COLE1UDGE S ABSENCE OF MIND. 



161 



Coleridge afterwards broke away 

 from this dreadful habit, and that 

 his life was lengthened out some 

 twenty years longer. 



BARON HALLER. 



Poets change their opinions of 

 their own productions wonderfully 

 at different periods of life. Baron 

 Haller was in his youth warmly 

 attached to poetic composition. His 

 house was on fire, and to rescue his 

 poems, he rushed through tne 

 Hames. He was so fortunate as to 

 escape with his beloved manu- 

 scripts ia his hands. Ten years 

 afterwards, he condemned to the 

 flames those very poems which he 

 had ventured his life to preserve. 



POPULARITY OF POETS. 



When Lord Byron was presented 

 with an American edition of Childe 

 Harold, he exclaimed, " This, now, 

 is something like immortality." 



We are reminded of his remark 

 by meeting in the Mexican corre- 

 spondence of the Boston Atlas with 

 this statement : "AtPueblalfound 

 in a convent a volume of Latta 

 Rookh, and another of the Lady of 

 the Lake. On the battle-field of 

 Contreras I picked up a volume of 

 Burns' poems." 



VALUE OF A MANUSCRIPT. 



The original manuscript of Gray's 

 Elegy was lately sold by auction in 

 London. There was really quite 

 "a scene" in the auction-room. 

 Imagine a stranger entering in the 

 midst of a sale of some rusty-look- 

 ing old books. The auctioneer 

 produces two small half sheets of 

 paper, written over, torn, and mu- 

 tilated. He calls it a " most inte- 

 resting article," and apologizes for 

 its condition. Pickering bids ten 

 pounds ! Eodd, Foss, Thorpe, Bohn, 

 Holloway, and some few amateurs, 

 quietly remark, twelve, fifteen, 

 twenty, twenty-five, thirty, and so 

 on, till there is a pause at sixty- 



three po unds! The hammer strikes. 

 "Hold!" says Mr. Foss. "It is 

 mine," says the amateur. "No, I 

 bid sixty-five in time." " Then I 

 give seventy." " Seventy-five," says 

 Mr. Foss; and fives are repeated 

 again until the two bits of paper 

 are knocked down, amidst a general 

 cheer, to Payne and Foss, for one 

 hundred pounds sterling! On these 

 bits of paper are written the first 

 draught of the Elegy in a Country 

 Churchyard, by Thomas Gray, in- 

 cluding five verses which were 

 omitted in publication, and with, 

 the poet's interlinear corrections 

 and alterations certainly an " in- 

 teresting article :" several persons 

 supposed it would call for a ten 

 pound note, perhaps even twenty. 

 A single volume with "W. Shak- 

 spere," in the fly-leaf, produced, 

 sixty years ago, a hundred guineas; 

 but, probably, with that exception, 

 no mere autograph, and no single 

 sheet of paper, ever before produced 

 the sum of Jive hundred dollars! 



COLERIDGE'S ABSENCE OF MIND. 



Mr. Coleridge had solicited per- 

 mission of Mr. Southey to deliver 

 his fourth lecture on the Rise, Pro- 

 gress, and Decline of the Eoman 

 Empire, as a subject to which he 

 had devoted especial attention. The 

 request was immediately granted, 

 and at the end of the third lecture 

 it was formally announced to the 

 audience that the next lecture would 

 be delivered by Mr. Samuel Taylor 

 Coleridge, of Jesus College, Cam- 

 bridge. 



At the usual hour the room was 

 thronged. The moment of com- 

 mencement arrived. No lecturer 

 appeared. Patience was preserved 

 for a quarter of an hour or more ; 

 but still no lecturer. At length it 

 was communicated to the impatient 

 assemblage, that a circumstance 

 exceedingly to be regretted would 



Erevent Mr. Coleridge from giving 

 is lecture that evening, as intend d. 

 L 



