342 THE KOYAL INSTITUTION. [CHAP. VI. 



lectures, and, not knowing where he was, I addressed them 

 to him at different places. I wish very much he would 

 seriously determine on this point. The managers of the 

 Royal Institution are very anxious to engage him, and I 

 think he might be of material service to the public and of 

 benefit to his own mind, to say nothing of the benefit his 

 purse might also receive. In the present condition of 

 society his opinions in matters of taste, literature, and 

 metaphysics must have a healthy influence ; and, unless he 

 soon becomes an active member of the living world, he 

 must expect to be hereafter brought to judgment for hiding 

 his light. 



Seven months afterwards Davy again wrote to Mr. 

 Poole : 



Coleridge, after disappointing his audience twice from 

 illness, is announced to lecture again this week. He has 

 suffered greatly from excessive sensibility, the disease of 

 genius. His mind is a wilderness in which the cedar and 

 the oak, which might aspire to the skies, are stunted in their 

 growth by underwood, thorns, briars, and other parasitical 

 plants. With the most exalted genius, enlarged views, 

 sensitive heart, and enlightened mind he will be the victim 

 of want of order, precision, and regularity. I cannot think 

 of him without experiencing the mingled feelings of admi- 

 ration, regard, and pity. 



Why do you not come to London ? Many would be happy 

 to see you, but no one more so than your very sincere Friend, 

 my dear Poole, H. DAVY. 



The Laboratory Books show that the last week in 

 September 1807 he exposed magnesia upon a glass 

 plate at the positive pole with distilled water. Four 

 days afterwards he put oxide of zinc in a coagulated 

 state round the positive pole. 



