to be a teacher, but his work has taught the world lessons it is not likely to forget.

[The best editions of Scott's poems and novels are published by Messrs. Black, in every variety of form. Of late years, owing to the expiration of copyright, other publishers have reproduced the poet's works, and the editions are innumerable. Lockhart's life, in ten volumes, was abridged by the author, and another abridgement also, published by Messrs. Black, was made a few years ago by Mr. Jenkinson. I have already referred to Mr. R. H. Hutton's biography, and to Mr. Palgrave's critical memoir prefixed to the Globe edition. Both these books are issued by Macmillan and Co.]

CHAPTER XV.

POETS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

(Continued).

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE-ROBERT SOUTHEY-
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR.

Samuel Taylor
Coleridge,

He

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, whose extraordinary influence has been felt by men. ranking with the intellectual rulers of 1772-1834. the century, was Wordsworth's most intimate friend in the early years of his poetic life. His mind, unlike that of Wordsworth, ranged over a vast field of philosophy and of literature. read immensely, and made use of what he read with a happy forgetfulness of the original sources of his knowledge. His genius was receptive of ideas from every quarter, and without apparent effort he made these ideas his own. It is neither as a philosopher nor as a profoundly suggestive critic that Coleridge claims our attention. He was a poet also, and one who in his own department is

unrivalled. He lived to be an old man, but with a few exceptions his best poetry was the produce of five or six youthful years. It is unique of its kind, "musical as Apollo's lute," magical in beauty, perfect in imaginative conception. "The highest lyric work," writes Mr. Swinburne, "is either passionate or imaginative. Of passion Coleridge has nothing, but for height and perfection of imaginative quality he is the greatest of lyric poets. This was his special power, and this is his special praise."

The pathetic narrative of his life has been written only in fragments. He was born at Ottery St. Mary's, Devonshire, in 1772, and was therefore two years younger than Wordsworth, one year younger than Scott, and the senior of Southey by two years. Educated at Christ's Hospital, he was the schoolfellow of Charles Lamb, and the friendship begun in those early days lasted for life. Coleridge was a dreamy boy, as he continued to be through life a dreamy man, and a story is told of his plunging his hands into a gentleman's pockets in Cheapside, under the belief that he was Leander swimming the Hellespont. At school he gained distinction enough to be made a deputy Grecian, and to win a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge. At college, however, he did not take a degree, and we read of his suddenly enlisting as a private soldier under the name of Titus Comberback. After this curious escapade he returned for a brief interval to Cambridge. At this period he had no settled views nor any distinct purpose in life. Already his elo

quence was extraordinary, and bewitched every one who came under its spell. He became a Unitarian preacher and political lecturer, and a friendship formed with Southey, then equally unsettled and visionary, but high-minded, generous, and enthusiastic, led to the proposal of a settlement on the banks of the Susquehanna, where, according to "the minutest calculation," the demand on their labour for absolute necessaries would not exceed two hours a day. At this time Coleridge and Southey were engaged to two sisters, and their friend Lovell to a third. Nothing, as it seemed, was lacking to their felicity but money, and money sufficient for such an enterprise was not forthcoming. A gleam of unexpected fortune, however, awaited the two friends, for Joseph Cottle, a bookseller at Bristol, and a writer of verse on an extensive scale, after experiencing the "unmingled pleasure" of lending Coleridge five pounds, followed up this kindness by offering him thirty pounds for the copyright of his manuscript poems-an offer which was also made to Southey, and joyfully accepted by both. On the strength of a promise from Cottle of one guinea and a half for every hundred lines of verse he might write, Coleridge married Sarah Fricker (1795), and took a little cottage at Clevedon, where "the tallest rose peeped at the chamber window." But if there was a rose outside there were neither provisions nor kitchen utensils within, and these, at the poet's request, were supplied by his faithful friend and publisher.

The cottage, with its modest rent of five pounds a year, was speedily exchanged by its restless tenant for Bristol, and afterwards for Nether Stowey. And now he projected a review, and travelled over a large part of England to secure subscribers. A few numbers appeared, and then, as was the case with most of Coleridge's projects, the publication proved a failure. Southey wished he were free to write innumerable epics. Coleridge projected one on a vast scale. He should require ten years, he said, to warm his mind with universal science, five years for the composition of the poem, and five for its correction. "So would I write," he adds, "haply not unhearing of that divine and nightly whispering voice which speaks to mighty minds of predestined garlands starry and unwithering." The aspiration was noble, but the courage and force of purpose which such a work demanded were wanting, and we hear no more of the epic.

His first volume of poems, chiefly interesting as being the first, appeared in 1796. The following year (1797) produced the finest fruit of Coleridge's genius. In that year he and Wordsworth met apparently for the first time at Racedown, in Dorsetshire. The acquaintance soon warmed into friendship, and when Wordsworth and his sister removed to Alfoxden, he was within walking distance of his friend, who was then living at Nether Stowey. The result of this acquaintance, which led to close intimacy, was the publication of a little volume which contained among its treasures 66 The