Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey Part 58

Mr. W. related, at this time, one circ.u.mstance, received by him from Mr.

Coleridge, which was new to me, and which is as follows. One of the men in Mr. C.'s company, had, it appeared a bad case of the small pox, when Mr. C. was appointed to be his _nurse_, night and day. The fatigue and anxiety, and various inconveniences, involved in the superintendence on this his sorely diseased comrade, almost sickened him of hospital service; so that one or two more such cases would have reconciled him to the ranks, and have made him covet, once more, the holiday play of rubbing down his horse.

[79] At the time Mr. Coleridge belonged to the 15th Light Dragoons, the men carried carbines, in addition to swords and pistols. More recently, a shorter gun has been subst.i.tuted, called a fusce.

[80] Mr. Stoddart was a gentleman of whom he often talked, and spoke feelingly of Mr. S.'s chagrin, in the earlier part of his professional career. Briefs were then scarce, yet one evening an attorney called with the object of his desire, but Mr. S. was not at home, and the urgency of the case required it to be placed in other hands. This was long a subject of lamentation to the young barrister, and also to his friends; but success followed.

[81] Mr. Coleridge sustained one serious loss, on quitting Malta, which he greatly deplored. He had packed in a large case, all his books and MSS. with all the letters received by him during his residence on the island. His directions were, to be forwarded to England, by the first s.h.i.+p; with Bristol, as its ultimate destination. It was never received, nor could he ever learn what became of it. It may be lying at this moment in some custom-house wareroom, waiting for the payment of the duty! Of which Mr. C. probably was not aware.

[82] It was a remarkable quality in Mr. Coleridge's mind, that _edifices_ excited little interest in him. On his return from Italy, and after having resided for some time in _Rome_, I remember his describing to me the state of society; the characters of the Pope and Cardinals; the gorgeous ceremonies, with the superst.i.tions of the people, but not one word did he utter concerning St. Peter's, the Vatican, or the numerous _antiquities_ of the place. As a further confirmation, I remember to have been with Mr. Coleridge at York on our journey into Durham, to see Mr.

Wordsworth, when, after breakfast at the inn, perceiving Mr. C. engaged, I went out alone, to see the York Minster, being, in the way, detained in a bookseller's shop. In the mean time, Mr. C. having missed me, he set off in search of his companion. Supposing it _probable_ that I was gone to the _Minster_, he went up to _the door_ of that magnificent structure, and inquired of the porter, whether such an individual as myself had gone in there. Being answered in the negative, he had _no further curiosity_, not even _looking_ into the _interior_, but turned away to pursue his search! so that Mr. C. left York, without beholding, or wis.h.i.+ng to behold, the chief attraction of the city, or being at all conscious that he had committed by his neglect, _high treason against all architectural beauty!_ This deficiency in his regard for edifices, while he was feverishly alive to all the operations of _mind_, and to all intellectual inquiries, formed a striking and _singular_ feature in Mr. Coleridge's mental const.i.tution worthy of being noticed.

[83] It was a favourite citation with Mr. Coleridge, "I in them, and thou in me, that they all may he one in us."

[84] In corroboration of this remark, an occurrence might be cited, from the Life of Sir Humphry, by his brother, Dr. Davy.--Sir Humphry, in his excursion to Ireland, at the house of Dr. Richardson, met a large party at dinner, amongst whom, were the Bishop of Raphoe, and another Clergyman. A Gentleman, one of the company, in his zeal for Infidelity, began an attack on Christianity, (no very gentlemanly conduct) not doubting but that Sir H. Davy, as a Philosopher, partic.i.p.ated in his principles, and he probably antic.i.p.ated, with so powerful an auxiliary, an easy triumph over the cloth. With great confidence he began his flippant sarcasms at religion, and was heard out by his audience, and by none with more attention than by Sir Humphry. At the conclusion of his harangue, Sir H. Davy, instead of lending his _aid_, entered on a comprehensive defence of Christianity, 'in so fine a tone of eloquence'

that the Bishop stood up from an impulse similar to that which sometimes forced a whole congregation to rise at one of the impa.s.sioned bursts of Ma.s.sillon.

