The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Illustrated Edition). Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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the following beautiful lines from Milton: —
Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
Nor in the glistering foil
Set off to the world, nor in broad rumour lies:
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed.
‘Lycidas.’]
[Footnote 7: “The following memoranda written in pencil, and apparently as he journeyed along, but now scarcely legible, may perhaps have an interest for some readers: —
“Sunday, December 15th, 1805.
“Naples, view of Vesuvius, the Hail-mist — Torre del Greco — bright amid darkness — the mountains above it flashing here and there from their snows; but Vesuvius, it had not thinned as I have seen at Keswick, but the air so consolidated with the massy cloud curtain, that it appeared like a mountain in basso relievo, in an interminable wall of some pantheon.”]
[Footnote 8: The order for Coleridge’s arrest had already been sent from Paris, but his escape was so contrived by the good old Pope, as to defeat the intended indulgence of the Tyrant’s vindictive appetite, which would have preyed equally on a Duc D’Enghien, and a contributor to a public journal. In consequence of Mr. Fox having asserted in the House of Commons, that the rupture of the Truce of Amiens had its origin in certain essays written in the Morning Post, which were soon known to have been Coleridge’s, and that he was at Rome within reach, the ire of Buonaparte was immediately excited.]
[Footnote 9: Though his Note Books are full of memoranda, not an entry or date of his arrival at Rome is to be found. To Rome itself and its magnificence, he would often refer in conversation. Unfortunately there is not a single document to recall the beautiful images he would place before your mind in perspective, when inspired by the remembrance of its wonder-striking and splendid objects. He however preserved some short essays, which he wrote when in Malta, Observations on Sicily, Cairo, &c. &c. political and statistical, which will probably form part of the literary remains in train of publication.
Malta, on a first view of the subject, seemed to present a situation so well fitted for a landing place, that it was intended to have adopted this mode, as in ‘The Friend’, of dividing the present memoir; but this loss of MS. and the breaches of continuity, render it impracticable.]
[Footnote 10: At this time all his writings were strongly tinctured with
Platonism.]
[Footnote 11: Each party claimed him as their own; for party without principles must ever be shifting, and therefore they found his opinions sometimes in accordance with their own, and sometimes at variance. But he was of no party — his views were purely philosophical.]
[Footnote 12: The character of Buonaparte was announced in the same paper.]
[Footnote 13: Those who spoke after Pitt were Wilberforce, Tierney,
Sheridan, &c.]
[Footnote 14: This speech of Mr. Pitt’s is extracted from the ‘Morning
Post’, February 18th, 1800.]
[Footnote 15: The following exquisite image on Leighton was found in one of Coleridge’s note books, and is also inserted in his Literary Remains:
“Next to the inspired Scriptures, yea, and as the vibration of that once struck hour remaining on the air, stands Archbishop Leighton’s commentary on the first epistle of Peter.”]
[Footnote 16: In his later days, Mr. Coleridge would have renounced the opinions and the incorrect reasoning of this letter].
[Footnote 17: Article ii.
The Son which is the word of the Father, ‘begotten’ from
Everlasting of the Father, &c.
Art. v.
The Holy Ghost ‘proceeding’ from the Father and the Son, &c.]
[Footnote 18: It was a favourite citation with Mr. Coleridge,
“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.”
Vide St. John, xvii. 2.]
[Footnote 19: At Mr. Poole’s house, Mr. De Quincey remained two days. Of his visit he gives a full account; at the same time charging Coleridge with the meanness of plagiarism, but which charges since their publication have been ably refuted in an article in the British Magazine, signed J.C.H. Vide No. 37, page 15.]
[Footnote 20: Vide ‘Tait’s Magazine’, No. 8.]
[Footnote 21: These have not been found.]
[Footnote 22: This little Paper Book has not yet been found.]
[Footnote 23: In the ‘Quarterly Review’ for July, 1837, will be found an able article on the ‘Literary Remains of S.T. Coleridge,’ and on “Mr. Cottle’s Early Recollections,” in which are extracted these very paragraphs from the “Friend,” but which had been sent to the press before this number appeared.]
[Footnote 24: This poem is supposed to have been written in 1813, when on a visit to some friends at Bexhill, Sussex.]
[Footnote 25: ‘Reminiscences of a Literary Life’, Vol. i. p. 253.]
[Footnote 26: If “indisposition were generally preying upon him,” as at this time was indeed the fact, could this occasional failure in the delivery of a lecture (though naturally very disappointing to his audience,) be fairly attributed to indolence?]
[Footnote 27: About this time, when party spirit was running high,
Coleridge was known to be the author of the following Jeu d’Esprit,
“Dregs half way up and froth half way down, form Whitbread’s Entire.”]
[Footnote 28: It was Mr. Rae who took it for his benefit, some time after Mr. Coleridge’s residence at Highgate.]
[Footnote 29:
“‘My heart’, or ‘some part’ about it, seems breaking, as if a weight were suspended from it that stretches it, such is the ‘bodily feeling’, as far as I can express it by words.”
Letter addressed to Mr. Morgan.]
CHAPTER IV.
COLERIDGE’S ARRIVAL AT HIGHGATE — PUBLICATION OF CHRISTABEL — BIOGRAPHIA
LITERARIA, &C.
I now approach one of the most eventful epochs in the Life of Coleridge, and, I may well add, of my own.
In the year 1816, the following letter was addressed to me by a physician:
Hatton Garden, 9th April, 1816.
DEAR SIR,
A very learned, but in one respect an unfortunate gentleman, has applied to me on a singular occasion. He has for several years been in the habit of taking large quantities of opium. For some time past, he has been in vain endeavouring to break himself off it. It is apprehended his friends are not firm enough, from a dread, lest he should suffer by suddenly leaving it off, though he is conscious of the contrary; and has proposed to me to submit himself to any regimen, however severe. With this view, he wishes to fix himself in the house of some medical gentleman, who will have courage to refuse him any laudanum, and under whose assistance, should he be the worse for it, he may be relieved. As he is desirous of retirement, and a garden, I could think of no one so readily as yourself. Be so good as to inform me, whether such a proposal is absolutely inconsistent with your family arrangements. I should not have