Edinburgh, and was almost too late, he took a coach and ordered the coachman to drive to the theatre. In going up the hill, the horses being tired, the coach made no progress, upon which Mathews remonstrated, saying that he should be too late-he should lose his time. The coachman very coolly said, 'Your honour should reflact that I am losing time as weel's yersel."" "On another occasion, when Mathews was returning very late, or, by'r lady, it might be early in the morning, to Edinburgh, his friend, who was somewhat fou, refused to pay the toll, stating that he had paid it before that day. The little girl locked the toll, and he loaded her with abuse, to which she made little reply. After much altercation her mother opened a casement above, and in a sleepy, feeble tone, inquired what the gentleman said. "Na, mither," said the child, "it's no the gentleman, it's the wine speaking." "The best pun ever made is that of Swift, who called after a man carrying a hare over his shoulders, "Is that your own hare or a wig?" Met Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth, with Mr. Talfourd, Monkhouse, and Robinson. A very delightful evening. Wordsworth almost as good a reader as Coleridge; to a stranger I think he would seem to carry even more authority both in what he read and said. He spoke of Southey and Coleridge with measured respect, and, as I thought, just appreciation. Pointed out some passages in the Curse of Kehama which he admired, and repeated some portions of the Ancient Mariner; also from the River Duddon and the Excursion. Repeated the Highland Girl. He seemed to me to present the idea of a poet in whom the repressive faculty was predominant. Taken altogether, he impressed me very favourably, and I regret deeply that I did not avail myself of subsequent opportunities, not seldom proffered by Lamb and Coleridge, of meeting him more frequently. But I then laboured under the impression that he had not acted kindly to that dear and loved being, whom I loved living, and honour dead. Even now, when myself almost indifferent to new associations, I regret this enforced denial of what at that period would have enhanced the value of existence, communion with that glorious and effulgent mind; but I do not regret the impulses which led to this self-denial. Met Mrs Shelley and Mrs. Williams at Lamb's cottage, in Colebrook Row. Was much interested by these two young and lovely women. Interesting in every view. Knew Mrs. Shelley from her likeness to a picture by Titian in the Louvre, which is a far greater resemblance to Mrs. Shelley in the beautiful and very peculiar expression of her countenance than would be any portrait taken now. Hers seemed a face, as Hazlitt remarked when he pointed it out to me, that should be kept to acquire likeness. Mrs. Shelley at first sight appeared deficient in feeling; but this cannot be real. She spoke of Shelley without apparent emotion, without regard or a feeling approaching to regret, without pain as without interest, and seemed to contemplate him, as everything else, through the same passionless medium. Mrs. Shelley expressed much admiration of the personal manner and conversation of Lord Byron, but at the same time admitted that the account in the London Magazine for September was faithful. She censured his conduct towards Leigh Hunt as paltry and unfeeling; spoke very slightly of his studies or reading; thought him very superficial in his opinions; owed everything to his memory, which was almost preternatural. Said that he felt a supreme contempt for all his contemporaries, with the exception of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and he ridiculed and derided even them, and was altogether proud, selfish, and frequently puerile. Mrs. Williams, I think, gave the account of his determining to have a plum pudding on his birth-day, and after giving minute directions so as to prevent the chance of mishap, it was, to the eternal dishonour of the Italian cucina, brought up in a tureen of the substance of soup. Upon this failure in the production he was frequently quizzed, and betrayed all the petulance of a child, and more than a child's curiosity to learn who had reported the circumstance. "Wordsworth one day said to me, when I had been speaking of Coleridge, praising him in my way, 'Yes, the Coleridges are a clever family.' I replied, 'I know* one that is.'" LETTER XVIII. MY DEAREST FRIEND, * My amiable and kind-hearted friend said bere less than the truth, at least as I understand it. Cleverness was not at all a characteristic of Coleridge, whilst it happily suits those to whom Wordsworth alluded, who are or have been clever enough to appropriate their uncle's great reputation to their own advancement, and then to allow him to need assistance from strangers. No one who knows the character or calibre of mind, whether of the Bishop or the Judge, can doubt, cæteris paribus, that the one would still have been a curate and the other a barrister, with but little practice, had they borne the name of Smith -had they wanted the passport of his name. It is not always wise to scan too deeply the source of human actions, but I am irresistibly led to the conclusion, that a sort of half-consciousness of "that same entered into this almost (in one sense more than) parricidal neglect. I blame them not. I but narrate this as a curious and painful instance how fearfully we are made; how often we prefer our self-will (so termed), nay, even the most sordid injustice, to our duties. colour of the man in the moon's whiskers, ever crossed my brain: not even with that brisk diagonal traverse which Ghosts and apparitions always choose to surprise us in. I have indeed observed or fancied, that, for some time past, you have been anxious about something, have had something pressing upon your mind, which I wished out of you, though not particularly to have it out of you. I must explain myself. Say that X. were my dearest Friend, to whom I would be as it were transparent, and have him so to me in all respects that concerned our permanent Being, and likewise in all circumstantial accidents in which we could be of service to each other. Yet there are many things that will press upon us which are our individualities, which one man does not feel any tendency in himself to speak of to a man, however dear or valued. X. does not think or wish to think of it when with Y., nor Y. in his turn when with X., and yet still the great law holds good-whatever vexes or depresses ought if possible to be out of us. Now I say that I should rejoice if you had a female Friend-a Sister, an Aunt, or a Beloved to whom you could lay yourself open. I should further exult if your confidante were my Friend too, my Sister or my Wife. T. Allsop, Esq. God bless you. S. T. COLERIDGE. This letter relates to a domestic, not to say family perplexity, peculiarly and sacredly my own; one to which no counsel could apply, no consolation mitigate or assuage. Under the circumstances in which I was at that time placed, I could not, I felt it would be premature, to avail myself of the invitation contained in the above letter: and this will, to a great extent, explain much that is contained in the following letters. I had a still farther reason. The individual to whom allusion is made above, was at that time the ne plus ultra of my friend's love and fraternal admiration; yet with qualities of head and heart worthy of all acceptance, was partly (almost I had nearly said) on that very account disqualified in my innermost convictions, certainly according to the judgment of my then feelings, for the office indicated. MY DEAR FRIEND, LETTER XIX. We are quite sure that you would not allow yourself to fancy any rightful ground, cause, or occasion for not coming here, but the wish, the duty, or the propriety of going elsewhere or staying at home. When the Needle of your Thoughts begins to be magnetic, you may be certain that my Pole is at that moment attracting you by the spiritual magic of strong wishing for your arrival. N.B. My Pole includes in this instance both the Poles of Mr. and eke of Mrs. Gillman, i.e., the head and the heart. But seriously-I am a little anxious-so give my blest sisterly Friend a few lines by return of post-just to let us know that you are and have been well, and that nothing of a painful nature has deprived us of the expected pleasure; a pleasure which, believe me, stands a good many degrees above moderate in the cordi or hedonometer of, Yours most cordially, T. Allsop, Esq. S. T. COLERIDGE. It must always be borne in mind, that the fragments, letters, and conversations which are here perused at one time, were written or spoken at different times, and under the influence of varied feelings and convictions, and the apparent discrepancies, or even contradictions, are such as you must be conscious of yourselves as reflective, and therefore progressive, beings. "In the sense in which I then spoke and thought, I would again repeat the note to the word PRIEST, originally prefixed |