drakard, the printer of the Stamford News, was con- 
 victed at Lincoln, May 25, 181 1, of the publication of an article 
 against military flogging, and sentenced to a fine and imprisonment, 
 
 I Lord Milton, one of the members for Yorkshire, brought forward 
 a motion on June 6 against the reappointment of the Duke of York 
 to the office of Commander-in-Chief. 
 
gS LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. tjUNE 
 
 in the Bullion Dispute ; yet generally it is a great 
 honour to the London papers, that for one argu- 
 ment they borrow from the parliamentary speakers, 
 the latter borrow two from them, at all events are 
 anticipated by them. But the true prudential rule 
 is, to defer only when any effect of freshness or 
 novelty is impracticable ; but in most other cases 
 to consider freshness of effect as the point which 
 belongs to a A^^wspaper and distinguishes it from 
 a library book ; the former being the Zenith, and 
 the latter the Nadir, with a number of intermediate 
 degrees, occupied by pamphlets, magazines, re- 
 views, satyrical and occasional poems, &c., &c. 
 Besides in a daily newspaper, with advertisements 
 proportioned to its sale, what is deferred must, 
 four times in five be extinguished. A newspaper 
 
 jis a market for flowers and vegetables, rather than 
 a granary or conservatory; and the drawer of its 
 Editor, a common burial ground, not a catacomb 
 for embalmed mummies, in which the defunct are 
 preserved to serve in after times as medicines for 
 
 hthe living. To turn from the Paper to myself, as 
 candidate for the place of auxiliary to it. I drew, 
 with Mr. Street's consent and order, £10, which I 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. IQQ 
 
 shall repay during the week as soon as I can see 
 Mr. Monkhouse of Budge Row who has collected 
 that sum for me. This therefore I put wholly 
 aside, and indeed expect to replace it with Mr. 
 Green," to-morrow morning. Besides this I have 
 had £^ from Mr. Green, chiefly for the purposes 
 of coach hire. All at once I could not venture 
 to walk in the heat and other accidents of weather 
 from Hammersmith to the Office ; but hereafter I 
 intend, if I continue here to return on foot which 
 will reduce my coach hire for the week from i8s. 
 to gs. But to walk in, I know, would take off all 
 the blossom and fresh fruits of my spirits. I trust 
 that I need not say, how pleasant it would be to 
 me, if it were in my power to consider everything 
 I could do for The Courier, as a mere return for 
 the pecuniary, as well as other obligations I am 
 under to you, in short as working off old scores. 
 But you know how I am situated, and that by 
 the daily labour of the brain I must acquire the 
 daily demands of the other parts of the body. 
 And it now becomes necessary that I should form 
 
 * Clerk of The Courier. So Gentleman s Alagazhie, June, 1838, 
 p. 586. 
 
200 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 some settled system for my support in London, 
 and of course know what my weekly or monthly 
 means may be. Respecting The Courier^ I con- 
 sider you not merel}^ as a private friend, but as 
 the Co-proprietor of a large concern, in which it 
 is your duty to regulate yourself with relation to 
 the interests of that concern, and of your partner 
 in it ; and so take for granted, and indeed wish no 
 other, than that you and he should weigh whether 
 or no, I can be of any material use to a Paper 
 already so flourishing, and an Evening Paper. 
 For, all mock humility out of the question, (and 
 when I write to you, every other sort of insin- 
 cerity) I see that such services as I might be able 
 to afford, would be more important to a rising than 
 to a risen Paper, to a morning, perhaps, more than 
 to an evening one. You will however decide, after 
 the experience hitherto afforded, and modifying it 
 by the temporary circumstances of debates, press 
 of foreign news, &c. ; how far I can be of actual 
 use by my attendance, in order to help in the 
 things of the day, as are the SS.s, which I have 
 for the most part hitherto been called to contri- 
 bute ; and by my efforts to sustain the literary 
 
Ion] COLERIDGE. 201 
 
 character of the Paper, by large Articles on open 
 days, and more leisure times. 
 
 My dear Stuart ! knowing the foolish mental 
 cowardice with which I slink off from all pecu- 
 niary subjects, and the particular weight I must 
 feel from the sense of existing obligations to 
 you, you will be convinced that my only motive 
 is the desire of settling with others such a 
 plan for myself, as may, by setting my mind 
 at rest, enable me to realize whatever powers 
 I possess, to as much satisfaction to those who 
 employ them, and to my own sense of duty, as 
 possible. If Mr. Street should think that The 
 Courier does not require any auxiliary, I shall 
 then rely on your kindness, for putting me in 
 the way of some other paper, the principles of 
 which are sufficiently in accordance with my 
 own ; for while cabbage stalks rot on dung 
 hills, I will never write what, or for what, I 
 do not think right. All that prudence can 
 justify is not to write what at certain times 
 one may yet think. — God bless you and 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
202 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 Letter 59.* 
 
 ^ past 2 o'clock. " Courier " OjfLce. 
 
 June, 181 1. 
 Dear Stuart, — My letter will scarcely be worth 
 twopence, but I write to say that I hope in 
 another week's time, I shall have learnt to com- 
 press or rather to select my thoughts, so as to 
 make them more frequently admissible. You 
 will see The Courier to-day. I own in confidence 
 it grieved me. The affair of the Stamford 
 Editor might have been, as it was in several 
 papers, compressed into a third of a column, 
 which took two and more unleaded ones. The 
 stupid debate in the Common Council might 
 have been abridged at all events to one half, if 
 the variety of the speakers rendered it (as it 
 probably may) advisable to publish it in the 
 form of a debate at all, rather than as a short 
 narration. Mr. Street means I believe to insert 
 
 * The greater portion of this Letter appeared in T/ie Gentleman's 
 Magazine, June, 1838. Mr. Stuart dates it June, 181 1, but the 
 publication of the " SS on Waithman " on May 11 proves that the 
 letter was written before that date. Letter 59 should therefore 
 precede Letter 58. 
 
i8it] COLERIDGE. 203 
 
 my SS on Waithman* occasioned by his speech, 
 to-morrow, which I wrote as quant, sujf. for the 
 whole affair. But yet it would have been no 
 difficulty surely by compression, &c., to have 
 made room for General Graham's t letter from 
 the Morning Chronicle ; a letter not only worthy 
 of General Graham, but such a one, as will I 
 venture to predict, form a part of classical 
 English literature, inserted in every history of 
 the times — and selected as a specimen of 
 beautiful manly and simple epistolary writing. 
 I did not mention it to Mr. Street, for it really 
 never occurred to me that it could be overlooked. 
 I venture to say that for one person throughout 
 the empire, that would read so as to take any 
 interest in it, any one column of The Courier of 
 to-day, there are a thousand who would have 
 gone about showing Graham's letter. I have 
 this moment looked at The Courier, and write 
 
 * At a special court of Common Council, convened for the 
 purpose of recording a vote of thanks to Lord Wellington for his 
 victories in Spain, the vote was opposed by Robert Waithman, 
 " Esquire and Linen Draper," for various absurd reasons. 
 
 f Afterwards Lord Lynedoch. Defeated the French under 
 Victor at Barrossa, March 5, 181 1. 
 
204 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jUNE 
 
 in the first overflow of my surprise and regret. 
 I should Hke after a time, and if I feel as if I 
 had Mr. Street's confidence to propose to him 
 — [written at Hammersmith] — whenever it is 
 practicable, i.e., whenever the three principal 
 papers, the M.C. the M.P. and The Times come 
 out at a tolerably early hour, to employ me for 
 the first half-hour in abridging the paragraphs 
 he means to transfer into The Courier, where it 
 is possible — and to re-write them when they 
 merit it, as for instance I did in announcing 
 the deaths of Boscowen and Cumberland.* This 
 supposing it practicable, would have two good 
 effects, — it would leave more room for the inser- 
 tion of very interesting Articles, which must 
 otherwise be omitted (which nine times in ten, 
 is the same as lost ; for what once goes into 
 the drawer seldom finds its way out again) and 
 it would give somewhat of an original cast to 
 the Paper — at least a keeping, as the painters 
 say, in the style of the third side. 
 
 * William Boscowen, barrister-at-law and author of an essay on 
 the progress of satire and a translation of Horace, died 1811. 
 Richard Cumberland, dramatist and poet, died May 7, 181 1. 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. 205 
 
 But hitherto the only Paper I can get a 
 sight of for the first hour and more is that 
 astonishing paper called The British Press — for 
 it astonishes me where it finds purchasers so 
 utterly dry and worthless is it. 
 
 As to what I write myself, that has not once 
 entered my thoughts. I feel I have yet to 
 learn how much larger space my scraps occupy 
 in the paper, than I am the least aware of 
 while writing them. What I had imagined a 
 snug little paragraph turns out to be a column ; 
 and considering the press of Debates and foreign 
 news I think it a great compliment that Street 
 has inserted what he has. But, just at one 
 glance comparing the M. Chronicle of to-day 
 with The Coimer I was vexed at the manifest 
 superiority of the former — for which I saw no 
 earthly reason : and what I could of course, 
 say to no other person in the world, I find a 
 relief in saying to you — for if ever an Article 
 appeared, likely to become the general topic of 
 conversation, it is surely Graham's masterly 
 letter. 
 
 There was a well written and plausible attack 
 
206 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 in the M. C. on the remarks in The Courier in 
 my SS. of Monday last, but it owed its plausi- 
 bility to mis-statement. As if the reasons 
 assigned for The Cotmer's preferring to wait 
 for the debates in the H. of C. on one very 
 difficult and complex question (from which 
 debates, no one expected any other result, 
 but that of knowing distinctly the opinions and 
 arguments on both sides) were meant, as a 
 general principle for all questions ; and as if 
 the sneer on Cobbett and his compeers were 
 meant for all who had written, previously to the 
 parliamentary discussion. I write about half a 
 dozen lines, in calm and respectful reply, which 
 as there was not room for them, may make 
 the first sentence of my Essay. 
 
 As soon as I got sight of The Courier to-day, 
 I went up to Mr. Street's room, intending to 
 have chatted a little on politics, and so to have 
 introduced my admiration of Graham's letter 
 in the hopes that he might have given it out 
 for to-morrow (which perhaps he may have 
 done) but it was past two, and he had left the 
 office. 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. 207 
 
 The volume which Pasley had left for me at 
 The Courier office was placed for the first time 
 on my table this morning. Your copy I will 
 leave at Brompton, the first time I walk back 
 from town, which a lame great toe prevents 
 me from now attempting. The improved state 
 of my spirits and digestion, and the lightness 
 with which I rise every morning at half past 
 six give me some reason for suspecting this 
 to be gout — a thing I should welcome, for I 
 doubt not it would make a new inner man 
 for me for a while. . . . 
 
 If anything should occur to you which I can 
 do or which I may do better, you will, I 
 know, be as usual, kind enough to suggest it 
 to me. The new Friends of the People have 
 occasioned much talk. I have procured the 
 Article from The Morning Post, with their 
 " address," &c., and shall write a paragraph 
 on it ; not as if it had been omitted in The 
 Courier, but as recalling the public attention 
 to the fact, as introductory to the reasons 
 grounded on it. 
 
 If inclined to a nap, this letter may aid in com- 
 
308 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. -MAR. 
 
 posing you. Had I met you, I should not have 
 written it ; or, if my mood had been the same 
 when I began, as now I have finished it. But a 
 letter is a sort of escape valve, and serves to cool, 
 by [relieving] the writer, however it may tire the 
 receiver ! 
 
 May God bless you, my dear Sir, and your 
 affectionately grateful friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 7, Portland Place, Hammersmith. 
 
 Letter 6o. 
 
 " Feb. -March, 1811." 
 Dear Stuart, — I did call at Brompton, on 
 Sunday afternoon, on my way to old Ladyjerning- 
 ham's," and took with me a letter for you — but 
 just at your door, I discovered, that, in the flurry 
 and agitation of my mind, having just left Charles 
 Lamb, I had not wafered the letter ; and as it 
 
 * Widow of Sir W. Jerningham, Bart., and mother of the first 
 Lord Stafford. Edward Jerningham, a younger brother of the 
 Baronet, was a poet and dramatist. H. C. Robinson once heard 
 him described as "the last of the old school." 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. 2O9 
 
 contained several remarks on the second Article 
 on the Abuse of Prisons, which I would by no 
 means have had seen by any one but yourself, I 
 resolved to call again at night. Still I, not only, 
 fully expected, but had engaged to be back again 
 at Hammersmith, by Y-z past 9, and Lamb actually 
 waited for me till Y^, past 10. It was not so 
 much that I feared my letter would not be kept 
 sacred, if I left it with your servant, at the 
 time I delivered my message to her, as that it 
 might appear disrespectful, or, at least, an indeli- 
 cacy to you, considering the nature of the com- 
 ments. 
 
 For the four preceding days, I had been kept 
 continually agitated. My head and eyes were 
 throbbing with long weeping at the time I quitted 
 Hammersmith. Fearing I should keep the dinner 
 waiting which would have been an unkind thing 
 to Miss Betham," for whose sake alone, grievously 
 
 * Matilda Betham, the well-known authoress, was on intimate 
 terms with the family at Greta Hall, and corresponded both with 
 Mrs. Coleridge and her sister, Mrs. Lovell. During a visit to Greta 
 Hall in 1809 she painted miniatures of Southey, his son Herbert, 
 Mrs. Coleridge, Mrs. Lovell, and Sara Coleridge, then in her 
 seventh year. 
 
 15 
 
210 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB.-MAR. 
 
 against the grain, I had engaged to go, before the 
 unhappy events took place, I walked very hard, 
 arrived in a violent heat, and then had to wait 
 dinner for an hour and twenty minutes. After 
 coffee I was going, when a Mrs. Jerningham sat 
 down to the piano, and her mother-in-law, the old 
 lady, informing me that she was without doubt, 
 the iirst player in the kingdom, and allowed to 
 excel her master Cramer, I could not in civility, not 
 sit down to listen, though little inclined to your 
 very superfine music. The lady herself however 
 was wondrously so, for she continued playing a 
 long hour. It was now eleven o'clock. As soon as 
 I got out of the house, I felt myself indisposed, 
 and endeavoured to get a bed at Pul&ford's and at 
 Hatchett's, but could not — which was lucky — for 
 I was obliged to call up the people at my lodgings 
 at daylight on Monday, and have kept my bed 
 ever since till last night, when I forced myself out 
 into the street, finding that I ought not to rem.ain 
 by myself. 
 
 I am a good deal better this morning. I am 
 much obliged to you for your kindness with regard 
 to the tickets. If Cato is acted to-morrow, I 
 
l8ll] COLERIDGE. 
 
 211 
 
 should certainly like to see it, should your tickets 
 be disengaged. Mr. Morgan will leave this at 
 The Courier Office, and should he find you there, 
 you will be so good as to let me know, 
 through him, whether or no, they are. — Your 
 obliged, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 6i. 
 
 " His Shakespeare Lectures."' * 
 
 1812, Uh May. 
 My dear Stuart, — I send you seven or eight 
 tickets, entreating you, if pre-engagements or 
 
 * " Lectures on the Drama. — Mr. Coleridge proposes to 
 give a series of Lectures on the Drama of the Greek, French, 
 English, and Spanish stage, chiefly with Reference to the Works 
 of Shakespeare : at Willis's Rooms, King Street, St. James, on the 
 Tuesdays and Fridays in May and June at Three o' Clock precisely. 
 The Course will contain Six Lectures, at One Guinea. The Tickets 
 Transferable. An Account is opened at Messrs. Ransom, Morland, 
 & Co., Bankers, Pall Mall, in the names of Sir G. Beaumont, 
 Bart., Sir T. Bernard, Bart., W. Sotheby, Esq., where Subscrip- 
 tions will be received, and Tickets issued. The First Lecture on 
 Tuesday, the 12th of May.— S. T. C, 71 Berners St." For an 
 account of the first four Lectures, see H. C. Robinson's Diary, vol. 
 i- PP- 385-387- 
 
212 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 your health does not preclude it, to bring a group 
 with you ; as many ladies as possible ; but gentle- 
 men if you cannot muster ladies — for else I shall 
 not only have been left in the lurch as to the 
 actual receipts by my great patrons (the five 
 hundred half-promised are likely to shrink below 
 fifty) but shall absolutely make a ridiculous 
 appearance. The tickets are transferable. If you 
 can find occasion for more, pray send for them 
 to me, as (what it really will be) a favour done to 
 myself. 
 
 I am anxious to see you, and to learn how far 
 Bath has improved or (to use a fashionable slang 
 phrase) disimproved your health. 
 
 Sir James and Lady Mackintosh are I hear at 
 Bath Hotel, Jermyn Street. Do you think it will 
 be taken amiss if I enclosed two or three tickets 
 and cards with my respectful congratulations on 
 his safe return.* I abhor the doing anything 
 that could be even interpreted into servility, and 
 yet feel increasingly the necessity of not neglecting 
 the courtesies of life. . . . 
 
 * From Bombay. 
 
l8l2] COLERIDGE. 213 
 
 God bless you, my dear Sir, and your obliged 
 and affectionate friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Berners Street. 
 
 P.S. — Mr. Morgan left his card for you. 
 
 Letter 62. 
 
 Friday, Atcgtist 7, 181 2. 
 
 Dear Stuart, — Since I last saw you I have been 
 confined to my bed with the alarming symptom of 
 a swollen leg, ankle and foot. 
 
 [Health details.] 
 I informed Dr. Gooch* without the least conceal- 
 ment of the whole of my general case, and have put 
 myself under his direction. . . . 
 
 I called at The Courier Office on Wednesday in 
 hopes of the chance of seeing you ; but the walk 
 increased the heat and size of my leg, and there- 
 fore instead of walking over to Brompton, I must 
 talk by the Twopenny Post. I do not know whether 
 
 * Dr. Robert Gooch, a medical authority of high repute, and the 
 author of some well-known articles on "Anatomy," "The Plague," 
 &c., was a friend of Southey's uncle, Herbert Hill, and, in conse- 
 quence, of Southey and his brother, Dr. Southey. 
 
2T4 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [AUG. 
 
 I can be of any use to The Courier, but if I could, 
 it would be of great use to me, who, partly from 
 ill health, but still more from my anxiety to finish 
 1st the re-writing of my Play, and 2ndly the 
 second volume of " The Friend " have thrown 
 myself behindhand, and the sending off a paltry 
 bill of £2 or 3^3 the second or third time agitates 
 and flutters me, so as not only to injure my health, 
 but to put a stop for an hour or two to all power 
 of writing or composing. What I wish would be 
 this. Not to write for any given time for The 
 Courier, but to send in at once the whole of 
 a stated quantity of Articles, all of which I have 
 in a more or less fragmentary form by me. 
 
 1, Two Articles on America in relation to G. B- 
 and on Maddison's proclamation. These Mr. Street 
 shall receive, the first to-morrow ; the second the 
 day after. 
 
 2. The public character of Mr. Perceval* and 
 reflections on the consequences of his fall, and 
 the sentiments and tone of feeling in and out of 
 Parliament. 
 
 * Mr. Perceval was assassinated in the lobby of the House of 
 Commons, May 11, 1812. 
 
l8l2j COLERIDGE. 
 
 215 
 
 3. On the ruinous tendency of all ranks of men 
 to disorganization or partial organizations. 
 
 4. Is the Church in danger ? and if so, from 
 what causes ? N.B. The Bible Society — Egyptian 
 Hall— Vansittart !— * 
 
 5. The importance of the Established Church 
 to the State, to Tolerancy, and to the best interests 
 of the Dissenters themselves. 
 
 6. On Toleration, and the question of Right and 
 Policy, as pleaded for the unconditional equaliza- 
 tion of the Irish Papists. 
 
 7. The, alas ! long promised character of 
 Buonaparte ; commentary on that of Pitt, Mr. 
 Fox, Wyndham, Lord Wellington, and two or 
 three short ones without a name. 
 
 The whole will consist of twenty Articles, from 
 two columns to two and a half on an average. 
 
 I pledge you most solemnly my word of honour, 
 that Nos. I, 2, and 7 (which will form half the 
 whole) shall have been delivered to Mr. Street 
 within fourteen days from the present day, and 
 
 * Nicholas Vansittart, afterwards Lord Bexley, succeeded Per- 
 ceval as Chancellor of the Exchequer June 9, 1812. The allusion 
 may be to a speech delivered July lo, on the third reading of an 
 Act to amend and extend the Toleration Act. 
 
2l6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS, [DEC. 
 
 the remainder, before the end of the following 
 fortnight. If you have no other objection than 
 the doubt of my perseverance in the performance, I 
 entreat you to confide in me this once, and I v^ill dis- 
 claim all pretensions to your friendship hereafter, if 
 I disappoint you either in time, quantity, or quality. 
 
 But if you or Mr. Street think that The Courier 
 will not be adequately benefited by the Essays, 
 then I must beg your assistance as a friend, for 
 eight days ; by which time I shall have been able 
 to submit my re-written Play to Morris or Cole- 
 man, and if they do not accept it, I will take 
 Gale and Curtis's offer and repay you. Yours 
 affectionately, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 iV(7/£?— " I sent ^20. D. S." 
 
 Letter 63. 
 
 Posted December 22, 1812, 
 
 T%i.csday morning. 
 My dear Stuart, — This is my lecture day * or I 
 
 * Coleridge delivered his fourth course of public lectures during 
 the winter of 1812-13. The last lecture was delivered January 26, 
 1813, three days after the first representation of "Remorse" at 
 Drury Lane Theatre. 
 
l8l2] COLERIDGE. 217 
 
 would immediately peruse the Work enclosed to 
 me and write or call on Mr. Owen. 
 
 Excepting Tuesday, any day convenient to 
 yourself and Mr. Owen, Mr. Morgan and myself 
 will be happy to dine with you, only be so good as 
 to let me know it a day or two before. 
 
 You have heard that my Play is in rehearsal. 
 I find the alterations and alterations rather a 
 tedious business ; and I am sure, could compose 
 a new Act more easily and in shorter time, than 
 add a single speech of ten lines. The Managers 
 are more sanguine far than I am ; and the actors 
 and actresses, with the exception of Miss Smith, 
 are pleased and gratified with their parts. And 
 truly Miss Smith's* part is not appropriate to her 
 talents in kind at least. I am labouring with 
 much vexation and little success to make it better. 
 She was offered a part that would have suited her 
 admirably, but, I know not from what motives, 
 she refused it. 
 
 God bless you and your obliged and ever affec- 
 tionate, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * Miss Smith played the part of Donna Theresa in the 
 " Remorse." 
 
2l8 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC, l8l2 
 
 Will Wednesday next week be agreeable to 
 you ? 
 
 You remember that for many years a Courier 
 has been sent to Keswick as a compliment to 
 myself, Southey and Wordsworth, of which we 
 all of us feel the kindness. I have this moment 
 received a letter from Mrs. Coleridge with these 
 words : " N.B. We observe a different name in 
 The Courier. Are you sure that the new proprietor 
 knows upon what terms ? Should you not ascer- 
 tain this lest it should be charged hereafter ? I 
 am very anxious." Be so good as to let me know 
 whether Mrs. C's. anxiety has any foundation ? 
 Poor woman ! she is sadly out of heart in conse- 
 quence of Mr. Josiah Wedgewood having with- 
 drawn his share of the annuity settled on 
 me. . . .* I feel my mind rather lightened, and 
 am glad that I can now enjoy the sensation 
 of sincere gratitude towards him for the past, 
 and most unfeigned esteem and affection with- 
 out the weight that every year seemed to accu- 
 mulate upon it. 
 
 * In 1811. 
 
lSl3] COLERIDGE. 
 
 Letter 64. 
 
 25 September, 1813* 
 Dear Stuart,— I forgot to ask you by what 
 address a letter would best reach you ? Whether 
 Kilburn House, Kilburn ? I shall therefore send 
 it, or leave it at The Courier Office. I found 
 Southey * so chevaux-de-frized and pallisadoed by 
 pre -engagements that I could not reach at him 
 till Sunday sennight, i.e., Sunday, October 3, 
 when if convenient we should be happy to wait 
 on you. Southey will be in town till Monday 
 evening and you have his brother's address, 
 should you wish to write to him (Dr« 
 Southey, 28, Little Queen Ann Street, Caven- 
 dish Square), t 
 
 A curious SS. in the M. C. of this morning, 
 asserting with its usual comfortable anti-patriotism, 
 the determination of the Emperor of Austria to 
 persevere in the terms I offered to his son-in-law 
 
 * Coleridge and Southey met more than once during the month 
 of September, 1813. 
 
 t Dr. Southey and Mr, Stuart were afterwards neighbours irt 
 Harley Street. A close intimacy and lifelong friendship arose 
 between the two families. 
 
 \ Treaty of Vienna, October 9, 1809. 
 
220 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT., 1813 
 
 in his frenzy of power even though he should be 
 beaten to the dust. Methinks there ought to be 
 good authority before a JournaHst dares prophesy 
 folly and knavery in union of our Imperial Ally. 
 An excellent Article ought to be written on this 
 subject. In the same paper there is, what I 
 should have called a masterly Essay on the causes 
 of the downfall of the Comic Drama, if I was not 
 perplexed by the distinct recollection of having 
 conversed the greater part of it at Lamb's. I wish 
 you would read it, and tell me what you think ; 
 for I seem to remember a conversation with you 
 in which you asserted the very contrary ; that 
 comic genius was the thing wanting, and not 
 comic subjects — that the watering places, or rather 
 the characters presented at them, had never been 
 adequately managed, &c. 
 
 Might I request you to present my best respects 
 to Mrs. Stuart as those of an old acquaintance of 
 yours, and as far as I am myself conscious of, 
 at all times with hearty affection. — Your sincere 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 25 September, 18 13. 
 
 P.S. — There are some half dozen more books 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 221 
 
 of mine left at The Courier Office, Ben Jonson 
 and sundry German volumes. As I am compelled 
 to sell my library, you would oblige me by order- 
 ing the Porter to take them to 19, London Street, 
 Fitzroy Square ; whom I will remunerate for his 
 trouble. I should not take this liberty, but that 
 I had in vain written to Mr. Street requesting 
 the same favour, which in his hurry of business, I 
 do not wonder that he forgot. 
 
 Letter 65. 
 
 Mr. Smith's, Ashley, Box, near Bath, 
 12 Sep., 1814. 
 My dear Sir, — I wrote some time ago to Mr. 
 Street, earnestly requesting your address, and 
 entreating him to inform you of the dreadful 
 state in which I was, when your kind letter must 
 have arrived, during your stay at Bath. . . . But 
 let me not complain. I ought to be and I trust I 
 am, grateful for what I am, having escaped with 
 my intellectual powers, if less elastic, yet not less 
 vigorous, and with ampler and far more solid 
 
222 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 materials to exert them on. We know nothing 
 even of ourselves, till wq know ourselves to be as 
 nothing ! (a solemn truth, spite of point and 
 antithesis in which the thought has chanced to 
 word itself). From this word of truth which the 
 
 sore discipline of a sick bed has compacted 
 
 into an indwelling reality, from this article, 
 formerly, of speculative belief, but which [circum- 
 stances] have actualized into practical faith, I have 
 learned to counteract calumny by self reproach, 
 and not only to rejoice (as indeed from natural 
 disposition, from the very constitution of my 
 heart, I should have done at all periods of my 
 life) at the temporal prosperity, and increased and 
 increasing reputation of my old fellow labourers 
 in philosophical, political, and poetical literature, 
 but to bear their neglect, and even their de- 
 traction, as if I had done nothing at all, when it 
 would have asked no very violent strain of recol- 
 lection for one or two of them to have considered, 
 whether some part of their most successful some- 
 things, were not among the nothings of my in- 
 tellectual no-doings. But all strange things are 
 less strane:e than the sense of intellectual obli- 
 
1814] COLERIDGE, 223 
 
 gations. Seldom do I ever see a Review, yet 
 almost as often as that seldomness permits have 
 I smiled at finding myself attacked in strains of 
 thought which would never have occurred to the 
 writer, had he not directly or indirectly learned 
 them from myself. This is among the salutary 
 effects, even of the dawn of actual religion on the 
 mind, that we begin to reflect on our duties to 
 God and to ourselves as permanent beings, and 
 not to flatter ourselves by a superficial auditing 
 of our negative duties to our neighbours, or mere 
 acts in transitu to the transitory, I have too sad 
 an account to settle between myself that is and 
 has been, and myself that can not cease to be to 
 allow me a single complaint that, for all my 
 labours in behalf of truth against the Jacobin 
 party, then against military despotism abroad, 
 against weakness and despondency and faction 
 and factious goodiness at home, I have never 
 received from those in power even a verbal ac- 
 knowledgment ; though by mere reference to 
 dates, it might be proved that no small number 
 of fine speeches in the House of Commons, and 
 elsewhere, originated, directly or indirectly, in my 
 
224 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 Essays and conversations." I dare assert, that 
 the science of reasoning and judging concerning 
 the productions of literature, the characters and 
 measures of pubHc men, and the events of nations, 
 by a systematic subsumption of them, under 
 Principles, deduced from the nature of man, 
 and that of prophesying concerning the future 
 (in contradiction to the hopes or fears of the 
 majority) by a careful cross-examination of some 
 period, the most analogous in past history, as 
 learnt from contemporary authorities, and the 
 proportioning of the ultimate event to the like- 
 nesses as modified or counteracted by the differ- 
 ences, was as good as unknown in the public 
 prints, before the year 1795-96. Earl Darnley, 
 on the appearance of my letters in The Courier 
 concerning the Spaniards, bluntly asked me, 
 whether I had " lost my senses," and quoted Lord 
 Grenville at me. If you should happen to cast 
 your eye over my character of Pitt ; my two 
 
 * Cf. Allison's " Europe," vol. ix. p. 3 (ninth edition). The 
 thoughts of Coleridge, even during the whirl of passing events, 
 discovered their hidden springs, and poured forth, in an obscure 
 style, and to an unheeding age, the great moral truths which were 
 then being proclaimed in characters of fire to mankind. 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 225 
 
 letters to Fox ; my Essays on the French Empire 
 under Buonaparte, compared with the Roman, 
 under the first Emperors ; that on the probabihty 
 of the restoration of the Bourbons ; and those on 
 Ireland, and Catholic Emancipation (which last 
 unfortunately remain for the greater part in 
 manuscript, Mr. Street not relishing them) and 
 should add to them my Essays in " The Friend " 
 on Taxation, and the supposed effects of war on 
 our commercial prosperity; those on international 
 law in defence of our siege of Copenhagen ; and 
 if you had before you the long letter which I 
 wrote to Sir G. Beaumont in 1806, concerning 
 the inevitableness of a war with America, and the 
 specific dangers of that war, if not provided 
 against by specific pre-arrangements ; with a list 
 of their Frigates, so called ; with their size, 
 number, and weight of metal, the characters of 
 their commanders and the proportion suspected 
 of British seamen — (I have luckily a copy of it, a 
 rare accident with me) — I dare amuse myself, I 
 say, with the belief, that by far the better half of 
 all these, would read to you now, as history. 
 And what have I got for all this ? What for 
 
 16 
 
226 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 my first daring to blow the trumpet of sound 
 philosophy against the Lancastrian faction ? * The 
 answer is not complex. Unthanked, and left 
 worse than defenceless, by the friends of the 
 Government and the Establishment, to be under- 
 mined or outraged by all the malice, hatred, and 
 calumny of its enemies ; and to think and toil, 
 with a patent for all the abuse, and a transfer 
 to others of all the honours. In the Quarterly 
 Review of the " Remorse " (delayed till it could 
 by no possibility be of the least service to me, 
 and the compliments in which are as senseless 
 and silly as the censures — every fault ascribed to 
 it, being either no improbability at all, or from 
 the very essence and end of the drama no 
 DRAMATIC improbability, without noticing any 
 one of the real faults, and there are many 
 glaring, and one or two deadly sins in the 
 tragedy) — in this Review, I am abused, and in- 
 solently reproved as a man, with reference to my 
 supposed private habits, for not publishing. 
 
 * In one of the lectures delivered at the Royal Institution in May, 
 1808, Coleridge criticised the Lancastrian system of education, and 
 attacked the founder, Joseph Lancaster, by name. 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 227 
 
 Would to heaven I never had ! To this very 
 moment I am embarrassed and tormented, in 
 consequence of the non-payment of the subscribers 
 to " The Friend.'" But I could rebut the charge ; 
 and not merely say, but prove, that there is not 
 a man in England, whose thoughts, images, 
 v^ords, and erudition have been published in 
 larger quantities than mine — though I must 
 admit, not hy, or for, myself. Believe me, if I 
 felt any pain from these things, I should not 
 make this expose, for it is constitutional with me, 
 to shrink from all talk or communication of what 
 gnaws within me. And, if I felt any real anger, 
 I should not do what I fully intend to do, publish 
 two long satires, in Drydenic verse, entitled 
 " Puff and Slander." But I seem to myself to 
 have endured the hootings and peltings, and " Go 
 up bald head " (2 Kings ch. ii. vers. 23, 24) quite 
 long enough, and shall therefore send forth my 
 two she-bears, to tear in pieces the most ob- 
 noxious of these ragged children in intellect, 
 and to scare the rest of these mischievous little 
 mud-larks back to their crevice-nests, and 
 lurking holes. While those who know me best, 
 
2.28 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 spite of my many infirmities, love me best, I am 
 determined, henceforward, to treat my unprovoked 
 enemies in the spirit of the Tiberian adage, 
 Oderint modo timeant. 
 
 And now, having for the very first time in my 
 whole life, opened out my whole feelings and 
 thoughts concerning my past fates and fortunes, 
 I will draw anew on your patience, by a detail 
 of my present operations. My medical friend is 
 so well satisfied of my convalescence, and that 
 nothing now remains, but to superinduce positive. 
 health on a system from which disease and its 
 removable causes have been driven out, that he 
 has not merely consented to, but advised my 
 leaving Bristol, for some rural retirement. I 
 could indeed pursue nothing uninterruptedly in 
 that city. Accordingly, I am now joint tenant 
 with Mr. Morgan, of a sweet little cottage, at 
 Ashley, half a mile from Box, on the Bath road. 
 I breakfast every morning before nine, work till 
 one, and walk or read till three. Thence, till 
 tea-time, chat or read some lounge book, or 
 correct what I have written. From six to eight 
 work again ; from eight till bed time, play whist. 
 
l8l4J COLERIDGE. 
 
 229 
 
 or the little mock billiard, called bagatelle, and 
 then sup, and go to bed. My morning hours, 
 as the longest and most important division, I 
 keep sacred to my most important Work, which 
 is printing at Bristol ; two of my friends having 
 taken upon themselves the risk. It is so long 
 since I have conversed with you, that I cannot 
 say, whether the subject will, or will not be 
 interesting to you. The title is " Christianity, 
 the one true Philosophy ; or. Five Treatises on 
 the Logos, or Communicative Intelligence, natu- 
 ral, human, and divine." To which is prefixed 
 a prefatory Essay, on the laws and limits of 
 toleration and liberality, illustrated by fragments 
 of AUTO-biography. The first Treatise — Logos 
 Propaideuticos, or the Science of systematic 
 thinking in ordinary life. The second — Logos 
 Architectonicus, or an attempt to apply the con- 
 structive or Mathematical process to Metaphysics 
 and Natural Theology. The third — 'O A6jo<i 
 6 dedvOpcoTTo^ (the divine logos incarnate) — a 
 full commentary on the Gospel of St. John, in 
 developement of St. Paul's doctrine of preaching 
 Christ alone, and Him crucified. The fourth — ■ 
 
230 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [sEPT. 
 
 on Spinoza and Spinozism, with a life of B. 
 Spinoza — this entitled Logos Agonistes. The 
 fifth and last — Logos Alogos {i.e., Logos Illo- 
 gicus) or on modern Unitarianism, its causes 
 and effects. The whole will be comprised in 
 two portly octavos, and the second treatise will 
 be the only one which will, and from the nature 
 of the subject, must be unintelligible to the great 
 majority even of well educated readers. The 
 purpose of the whole is a philosophical defence 
 of the Articles of the Church, as far as they 
 respect doctrine, as points of faith. If origi- 
 nality be any merit, this Work will have 
 that, at all events from the first page to the 
 last. 
 
