136 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 



My taper man of lights listened with perseverant and praise- 

 worthy patience, thouojh (as I was afterwards told on complaining 

 of certain gales that were not altogether ambrosial) it was a melt- 

 ing day with him. And what, Sir! (he said after a short pause) 

 might the cost be? Onlif four-pence. (O ! how I felt the anti- 

 climax, the abysmal bathos oi ihdX four-pence ! ) onl^ four-pence. 

 Sir, each number, to be published on every eighth day. That comes 

 to a deal of money at the end of a year. And how much did 

 you say there was to be for the money ? Thirty-two pages, Sir ! 

 large octavo, closeli/ printed. Thirty and two pages ? Bless me, 

 why except what I does in a family way on tlie Sabbatli, that's 

 more than I ever reads, Sir! all the year round. I am as great a 

 one, as any man in Brummagem, Sir! for liberty and truth, and 

 all them sort of things, but as to this (no offence I hope, Sir !) 

 I must beg to be excused." 



One anecdote more in Coleric'ge's ow n words. 



" On returning baffled from tlie firiit, in which I had vainly es- 

 sayed to repeat the miracle of .Orpheus with the Brummagem 

 j)atriot, I dined with the tradesman who had introduced me to 

 him. After dinner he importuned me to smoke a pipe with him, 

 and two or three other illuminati of the same rank. I objected, 

 botli because 1 was engagjed to spend the evening with a minister 

 and his friends, and because 1 had never smoked exce})t once ar 

 twice in my life time, and then it was herb tolxicco mixed with 

 Oronooko. On the assurance however that the tobacco was 

 equally mild, and seeing too that it was of a yellow colour; (not 

 forgetting the lamentable difficulty, 1 have always experienced, in 

 saying. No ! and in abstaining from what the people about nie 

 were doing) I took half a pipe, filling the lower half of the bowl 

 with salt. I was soon however compelled to resign it, in conse- 

 quence of a giddiness and distressful feeling in my eyes, which, 

 as I had drank but a single glass of ale, must, I knew, have been 

 the effect of the tobacco. Soon after, deeming myself recovered, 

 I sallied forth to my engagement, but the walk and the fresh air 

 brought on all the symptons again, and 1 had sciircely entered 

 the minister's drawing-room, and opened a small paquet of letters, 

 which he had received from Bristol for me; ere I sunk back on 

 the sofa in a sort of swoon rather than sleep. Fortunately I had 

 found just time enough to inform him of the confused state of my 

 feelings, and of the occasion. For here and thus I lay, my face 

 like a wall that is white-washing, deuthy pale, and with the cold 

 drops of perspiration running down it from my forehead, while 

 one after another tliere dropt in the different gentlemen, who had 

 been invited to meet and spend the evening with me, to the num- 

 ber of from fifteen to twenty. As the poison of tobacco acts but 

 for a short time, 1 at length awoke from insensibility, and looked 

 round on the party, my eyes dazzled by the candles which had 

 been lighted in the interim. By way of relieving my embarrass- 