The Infidel was struck dumb with mortification and astonishment, and though a guest for the night, at the a.s.sembling of the company the next morning at breakfast, it was found that he had taken _French leave_, and at the earliest dawn had set off for his own home.

[85] The father's remark on the occasion was, "There's an end of him! A fine high-spirited fellow!"

[86] Perhaps, the most valuable production of Mr. Foster, as to style and tendency, is the Essay which he prefixed to the Glasgow edition of Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of Religion." Mr. F. having sent me a letter relating to the above Essay, just as it was completed, it may not be unacceptable to the Reader; where he will behold a fresh instance of the complex motives, in which the best of human productions often originate.

"Sept. 10, 1825.

My dear sir,

I am truly sorry not to have seen you, excepting on one short evening for so long a time, and as I expect to go on Monday next to Lyme, I cannot be content without leaving for you a line or two, as a little link of continuity, if I may so express it, in our friendly communications. The preventive cause of my not seeing you, has been the absolute necessity of keeping myself uninterruptedly employed to finish a literary task which had long hung as a dead weight on my hands.

Dr. Chalmers some three years since started a plan of reprinting in a neat form a number of respectable religious works, of the older date, with a preliminary Essay to each, relating to the book, or to any a.n.a.lagous topic, at the writer's discretion. The Glasgow booksellers, Chalmers and Collins, the one the Doctor's brother, and the other his most confidential friend, have accordingly reprinted a series of perhaps now a dozen works, with essays, several by Dr. C.; several by Irving; one by Wilberforce; one by Daniel Wilson, &c. &c. I believe Hall, and Cunningham promised their contributions. I was inveigled into a similar promise, more than two years since. The work strongly urged on me for this service, in the first instance, was "Doddridge's Rise and Progress,"

and the contribution was actually promised to be furnished with the least possible delay, on the strength of which the book was immediately printed off--and has actually been lying in their warehouse as dead stock these two years. I was admonished and urged again and again, but in spite of the mortification, and shame, which I could not but feel, at these occasioning the publisher a positive loss, my horror of writing, combined with ill health, invincibly prevailed, and not a paragraph was written till toward the end of last year, when I did summon resolution for the attempt. When I had written but a few pages, the reluctant labour was interrupted, and suspended, by the more interesting one of writing those letters to our dear young friend, your niece. (Miss Saunders.) Not of course that this latter employment did not allow me time enough for the other, but by its more lively interest it had the effect of augmenting my disinclination to the other. Soon after her removal, I resumed the task, and an ashamed to acknowledge such a miserable and matchless slowness of mental operation, that the task has held me confined ever since, till actually within these few days. I believe that nothing but a strong sense of the duty of fulfilling my engagement, and of not continuing to do a real injury to the publishers, could have constrained me to so much time and toil. The article is indeed of the length of nearly one half of Doddridge's book, but many of my contemporary makers of sentences, would have produced as much with one fifth part of the time and labour. I have aimed at great correctness and condensation, and have found the labour of revisal and transcription not very much less than that of the substantial composition. The thing has been prolonged, I should say spun out to three times the length which was at first intended, or was required. It has very little reference to the book which it accompanies; has no special topic, and is merely a serious inculcation of the necessity of Religion on young persons, and men of the world. In point of merit, (that you know is the word in such matters) I rate it very moderately, except in respect to correctness, and clearness of expression. If it do not possess this quality, a vast deal of care and labour has been sadly thrown away. I suppose the thing is just about now making up to be sent from the publishers' warehouse. I shall have a little parcel of copies, and shall presume to request the acceptance of one in Dighton Street.

My dear sir, I am absolutely ashamed to have been led into this length of what is no better than egotism, when I was meaning just in five lines, to tell what has detained me from the pleasure of seeing you.... My dear sir.

Yours most truly,

John Foster."

[87] "I think Priestley must be considered the author of modern Unitarianism. I owe, under G.o.d, my return to the faith, to my having gone much farther than the Unitarians, and so having come round to the other side. I can truly say, I never falsified the scriptures. I always told them that their interpretations of scripture were intolerable, on any principles of sound criticism; and that, if they were to offer to construe the will of their neighbour, as they did that of their Maker, they would be scouted out of society. I said, plainly and openly, that it was clear enough, John and Paul were not Unitarians.