 The evenings I have employed in composing 
 a series of Essays on the principles of Genial 
 Criticism concerning the fine Arts, especially 
 those of Statuary and Painting ; and of these 
 four in title, but six or more in size have been 
 published in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal* — a 
 strange plan for such a publication — but my 
 
 * The appearance of these Essays was announced in The Bristol 
 Journal, August 6, 1814. 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 23I 
 
 J 
 
 motive was originally to serve poor Allston,* 
 who is now exhibiting his pictures at Bristol. 
 Oh ! dear sir ! do pray if you have the power 
 or opportunity use your influence with " The 
 Sun " not to continue that accursed system of y 
 calumny and detraction against Allston, The 
 Articles by whomever written were a disgrace 
 to human nature, and to my positive knowledge 
 argued only less ignorance than malignity. Mr. 
 Allston has been cruelly used. Good God ! what 
 did I not hear Sir George Beaumont say, with 
 my own ears ! Nay, he wrote to me after re- 
 peated examination of Allston's great picture, 
 declaring himself a complete convert to all my 
 opinions of Allston's paramount genius as a 
 historical painter. What did I not hear Mr. 
 West say ? After a full hour's examination of 
 the picture, he pointed out one thing he thought 
 out of harmony (and which against my earnest 
 desire Allston altered and had reason to re- 
 pent sorely) and then said, " I have shot my 
 
 * Washington Allston's portrait of Coleridge in the National I 
 Portrait Gallery was painted at Bristol, 1814. Coleridge had made I 
 Allston's acquaintance in Rome in 1806. \ 
 
232 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 bolt. It is as near perfection as a picture can 
 be ! " . . . 
 
 But to return to my Essays. I shall publish 
 no more in Bristol. What they could do, they 
 have done. But I have carefully corrected and 
 polished those already published, and shall carry 
 them on to sixteen or twenty, containing ani- 
 mated descriptions of all the best pictures of 
 the great masters in England, with charac- 
 teristics of the great masters from Giotto to 
 Coreggio. The first three Essays were of neces- 
 sity more austere ; for till it could be determined 
 what beauty was, whether it was beauty merely 
 because it pleased, or pleased because it was 
 beauty, it would have been as absurd to talk of 
 general principles of taste, as of tastes. Now 
 will this series, purified from all accidental, local 
 or personal references, tint or serve The Courier 
 in the present dearth ? I have no hesitation in 
 declaring them the best compositions I have ever 
 written. I could regularly supply two Essays a 
 week, and one political Essay. Be so good as to 
 speak to Mr. Street. I could send him up eight 
 or ten at once. 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 233 
 
 Make my best respects to Mrs. Stuart. I shall 
 be very anxious to hear from you. — Your affec- 
 tionate and grateful friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 66. 
 
 Post-mark, " Bath." 
 
 i6 October, 1814. 
 Dear Stuart, — I thank you for your very kind 
 letters, the latter of which I should have felt as 
 too flattering, from almost any one but yourself. 
 But, as I have a hundred times myself said of 
 you, that I was never in your company in my life, 
 for an hour together, in which I did not acquire 
 some rememberable instruction of more or less 
 value, and all of that kind which I most wanted, 
 and which was most useful to me ; and added, 
 that I could assert the same of no other man, it 
 would be unreasonable indeed to expect, that I 
 myself, should be deemed sincere to the very 
 syllable, and yet entertain the least doubt of the 
 sincerity of the praise, high as it is, in a letter of 
 
234 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 yours ; who, thank God ! in all the changes and 
 contrasts of your fortune, have preserved that best 
 of the products of sound good sense, simplicity 
 of language, manners, and character. Now I must 
 tell you what has prevented my answering them. 
 I happened to walk with the Morgans to Corsham 
 House," P. Methuen's, Esq.,t the father of the 
 M.P., to see the famous, or rather far-famed 
 collection of pictures. It was not the showing 
 day, but I sent in my name, as one not regularly 
 resident in the neighbourhood ; and was not only 
 admitted, but a servant begged to know, whether 
 I was the Mr. Coleridge, the great Author. You 
 may suppose my answer, and given as gravely 
 as possible. I was received with every possible 
 attention by the family, who sent off the servant, 
 and accompanied me through the rooms, and 
 afterwards engaged me to spend a few days at 
 Corsham House, which I did. At the Races, 
 the Marquis of Lansdowne expressed to them 
 a wish to meet me. I accordingly went again, 
 
 * Ashley Green lies between Bath and Corsham. 
 t Paul Cobb Methuen, sometime M.P. for Great Bedwin, father 
 of Paul Methuen, member for Wilts, afterwards Lord Methuen. 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 235 
 
 met the Marquis, and rather suppose that he 
 was not displeased with me, for he invited me 
 home to Bowood.* I went, and was pressed to 
 stay for a week, or more, which I could not do, 
 for various reasons ; but he left me with assu- 
 rances that he would find me out, either at 
 Ashley, or at Bremhill, at Mr. Bowles's. 
 
 This has been the sole cause, why I have 
 delayed likewise my third letter, which I send 
 off with this. I hope it does not fall off; indeed, 
 I think it does not. I requested Mr. Street to be 
 so good as to send me The Courier, during the 
 time I was writing for it, at least those that 
 contained my own Essays, but I have seen 
 neither of them in print. Will you be so good 
 as to speak to Mr. Street ? They should be 
 directed, Mr. B. Morgan, Chemist, Bridge Street, 
 Bath, but letters to me, Ashley Cottage, Box, 
 Bath. He may depend upon having the 4th 
 and 5th, in the course of this week ; and, till 
 the Paper fill again with Parliament Reports, I 
 doubt not I shall be able to give The Courier 
 
 * Eowood and Bremhill are in the neighbourhood of Calne. 
 
236 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 one political, and one critical Essay weekly, after 
 I have finished the Fletcher letters,* which (if 
 Mr. Street should choose) I should carry on into 
 a full and fair view of the whole relations of 
 Ireland to Great Britain including the Catholic 
 Question. Should it be convenient to you to 
 send me as soon as possible a few pounds, I 
 should be served by them especially, for the 
 bookseller has treated me in a strange way 
 about a translation, of Goethe's Faust. But it 
 is not worth mentioning except that I employed 
 some weeks unprofitably, when it was of more 
 than usual necessity that I should have done 
 otherwise. 
 
 My very best respects to Mrs. Stuart and 
 believe me, my dear Stuart, with unfeigned 
 esteem and affectionate regard, your obliged 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * Eight Letters to Judge Fletcher, on the Irish Question, under 
 the signature of "An Irish Protestant," appeared in The Courier 
 at irregular intervals during the months of September, October, 
 November, December, 1814. (" Essays on His Own Times," vol. 
 iii. pp. 678-748.) 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 237 
 
 Letter 67. 
 
 "Posted Bath, November 23, 1814." 
 
 Ashley, Box, Bath, Wednesday. 
 My dear Stuart, — Monday after next I expect, 
 as far as so perplexed a being dare expect any- 
 thing, to remove to Calne, Wilts, at a Mr. 
 Page's, Surgeon. I suppose that the press of 
 parliamentary and American matter, has pre- 
 vented the insertion of my communications ; for 
 if there had been anything offensive in them, I 
 should have heard from Mr. Street. My next 
 will conclude, making up eight distinct letters, 
 and I almost confide that you will like the last 
 better than any but the second. One of them 
 sent off by Morgan, from an imperfect copy, 
 while I was at Bowood, by mistake (for I had 
 myself rewritten the letter, and left a Press 
 copy) was, either from this cause, or from the 
 carelessness of the compositors, so misprinted, as 
 to be scarcely intelligible. I mean the letter, in 
 which the Bible Society is introduced. I had 
 greatly softened it, and in every respect amended 
 
238 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [NOV. 
 
 the style. It was in truth merely ray first rude 
 sketch. 
 
 The question on the state of Ireland and its 
 causes, involving the Catholic Question, I have 
 thought would be better treated in a separate 
 series. I have been, I may truly say, indefatig- 
 able, in collecting information from men, as well 
 as from books; and my object would be, to pro- 
 duce such a work, as would compel even an 
 Emancipator, if a man of an enlightened mind 
 to admit, that I had not omitted, or weakened 
 any one argument, that could be adduced on 
 either side with any show of reason. The 
 more however I think, the more tmsceptical my 
 dread of what is called a Catholic Emancipation 
 becomes. 
 
 I have now, to request your kind advice ; first 
 of all acknowledging the receipt of ten pounds, 
 which I was authorized by you to draw for. The 
 eight letters, of which Mr. S. has the 5th and 
 6th, would form a pamphlet of about a hundred 
 pages with the Notes, which I should add in the 
 Appendix, and the insertions made in the correc- 
 tion of the whole. Now, would you think it 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 239 
 
 ist advisable to republish them ? And, 2nd, do 
 you think that Ridgeway, or any other, would 
 reprint them on any terms, that would be likely 
 to be of any pecuniary advantage to me ? or, by 
 giving me so much for the copyright, if such a 
 bargain could be made — which I should prefer, 
 though it should be only ^^20 or ^^30 ; or by 
 taking the risk of an edition, and giving me a 
 portion of the profits ? At the same time you 
 would oblige me by asking, whether a collection 
 of political Essays on the most important political 
 subjects from 1795 to the present date, partly 
 selected from my contributions to the M. Post 
 and Courier, and partly MSS., including the 
 characters of Pitt, Wyndham, Burke, Fox and 
 Buonaparte, would be purchased. With excep- 
 tion of my letters to Fox, which I have not been 
 able to procure, I have them all, ready prepared 
 for the Press. 
 
 Since I have received The Courier, I have sub- 
 mitted to the painful and disgusting task, of 
 reading the Qicarierly and Edinburgh Reviews 
 for the last year, and every day have noted 
 down short observations, but more especially on 
 
240 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [NOV. 
 
 America and the American War — concerning 
 which I wish I could converse with you. 
 
 I have seen many witty, and some very just 
 observations, but I have not yet met with any 
 work which appears to me, to have done any- 
 thing hke common justice to the subject. In 
 order to understand the subject, as a truly great 
 statesman ought to understand it, we ought, first 
 to consider the Colonial character in genere ; then 
 the Colonial character, as modified by the cir- 
 cumstances of English ancestry, laws, language, 
 &c., with the influencing accidents of the different 
 migrations which peopled it ; and these again, as 
 modified, and variously differenced, by the vast 
 extent of the country from N. to S., and the 
 indefinite extensibility of the same, &c., &c. 
 Then the causes and errors that produced the 
 Colonial War, and its event ; the effects of that 
 War and that event on the character. Then the 
 influence of the times, the philosophist times of 
 Franklin and the French Economists ; the effect 
 of these effects on their constitution, indiscriminate 
 admission of citizens, &c. ; in short, all that 
 follows, from a Colony becoming an independent 
 
1814] COLERIDGE. 
 
 241 
 
 nation, a century too early, before it had either a 
 gentry, or a learned class. Finally, the events of 
 the revolutionary War and of increasing com- 
 mercial cupidity, and envy, &c. All those, and 
 many more ought to be distinctly comprehended, 
 before a Statesman can become a prophet; and 
 yet, without the power of prophecy, he is as little 
 a Statesman, as without that power, an Astronomer 
 could be truly called, an Astronomer. But really, 
 I cannot for my life, make out from The Courier, 
 what Mr. Street is aiming at ; though I see, 
 clearly enough, and God knows, with as much 
 sorrow as I have to spare, that the Ministers are 
 deplorably deficient in parliamentary talent, and 
 I fear not overflowing in any other. 
 
 I do not know whether you will think me an 
 unabashed mendicant, if, at the receipt of your 
 last letter I should request the farther loan of a 
 j^io. I call it loan because if this and the former 
 are more than the eight letters are worth to you, 
 it must be repaid by following Articles. 
 
 Oh ! God ! It is very easy to say. Why does 
 not Coleridge do this work and that work ? I 
 declare to God, there is nothing I would not do, 
 
 17 
 
242 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 consistent with my conscience, which was regular 
 labour for a regular revenue. But to write such 
 poetry or such philosophy as I would wish to 
 write, or not to write at all, cannot be done amid 
 distraction and anxiety for the day. — May God 
 bless you and your obliged, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 68. 
 
 Calne, Wiltshire, October 7, 18 15. 
 My dear Sir, — Unwisely perhaps I mentioned 
 
 to and some others connected with the two 
 
 theatres, my intention and plans for preparing for 
 the Stage three Plays. The one Richard II. into 
 which I had intended to have introduced a female 
 character, and to have attempted the giving a 
 theatrical interest to a play, which for the closet, is 
 already among the most perfect of Shakespeare's. 
 The second, Beaumont and Fletcher's Pilgrim 
 almost wholly re-written, and the scene placed in 
 Ireland, under the name of Love's Metamorphoses. 
 The third, of the success of which I had the 
 greatest hopes, and which I described most at 
 large with its peculiar temporary advantages was 
 the Beggars Bush of B. and F, It is assuredly 
 
l8l5] COLERIDGE. 243 
 
 an odd coincidence, if it be mere coincidence, that 
 these three, the only ones I ever mentioned or 
 thought of, should be, two of them, brought out, 
 with what success I know not, and the third 
 spoken of in the newspapers as about to be 
 brought out. Things irremediable, I make a point 
 not to complain of, but as for this latter Play, 
 I have made great progress with [it], so that I 
 could completely fit it for the Stage in a fortnight. 
 I have taken little more than the outline of the 
 plot, and not more than the half of the characters, 
 and of the language and speeches more than half 
 are completely original, and I had purposely given 
 a prominence to one character (and the want of a 
 prominent character is one grievous defect both of 
 this and some others of Beaumont and Fletcher's 
 best plays) with a view to Mrs. Kean, Now you, 
 my dear Sir, may probably have some means of 
 learning whether all application on my part has 
 been rendered useless by the full acceptance of a 
 Play at Drury Lane; or whether it is only a 
 scheme of simple revival, with no other alteration 
 but omissions. (If so I could almost venture to 
 foretell its failure.) If the latter, I have certainly 
 
244 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 some little claim from my having mentioned my 
 
 design and received encouragement, so far at 
 
 least as that the pre-existence of the plot in an 
 older dramatist w^ould be no objection. 
 
 I have sent to the Printer at Bristol (Mr. Gutch * 
 an old school-fellow) two volumes,! the first, Bio- 
 graphical Sketches of my literary life and opinions 
 (with the principles on which they are grounded 
 and the arguments by which they were deduced) 
 in politics, religion, philosophy, and poetry— the 
 latter in the hope of settling the controversy on 
 the nature of poetic diction. I fear that my 
 reasonings may not please Wordsworth ; but I am 
 convinced that the detection of the faults in his 
 poetry is indispensable, to a rational appreciation 
 of his merits. The second volume entitled 
 
 * John Matthew Gutch. His brother Robert was a Grecian 
 at Christ's Hospital. 
 p t These two volumes were afterwards enlarged to three, and 
 ' published in 1817 by Rest Fenner. The first volume, and the 
 second to page 144, of the " Biographia Literaria " was printed 
 by Gutch ; the latter part of the second by S. Curtis, of Camber- 
 well, for Rest Fenner. The single volume of the Sibylline 
 Leaves (vol. ii. is printed on page i of the first edition) was printed 
 by John Evans, of Bristol, for Gutch. The latter half of vol. ii. of 
 the "B. L." was added in 1817, and has little or no connection 
 with the original work, 
 
1815] COLERIDGE. 245 
 
 Sibylline Leaves, contains all the Poems I think 
 worthy of pubhcation (exclusive of those in my 
 " Poems " published in 1794),* about one third 
 or little more from MSS., and all corrected and 
 finished to the best of my power. For the last four 
 months, I have never worked less than six hours 
 every day — namely, from ten to four ; and more I 
 cannot do, if I am to have any time for reading and 
 reflection, which I do not include in the six hours. 
 I am now at work on a Tragedy and a dramatic 
 entertainment one half of my time ; and the other 
 half, I give to the Work on which I would wish 
 to ground my reputation with posterity, if I should 
 have any — a Work, for which I have been col- 
 lecting the materials for the last fifteen years 
 almost incessantly. Its Title will be Logosophia, 
 or on the Logos, human and divine, in six Treatises. 
 ThQ first, a philosophic compendium of the history 
 of philosophy,! from Pythagoras to the present 
 day, with miscellaneous investigations on Tolera- 
 tion and the obstacles to just reasoning. (No such 
 * 1796. 
 
 t This material was utilized in a course of lectures on the History 
 of Philosophy, of which the first was delivered at the Crown and 
 Anchor, Strand, on Dec. 28, 1818. 
 
246 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [oCT. 
 
 Work exists, at least, in our language ; for Brucker 
 is a wilderness, in six huge Quartos, and he was 
 no philosopher, and Enfield's Abridgement * is 
 below criticism). The second, the science of con- 
 nected [reasoning] (with the history of Logic from 
 Aristotle to Condillac) free from [illegible] pedantry, 
 and applied to the purposes of real life — the Bar, 
 the Pulpit, the Senate, and rational conversation. 
 The third, the science of premises, or, transcen- 
 dental philosophy, i.e., the examination of the pre- 
 mises which, in ordinary and practical reasoning, 
 are taken for granted. (As the whole proceeds on 
 actual constructions in the mind, I might call 
 it Intellectual Geometry.) The fourth, a detailed 
 commentary on the Gospel of St. John, to which 
 the former is introductory — the object of both to 
 prove, that Christianity is true philosophy, and 
 of course, that all true philosophy is Christianity. 
 The fifth, on the Mystics and Pantheists, with 
 V the lives of Giordano Bruno, Jacob Behmen, 
 George Fox, and Benedict Spinoza; with an 
 analysis of their systems, &c. The sixth, on the 
 
 * William Enfield, a Nonconformist minister, published in 1791 
 an "Abridgement of Brucker' s History of Philosophy," two vols. 4to. 
 
1815] COLERIDGE. ^47 
 
 causes and consequences of Unitarianism. It 
 will comprise two large octavo volumes, six 
 hundred pages each. God knows, whether I shall 
 meet with patronage, to enable me to publish it. 
 I am most willing to work hard, and wish for 
 nothing more, than merely to be enabled to work. 
 But what can I do, if I am to starve while I am 
 working ! And I declare to God ! I see little 
 other prospect. Would to God, I had been bred 
 a shoemaker ! If twenty or thirty of those, who 
 think well of my powers, would agree to receive 
 my manuscripts, such as they themselves should 
 approve, and to allow me on the receipt such a 
 sum, as would simply enable me to live (the 
 money always posterior to the MSS. received), I 
 might be useful ; otherwise I must sink, for at 
 present there is nothing to do for the newspapers, 
 and since The Courier is so entirely devoted to the 
 Government for the time being, there is no Paper 
 in which I could write, without offence to my own 
 mind; in other words, there does not exist a single 
 London Paper conducted on determined principles, 
 or that would admit a series of articles conducted 
 on principles. No wonder ! Is it not even so, in 
 
248 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 the political world at large ? Who cares what 
 the men are, that are Ministers, provided only the 
 Grey and Grenville party are not ? I have tried 
 to negotiate with the booksellers, for a translation 
 of the Works of Cervantes (Don Quixote excluded) 
 and of Boccaccio, and Mr. Rogers promised to 
 use his influence, but all in vain. 
 
 Should you visit Bath this winter [I hope] you 
 will call on us, as you pass through Calne. My 
 health [continues] better than I have known it for 
 the last twelve years. My [respects] to Mrs. Stuart 
 and sincere good wishes for all who are dear [to 
 yoiC]. — Your obliged, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 69. 
 
 "Oc^. 30, 1815." 
 Dear Stuart, — After I had finished the third 
 letter, I thought it the best I had ever written; but, 
 on re-perusal, I perfectly agree with you. It is 
 misty, and like most misty compositions, laborious — 
 what the Italians call faticoso. I except the 
 two last paragraphs (" In this guise my Lord," to 
 — "aversabitur"). These I still like. Yet what 
 I wanted to say is very important ; because it 
 
1815] COLERIDGE. 249 
 
 strikes at the root of all legislative Jacobinism. 
 The view which our laws take of robbery, and even 
 murder, not as guilt of which God alone is pre- 
 sumed to be the Judge, but as crimes depriving the 
 King of one of his subjects, rendering dangerous 
 and abating the value of the King's Highways, 
 &c., may suggest some notion of my meaning. 
 Jack, Tom, and Harry, have no existence in the 
 eye of the law, except as included in some form 
 or other of the permanent property of the 
 realm. Just as, on the other hand, Religion has 
 nothing to do with Ranks, Estates, or Offices ; 
 but exerts itself wholly on what is personal, 
 viz., our souls, consciences, and the morality of 
 our actions, as opposed to mere legality. Ranks, 
 Estates, Offices, &c., were jnade for persons ! ex- 
 claims Major Cartwright and his partizans. Yes, 
 I reply, as far as the divine administration is 
 concerned, but human jurisprudence, wisely aware 
 of its own weakness, and sensible how incom- 
 mensurate its powers are with so vast an object 
 as the well-being of individuals, as individuals, 
 reverses the position, and knows nothing of per- 
 sons, other than as properties, officiaries, subjects. 
 
250 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [oCT. 
 
 The preambles of our old statutes concerning 
 Aliens (as foreign merchants) and Jews, are 
 all so many illustrations of my principle ; the 
 strongest instance of opposition to which, and 
 therefore characteristic of the present age, was 
 the attempt to legislate for animals, by Lord 
 Erskine;* i.e., not merely, interfering with persons 
 as persons ; or with what are called by moralists 
 the imperfect duties (a very obscure phrase for 
 obligations of conscience, not capable of being 
 realized {perfecta) by legal penalties) but ex- 
 tending PERSONALITY tO things. 
 
 In saying this, I mean only to designate the 
 general spirit of human law. Every principle, on 
 its application to practice, must be limited and 
 modified by circumstances ; our reason by our 
 common sense. Still, however, the principle is 
 most important, as aim, rule, and guide. Guided 
 by this spirit, our ancestors repealed the Puritan 
 
 * Lord Erskine's Bill for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals 
 was brought forward in the Plouse of Lords, May 15, 1809, and was 
 passed without a division. The Bill was read a second time in the 
 Plouse of Commons, but was rejected on going into Committee, the 
 opposition being led by Windham in a speech of considerable 
 ability (i^eis Windham's Speeches). By "imperfect duties" Coleridge 
 probably means " duties of imperfect obligation," 
 
1815] COLERIDGE. 25I 
 
 Law, by which adultery was to be punished with 
 death, and brought it back to a civil damage. So 
 too, actions for seduction. Not that the Judge or 
 Legislator did not feel the guilt Of such crimes, 
 but that the Law knows nothing about guilt. So 
 in the Exchequer ; common debts are sued for on 
 the plea, that the creditor is less able to pay our 
 Lord the King ; &c., &c. Now, contrast with 
 this, the preamble to the first French Constitu- 
 tion, and I think my meaning will become more 
 intelligible ; that the pretence of considering 
 persons not states, happiness not property, always 
 has ended, and always will end, in making a new 
 STATE, or corporation, infinitely more oppressive 
 than the former ; and in which the real freedom 
 of persons is as much less, as the things inter- 
 fered with are more numerous, and more minute. 
 Compare the duties, exacted from a United Irish- 
 man by the Confederacy, with those required of 
 him by the law of the land. This, I think, not 
 ill expressed, in the two last periods of the fourth 
 paragraph. " Thus in order to sacrifice . . . con- 
 federation." 
 
 Of course I immediately recognized your hand 
 
252 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [ocT. 
 
 in the Article concerning TA^ Edinburgh Review, 
 and much pleased I was with it ; and equally so 
 in finding, from your letter, that we had so com- 
 pletely coincided in' our feelings, concerning that 
 wicked Lord Nelson Article. If there be one 
 thing on earth that can outrage an honest man's 
 feelings, it is the assumption of austere morality, 
 for the purposes of personal slander. And the 
 gross ingratitude of the attack ! In the name of 
 ^ God, what have we to do with Lord Nelson's mis- 
 y tresses, or domestic quarrels ? Sir A. Ball him- 
 self, exemplary in this respect, told me of his own 
 personal knowledge Lady Nelson was enough to 
 drive any man wild. . . . She had no sympathy 
 with his acute sensibilities, and his alienation was 
 effected, though not shown, before he knew Lady 
 Hamilton, by being heart starved, still more than 
 by being teased and tormented by her sullenness. 
 Observe that Sir A. Ball detested Lady Hamilton. 
 To the same enthusiastic sensibilities which made 
 a fool of him with regard to his Emma, his 
 country owed the victories of the Nile, Copen- 
 hagen, and Trafalgar; and the heroic spirit of all 
 the officers reared under him. 
 
1815] COLERIDGE. 253 
 
 When I was at Bowood there was a plan sug- 
 gested between Bowles and myself, to engage 
 among the cleverest literary characters of our 
 knowledge, six or eight, each of whom was to 
 engage to take some one subject of those into 
 which The Edinburgh Review might be aptly 
 divided ; as Science, Classical Knowledge, Style, 
 Taste, Philosophy, Political Economy, Morals, 
 Religion and Patriotism : to state the number 
 of Essays he could write and the time at which 
 he would deliver each ; and so go through the 
 whole of the Review — to be published in the first 
 instance in The Courier during the Recess of Par- 
 liament. We thought of Southey, Wordsworth, 
 Crowe, Crabbe, Wollaston ;* and Bowles thought 
 he could answer for several single Articles from 
 persons of the highest rank in the Church and 
 our Universities. Such a plan, adequately exe- 
 cuted, seven or eight years ago, would have gone 
 near to blow up this Magazine of Mischief. 
 
 As to Ridgeway and the Essays, I have not 
 only no objection to my name being given, but 
 
 * William Hyde Wollaston, chemist, President of the Royal 
 Society, 1820. 
 
254 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT., 1815 
 
 I should prefer it. I have just as much right to 
 call myself dramatically an Irish Protestant, when 
 writing in the character of one as Swift to call 
 himself a draper. I have waded through as mis- 
 chievous a Work, as two huge quartos very dull, 
 can be ... . called an Account of Ireland. Of 
 all scribblers these agricultural quarto mongers 
 are the vilest. I thought of making the affairs 
 of Ireland, in tofo, chiefly however with reference 
 to the Catholic Question, a new series, and of 
 re-publishing in the Appendix to the eight letters 
 to Mr. Justice Fletcher, Lord Clare's (then Chan- 
 cellor Fit^gibbon's) admirable speech, worthy of 
 Demosthenes, of which a copy was brought me over 
 from Dublin by Rickman, and given to Lamb. It 
 was never printed in England, nor is it to be pro- 
 cured. I never met with a person who had heard 
 of it. Except that one main point is omitted (and 
 it is remarkable that the poet Edmund Spencer 
 in his dialogue on Ireland is the only writer who 
 has urged this point) viz., the forcing upon 
 savages the laws of a comparatively civilized 
 people, instead of adopting measures gradually 
 to render them susceptible of those laws, this 
 
l8l6j COLERIDGE. 255 
 
 speech might be deservedly called the philosophy 
 of the past and present history of Ireland. It 
 makes me smile to observe, how all the mediocre 
 men exult in a Ministry that have been so success- 
 ful without any overpowering talent of eloquence, 
 &c. It is true that a series of gigantic events like 
 those of the last eighteen months, will lift up any 
 cock-boat to the skies upon their billows ; but no 
 less true that sooner or later parliamentary talent 
 will be found absolutely requisite for an Enghsh 
 
 Ministry. ... 
 
 [Politics.] 
 
 My best respects to Mrs. Stuart. Do you think 
 of spending any time at Bath this winter ? With 
 sincere regard and esteem your obliged, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Please tell Mr. Street that J. J. Morgan will 
 draw for the £20. 
 
 Letter 70.* 
 
 Wednesday, 8th May, 1816. 
 James GilUnan's, Esq., Surgeon, Highgate. 
 My dear Stuart, — Since you left me I have 
 
 * This Letter appeared in T/te Gentlema^i' s Magazine, June, 1838. 
 
256 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 been reflecting a great deal on the subject of the 
 CathoHc Question, and somewhat on The Courier 
 in general. With all my weight of faults (and 
 no one is less likely to underrate them than 
 myself) a tendency to be influenced by selfish 
 motives in my friendships, or even in the cultiva- 
 tion of my acquaintances will not I am sure, be 
 hy you placed among them. When we first knew 
 each other, it was perhaps the most interesting 
 period of both our lives, at the very turn of the 
 flood ; and I can never cease to reflect with 
 affectionate delight on the steadiness and inde- 
 pendence of your conduct and principles ; and 
 how for so many years, with little assistance from 
 others, and with one main guide, a sympathizing 
 tact for the real sense, feeling and impulses of 
 the respectable part of the English nation, you 
 went on so auspiciously, and likewise so effec- 
 tively. It is far, very far, from being a hyperbole 
 to affirm, that you did more against the French 
 scheme of Continental domination, than the Duke 
 of Wellington has done ; or rather Wellington 
 could neither have been supplied by the Ministers, 
 nor the Ministers supported by the Nation, but 
 
l8l6j COLERIDGE. 257 
 
 for the tone first given, and then constantly kept 
 up, by the plain, un-ministerial, anti-opposition, 
 anti-jacobin, anti-gallican, anti-napoleonic spirit 
 of your writings, aided by the colloquial style 
 and evident good sense, in which as acting on 
 an immense mass of knowledge of existing men 
 and existing circumstances, you are superior to 
 any man I ever met with in my life time. Indeed 
 you are the only human being of whom I can 
 say, with severe truth, that I have never con- 
 versed with you for an hour, without rememberable 
 instruction. And with the same simplicity I dare 
 affirm my belief, that my greater knowledge of 
 man has been useful to you ; though from the 
 nature of things, not so useful, as your knowledge 
 of 7nen has been to me. Now with such convic- 
 tions, my dear Stuart how is it possible that I 
 can look back on the conduct of The Courier, from 
 the period of the Duke of York's restoration, 
 without some pain ? You cannot be seriously 
 offended or affronted with me, if in this deep 
 confidence, and in a letter which, or its contents 
 can meet no eye but your own, I venture to 
 declare that, though since then much has been 
 
 i8 
 
258 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 done, very much of high utility to the country by 
 and under Mr. Street, yet The Courier itself has 
 gradually lost that sanctifying spirit which was 
 the life of its life, and without which even the 
 best and soundest principles lose half their effect 
 on the human mind ; I mean, the faith in the 
 faitlt of the person or paper which brings them 
 forward. They are attributed to the accident of 
 their happening to be for such a side or such a 
 party. In short there is no longer any root in the 
 paper, out of which all the various branches and 
 fruits and even fluttering leaves are seen or 
 believed to grow. But it is the old tree barked 
 round above the root, though the circular decor- 
 tication is so small, and so neatly filled up and 
 coloured as to be scarcely visible but in its total 
 effects. Excellent fruits still at times hang on 
 the boughs, but they are tied on by threads 
 and hairs. 
 
 In all this I am well aware that you are no 
 otherwise to blame, than in permitting what, 
 without disturbance to your health and tran- 
 quility, you could not perhaps have prevented, 
 or effectively modified. But the whole plan of 
 
l8l6] COLERIDGE. 
 
 259 
 
 Street's, seems to me to have been motiveless 
 from the beginning, or at least affected by the 
 grossest miscalculations in respect even of pecu- 
 niary interest. For had the paper maintained 
 and asserted not only its independence but its 
 appearance of it, it is true that Mr. Street might 
 not have had Mr. Croker to dine with him, or 
 received as many nods or shakes of the hand 
 from Lord this, or that, but at least equally true, 
 that the Ministry would have been far more 
 effectually served, and that (I speak now from 
 facts) both paper and its conductor, would have 
 been held by the adherents of Ministers in far 
 higher respect. And after all. Ministers do not 
 love newspapers in their hearts, not even those 
 that support them. Indeed it seems epidemic 
 among Parliament men in general, to affect to 
 look down upon and to despise newspapers, to 
 which they owe y^V of their influence and cha- 
 racter — and at least fths of their knowledge and 
 phraseology. Enough ! Burn this letter and 
 forgive the writer, for the purity and affectionate- 
 ness of his motive. 
 
 With regard to the Catholic Question, if I 
 
26o LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 write I must be allowed to express the truth and 
 the whole truth concerning the impudent avowal 
 of Lord Castlereagh that it was not to be a 
 government question. On this condition I will 
 write immediately a Tract on the Question which 
 to the best of my knowledge will be about from 
 120 to 140 octavo pages, but so contrived that 
 Mr. Street may find no difficulty in dividing it 
 into ten or twenty Essays, or leading paragraphs. 
 In my scheme I have carefully excluded every 
 approximation to metaphysical reasoning, and 
 set aside every thought which cannot be brought 
 under one or the other of three heads : — i. Plain 
 evident sense. 2. Historical documental facts. 
 3. Existing circumstances, character, &c., of 
 Ireland in relation to Great Britain, and to its 
 own interests, and those of its various classes of 
 proprietors. I shall not deliver it till it is wholly 
 finished, and if you and Mr. Street think that 
 such a Work delivered entire will be worth £^0 
 to the paper, I will begin it immediately. Let 
 me either see or hear from you as soon as pos- 
 sible. Cannot Mr. Street send me some one or 
 other of the Daily Papers, without expense to 
 
l8l6] COLERIDGE. z6l 
 
 you, after he has done with them ? Kind respects 
 to Mrs. Stuart. — Your affectionate and obhged 
 fnend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 No^e by Mr. Stuart. — " I wrote a long letter in reply, 
 stating that as long as I actively interfered, the paper was 
 conducted on the independent principles alluded to by Cole- 
 ridge. That Street rarely, though sometimes disagreed from 
 me on public topics. But that in giving him advice, though 
 he usually attended to it, yet he so often mis-stated my 
 opinions that he did us mischief with the Ministers. I was 
 desirous of keeping on terms with the Ministers, and the 
 Paper had done so for several years. When we disagreed 
 from them, it was in the most friendly way ; and if we 
 thought one thing wrong, we placed forward two that were 
 right. But this course required great delicacy of manage- 
 ment. The slightest mistake spoiled the plan. These 
 mistakes Street fell into, and embarrassed himself with the 
 Ministers. I found it better therefore from the year 1810 
 or 181 1 to leave Street entirely to his own course, as I would 
 not take the trouble of conducting the paper. So it gradu- 
 ally slid into a mere ministerial journal, or instrument of the 
 Treasury, Street making it acquire the reputation even of 
 being official. This best served his purposes ; but from the 
 year 18 16 I resolved gradually to withdraw from the paper 
 altogether. The Paper acquired a high character for being 
 official, and became odious to the mob. To this effect I 
 wrote to Coleridge. — D.S." 
 
262 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 Letter 71. 
 
