BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 139 



Ye vigilant and faithful servants of the Most High ! ye who worship 

 the Creator, morning, noon, and eve, in simplicity of heart; I haste 

 to join the universal anthem . . . O universal Father! look down upon 

 us we beseech thee, with an eye of pity and compassion, and grant 

 that universal peace and love, may prevail in the earth, even that divine 

 harmony, which fills the heavens, thy glorious habitation (pp. 100-101) . 



It is possible that it was with the Philadelphia Quaker offering 

 his devout prayer in the wilderness in Coleridge's mind that 

 he wrote 



He prayeth best, who loveth best 

 All things both great and small. 



One may not be justified in going as far as Professor Gum- 

 mere has gone in his statement that " Coleridge . . . got his 

 best matter for his best poem from an old book of travels," ^" 

 for it is not so easy to decide what constitutes " best matter," 

 but that " The Ancient Mariner " owes a considerable debt to 

 Bartram's Travels is certain. 



Images retained from Bartram crop up again in other poems 

 of Coleridge. The owls that " wake " in Osorio and " hoot " 

 in " The Ancient Mariner " hoot again in " Christabel," al- 

 though in the latter poem they may have coalesced with the 

 memories of owls in the neighborhood of Stowey and with 

 Shakespeare's owls.^^ That Coleridge could not have avoided 

 thinking of Bartram at the time of writing "' Christabel " is 

 clear from his Note Book. Just before an entry from Bartram's 

 description of " the alligators' terrible roar " appear the lines 



Behind the thin 

 Grey cloud that cover' d but not hid the sky 

 The round full moon look'd small,^* 



which become transformed as lines 16-19 of " Christabel." 



It is more certain that Coleridge used another episode from 

 Bartram at least three times. The dream of Bracy the bard who 

 saw a dove (symbol of Christabel) " Fluttering, and uttering 

 fearful moan " and found, when he stooped to take it, 



"* Francis B. Gummere, Democracy and Poetry, 1911, p. 107. 

 " Love's Labour's Lost, Act v, scene 2. 

 ** Gutch Memorandum Book, p. 39. 



