the kindling inclination), and my Christabel and what else the happier hour might inspire. . . . . . Now Mr. Green has offered to contribute from thirty to forty pounds yearly, for three or four years; my young friend and pupil, the son of one of my dearest old friends, fifty pounds, and I think that from ten to twenty pounds I could rely upon for another. The sum required would be about two hundred pounds, to be repaid, of course, should the disposal and sale of my writings produce the means.' The character which is shown, and the facts which appear in these extracts, might be still further illustrated by passages from other letters and writings belonging to this period. But we have no disposition to follow any farther a subject so painful. The first edition of The Aids to Reflection was published in 1825; a work which from its desultory plan was suited to Coleridge's genius, and in which consequently his powers of thought are shown to great advantage. Our space is too narrow to allow us to enter into any remarks upon it here. But the principal literary occupation of his later years consisted in conversation. From the time of his college life, he had been distinguished for the power and beauty of his language. To his intimate friends he would talk for hour after hour, rarely allowing them an opportunity of replying. "He one day said to Lamb, Charlie, did you ever hear me preach ?' I never heard you do any thing else,' replied Lamb." Every Thursday evening there was a gathering at Highgate of disciples and friends who had come to hear Coleridge, the philosopher, discourse. There were Green and Alsop, his dearest friends and most willing pupils; there, perhaps, were Talfourd and Lockhart; and there was Henry Nelson Coleridge, who since his uncle's death has published, under the title of Table Talk, such scraps of these conversations as he had been able to note down; and there were others of less note, who had come through curiosity or admiration. There are in the fragments of these conversations the greatest inequalities. Now and then occur exquisite thoughts, beautifully expressed; now we have passages equally striking for their ignorance and arrogance. But we do not believe that such passages can give an idea of the style of his conversation, as it continued an unbroken strain for hour after hour. The only attempt at a report of one of these monologues that we have met with is in the Gentleman's Magazine for December, 1846. It is too long for quotation in full, but we give the commencement of it. "G― took me to see and hear Coleridge. I was sadly disappointed in his appearance. I looked for the light of genius which had exercised such influence on his age, but I could not find it. G attacked him on his having said that the interview of Hector and Andromache in the 6th Iliad was a modern interpolation, and supported his argument for its authenticity very well. But Coleridge never listened in the least to more than the first words, and seemed restless till G― had done, and he could speak himself, to tell us that we did not understand him, that in fact nobody ever did understand him, but that he would some time or other publish something which would explain every thing. The chief difficulty of understanding what I said about Hector and Andromache arises from the want of training in the rising generation, a want as well bodily, I may say, as mental."" Such are the memorials of the later years of Coleridge's life. During all this period, his family had continued to reside for the most part with Mr. Southey. They had occasionally been to see him, and in his letters he speaks with warmth of his sons. But they were not with him to minister to the wants of his premature old age. Suffering and sad, the last years of his life passed slowly away. The melancholy past was joined in his reflections with the solemn future. Coleridge died on the 25th of July, 1834. "For him there is no longer any future. No ominous hour Knocks at his door with tidings of mishap. No more submitted to the change and chance "By what I have effected am I to be judged by my fellowmen; what I could have done is a question for my own conscience," said Coleridge. From a view like this we entirely dissent. Every man is accountable to his fellow-men for the use which he makes of the talents which are intrusted to his charge. The greater those talents, the greater becomes his responsibility. No one has a right to say, my fellow-men shall not question me. Before the solemn tribunal of the present and the future all men must stand, and according to their works shall they be judged. ART. VII. Life and Correspondence of Joseph Reed, Military Secretary of Washington at Cambridge; Adjutant-General of the Continental Army; Member of the Congress of the United States; and President of the Executive Council of the State of Pennsylvania. By his Grandson, WILLIAM B. REED. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston. 1847. 