 J. Gillman's, Esq., Surgeon, Highgate. 
 
 Monday, 13 May, 1816. 
 Dear Stuart, — It is among the feeblenesses of our 
 nature, that we are often to a certain degree, acted 
 on by stories gravely asserted of which we yet do 
 most religiously disbelieve every syllable. Nay, 
 which perhaps we know to be false. The truth is 
 that images and thoughts possess a power in, and 
 of themselves, independent of that act of the 
 judgment or understanding by which we affirm or 
 deny the existence of a reality correspondent to 
 them. Such is the ordinary state of the mind in 
 dreams. It is not strictly accurate to say that we 
 believe our dreams to be actual while we are 
 dreaming. We neither believe it, nor disbelieve 
 it. With the Will the comparing power is sus- 
 pended, and without the comparing power, any 
 act of judgment, whether affirmation or denial, is 
 impossible. The forms and thoughts act merely 
 by their own inherent power, and the strong 
 feelings at times apparently connected with them, 
 are in point of fact, bodily sensations which are 
 
l8l6] COLERIDGE. 263 
 
 the causes or occasions of the images, not (as 
 when we are awake) the effects of them. Add to 
 this a voluntary lending of the Will to this sus- 
 pension of one of its own operations, {i.e., that of 
 comparison and consequent decision concerning 
 the reality of any sensuous impression) and you 
 have the true theory of stage illusion, equally 
 distant from the absurd notion of the French 
 critics, who ground their principles on the pre- 
 sumption of an absolute (delusion, and of Dr. 
 Johnson who would persuade us that our judg- 
 ments are as broad awake during the most 
 masterly representation of the deepest scenes of 
 Othello, as a philosopher would be during the 
 exhibition of a magic lanthorn with Punch and 
 Joan and Pull Devil, Pull Baker, &c., on its 
 painted slides. Now as extremes always meet, 
 this dogma of our dramatic critic and soporific 
 ironist, would lead by inevitable consequences, to 
 that very doctrine of the unities maintained by the 
 French Belle Lettrists, which it was the object of 
 his strangely over-rated, contradictory, and most 
 illogical preface to Shakespeare, to overthrow. 
 Thus, instead of troubling you with the idle 
 
264 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 assertions that have been most authoritatively 
 uttered, concerning your being under bond and 
 seal to the present Ministry, w^hich I know to be 
 (monosyllabically speaking) a lie, and which 
 formed I guess part of the impulse which occa- 
 sioned my last letter, I have given you a theory 
 which, as far as I know is new, and which I am 
 quite sure, is most important as the ground and 
 fundamental principle of all philosophic and of 
 all common-sense criticisms concerning the drama 
 and the theatre. 
 
 To put off however the Jack the Giant Killer 
 seven-leagued boots, with which I am apt to run 
 away from the main purpose of what I had to 
 write, I owe it to myself and the truth to observe, 
 that there was as much at least of partiality as of 
 grief and inculpation in my remarks on the spirit 
 of The Courier; and that with all its faults, I 
 prefer it greatly to any other paper, even without 
 reference to its being the best and most effective 
 vehicle of what I deem most necessary and urgent 
 truths. Be assured there was no occasion to let 
 me know, that with regard to the proposed dis- 
 quisition you were interested as a Patriot and a 
 
l8l6] COLERIDGE. 265 
 
 Protestant, not as a Proprietor of the particular 
 
 paper. Such too, Heaven knows, is my sole 
 
 object 1 for as to the money that it may be 
 
 thought worth according to the number and value 
 
 of the Essays, I regard it merely as enabling me 
 
 to devote a given portion of time and effort to this 
 
 subject, rather than to any one of the many others 
 
 by which I might procure the same remuneration. 
 
 From this hour I sit down to it tooth and nail, 
 
 and shall not turn to the left or right till I have 
 
 finished it. When I have reached the half-way 
 
 house I will transmit the MSS. to you, that I 
 
 may, without the necessity of dis- or re-arranging 
 
 the Work, be able to adopt any suggestions of 
 
 yours, whether they should be additive, alterative, 
 
 or emendative. One question only I have to 
 
 consult you concerning — viz., the form which 
 
 would be the most attractive of notice — simply 
 
 Essays ? or letters addressed to Lord Liverpool 
 
 for instance, on the supposition that he remains 
 
 firm to the Perceval principle on this blind, 
 
 blundering and feverous scheme ? 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gillman will be most happy to 
 see you to share in a family dinner, and spend the 
 
266 LETTERS OF LAKfi POETS. TmAR. 
 
 evening with us; and if you will come early, I can 
 show 5^ou some most delicious walks. You will 
 like Mr. Gillman. He is a man of strong, fervid 
 and agile intellect, with such a master passion for 
 truth, that his most abstracted verities assume a 
 character of veracity. And his wife, it will be 
 impossible not to respect, if a balance and harmony 
 of powers and qualities, unified and spiritualized 
 by a native feminine fineness of character, i^ender 
 womanhood amiable and respectable. In serious 
 truth I have much reason to be most grateful for 
 the choice and chance which has placed me under 
 their hospitable roof. I have no doubt that Mr. 
 Gillman as friend and as physician will succeed in 
 restoring me to my natural self. 
 
 My kind respects to Mrs. Stuart, I long to see 
 the little one. — Your obliged and sincere friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 72. 
 
 Coleridge to Street. 
 
 Posted March 22, 18 17. 
 My dear Sir, — I thank you for your handsome 
 
l8l7J COLERIDGE. 267 
 
 mention of me. The part from the Sermon * is 
 perhaps as well as any. I hope that the writer in 
 The Times meant to do me service ; but assuredly 
 to affirm that the second sermon was in the same 
 style and manner as the first, is not correct in any 
 sense of the words, and could not but tend to 
 circumscribe its purchasers. My first I never 
 dreamt, would be understood (except in fragments) 
 by the general reader ; but of the second, I can 
 scarcely discover any part or passage which would 
 compel any man of common education and infor- 
 mation, to read it a second time in order to under- 
 stand it. The very style is as different as the 
 same man's writings can be, where both works 
 are serious — the one is as plain as the other is 
 stately. And it was an odd whim to take a 
 garbled extract about the Socinians ! by the by 
 the only part of the sermon that might as well 
 have been elsewhere ; even as the page and note 
 on the difference between sameness and unity, is I 
 
 * " The Statesman's Manual ; or, The Bible the Best Guide to 
 Political Skill and Foresight. A Lay Sermon. Printed for Gale 
 and Fenner. 1816." "A Lay Sermon addressed to the Higher 
 and Middle Classes on the Existing Distresses and Discontent. 
 Printed for Gale and Fenner. 1817." 
 
268 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 believe the only one at all recondite, or with the 
 slightest pretence to profundity in the whole Work. 
 What injudicious advisers must not Southey 
 have had ! It vexes me to the quick. Never yet 
 did any human being gain anything by self- 
 desertion. . . . Southey should have rested his 
 defence on the time the Work [Wat Tyler]* was 
 written, both respecting himself and the events 
 that happened afterwards. With the exception 
 of one outrageously absurd and frantic passage 
 (p. 67) the thing contains nothing that I can find 
 that would not have been praised and thought 
 very right, forty years ago, at all the public schools 
 in England, had it been written by a lad in the 
 first form as a poem. For who in the Devil's 
 name, ever thought of reading poetry for any 
 political or practical purposes till these Devil's 
 times that we live in ? The publication of the 
 Work is the wicked thing. Briefly, my dear Sir, 
 
 * "Wat Tyler" was published by Daniel Isaac Eaton at the 
 instance of a dissenting minister named Winterbottom. Southey 
 applied to the Court of Chancery for an injunction to restrain the 
 publication, but was refused. " Self-desertion " probably alludes to 
 a letter addressed by Southey to The Courier (March 17, 1817). 
 Coleridge's articles in vindication of Southey against the attack of 
 Mr. W, Smith appeared in The Courier, March 17 and 18. 
 
1817] COLERIDGE. 269 
 
 every one is in the right to make the best he can 
 honourably of a bad business. But the truth is the 
 truth. The root of the evil is a public, and take 
 my word for it, this will wax more and more 
 prolific of inconveniences, that at length it will 
 scarcely be possible for the State to suffer any 
 truth to be published, because it will be certain to 
 convey dangerous falsehood to ninety-nine out of 
 a hundred. Then we shall come round to the 
 esoteric (interior, hidden) doctrine of the ancients, 
 and learn to understand what Christ meant when 
 He commanded us not to cast pearls before swine. 
 /Take four-fifths of the Wat Tyler for instance — 
 rtis a wretched mess of pig's meat I grant — but 
 yet take it — and reduce it to single assertions. 
 How many of them, think you, would bear deny- 
 ing as tnUhs ? But if truth yelps and bites at the 
 heels of a horse that cannot stop. Why — truth 
 may think herself well off if she only gets her 
 teeth knocked down her throat. . . . The Work 
 attributed to Buonaparte says " liberty is for a 
 few, equality for all." Alas ! dear Sir, what is 
 mankind but the few in all ages ? Take them away, 
 and how long would the rest, think you, differ 
 
270 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 from the Negros or New Zealanders ? . . . Oh ! 
 that conscience permitted me to dare tell the 
 whole truth ! I would, methinks, venture to 
 brave the fury of the great and little Vulgar as 
 the Advocate of an insufferable Aristocracy. But 
 either by an Aristocracy, or a fool-and-knave- 
 ocracy man must be governed. 
 
 I shall claim your promise for the insertion of a 
 short review of my second sermon, which you 
 shall have on Sunday morning at the latest. 
 Perhaps you may oblige me by inserting it on 
 Monday. Though written in great part by a 
 friend, yet it will be so written as to suit The 
 Courier, and in nothing to compromise you. All 
 phrases of praise are avoided as much as possible, 
 or politic. 
 
 An excellent thought has struck me which 
 might perhaps serve you, I mean give you a 
 few leisure hours during the Easter recess — viz., 
 A pretended doubt as to the Wat Tyler having 
 been composed at the early date assigned to it — 
 for it seems nothing but a string of servile 
 plagiarisms from the speeches of the Opposition 
 party, from 1792 to the Peace of Amiens, I shall 
 
1817I COLERIDGE. 27I 
 
 look over the parliamentary debates to-morrow, 
 and if I am not greatly deceived, the parallels may 
 be run almost ad verbum. — Yours truly, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 73. 
 Coleridge to Street. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I enclose the article written by a 
 friend, but from which I struck every word that 
 seemed more than common justice would dictate. 
 I ask it, as a personal service to me, that you 
 would read it over. You will find that there is 
 not a sentence which could by any possibility com- 
 promise The Courier. It is open and manly. I pray 
 you therefore to do me this service. Yet you would 
 do me a still greater service, if, in reading over the 
 sermon, you would put a mark (D for instance) 
 on any page, that would require being read twice 
 over in order to be understood by a man of average 
 understanding, and a general reader. If you find 
 more than four such pages out of the 165, I shall 
 
272 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1817 
 
 be benefited, because it will enable me hence- 
 forward, to write with more confidence. 
 
 Mr, Parker, your nephew favoured me with a 
 call yesterday. I told him, that the second article 
 I had sent to The Courier, respecting Wat Tyler, 
 was (I feared) an edge-tool ; but that I could see 
 no possible objection to the third. Be so good as 
 to give me one line — one and a half will be ample. 
 Or, if you cannot receive them, send them back 
 by the bearer, and just tell me whether or no the 
 plagiaries of Wat Tyler almost word for word, 
 from the speeches of the Opposition would suit 
 The Courier ? 
 
 My friend has given but one extract or specimen 
 which I selected as the most in the spirit of The 
 Courier. It is underlined in order to show that it 
 is to be printed in the small close type. I hope to 
 see you to-morrow morning. — Your obliged, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Could you put me in the way of procuring m)^ 
 letters on the Spanish Affairs published in The 
 Courier i8og, and the two letters to Mr. Fox during 
 the Peace of Amiens ? 
 
1817] coleridge. 273 
 
 Letter 74. 
 
 " 1817." 
 My dear Stuart, — I have received a letter from 
 R. Southey which gave me great pleasure from 
 one sentence in it. " You I am sure will 7wt believe 
 it possible that I should ever instruct my counsel to talk 
 of the wickedness of Wat Tyler and express my shame ! 
 If anything could mortify me, it woidd be this "... 
 It would as it appears to me be right and inter- 
 esting to show at full, without any very marked 
 reference to Wat Tyler in particular, the detest- 
 able sophism of identifying the philanthropic 
 hopes of thousands, just at the very commence- 
 ment of the French Revolution, and language 
 foimded on the notions and language which all 
 parties, Tories as well as Whigs thought them- 
 selves bound to hold as Englishmen, since the 
 ascent of George I. to the British throne, when 
 such language became a positive criterion of 
 loyalty ; and while only a few, a very very few, 
 obstinate metaphysicians and theologians of the 
 old school dared affirm the principles consecrated 
 at the Revolution (though, thank God ! not acted 
 
 iq 
 
274 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1817 
 
 upon) and taught in Mr. Locke's political works 
 to be false and most mischievous — and before 
 twenty years crammed and crowded experience had 
 demonstrated their falsehood and their mischievous 
 nature — to identify these I say, with the opinions 
 of the wretches, who [so speak] in spite of all this 
 experience, nay, though the very liberty they yelp 
 about, had its brains knocked out by the charger 
 of Buonaparte. This I propose to do immediately, 
 unless I hear from you to the dissuasive. I am 
 myself most disinterested in this business ; for, as 
 I do not agree with Southey in thinking the first 
 war, at its commencement, wise or necessary, and 
 should apply every word he has written on this in 
 the Quart. Rev. to the peace of Amiens, and the 
 recommencement of the war, there is not a single 
 political opinion, which I held at five and twenty 
 which I do not hold now ; and the tenth and 
 eleventh Nos. of the Friend are strictly accurate. 
 I will try if I can, to dine with you to-morrow ; 
 when I will bring with me an Article or two. Pray 
 tell me plainly, if you can, till Street's return — 
 may I consider it as agreed upon, that for the 
 Articles inserted in The Courier there will be a 
 
1817] COLERIDGE. 275 
 
 remuneration of two guineas a column ? I have 
 told you candidly the state of my affairs, and I 
 have not the slightest wish, much less expectation, 
 that you should be biassed by personal friendship 
 toward me, more than I toward you, when I should 
 prefer writing for The Courier, at any abatement of 
 price that you yourself would permit me to accept. 
 I think, that is, I think it sufficiently probable to 
 make it worth the trial, that a succession of 
 Articles for a quarter of a year, or four months, so 
 that they could be confidently looked for, might 
 make it answer to The Courier, negatively, if not 
 positively. But you and Mr. Street alone know, 
 how far in the present firm state of The Courier, 
 such writing as mine is, or is not, of importance. 
 Would to God, that the quantity I should be likely 
 to send, were a well grounded and the principal 
 objection ! — Yours most unfeignedly, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 75. 
 
 " 1817." Saturday morning. 
 Dear Stuart,— I do not remember to have ever 
 
276 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1817 
 
 read a more interesting Tract, than your " Report 
 of the present State of the Public ; " for this is its 
 appropriate Title. The remarks appear to me, as 
 judicious, as the facts are important. I reflected, 
 with increased satisfaction, on my own (four iirst) 
 letters to Mr. Justice Fletcher, in consequence 
 of such a confirmation and development of my 
 convictions. You have said, I doubt not, all that 
 your immediate object required; and I only wish, 
 that the legal safety of publishing every line of it, 
 as it now stands, were as unquestionable, as the 
 certainty of its making a strong impression on 
 the public mind. But you will agree with me, 
 that this is but the one half of the subject. The 
 weakness, the unanglicanism, the Hodiernity, or 
 unancestral character, — nay, as far as the ab- 
 sorption and suffocation of the patrial, — for the 
 word patriotic, has been so besoiled and befouled 
 of late, that a man of sense and singleness of 
 heart can scarcely use it without word-tongs ; i.e., 
 an explanatory caveat, or a nota-bene, " I don't 
 
 mean, &c." ; as far, I say, as the mersion 
 
 of derivative, official and representative duties, 
 powers and privileges in personal rights is one 
 
1S17] COLERIDGE. ^77 
 
 of the principal ingredients in Jacobinism, the 
 unconscious Jacobinism of our gentry is the other 
 half. As Jacobinism, properly so called, is a 
 mule monster (see Statesman's Manual, Appendix, 
 page viii.) composed of ist. abstract reason, and 
 2nd. bestial passion, with brute force and terror- 
 ism ; so is this quality-cousin of Jacobinism, made 
 up of sickly fastidious refinement (the chevaux 
 de frise between the gentry and the yeomanry, 
 spite of Smithfield Clubs and other precious hum- 
 bugs), and of the self degrading application to 
 themselves of the Jew principle, — Mayn't I do, 
 what I like, with my own ? 
 
 Perhaps one might represent the truth, with 
 tolerable accuracy, by taking the present spirit 
 and confederacies of the lower orders as the 
 positive pole of the anti-magnet of social dis- 
 organization and dissoluteness; the land- 
 merchantry, and too great — what shall I call it ? 
 — f^wrustication of our country gentlemen, with 
 its consequences on the farmers as the negative 
 Pole ; and the whole Being (head, heart, hand 
 and tongue) of the dissenters, as the equatorial 
 point, or punctum saliens of the mischief. 
 
27S LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. i_l8l7 
 
 I am angry with my own weakness and facility, 
 that I suffered myself to be bullied by my pub- 
 lishers, into withdrawing the five or six last sheets 
 of my Second Lay Sermon, on the pretence of 
 the unsaleable size of the pamphlet, and docking, 
 rather than abridging them, into half a sheet or 
 little more. Yet still I am very solicitous that 
 you should read the Sermon, and of its prede- 
 cessor, p. 25, 26: 41-53; vii.-x., xv.-xviii., 
 xli.-xliii. of the Appendix. 
 
 Alas ! and the Clergy ! it puts me in mind of 
 two lines in my own Ancient Mariner. 
 
 " What makes that ship drive on so fast ? what is the Ocean 
 doing ? 
 Still as a slave before its Lord, the Ocean has no blast.'' 
 
 What are the Clergy doing ? Sleeping, with 
 their eyes half open, under attacks and encroach- 
 ments, such as, that their predecessors a century 
 ago, even if asleep, would have snored more indig- 
 nantly and more to the purpose than they either 
 write or talk. Nay, they not only will not do it 
 themselves, but they will neither protect nor en- 
 courage those who try to do it for them. " He is 
 a warm man ! He is too violent. We must be 
 
l8l7] COLERIDGE. 2/9 
 
 moderate. So it is with the Bishops and the 
 parsons, as with Jack and Tom, in the jest book. 
 " What are you doing there. Jack ? " " Nothing, 
 your Honour.' "What are you doing, Tom ? " 
 " Helping Jack, your Honour ! " It has been long 
 my opinion, that the Whigs gave a deep wound 
 to our Constitution, when they made it a funda- 
 mental and permanent State-maxim, instead of a 
 temporary measure, to do away the Convocation. 
 
 As to the Press : 
 
 You did not give me the sketch itself or the 
 clauses, but only your general observations ; some 
 of which therefo're, I did not clearly understand. 
 My principal objection, as far as I do object is, 
 that punishments so severe and securities so 
 heavy, would have just the same effect that over- 
 taxing an Article in general use never fails to have, 
 i.e., encourage smuggling. So, I fear, that such a bill 
 would introduce contraband printing, secret presses, 
 and all the evils of smothered fire. Of several 
 of the clauses I approve highly ; but, at all events 
 the law of Libel ought to be revised. It is absurd 
 to say, the Law cannot pre-define in a free country 
 and with a Jury, a libel that stares every man in 
 
28o LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [l8l7 
 
 the face. If Juries will perjure themselves, it is 
 all over with the present law. But a succession 
 of such Juries is not to be feared, as yet, at least. 
 Why should not the Law permit, if indeed it does 
 not do so already, the Judge's Charge to run — If, 
 Gentlemen of the Jury, you are persuaded in your 
 minds fully, that this Work had for its object, and 
 does manifestly tend to, the disturbance of all 
 social order and confidence, by rousing criminal 
 passions in the minds of the readers to whom it is 
 addressed, or for whom it was in your belief in- 
 tended, then, &c. 
 
 I shall be glad to see the Article on Apostasy 
 inserted on Monday should there be room, because 
 it is a fair exposure of the conduct of the Opposi- 
 tion, who are always ready to have a fling at every 
 man who actually proves that abhorrence of 
 sedition and seditious publications, which they now 
 and then assure Parliament that they do enter- 
 tain, however, and may they keep it to them- 
 selves on all particular occasions. 
 
 If there are any pamphlets worth reading, be so 
 good as to give me the perusal of them ; of such I 
 mean, as you may have happened to purchase. 
 
l822] COLERIDGE. 281 
 
 My kind respects to Mrs. Stuart, and believe 
 me, dear Stuart, with unfeigned regard, yours 
 sincerely, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Highgate, J. Gillman's, Esq. 
 
 Letter 76. 
 
 " Posted March 15, 1822." 
 My dear Sir, — So very seldom as I go to town, 
 it might seem almost a fatality, that I should not 
 be at home for so many successive calls, for 
 which, and the kind purpose of which, accept my 
 sincere thanks. I had suspected, previously to the 
 receipt of your note of enquiry, that the advertise- 
 ment sent to The Courier was not sufficiently clear 
 as to my object ; yet how to render it such, with- 
 out being more explicit, which, from the heavy 
 charge for all but very short advertisements in The 
 Times and M. C. I could not afford to do, and in 
 fact had not the present means of doing, I did not 
 know; — and so, e'en let it take its way, single and 
 singly, like a solitary wild duck, that has set out 
 on its travels a week or more before the general 
 
282 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 mustering. I then thought of sending a full out- 
 line of the plan to the Edinburgh and London 
 Magazines ; but I begin to despond, and on the 
 strength of the Apostolic counsel " whatsoever ye 
 do, do it in faith " have done nothing. 
 
 The scheme however has no analogy to 
 lectures. I will endeavour to explain it to you, 
 as briefly as possible. Personally, it can have no 
 interest for, nor indeed bearing of any kind on 
 yoiL. But it is possible, though perhaps not pro- 
 bable, that some one, within the object and con- 
 dition of the plan, might occur to you, on whom 
 your opinion or recommendation was likely to 
 have some influence. 
 
 There have been three or four young men 
 (under five and twenty) who, within the last five 
 years, have believed themselves, and have been 
 thought by their acquaintance, to have derived 
 benefit from their frequent opportunities of con- 
 versing, reading and occasionally corresponding 
 with me ; this benefit consisting, not merely, nor 
 even principally, in the information received, but 
 in the improvement and accelerated growth of their 
 faculties ; and in the formation, or at least in the 
 
l822] COLERIDGE. 383 
 
 grounding, strengthening and integration, as it 
 were, of their whole character. Under this per- 
 suasion at least, a young man, respectable in 
 station and prospective circumstances, expressed 
 a strong wish, in fact has importuned me, to suffer 
 him to be with me, on any plan of instruction I 
 should myself think expedient, some one day in 
 each week, from noon to four or five o'clock ; but, 
 as what he could afford would leave it doubtful, 
 whether it would compensate for the expenditure 
 of my time, and the interruption of my literary 
 pursuits (in plain English, whether I could not 
 get more by employing the time in writing for the 
 IMagazine, or the bookseller's) it was suggested, 
 that by making my intention publicly and 
 generally known, I might form a class of five or 
 six men, who are educating themselves for the 
 Pulpit, the Bar, the Senate, or any of those walks 
 of life, in which the possession and the display of 
 intellect are of especial importance. That sort of 
 KNOWLEDGE which is bcst calculated to reappear 
 as power ; all that a gentleman ought to possess, 
 and most of what it is most desirable that every 
 gentleman should possess ; the root and trunk 
 
284 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 of the tree, as the antecedent, common to all the 
 different branches ; this, conveniently systematized 
 and divided ; — or, to speak more particularly, 
 the precise import of words, the ready command 
 and quickness in appropriation of words, the 
 principles and laws of language, as the organ of 
 thinking ; of appropriate language and the inherent 
 forms of the understanding, ist, as the canon 
 or formal outline of all conclusive reasoning, 
 2ndly, as the criterion for the detection of error 
 in all the possible species of conscious or uncon- 
 scious sophistry ; and lastly the principles of 
 reason as the organ of discovery, whether in man 
 or in the science of nature ; with sufficient 
 psychology to apply the whole to the art of per- 
 suasion, whether in writing, or public speaking ; 
 not forgetting, that the constant examples and 
 illustrations, that must, and would be used in the 
 teaching and enforcing of the above, could not but 
 of themselves, comprise no mean body of valuable 
 particular information, or facts. 
 
 Such are the intended subjects. The mode was, 
 from 12 to 2 or yi past 2 I meant to dictate, 
 each of my auditors being his own amanuensis. 
 
1822] COLERIDGE. 285 
 
 The remaining hour and a half, conversations, 
 questions, discussions, &c., so as to enable me to 
 form such opinions, as would guide me in the 
 private advice to each, individually ; as well as to 
 all for the regulation of their studies, professional 
 or otherwise. The whole course would be finished 
 in two years ; but each half year contains some 
 important branch of high independent [thought]. 
 Of course I could receive no one, not in ALL 
 respects respectable. I must see and talk with 
 him first. 
 
 The place might be either here, or in London, 
 Mr. Green having most kindly offered me the 
 use of the drawing room in his noble house in 
 Lincoln's Inn Fields. I should be highly grati- 
 fied to hear your opinion of the scheme, and to 
 talk with you about it ; there not being a man on 
 earth, on whose sense and judgment, I have so 
 much reliance as I have on yours. But I fear, 
 there is little chance. The young men of the 
 present day are well satisfied with themselves as 
 they are. If you could drop me a single line, 
 what day you were likely to turn your horse's 
 head this way, without any engagement positive, 
 
286 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jULY 
 
 I would be certain to be at home, and in the 
 
 house. — Best respects to Mrs. S., and believe me, 
 
 my dear Sir, yours very sincerely, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 March 15, 1822. 
 
 Friday, Highgate. 
 
 Letter yy. 
 
 " Posted July 9, 1825." 
 My dear Sir, — The bad weather had so far 
 damped my expectations, that, though I regretted, 
 I did not feel any disappointment at your not 
 coming. And yet I hope you will remember our 
 Highgate Thursday conversation evenings on your 
 return to town ; because, if you come once, I 
 flatter myself, you will afterwards be no un- 
 frequent visitor. At least, I have never been at 
 any of the town conversazione, literary or artisti- 
 cal, in which the conversation has been more 
 miscellaneous without degenerating into pinches : 
 a pinch of this, and a pinch of that, without the 
 least connection between the subjects, and with as 
 
1825] COLERIDGE. 287 
 
 little interest. You will like Irving as a com- 
 panion and aconverser even more than you admire 
 him as a preacher. He has a vigorous and (what 
 is always pleasant) a growing mind, and his 
 character is manly throughout. There is one 
 thing too, that I cannot help considering as a 
 recommendation to our evenings, that, in ad- 
 dition to a few ladies and pretty lasses, we have 
 seldom more than five or six in company, and 
 these generally of as many different professions, 
 or pursuits. A few weeks ago we had present, 
 two painters, two poets, one divine, an eminent 
 chemist and naturalist, a Major, a naval Captain 
 and voyager, a physician, a Colonial Chief Jus- 
 tice, a barrister and a baronet ; and this was 
 the most numerous meeting we ever had. 
 
 It would more than gratify me to know from 
 you, what the impressions are which my Aids to 
 Reflection make on your judgment. The con- 
 viction respecting the character of the times 
 expressed in the comment on Aph. vi. page 147 
 contains the aim and object of the whole book. I 
 venture to direct your notice particularly to the 
 note, page 204 to 207, to the note to page 218 
 
LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JULY 
 
 and to the sentences respecting common sense 
 in the last twelve lines of page 252, and the 
 conclusion page ■^yy. 
 
 Lady Beaumont writes me that the Bishop 
 of London has expressed a most favourable 
 opinion of the book ; and Blanco White was 
 sufficiently struck with it, as immediately to pur- 
 chase all my works that are in print ; and has 
 procured from Sir George Beaumont an intro- 
 duction to me. It is well I should have some one 
 to speak for it, for I am unluckily ill off. . . . 
 
 [Reviewers^ 
 and you will easily see what a chance a poor book 
 of mine has in these days. 
 
 Such has been the influence of The Edinburgh 
 Review that in all Edinburgh, not a single copy of 
 Wordsworth's works or of any part of them, could 
 be procured a few months ago. The only copy 
 Irving saw in Scotland belonged to a poor weaver 
 at Pasley, who prized them next to his bible, and 
 had all the Lyrical Ballads by heart. A fact 
 which would cut Jeffrey's conscience to the bone, 
 if he had any. I give you my honour that 
 Jeffrey himself told me that he was himself an 
 
1825I COLERIDGE. 289 
 
 enthusiastic admirer of Wordsworth's poetry, but 
 it was necessary that a Review should have a 
 character. 
 
 Forgive this egotism, and be pleased to re- 
 member me kindly and with my best respects to 
 Mrs. Stuart, and with every cordial wish and 
 prayer for you and yours be assured that I am 
 your obliged and affectionate friend, 
 
 Friday, July 8, 1825. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 78. 
 
 April, 1826. 
 
 My dear Stuart, — I will not say a word of 
 yourself or your accident, for you know that this 
 time (and I was getting up when your letter 
 reached me) is the worst of my daily Bad, in 
 point of healthy feeling. I tremble at the very 
 imagination of what has happened. 
 
 But now for business. Mr. and Mrs. Gillman, 
 in passing through their minds, thus, on the 
 sudden, all the lodgings they can at present think 
 of, are not so satisfied, as to be able to fix on one, 
 
 20 
 
2gO LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 without an actual going round which he will do 
 without delay. But a comfortable bed room, in 
 which a chair bed for a nurse or servant to sleep 
 in may be put, is ready immediately for Miss 
 Stuart at our house ; and if Mr. Gillman should 
 not find something in the neighbourhood, that he 
 can pledge himself for as likely to be comfortable 
 (and of this Mrs. Gillman is very doubtful) I can 
 venture to assure Mrs. Stuart, that on such an 
 occasion, we shall make the accommodation for 
 her here, which out of the house we cannot find. 
 My dear Stuart, you cannot know to the fulness 
 and extent with which a ten years' day and night 
 domestication has enabled me to know, the dis- 
 interested anxiety of Mr. and Mrs. Gillman, to 
 exert themselves in all instances, in which an 
 old and kind friend of mine shall be concerned ; 
 or indeed the comparative worth of these two rare 
 persons. Mrs. Stuart might attend her daughter 
 with a more loving eye (for indeed a mother's 
 love is above all) but not with a tenderer, or more 
 careful one, than Mrs. Gillman will ; and all I en- 
 treat of you, my dear Stuart, is, that you will inter- 
 pret this, as it truly is, a mark of regard and respect. 
 
1826] COLERIDGE. 
 
 291 
 
 I am so agitated by the thought of your acci- 
 dent,* that, what with this, and what with the 
 time of day, I scarcely know what I have written; 
 but the substance is this : — 
 
 A bed room with convenience for a servant for 
 Miss Stuart, is at your service immediately ; for 
 a lodging. such as you mention Mr. Gillman will 
 forthwith look out; but if it cannot be found, they 
 do not doubt that they shall be able to contrive, 
 so as to receive Mrs. Stuart likewise ; and that we 
 all hope that they will come immediately, without 
 waiting for the very uncertain result of Mr. Go's 
 enquiries. Mrs. Gillman is at this moment 
 arranging the room for Miss Stuart. — God bless 
 you and S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 * The accident referred to was as follows. As Mr. Stuart was 
 riding through South Audley Street, one afternoon, his horse shied 
 suddenly and threw him under the wheels of a chariot driving by, 
 which passed over his body. Fortunately it belonged to an eminent 
 surgeon who immediately stopped, took him into the carriage and 
 brought him home. Though no bones were broken, Mr. Stuart was 
 a good deal injured, and was confined to his bed for several weeks. 
 His eldest child, just recovering from a bilious fever, was sent up at 
 this time to Highgate for change of air. 
 
292 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 Letter 79. 
 
 Tuesday, 19 April, 1826. 
 ! Dear Stuart, — It is a great satisfaction to my 
 mind that you have so decided. All will be ready 
 and in expectance for Mrs. and Miss Stuart. We 
 have so handy, gentle and feminine a creature in 
 Dinah, a former servant and still especial favourite 
 of Mrs. Gillman's, who will be with us during 
 the day while Miss Stuart remains ; and such a 
 staid attentive young woman in the present needle 
 maid (for Mrs. Gillman does not like to hear of 
 lady's maid, though in fact she is the especial 
 attendant on her person, and without being at all 
 out of her proper rank, she is really both in 
 manners and morals, a superior sort of girl in it) 
 that I really think, and so does Mr. Gillman, that 
 Mrs. Stuart will find herself more comfortable 
 without bringing a servant. At all events, be 
 so good as to assure her, that Mrs. Gillman will 
 not in the least degree, be inconvenienced by it ; 
 and that if Mrs. Stuart should not wish it on her 
 own account or Miss Stuart's, from any accustomed- 
 
1826] COLERIDGE. 293 
 
 ness to her own maid, or other ground of prefer- 
 ence, there will be no other occasion for one. 
 With regard to all the rest, you may rely on the 
 complete correspondence to your wishes, which I 
 believe myself pretty well able to understand and 
 measure. Perfect neatness, comfort and respect- 
 ability are aimed at habitually in this family, and 
 I venture to add, successfully, in bed and board, 
 house and home, and more than these you would 
 consider as rather detracting from ease and quiet 
 than as adding to happiness, or even pleasure. 
 You will be received as friends, and / entreat you 
 let the balance of obligation be struck between you 
 and me exclusively, if such a word or thought is to 
 intervene at all ; and you know I have a pretty 
 long account in your favour. 
 
 Though I believe myself from my own studies 
 and pursuits, better qualified to appreciate the 
 medical talents and reliability of any man, of 
 whom and of whose practice I have had any 
 long experience, than most unprofessional men ; 
 and though it is my maxim that, presuming the 
 average quantity of science and practice, the 
 superiority of one medical man over another is 
 
294 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 determined by the union of general good sense 
 with a sort of medical tact, or good common 
 sense shown in the presence and readiness of mind 
 at the individual bedside ; yet I should not, in the 
 present instance, express my high opinion of my 
 friend Gillman as a general practitioner, especially 
 in the wise treatment of young people, did I not 
 know the high estimation in which he stands with 
 the first and ablest men of his profession in 
 London, as Abernethy, Gooch, Green, Stanley, 
 &c., and I say it now only because it may be 
 perhaps some small comfort and satisfaction to 
 Mrs. Stuart. 
 
 Dear Stuart, if your first note this morning 
 greatly affected me, by your second I have been 
 deeply impressed. Within the last two years, 
 and more particularly within the last, my mind, 
 without sustaining any revolution on faith or 
 principles, has yet undergone a change ; — I trust a 
 progression ; and I am more practically persuaded, 
 that towards the close of our lives, if we have 
 been at any time sincere in cultivating the good 
 within us, events and circumstances are more and 
 more working towards the maturing of that good 
 
1826] COLERIDGfe. 295 
 
 even when they are hardest to bear for the 
 moment. I have not the shghtest cause for even 
 apprehending any tendency in my feehngs to a 
 servile and selfish religion of fear, or for applying 
 to myself Pope's remark : 
 
 " That beads and prayer-books are the toys of age." 
 
