the other hand, was to give the charm of novelty to commonplace things and direct attention to the loveliness and wonders of the world about us. Both did their work marvellously well and produced an epoch-making book. "I found in these poems," says De Quincey, "the ray of a new morning, and an absolute revelation of untrodden. worlds, teeming with power and beauty, as yet unsuspected among men." In conformity with the guiding principle he had adopted, Coleridge wrote the "Ancient Mariner," in which he lends, in a wonderful degree, the force of reality to what is purely imaginary. It is wholly unlike anything else he ever wrote. It is remarkable for its strong ballad style, for its vivid descriptions, and for its rounded completeness of form. Of its kind there is, perhaps, nothing better in our language. The lesson of the poem, though it was not written for its moral, is contained in the parting words of the dreadful mariner: "Farewell, farewell! but this I tell To thee, thou wedding-guest! "He prayeth best, who loveth best Another piece appearing in the "Lyrical Ballads" is "Love," the sweetest of all Coleridge's poems. It is distinguished for its soft, fascinating melody - a quality for which the author especially prized it. The opening stanza is often quoted: 66 "All thoughts, all passions, all delights, All are but ministers of Love, And feed his sacred flame." "Christabel," originally intended for the "Lyrical Ballads," but not published till several years later, was written according to the poetic principle that had produced the Ancient Mariner." Unfortunately it was never completed. Of the two parts we have, one was written in 1797 and the other in 1800. The metre is founded on a new principle, "namely, that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables. Though the latter may vary from seven to twelve, yet in each line the accents will be found to be only four." The characters of Christabel, Sir Leoline, and the sorceress Geraldine are a little shadowy; but when read and reread, the poem is seen to possess astonishing power-the noblest torso in English literature. It contains a remarkable passage, which the poet regarded as the best he ever wrote: "Alas! they had been friends in youth; "They parted ne'er to meet again! But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, The marks of that which once hath been." In 1798, impelled perhaps by the lack of means, Coleridge thought of becoming a Unitarian preacher and of abandoning literature forever. Hazlitt has given an enthusiastic description of one of his sermons, in which "poetry and philosophy, truth and genius, had embraced, under the eye and with the sanction of religion." But an annuity of one hundred and fifty pounds bestowed upon him by the Wedgwood brothers, who admired his genius, saved him for literature. In September, in company with Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, Coleridge went to Germany, where he devoted himself assiduously first to the language and afterward to metaphysics and theology. In "Satyrane's Letters" he has given an account of his experiences, and exhibited a larger sense of humor than is to be found elsewhere in his writings. It was during this sojourn abroad that he wrote the sublime "Hymn before Sunrise," inspired by the awful grandeur of Mont Blanc. He returned to England at the end of fourteen months; and as the first fruit of his visit to Germany he translated Schiller's "Wallenstein," which was printed in 1800. The · translation is admirably made, improving, some maintain, on the original; but it was not till some years later, when Coleridge's fame was well established, that its excellence was fully recognized. This same year he took charge of the literary and political department of the Morning Post. His princely gifts were speedily recognized, and the proprietor offered him a half-interest in the newspaper business, which would have brought him, as he estimated, about two thousand pounds a year. "But I told him," says Coleridge in a characteristic passage, "that I would |