I make the greatest difference between 'ans' and 'isms.' I should deal insincerely, if I said, that I thought _Unitarianism_ was Christianity.

No, as I believe, and have faith in the doctrine, it is not the truth in Jesus Christ. By-the-by, what do you (Unitarians) mean, by exclusively a.s.suming the t.i.tle of Unitarians? As if Trio-Unitarians were not necessarily Unitarians, as much (pardon, the ill.u.s.tration) as an apple-pie, must of course be a pie! The schoolmen would perhaps have called you _Unicists_, but your proper name is _Psilanthropists_, believers in the mere human nature of Christ.... Unitarianism, is in effect, the worst of one kind of Atheism, joined to one of the worst kinds of Calvinism. It has no covenant with G.o.d, and it looks upon prayer as a sort of self-magnetizing;--a getting of the body and temper into a certain _status_, desirable, _per se_, but having no covenanted reference to the Being to whom the prayer is addressed.

The _pet_ texts of Socinians are quite enough for their confutation with acute thinkers. If Christ had been a mere man, it would have been ridiculous in him to call himself the 'Son of Man;' but being G.o.d and _man_, it then became, in his own a.s.sumption, a peculiar and mysterious t.i.tle. So, if Christ had been a mere man, his saying, 'My father is greater than I,' (John xv. 28.) would have been as unmeaning. It would be laughable, for example, to hear me say, my 'Remorse' succeeded indeed, but Shakspeare is a greater dramatist than I,' But how immeasurably more foolish, more monstrous, would it not be for a man, however honest, good, or wise, to say 'But Jehovah is greater than I.'

"Either we have an immortal soul, or we have not. If we have not, we are beasts; the first and wisest of beasts it may be, but still true beasts.

We shall only differ in degree, and not in kind; just as the elephant differs from the slug. But by the concession of all the materialists, of all the schools, or almost all, we are not of the same kind as beasts; and this also we say, from our own consciousness. Therefore, methinks, it must be the possession of a soul within us, that makes the difference.

"Read the first chapter of the Book of Genesis without prejudice, and you will be convinced at once. After the narrative of the creation of the earth and brute animals, Moses seems to pause, and says, 'And G.o.d said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.' And in the next chapter, he repeats the narrative.--'And the Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;'

and then he adds these words, 'and man became a living soul.' Materialism will never explain these last words."

[88] The following notice of Mr. C.'s opium habits, with the reasons for disclosing them, were prefixed to the "Early Recollections," ten years ago, but the arguments are equally applicable at this time, 1847.

[89] A Dissenting minister of Bristol.

[90] It is apprehended that this must be a mistake. I sent Mr. Coleridge five guineas for my Shakespeare ticket, and entertain no doubt but that some others did the same. But his remark may refer to some succeeding lecture, of which I have no instinct recollection.

[91] A request of permission from Mr. Coleridge, to call on a few of his known friends, to see if we could not raise an annuity for him of one hundred a year, that he might pursue his literary objects without pecuniary distractions.

[92] A worthy medical Friend of Bristol, who first in that city, interested himself in the establishment of infant schools.

[93] This long sentence, between brackets, was struck out by Mr. Southey, in perusing the MS., through delicacy, as it referred to himself; but the present occasion it is restored.

[94] Some supplemental lecture.

[95] Mr. Coleridge, in his "Church and State," speaks of employing a drawer in which were "too many of my _unopened letters._"

[96] These four lines in the edition of Mr. C.'s Poems, published after his death, are oddly enough thrown into the "Monody on Chatterton," and form the four opening lines. Many readers may concur with myself in thinking, that the former commencement was preferable; namely;--

"when faint and sad o'er sorrow's desert wild, Slow journeys onward poor misfortune's child;" &c.

[97] This man must hare been just the kind of vigilant superintendent Mr.

C. desired; ready to fetch a book, or a box of snuff, &c., at command.

The preceding occurrence would not have been introduced, but to ill.u.s.trate the supreme ascendancy which opium exercises over its unhappy votaries.

[98] This statement requires an explanation, which none now can give. Was the far larger proportion of this 300 appropriated to the discharge of Opium debts? This does not seem unlikely, as Mr. C. lived with friends, and he could contract few other debts.

[99] Such were omitted in the published work.