 On the contrary, on all religious subjects, I think 
 and reason, with a more cheerful sense of freedom, 
 because I am secure of my faith in the main 
 points — a personal God, a surviving principle of 
 life, and that I need, and that I have, a Redeemer. 
 But intone point I have attained to a conviction, 
 which, till of late, I never had in any available 
 form, or degree ; namely, the confidence in the 
 efficacy of prayer. I know, by experience, that 
 it is light, strength and comfort. 
 
 May God bless you and yours. I shall trust 
 that you will be able to pay us a visit by the time 
 you mention : and if, in the meantime, you should 
 wish to see me, a single line will bring me to your 
 house. For I am, with no everyday feeling, your 
 obliged and affectionate friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
296 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 Letter 80. 
 
 To Mrs. Stuart. 
 
 " May 4, 1826." 
 My dear Madam, — Two jars of black currant 
 (alias Corinth) jelly, though charged by the cen- 
 sorious with a tendency to create intestine jars, 
 and to produce a spurious fruit, differing from 
 grapes, by the substitution of i for a, are never- 
 theless, in my deliberate judgment and taste, excel- 
 lent articles ; and in, and for themselves, well 
 worth thanks ; — yea, thanks of the inward man. 
 But indeed, and indeed, truth and sincerity 
 compel me to avow, that they are but poor com- 
 pensations for the loss of the Donor's society, and 
 a very imperfect atonement for the absenteeism of 
 innocent mirth, frank and genial manners, and 
 cheerful good sense. But — 
 
 " To know, to esteem, to like, and then to part, 
 Is an old tale with every genial heart." 
 
 And so I rest in hope, and " I " here express the 
 whole household, especially Mrs. Gillman and 
 
1826I COLERIDGE. 
 
 297 
 
 little Susan, that we shall meet again, without 
 our being obliged to such an affrightful accident, 
 as in this instance. 
 
 Remember me most kindly to Mr. Stuart, and 
 beg him, from me, to remember that too little 
 exertion is far safer than even a little too much ; 
 and believe me, with best wishes for all that are 
 dear to you, and kind regards to Mary. — My dear 
 Madam, your and his obliged friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 ^th May, 1826, Grove, Highgate. 
 
 Letter 81. 
 
 " Posted July 29, 1826." 
 My dear Sir, — We are all uneasy at your not 
 coming, nor your son. Everything was prepared. 
 Surely my letter, which I put myself into the post 
 Monday afternoon, could not have miscarried, the 
 substance being how happy Mrs. Gillman would 
 be to have him here ; and that I was glad to say, 
 that my health presented no obstacle to my 
 endeavours to give you a clear account, of what 
 
29S LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JULY 
 
 he has learnt, and of his progress hitherto, and 
 my best opinion of his talents. 
 
 I had not quite half finished a letter in reply to 
 your remarks on Woodstock, and the causes of 
 Sir Walter's unprecedented Run, with which I 
 entirely coincide, and to which I should add one 
 or two others, on the character of the Works 
 themselves, and their bearings on the characteristic 
 traits of the age. I wished likewise (for in a letter 
 to a friend, one is not forced to be on one's guard 
 against the charge of envy, and such like amiable 
 dispositions) to point out clearly and distinctly, 
 the essential difference in character, of the Scotch 
 novels from those of Shakespeare ; 2nd, of Richard- 
 son ; 3rd, of Smollett ; 4th, of Fielding, and 5th, 
 of Sterne ; and then to give the Recipe for the con- 
 struction of these stories in Scott's novels. I say 
 Scott, though, I hear, he has written to the French 
 translator, or his publisher, contradicting the 
 belief, and insisting that his name should be 
 removed from the title pages. But this does not 
 shake me, and I venture to assert, that though 
 he were the author, he would be entitled to do 
 this, if he had reasons for it, without breach of 
 
1^26] COLERIDGE. 299 
 
 moral veracity ; otherwise every man's secrets 
 would be at the mercy of every knave or fool, 
 whose curiosity was on a par with his impudence. 
 It is idle to say, you might be silent. In how 
 many occasions would silence give consent ? The 
 common inference is, I asked him and he could 
 not deny it, though he would not own it. . . . 
 
 But enough of this. I was about to say that I 
 was interrupted by a run of visitors from one at 
 noon till ten at night, but as soon as I can find a 
 leisure hour I will complete my outline and send 
 it for your amusement in Oxfordshire. 
 
 I hope and trust that this letter will cross you 
 on the road ; for I shall be, indeed all three of us, 
 unceasingly uneasy till we see or hear from you. 
 And I have another reason for wishing to see you 
 and Mrs. Stuart, that my daughter is to be here 
 some time to-morrow, and though I know Mrs. 
 Stuart has seen her, yet it was, if I mistake not, 
 some years ago. Let me request to have yours 
 and likewise Mrs. Stuart's opinion of marriage 
 between first cousins. Do you or do you not 
 think them objectionable? 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gillman unite with me in kindest 
 
300 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 remembrances to Mrs. Stuart and Mary, and 
 be assured that I am, with sincere esteem and 
 regard, your obliged friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Friday night, July 28, 1826. 
 
 P.S. — The sprinkles of ink on this paper are a 
 warning not to clap at a gnat with a pen in one 
 of the hands — if there be ink in it at least. 
 
 Letter 82. 
 
 Posted October 18, 1826. 
 My dear Sir, — I acknowledge with feelings 
 which alter so long an acquaintance I need not 
 express, your kind enclosure, which will put it in 
 my power to effect — to the extent necessary — what 
 I had more than self-concerning reasons to wish. 
 Nothing would give me more pleasure than to 
 pass a week or two with you at Banbury. So 
 much so, that any time after my return from 
 Ramsgate, the last week of November at latest, 
 you and Mrs. Stuart should find it convenient, at 
 any time before you come for good to your house 
 
I8261 
 
 COLERIDGE. 30I 
 
 in Harley Street, you have onl}/ to write me that 
 you wish and I will be with you. 
 
 I have been writing to you on a subject, which is 
 the only public matter that, spite of myself, takes 
 hold of me, and that is Ireland. Soon after your 
 arrival at Banbury, if no unforeseen knock me 
 down interferes, you will receive my notions, in 
 the form in which I have thought of giving them 
 to the public, by some newspaper ; but this, I tell 
 you beforehand, depends entirely on your judg- 
 ment. I will add no more to this note, for you 
 must most unjustly think me a hypocrite, if you 
 do not know, that I rely more on your knowledge 
 and judgment of men and things, than on those 
 of any other individual. — God bless you and 
 
 Saturday. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter 83. 
 
 Tuesday, 20 February, 1827, 
 
 Grove, Highgate. 
 My dear Sir, — Before Mr. Frere left England, 
 he had a conversation with Lord Liverpool, re- 
 
302 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 specting me, in which Lord Liverpool promised 
 that he would do something for me, and men- 
 tioned the sum, desiring that he might be re- 
 minded of it. Some months ago, Mrs. Aders' * 
 brother-in-law exerted his interest to procure a 
 sinecure place, the salary of which is exactly the 
 same, as that mentioned by Lord L. to Mr. Frere ; 
 but was answered, the place (viz. Paymaster of 
 the Gentlemen Pensioners, held by the late Mr. 
 Gifford, the Quarterly Review man) was reserved 
 for Mr. Coleridge. Not hearing any further I 
 wrote (as by Mr. Frere I had been advised to do, 
 only as usual in all matters relating to my pecu- 
 niary interests, not half so early as I ought to 
 have done) to Lord Dudley and Ward. I received 
 about ten days ago, a very kind answer dated from 
 Brighton, assuring me that he would speak to 
 Lord Liverpool immediately on his arrival in 
 town, which would be in ten days ; that he would 
 rather talk with him about it than write, but 
 
 * "Coleridge, and my daughter, and I, in 1828, passed a fort- 
 night upon the banks of the Rhine, principally under the hospitable 
 roof of Mr. Aders of Gotesberg" ("Memoirs of Wordsworth." 
 Moxon, 1851. Vol. ii., p. 128). See also "Memoirs of Charles 
 Mayne Young." Macmillan, 1871, p. in. 
 
1827] COLERIDGE, 303 
 
 that if it needed hurry, I was to say so, and he 
 would instantly write. What has since happened 
 will probably recall these words, with a sad feeling 
 to Lord Dudley's mind; and you will not suspect 
 me of hypocrisy when I say, that had not my 
 daughter's face, and the faces of those to whom I 
 have been so deeply obliged forced my dtdies on 
 me, I should not, or more properly I could not 
 have mingled any anxiety or regret respecting my 
 own pecuniary loss or gain, with the grief and 
 alarm I feel as an Englishman. 
 
 Now, my dear friend ! of all men in the world 
 you are the man on whose good sense and know- 
 ledge of the world I rely the most, and whose 
 advice has always been as an oracle to me. Ad- 
 vise me what to do. I will write to Lord Dudley 
 of course. But in the meantime if I knew any 
 person likely to be distinctly and officially ac- 
 quainted with the situation in question and the 
 real existing state of the matter (though I have 
 not the slightest reason to doubt the authority 
 above mentioned. Do you know any one of the 
 Treasury ? Lord Lowther ? or A. Macnaghten ? 
 I am so ignorant as not to know, what the Gentle- 
 
304 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 men Pensioners are. If Mr. Canning had been 
 in town and well, I should have written to him. 
 Pray, give me your advice, and if you see any- 
 thing that can be done by you, pray do it for, my 
 dear sir, your obliged and affectionately attached 
 friend, S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Our kindest regards to Mrs. Stuart. 
 
 Letter 84. 
 
 ^^ Posted February 24, 1827." 
 My dear Sir, — I wrote immediately to Lord 
 Dudley, on the receipt of yours, and a letter 
 which I think will please him. At least the 
 Gillmans and my daughter admired it very much. 
 I ended by soliciting his advice, whether I should 
 write to Mr. Canning, or whether I might presume 
 so far on his lordship's kindness, as to request 
 him, to state the case to Mr. Canning himself. 
 Now I had no certain information, whether Lord 
 Dudley was still at Brighton, or had returned to 
 Park Lane ; so, Mr. Allsop happening to be here, 
 and it being half-past four, our latest post from 
 
1827] COLERIDGE. 305 
 
 Highgate,! entrusted my letter directed Brighton to 
 him, who undertook to proceed instantly to Park 
 Lane, to learn whether Lord D. was, or was not, 
 returned — if the former, to leave the letter — if 
 the latter, to hasten with it to the General Post. 
 And this I doubt not he did, though I have not 
 seen AUsop or heard from him since. But I trust 
 I shall hear from Lord D. to-morrow morning, 
 and regulate my measures accordingly ; but if I 
 should be disappointed of an answer from Lord 
 Dudley, I shall go to town, and try to see Mr. 
 Rogers, and to get him to go with me to some 
 one or other. I have some ground for believing, 
 that the intimation that the place held by Gifford 
 was reserved for me, came from a Mr. Hancock, 
 Army Agent. 
 
 However, I write to you now, my dear friend, 
 for a less important purpose. Mr. Gillman, with 
 Mr. Jameson (the Chancery barrister), has under- 
 taken to superintend an edition of all my poems,* 
 to be brought out by Pickering ; that is to say, I 
 
 * " The Poetical Works of S. T. Coleridge : Including tire 
 Dramas of Wallenstein, Remorse, Zapolya." In Three Volumes. 
 London, WilHam Piclcering, 1828. Another edition, differing in 
 some points from that of 1828, was brought out in 1829. , 
 
 21 
 
306 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JULY 
 
 have given all the poems, as far as this edition is 
 concerned, to Mr. Gillman, and he is desirous to 
 procure a copy of the " Devil's Thoughts," as it 
 originally appeared in the M. P. (It is very 
 curious that both at Peele's and the Chapter 
 Coffee House, carefully as they both profess to 
 guard against mutilation of their series, almost 
 every poem of mine has been cut out. If, there- 
 fore, you happen to have a copy with you in town, 
 you will oblige Mr. G. by either entrusting it to 
 him for a day or two, or favoring him with a 
 transcript. 
 
 While the wind and dust continue to act the 
 part they are now doing, I do not even wish to see 
 you ; for, I am sure, the less you expose yourself, 
 the more likely you will be to receive the full 
 effect of the mild weather when it comes. 
 
 Be so good, as to remember me respectfully and 
 affectionately to Mrs. Stuart, or rather for me 
 read us — for I need not tell you, she is a universal 
 favourite with the circle at this fireside. 
 
 God bless you, and your's, and your obliged 
 and sincerely attached friend, 
 
 SaUirday night. S, T. Coleridge, 
 
1827] COLERIDGE. 
 
 307 
 
 P.S. Excuse the paper. I did not observe that 
 I had taken a sheet on which Mr. Green had 
 [delineated] the digestive organs of an oyster. 
 
 Letter 85. 
 
 Monday, October 8, 1827. 
 Grove, Highgate. 
 My dear Sir, — If sunshine and shadows are lying 
 as beautifully on the woods and fields round your 
 mansion, as they at this moment are on Caen 
 Wood, and the landscape before my window, 
 while your health and power of enjoying them 
 are, as I hope and trust they are, the reverse of 
 mine, now and for some time back — it is a selfish 
 wish which I seem inwardly to retract before I 
 have expressed it, videlicet, that you were in 
 town, and that I could speak to you instead of 
 writing. (Be so good as to turn from here over 
 leaf, to the third side.) The death of Mr. Can- 
 ning has of course given the settling blow to all 
 the hopes I had built up on the foundation of 
 poor Lord Liverpool's promise to Mr. J. H. Frere, 
 and by an odd compound of vanity and low spirits 
 
3P8 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 I could, in certain moods, bring myself to think 
 that my guardian spirit had foreseen that I should 
 not have received the emolument long enough, for 
 it to compensate for ending my days, as a Pen- 
 sioner and Sinecurist. Before Mr. Canning's 
 death, I had made a sketch of a memorial, or 
 rather of two or three memorials, on the several 
 distinct, yet closely connected subjects, the Catho- 
 lic question, the population of Ireland, the ques- 
 tions respecting emigration and colonization, and 
 the increase of crime in the country at large. On 
 the two last subjects, I especially want to know 
 your sentiments, ex.gr., whether, on the supposition 
 that Parliament could or would devote a large 
 sum to the alleviation of the evil, there is any 
 ground for the assertion, that the money would be 
 more profitably expended in bringing the waste 
 lands and bogs into a state of cultivation, than in 
 shipping men off to Canada or Van Diemen's 
 Land ? Whether the said waste and bog lands 
 are susceptible of being raised into ordinary farm 
 land, I am perfectly ignorant ; but one thing I 
 seem to see clearly, that if the new tenants were 
 to be collected from the Irish peasantry, in the 
 
1837] COLERIDGE. 309 
 
 present state of that priest-bedevilled country, it 
 would increase the evil, the troublesome symp- 
 toms of which it might for a short period suspend. 
 In fact any scheme of removing a portion of 
 the inhabitants of a country, which should leave 
 those that remain in staUi, quo, would be but 
 quackery. If you could improve the quality of the 
 remainder, so as to supersede the repetition of 
 the costly palliative, there would be some sense in 
 it. It is unfortunate for the country in my belief, 
 that the present ministry do not possess the con- 
 fidence, or even the good will of the clergy, or the 
 landowners ; and I suspect that even in our cities 
 and manufacturing counties the attachment to the 
 Cabinet collectively is of that lukewarm character 
 which expresses itself in. But who is there else ? 
 If the ministry hold out, it will be I fear from the 
 want of accredited talent in their opponents. I 
 have thought repeatedly of correcting the one 
 memorial on the only plan on which the so-called 
 Emancipation of the Catholics could be either 
 desirable for Ireland or palatable to the country 
 at large, and of sending it to the Marquis of 
 Lansdowne. But in all the great fundamental 
 
310 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 questions of political economy, of religion as a 
 public concern, of morality and of education, I 
 differ so utterly from the leading Whigs, and am 
 so well aware of their inaccessibility to any argu- 
 ment which does not take for granted the truth of 
 their first principles, that I shrink from any 
 measure that would be interpreted as a sort of 
 advance towards connecting myself with the 
 party. ... 
 
 I see that I have been giving way to my usual 
 mental cowardice, and that infirmness of will, 
 which makes it little less than hateful to me to 
 speak (almost indeed to think) of ought disagree- 
 able that concerns myself exclusively ; and that I 
 am making myself appear, what it is not in my 
 nature to be, while I am shrinking from and (to 
 borrow a metaphor from my Malta experience) 
 giving the Quarantine curve ^ to the original 
 purpose of the letter. To the point then at once ! 
 and I must leave it to your own choice, whether 
 you will consider your former kindnesses as 
 excusing, or aggravating the present application. 
 If I might interpret the extreme reluctance with 
 which I make it, as a presentiment, I should have 
 
1827] COLERIDGE. 31I 
 
 no difficulty in foretelling, which ; nor could 
 
 I, I believe, have brought myself to it, but for my 
 daughter's increasing anxiety about my health, 
 and the Gillmans' frequent expressions of regret, 
 that, for the late heavy expenses in the repairs 
 &c., of the house, Henry's school bills, and in 
 setting off and settling James at Oxford, they, 
 literally, have it not in their power, to give me a 
 month or six weeks sojourn at Ramsgate this 
 autumn. Now I frankly confess, my dear sir, 
 though with a hitter smile, that it does seem 
 somewhat ridiculous in my own eyes, that, 
 because you have, for the last three years, given 
 n^e :^30 for this purpose, I should expect the same 
 this year — and, in lieu of the public purse, fasten 
 myself as a pensioner on yours ! But if it be 
 inconvenient to you, for God's sake, do not 
 think the worse, or feel the less kindly of me, for 
 this letter ; and from the very bottom of my heart 
 I promise you, that your refusal will not detract a 
 jot, either from my sense of your past kindness, or 
 from the sincere regard and attachment, which, 
 independent of all pecuniary obligations, I habitu- 
 ally feel for you and yours. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
312 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 My daughter sends her kind respects to you and 
 Mrs. Stuart ; and Mrs. Gillman I keep out of the 
 way of, quoad hoc — as I hold it probable, that her 
 " Tell Mrs. Stuart, and ask— and Mary— &c. &c.," 
 would make a very pretty sized letter of them- 
 selves. I need not assure Mrs. Stuart, how truly 
 and warmly attached to her, and all the house- 
 hold that bear her and your name, my good friend 
 and her goodman are ! S. T. C. 
 
 Letter 86. 
 
 Posted October 12, 1827. 
 My dear Sir, — Returning from a long walk 
 taken for the purpose of a long conversation on 
 family matters with my daughter, I find, and have 
 barely time by return of post to acknowledge, I 
 need not say thank you for your kind letter and 
 the order for £30 enclosed. What you tell me I 
 had so far anticipated, that the thought was one 
 of the weights in the scale of my reluctance in 
 applying to you. For such has been the conflu- 
 ence of events, and either crude or unfortunate 
 
1827] COLERIDGE. 3I3 
 
 measures, that I know and hear of no one how- 
 ever well off, as the phrase is, and however good 
 a manager within the bounds of good sense and 
 that attention to appearances which society and our 
 best feelings for those most identified with our- 
 selves, render a duty, who does not feel himself 
 straightened beyond what those who know of him 
 only as a man of good property are disposed to 
 believe ; and who does not find himself at times 
 compelled to keep his hand closed, when a strong 
 gush from the heart makes it a painful effort. 
 Such is the state of things that with the excep- 
 tion of the Jews on the Stock Exchange and their 
 compeers, the lower classes are demoralized by 
 low wages and the nature of the supplement, yet 
 the higher and middle classes find it yearly more 
 difficult to keep their places in society, and make 
 both ends meet, without encroachment on what 
 ought to be sacred to the future — in fact without 
 doing what the Apes {Simia Longicauda) are said 
 to do when hungry, i.e., eat a joint or two of the 
 extremity of their tail. Allow me to assure you 
 my dear friend, that thrice ^30 would not have 
 given me such lasting satisfaction as the kind- 
 
314 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 ness and frankness of your communication. The 
 other parts of your letter I must refer to another 
 time. I will only add that of late The Standard 
 has met with my thorough approbation. 
 
 May God bless you and yours and your obliged 
 and sincerely affectionate friend, 
 
 S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Friday, 12 October, 1827. 
 
 Letter 87. 
 
 14 October, 1828. 
 My dear Sir, — Though two or three times 
 indisposed during my tour on the Continent,* and 
 once for a few hours very alarmingly, I returned 
 noticeably improved in health and its agreeable 
 companions, good spirits and mental activity. 
 And this state continued so long that I began to 
 flatter myself that I had taken a new lease of 
 effective life ; but a day or two before your very 
 kind letter arrived, I had left the Grove in order 
 
 * Coleridge accompanied Wordsworth and his daughter on a tour 
 on the Continent during the month of July, 1828. See "Memoir 
 of Charles Maine Young," pp. 111-19. Macmillan, 1871. 
 
1828] COLERIDGE. 3I5 
 
 to pay my long promised and often deferred visit 
 to Charles Lamb and his sister at Enfield Chase, 
 and during my stay with them, I lived temperately 
 and took a great deal of exercise. The last day 
 but one, I took a walk beyond Cheshunt, the circle 
 of which exceeded twelve miles, but unfortunately 
 I had a pair of tight-heeled shoes, and the next 
 morning I walked, though in much pain, about 
 three and a quarter miles across the fields to fall 
 in with the Edmonton Stage, and on getting out 
 of the Stage on Snow Hill it was with great 
 difficulty I could walk at all from the almost 
 torture that every step gave me — and not knowing 
 what better to do, I went into the Druggist's shop, 
 midway Skinner Street and Holborn and breast- 
 plated both heels with diachylum plaster — and not 
 doubting that rest, and the mere guarding against 
 friction would bring all right I kept on the plaster 
 for the next twenty-four hours and more, when an 
 inflammation of the left leg warned me to have my 
 heels looked to. And in a miserable plight they 
 were ! and it was some days before by poultices 
 and keeping my limbs in a horizontal position I 
 could bring them to heal. Soon after which I was 
 
3l6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 surprised by an indescribable depression of spirits, 
 a nervous dread of doing, hearing or reading any- 
 thing, more or less remotely a matter of feeling, 
 and a succession of disturbed nights. 
 
 " When dreaded sleep each night repelled in vain, 
 Each night was scattered by its own loud screams." 
 
 And worse still, I could not sit for ten minutes 
 together whether writing or reading, without an 
 involuntary closing of my eyes, followed by an 
 inward start or subsultus. I do not remember 
 having been in so thoroughly miserable a state, 
 though a few days before I had the jaundice some 
 years ago, were the most like it ; and never in the 
 same time did I make one-tenth of the appeals to 
 my looking-glass, as I did in expectation of dis- 
 covering the yellow tinge. At length, however, 
 the problem was solved by a smart attack of Ery- 
 sipelas in both legs alternately, but most severe 
 in the left which unluckily I had scratched during 
 my sleep, before I was aware of the affection. 
 But I trust that by opening medicines and am- 
 moniacal lotions I am on the eve of parting with 
 this sorry visitant — (The heat is entirely gone and 
 
1828J COLERIDGE. 317 
 
 the colour become faint) — parting till this time next 
 year at least ; for I strongly suspect, that in my 
 constitution, it is a substitute for the gout, to 
 which my father was subject. The relief indeed 
 is much less perfect than is, I understand, 
 ordinarily received from the first fits of the gout, 
 in proportion perhaps as the sufferings, or rather 
 the pains are less acute. Still it has relieved me, 
 and though I remain weak with little or no 
 appetite for animal food and feel low, the weight 
 has been taken off from my spirits, or I should not 
 have been able to write even this doleful story, by 
 way of reply to a letter, which deserved and at any 
 other time would have received a very different, as 
 well as much earlier answer. But as one instance 
 of the dreamlike despondency into which I had 
 sunk, I had to struggle against the impression, 
 counterfeiting a presentiment, that I should never 
 more see Ramsgate ; and that if I did not die, I 
 should sink into a state which would render such 
 a trip useless. And, though in my inmost mind, 
 I estimated this bodement at its true value, yet it 
 produced a hypochondriacal dread of applying to 
 you, as long as I felt uncertain, whether or no^ a 
 
3l8 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 sojourn at the seaside was likely to be of any use, 
 and, for sickly consciences are always selfish, I thought 
 too little of dear Mrs. Gillman, who wants it in- 
 disputably, and who would not go if I staid behind. 
 In fact Gillman has a nervous aversion, formed 
 during the first year of my inmateship in his 
 family, to my remaining here for any length of 
 time without his wife. Of course for many years 
 past it can be merely a nervous caprice ; but 
 somehow or other he attributes to Mrs. G. a sort 
 of talisman in respect of my health and comforts, 
 and is haunted with the thought that some ill-luck 
 would happen. If therefore by your kindness, I 
 am enabled to do it, I propose to set off for Rams- 
 gate on Monday next with Mrs. Gillman, whose 
 sister will join her there, and to spend the month 
 of November by the seaside — and to do nothing 
 but write verses, and finish the correction of the 
 last part of my work On the Power and Use of 
 Words. The edition of my poems by Pickering is 
 sold off. There were only (so he says and I have 
 no right to suppose the contrary) three hundred 
 printed. But I have much to write, both as 
 suggested by your letter, and of my own thoughts, 
 
1828] COLERIDGE, 319 
 
 which I will not blend with this dolorous scrawl, 
 but begin anew without waiting for your reply. 
 Pray remember me and likewise Mr. and Mrs. 
 G. affectionately to Mrs. Stuart. What a lovely 
 day ! — May God bless you and yours and your 
 obliged and affectionate friend, 
 
 14 October, 1828. S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Stuart to the Earl of 
 
 MUNSTER. 
 
 19 July, 1831. 
 My Lord, — As it will give you pleasure to do an 
 act of humanity, I take the liberty of addressing 
 you on the subject of the Annuity of ;^ioo,* lately 
 derived from the Royal Society of Literature by 
 Mr. Coleridge the Poet. The life of that gentle- 
 man who is now upwards of threescore, is 
 threatened more by infirmity even, than by old 
 age. He had no other means of subsistence, and 
 now his literary powers cannot command pecuniary 
 aid. To cast into difficulty at the close of life, a 
 
 * The annuity which had been conferred on Coleridge in 1825 
 was not renewed, but a sum of ^300. was ultimately handed oyer to 
 him by the Treasury. 
 
320 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 man who by his writings, has shed a lustre on the 
 age he lives in, would be a reproach to the nation. 
 In declining years and gnawing infirmity, he 
 could not calculate on the loss of a provision 
 which seemed to have been settled for his life. It 
 has been reported and is generally believed, that 
 the discontinuance of this Annuity is not the act 
 of the Ministry, but of your Royal Father, who if 
 he saw and knew the man, and his circumstances 
 would certainly have made an exception in his 
 favour. Were you to call on Coleridge to judge for 
 yourself, and then to recommend the restoration 
 of his income, I am sure you would thank me for 
 suggesting a step, so gracious, so humane, and so 
 agreeable to the literary world. I have had the 
 honour of knowing Coleridge upwards of thirty 
 years, and during the last eight or ten, I have 
 occasionally assisted him with sums of money, to 
 enable him to take the benefit of sea air, which is 
 essential to his health. This letter is written 
 wholly without his knowledge ; and I address you 
 as I make no doubt you will be inclined to promote 
 a measure so consistent with the popular character 
 of your Royal Father. 
 
1831] COLERIDGE. 
 
 321 
 
 Reply of the Earl of Munster to Mr. 
 Stuart. 
 
 13 Belgrave Street, 21 J^dy, 183 1. 
 
 Sir, — This is the first opportunity I have had, 
 of clearing up (as no defence is necessary, till a 
 direct charge is made) the circumstances con- 
 nected with the withdrawal of the six incomes to 
 the stipendiary members of the Royal Society of 
 Literature. 
 
 You state, that it has been reported, this act is 
 not of the Ministry, but of my father. You are 
 partly in the right ; but I exculpate the King in 
 every way, as I have no doubt you will, on under- 
 standing the causes, that led to the establishment 
 of the six incomes, and their being now with- 
 drawn. 
 
 The late King, whose income doubled my 
 father's, had the means of giving, out of his Privy 
 Purse, £"1100 a year; but it was found quite 
 impossible it should be continued in the present 
 reign, from the very reduced income of his present 
 Majesty, who could not be expected to be saddled 
 with the private largesses of his predecessor. As 
 22 
 
322 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1834 
 
 it is, the King has taken little short of ;£'2o,ooo a 
 year on his own list, from his late Majesty's 
 account. 
 
 I will not fail however to lay your letter before 
 the king and am obliged to you for communicating 
 with me on the subject. — I have the honour to be, 
 Sir, your obedient servant, Munster. 
 
 End of Coleridge's Letters. 
 
 A FAREWELL. 
 
 1834. 
 
 It was a lovely afternoon in early summer when 
 my dear father took me for a ride up to Highgate 
 to pay what proved our last visit to Coleridge. 
 We chatted pleasantly on the way till we drew up 
 and dismounted under the large trees of The 
 Grove, at Mr. Gillman's gate, and were shown 
 into his dining-room, whose shade and coolness 
 were most refreshing after our dusty ride. My 
 father sent up his card, and we waited some 
 quarter of an hour, when the door opened, and 
 the old poet (old ! he was but sixty-two !) 
 
1834] COLERIDGE. 323 
 
 appeared, clad in black, leaning on his staff; 
 much bent, his hair snow white, his face pale ; 
 but his eyes, those wondrous eyes ! large, lustrous, 
 beaming with intelligence and kindness. The 
 first greetings over, we sat down, and my father 
 and he were soon deep in politics. Disestablish- 
 ment was their subject, against which Coleridge 
 vehemently argued, citing widely from the Old 
 Testament, and mixing up the names of leading 
 statesmen with those of Isaiah and the other 
 prophets, especially Ezekiel, in what was to me 
 a most bewildering maze. I may here mention 
 that Ezekiel seemed his especial favourite. The 
 first time I dined in company at my father's 
 table, I sat between Coleridge and Mr. Hill 
 (known as " Little Tommy Hill ") of the 
 Adelphi, and Ezekiel then formed the theme of 
 Coleridge's eloquence. I well remember his 
 citing the chapter of the Dead Bones, and his 
 sepulchral voice as he asked, " Can these bones 
 live ? " Then his observation that nothing in the 
 range of human thought was more sublime than 
 Ezekiel's reply, " Lord ! Thou knowest ! " in 
 deepest humility, not presuming to doubt the 
 
324 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [1834 
 
 omnipotence of the Most High. But to return 
 to Highgate. Profound as were his arguments, 
 yet the tone, the earnestness, above all the con- 
 stantly appealing expression of that inspired 
 countenance, fascinated me, and I followed the 
 thread of his discourse delighted, trusting to 
 chance for what I might retain. My father was 
 equally animated, and the conversation lasted 
 upwards of an hour. When we rose to depart, 
 Coleridge took us into the drawing-room to show 
 us a portrait which had lately been taken of him- 
 self. He was much dissatisfied with it, and 
 appealed to my father and me that it had not 
 taken his expression. But what portrait ever did ? 
 He showed us several others, and we stood 
 criticizing, — rather to my amusement, being then 
 but in my teens ! But his vanity, if such it 
 might be called, had in it such a mixture of 
 benevolence and fun, that one seemed to love 
 him the better for it. At last we went back 
 through the dining-room into Mr. Gillman's hall, 
 where he took an affectionate leave of me, and 
 stood talking to my father while I mounted my 
 horse. I think the two old friends of nearly 
 
1834] COLERIDGE. 
 
 325 
 
 forty years' standing had each a feeling that it 
 might be a last adieu. So loth did they seem 
 to part, Coleridge coming out of the door and 
 shaking hands with my father repeatedly. There 
 he stood while my father mounted ! We took 
 our last look, exchanged the last farewell, and 
 rode off. My father was very silent all the way 
 back, while my young brain was busy arranging 
 into order the conversation I had listened to, and 
 which I noted down immediately on my return 
 home. 
 
 He was a kind old man was Coleridge ! particu- 
 larly so to the young, with a vein of affectionate 
 fun that won the heart, together with a refinement 
 and purity that banished all fear and restraint. 
 My father and he had been almost like brothers ; 
 and Coleridge, in one of his letters, now in my 
 possession, characterizes him as the " wisest 
 adviser, and the most steady, disinterested, and 
 generous friend heaven ever bestowed upon 
 man ! " 
 
 Reciprocal obligations no doubt there were 1 
 Coleridge not only received with generosity (for 
 there is a generosity in receiving !), but acknow- 
 
326 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [l834 
 
 ledged with gratitude, and with every expression 
 of respect and affection, those which fell to his 
 share. " I should be glad to think," he says in 
 another letter, " there were two upon earth as 
 warmly and unmixedly attached to you ! " And 
 his last letter, dated October, 1828, concludes 
 thus : " May God bless you, and yours, and your 
 obliged and affectionate friend, S. T. Coleridge." 
 
 M. S. 
 
LETTERS FROM WM. WORDSWORTH 
 TO DANIEL STUART. 
 
LETTERS FROM W.WORDSWORTH 
 TO DANIEL STUART. 
 
 Letter i. 
 
 1801. Grasmere, Kendal, Westmorland, 
 
 Mmtday, December 21. 
 Dear Sir, — I know you will excuse the liberty 
 I am going to take. I wrote to Coleridge to 
 request he would send me ;£'io. I find, by a letter 
 which I received from him this day, that he must 
 have left town before my letter could reach him. 
 Now I happen at this moment to have particular 
 occasion for this sum. I have therefore taken the 
 liberty of requesting you would send it down to 
 me here, and consider him your debtor to that 
 amount ; or, as you like it best, look to me for 
 the immediate repayment of the sum, or if you 
 have no objection, for articles for your Paper, in 
 
33^- LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 value to that amount. I have written to C. 
 to inform him of this application to you, which I 
 have made because I could not receive the money 
 from himself in time for my purpose. Thanking 
 you for the entertainment your excellent Paper 
 affords me, I am, dear Sir, yours truly, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 (the following eight letters are concerning 
 the public a tion of words worth's pamphlet 
 on the convention of cintra.y 
 
 Letter 2. 
 
 •* Posted February 9, iSog," 
 
 Sunday Morning. 
 My dear Sir, — Finding that I have to recom- 
 pose the two preceding paragraphs, which have 
 been erased, I shall allot the remainder of this 
 sheet to answering your kind letter which I re- 
 ceived yesterday. I am greatly pleased that you 
 think so favourably of my labours, both because I 
 value your judgement and because my heart is 
 
 » Extracts from this correspondence are printed in The Life of 
 Wordsworth, by Professor Knight, vol. ii. pp. 129-133. Mac- 
 millan. 1889. 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 33I 
 
 deeply interested in this affair. Never did any 
 public event cause in my mind so much sorrow 
 as the Convention of Cintra/ both on account of 
 the Spaniards and Portuguese, and on our own. 
 Every good and intelligent man of my friends or 
 acquaintances has been in his turn agitated and 
 afflicted by it. I do not feel so much inclined to 
 express my thanks for the trouble which you have 
 taken with this pamphlet, as my pleasure to find 
 that you attach so lively a feeling to it on account 
 of the cause which it is intended to support. 
 
 I was much pleased with a very sensible article 
 in The Courier, some time past, on the party 
 feelings connected with the Convention. I sup- 
 posed it to be written by you. What you say 
 upon Wellesley, as to the French being entitled to 
 
 ' " It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling 
 I entered into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their 
 deliverance from the usurped power of the French. Many times 
 have I gone from Allan Bank in Grasmere Vale, where we were 
 then residing, to the Raise-Gap, as it is called, so late as two o'clock 
 in the morning, to meet the carrier bringing the newspaper from 
 Keswick. Imperfect traces of the state of mind in which I then 
 was may be found in my tracts on the Convention of Cintra, as 
 well as in the ' Sonnets dedicated to Liberty' " (" Memoirs of Words- 
 worth," vol. i. p. 384. Moxon. 185.1). 
 
