284 THE EARLY HISTORY OF [CHAP. V. 



his course of lectures on Electro-Chemical Science on 

 Saturday, March 12, at two, and those on Geology on 

 Wednesday evening, March 1 6, at eight. 



At the end of the previous year Mr. Bernard had re- 

 ported that Mr. Coleridge would give in the ensuing 

 session five courses of five lectures each on the Distin- 

 guished English Poets, in illustration of the general 

 principles of poetry arranged under the following heads : 

 1. Shakespear. 2. Spencer and Allegorical Poetry. 

 3. Milton. 4. Dryden and Pope, and the fifth course 

 Modern Poetry. These lectures were to begin imme- 

 diately, one or two weekly, as might be convenient, for 

 a compliment of 140., of which 601. was proposed to be 

 paid in advance. 



In February Mr. Bernard paid Mr. Coleridge 40. 

 in advance. The lectures were still delayed. 



At the end of April Mr. Bernard reported that Mr. 

 Coleridge had offered gratuitously to give a lecture on 

 Education on Tuesday, May 3, proposing it to be twice 

 the length of his other lectures. 1 



On June 13 the steward, Mr. Savage, laid before the 

 managers the following letter from Mr. Coleridge : 



DEAR SIR, Painful as it is to me, almost to anguish, yet 

 I find my health in such a state as to make it almost death 

 to me to give any further lectures. I beg that you would 

 acquaint the managers that, instead of expecting any re- 



1 This lecture was given. In it Mr. Coleridge made a violent personal 

 attack on Mr. Joseph Lancaster, and a year afterwards, at the annual 

 meeting of proprietors, a resolution was carried unanimously that ' this 

 attack was in direct violation of a known and established rule of the 

 Royal Institution, prohibiting any personal animadversions in the lec- 

 tures there delivered.' 



