Aug. 5. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



107 



Britton, in which he thus correctly corroborates 

 Mr. Collier's description of the delivery of his 

 thoughts and feelings at his lectures : 



"The day of the lecture, till the hour of commence- 

 ment," Mr. Coleridge says, " I devote to the consideration, 

 What of the mass before me is best fitted to answer the 

 purposes of a lecture ? that is, to keep the audience awake 

 and interested during the delivery, and to leave a sting 

 behind ; that is, a disposition to study the subject anew, 

 under the light of a new principle. Several times, how- 

 ever, partly from apprehension respecting my health and 

 animal spirits, partly from my wish to possess copies that 

 might afterwards be marketable among the publishers, I 

 have previously written the lecture; but before I had 

 proceeded twenty minutes I have been obliged to push 

 the MS. away, and give the subject a new turn. Nay, 

 this was so notorious, that many of my auditors used to 

 threaten me, when they saw any number of written papers 

 on my desk, to steal them away, declaring they never felt 

 so secure of a good lecture as when they perceived that I 

 had not a single scrap of writing before me. I take far, 

 far more pains than would go to the set composition of a 

 lecture, both by varied reading and by meditation ; but 

 for the words, illustrations, &c., I know almost as little as 

 any one of the audience (that is, those of anything like 

 the same education with myself) what they will be five 

 minutes before the lecture begins. Such is my way, for 

 such is my nature ; and in attempting any other I should 

 only torment myself in order to disappoint my auditors, — 

 torment myself during the delivery, I mean ; for in all 

 other respects it would be a much shorter and easier task 

 to deliver them in writing." 



My late friend Dr. Dibdin also thus describes 

 Coleridge's powers in lecturing and conversation. 

 There are none, indeed, of his friends that could 

 not bear testimony to the wonderful facility and 

 the sweet tones in which he gave utterance to his 

 thoughts : 



" I shall never forget the effect his conversation made 

 upon me at the first meeting. It struck me as something 

 not only quite out of the ordinary course of things, but as 

 an intellectual exhibition almost matchless ; there seemed 

 to be no dish like Coleridge's conversation to feed upon, 

 and] no information so varied and so instructive as his 

 own. The orator rolled himself up as it were in his chair, 

 and gave the most unrestrained indulgence to his speech ; 

 and how fraught with acuteness and originality was that 

 speech ; and in what copious and elegant periods did it 

 flow ! As I retired homewards, I thought a second John- 

 son had visited the earth, to make wise the sons of men ; 

 and regretted that I could not exercise the powers of a 

 second Boswell, to record the wisdom and the eloquence 

 which had that evening flowed from the orator's lips. It 

 haunted me as I retired to rest. It drove away slumber ; 

 or, if Ilapsed into sleep, there was Coleridge — his snuff- 

 box and 'kerchief before my eyes! — his mildly beaming 

 looks, his occasionally deep tone of voice, and the excited 

 featurefi of his physiognomy. The manner of Coleridge 

 was rather emphatic than dogmatic, and thus he was 

 generally and satisfactorily listened to. It might be said 

 of Coleridge, as Cowper has so happily said of Sir Philip 

 Sidney, that he was the * warbler of poetic prose.' 



" There was always this characteristic feature in his 

 multifarious conversation : it was delicate, reverend, and 

 courteous. The chastest ear could drink in no startling 

 sound; the most serious believer never had his bosom 

 ruffled by one sceptical or reckless assertion. Coleridge 

 was eminently simple iu his manner: thinking and speak- 



ing were his delight ; and he would sometimes seem, 

 during the most fervid moments of discourse, to be ab- 

 stracted from all and everything around and about him, 

 and to be basking in the sunny warmth of his own radiant 

 imagination." — Dibdin's Reminiscences, part i. p. 253. 



Your readers will, I trust, excuse this ebul- 

 lition of feeling and regard for an endeavour to 

 pourtray my reminiscences of an old and valued 

 friend and schoolfellow, who printed for him, 

 while resident at Calne in Wiltshire, the original 

 edition of his Siographia Literaria, 1817. Cole- 

 ridge also, when resident in Bristol, contributed 

 to the columns of Felix Farley'' s Journal^ of which 

 I was the proprietor and editor, where appeared 

 also some brief notices of his lectures upon Shak- 

 speare delivered there ; but my ignorance of short- 

 hand deprived me of the pleasure of making full 

 reports. , J. M. G. 



Worcester, 



HTDBOPATHT. 

 (Vol. ix., p. 395.) 



The medicinal qualities of water have been 

 known from very early times. The Romans ap- 

 preciated its excellence far more than we, not- 

 withstanding our Sanitary Commission, our baths 

 and our wash-houses. More than a century ago, 

 hydropathy was practised in France, it would seem 

 with very good effect. The following letter is 

 extracted from the GentlemarCs Magazine, vol. vii. 

 (1737), p. 4.: 



" Caen, Normandy, Dec. 30, 1736, N. S. 



" My indisposition may justly be an Excuse for my 

 slowness in answering your last kind Letter. For during 

 almost three Months last past, I have been so afflicted 

 with an Ague and Fever, that it had nigh ruin'd my Con- 

 stitution and Pocket, by the great Quantity of Bark I had 

 taken ; and to so little purpose, that I thought myself 

 nearer Death than Kecovery. In this feeble condition, I 

 took a Resolution to go to an old Abb^ at Bayeux, who 

 has for eight years practis'd with Success the giving com- 

 mon Water medicinally, and cur'd in that time all sorts 

 of Distempers. I became one of his Patients, but with, 

 little confidence in Water. However, I was persuaded it 

 could do me no harm, if it did me no good; he began 

 with giving me his Emetic, which is nothing else but 

 warm Water, and a feather to tickle one's Throat; I 

 vomited heartily, and found Relief ; he then sweated me 

 4 mornings together ; the 5th morning to my surprize he 

 told me I was cured, and that the Ague would not return ; 

 I was overjoyed to hear it ; but so imable to believe it, 

 that I stayed three Weeks after, and boarded with him ; 

 in which time he cmred the Dropsy, Asthma, Goul^ 

 Colick, and other bad complaints, and all after the 

 Physicians had condemned them, t had the pleasure to 

 see these persons cured, and to enjoy, by his Method, per- 

 fect health myself ; and he has given me Memorandums 

 sufficient to be my own Doctor during my life. The poor 

 Devil has been attack'd by the Physicians and Apothe- 

 caries, but he answered them so well as to gain applause. 

 When I have the pleasure of seeing you, I will show yott 

 some of his Writing. 



"Yours, &c. CD." 