S32 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 such terms, is exactly in its spirit, what I had 
 marked down upon the subject. . . . 
 
 Buonaparte may rather be said to inflict upon 
 than to propose terms to his adversaries. 
 
 Of Moore I know nothing further than that his 
 forward movement is unaccountable, and that his . 
 retreat appears to have been very disorderly, and 
 that Dalrymple has told us he approved of the 
 Convention. If this be true, he was either a fool 
 or a rascal, or both. Moore in his person was, I 
 believe, a thoroughly brave man. If Ministry do 
 mean to give up the Spaniards, which I suspect 
 with you, they ought to be execrated to the latest 
 posterity. Many thanks for your kind offers. I 
 should like to see all the documents you mention, 
 particularly the official Report of the Board. 
 If you could add to these a small pamphlet of 
 letters published under the name of Decius, and 
 Lecky's pamphlet, I should be obliged to you. I 
 also wish much to see Lord Brooke's Life of Sir 
 Philip Sidney. It is not an uncommon book, and 
 perhaps a bookseller could procure it. You are 
 quite right about the franks. Curwen certainly 
 misled me. Coleridge is gone to Kendal to-day, 
 
1809] WORDSWORTH. ^^^ 
 
 to settle finally about the printing of The Friend. 
 He is tolerably well. I was with him at Kendal 
 two or three days ago upon the same subject. I 
 have many apologies to make in having been so 
 dilatory in sending off copy; but I shall make 
 all the haste in my power. But I cannot bear 
 much confinement and have many interruptions, 
 and take little pleasure in composing, and penman- 
 ship is to me unendurable. From all these causes, 
 and from the accidents and misconceptions which 
 you are acquainted with, has proceeded the delay. 
 I shall carefully attend to what you say about a 
 second edition corrected and enlarged. — With 
 many thanks, yours most sincerely, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 Letter 3. 
 
 '• Posted March 31, 1809." 
 My dear Sir, — Yesterday I sent off the last 
 sheets of the pamphlet. I have entitled it " Con- 
 cerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, 
 and Portugal, to each other and to the Common 
 
334 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 Enemy at this crisis, and specifically as affected 
 by the Convention of Cintra ; the whole brought 
 to the test of those principles, &c." As I found 
 the public mind so completely engrossed with the 
 Duke of York, I thought it better to avail myself 
 of that opportunity to add general matter to the 
 pamphlet, concerning the hopes of the Spaniards 
 and principles of the contest ; so that, from the 
 proportion of Spain which it occupied in the 
 work, the Convention of Cintra might fairly 
 appear, what in truth it is in my mind, an action 
 dwelt upon only for the sake of illustrating 
 principles, with a view to promote liberty and 
 good policy; in the manner in which an ana- 
 tomist illustrates the laws of organic life from 
 a human subject placed before him and his 
 audience. 
 
 I confess I have no hopes of the thing making 
 any impression. The style of thinking and feeling 
 is so little in the spirit of the age. This country 
 is in fact fallen as low in point of moral philosophy 
 (and of course political) as it is possible for any 
 country to fall. We should have far better books 
 circulated among us, if we were as thoroughly 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 335 
 
 enslaved as the Romans under their Emperors. 
 Witness the state of literature in Germany till 
 within these two or three years, when it has been 
 overrun by the French. The voice of reason and 
 nature was uttered and listened to under the 
 Prussian despotism, and in the Courts of the 
 Princelings. But books will do nothing of them- 
 selves, nor institutions without books. Two 
 things are absolutely wanted in this country ; a 
 thorough reform in Parliament and a new course 
 of education, which must be preceded by some 
 genuine philosophical writings from some quarter 
 or other, to teach the principles upon which that 
 education should be grounded. We have in our 
 language better books than exist in any other ; 
 and in our land, better institutions ; but the one 
 nobody reads, and the others are fallen into dis- 
 order and decay. What can be expected from a 
 Parliament consisting of such pitiful drivellers as 
 the Members of our two Houses are with scarcely 
 an exception ? And as to the Army — there's 
 Fergusson who has behaved like a man of sense 
 and honour ; but heaven preserve us from the 
 rest ! I do not doubt that there are excellent 
 
33^ LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR. 
 
 men, both for knowledge, understanding, and 
 principles, in the Army, but so far are these 
 excellences from being helps to them in getting 
 forward in their profession, that they are the 
 worst obstructions a man can have about him. 
 And in the Fleet ! . . . There are however to our 
 comfort some men of distinguished talent pretty 
 high in the Navy who I earnestly wish, were in 
 stations worthy of their talents — Cochrane for 
 example, Commodore Beaver, (now in the West 
 Indies) one of the most enlightened men any 
 country ever produced. Keith and Hood I believe 
 are both able men ; but it is deplorable to think 
 what fools are in the highest stations. 
 
 I have been exceedingly pleased with the con- 
 duct of The Courier upon this business of the Duke 
 of York, and particularly with some observations 
 (written I conjecture by you) upon the Army, at 
 the close of the review of the different cases. 
 They are inestimable. And indeed there has 
 appeared so much practical good sense in The 
 Courier, that I cannot but regret that you do not 
 take the trouble of putting together some of the 
 most generally and permanently interesting of 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 337 
 
 these observations, in a separate shape which 
 might ensure their duration. Do think about this ! 
 As to the pamphlet, you will send it to whom- 
 soever you think proper. As I have defended the 
 City, perhaps a few copies might with advantage 
 be sent to the leading Members there ; but all 
 this I leave to your better judgement. Nothing 
 would give me so much pleasure as to have such 
 parts of it translated into the Spanish language 
 as were likely to be of any use. If you have any 
 means of bringing that about, or if the thing be 
 feasible, I know your zeal and kindness will 
 prompt you to do it. — I am with great respect 
 and regard, your sincere friend, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 Pray let us see you down here this summer. I 
 
 have said nothing of Coleridge, having not seen 
 
 him this month past. He is now at Keswick; 
 
 probably you have heard of him. Pray be so 
 
 kind as to look over the pamphlet before it is 
 
 published ; so that if there be any error, either as 
 
 to fact or reasoning, that can be obviated or 
 
 apologized for, it may be done by preface, note, or 
 
 erratum. 
 
 23 
 
338 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 y 
 
 Letter 4. 
 
 " Posted May i, 1809." 
 My dear Sir, — I received your kind letter 
 yesterday, and am obliged to answer it in a hurry, 
 in order to request that you would call at the 
 Printing Office and use your exertions to procure 
 the immediate finishing of the work, which has 
 been most shamefully and injuriously delayed by 
 a drunken compositor whom Mr. De Quincey 
 cannot get changed. 
 
 Before I quit the subject, do let me intreat of 
 you to omit no opportunity, in The Courier or 
 otherwise, to exhort this country to be true to the 
 Spaniards in their struggles, as they have been, 
 and will be found true to themselves. Buonaparte 
 cannot have lost less than 140 or 150 thousand 
 men already in Spain. A man must know little 
 of human nature who despairs of the cause 
 because the country is overrun, or because the 
 Spaniards cannot beat the French yet in pitched 
 battles. But I have not time to go further into 
 this subject ; it is one with many others upon 
 which I wish to converse with you ; particularly 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 339 
 
 upon the military defence of our own country, and 
 to lay before you my reasons for believing that 
 nothing has yet been done towards it (I mean in 
 the arrangements concerning the Volunteers, local 
 militia, &c.), which is not far worse than useless. 
 We are, in fact, in everything but our Fleet, 
 leaning upon broken reeds ; and there perhaps 
 (as has been apprehended by some wise men) 
 sleeping upon gunpowder. But I hope this is 
 not so. 
 
 How strange that I should have so expressed 
 myself as to lead you to believe that I meant to 
 lay it down as a general position, that freedom of 
 discussion could exist under arbitrary govern- 
 ments, or, under any modification of them could 
 exist for any good purpose ! In the comparison 
 which I made between our own and other coun- 
 tries, I did not mean to say any more than this, 
 which might both be concluded a priori, and has 
 been proved by the fact, viz., that under arbitrary 
 governments which have been long established in 
 tranquillity, and are confident of their own security, 
 works of bold disquisition, both in religion, morals, 
 and politics, have been permitted to see the light, 
 
34° LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 and what is of more consequence, have been 
 generally read, though not to any good purpose. 
 And the reason is plain — because, under such 
 governments, in such circumstances, opinions excite 
 no alarm, either to the governors, or among any 
 part of the governed ; there being no probable 
 connection between opinion and action. Whereas, 
 in a country like ours, where we have a consider- 
 able portion of practical liberty, not only is the 
 government afraid of opinions differing from those 
 on which its own strength is founded, but likewise, 
 there takes place another intolerance, still more to 
 be deprecated, in the minds of large bodies of the 
 community, who set their faces against everything 
 that appears, which is not, in matter and manner, 
 perfectly orthodox ; from the apprehension that, 
 if such notions gain ground, a course of action 
 will follow, and their privileges, or at least their 
 tranquillity, be sacrificed. Hence, for the most 
 part, such books only are written as flatter 
 existing prejudice and ignorance, or if others be 
 produced, they are cried out against at first, and 
 finally neglected. You will remember that I posi- 
 tively said in my letter, that books avail nothing 
 
iSogl WORDSWORTH. 34I 
 
 without institutions — that is, of course, institutions 
 of civil liberty. I am sure that on these points 
 not the smallest difference would exist between 
 us, if we had an opportunity of sifting thoroughly 
 each other's thoughts. 
 
 But it is time to thank you for the body of 
 pamphlets. The copious account of the Conven- 
 tion would have been of use to me, to have made 
 out a stronger case in some instances, particularly 
 upon the subject of the plunder. I am obliged to 
 conclude. — Most sincerely yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 Grasmere, Wednesday, April 26. 
 
 Letter 5. 
 
 " Posted May 6, 1809." 
 My dear Sir, — I have just been reading an old 
 
 Magazine where I find that was fined ;^ioo 
 
 and imprisoned in Newgate four months (as 
 
 was in Dorsetshire Gaol four years) for a libel, as 
 it was termed, upon the Bishop of Llandaff; that 
 is, no doubt, for having spoken, of the Right 
 
342 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 Reverend, truth with honest intentions. This has 
 made me look to myself, and therefore I beg that 
 if my pamphlet be not published, you would take 
 the trouble of reading it over, to see whether it 
 may not be made a handle for exercising upon my 
 person a like act of injustice. If any such pas- 
 sages occur, let the leaf be cancelled. As to 
 expense, that I disregard in a case like this. To 
 prevent a hiatus in the sheet, such words may be 
 substituted as you or Mr. De Quincey may think 
 proper. The passage for which most is to be 
 apprehended, according to the best of my recollec- 
 tion and judgement, is where I say (alluding to 
 
 and ) "what greater punishment could 
 
 befall men than to have brought upon themselves 
 the unreasonable contempt and hatred of their 
 countrymen ? " This is no doubt a truth at least 
 holds good of all their countrymen who have 
 either sense or patriotism. We see, from the 
 events which have taken place at Oporto and at 
 Lisbon, that victory after victory in the field turns 
 to no account, if the affections of the people are 
 alienated by tyranny. There would have been 
 little occasion for General Beresford's proclama- 
 
iSog] WoRbswoRfH. 343 
 
 tions, and those of the Portuguese government 
 complaining of reports to the prejudice of the Eng- 
 lish, if it had not been for D. and W's cursed Con- 
 ventions. But since it has pleased His Majesty's 
 Ministers, to their infinite disgrace, to send Wel- 
 lesley back to Portugal, and since he is now at 
 the head of a British Army, it may be said that 
 the truth which I have uttered in the above v 
 passage, had better be suppressed or softened 
 down. I think so myself, but submit to your 
 greater experience and better judgement. I have 
 not much fear for any other passage, but should 
 thank you to look over the sheets with this view. ^ 
 
 I am much obliged to you for your offer about 
 promoting the circulation. I find, from Coleridge, 
 that the printers accuse Mr. De Quincey and 
 myself of being the cause of the delay of the 
 publication, by the chopping and changing that 
 has taken place. As for myself, the charge gives 
 me no concern. Whatever harm has been oc- 
 casioned by the delay cannot now be remedied. 
 Mr. De Quincey will be happy to lay before you 
 his opinion of the causes of the delay. 
 
 Lord Bacon, in his advertisement concerning 
 
 / 
 
344 Lexers of lAke poEts. [may 
 
 Church Controversies, writes thus : " Indeed, 
 bitter and earnest writing must not hastily be 
 condemned ; for men cannot contend coldly and 
 without aifection about things which they hold 
 dear and precious. A politic man may write from 
 his brain without touch and sense of his heart, as 
 in a speculation that appertaineth not unto him, 
 but a feeling Christian will express in his words a 
 character of love or hate." Substitute the word 
 Patriot for Christian and the position is equally 
 true, and even more so, inasmuch as we are less 
 liable to be misled about moral duties than points 
 of doctrine. — I am, my dear Sir, yours very 
 sincerely, Wm. Wordsworth. 
 
 Pray excuse my having employed Miss Hutchin- 
 son as my amanuensis, my own penmanship being 
 so wretched. W. W. 
 
 Letter 6. 
 
 ** i8og." Grasmere, May 25. 
 My dear Sir, — I suppose by this time the 
 pamphlet is published, as I received two days 
 
iSogJ WORDSWORTH. 345 
 
 ago some unstitched copies from Mr. De Quincey. 
 I have no doubt that Mr. De Quincey was the 
 occasion, though I am at the same time assured 
 that he neither was, nor could be, the necessary 
 cause, of the delay. The MS. was submitted to 
 him, now nearly two months ago, nor has a single 
 syllable of the body of the work been altered, either 
 by him or me, since that time. It is now printed 
 exactly as I sent it at that time, therefore how 
 could any alterations of his in the text have 
 caused this long delay ? The fact is that Mr. 
 De Quincey must have insisted upon his punctua- 
 tion being attended to, and the printer must have 
 been put out of humour by this, and therefore 
 refused to go on with the work. But this is a 
 matter of little consequence. The evil is done 
 and cannot be amended. My inducement for 
 placing it in Mr. De Quincey's hands was to save 
 time and expense, (our situation being' so incon- 
 venient for the post) and also to save you trouble. 
 I shall say no more than that I am very sorry for 
 what has happened, and that you should have had 
 vexation about it ; thanking you at the same time 
 for all the trouble you have taken. 
 
34^ LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [mAY 
 
 I learnt with "great concern, from Mr. De 
 Quincey, that a passage which you deemed 
 libellous, was not cancelled. This was in direct 
 opposition to my earnest request conveyed in a 
 letter which I desired him to read to you ; in 
 which letter I expressly said that (with the excep- 
 tion of two passages, one of which has been 
 cancelled, and the other I find Mr. De Quincey 
 had previously altered in the MS. agreeable to 
 my request) I referred to you entirely to decide 
 upon what was libellous, and what was not, adding 
 that, whenever there was a doubt, the passage 
 should be cancelled without remorse. I am 
 therefore very sorry that he should so resolutely 
 have opposed his opinion to yours, but I hope that 
 you were not overborne by his perseverance, or 
 Mr. Baldwin's authority, but that your under- 
 standing was convinced by their arguments; if not, 
 I should be most grievously vexed upon this 
 occasion. 
 
 Of Coleridge or the " Friend " I can say nothing 
 satisfactory. It is nearly three months since he 
 left us and I have not heard from him lately. He 
 is now, I understand, at Penrith, whither he went 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 347 
 
 from Keswick for the purpose of publishing " The 
 Friend," against the second Saturday of May. 
 This is all I know about his late movements. 
 
 I cannot say that I have been so well pleased 
 with the course of The Courier lately, neither in 
 the instance of Castlereagh whom it has endea- 
 voured to screen, nor with respect to the extreme 
 bitterness with which it has declared against all 
 those who have countenanced, in connection with 
 Burdett, the attempts at Reform. If we who 
 wish for a temperate reform, are utterly to reject 
 all assistance from all those who do not think 
 exactly as we do, how is it to be attained ? For 
 my part, I see no party or set of men with whom 
 in regard to this measure, I could act with entire 
 approbation of their views ; but I should be glad 
 to receive assistance from any. If I have a hill 
 to climb, and cannot do it without a walking 
 stick, better have a dirty one than none at all. I 
 do not think the reform will ever be effected, 
 unless the people take it up — and if the people do 
 stir, it can only be by public meetings ; and it is 
 natural that in meetings of this kind, the most 
 violent men should be most applauded — but I do 
 
34^ LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 not see that it necessarily follows that their words 
 will be realized in action. The misfortune of this 
 question of reform is that the one party sees 
 nothing in it but dangers, the other nothing but 
 hopes and promises. For my part, I think the 
 dangers and difficulties great, but not insurmount- 
 able. Whereas, if there be not a Reform, the 
 destruction of the liberties of the country is 
 inevitable. I repeat a question put to you some 
 time ago. Are we likely to see you here in the 
 course of the summer ? We should be happy to 
 show you anything that could interest you about 
 us. We have a large house and plenty of room. — 
 I am, dear Sir, most sincerely yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 Letter 7. 
 
 " Post May 31, 1809." 
 
 My dear Sir, — I learn from a letter received last 
 
 night from Mr. De Quincey, that the book has 
 
 been lying now ten days at the printers, finished, 
 
 and is probably still unpublished. With great 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 
 
 349 
 
 sorrow I have perceived that this has been owing 
 to your not having been apprized that the printing 
 was done, Mr. De Quincey having been satisfied 
 by the printers' assurance made to him, that you 
 had been informed when the sheets were going to 
 be struck off; but at the same time he tells me 
 that they did not wait for your answer. Therefore 
 when the printers had shown themselves so 
 inattentive to their promise to you, viz., that 
 the sheets were not to be struck off till you had 
 examined them, what proof had Mr. De Quincey 
 that this message was sent ? Much less that you 
 had received it ? But it avails nothing to find 
 fault, especially with one who has taken such 
 pains (according to the best of his judgement) to 
 forward this business. That he has failed is too 
 clear, and not without great blame on his own 
 part (being a man of great abilities and the best 
 feelings, but, as I have found, not fitted for smooth 
 and speedy progress in business). I learn that 
 the sheets, as I have said, were struck off without 
 your having an opportunity to ascertain whether 
 they contained anything libellous. This has 
 angered me much, as it is an act of great dis- 
 
350 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 respect to you, and may prove of most serious 
 injury to me. In fact, if I were superstitious, I 
 should deem that there was a fatality attending 
 J this, my first essay in politics. I have kept my 
 temper till last night, but I must say that Mr. 
 De Quincey's letter of last night, ruffled me not a 
 little. 
 
 I hope you did not take ill my freedom with 
 respect to the late conduct of The Courier. I 
 spoke from the best motives. 
 
 Of " The Friend " and Coleridge I hear nothing, 
 and am sorry to say I hope nothing. It is I think 
 too clear that Coleridge is not sufficiently master 
 of his own efforts to execute anything which 
 requires a regular course of application to one 
 object. I fear so — indeed I am of opinion that it 
 is so — to my great sorrow. 
 
 It is so late that I have little anxiety about the 
 immediate effect of the pamphlet, but I hope that 
 your exertions in its favour will do all that can be 
 done to turn the few days of the Session which 
 remain, to a favourable account. — Affectionately 
 yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
iSog] ' WORDSWORTH. 
 
 351 
 
 Excuse this vile paper which I have taken by 
 accident. Should the pamphlet be republished 
 when this reaches you, which I scarcely deem 
 possible, I entreat that if there be any passage 
 or passages which you think libellous, that they 
 may yet be cancelled, and also have this further 
 addition made to the Errata. 
 
 Letter 8. 
 
 " 1809." Stmday Night, June 4. 
 My dear Sir, — Nothing but vexation seems to 
 attend me in this affair of the pamphlet. Mr. 
 DeQuincey according to my request sent me down 
 ten stitched pamphlets (he had previously sent 
 four unstitched) and it was not till to-day that 
 I discovered that, in two copies of these stitched, 
 the page which was cancelled remains as it first 
 stood, the corrected leaf not having been sub- 
 stituted. Ten copies have been sent me by this 
 last parcel, two of them covered with green 
 
352 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 paper — in one of these the corrected leaf has been 
 substituted. Of the other I cannot speak, as it 
 is sent to a friend. The other eight copies were 
 simply stitched. Six have been sent off un- 
 examined, but the two that remain are both 
 wrong — both containing the passage only as it 
 first stood — from which I conclude that it is 
 the same with all the others. This is a most 
 culpable inattention on the part of some one, the 
 more noticeable, as these copies that have not 
 the corrected leaf, contain, both of them, the 
 Errata, which were printed on another part of the 
 same half sheet. I do earnestly entreat that you 
 would do all in your power to have this remedied. 
 It has mortified me more than I can express, 
 and after so many disappointments, has robbed 
 me of all wish to make any alterations in a second 
 edition, if it should be called for; since I cannot 
 think of saddling you with the trouble of cor- 
 recting the press, and therefore cannot have the 
 least hope but that such blunders and negligences 
 would take place, in inserting the alterations, as 
 to render the work utterly unintelligible. In fact 
 nothing /an be more unfortunate for a work of 
 
 ~J I nothing /a 
 
l8og] WORDSWORTH. 353 
 
 this kind than a residence so far from London, 
 and so unfavourable to communication with the 
 post. 
 
 I am much obliged to you for your kind sug- 
 gestions about an amended edition, and if I were 
 in London, it should be done ; but situated as 
 I am, I must content myself with requesting you, 
 in case a second edition should be called for, 
 to put a copy into the hands of the printer, with 
 the Errata corrected — both those first printed 
 and those since sent off — and to have it printed as 
 rapidly as possible, which cannot be done with 
 any effect without employing at least three 
 presses, in which case it might be done in a 
 week. 
 
 " The Friend " has at last appeared. I am 
 sorry for it, as I have not the least hope that it 
 can proceed. — Most truly yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 I have addressed a letter to the same purpose 
 to Mr. De Q., lest you should not be in the way; 
 but do not let this prevent your looking to the 
 business yourself, particularly as Mr. De Q. 
 
 24 
 
354 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 may have left town. I am grieved to impose 
 this further trouble upon you. Many thanks for 
 the newspaper. Schill is a fine fellow. 
 
 Letter 9. 
 
 "Posted June 17, 1809." 
 My dear Sir,- — In order that you may not be 
 puzzled with my bad penmanship, which I know 
 must too often have been the case, I have begged 
 of Miss Hutchinson to be my amanuensis. 
 
 First let me thank you for your kind exertions 
 in favour of the pamphlet. I have some reason 
 now for having better hopes, concerning the sale, 
 than I ventured to encourage, notwithstanding 
 your assurances. It has pleased much several 
 persons who have read it in this neighbourhood, 
 V and I learn from Charles Lamb that everybody 
 whom he has heard speak of it in town extols 
 it highly. On this account, when I combine it 
 with your confident expressions, I can scarcely 
 ■i doubt but, th^£^.^edition,^toi§^^j^^ a second 
 will be called for. For the reasons which I 
 
iSog] WORDSWORTH. 355 
 
 assigned to you in my last, I am not disposed to 
 make any other than trifling alterations and 
 additions, but some I must make, and there- 
 fore I should be glad to hear from you when a 
 second edition is determined upon, should it be 
 so, and will send you up per coach immediately 
 a corrected copy to print from. I feel more 
 strongly my obligations to you, for the trouble you 
 have taken in this business, when I consider your 
 many occupations. ... 
 
 Coleridge arrived here yesterday morning after 
 an absence of nearly four months. As I thought 
 it my duty, some time since, upon substantial 
 grounds, to express my apprehension, that from the 
 irresolution of the author, *' The Friend " might 
 not prosper, which opinion I expressed in order 
 to break the force of your disappointment should 
 my forebodings prove true, I now think it right 
 to say that such appear to be the present dis- 
 positions, resolutions, and employments, of Cole- 
 ridge, that I am encouraged to entertain more 
 favourable hopes of his exerting himself steadily 
 than I ever have had at any other period of this 
 business. I confess that it looks ill that he 
 
^36 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 should have interrupted the regular publication, 
 so early as even the third number, but there is 
 one circumstance which makes me not sorry that 
 this has been done, as I understand that there is 
 no quantity of paper yet arrived to enable him 
 to carry it on regularly for any length of time. 
 1 suspect he has some difficulty in this which he 
 has not laid open to his friends. . . . 
 [Booksellers.] 
 I find Coleridge is decidedly against Reform, 
 and shall be very happy to hear what he has to 
 say upon the subject ; which I believe he will not 
 fail to do in the next, or succeeding numbers of 
 " The Friend." I am glad to find that you do not 
 approve of some of those things in The Courier 
 which I objected to. I was interested upon the 
 subject, both with reference to its importance, 
 and the fair fame of The Courier, which I know 
 had drawn upon itself the approbation of many 
 true friends of their country, by its conduct con- 
 cerning the Convention of Cintra, and still more 
 strikingly, for the manly part it took in the Duke 
 of York's affair. I was therefore sorry to hear, 
 as I did hear, imputations cast upon it, which 
 
l8l2] WORDSWORTH. 
 
 357 
 
 seemed to me not groundless, both with respect 
 to Reform, and to the manner in which it was 
 disposed to screen Lord Castlereagh ; not that 
 Lord C. was, in the instance complained of, a whit 
 more guilty than hundreds, as they know well ; 
 but his defence was set upon a wrong footing. — 
 I am, truly yours, 
 
 - W. Wordsworth. 
 
 If the pamphlet should have any sale, I must') 
 earnestly entreat, nay, insist, that you would re- 
 mibMarse__your^^ from the profits for all the 
 expense incurred — especially for the copies you] 
 have paid for and distributed. 
 
 Letter io. 
 
 Posted October 20, 1812. 
 My dear Sir, — I ought to have thanked you 
 long since for the trouble you took, at my request, 
 concerning the French prisoners. In consequence 
 of your representation, I declined interfering any 
 further in the business. I wish now to trouble 
 you about a matter concerning myself, presuming 
 
 I 
 
358 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 upon the kindness which you have always shewn 
 me. 
 
 Our powerful neighbour, Lord Lonsdale, has 
 lately shewn a particular wish to serve me, having 
 most kindly given me an assurance that he will 
 use his influence to procure for me any situation, 
 which falls within the range of his patronage, 
 the salary of which would be an object to me, 
 and the duties not so heavy as to engross too 
 much of my time. His Lordship was so good as 
 to express a regret that some time might elapse 
 before such a place, might become vacant, and he 
 added that, if I knew of anything, though not 
 within the circle of his immediate influence, he 
 would be happy to exert himself in my behalf, if 
 he were persuaded there were any chance of 
 success. 
 
 Now you know I live chiefly in a retired corner 
 of the world, and therefore there is no chance 
 that I should hear of anything suitable, likely to 
 become vacant, except through the superior in- 
 formation of my friends. Nor is there any one to 
 whom I can apply with greater probability of 
 receiving the requisite knowledge than yourself. 
 
l8l2] WORDSWORTH. 359 
 
 Will you then be so kind as to point out to me 
 anything which is likely to answer my purpose 
 that may come to your knowledge ? Of course all 
 this is between ourselves. I have no objection, 
 I may add, to quit this part of the country, 
 provided the salary be adequate, and the duty 
 what I am equal to without being under the 
 necessity of withdrawing myself wholly from 
 literature, which / find an unprofitable concern. 
 Do you hear or see anything of Coleridge ? Lamb 
 writes to Lloyd that C's play is accepted. Heaven 
 grant it success ! If you see him, say we are 
 well. — Believe me, my dear sir, with great regard, 
 yours, W. Wordsworth. 
 
 Grasmere, October 13, 1812. 
 
 Letter ii. 
 
 1812, Grasmere, December 22. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I am afraid you will think that 
 
 I have been insensible of your kindness in taking 
 
 so much pains on my account, as you have 
 
 neither seen me nor yet heard from me. In fact, 
 
360 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 I have felt myself very much obliged to you for 
 your most judicious letter, and only deferred 
 returning my thanks till I should be enabled to 
 impart to you something decisive concerning the 
 
 result. Lord L , happening to be in the 
 
 country at the time I received yours and another 
 letter from another friend on the same subject, 
 I resolved to ride over, and lay the contents of 
 both before his lordship. This accordingly I did, 
 and found him in the best dispositions to exert 
 himself. He gave me, however, no encourage- 
 ment to go to London to make enquiries agree- 
 able to your exhortation, but said that he should 
 write to Mr. Long of the Treasury immediately 
 upon the subject. Two or three days ago, I had 
 
 a letter from Lord L , in which he tells 
 
 me that he has had an interview with Mr. Long, 
 and with Lord Liverpool ; but that they neither 
 of them gave any encouragement to an expecta- 
 tion of anything being procured within a reason- 
 able time that would answer my purpose; that is, 
 an office that would allow such a portion of 
 leisure as would be requisite for a literary man 
 to continue his pursuits. Lord L is so 
 
l8l2] WORDSWORTH. 361 
 
 obliging as to say that Lord Liverpool expressed 
 himself favourably of me, and thought my acquire- 
 ments deserving of a pension ; but that this at 
 first could not be considerable, as the fund was 
 limited. So that you see the business may be 
 said to have fallen through, which is not a very 
 different conclusion from what I expected. As I 
 did not even wish, and certainly had not the least 
 
 right to expect, that Lord L should make a 
 
 point with the first Lord of the Treasury of 
 demanding a place of value for me ; and unless 
 he had made a point of it, there w^as not much 
 likelihood of anything coming of it in the pre- 
 sent embarrassments under which administration 
 labours. ... 
 
 [Business details.] 
 You will be grieved to hear that my family are 
 in great affliction, the measles having just torn 
 from us, after an alarm of a few hours, a heavenly- 
 tempered boy, six years and a half old, who was 
 the hope, delight, and pride, of us all, and the 
 admiration of all who knew him. — I am, my dear 
 Sir, with many thanks, most faithfully yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
3^2 LETTERS OP LAKE POETS. [1815 
 
 Letter 12. 
 
 ''1815." 
 Rydal Mount, near Ambleside. 
 My dear Sir, — I take the liberty of writing this 
 at the wish of Mr. De Quincey. He is a friend 
 of mine whom you will recollect, with no very 
 pleasant feelings, perhaps, as having caused you 
 some trouble while my Tract, occasioned by the 
 Convention of Cintra, was printing. He is pre- 
 paring a short series of letters, to be addressed to 
 the Editor of some periodical publication, say of 
 The Courier, upon the subject of the stupidities, 
 the ignorance, and the dishonesties oi The Edinburgh 
 Review ; and principally it relates to myself 
 whom, perhaps you know, the Editor has long 
 honoured with his abuse. My works have been 
 a stumbling block to him from the commence- 
 ment of his career. What I have to request is 
 that, if it consist with your plan, you would give 
 these letters a place in your columns, which I see 
 have lately given more space to literature than 
 heretofore— and very properly — I think, for nothing 
 can be more flat and uninteresting than the pre- 
 
1815] WORDSWORTH. 363 
 
 sent course of public news. Mr. De Quincey will 
 call upon you, and I hope this letter will serve to 
 remove any little prejudice which you may have 
 against him. I thank you for the notice of the 
 Excursion in The Courier. It will serve the book, 
 though I owe the Editor a bit of a grudge for 
 having appeared to join in, at least to countenance, 
 the vulgar clamour against me ; but — I forgive | 
 him. 
 
 We hope that you and Mrs. Stuart are well, 
 and Mrs. W. and my sister join in kindest re- 
 membrances to her, and to yourself. — I am, dear 
 Sir, with great truth, your obliged servant, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 You need not doubt but that the letters will be 
 a credit to any publication, for Mr. De Q. is a 
 remarkably able man. 
 
 Letter 13. 
 
 April 7, 1 817, Rydal Mount. 
 My dear Sir, — 
 
 [Business details.] 
 Many thanks for your communications on the 
 
364 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [APRIL 
 
 subject of politics. There has been a general out- 
 cry among sensible people in this neighbourhood 
 against the remissness of Government in per- 
 mitting the free circulation of injurious writings. 
 It has been especially felt in regard to the blas- 
 phemous parodies on the Liturgy. No one can 
 comprehend why these things should not be sup- 
 pressed and the authors or publishers punished. 
 The suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is a 
 measure approved by all the well disposed who 
 are a large majority of the influential part of the 
 country. In fact also the spirit among the 
 labouring classes (with the exception of the popu- 
 lace of Carlisle) is incomparably better than it 
 was in 1794 and 1795. The agricultural popula- 
 tion of Cumberland and Westmoreland is at 
 present sound, but I would not engage that it 
 will continue so, in case rebellion should get the 
 upper hand in other parts of the island. A revo- 
 lution will, I think, be staved off for the present, 
 nor do I even apprehend that the disposition to 
 rebellion may not without difficulty be suppressed, 
 notwithstanding the embarrassments and heavy 
 distresses of the times. Nevertheless, I am, like 
 
1817] WORDSWORTH. 365 
 
 you, an Alarmist, and for this reason. I see 
 clearly that the principal ties, which kept the 
 different classes of society in a vital and harmo- 
 nious dependence upon each other, have within 
 these thirty years, either been greatly impaired, 
 or wholly dissolved. Every thing has been put 
 up to market, and sold for the highest price it 
 would buy. Farmers used formerly to be attached 
 to their landlords, and labourers to their farmers 
 who employed them. All that kind of feeling has 
 vanished. In like manner, the connexion between 
 the trading and landed interests of country towns, 
 undergoes no modification whatever from personal 
 feeling, whereas within my memory it was almost 
 wholly governed by it. A country squire, or sub- 
 stantial yeoman, used formerly to resort to the 
 same shops which his father had frequented before 
 him, and nothing but a serious injury, real or 
 supposed, would have appeared to him a justifi- 
 cation for breaking up a connexion which was 
 attended with substantial amity, and interchanges 
 of hospitality, from generation to generation. All 
 this moral cement is dissolved ; habits and pre- 
 judices are broken and rooted up, nothing being 
 
366 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jUNE 
 
 substituted in their place but a quickened self- 
 interest, with more extensive views and wider 
 dependencies, but more lax in proportion as they 
 are wider. The Ministry will do well if they keep 
 things quiet for the present ; but if our present 
 constitution in Church and State is to last, it 
 must rest as heretofore upon a moral basis — and 
 they who govern the country must be something 
 superior to mere financiers and political econo- 
 mists. Farewell. Do let me hear from you. — I 
 remain very faithfully yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 
 Southey is going to town shortly on his way to 
 the South, for a short trip to the Continent. I 
 saw him, a few days ago quite well, and preparing 
 a rod for Mr. Wm. Smith. 
 
 Letter 14. 
 
 Rydal Mount, June 22, 18 17. 
 My dear Sir, — I am sorry that Mrs. Stuart 
 must be disappointed in her wish to procure honey 
 from this neighbourhood. I cannot learn that 
 
1817] WORDSWORTH. 367 
 
 there is any such thing in the country, last summer 
 having been so extremely wet that the bees were 
 incapable of working, and most of them perished 
 through hunger in the course of the winter. The 
 ensuing season is likely to prove more favourable, 
 and care shall be taken to procure for Mrs. S. a 
 supply. 
 
