Samuel Coleridge - The Complete Essays, Lectures & Letters of S. T. Coleridge (Illustrated)

[Footnote 38: The order for Coleridge’s arrest had already been sent from Paris, but his escape was so contrived by the good old Pope, as to defeat the intended indulgence of the Tyrant’s vindictive appetite, which would have preyed equally on a Duc D’Enghien, and a contributor to a public journal. In consequence of Mr. Fox having asserted in the House of Commons, that the rupture of the Truce of Amiens had its origin in certain essays written in the Morning Post, which were soon known to have been Coleridge’s, and that he was at Rome within reach, the ire of Buonaparte was immediately excited.]

[Footnote 39: Though his Note Books are full of memoranda, not an entry or date of his arrival at Rome is to be found. To Rome itself and its magnificence, he would often refer in conversation. Unfortunately there is not a single document to recall the beautiful images he would place before your mind in perspective, when inspired by the remembrance of its wonder-striking and splendid objects. He however preserved some short essays, which he wrote when in Malta, Observations on Sicily, Cairo, &c. &c. political and statistical, which will probably form part of the literary remains in train of publication.

Malta, on a first view of the subject, seemed to present a situation so well fitted for a landing place, that it was intended to have adopted this mode, as in ‘The Friend’, of dividing the present memoir; but this loss of MS. and the breaches of continuity, render it impracticable.]

[Footnote 40: At this time all his writings were strongly tinctured with

Platonism.]

[Footnote 41: Each party claimed him as their own; for party without principles must ever be shifting, and therefore they found his opinions sometimes in accordance with their own, and sometimes at variance. But he was of no party — his views were purely philosophical.]

[Footnote 42: The character of Buonaparte was announced in the same paper.]

[Footnote 43: Those who spoke after Pitt were Wilberforce, Tierney,

Sheridan, &c.]

[Footnote 44: This speech of Mr. Pitt’s is extracted from the ‘Morning

Post’, February 18th, 1800.]

[Footnote 45: The following exquisite image on Leighton was found in one of Coleridge’s note books, and is also inserted in his Literary Remains:

“Next to the inspired Scriptures, yea, and as the vibration of that once struck hour remaining on the air, stands Archbishop Leighton’s commentary on the first epistle of Peter.”]

[Footnote 46: In his later days, Mr. Coleridge would have renounced the opinions and the incorrect reasoning of this letter].

Table of Contents

LEAVES THE LAKES ON ACCOUNT OF HIS HEALTH FOR MALTA — HIS EMPLOYMENT IN MALTA IN 1805 — GOES TO SYRACUSE AND ROME — WINTERS AT NAPLES 15TH OF DECEMBER, 1806.

Mr. Coleridge once met Mrs. Barbauld at an evening party. He had not long been present, and the recognition of mere acquaintanceship over, than, walking across the room, she addressed him in these words:

”So, Mr. Coleridge, I understand you do not consider Unitarians

Christians.”

“I hope, Madam,” said he, “that all persons born in a Christian country are Christians, and trust they are under the condition of being saved; but I ‘do’ contend that Unitarianism’ is not ‘Christianity’;”

to which she replied,

“I do not understand the distinction.”

This want of knowledge of the difference, is common to many very clever and very amiable persons of this creed. It is hoped that we are not always to be tried by our speculative opinions, for man is frequently constituted higher and better than the principles he sometimes adopts.

Coleridge frequently observed,

“I do not so much care for men’s religious opinions, — they vary, and are dependant on that which usually surrounds them-but I regard with more attention what men are.”

He extended his kindness to all he believed to be good, whatever their creed, and when in his power, his aid. When injured, he immediately forgave, as he hoped to be forgiven, and when reviled and persecuted, he never became ‘persecutor’. Of him it may be said, what he himself observed of the pious Baxter, that “he came a century before his time.” The Western world however seems to have better appreciated the works of Coleridge, than most of his countrymen: in some parts of America, his writings are understood and highly valued.

In 1801, he settled at Keswick, in a house, which if not built, was at least finished for him, by a then neighbour (a Mr. Jackson,) and for a time he occupied a part of it. But here his health greatly failed, and he suffered severe rheumatism from the humidity of a lake country, which was the main cause of his leaving Keswick for Malta.

It has been already observed, that when a youth at school, he had, from imprudent bathing, become a rheumatic subject, and during the rest of his life, remained liable to most painful affections of that disorder.

In 1803, the fear of sudden death induced him to insure his life, that his family might not be left, dependant on his friends. In 1804, his rheumatic sufferings increasing, he determined on a change of climate, and accepted an invitation from his friend, Sir John, then Mr. Stoddart, residing at Malta, where he arrived in May. He soon became acquainted with the governor of the island, Sir Alexander Ball, who was greatly attached to Coleridge, and whose character has been so well described by him in The Friend. During a change of secretaries, Coleridge, at the request of Sir Alexander, officiated, pro tempore, as public secretary of that island; and there was found in him — what at that time was so much required — an able diplomatic writer in this department of correspondence. The dignities of the office he never attempted to support: he was greatly annoyed at what he thought its unnecessary parade, and he petitioned Sir Alexander to be released from the annoyance. There can be no doubt that, to an individual accustomed to public business, his occupation might appear light, and even agreeable; but his health, which was the object of this change, not being much benefited, and the duties of the employment greater than he was equal to, made it for him an arduous one. He seemed at this time, in addition to his rheumatism, to have been oppressed in his breathing, which oppression crept on him imperceptibly to himself without suspicion of its cause yet so obvious was it, that it was noticed by others “as laborious;” and continuing to increase, though with little apparent advancement, at length terminated in death.

“Friday afternoon, four o’clock, April 18,1804. The Speedwell dropped anchor in the harbour of Malta: one of the finest in the world, the buildings surrounding it on all sides, of a neat ever-new-looking sand-free-stone. Some unfinished, and in all, the windows placed backward, looked like Carthage when Æneas visited it-or a ‘burnt out’ place.”

Saturday, April 19. — In the after-dinner hour walked out with Mr. and Mrs. Stoddart, towards the Quarantine harbour. One’s first feeling is, that it is all strange, very strange; and when you begin to understand a little of the meaning and uses of the massy endless walls and defiles, then you feel and perceive that it is very wonderful. A city all of freestone, all the houses looking new like Bath; all with flat roofs, the streets all strait, and at right angles to each other; but many of them exceedingly steep, none quite level; of the steep streets, some, ‘all’ stepped with a smooth artificial stone, some having the footpath on each side in stone steps, the middle left for carriages; lines of fortification, fosses, bastions, curtains, &c. &c. endless: — with gardens or bowling-grounds below; for it is all height and depth — you can walk nowhere without having whispers of suicide, toys of desperation. Expletive cries of Maltese venders shot up, sudden and violent. The inhabitants very dark, almost black; but straight, cleanlimbed, lively, active, — cannot speak in praise of their cleanliness — children very fair — women from the use of the faldetto, or cloak-hooding their heads, as women in England in a shower throw over their aprons, and from the use of always holding it down to one side of the face, all have a continued languishing manner of holding their heads one way — picturesque enough as expressive of a transient emotion, but shocking and inelegant in ‘all’ and always. The language Arabic, corrupted with Italian, and perhaps with others.