Coleridge

RIDGE AS AN OLD MAN. By Washington Alsten, A.R.A 40 HOLOGRAPH OF THE CONCLUSION OF THE HYMN BEFORE SUNRISE IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNY, WITH A NOTE BY THE POET AS TO ITS ACCURACY . 80 Vll COLERIDGE PERSONAL HISTORY writing to Daniel Stuart WORDSWORTH, after Coleridges death, says, Coleridge is a subject which no biographer ought to touch beyond what he himself was eye-witness of. If this is to be taken literally, many have laboured in vain It may be hoped, however, that Wordsworth intended his remarks solely for the benefit of contemporaries at all events the biographers have now come in like a flood, and it is too late to lift up a banner against them. It must, never- theless, beadmitted that in treating of Coleridges life it is easier to be interesting than absolutely authentic. The bare external facts are well as- certained, but their significance chiefly consists in their relation to a spiritual history which, from the nature of the case, can be but imperfectly detailed, and which must remain obscure in many particulars. Psychologically, Coleridge is one of the most interesting personages ever sub- mitted to human contemplation, and it is im- to avoid continual reference to the work- possibleings of his mind while relating the events of his life. In this abridged sketch, nevertheless, our concern is rather with the indispensable groundwork of facts than with the edifice which it may be possible to rear upon them. The obvious difficulty arising from the myriad-mindedness of the man, and his twofold eminence as poet and thinker, could be surmounted only by another Coleridge. An affinity may often be remarked or fancied between the native districts of illustrious men and the characteristics of their own genius and moral nature. Thesoft luxurianceofSouth Devon fitted Coleridge no less admirably than the land of brown heath and shaggy wood fitted Walter Scott, or than the dales and crags ofCumberland imaged the nature of Wordsworth. He was born at Ottery St. Mary, on October 2ist, 1772. The family, so far as known, was purely Devonian the grandfather, a wool-dealer at South Molton, had failed in business his son, sent to Cambridge by friends, had risen to be Vicar of Ottery and school. Most of Cole- master of the grammar ridges characteristics seem foreshadowed in this parent erudite, dreamy, eccentric, inoffensive, affectionate, and so unambitious that he would have allowed all his sons except Samuel to be brought up to trades but for the interposition of his wife a sensible, resolute, practical woman, but one whose interests were bounded by the horizon of daily life. About Samuel, however, there must have been from the first something suggestive of Lambs observation that his mouth was never opened but to preach for his father, convinced that the boy was destined to wag his pow in a pulpit, made him his special companion, talked to him in a manner adapted to open his mind, and encouraged indiscriminate reading... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.