 I congratulate you on your settlement in Oxford- 
 shire. What you have done is just what I should 
 have recommended. I dreaded the notion of your 
 throwing yourself far into the north, even in 
 England ; and as to Scotland, so long out of it as 
 you have been, what permanent comfort or solid 
 satisfaction could you have found there ? Your 
 lot is now cast in a fair land, and both yourself 
 and your posterity will, I trust, feel the benefit. 
 Your purchase, which is at a right distance from 
 the Metropolis, is, both as to quantity and quality, 
 I think, very judicious. In everything, especially 
 in land, it is of consequence to have good stuff in 
 little room. Buying a large tract of inferior soil, 
 or waste, with a view to reclaim it, though flatter- 
 ing to the fancy, is an expedient which within the 
 last few years, has ruined persons with more 
 
368 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 certainty than any other sort of speculation. How 
 are you as to Poor Rates ? If there be not a 
 preparation for a radical reform in this branch of 
 public- economy, land, hitherto deemed the most 
 staple species of property, will become the most 
 insecure and treacherous. What an outcry, in 
 parliament and elsewhere, has been made against 
 the absurdity of the Spencean system ! Yet a 
 reference to calculations will show that this absurd 
 thing does at present regulate the practice of the 
 country, as enjoined by law, in a degree truly 
 formidable. The poor are at this moment in 
 actual possession of full one-fifth of the real estate 
 of the country. They have it ; and they are far 
 stronger, a thousand times stronger, in the ad- 
 mitted right, than in the possession. There are 
 scarcely any compulsory proceedings for the sup- 
 port of the poor in Scotland, and it is said that 
 many unhappy creatures die of hunger in conse- 
 quence. I know not how far this shocking state- 
 ment is true ; but sure I am that the Poor Laws, 
 as enacted and administered in this country, have 
 degraded tens of thousands to that point that life 
 is wretched to themselves, a plague to their neigh- 
 bours, and a burden to the community. 
 
1817] WORDSWORTH. 369 
 
 There is not a single opinion stated in your 
 letter, in which I do not coincide. Coleridge you 
 say viewed the matter in the same light some 
 time ago; cogent reason for believing that our 
 impressions, as to facts, are accurate, and our 
 unwelcome inferences, just. Southey's last article 
 in the Q. R. I have not yet seen. We have re- 
 peatedly conversed upon the state of the country 
 with little difference of opinion ; except that in 
 his vivid perception of the danger to be appre- 
 hended from the disaffected urging on the rabble, 
 and the consequent necessity of government being 
 empowered to keep them down, he does not seem 
 sufficiently jealous of the power whose protection 
 we all feel to be necessary. There is a maxim 
 laid down in my Tract on the Convention of 
 Cintra which ought never to be lost sight of. It 
 is expressed, I believe, nearly in the following 
 words. " There is, in fact, an unconquerable 
 tendency in all power, save that of knowledge, 
 acting by and through knowledge, to injure 
 the mind of him by whom that power is exer- 
 cised." I pressed this upon Southey's consider- 
 ation with a wish that his excellent letter to 
 
 25 
 
370 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JUNE 
 
 Mr. W. Smith, in which he proposed to state his 
 opinions and to recommend measures, might con- 
 tain some wholesome advice to Ministers grounded 
 upon this law of our infirm nature. 
 
 If I had access to a Cabinet Minister, I would 
 put these questions. Do you think that the fear 
 of the law, and mere selfish or personal calcula- 
 tions as to profit or loss, in the matter of property 
 or condition, are sufficient to keep a numerous 
 people in due subordination ? " No." What loss 
 has the country sustained, within these last twenty 
 or thirty years, of those habits, sentiments, and 
 dispositions, which lend a collateral support, in the 
 way of buttresses, of equal importance for the 
 preservation of the edifice with the foundation 
 itself ? If the old props have been shaken or 
 destroyed, have adequate new ones been substi- 
 tuted ? A discerning answer to these queries 
 would be the picture of danger, and nothing else 
 can lead to a just consideration of the means by 
 which it is to be lessened. Farewell. Do let me 
 hear from you as it happens to suit. 
 
 By the bye, it was not till this morning that I 
 read the case of Stuart vers^i'S Lovell. What a 
 
1817] WORDSWORTH. 371 
 
 miscreant ! If I had been upon the Jury and 
 had found the man possessed of property that 
 would bear the damages, I should have fixed upon 
 5^700, the precise sum which he accused you of 
 embezzling.* — Best regards to Mrs. Stuart, and 
 believe me, faithfully yours, 
 
 W. Wordsworth. 
 A neighbour of mine says you may procure in 
 London Majorca honey better than we get in 
 this country. 
 
 [The two following letters refer to the education of Edward 
 Vernon Schalch, Mrs. Stuart's youngest brother, for whom 
 Mr. Stuart afterwards procured a Civil appointment in India ; 
 but whose health failing, he returned to England, and ob- 
 tained, through Sir Charles Wilkins, the Oriental Professor- 
 ship at Haileybury.] 
 
 Letter 15. 
 
 Rydal Mount, Saturday, September 7, 1817. 
 Dear Sir, — The German scheme is out of the 
 question. C. in recommending it, seems to have 
 overlooked that, when he himself studied at 
 
 * The above refers to a trial for Libel against the Statesman 
 Newspaper before Lord Ellenborough — damages awarded D. S. 
 
 ;^I00. 
 
372 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 Gottingen, he was 25 or 26 years of age, and 
 before he went thither, had resided several 
 months in a clergyman's house to acquire the 
 language. A public office is wholly undesirable 
 for those who have the means of doing better — 
 that is, of a regular English gentleman's education. 
 I cannot understand what you report from the 
 youth's masters — that he will at Christmas have 
 attained all that they, in the usual way, can teach 
 him, — if by this is meant that he cannot go further 
 under their tuition. If he has done well where he 
 is, why cannot he be continued there, reading 
 such books in classics, as he has not read, and 
 continuing his exercises, in prose and verse 
 composition, in the Latin and Greek languages ? 
 But, as they have expressed this opinion, it would 
 seem that they would rather be without the lad 
 than encounter this additional trouble on his 
 account. It remains then to consider how he can 
 make the best use of his time till he can enter one 
 of the Universities. You are perhaps aware that 
 from Cambridge he must be excluded for the 
 ensuing year — not having been entered previous to 
 the commencement, which is, I think, about the 
 
1817] WORDSWORTH. 
 
 373 
 
 beginning of July ; and as he is so young, there is 
 no reason to regret this. As you intend him for 
 the Bar, I should by all means recommend a 
 public school for the ensuing twelve months, in 
 preference to his being placed in the house of a 
 clergyman. I give due consideration to what you 
 say on the subject of his overgrown stature, but I 
 cannot accede to the truth of his own remark that, 
 should he go to Winchester, Harrow, Rugby, or 
 any other public school of celebrity, he would 
 have everything to go over again. Inconvenience, 
 no doubt, would arise from his not having learnt, 
 perhaps, the same grammar, but if he be well 
 grounded and respectably practised in the Latin 
 and Greek languages, which he must be, if what 
 you say of his late masters be just, then the 
 obstacles from this cause would be easily sur- 
 mounted. I am decisively of opinion that a public 
 school is the proper place of education for a lawyer. 
 I know several eminent EngHsh lawyers distin- 
 guished for their knowledge of law, as , who 
 
 most probably would have been equally distin- 
 guished for their happy manner of displaying it in 
 a Court of Justice, if they had fortunately been 
 
374 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 educated in public schools, but, not having had 
 that discipline, they are obliged to keep their 
 candle hidden under a bushel. Shyness, reserve, 
 awkwardness, want of self-possession, embarrass- 
 ment, encumbered expression, hesitation in speak- 
 ing, &c., &c., are sad impediments to an Advocate; 
 and the best way of obviating all this is to place 
 a lad under the necessity of encountering the 
 shock he will every moment meet with, in those 
 seminaries. As to private tuition, it is such an 
 irksome thing, that scarcely any of those who 
 undertake it, do their duty. If they be persons of 
 known competence, they mostly have several 
 pupils of the same age to qualify for the Uni- 
 versity. A certain plan of study is chalked out : 
 the scholars and master begin with a resolution 
 that everything shall be understood. This is 
 stuck to for a while, but first one lad falls off, and 
 then another, and the course of reading is per- 
 sisted in when perhaps not one of the three, four, 
 five, or six, that the class is composed of, has any 
 understanding of the subject, but they must go 
 forward, else the master will not seem to have 
 fulfilled his part of the engagement. What then 
 
1817] WORDSWORTH. 
 
 375 
 
 do I advise? That your protege should be 
 immediately examined, in Latin and Greek, by 
 some competent person who has been himself 
 distinguished at one of the Universities, for his 
 knowledge of classics, and educated at one of the 
 pubHc schools ; and, if he find him well grounded 
 and practised in construing and composition, and 
 deems him so far advanced that he can be sent to 
 one of our great pubhc schools with a prospect of 
 benefiting in those studies — that is, without its 
 being probable that he would be thrown back 
 materially by the necessity of learning a new set 
 of Syntax rules, or other things of that sort, that 
 then he should proceed forthwith to such school 
 for the ensuing year, and be admitted at Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, next commencement to reside 
 in October following. I advise Cambridge in 
 preference to Oxford, because, at Cambridge, he 
 will have stronger incitements and inducements 
 to apply to Mathematics, and, if he is able to fix 
 his attention so far as to make a progress in 
 those sciences, the assiduity and steady appli- 
 cation of the thoughts requisite for success in 
 law will not be more than he will find himself 
 
376 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT., 1817 
 
 already prepared for. I recommend Trinity 
 College in preference to any other, because it is a 
 more liberal foundation. I have now said all that 
 strikes me upon the subject. 
 
 The prospect for the ensuing harvest is very 
 encouraging in the north of England and south of 
 Scotland. The weather at present is more 
 promising. I received a newspaper from you, 
 some time ago, in which you had done me the 
 honour of adopting a remark from one of my 
 letters. I have not seen Southey since his return. 
 I learn that he is looking uncommonly well, and 
 has enjoyed himself much. — With best regards 
 to Mrs. Stuart, I remain very truly yours, 
 
 Wm. Wordsworth. 
 
 P.S. Your [Protege] might go to College 
 immediately and reside as a Non.-Ens., i.e., 
 without university rank. I have just learned 
 that the masters of the great schools do not 
 like to admit boys after the age of 15, unless 
 from one great school to another ; and it is certain 
 that your protege will be less likely to benefit in a 
 general way, from his advanced age. So that, 
 
l8l8] WORDSWORTH. 
 
 377 
 
 upon the whole, it is a puzzHng case, and I wish 
 you by all means, to go by advice grounded upon 
 his examination, as before recommended. 
 
 Letter i6. 
 
 Rydal Mount, March, 1818. 
 Dear Sir, — I sit down with pleasure to give the 
 best answer I am able, respecting your brother's 
 intended College engagements. First, for the 
 time of his going to College, supposing him 
 respectably prepared, which can only be ascer- 
 tained by some qualified person examining him, 
 or taken upon the report of his master. The 
 propriety of trusting this report will depend, 
 entirely, on the grounds you have for deeming him 
 a competent judge, and an honest and honourable 
 man. If your brother have shewn that his talents 
 and character are such as make it probable that 
 he would apply to the severe study of the law, 
 it would then be best that he should be admitted 
 forthwith, with intention of going to reside next 
 October. But if it were more likely that he should 
 
37^ LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 prove unfit for the law, then College patronage 
 would become a most important object to him ; 
 and, in this case, I should not recommend his 
 going to College till the age of nineteen, provided 
 I could ensure a rational probability of his making 
 a good use of the intermediate time. It is, every 
 day, becoming more and more difficult to obtain 
 that degree of superiority which will ensure a man 
 a fellowship at College ; and, unless he be made a 
 fellow, he has nothing to look for from his College, 
 and nothing, that can be an object, from the Uni- 
 versity. Now the longer a youth puts off going, 
 the better he may be prepared to outstrip his 
 rivals. There is another important point to be 
 considered. If he looks to make his fortune 
 from the University, the Church will be his 
 profession. 
 
 Now he cannot get into orders before twenty- 
 three ; and, should he enter at seventeen with 
 a view to the Church, there is an awkward 
 period between the age of twenty and a few 
 months, when he would take his degree of 
 B.A., and three or four and twenty, during 
 which he would scarcely know what to do 
 
i8i8] 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 379 
 
 with himself. Indeed if one could be sure that 
 he would apply, so as to render it most likely 
 that he would get a fellowship (which is gener- 
 ally obtained, if at all, after a man has been 
 four or five years at the University, and can 
 rarely be had after six) this would be of less 
 consequence. But, as the thing is uncertain 
 and difficult to procure, he who goes best 
 qualified, and with the most fixed habits of 
 application, is most likely to succeed. I know 
 not whether this long explanation is to you 
 perfectly intelligible. The sum of my opinion 
 is that, if I had strong reasons for believing 
 my son would apply to the law, I should send 
 him to college at seventeen. If I thought he 
 must be obliged to take up with the Church, 
 I should not send him till nineteen, unless I 
 knew that he was so far advanced in his studies, 
 as to encourage a strong persuasion in me that 
 he would distinguish himself, even if sent at 
 seventeen. As to his college, the advantages 
 of a large college are, that he may choose his 
 company, and is more likely to be roused by 
 emulation; and the public lectures are more 
 
380 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 likely to be good, and everything carried forward 
 with more spirit. The disadvantages are that, 
 seeing so many clever men and able scholars, 
 he may be disheartened, and throw up in disgust 
 or despair. Also, much more distinction is 
 required to obtain a fellowship among so many 
 competitors. But it very often happens that 
 distinguished men educated in large Colleges, 
 when there are not fellowships for them there, 
 are elected into small Colleges, which happen to 
 be destitute of persons properly qualified. The 
 chief advantages in a small College are the 
 much greater likelihood of procuring rooms and 
 in the end. College patronage ; but there is 
 danger of getting into lounging ways from being 
 forced among idle people, and the public lectures 
 are rarely carried on with such spirit. Of the 
 smaller Colleges, Emanuel is, at present, likely 
 to have the greater number of fellowships, 
 owing to the few admissions lately there ; but 
 then the reason of this is that the tutors and 
 lecturers, at present, are not in repute. I have 
 a friend, a very worthy man and great scholar, 
 who is one of the tutors at Peterhouse, (his 
 
l8l8] WORDSWORTH. 381 
 
 name, Fellbrook, a clergyman) one of the smaller 
 Colleges. There are only two large ones, St. 
 John's and Trinity ; but that is very full. He 
 naturally is partial to small Colleges, and to 
 his own in particular, which, no doubt, must 
 be well managed, else it would not be so 
 crowded. But one knows not which to recom- 
 mend ; so much depends upon the disposition 
 of the party. But there cannot be a doubt 
 but that the noblest field for an ambitious, 
 industrious, properly qualified, and clever, youth 
 is Trinity College. As to Trinity Hall, I know 
 little about it, because it is a College that 
 makes little figure in the University. It is, as 
 you say, appropriated mainly to the Civil Law. 
 Its Law-fellowships must be good prizes. There 
 are lay-fellowships also at Pembroke, and a few, 
 I believe, at every College; but the principal 
 thing to look at is a spirited education. With 
 that, a man may turn himself in the world, 
 and, on this ground, I should prefer Trinity 
 College ; bearing in mind that, if a student 
 there should be surpassed by others so far as 
 to be excluded from a fellowship, he still might 
 
382 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAR., 1818 
 
 be distinguished in a way that would recommend 
 him to be chosen for some smaller College. 
 When you determine where, and in what year, 
 you will send your brother, write to the Tutor 
 of the College, and he will give you advice as 
 to the mode of admission, and every other 
 particular. As to rooms, the earlier in the 
 year he is admitted, the better chance ; but the 
 great Colleges are not able to contain one-half 
 of their students. In many of the smaller, there 
 is room. I think a private tutor an advantage, 
 but the expense is considerable. His education 
 will be forwarded chiefly by his own habits 
 of application; but that sort of attainment which, 
 is most likely to show off to advantage in the 
 University, is far more sure of being procured 
 at the great public schools. I mean in classics. 
 I have left myself no more room. — Ever 
 yours, W. W. 
 
 I overlooked one advantage belonging to a 
 smaller College, viz., the tutors know better 
 how the men are conducting themselves as to 
 morals, expenses, &c. — what company they keep 
 
1838] WORDSWORTH. 383 
 
 and so forth ; and if requested, would make 
 report to parents and friends; especially, if the 
 party belonged to some of their own friends, 
 they would be less scrupulous, in such a case, 
 about speaking unfavourably, if they had reason 
 to do so. 
 
 Letter 17. 
 
 ''May 9, 1838." 
 My dear Mr. Stuart, — I have just received your 
 communication. I grieve much for the necessity 
 of the disclosure, which does more, much more, 
 than justify yourself. 
 
 There is a question before Parliament in which, 
 as an author both upon personal and higher 
 motives, I am much interested. Among your 
 friends and acquaintances is there no member of 
 the H. C. whom you could interest in doing 
 justice to men of letters in this matter ? Pray do 
 your utmost ; for the opposition is strong and 
 persevering. I know not where to address you. 
 Beheve me to be, yours very faithfully, 
 
 Wm. Wordsworth. 
 Rydal Mount, A mbleside, May 9. 
 
384 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 Letter 18. 
 
 " Franked by the Earl of Lonsdale, 
 
 "May 17, 1838." 
 
 Dear Mr. Stuart,— In Mr. Gillman's ''Life of 
 Coleridge " just published, I find these words : — 
 " The Proprietor of The Morning Post, who was 
 also the Editor, engaged Coleridge to undertake 
 the literary department. As contributors to this 
 paper, the editor had the assistance of Mr. Words- 
 worth, Mr. Southey, and Mr. Lamb. Mr. S., 
 from his extreme activity, and with a rapidity 
 and punctuality which made him invaluable to 
 the Proprietor, &c. The others were not of the 
 same value to the Proprietor." 
 
 In the extracts from the Genfs. Mag. you sent 
 me the other day, speaking, I imagine, of The 
 Morning Post, you say, " At this time, I do not 
 think Wordsworth sent anything." You have here 
 been speaking of a salary being given to Mr. C. 
 and Mr. L., as contributors to The Morning Post, 
 and the passage, coupled with that of Mr. G.'s, 
 would lead any one to infer that I was a paid 
 writer of that paper. Now, for my own part, I am 
 
1838] WORDSWORTH. 385 
 
 quite certain that nothing of mine ever appeared 
 in The Morning Post, except a very, very, few 
 sonnets upon political subjects, and one poem 
 called "The Farmer of Tillsbury Vale," but 
 whether this appeared in The Morning Post or 
 The Courier, I do not remember. In The Courier 
 were printed two articles in continuation, amount- 
 ing together to twenty-five pages, of the pamphlet 
 I afterwards published on the Convention of 
 Cintra. The sonnets and the pamphlet were 
 written by me without the slightest view to any 
 emolument whatever ; nor have I, nor my wife 
 nor sister, any recollection of any money being 
 received for them, either directly from yourself, as 
 E. and P. of those papers, or mediately through 
 C. ; and I wish to know from you if you have any 
 remembrance or evidence to the contrary. But 
 certain I am that the last thing that could have 
 found its way into my thoughts would have been 
 to enter into an engagement to write for any 
 newspaper, and that I never did so. In short, with 
 the exception of the things already mentioned, 
 a very few articles sent to a Westmorland Journal, 
 during the first Westmorland contest, one article 
 
 26 
 
386 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [mAY, 1838. 
 
 which I was induced to publish in a London 
 newspaper, when Southey and Byron were at war, 
 and a letter, the other week, to The Kendal 
 V Mercury upon the Copyright question, and a 
 letter to Serjeant Talfourd on the same subject, 
 published in The Morning Post, not a word of 
 mine ever appeared, sent by myself at least, or as 
 far as I know, by any other persons, in any News- 
 paper, Review, Magazine, or Public Journal what- 
 soever. By the bye, I ought to except two sonnets 
 and a light poem, not connected with my works, 
 which were printed in some provincial journal. 
 
 I will be obliged to you if you will answer at 
 your early convenience the question put above ; 
 as I wish to write to Mr. Gillman, whose book 
 I am sorry to say, is full of all kinds of mistakes. 
 Coleridge is a subject which no biographer ought 
 to touch beyond what he himself was eye 
 witness of. 
 
 When you write pray tell me how Mrs. Stuart, 
 yourself, and your family, are. Mrs. W. unites 
 with me in kind regards to Mrs. S. and yourself, 
 and believe me to remain, faithfully yours, 
 
 Wm. Wordsworth. 
 
 End of Wordsworth's Letters. 
 
LETTERS FROM ROBERT SOUTHEY TO 
 DANIEL STUART. 
 
LETTERS FROM R. SOUTHEY 
 TO DANIEL STUART 
 
 Letter i. 
 
 Sunday, December 29, 1805. 
 
 Dear Sir, — We are under some uneasiness 
 concerning Coleridge. He left Malta early in 
 September, and from Malta we have heard that he 
 had reached Trieste, charged, as we suppose from 
 his former letters, with despatches overland from 
 Naples. He would be at Vienna not much before 
 the French; but the danger of travelling in a 
 country full of soldiers is so great that I am far 
 more alarmed than I think it proper to let Mrs. 
 Coleridge know. 
 
 I felt myself much obliged to you for inserting 
 the articles respecting the Spanish captures. 
 There was no intention, on my part, to set the 
 
390 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC, 1805. 
 
 sailors against the service ; but to show govern- 
 ment that what they were doing had that inevit- 
 able tendency. The way in which the discussion 
 was stopped, fairly deceived me. Had the positive 
 assurance that I was mistaken, and that the 
 sailors were to have the same share as usual, 
 appeared in any other Ministerial paper, I should 
 have been suspicious, knowing that it was not 
 an uncommon manoeuvre, last war, in the Anti- 
 Jacobins, to silence enquiry by a downright false- 
 hood. But in this case, I expected that, if my 
 articles had been offensively worded, they would 
 have been softened or suppressed ; and that, if 
 you wished them to stop, you would as freely have 
 told me so, as I had applied to you to insert them. 
 However, I consider myself much obliged to you 
 and Mr. Street for letting them appear. 
 
 A Mr. Barrell, with whom both Stoddart and 
 Coleridge are acquainted, used to have chambers 
 in Gray's Inn. The person you are in quest of, 
 must be either he, or his brother, who resides 
 somewhere in the north-east of England. Lamb 
 can certainly procure you his address, by means 
 of Tobin, who is intimate with him. 
 
1^07] SOUTHEV. 
 
 39i 
 
 I expect to be in London about the close of 
 March, and shall hope for the pleasure of seeing 
 you. — Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 R. SOUTHEY. 
 
 Letter 3. 
 
 Saturday, March 21, 1807, Kesimck. 
 Sonnet to Lord Percy, on his late motion for 
 the gradual abolition of slavery in the 
 West Indies. 
 
 Percy ! " Of virtuous father, virtuous son " ! 
 
 Well hast thou done, and rightly dost advance ; 
 
 Thyself like him the friend of the forlorn ; 
 From bondage to redeem a race unborn, 
 Abandoned else to their inheritance 
 
 Of chains and misery. Rightly hast thou done ; 
 
 And England turns an eye of hope on thee 
 For this fair promise of thine early morn. 
 In the good path which thou hast chosen, proceed — 
 
 Be always thus the friend of liberty ; 
 And earth and heaven shall give thee both thy meed ; 
 
 Yea, greener laurels will be thine in store 
 
 Than thy heroic father won of yore 
 In Teviotdale or on the banks of Tweed. 
 
 Dear Sir, — I am almost ashamed to send a 
 single Sonnet from such a distance. Were I 
 
392 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [NOV. 
 
 however to detain it, till I produced verses enough 
 to fill a letter, it might remain years in my 
 desk. 
 
 Though it is not often that I now accord with 
 the principles of The Courier, I do most cordially 
 and entirely in its opposition to any further 
 indulgence to the [Roman] Catholics — a question 
 on which I wish Coleridge could be induced to 
 write. ... I know the whole history of this 
 religion so well . . . that if I were not so much 
 employed as to render it impossible for me to find 
 time, I should feel it my duty to write a pamphlet 
 on the subject. — Yours very truly, 
 
 r. southey. 
 
 Letter 3. 
 
 "November 27, 1807." 
 My dear Sir, — I am very much obliged both by 
 your letter and the offer that it contains. My 
 occupations are now so many that I could not 
 stipulate to furnish regularly even the small 
 quotum of verse which you require. The habit 
 of versifying, and of catching all things in a poet's 
 
1807] SOUTHEY. 
 
 393 
 
 point of view, has gone from me through long 
 disuse. Weeks would pass on, and though few 
 men are more willing, or better able to gird them- 
 selves up for the labour of the day, I fear the 
 thought that I ought to be writing for you, and 
 the feeling that I was not in the mood for it, 
 would fret my spirit, and end in abortive attempts. 
 There is, however, another way which may tempt 
 me to recover the habit. Though I cannot work 
 by time, I can by piece. When I can get a sheet 
 full it shall be sent ; and the verses may be rated, 
 like oysters, by the hundred, or like bricks, by the 
 thousand. 
 
 You have mistaken the mention of the mutineers 
 in the Spaniards' letters. It relates to those poor 
 fellows who were hung, just before Governor Wall, 
 and who mutinied because they were ordered to 
 the West Indies, just when peace was made, and 
 they expected their discharge. I believe more 
 suffered upon this than on the former occa- 
 sion. . . . 
 
 I did not expect you would agree with D. 
 Manuel in some points, where he speaks in my 
 character, and not in his own. The main point 
 
394 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [NOV. 
 
 on which we seem to differ is this — that you 
 abominate one party, and that I have the most 
 rooted contempt for all, and a strong conviction 
 that, between them, they will ruin the country, as 
 far as it is possible for any politicians to ruin it. 
 At present the Foxites are the worst, because they 
 clamour for peace, which, no doubt, the Ministry 
 will make as soon as they can, just to keep their 
 places, and prove themselves as bad. 
 
 One newspaper will do more for a book than 
 two Reviews. I thank you for the lift you have 
 given Espriella, and will write to make Longman 
 follow it up by advertising, which he certainly 
 does not do sufficiently. It is my intention to 
 bring Espriella to England again ; and say in two 
 volumes more, what I had not room for in the 
 former work. I shall be very much obliged to you 
 for any anecdotes, and any hints that you will have 
 the goodness to send me. My object is to give as 
 complete a picture of the present state of society 
 in England as my observation and information 
 enable me to do ; and it is impossible that I can 
 have a tithe of your knowledge of the political 
 and the great world. I am straitened enough in 
 
i^Oy] SOUTHEY. 
 
 395 
 
 circumstances for profit to be a matter of impor- 
 tance to me. This book seems likely to be more 
 productive than any former attempt. It wants 
 initials, asterisks, and personalities, to make it 
 greatly so. I think however, if the object in 
 view be at all accomplished, that the book will 
 have something more than a temporary value. 
 
 There is one subject on which I have much to 
 say — and that, as appears to me, of considerable 
 importance. It is the Navy. But though, God 
 knows, it would be in the spirit of a true English- 
 man, and would tend to prevent much danger and 
 much evil, I am afraid to do it, lest it should 
 injure my brother, to whom of course the matter 
 would be imputed, immediately that it should be 
 known to be mine. Yet I am certain that I could 
 point out easy remedies for great grievances. 
 
 I perfectly agree with you in your opinion of 
 Jeffrey's reviewal of Cobbett, and the vile place- 
 hunting politics of The Edinburgh Review, which 
 is labouring to frighten the nation into a peace. 
 They are equally wrong about the Catholic Ques- 
 tion. The immediate effect, if it were carried, 
 would be to send an Irish Priest on board every 
 
39^ LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [NOV., 1807. 
 
 ship in the Navy ; and every one of these men 
 vv^ould be in the interest of Buonaparte, and under 
 orders from his vassal, the Pope. 
 
 Your account of the cotton mill at Glasgow 
 contains an important fact, in the confirmation of 
 the opinion which I have formed upon the manu- 
 facturing system as at present existing. I do not 
 believe that letter which you inserted in The 
 Courier contains a syllable of exaggeration. 
 There is, however, an oversight in it ; where I 
 have said that the price of labour remains the 
 same as what it formerly was. I know not how 
 this escaped me, and am very sorry it is there ; 
 for any misstatement of this kind materially 
 weakens the effect of argument, exciting a just 
 suspicion of unfair play. This I shall of course 
 correct in the next edition, which is likely soon to 
 be called for. In the subsequent volume, I have 
 many important subjects to consider. The East 
 India Company, Ireland, the state of public morals, 
 the want of public virtue, &c., with plenty of 
 lighter matter to carry them off ; — not forgetting 
 Mr. Malthus, and the Society for the suppression 
 of Vice. — Yours very truly, R. Southey. 
 
iSog] souTHEY. 397 
 
 In a few days I shall fill a foolscap sheet with 
 all the verses I can muster up. 
 Nov. 27, 1807. 
 
 Letter 4. 
 
 Keswick, January 13, 1809. 
 My dear Sir, — If Wordsworth had not under- 
 taken to write upon the Cintra Convention, I 
 believe I should ; for no public event ever dis- 
 tressed me so greatly. He has more leisure than 
 I have, and will do the thing better. Like you, I 
 had strong hopes of Spain, before the public dared 
 entertain any ; and shall have strong hopes, long 
 after the public will despair. There is not under 
 heaven so patriotic a people as the Spaniards. 
 They are proud of their past greatness, and 
 sensible of their present degradation ; yet with 
 the feeling that the degeneracy is not in them, 
 but in their government. It is the same with the 
 Portuguese. I was never ten minutes in con- 
 versation with one, that he did not allude to the 
 state of the country, as if he sought, by expressing 
 
398 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jAN. 
 
 his sense of national shame, to show that none 
 of it attached to him, as an individual. From 
 these people everything is to be expected, except 
 what our Ministry was weak enough to expect : 
 that they should at once be able to stand against 
 equal, or superior, numbers of the French in the 
 field. The war of the Low Countries against 
 Philip the 2nd is the only parallel in modern 
 history ; and then, the first brunt of the business 
 was borne by German mercenaries, till the Dutch 
 themselves became good soldiers by experience. 
 What should have been is so plain, and has been 
 so grossly neglected, that I can neither speak nor 
 think upon the subject with patience ; but I have 
 thought it worth while to trouble you with a 
 letter because a few more blunders will ruin 
 all. 
 
 Buonaparte will, beyond a doubt, press for 
 Seville and Cadiz, and for Lisbon. Cadiz is a 
 regular fortification, and may hold out. Seville 
 depends wholly upon the passes of the Sierra 
 Morena. The city itself is larger than Madrid, 
 and equally defenceless. It is hardly of less 
 importance than Madrid, perhaps, indeed, of 
 
iSog] souTHEY. 399 
 
 more ; as the Junta has no other capital 
 of imposing name to retire to. Now, in the 
 present state of things, ten thousand British 
 could better defend those passes than any force 
 the Spaniards have ; and yet, upon every breath 
 of bad news, we disembark our troops, and 
 countermand sailing orders, — instead of running 
 them over in ships of war, as fast as they could 
 be got on board. If it be possible to ruin that 
 country, and this too, such fancies and such 
 pusillanimity will do it. 
 
 I am inclined to think Sir J. Moore has 
 risked himself, for the sake of drawing Buona- 
 parte's main force towards the north, by which 
 means he will be able to land troops at Porto, 
 Lisbon, or Cadiz, before the enemy can march 
 there. Lisbon is effectually defended on one side, 
 by the Tagus, which is fordable no nearer than 
 Santarem (nearly fifty miles up), and then only in 
 the dry season. This too is a passage which 
 never would be attempted against any respectable 
 force on the heights of the town. At Abrantes 
 there is a bridge of boats. If an invading enemy 
 enter Portugal higher up, and keep on the north 
 
400 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [jAN. 
 
 of the Tagus, as hitherto they have always done, 
 — then, the river Zezere, which falls into the 
 Tagus about ten miles below Abrantes, is sup- 
 posed to be the strong post on which the safety 
 of Lisbon depends. I have crossed the river : it 
 is about as wide as the Bath river, and its banks 
 are steep. If the enemy enter from Galicia, and 
 keep along the coast, it is but to break down 
 bridges, and the Minho, the Douro, and the 
 Mondego are each impassable. Higher up, the 
 river is one uninterrupted tract of mountains. 
 Very few countries are so defensible as Portugal. 
 Hitherto we have been keeping ten thousand men 
 at Lisbon, to preserve Portuguese traitors from 
 justice, in virtue of the blessed Convention of 
 Cintra. The main part of them are now, it seems, 
 marched into Spain, in what direction we know 
 not. If it be towards Seville that would be well, 
 but Portugal requires at this time 30,000 English, 
 
 and with that force it would be safe unless 
 
 or any other old woman in regimentals, be at their 
 head. Not an hour should be lost in sending out 
 all the troops we can spare, as fast as they can 
 go, in frigates and ships of the line, that may 
 
iSog] SOUTHEY. 
 
 401 
 
 run singly without fear of enemy or weather; 
 some for Porto, some for Lisbon, some for Cadiz. 
 And if we had a floating army off Catalonia, to 
 land just when and where they would be most 
 serviceable, Buonaparte would feel our navy to be 
 a far more formidable power than he has ever yet 
 done. 
 
 That letter in The Courier of the loth alludes, 
 I suppose, to some kind of, defensive armour. 
 One hears of all new projects with a suspicion 
 just in proportion to the great effects which they 
 promise. Defensive armour was left off, as I 
 happened to discover in some chance passage of 
 an old author, because the tags, as he calls them, 
 of the armour made a worse wound than the ball. 
 If anything be devised, proof against a common 
 musket ball, steel balls would immediately be 
 adopted. Yet I am curious to see more about 
 this discovery; fori have long believed that some- 
 thing might be done towards saving soldiers — a 
 matter of no light consequence to us, who have 
 so much difficulty in raising them, and yet stand 
 in need of so many. 
 
 It is hopeless to think about home politics, 
 27 
 
402 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [JAN. 
 
 and almost impertinent to say anything about 
 them to you. There will be a schism however 
 between the Grenvilles and the Foxites, when- 
 ever the question of peace is touched upon ; and 
 Canning, who is ashamed of some of his col- 
 leagues, hankers to have the Grenvilles in with 
 him. Neither the king nor the people would 
 like this ; and every change, that can now be 
 made, must tend to weaken the government, by 
 convincing the people that no good is to be 
 expected from any ; unless, indeed, Lord Gren- 
 ville were bold enough and wise enough, to make 
 himself popular, by insisting upon the necessity 
 of removing the Duke of York. Whatever public 
 man, of adequate talent and respectability, should 
 venture to do this, would stand upon such strong 
 ground that the crown itself could not shake him. 
 I was right glad to see the hint upon this subject 
 in The Courier. 
 
 I have many fears about " The Friend,'" which 
 however I do not express to Coleridge ; for, did 
 he once perceive that we doubted his going on, 
 that would be sufficient effectually to put a stop 
 to all efforts on his part. The main and, as it 
 
iSog] souTHEY. 403 
 
 appears to me, the insuperable difficulty in the 
 way of his present plan is the unlikelihood, or 
 rather the impossibility, of his carrying on any 
 periodical work with regularity. If his habits 
 were regular enough, his health is not, unless he 
 began with a large stock in hand, which certainly 
 he will not do. My advice to him is that he 
 publish a number of half-crown, or five shillings 
 worth, whenever he is ready with it. A ** This 
 day is published " in the newspapers will then be 
 sufficient prospectus, and it will find its way with 
 the other periodicals. Maty's Review did the 
 same some years ago, and The Edinburgh does so 
 now. I will not say that this is as good a plan as 
 that of a weekly Paper. Perhaps it is not. But 
 I have a strong fear — almost a conviction — that, in 
 any other shape, the thing would soon drop. If 
 indeed he began with ten or twelve weeks in 
 advance, then, if he were at any time incapacitated 
 from keeping that stock up, I would, to the best 
 of my power, supply his place, as long as was 
 necessary, but the first number will be sent off 
 wet from the pen to the press; and unless a 
 sudden popularity should come upon him, like 
 
404 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 sunshine, a very few weeks' struggle against 
 inaction will fret and fever him into inability. 
 I, therefore, am pressing him, not to promise 
 anything periodical, nor to trouble himself with 
 prospectuses and subscribers, but to make his way 
 by the weight of his own name and all-command- 
 ing powers of mind. 
 
