Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey | Page 7

to be expelled, and their couch to be
strewed with down and roses.
It will excite merely an innocent smile in the reader at the extravagance
of a youthful and ardent mind, when he learns that Robert Lovell stated
with great seriousness, that, after the minutest calculation and inquiry
among practical men, the demand on their labour would not exceed two
hours a day; that is, for the production of absolute necessaries. The
leisure still remaining, might be devoted, in convenient fractions, to the
extension of their domain, by prostrating the sturdy trees of the forest,
where "lop and top," without cost, would supply their cheerful winter
fire; and the trunks, when cut into planks, without any other expense
than their own pleasant labour, would form the sties for their pigs, and
the linnies for their cattle, and the barns for their produce; reserving
their choicest timbers for their own comfortable log-dwellings. But
after every claim that might be made on their manual labour had been
discharged, a large portion of time, would still remain for their own
individual pursuits, so that they might read, converse, and even write
books.
Cowper, in an unpublished letter now before me, says, "I know well

that publication is necessary to give an edge to the poetic turn, and that
what we produce in the closet, is never a vigorous birth, if we intend
that it should die there. For my own part I could no more amuse myself
with writing verse, if I did not print it when written, than with the study
of tactics, for which I can never have any real occasion." But our young
and ardent friends seemed to entertain a strong impression that the mere
pleasure of writing, that is, like virtue, writing for its own sake, was all
the mental and rational gratification wise men could desire. Views and
times alter, and these richly-endowed young men, in after life, were
prompt, and amongst the first to confess the fallacious schemes of their
youth; but at this time the pleasurable alone occupied their field of
vision, and confidence never stood more unencumbered with doubt.
If any difficulties were now started, and many such there were, a
profusion of words demonstrated the reasonableness of the whole
design; impressing all who heard, with the conviction that the citadel
was too strong for assault. The Mercury at these times was generally
Mr. Coleridge, who, as has been stated, ingeniously parried every
adverse argument, and after silencing his hardy disputants, announced
to them that he was about to write and publish a quarto volume in
defence of Pantisocracy, in which a variety of arguments would be
advanced in defence of his system, too subtle and recondite to comport
with conversation. It would then, he said, become manifest that he was
not a projector raw from his cloister, but a cool calculating reasoner,
whose efforts and example would secure to him and his friends the
permanent gratitude of mankind.
From the sentiments thus entertained, I shall represent Mr. Coleridge,
in the section of his days which devolves on me to exhibit, just as he
was, and that with a firm belief that by so doing, without injuring his
legitimate reputation, I shall confer an essential benefit on those to
come, who will behold in Mr. C. much to admire and imitate; and
certainly some things to regret. For it should be remembered, Mr.
Coleridge, from universal admission, possessed some of the highest
mental endowments, and many pertaining to the heart; but if a man's
life be valuable, not for the incense it consumes, but for the instruction
it affords, to state even defects, (in one like Mr. C. who can so well
afford deduction without serious loss) becomes in his biographer, not
optional, but a serious obligation.

It is proper additionally to remark, that some apology or propitiation
may be necessary toward those who regard every approximation to
poverty, not as a misfortune, but a crime. Pecuniary difficulties,
especially such as occur in early life, and not ascribable to bad conduct,
reflect no discredit on men of genius. Many of them, subsequently,
surmounted their first embarrassments by meritorious exertion; and
some of our first men (like travellers, after having successfully passed
through regions of privation and peril) delight even to recall their
former discouragements, and, without the shame that luxuriates alone
in little minds, undisguisedly to tell of seasons, indelible in their
memories, when, in the prostration of hope, the wide world appeared
one desolate waste! but they ultimately found, that these seasons of
darkness, (however tenaciously retained by memory) in better times
often administer a new and refreshing zest to present enjoyment.
Despair, therefore ill becomes one who has follies to bewail, and a God
to trust in. Johnson and Goldsmith, with numerous others, at