LATE SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 151 



exciting the sympathy of the reader, by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature^ 

 and the power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagi- 

 nation. The sudden charm, which accidents of light and shade, which moon-light 

 or sun-set diffused over a known and familiar landscape, appeared to represent the 

 practicability of combining both." Further he observes on this thought, ''that a 

 series of poems might be composed of two soits. In the one, the incidents and 

 agents were to be, in part at least, supernatural ; and the excellence to be aimed at 

 was to consist in the interesting of the affections by the dramatic truth of such 

 emotions as would! naturally accompany such situations, supposing them real, &c. 

 For the second class, subjects were to be chosen from ordinary life." Thus, it 

 appears, originated the poems of the " Ancient Mariner," and " Christabel," by 

 Coleridge, and the " Lyrical Ballads" of Wordsworth. 



The fallacy of a great portion of Wordsworth's poetic theory, namely, that which 

 relates to low life, it is equally creditable to the taste and judgment of Coleridge, 

 that with temper and sound reasoning, he was one of the first to point out and 

 demonstrate. Wordsworth contends that a proper poetic diction is a language 

 taken from the mouths of men in geneial, in their natural conversation under the 

 influence of natural feelings. Coleridge wisely asserts, that philosophers are the 

 authors of the best parts of language, not clowns ; and that Milton's language is 

 more that of real life than the language of a cottager. No English writer better 

 understood than Coleridge the elements of poetry, and the way in which they may- 

 be best combined to produce certain impressions. His definitions of the merits and 

 differences in style and poetic genius, between the earliest and latest writers of his 

 country, are superior to those which others have it in their power to deduce ; for, in 

 truth, he long and deeply meditated upon them, and no one can be dissatisfied by the 

 reasons he gives, and the examples he furnishes to bear out his theories and opinions. 



His conversational powers were of the first order — in fact they are said to have 

 been unrivalled ; and it is to be feared that, to excel in these, he sacrificed what was 

 more durable, and that he has resigned, for the pleasure of gratifying an attentive 

 listening circle, and pleasing thereby his self-love by its applause, much that would 

 have delighted the world. His flow of words, delivery, and variety of information 

 wero so great, and he found it so captivating to enchain his auditors to the car of his 

 triumphant eloquence, that he has sacrificed to this gratification what might have 

 sufficed to confer upon him a celebrity a thousand times more to be coveted by a 

 spirit akin to his own. 



About two years after his abandonment of the " Morning Post," he embarked 

 for Malta, where he most unexpectedly arrived on a visit to his friend Dr. Stodart, 

 then King's Advocate in that island, and was introduced by him to the Governor, 

 Sir Alexander Ball, who appointed him his secretary. He remained in the island, 

 fulfilling the duties of his situation, for which he seems to have been but indifferently 

 qualified, a very short period. From his official employment, however, he derived 

 one important advantage — that of the pension granted by Government to those 

 who have served in similar situations. On his way home he visited Italy ; entered 

 Home, examined its host of ancient and modern curiosities, and added fresh matter 

 for thought to his rapidly accumulating store of ideas. 



Rapt m the wild mazes of metaphysics from which, by long habit, he could rarely 

 extricate himself, mingling its speculations with all the concerns of life, Coleridge 

 produced nothing of late equal to the power of his genius. In the garden of his 

 residence at Hampstead, he usually walked for hours together absorbed in vision • 

 of new theological theories, or upon the most abstruse of meditations. Sometimes 

 he would step into the world, and mingle with the social dinner-party, where he 

 would gratify his self-love by pouring out the stores of his mind in conversation to 

 admiring listeners. The fluency of Coleridge's language, the light he invariably 

 threw upon his subjects, the pleasure he felt in communicating his ideas, and his 

 knowledge, innate or acquired, were equally remarkable to the stranger. He has 

 been accused of indolence, not perhaps with reason : the misdirection of his dis- 

 tinguished talents would be a better explanation of that failing for which he has 

 been censured. His justification rested on the score of quantity, by asserting that 

 some of his best emanations were published in newspapers. The world differs with 

 him on this question, and always will do so, when it is recollected what he has had 

 the power to effect — it will not readily forgive him for writing upon party, and in 

 support of almost exploded principles, " what was meant for mankind." He mis- 