 I know not that this letter contains anything 
 worth sending ; but some public occasions have 
 gone by, on which I have repented not having 
 written to tell you what I knew upon the point. — 
 Yours very truly, R. Southey. 
 
 Letter 5. 
 
 Keswick, September to, 1809. 
 My dear Sir, — I have been induced, by very 
 liberal terms, to undertake the historical depart- 
 ment of an Edinburgh Annual Register, which 
 the Ballantynes are about to start ; beginning 
 with last year. Their application to me has been 
 unseasonably late, owing to their having pre- 
 viously engaged some other person, whose sample 
 
l809J SOUTHEY. 405 
 
 disappointed them, and would, I believe, have 
 ruined the work. But, in consequence of re- 
 ceiving this late notice, I come to the task with- 
 out any previous collection of materials. Under 
 these circumstances it has occurred to me to 
 apply to you. Have you any French or Spanish 
 papers of the late or present year? and can you 
 assist me by any arrangement for transferring 
 them to me, for the future, after they have served 
 your purpose? For, though I have promised only 
 to perform this office for the first year, it is most 
 likely that I shall continue it. 
 
 My view of things will differ from yours in only 
 two points. . . . Upon all other points there 
 is hardly a shade of difference between us. 
 Without speaking acrimoniously of Sir John 
 Moore, I shall describe his retreat as what it 
 was. ... It was my earnest wish to have 
 taken up this subject in The Quarterly Review, 
 but it was thought better, by Frere's friends, 
 to entrust it to Ellis, who has had, of course, 
 whatever documents Canning could supply. I 
 am now glad that my offer was declined, inas- 
 much as I have now an opportunity of doing the 
 
406 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 same thing more efficaciously and less invidiously, 
 by a full and faithful narration, written with a 
 perfect knowledge of the ground over which he 
 retreated (for I have travelled it on foot), and with 
 the spirit and feeling of an Englishman. 
 
 My brother, who is lying with Admiral Sotheby 
 in Basque Roads, writes in these words : " As for 
 the Rochefort jfleet being destroyed, there are 
 eight sail of the line now afloat up the river ; the 
 three-decker fresh coppered. They have only 
 their lower masts standing, and have neither men 
 nor stores aboard. The captain of a vessel, which 
 we have just detained and sent in, says, that they 
 are marching every man they can find in the 
 country into Spain. They march them with their 
 hands tied behind." It was impossible not to 
 acquit Lord Gambler, as he was acquitted ; but 
 without Cochrane, nothing could have been at- 
 tempted ; and had he had the sole management, 
 more would have been done. 
 
 That precious speech of Whitbread's, wherein 
 he represented Austria as the aggressor in this 
 war, and praised Buonaparte's moderation, has 
 been given at full length in the Bordeaux Papers. 
 
iSogi souTHEY. 407 
 
 Vessels sail from France, with English licenses, 
 under any colours, except French and Dutch. 
 These are easily forged. The merchants may 
 copy them. All men-of-war have not got the list 
 from government of what are granted ; and 
 suppose the French merchant sends half a dozen 
 with the same, except the same Man-of-War 
 meets with two of them, they pass safely. They 
 bring nothing but French produce, brandies, &c. 
 I am sorry to see that experience seems to be 
 of no use, either to the Spaniards or their allies. 
 There is no want of spirit in the people. Zaragoza 
 and Gerona are immortal proofs of their patrio- 
 tism. But they are paralyzed in field, because they 
 suspect their officers. In the commencement of 
 all such wars, this has ever been the case. The 
 misfortune is that, in this, they have to deal with 
 an enemy who never loses time. It is folly to 
 send a mere auxiliary army. The Spaniards 
 should be left to fight in their own way, which 
 Romana has practised so successfully ; and we, 
 with a force adequate to the occasion, should 
 fight in ours. Had Wellesley had fifty thousand 
 men, instead of five and twenty, he could have 
 
408 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 annihilated the French army, and borne down 
 
 everything before him. One signal defeat would 
 
 prove their destruction, for all who are not 
 
 Frenchmen would desert, and join the winning 
 
 side. Over and over, it has been proved that 
 
 we can always beat the French, if their numbers 
 
 be not greatly superior. Why then not send a 
 
 force which they cannot outnumber ? A hundred 
 
 and fifty thousand men could sweep the Peninsula 
 
 clean, and give a death-blow to Buonaparte's 
 
 reputation, upon which, and which only, his 
 
 power is founded. I have no apprehensions for 
 
 Lord Wellington as yet. He has his brother at 
 
 Seville, so that something may be expected from 
 
 them ; and he can wait for reinforcements. But, 
 
 unless we send a great army, the history of last 
 
 winter will be repeated ; except that, when he 
 
 is compelled to make for the coast, he will retreat, 
 
 and not run away. Canning, I believe, could 
 
 act vigorously, if he were not yoked with such 
 
 colleagues ; but, bad as they are, they are better 
 
 than the Opposition, who would abandon the 
 
 Spaniards altogether, and finally lay this country 
 
 at the feet of France. We want M. Wellesley 
 
iSog] SOUTHEY. 
 
 409 
 
 in power ; he is at least a decisive character, and 
 the country would have some confidence in him, 
 which it cannot have in anybody else. 
 
 I know no more of " The Friend" than you do ; 
 except that, when a number comes out, I see it 
 some days sooner, because the proof is sent to 
 me to correct. It will, I suppose, intermit in this 
 way, till subscribers enough drop off to give 
 a good reason for discontinuing it. Never was 
 anything so ill-adapted to its mode of publication. 
 This, I did not expect. For all other disappoint- 
 ments I was prepared. A proof of the fifth number 
 has just arrived, so that it will appear in time. 
 
 I have long been intending to arrange some 
 thoughts for the improvement of the Navy — the 
 result of many conversations with my brother, 
 and made up, in great part, from some of his 
 papers. Whenever I can find leisure for this, 
 I will transmit them to The Courier, as the best 
 place in which they can appear. They will cer- 
 tainly excite attention, may possibly lead to some 
 good, and cannot possibly givQ offence to any- 
 body. — Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 Robert Southey. 
 
410 LETTERS OP LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 Letter 6. 
 
 Keswick, October 22, i8og. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I am very much obliged to you 
 for your letter. Were you near enough, there is 
 no person living to whom I could apply, for 
 advice in this undertaking, with so much con- 
 fidence, nor to whom I should so willingly submit 
 my manuscript for correction. You will perceive 
 that, with respect to the two last ministries, and 
 indeed, to the whole conduct of the war, my 
 opinions perfectly coincide with yours ; and upon 
 those points on which we differ, I have expressed 
 myself less positively, and indeed almost with 
 hesitation, in deference to your judgement. That 
 letter of X.Y. is a memorable instance of political 
 foresight. I recollect it well, and am sorry it was 
 not preserved. But the Papers are consumed at 
 Grasmere ; a sort of act which I have always 
 regretted. 
 
 The Count de Norona, who distinguished him- 
 self in Romana's army, and is now commanding 
 at Corunna, published two volumes of poems, 
 which I reviewed for The CriUcal, either in 1802 or 
 
iSog] SOUTHEY. 
 
 411 
 
 1803. They are of considerable merit, and that 
 Review, or a portion of it, might be read with in- 
 terest at present, when you want something to fill 
 up your columns in The Courier. There is a trans- 
 lated extract from a mock-heroic poem, which is 
 curious, as it shows his opinion of courts, formed, 
 no doubt, from the state of his own. A messenger 
 is sent to seek for Care, aid according to the old 
 notion of the moralists, goes to seek for him in 
 a palace ; but when he comes there, he finds 
 Indolence in his stead. The satire is new, and 
 very elegantly executed. I think, if it were 
 brought before the public now, it would place the 
 character of this nobleman very high in their 
 esteem. The article is in one of the Appendixes, 
 and you may, if you think proper, mention me as 
 the reputed writer of it. 
 
 I had no conception that it could be so 
 difficult to procure a file of Papers only one 
 year old, as it has proved to be. It is a pity 
 they should so very generally be destroyed, and 
 if they were printed in Cobbett's form, it would 
 not be the case. After a six weeks' search. 
 The Star has been procured for me ; and The 
 
412 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 Times is now regularly sent me for filing. I 
 shall take as much time as possible, that is 
 to say, I will not slight the work by hurrying 
 it. Part of it, I am conscious, cannot be done 
 well ; that is, what relates to financial and 
 commercial questions. All I can do is, to 
 explain things perspicuously, as far as I com- 
 prehend them, and pretend to nothing more. 
 The history of Spanish affairs I shall do, 
 perhaps, better than any other person ; bringing 
 with me some peculiar knowledge, and certainly 
 a right spirit. For any hints that you can 
 give me, relating to the past or present year, 
 or of things as they are passing, believe me, 
 I shall be very thankful. 
 
 Last year's tragedy is about to be reacted in 
 Spain ; yet what great things might be done 
 by a floating force, even now, ready to land 
 whenever opportunity incited, or need required 
 them. Such a force would, long ere this, have 
 cut to pieces the besieging army before Gerona, 
 That poor city will fall, after the most heroic 
 defence of modern times ; but it is our fault, 
 if we do not essentially assist those places, 
 
iSog] SOUTHEY. 
 
 413 
 
 which are accessible by sea, whenever their 
 hour of danger comes ; and there is a long 
 line of such important posts, between Barcelona 
 and Cadiz, every one of which Lord Cochrane 
 or Sir Sidney Smith, might render another Acre. 
 I do not despair of Spain. I never have 
 despaired of it. I said, both privately and to 
 the public, that this spirit existed in the country; 
 when scarcely any person believed me, and no 
 symptoms had appeared ; and it is my firm 
 belief, that that spirit is not to be subdued, 
 though Buonaparte may, and probably will, 
 overrun the country, and, for a time, keep it 
 down. There has been great imbecility in their 
 Juntas, and some treachery. Both were to be 
 expected. The Cortes would be the best remedy, 
 and the same system of Deputies with the 
 armies, armed with full power from the Cortes, 
 which the French adopted with such success 
 in their most perilous times. 
 
 Have you seen the reviewal of Moore's book 
 in the last Quarterly ? I offered to undertake 
 it, but it was done by G. Ellis, and the con- 
 cluding five pages by Canning. It is not his 
 
414 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [OCT. 
 
 fault that we have so grievously mismanaged 
 in Spain. He would have done everything ; 
 but the arrangements in the Cabinet were made 
 by compromises and concessions, and the con- 
 sequences could not but be disgraceful and 
 ruinous. 
 
 I was in hopes you meant to have pressed 
 the necessity of a Court Martial upon Lord 
 Chatham. It is only by means of the news- 
 papers that any good can be done. From 
 Parliament nothing is to be expected, in any 
 other way than by making the public feeling 
 act upon them thus ; and, when The Courier 
 goes against the Ministry, it comes with more 
 weight ; than all the regular pressure of opposi- 
 tion. Heaven help this poor country ! With 
 a power which, even now, if wielded with only 
 common wisdom, might change the fortune of 
 Europe and the world, we experience nothing, 
 and can look for nothing but disgrace after 
 disgrace, and disaster after disaster. If we 
 balloted 'the whole empire for a Ministry, the 
 chance is, that we should have a better, and 
 could not have a worse, than any which could 
 
1809] SOUTHEY. 
 
 415 
 
 at this time be formed, from any party, or 
 from all. I see two circumstances of consider- 
 able danger. One is, that any Ministry will 
 make peace, for the sake of a momentary popu- 
 larity ; the other, that these cursed Congreve 
 arrows will be employed against our ships. You 
 see, the French have analysed them ; indeed 
 such compositions cannot possibly long be kept 
 secret in the present state of Chemistry. When 
 Mr. Grenville was at the Admiralty, and they 
 were first talked of, I pressed this danger very 
 earnestly on my friend Williams Wynn. Is it 
 too late to point out the importance of a float- 
 ing force off the coast of Spain ? A few such 
 sieges as Zaragoza would waste even Buona- 
 parte's armies ; and there are many cities along 
 the coast which may be expected to make the 
 same resistance ; especially if our ships were 
 at hand to remove the women and children, 
 and lend assistance. Even yet we may win the 
 game, if we play it well. 
 
 The last delay of " The Friend " was owing to 
 a ridiculous cause. The rats eat up the motto 
 at the printer's, A few such numbers as the 
 
4l6 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 8th would win readers to it, I am surprised 
 at the regularity with which it has gone on, 
 and expect, as well as hope, that it will 
 continue. — Yours very truly, R. Southey, 
 
 Letter 7. 
 
 Keswick, March 14, 1814. 
 
 My dear Sir, — It is one of the miseries of 
 human life in times like these, to be disappointed 
 of one's newspaper, and for the last three or four 
 weeks. The Courier has fallen into such a course of 
 irregularity that I think the cause cannot lie in 
 the post ofBce. To-day we have the paper which 
 ought to have arrived on Sunday, and indeed, the 
 right paper seldom arrives on the right day. For 
 one whole week we were sometimes one, some- 
 times two days behind hand. I am sure you will 
 excuse me for informing you of this misery. 
 
 I cannot but assent to all you say about the 
 Bourbons. Most certainly it is a desirable event 
 that they should be restored ; and if I have any 
 feelings which would allay the joy that such an 
 
1814] SOUTHEY. 
 
 417 
 
 event ought to excite, they would arise, not so 
 much from a remembrance of the early days of the 
 Revolution, as from the history of the. family ; for 
 the policy of Louis XIIL, XIV. and XV. was little 
 less flagitious than that of Buonaparte, though 
 not upon so wide a scale. They have been bitter 
 and treacherous enemies to England. This, how- 
 ever, was natural, and the Government of France 
 is always likely to be actuated by the same spirit. 
 At present, I look to the contest with more 
 apprehension than hope. The readiness of our 
 Ministry to make peace, against the opinion both 
 of the Prince and the people, must tend greatly to 
 dishearten such of the Allies as are hearty in the 
 cause, which, no doubt, Russia and Prussia are, 
 and the Germans also, in general. But I distrust 
 some of their Courts. And if peace be made in 
 the course of a year or two, when Buonaparte is 
 strong enough to break it I fear we should see 
 him fighting on German ground, in alliance with 
 Austria. Wordsworth thinks that Austria is 
 playing false, and wilfully exposing Blucher and 
 the Russians to be cut up. If anything were to 
 be got by it, I should think so too, for the Austrian 
 
 28 
 
4l8 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 Government is capable of any baseness. Did I 
 tell you that Hofer took shelter in a prison at 
 Vienna, getting himself arrested under a false 
 name ; and that he was actually turned out ? 
 Adair assured me that this is a fact ! 
 
 The campaign in France puts Spain out of 
 sight. The affairs of that country would other- 
 wise excite, and probably baffle, all our political 
 sympathy. Will Ferdinand, or the new Constitu- 
 tion, go to the wall ? or is it possible that they 
 can long hold together ? Ferdinand was at first a 
 mere stalking horse, and after his arrest, an 
 excellent nom de guerre ; but in the course of the 
 war, the people may have learnt to believe that 
 they were fighting for him and his rights, and in 
 that case, any able minister will find little difficulty 
 in sweeping away all the sweeping reforms of the 
 Cortes ; and the new Constitution will go to the 
 family vault. A Spanish officer told me that if 
 the Duke del Infantado, on his escape from 
 Bayonne, had had the spirit of a mouse (these 
 were his words) he would have been King of 
 Spain. The officer was in Romana's army and 
 spoke his own feelings and those of his comrades. 
 
1814] SOUTHEY. 
 
 419 
 
 I know not which is most probable — that he should 
 be deposed, or that he should be re-established in 
 all the despotic power of his forefathers ; but 
 either is more likely than that the Constitution 
 should be permanent. For the Cortes have done 
 many things prematurely, many things unjustly. 
 On the one hand, this facilitator to the crown — 
 what must needs be its darling object ? The 
 recovery of its uncontrolled authority ! On the 
 other — the same spirit which has produced these 
 measures is ready to go farther; — perhaps, and 
 probably, the whole length of Republicanism. 
 
 Why does The Cottrier attack Madame de Staei 
 so often ? There is no person who abhors Buona- 
 parte more heartily than she does ; or who would 
 more zealously maintain the necessity of carrying 
 on the war against him, as long as he is at the 
 head of the French Government. The pictures 
 which I heard her draw of France, when talking 
 on this subject to Mackintosh and Davy, would 
 have figured as a leading article in The Courier or 
 The Times. I am sorry to hear her attacked. 
 The Opposition flatter her, and though she is 
 fairly astonished at their political blunders, in the 
 
420 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MARCH 
 
 ordinary course of human nature, she will learn to 
 think well of those who speak well of her. 
 
 Wordsworth is about to put his great poem 
 " The Recluse " to the press; which has been the 
 great work of his life. Sooner or later, it will no 
 doubt place him in his proper rank among the 
 English poets. If I were to supply him with a 
 motto for it, it should be Parturiunt Monies, with- 
 out any fear that the remainder of the line could 
 be added ; and in defiance of it. 
 
 Mrs, S. and her sisters beg to be remembered 
 to Mrs. Stuart. Present my respects to her also ; 
 and believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 Robert Southey. 
 
 Letter 8. 
 
 Keswick, 2$th March, 1818. 
 My dear Sir, — The Courier, which you have been 
 friendly enough to send us for so many years, for 
 about six months past has always come a day 
 later than it ought, and very much worn at the 
 folds as if it had been carried in the pockets. It 
 
lSl8] SOUTHEY. 
 
 421 
 
 has wholly failed several times, and never arrived 
 when it ought. Rather than trouble you upon the 
 subject, we wrote to Mr. Freeling, and I enclose 
 you the result of his investigation at the Post 
 Office. It comes always in the regular wrapper. 
 
 I have not seen Wordsworth since his return 
 from London. My time is indeed fully occupied 
 at my desk and among my books. You will pro- 
 bably see in the next Q. Review, a proposal (in a 
 paper upon the Poor Laws) for organizing an 
 efficient civil force by which any disturbances to 
 be excited upon that ground may speedily be 
 suppressed. Do not hint at me as the author of 
 this paper, in The Courier. From its matter and 
 manner I am not likely to be suspected ; and I 
 have desired that it may be kept secret, having no 
 desire to draw upon myself any cut-throat libels 
 upon that subject. The suspension and the last 
 harvest, and the effect of time in opening new 
 channels for capital to employ itself have done 
 much for us ; but another unfavourable season 
 would throw us back into confusion ; nor can any 
 Government be safe which suffers itself to be 
 continually libelled with impunity. Oh ! that it 
 
423 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC. 
 
 were as easy to counteract the mischief, which the 
 Opposition are effecting out of door, as it is to 
 expose their folly and their falsehood, and to 
 trample upon it in argument. 
 
 Mrs. S. and her sisters beg their remembrances 
 to Mrs. Stuart. — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours 
 very truly, Robert Southey. 
 
 Letter 9. 
 
 Westminster, December 6th, 1830. 
 My dear Sir, — Your paper has been delayed 
 some days ; a little, I confess, from inattention on 
 my part ; which, however, would not have been 
 the case if I had not known that you were not 
 anxious about speedily receiving it. Will you 
 allow me to retain the rough copy, that I may 
 make use of some of its information as occasion 
 may serve ? You shall have Brougham's bill as 
 soon as it is printed. It would be very mis- 
 chievous if it were carried into effect ; and 
 lawyers whose opinion is of any weight, see 
 this so clearly, that the experiment most pro- 
 bably will not be made. 
 
^830] SOUTHEY. 
 
 423 
 
 A letter will find its way to me at any time 
 under cover to Mr. Rickman, but the packet 
 must be under two ounces. Any larger commu- 
 nication might be sent under a double cover, 
 the inner one directed to Henry Taylor, Esq., 
 the outer, to the Under Secretary of State, 
 Colonial Office. I shall always be glad to 
 receive any information and any remarks, from 
 you : and indeed, should often be glad to talk 
 over public affairs with you, if we were within 
 reach of each other. 
 
 I am reprinting my Moral and Political Essays, 
 chiefly from the Q. Review ; correcting them, of 
 course, and improving them where I can. They 
 will form two such volumes as those of the 
 Family Library; and are for the most part, as 
 applicable to the state of affairs now, as when 
 they were written. Otherwise, indeed, they would 
 have been little worth preservation. 
 
 There is an intention, on the part of some of 
 those who have gone out of office, to set up an 
 Evening Paper, and support it with all the 
 ability they can muster. They are also looking 
 out for aspirants who may be capable of 
 
424 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [DEC, 183O 
 
 distinguishing themselves in Parliament ; thus 
 doing what they left undone when it was most 
 their interest to do it. But better thus late 
 than never ! For myself, I am no Oppositionist 
 by choice, and would support the Government, 
 in whose hands soever it might be vested, as 
 long as I could without a sacrifice of principle. 
 And I would gladly see this Ministry, or any 
 other, set up a newspaper, which should tell all 
 the truth that a Government can tell, and never 
 delude the public by false statements. If it 
 contained merely an authentic expose, and an 
 exposure of all the falseholds and fallacies 
 brought against it in Parliament, or in News- 
 papers and other Journals, I am persuaded that 
 such a paper, though not exceeding the Gazette 
 in size, would, when it had established a cha- 
 racter for probity, have a great effect upon the 
 public, both in preventing delusion and in estab- 
 lishing confidence. 
 
 The state of affairs, both at home and abroad 
 lead me to look upon three things as neither 
 impossible nor improbable ; — that the Whigs 
 while in power, may find it necessary to suspend 
 
I832J 
 
 SOUTHEY. 425 
 
 the Habeas Corpus ; to curb the Press, and to 
 go to War. Restoring the one pound bills would 
 follow as a matter of course. 
 
 Excuse the haste in which I write and believe 
 me always, my dear Sir, yours very truly, 
 
 Robert Southey. 
 
 Letter 10. 
 
 Keswick, 27 Fehniary, 1832. 
 My dear Sir, — I thank you for both your 
 letters, one of which is not the worse for being 
 a year old. I am always glad to know your 
 opinion of passing affairs, and if we were within 
 reach of each other, it would be a great satisfaction 
 for me sometimes to talk them over with you, and 
 profit by your experience, and your knowledge of 
 men and things. There would be little difference 
 between us, at this time, upon any point of import- 
 ance ; for, though I am more opposed in principle- 
 to Parliamentary Reform than you are, some 
 alterations I could willingly propose as being 
 desirable. Some I would not resist, looking- 
 
426 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 upon them as nugatory ; and others I must be 
 content to witness, though I would oppose them 
 to the last, as hurtful. If I am less alarmed than 
 you, it is because my disposition is habitually 
 hopeful, (one of the greatest blessings for which I 
 have reason to be thankful) and because, when no 
 human probabilities appear of escaping from 
 Revolution ; — when we have such a Press, such a 
 Ministry, such a King, and worst of all, such a 
 people — an abiding trust in Providence serves me 
 for a sheet anchor. I cannot think it is in the 
 order of Providence that Europe should be re- 
 barbari^ed, and yet rebarbarized it would be, if 
 England were revolutionized. This is sufficient 
 for my comfort, and keeps me in heart and hope. 
 But if you ask me, how we are to be saved ? I 
 confess myself utterly at a loss. I could have 
 answered the question confidently, before the 
 fatal concession to the Catholics, and were 
 there but one man of commanding mind, as 
 a leader, I could answer it now. . . . 
 
 Some circumstances make me think you are 
 mistaken in believing that George the Fourth 
 intended always to concede the R. Catholic 
 
1^32] SOUTHEY. 
 
 427 
 
 claims. The present Bp. of Winchester was 
 a person for whom he had a more than ordinary 
 regard ; insomuch that when the bishopric of 
 Jamaica was proposed to him, the king objected 
 to it, giving as a reason that he did not know how 
 near his own death might be, and it was his 
 particular wish that Sumner should be with him 
 in his last illness. That was a wish he said, 
 which he might reasonably look to be indulged in, 
 and Sumner should lose nothing by having this 
 promotion withheld from him. This I know took 
 place. Su'mner voted for the Relief Bill, and the 
 King resented it so strongly that he never forgave 
 him, and had no intercourse with him afterwards. 
 I think this could not have happened if the king 
 had really approved that measure. 
 
 Another fact which would lead to the same 
 inference is that, when the measure had been 
 determined on by Ministers, but this determination 
 had not been made known — scarcely indeed sur- 
 mised — I wrote a paper upon the subject, in the 
 Q. R. (the last paper in the Collection of my 
 Political Essays) and a wish of the King's was 
 conveyed to Murray that he would print that 
 
428 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [FEB. 
 
 paper for separate circulation. Murray refused, 
 because he expected an extra sale for the number, 
 for the purpose of distribution, in which I believe 
 he was totally disappointed. 
 
 That remark of yours upon the tendency which 
 men of loose lives have to bring the general 
 standard of morals nearer their own, is very just. 
 I have little doubt that Fox was influenced by it, 
 and the greater part of his associates. They 
 wanted a French system of society, in which no 
 profligacy however open, would be considered 
 disreputable, 
 
 I have often wished that you would write such 
 Memoirs of your own Times as your recollection 
 and observations could supply. The employment 
 would be very interesting. You might leave it, 
 if you thought best, for posthumous publication 
 at any fixed time ; and you have a great deal to 
 communicate which would throw light on a busy 
 and important age. 
 
 I am closely employed upon the Peninsular 
 War, which will now be finished in a few days. I 
 have also some Colloquies in hand, relating chiefly 
 to vulgar errors in public opinion upon political 
 
lS'32j SOUTH EY. 
 
 429 
 
 affairs. Some good they may do hereafter, though 
 little is to be hoped from them now. I never 
 dream of changing any man's opinions when he 
 has once taken his course in life ; but you may 
 form the opinions of the young, and fix those of 
 the wavering, and in this way my writings have 
 been useful. 
 
 You are right in not fearing the Cholera ; but, if 
 it approaches your neighbourhood, you will not 
 be right in remaining in town. It is the Indian 
 Cholera. Hitherto its progress has been com- 
 paratively slow ; but it has established itself in 
 the Island, when a good police might have ex- 
 tinguished it in the first street, when it appeared. 
 
 I am glad to hear that your family are all in 
 health; and wish that I could say the same of 
 mine ; but my daughters are not strong. My son 
 hitherto has been so.— Our kind regards to Mrs. S., 
 and believe me always, yours very truly, 
 
 Robert Southey. 
 
430 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT. 
 
 Letter ii. 
 
 Keswick, September g, 1834. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have heard that poor Coleridge 
 bequeathed his papers to the care of a Mr. Green, 
 one of his most constant listeners, who is, I be- 
 lieve, in the medical or surgical line. But if there 
 be, as there ought, a general edition of all that he 
 has left, it seems most likely that the superinten- 
 dence of it w^ould be undertaken by his nephew 
 and son-in-law, Mr. H.N. Coleridge of Lincoln's 
 Inn. The Editor, however, be he who he may, if 
 he knows anything of Coleridge's history, will 
 apply to you, as one of the first persons from 
 whom information is to be solicited. 
 
 If there had been anything left in a state of 
 preparation for the Press, the newspapers would 
 probably have said so ; there may, more likely, be 
 many fragments, and H. N. C. has I know, for 
 several years, made notes from all that he could 
 remember of his conversation. Others have per- 
 haps done the same. Of this, indeed, there can be 
 little doubt ; and from these materials, and his 
 correspondences, a Work of extraordinary interest. 
 
1834] SOUTHEY. 431 
 
 and of no inconsiderable extent, may be composed. 
 Besides this, the published Works would amount 
 to from ten to twelve such monthly volumes as 
 are now in vogue. And there are many scattered 
 pieces which his old friends could indicate. No 
 one better than yourself. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Mackintosh himself has been ill-treated in the 
 publication of his posthumous fragment. Rogers, 
 whom I met lately at Lowther, complained of it 
 to me with proper indignation. The Memoir, he 
 said, was written, if not in an unfriendly, at least 
 in a disrespectful, spirit ; and the Work had been 
 continued by some thorough paced Radical. 
 Mackintosh's friends, he added, were exceedingly 
 displeased ; and the publishers, in consequence, 
 were likely to be great losers by the publication — ■ 
 as they deserved to be. 
 
 You can communicate with me at anytime (and 
 your communications I am always glad to receive) 
 under cover first to Henry Taylor, Esq. ; and 
 secondly to R. W\ Hay, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Colonial 
 Office. That cover will frank any reasonable 
 weight. 
 
432 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [SEPT., 1834 
 
 I shall be in London for one week, in October, 
 on my way to the West of England ; and for 
 another week, in November, on my way homewards. 
 Of course, I shall call at your door, to see if you 
 are in town, as I have never, upon any of my 
 visits there, failed to do. I have not been in the 
 south, except on a hasty summons to Cheltenham, 
 since I saw you in the winter of 1830. A change 
 in my family may now perhaps draw me thither 
 more frequently. My eldest daughter was married 
 in January last. The Archbishop of Canterbury 
 has just, for my sake, presented her husband to the 
 Vicarage of Patching with Tarring, near Worthing, 
 and there they are now settled. There, after a 
 circuit into Somerset, Devon and Dorsetshire, I 
 mean to visit them during the autumn, and leave 
 my son with them to be prepared for Oxford by 
 his brother-in-law Mr. Warter. 
 
 These are great changes in a fireside circle 
 which had previously been much reduced. My 
 wife, I grieve to say, is in bad health and miser- 
 able spirits ; the disease being of that nervous 
 kind which is most distressing to the patient and 
 mOvSt perplexing to the physician. For myself, I 
 
1838] SOUTHEY. 
 
 433 
 
 have entered on my sixty-first year in good health 
 and strength. Cheerful, in the ordinary meaning 
 of the word, no man can be, who understands the 
 present state of public affairs, and who, in his own 
 private prospect, sees before him much that may 
 certainly be apprehended, and nothing that can 
 confidently be hoped. But God has blessed me 
 with an active mind, a buoyant spirit, and a calm 
 and settled faith. 
 
 Present Mrs. S.'s kind remembrances, with mine, 
 to Mrs. Stuart, and believe me always, my dear 
 Sir, yours very truly, Robert Southey. 
 
 Letter 12. 
 
 Keswick, May 3, 1838. 
 My dear Sir, — I will not let a post pass without 
 acknowledging the receipt of your paper con- 
 cerning Coleridge. What can I say upon so sad 
 a subject ? What, but that I always looked on 
 with discomfort and sorrow to the disclosures 
 which would be made after his death ; by some 
 persons in mere senseless indiscretion, by others 
 
 29 
 
434 LETTERS OF LAKE POETS. [MAY 
 
 in malice, and by some, as in your case, in proper 
 self-defence. How few would content themselves 
 with saying as little as you have done ! 
 
 There is one misapprehension concerning my- 
 self. My engagement as your Poet-Laureate did 
 not commence till 1798 ; and the quantity which 
 I supplied was never intended to be considered as 
 making up Coleridge's deficiency. 
 
 I never think of that Laureateship without 
 satisfaction. The guinea a week, while I held it, 
 came every quarter very seasonably in aid of 
 slender means ; and a very considerable part of 
 those Minor Poems which I have thought worth 
 preserving, and upon which much careful correc- 
 tion has recently been bestowed, were written in 
 your employ, and otherwise would not have been 
 written. 
 
 Present my kindest regards to Mrs. Stuart, and 
 believe me always, yours very truly, 
 
 Robert Southey. 
 
 End of Southey's Letters. 
 
1838] HILL. 435 
 
 Letter from Thomas Hill, Esq., to 
 Mr. Stuart. 
 
 I, James Street, Adelphi, 8th May, 1838. 
 My dear Stuart, — I have only this moment 
 read your Article in the Gentlemen's Magazine, 
 although the number has been upon my table ever 
 since the ist. You have done yourself immortal 
 honour by repelling the puny and unjust attacks 
 made upon you by the biographers of Coleridge. 
 You were the most substantial and " current friend'* 
 he ever had, especially during the early part of 
 his career. I have often heard Coleridge declare, 
 he never could have published his *' Friend " 
 vi^ithout your aid and assistance, — Yours very 
 sincerely, Tho. Hill. 
 
POEMS CONTRIBUTED TO THE "MORN- 
 ING POST," AND SENT TO THE EDITOR, 
 D. STUART, BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY 
 SENT TO MR. STUART. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 My Dear Sir, — Whether or no the following 
 Dramatic Fragment is upon too invidious a 
 subject, you must be a better judge than me. 
 If you think so, throw it behind the fire. I wrote 
 it with a feeling of interest that makes me think 
 it good. — Yours truly, R. Southey. 
 
 DRAMATIC FRAGMENT. 
 
 The scene in Holland. The time about 1570. 
 
 Ellis. 
 
 Not complain ? 
 Endure in silence ? Suffer with beast patience 
 Oppressions such as these .'' 
 
 Klaus. 
 
 Nay, an it please you, 
 Rail on, rail on. No doubt when you are feeling 
 The vengeance of the State, 'twill comfort you. 
 Amid your dungeon miseries to reflect 
 How valiantly you talked : You know Count Roderick, 
 He would be railing too. 
 
440 POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 Ellis. 
 
 And what has followed ? 
 
 Klaus. 
 I saw him in his dungeon ! 'Tis a place 
 Where the hell haunted murderer might almost 
 Rejoice to hear the hangman summons him. 
 By day he may divert his solitude 
 With watching through the grate the snow-flakes fall, 
 Or counting the long icicles above him, 
 Or he may trace upon the ice glazed wall, 
 Lines of most brave sedition ! And at night 
 The frosty moonbeam for his meditation 
 Lends light enough. He told me that his feet 
 Were ulcered with the biting cold. I would 
 Thou hadst been with me, Ellis. 
 
 Ellis. 
 
 But does Phihp 
 Command these things ? or knowingly permit 
 The punishment to go before the judgement ? 
 
 Klaus. 
 Know'st thou not with what confidence the King 
 Reposes upon Alva ? and admit, 
 As sure I trust, to hear and to redress 
 Injustice, be with him one act, the groans 
 Of misery reach not to the royal ear. 
 
 Ellis. 
 But sure Count Roderick's service — 
 
 Klaus. 
 
 Powerful plea ! — 
 He served his country, and his country paid him 
 The wages of his service. Why, but late, 
 
POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 44I 
 
 A man that in ten several fields had fought 
 
 His country's battles, by the hangman's hand 
 
 Died like a dog — and for a venial crime — 
 
 A deed that could not trouble with one doubt 
 
 A dying man. At Lepanto he had shared 
 
 The danger of that day, whose triumph broke 
 
 The Ottoman's power ; and this was pleaded for him. 
 
 Six months they stretched him on the rack of hope. 
 
 Then took his life. 
 
 Ellis. 
 I would I were in England ! 
 
