178 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 



to a dreadful pass with us, we need most deeply a reform, but I 

 fear not the horrid reform which we shall have; things must 

 alter, the upper classes of England have made the lower persons, 

 things ; the people in breaking from this unnatural state will 

 break from duties also.* " 



"Of all the men whom I have ever met, the most wonderful 

 in conversational powers is Mr. S. T. Coleridge, in whose com- 

 pany I spend much time. With all his talent and Poetry, he is 

 a humble and devout follower of Jesus, even as * Christ crucified.* 

 I wish I had room for some of his conversation. When I bade 

 him a last farewell, he was in bed, in great bodily suffering, but 

 with great mental vigor, and feeling an humble resignation to the 

 will of his heavenly Father. As I sat by his side I thought he 

 looked very much like my dear grandfather, and I almost felt as 

 if some one spoke to me from the dead. 13efore I left him he 

 said, * I wish, before you go, to give you some little memento to 

 to call up the hours we have passed together ;' He requested me 

 to hand him a book from his book case, with pen and ink, then 

 sitting up in bed he wrote a few lines and his name, kindly and 

 most undeservedly expressing the pleasure he had in my com- 

 pany.'' 



The writer of this imperfect and, doubtlessly, very trivial sketch 

 did not intend to allude, in any way, to the merits of Coleridge's 

 writings ; but, as others who are capable of treating the subject 

 with ability and talent have withdrawn themselves from the task, 

 he may be allowed to observe that many have formed their opin- 

 ions of this writer from the biassed judgement of others ; — They 

 have not read his works because they have been told that his works 

 were not worth reading ; — they have believed him to be a simpleton 

 because some writers, who gain an existence by pandering to the 

 vilest of human appetites have pronounced him imbecile; they have 

 fancied that his verse must needs be metaphysical because he may 

 have indulged in many metaphysical disquisitions in prose. Cole- 

 ridge was metaphysical in poetry inasmuch as Byron and Shakes- 

 peare were, that is, he pointed out the effects of Nature's laws, of hu- 

 man passions, and of the mental powers, without lapsing into a 

 systematized consideration of the dependency of these effects on 

 causes ; neither did he theorize on their most fitting classification. 

 As a poet, in his poetry, he has alluded to the many and beau- 

 tiful tinctures which glorify the clouds around a setting sun : 

 but he has not diverged from the splendour of natural description 

 to display any dissertation on chromatic laws, or on the prismatic 

 analyzation of light. 



Those who have read Coleridge dispassionately, and not with 

 prejudices superinduced by the rotten-hearted virulence of his 

 enemies, will probably admit that there is natural and simple yet 