2 vols. 8vo. MR. WILLIAM B. REED is favorably known to our readers and to the literary and general public. Among our scholars and orators he occupies a distinguished rank. Not merely by the volumes before us, but by other elegant and excellent productions, he has added to the lustre of an honored parentage and name. Several of his addresses on literary and historical occasions have been published, and are of permanent interest and value. The Discourse delivered before the New York Historical Society, in December, 1839, entitled The Infancy of the Union, conveys, in a short compass, more important instruction in illustration of our history than can be gleaned from many bulky volumes. Its object is to trace the origin and growth of the social union of the Colonies, preceding, and in fact, from the very first, preparing the way for, the political and national union which the Revolution and Federal Constitution fully developed and consummated. Before proceeding to notice particularly the literary execution and historical value of the volumes before us, it will be proper to refresh the recollections of our readers relating to the life and character of their subject. Joseph Reed was born in Trenton, in the then British Province of New Jersey, on the 27th of August, 1741. His family was of Irish origin and respectable standing, his father being actively engaged in commercial pursuits. No pains or expense were spared in the education of the son. He took his Bachelor's degree at Princeton College in October, 1757, delivering on the occasion an oration in Latin, which is still preserved. After pursuing the study of the law, under the care of Richard Stockton, he was admitted to the bar, in May, 1763. He immediately sailed for England, where he completed his legal education in the Middle Temple, continuing there about two years. In the spring of 1765, he returned to America, and entered upon the practice of law in Trenton. He succeeded, in a very short time, to a large business, and attained a commanding rank in his profession. In December, 1769, his father died, and early the next spring he embarked for England, to fulfil a matrimonial engagement contracted during his residence in the Middle Temple. In May, 1770, he was married, at St. Luke's Church, in the city of London, to Esther De Berdt, daughter of Dennis De Berdt, an eminent merchant, and at one time Agent for the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On returning to America, he removed from Trenton to Philadelphia, where his talents and accomplishments commanded high professional and social distinction. In 1772, Lord Dartmouth succeeded Lord Hillsborough as Secretary of State for the Colonies. Between Lord Dartmouth and Mr. De Berdt a personal and confidential intimacy existed, which, on the death of the latter, was continued in the person of his son. Through the agency of Mr. De Berdt, junior, a correspondence was brought about between Lord Dartmouth and Mr. Reed. On the 4th of January, 1772, Mr. Reed wrote to his brother-in-law to the following effect. "I have often had thoughts of making his Lordship a tender of my services in pointing out some things which would be of mutual advantage to both countries, and tend to make his administration honorable and useful. But the difficulty of introducing it in a proper manner, and free from any suspicion of interested views, has hitherto prevented it. The intelligence from this country has generally flowed through such corrupt channels as would expose any minister to danger and difficulty. I think I could procure his Lordship one or two correspondents in other Provinces, who would, if it was agreeable, render him any services in that way, and who have nothing to ask from him but his cheerful acceptance of their honest and disinterested endeavours to serve both the mother country and the Colonies." — Vol. 1., p. 49. It was signified that such communications would be agreeable to his Lordship. The correspondence that ensued is exceeding y interesting and valuable. Mr. Reed's position as an active and, although quite young, a prominent asserter of Colonial rights, his sincere and earnest desire to obtain from ministerial and imperial concession the redress and securities which the Colonies demanded, his finished education, extensive and elevated connections, acquaintances, and correspondents in both countries, his incomparable facility and elegance of style, and the liberal, enlightened, and welltempered tone of his spirit, qualified him to perform the delicate and responsible part on which he had ventured, of conveying to the ministry a fair and candid, a just and fearless account of the condition and progress of the controversy in the Colonies. When we consider how fully the government were apprised of the strength, extent, and depth of the popular excitement by the letters of Mr. Reed, it is more unaccountable that they persisted in the policy which finally resulted in the loss of their colonial empire in America. Indeed, their management of the dispute, and of the war to which it led, exhibits a strange blindness and fatuity. From the beginning to the end, there was what in popular parlance is sometimes called "a run of ill-luck" in the measures of the ministry, and, as the great master of human nature has observed, when the current of circumstances is adverse, reason loses its discernment, and the mind its guiding light; "Men's judgments are A parcel of their fortunes." The first letter of Mr. Reed to Lord Dartmouth commenced thus: Philadelphia, December 22d, 1773. "My Lord,- The present state of public affairs in this part of America so nearly affects the ease and honor of your administration, that I cannot but think it my duty on this occasion to break through the common forms which your Lordship's rank and my own respect would prescribe, and endeavour to inform you truly and faithfully of our present views and situation."— Vol. I., p. 51. Five days afterwards he wrote again, informing him of the proceedings in Philadelphia, of the populace compelling the master of a tea-ship, when supplied by them with provisions and other necessaries for the voyage, upon two hours' notice, to return to England without starting a box of his cargo. "As it may be of importance to your Lordship not only to be made acquainted with facts, but with the circumstances, rank, and character of those who promote this opposition, it would be improper for me to conceal that it has originated and been con |