 Klaus. 
 Aye ! Get thee home again ! You Islanders 
 Live under such good laws, so mild a sway, 
 That you are no more fit to dwell abroad 
 Than a doating mother's favorite to endure 
 His first school-hardships. We in Holland here, 
 Know 'tis as idle to exclaim against 
 These State oppressions, as with childish tears 
 To weep in the stone, or any other curse 
 Wherewith God's wrath afflicts us. And for struggling— 
 Why — 'twould be like an idiot in the gout. 
 Stamping for pain. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 FRAGMENT WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE 
 ABOVE. 
 
 >;<**>!< 
 
 Or, if the drudge of housemaids daily toil 
 Cobwebs and dust thy pinion white besoil, 
 
 Departed Goose ! I neither know nor care. 
 But this I know, that thou wert very fine 
 Seasoned with sage and onions and port wine. 
 
44^ POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE FRAGMENT. 
 
 Everywhere 
 Nature is lovely ! On the mountain height, 
 Or where the embosomed mountain glen displays, 
 Secure sublimity ; or where around 
 The undulated surface gently slopes 
 With mingled hill and valley. Everywhere 
 Nature is lovely. Even in scenes like these, 
 Where not a hillock breaks the unvaried plain, 
 The eye may find new charms that seeks delight. 
 At eve I walk abroad ; the setting sun 
 Hath softened with a rich and mellow hue 
 The cool fresh air, — below, a bright expanse. 
 The waters of the Broad lie luminous. 
 I gaze around ; the unbounded plain presents 
 Ocean immensity, whose circling line 
 The bending heaven shuts in. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 ODE. 
 
 To whom of all the powers that throng 
 
 The earth, and air, and sea, 
 Unknowing have I offered wrong ? 
 
 Laments some wood-nymph for her favourite tree ? 
 Or Satyr for his summer bower. 
 By me destroyed in evil hour ? 
 Falls for my crime the Naiad's wrathful tear ? 
 Or have I chased to death Diana's hallowed deer ? 
 
POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 443 
 
 Or, Lord of Ocean ! is it thou 
 
 Whose anger I am doomed to know ? 
 That from the fountains of my head 
 
 The briny floods must flow ? 
 Earth-shaking Neptune ! for no broken vow, 
 Dost thou thy fury on the suflerer shed. 
 
 I never yet put out a Cyclop's eye ! 
 Did ever I profane 
 High Jove or Juno's fane ? 
 
 Or make too free with subtle Mercury ? 
 
 That like the fair Sicilian virgin coy, 
 A spring of living streams I flow away ; 
 Or as the wretch who on his desert way, 
 
 Bit by the Seps, dissolving lies, 
 Hisses like melting snow on the hot sands, and dies. 
 
 Weave the warp and weave the woof, 
 
 The pocket-handkerchief for me. 
 Give ample room and verge enough 
 
 To hold the flowing sea. 
 Heard ye the din of trumpet's bray ? 
 
 Nose to napkin — nostril force ? 
 Long currents urge their way, 
 And through the kindred fountains speed their course. 
 
 Mark the social hour of night. 
 When the house roof shall echo with affright. 
 
 The sneezes sudden thunder ! 
 The neighbours leap with wonder ! 
 A room-quake follows ; each upon his chair 
 Starts at the fearful sound, and interjects a prayer. 
 
 Days of delight ! return, return ! 
 
 Ye angry powers, enough ! 
 Relent, and give me once again 
 
 The joys of health and snuff! 
 
444 POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 Oh give me once again to feel 
 
 The gentle titillation steal 
 Through all the windings of the ethmoid maze ! 
 
 And thou return, thou wanderer Smell ! 
 
 Back to thy native home return in haste, 
 And with thee bring again thy brother wanderer Taste. 
 
 Dreams of recovery, are ye [Hed ? 
 That sneeze has scared the fairy forms away ! 
 
 And yet again, out rushing from my head, 
 The torrent tides have forced their way. 
 So, when the Senators of Gaul require, 
 
 Defensive armour for their courser's feet, 
 The civic Mulciber prepares his fire, 
 
 With quick obedience meet. 
 The chimney's leathern lungs he works away. 
 And blow, blow, blow, becomes the order of the day. 
 Thursday^ December 19, 1799. 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 FRANCES DE BARRY. 
 
 , A Mono-Scenic Drama. 
 
 The circumstances historical. 
 
 Scene. — The Ramparts of Leucate. 
 
 Frances de Barry — Herald — De Loupian. 
 
 Frances. 
 Bid here the Captains of the garrison. 
 And the chief citizens. 
 
 Herald. 
 
 My errand, Lady, 
 Is for your private ear. 
 
POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 445 
 
 Frances. 
 
 Reserve it therefore. 
 I have no private ear ! The day your craft 
 Entrapped De Barry (whom by courage, never 
 Ye had subdued) that day did I become 
 My husband's image here ; like him the servant 
 Of France, and faithful to my trust like him. 
 
 Herald. 
 Your husband's 
 
 Frances. 
 Peace ! Anon, and thou shalt have 
 Thy scope of speech. 
 
 {Enter Captains, &"€) 
 
 Now, Herald, do thine errand. 
 
 Herald. 
 Thus say the leaders of the League. Their troops 
 Hem in Leucate ; they hold the country round. 
 The tyrant, daily weakening, daily prest 
 Closer and closer by their righteous arm, 
 Desperate himself of safety, can afford 
 No succour here. Resistance boots not here. 
 Your town, perforce, must fall. Yet are the League 
 Mindful of mercy ; rightly, as befits 
 The Champions of the Church ; and, like the Church 
 By wholesome terror, as by promised grace. 
 Would make you wise to safety. Yield the town, 
 And, ransomless, your husband shall be free. 
 But if relying on deceitful hopes. 
 Lady ! and obstinate in waste of blood 
 Still you provoke their vengeance, my return 
 Condemns De Barry. Yonder he is bound 
 
 Waiting the event, and ye shall see him die, 
 
 The victim of your crime. 
 
446 POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 Frances. 
 
 Ye turn your eyes, 
 Defenders of Leucate, as though in doubt, 
 Towards me. Look ! My husband from his prison 
 Sent me this handkerchief, with charcoal traced : 
 " Keep the town well." Say to De Barry, Herald, 
 His wife received the token. If he die, 
 
 I have a woman's feelings ; but his honour 
 
 That is beyond your power ; and in my grief 
 There will be consolation. 
 
 Herald. 
 
 This your answer ? 
 
 Captain. 
 Yet more. Ye see the hostage in our power, 
 By Montmorency sent — De Barry's pledge 
 Of safety. As a noble gentleman 
 Has he been guarded here. 
 
 De Loupian. 
 
 With all indulgence, 
 Never was foe by foe more honourably 
 
 Entreated. 
 
 Captain. 
 
 Tell the League his life depends 
 
 Upon De Barry. 
 
 {Exit Herald.) 
 
 Frances /<? De Loupian. 
 
 Think you they will act 
 Their threatening ? 
 
 De Loupian. 
 
 As a soldier I must deem 
 The crime impossible : — but as my life 
 Hangs on the issue, Lady, I have fears. — 
 But look ! What stir is yonder in the camp ? 
 Oh base and bloody men ! 
 
POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 447 
 
 Frances. 
 
 It is my husband ! 
 
 De Loupian. 
 He kneels as though for death. 
 
 {Frances veils her face.) 
 
 Captain. 
 
 Your Hfe, De Loupian, 
 Is in the event. 
 
 {A gun is heard.) 
 
 De Loupian. 
 Then Christ have mercy on me ! 
 That was De Barry's death. 
 
 {Matty voices.) 
 
 Away with him ! 
 Away with him ! Vengeance ! Away with him ! 
 
 Frances {uncovering her face). 
 Hold, Frenchmen ! Unpolluted by a crime, 
 Unspotted in his honour, has my husband 
 Died in his country's cause. No cruelty, 
 No act of impotent revenge, shall stain 
 The memory of his fate. Shall I revenge 
 In innocent blood, the life that by a treason 
 I would not save ? — De Loupian, thou art safe ! 
 Return to Montmorency ; say to him 
 De Barry's widow will defend Leucate. 
 
 WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE ABOVE. 
 My dear Sir, — I received the bill, as you have 
 probably heard by Coleridge. My attention will 
 
448 POEMS BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. 
 
 be directed hereafter to Works of length ; but 
 any piece which I may chance to write, of 
 suitable extent, I will not fail to transmit to you. 
 — Believe me, yours truly, R. Southey. 
 
 Dec. 24, 1799. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 The story of the publication of The Friend, which 
 is recorded at length in the preceding letters, 
 may be summed up in a few words. In order to 
 give the world the benefit of his stores of learn- 
 ing, and to set forth his general principles in 
 philosophy, literature, and politics, Coleridge 
 proposed to write a weekly article in the form 
 of a newspaper, and hoping to save the heavy 
 drawback of booksellers' profits, he determined 
 to be his own publisher. With this object in 
 view, in the autumn of 1808 he opened negotia- 
 tions with a Kendal printer named Pennington, 
 but his proposals were declined on the score of 
 old age and approaching retirement. His next 
 plan was to set up a printing press at his own 
 expense, and, with the help of a single com- 
 positor, to issue the weekly sheet from Grasmere. 
 
 30 
 
450 APPENDIX. 
 
 Before, however, this plan was matured, a printer 
 at Penrith, named John Brown, on the under- 
 standing that Coleridge should purchase a new 
 fount of type, undertook the work at a moderate 
 price. The cost of the paper, the printing, and 
 the stamps for an issue of five hundred copies 
 amounted to about -£^11 lis., and as the postage 
 of the entire issue was franked by Curwen, the 
 Member for Carlisle, and Stuart inserted the 
 ' advertisements both in The Courier and The 
 Morning Post gratis, a considerable margin of 
 profit would have been left if five hundred copies 
 a week at a shilling a number had been sub- 
 scribed and paid for. The distance of Penrith 
 from Grasmere, the uncertainty of posts, and the 
 expense of the postage of letters containing sub- 
 scribers' remittances, were drawbacks to success, 
 but the real cause of the failure of The Friend was 
 ■>y a lack of bond fide subscribers. Out of a list 
 of names finally exceeding six hundred, perhaps 
 not a third of that number had ever seriously 
 intended to take the paper in. Many, no doubt, 
 promised zealous canvassers to take a copy on 
 trial, but had no intention of acquiring principles 
 
APPENDIX. 451 
 
 at the rate of £% 12s. a year. Others never so ' 
 much as authorized their names to be given in, but 
 were suggested as likely people by friends' friends, 
 and so came to be included in the list. Tv^enty 
 numbers had to be issued before payment was 
 due, and when that time arrived, the list on which 
 Coleridge had relied proved to be wholly delusive. 
 Of course, if the matter of The Friend had been 
 of a popular character, the nominal subscribers 
 would have become permanent supporters, and 
 the drawbacks, with which, as it has been said, 
 Coleridge " severely handicapped" himself, would 
 have been triumphantly overcome. Dis aliter 
 visum, and after the issue of the 27th number, 
 which appeared March 15, 1810, The Friend ceased 
 to exist. 
 
 LIST OF ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS' TO 
 THE FRIEND. 
 
 Transcribed by Miss Hutchinson. 
 
 Subscribers' Names. 
 
 The Bishop of Llandaff, Calgarth. 
 Charles Lloyd, Esq. 
 
452 APPENDIX. 
 
 / Thos. de Ouincey, Esq., 5 Copies. 
 
 Mr. Scambler, \ 
 
 Mr. Green, \ Ambleside. 
 
 Mr. Newton, ) 
 
 Mr. John Grave, Keswick. 
 
 J. C. Curwen, Esq., Workington Hall. 
 
 H. Curwen, Esq., Youngfield, Dumfries. 
 </ Walter Scott, Esq., Edinburgh. 
 
 Mr. Mackeseth, Ambleside. 
 
 Earl of Altamont, 10, Grafton Street, London. 
 
 Dean of Ely, Jesus College, 
 
 Professor Smyth, Peter College, 
 
 Dr. E. D. Clarke, St. Andrew's Street, ^Cambridge. 
 
 Rev. G. Caldwell, Jesus College, 
 
 Rev. J. Brook, Jesus College, 
 
 s/" Francis Jeffrey, Esq., 62, Queen's Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 Wm. Calvert, Esq., ) ^ 
 
 T,,r T-1 ^ } Keswick. 
 
 Mr. Edmondson, j 
 
 Miss Mitchinson, Carlyle. 
 
 T. Koster, Esq., ) 
 
 •J Wm. Roscoe, Esq., j 
 
 John May, Esq., Hole Downton, Wilts. 
 
 Humphrey Senhouse, Esq., Maryport. 
 
 Mrs. Bolton, Storrs, ) ^ , , 
 „ . , „ . \ Kendal. 
 
 Mrs. Smith, Coniston, j 
 
 Miss Penny, Ambleside | 
 
 Mr. Cookson j 
 
 Charles Sydebotham, Esq., ) ^ . 
 
 ^ n r 17 Liverpool. 
 
 F. G. Crump, Esq., ) 
 
 Richd. Sharp, Esq., Mark Lane, 2 Copies. 
 
 Boddington, Upper Brook Street. 
 
 George Hibbert, Esq., Mincing Lane. 
 
 The Bishop of Durham. 
 
 T. Barnard, Esq., Wimpole Street. 
 
 J. Montgomery, Sheffield. 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 Mr. Maude, Sunnyside, Sunderland, Durham. 
 Miss Weatherburn, Sunderland. 
 Rev, S. Rudd, Cockermouth. 
 J. Losh, Esq., Jesmond, Newcastle. 
 Wm. Rawson, Esq., i 
 
 S. Rhodes, Esq., [Halifax. 
 
 Stansfield Rawson, Esq., Breek, J 
 John Monkhouse, Hindwell. 
 V^Wt. Landor, Esq. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Elmesley, St. Mary Cray, Kent. 
 Isaac Braithwaite, Kendal. 
 — Lloyd, Birmingham, 25 Copies. 
 Sir G. Beaumont, Bart., Grosvenor Square. 
 Mr. Marshall, New Grange, Leeds. 
 Dr. Crompton, Eaton, Liverpool. 
 Miss Crompton, Eaton, Liverpool. 
 Mr. Harrison, Surgeon, Kendak 
 Mrs. Hustler, Ulverstone. 
 Thos. Wilkinson, Yanwath, Penrith. 
 John Smith, Mercer, Thirsk. 
 David Carrick, jun., Carlisle. 
 Sir J. E. Swinburne, Capheaton, Newcastle. 
 Fletcher Rainwill, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Liverpool. 
 J. Miller, Esq., Worcester College, Oxford. 
 W, Whitehead, Esq., Worcester College, Oxford. 
 J. K. Miller, Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Miss Barker, S"". Ed. Littleton's, Teddesley Park, Sheffield. 
 Mr. Morrison, Alston Moor. 
 Rev. Ben Jackson, Alston Moor. 
 William Tayler, Esq., St. Helen's, Auckland, 
 Chas. Danvers, Esq., Bristol. 
 John King, Esq., Dowry Square, Bristol. 
 Mr. John Gutch, Bristol. 
 
 Benjamin Hobhouse, Esq., M.P., 11, Manchester Buildings, 
 London. 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 Sheffield. 
 
 Mr. Estlin, Bristol. 
 
 Sampson Hanbury, Esq. 
 
 Charles Fairfax, Esq., Gilling Castle. 
 
 The Rev. Chas. Berry, Leicester. 
 
 Very Rev. Dean of Booking. 
 
 John Harden, Esq., Brathay. 
 
 Mrs. Harden, Dublin. 
 
 Miss Crosthwaite, Keswick. 
 
 Thos. King, Esq., Grasmere. 
 
 Mr. Luff, Patterdale. 
 
 Mr. S. Scully, Bookseller, Ulverstone. 
 
 Mr. Wray, Malton, Yorkshire. 
 
 Saml. Spoor, Esq., Meersbrooke, 
 
 Wm. Spoor, Esq., Tapton, 
 
 Geo. Cranstone, Esq., George Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 Thos. Thomson, Esq., North Castle Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 John Muney, Esq., George Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 Rev. Archd. Alison, Buntsfield Links, Edinburgh. 
 
 Mrs. Maxwell Gordon, Albany Street, Edinburgh. 
 
 Messrs. Constable, &c., Booksellers, Edinburgh. 
 
 Wm. Ford, Bookseller, 5, Market Street Lane, Manchester, 
 
 8 Copies. 
 
 Mr. Sam. Jackson, Manchester. 
 
 Fred. Duckinfield Astley, Esq. 
 
 Wm. Jones, Escj., Manchester. 
 
 John Bill, Esq., Manchester. 
 
 Thomas Hardiman, Esq., Manchester. 
 
 Miss Mainwaring, Manchester. 
 
 L. B. Hollingshead, Esq., Manchester. 
 
 Wm. Gibbons, Esq., Ashley Place, ^ 
 
 Rev. Mr. Edwards, Bedminster, 
 
 Michl. Castle, Esq., Old Market Street, „ . , 
 ^ ' >-BnstoL 
 
 Mr. Thos. Castle, Milk Street, 
 
 Mr. Hood, Brunswick Square, 
 
 Mr. Porter, Castle Green, J 
 
APPENDIX. 455 
 
 Mr. Elam, Leeds. 
 
 Mrs. Eliz. Hamilton, Edinburgh. 
 
 Earl of Hardwicke, St. James' Square. 
 
 Marchioness of Exeter, Whitehall. 
 
 Miss Mune, Exeter, Whitehall. 
 
 Countess of Beverley, Portman Square. 
 
 Viscountess St. Asaph, Berkley Square. 
 
 Countess of Lonsdale, Charles Street, Berkley Square. 
 
 Stourges Bourse, Esq., 14, Charles Street, Berkley Square. 
 
 Lady Susan Bathurst, Cadogan Place, No. 3. 
 
 Sir Geo. Annitage, Kirklees, near Leeds. 
 
 Mr. Palmer, Holme Park, near Reading. 
 
 Mrs. Fermor, Albion Place, Bath. 
 
 Rev. Francis Merryweather, Haverhill, Essex. 
 
 T. W. Pepys, St. John's, Cambridge. 
 
 Honble. Mrs. Phipps, Harley Street. 
 
 Rt. Honble. Lady Craven, Lower Grosvenor Street. 
 
 Matthew Montague, Esq., Portman Square. 
 
 Lady Beaumont, Dunmow, Essex. 
 
 Rev. — Froude, Dartington, near Totnes, Devon. 
 
 His Grace the Duke of Leeds. 
 
 Lady Annie Hudson, Yorkshire. 
 Thos. Gibson, Esq., Old Bank, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
 Thos. Fitzgerald, Esq., Old Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 Anthony Spedding, Esq., 46, Gower Street, Bedford 
 
 Square. 
 Richd. Bright, Esq., Haw Green, near Bristol. 
 Richard Bruce, Esq., Frenchay, near Bristol. 
 Robt. Rankin, Esq., Bristol. 
 The Rev. Dr. Cookson, Binfield, Berks. 
 Dr. Blake, Taunton. 
 Mrs. Witham, Durham. 
 ^i The Right Honble. Geo. Canning, Downing Street. 
 G. T. Estcourt, Esq., M.P., 17, Curzon Street, London. 
 — Barwise, Esq., Temple, London. 
 
456 APPENDIX. 
 
 H. F. Mereweather, Esq., 20, Southampton Street, Blooms- 
 bury. 
 
 The Earl of Lonsdale, Charles Street, Berkley Square. 
 
 Lord Lowther. 
 
 Lady Elizabeth Lowther. 
 
 Lady Mary Lowther. 
 
 Lady Anne Lowther. 
 
 Wm. Rose, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Edward Fuller, Esq., Carlton, near Saxmundham, Suffolk. 
 \ARev. J. Mitford, Kelsales, near Saxmundham, Suffolk. 
 
 Mrs. Spalding, Devizes, Wiltshire. 
 
 Wm. Salmon, Esq., Devizes. 
 
 John Awdry, Esq., Notton House, Chippenham, Wilts. 
 ^ Rev. W. L. Bowles, Bremhill, Calne, Wilts. 
 
 S. Estcourt, Esq., Estcourt, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. 
 
 R. E. Estcourt, Esq., Estcourt, Tetbury, Gloucestershire. 
 "/R. Southey, Esq., Keswick. 
 
 Mr. Jackson, Keswick. 
 VThe Rev. F. Wrangham, Hunmanby, Bridlington, Yorkshire. 
 
 Wm. Strutt, Esq., Derby. 
 
 G. B. Strutt, Esq., Derby. 
 
 Dr. Forester, Derby. 
 
 Nathl. Edwards, Esq., Derby. 
 
 Saml. Fox, Esq., Mulston Grange, near Derby. 
 
 Michael Keane, Esq., Derby. 
 
 Wm. Rowland, Esq., Derby. 
 
 Henry Pilkington, Esq., Derby. 
 
 Rev. Ed. Higginson, Manchester Hill, Stockport. 
 
 — Lloyd, Esq., Hawkshead Field, Kendal. 
 
 Mrs. Johnson, 8, Crescent, Weymouth. 
 
 Mr. Grant, Kendal. 
 
 Mrs. Merely Tofts, Brandon, Norfolk. 
 
 Mr. C. Butler, 44, Ormond Street. 
 
 Mr. Carr, Great Russel Street. 
 
 J. Smith, Esq., Haymarket. 
 
APPENDIX. 457 
 
 Dr. Manson, Golden Square. 
 Mr. Cooke, Leicester. 
 Mr. Hazlewood, Fitzroy Square. 
 Mr. Wilkinson, i8, Change Alley. 
 
 Mr. Edwards, Bloomsbury Square, Great Russel Street. 
 s^ Basil Montagu. 
 
 Mr. Serjeant Rough, Bedford Row. 
 
 Mr. Meggison, Harcourt Buildings, Temple. 
 John Hull, Uxbridge, Middlesex. 
 
 Samuel Hull, Uxbridge, Middlesex. 
 
 Thomas Smith, at the Bank, Uxbridge. 
 
 Richard Fell, No. 8, Princes Place, Kennington Road. 
 
 Mr. Gasgarth, Matron Ground, near Bowness. 
 
 Emmot Skidmoor, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. 
 
 Richd. Phillips, 32, East Street, Red Lion Square, London. 
 
 John William Adam, Esq., at Longman and Rees, Pater- 
 noster Row, London. 
 
 Wm. Allen, Plough Court, Lombard Street, London. 
 
 Luke Howard, Plough Court, Lombard Street, London. 
 
 Joseph Foster, Bromley, near Bow, Middlesex. 
 
 Mr. Bowyer, Pall Mall, London. 
 
 Mr. M. Birkbeck, junr., Wanborough, near Guildford, 
 Surrey. 
 
 Mrs. Crawford, 29, Park Street, Grosvenor Square. 
 
 John Clarkson, Esq., Purfleet, near Grays, Essex. 
 
 Joseph Hardcastle, Esq., Old Swan, London Bridge, Lon- 
 don. 
 
 Thos. Foster, Esq., Five Houses, Clapton, near London, or 
 St. Helen's, Bishopsgate Street, London. 
 
 George Frederick Stratton, Esq., Ranger's Lodge, near 
 Enstone, Oxfordshire. 
 
 G. Heald, Esq., Barrister, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 R. Reynolds, Esq., Barrister, Bedford Row. 
 
 R. Knight, Esq., Henley in Arden, Warwickshire. 
 
 Dr. Symmons, Richmond, Surrey. 
 
458 APPENDIX. 
 
 P. Johnstone, Esq., ii, Somerset Street, Portman Square. 
 
 W. B. Scott, Esq., 15, Buckler's Bury. 
 
 James Burton, Esq., 9, Bedford Place, Bloomsbury. 
 
 Lord Hichingbroke, Grafton Street, Broad Street. 
 
 H. 'Huddlestone, junr., Esq., 11, Gray's Inn, London. 
 
 Richd. Taylor, 38, Shoe Lane. 
 
 J. Selmon, Esq., Gray's Inn Square. 
 
 Rev. H. Hasted, Bury, Suffolk. 
 
 P. Bennet, Esq., Bury, Suffolk. 
 
 D. French, Esq., Barrister, Temple. 
 
 P. L. Godsall, Esq., 242, Oxford Road. 
 /^ Sir Saml. Romilly, Russel Square. 
 
 E. Lomax, Esq., New Square, Lincoln's Inn. 
 J. Gleed, Esq., Barrister, Temple. 
 
 J. Smith, junr., 29, Haymarket. 
 
 Westminster Library, Jermyn Street. 
 
 John Buck, Esq., 18, South Street, Finsbury Square. 
 
 Joseph Corsbie, junr., Esq., 3, Artillery Place. 
 
 Daniel Bell, junr., Esq., 6, Freeman's Court, Cornhill. 
 
 Mr. Halsey Janson, Bullhead Passage, Wood Street. 
 
 R. P. Harris, Esq., 147, Fenchurch Street. 
 
 William Knight, Chelmsford, Essex. 
 
 T. Clarkson, Esq., Bury, Suffolk. 
 
 Wm. Buck, Esq., Bury, Suffolk. 
 
 Joseph Corsbie, Esq., Wm. Buck's, Esq., Bury, Suffolk. 
 
 The Rev. T. Brown, Connington, St. Ives, Huntingdonshire. 
 
 Mr. J. Wheelwright, 21, Budge Row. 
 
 Mrs. Robison, 17, St. Mary Axe. 
 
 Mr. Bowman, 5, Bread Street, Cheapside. 
 
 Mr. R. Addison, 11, Staple Inn. 
 
 Mr. H. Addison, 76, Lombard Street. 
 
 Mr. E. Addison, Poucher & Co's., Devonshire Square. 
 
 Mr. T. Monkhouse, 21, Budge Row. 
 
 H. Ballard, Esq., 11, Change Alley. 
 
 S. Horrocks, junr., Esq., Bread Street. 
 
APPENDIX. 459 
 
 Mr. W. Carruthers, Mitre Court, Cheapside. 
 
 Mr. John Carruthers, 50, Cheapside. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Buchanan, Dalmarnock, near Glasgow. 
 
 Mr. John Bowman, 14, Water Lane, Thames Street. 
 
 Mr. G. Brebner, Glasgow. 
 
 Geo. Jacson, Esq., Preston, Lancashire. 
 
 Thos. Miller, Esq., at Horrocks & Co., Preston, Lancashire. 
 
 Oliver Gammon, Esq., Jefferies Square, St. Mary Axe. 
 
 Wm. Lewis, Esq., 23, Berners Street, Oxford Street. 
 
 S. Chatfield, Esq., Cooper Row, Tower Hill. 
 
 Mr. Miller, 3, New Street, Bishopsgate Street. 
 
 Mr. Stewart, 3, New Street, Bishopsgate Street. 
 
 Miles Whitelock, Esq., Old Change. 
 
 Mr. Jackson Gaskill, 4, Minories. 
 
 Mr. Clementson, 72, Sun Street, Bishopsgate Street. 
 
 Mr. Scott, 72, Sun Street, Bishopsgate Street. 
 
 Mr. F. Rawlinson, Staple Inn. 
 
 Mr. Monkhouse, 10, Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital. 
 
 Miss Willis, at Col. Willis', Kensington Palace. 
 
 Mr. John Wilson, 3, How Court, Temple. 
 
 Mr. Cadwell, 8, Paternoster Row. 
 
 Jonathan Wood, Esq., Queen Street. 
 
 Mr. M. L. Merac, junr., Aldermanbury. 
 
 Mrs. Mounsey, 21, Old Compton Street. 
 
 Mr. Hodgson, 67, Lombard Street. 
 
 Mr. Wakefield, Kendal. 
 
 Mr. Jacob Wakefield, Kendal. 
 
 Mr. Thos. German, Preston, Lancashire. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Taylor, at Mr. Smith's, Preston, Lancashire. 
 
 Mr. James German, Highfield, near Wigan. 
 
 J. Russell, Esq., Worcester College, Oxford. 
 
 — Jones, Esq., Worcester College, Oxford. 
 
 — Banister, Esq., Worcester College, Oxford. 
 
 — Moore, Esq., Worcester College, Oxford. 
 Rev. T. Harward, Worcester College, Oxford. 
 
460 APPENDIX. 
 
 Rev. T. Simpson, Worcester College, Oxford. 
 John Kelsall, Esq. 
 
 Rev. A. Finch, 9, Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. 
 Mr. Samuel Buck, Bury, Suffolk. 
 Mr. R. Buck, Bury, Suffolk. 
 Mrs. White, Bury, Suffolk. 
 
 Rev. Jas: Lambert, Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 John Barnard, Esq., Knapton, near North Walsham, Norfolk. 
 Miss Brown, Meeting-house Lane, Peckham. 
 Dr. Wm. Lewis, Ross, Herefordshire. 
 Josiah Newnan, Ross, Herefordshire. 
 T. Pritchard, Brook End, Ross, Herefordshire, 2 copies. 
 Capel Loft, Esq., Troston, near Bury, Suffolk. 
 Wm. Smith, Esq., M.P., Parndon, near Harlow, Essex. 
 Mrs. Kerrich, Harleston, Norfolk. 
 The Rev. J. Mackenzie, Thetford, Norfolk. 
 S. Wilson, Trinity College, Cambridge. 
 Mr. G. Braithwaite, Strickland Gate, Bristol. 
 Thos. Woodrifife Smith, Esq., Stockwell Park, Surrej^ 
 kA D. Stuart, Esq., 36, Brompton Row, Knightsbridge, 2 
 copies. 
 G. Street, Esq., Courier Office, Strand, London. 
 Lieut .-Col. Sleigh, Stockton. 
 Geo. Sutton, Esq., Stockton. 
 H. Hutchinson, Esq., jun., Stockton. 
 J. R. Rountree, Esq., Stockton. 
 Mr. R. Dickson, Stockton. 
 Mr. S. Hutchinson, Stockton. 
 Thos. Place, Esq., Spennethorne, near Bedale. 
 Jona Backhouse & Co., Darlington, 2 copies. 
 Dr. Paley, Halifax. 
 
 Rd. Percival, Jun., Esq., 76, Lombard Street. 
 Mr. Rd. Macpherson, 76, Lombard Street. 
 Mr. C. A: Neep, 76, Lombard Street. 
 Rev. Andrew Bell, Swanage, Dorset. 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 David Barclay, Walthamstow, near London. 
 
 Wm. Knight, jun., Chelmsford, Essex. 
 
 James Potter, Chelmsford, Essex. 
 
 John Corbyn, 300, Holborn. 
 
 Robert Barclay, Esq., 56, Lombard Street, 
 
 Alex. Oswald, of Shieldhall, Glasgow. 
 
 Glasgow Public Library, care of Mr. Lumsden, Bookseller. 
 
 James Knox, Queen Street, Glasgow. 
 
 Andrew Templeton, Banker, ^ 
 
 John Douglas, Glassford Street, 
 
 Andrew Mitchell, Ingram Street,] 
 
 r> u ^ /- 1, T o. h Writers. VGlasgow. 
 
 Robert Graham, Ingram Street, j 
 
 William Dunn, John Street, Machine Maker, 
 
 David Dunlop Bleacher, at Craigton, ^ 
 
 Capt. Wyatt, 34th Regt. ) 
 
 Mr". Sherer, 34th Regt. j Grouville Barracks, Isle of Jersey. 
 
 Abraham Levy, Esq., Temple Sowerby. 
 
 Mr. Ralph Lodge, Stockton. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Lawson, Heversham, Milnthorpe. 
 
 J. Perry, Esq., Morning Chronicle, Strand. 
 
 W. Hall, Esq., 14, Birchin Lane. 
 
 J. Rowley, Esq., St. Neots, Huntingdonshire. 
 
 Wm. Jacob, Esq., M.P., i, Dartmouth Street, Westminster. 
 
 J. Goldsmid, Esq., Spital Square. 
 
 J. Huddart, Esq., Merton. 
 
 Miss Pearce Tofts, Brandon, Norfolk. 
 
 A. Carlyle, Esq., Soho Square. 
 Thos. Wilson, Esq., Knightsland. 
 
 B. R. Hayden, Esq., Great Marlboro Street. 
 Mr, Briggs, i, Gough Square. 
 
 Mr. J. S. Ward, Bruton, Somerset. 
 Mr. G. B. Ward, 24, Skinner Street, 
 Geo, Beauchamp, Esq., Thetford, Norfolk. 
 T, Gill, Esq,, Thetford, Norfolk. 
 T, Vipond, Esq., Thetford, Norfolk. 
 
462 APPENDIX. 
 
 Mrs. Apreece, No. i, North Audley Street. 
 
 Mrs. Anthony, Hamilton Street. Sir Walter Farquhar, 
 
 Conduit Street. 
 Henry Holland, Esq., Albany, London. 
 Mr. Peters, 56, Park Street, Grosvenor Square. 
 Miss Talbot, 6, Southampton Street, Bloomsbury. 
 Hercules Ross, Esq., Peebles, near Arboath, N. Britain. 
 Richard Holland, Esq., Madley, near Hereford. 
 James Rust, Esq., Huntingdon. 
 Fred. White, Esq., Wellington, Somerset. 
 Philip Ducarel, Esq., Walford House, near Bridgewater. 
 John Ward, Esq., Bruton, Somerset. 
 — Dyne, Esq., Bruton, Somerset. 
 Mr. Wm. Harris, Trinity Street, Bristol. 
 Mr. Wm. Harris, jun., Small Street, Bristol. 
 Mr. B. Barry, High Street, Bristol. 
 Mr. Thos. Griffiths, St. James', Barton, Bristol. 
 Mr. Samuel Ash, King's Square, Bristol. 
 Mr. Daniel Burges, Small Street, Bristol. 
 Thos. Kinder, Esq., St. Albans. 
 G. L. Hollingsworth, Esq., Darlington. 
 Mr. Blair, Dudley, near Birmingham. 
 Dr. Johnstone, Edgbaston, Birmingham. 
 Rev. J. Corrie, Shackbrook, Birmingham. 
 Mr. Blount, Surgeon, Birmingham. 
 James Taylor, Esq., Banker, Birmingham. 
 Mr. Robert Lloyd, Birmingham. 
 Samuel Gatton, Esq., Birmingham. 
 Mr. T. L. Havvkes, Birmingham. 
 W. Woodstock, Esq., Coventry. 
 yj Mr. Saml. Lloyd, Banker, Birmingham. 
 Mr. Chas. Lloyd, Banker, Birmingham. 
 - — Lloyd, Bookseller, Birmingham. 
 Messrs. Christopher & Jennet, Stockton. 
 Rev. H. Martin, CuckHngton, near Somerset. 
 
APPENDIX. 46J 
 
 Rev. E. Mosten, Tarleton, near Ormskirk. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote, Bt., Pynes, Exeter. 
 
 Wm. Jackson, Esq., Circus, Exeter. 
 
 Mr. E. Upham, Bookseller, Exeter. 
 
 Rev. J. Warren, Ottery St. Mary, Devon. 
 
 Miss B. Harding, near Bremridges, Barnstaple, Devon. 
 
 Miss Pearce, Sidbury, near Sidmouth, Devon. 
 
 Mr. S. George, jun., Brunswick Square, Bristol. 
 
 Mr. S. Acraman, Redcliffe Parade, Bristol. 
 
 G. E. Kiddell, Cumberland Street, Bristol. 
 
 Mr. J. L. Bickley, Portman Square, Bristol. 
 
 Miss Gibbons, Ashley Place, Bristol. 
 
 Mr. James Gibson, Printer, Malton. 
 
 Mrs. de Ouincey, Westhay, near Wrington, 2 copies. 
 
 Miss Ann Kemp, 28, Richmond Place, Clifton, Bristol. 
 
 Mr. Burroughs, Mall, Chfton, Bristol.