The plan can be executed if his friends will advance 200l. a year (Allsop, i. 146). Coleridge had become famous, and many young men came to listen to his conversation, which has been described with inimitable vivacity by Carlyle in his 'Life of Sterling.' Emerson's impressions are given in the account of his first visit to England in 'English Traits.' Frequent mention of Coleridge in his later years will be found in the diaries of Crabb Robinson. A great part of every year after 1822 he was confined to his room, and generally to his bed (Preface to Table Talk). Yet he was to be met with occasionally at the houses of his friends, and made a few trips to Margate and elsewhere. In 1824 Robinson met him at a 'dance and rout' at the house of his disciple, Green, and heard him declaim philosophy in the ball-room (Diary, ii. 272). In 1828 he accompanied the Wordsworths on a tour up the Rhine. An interesting account of this is given in T. C. Grattan's 'Beaten Paths' (1865), ii. 107-45). In 1833 he visited Cambridge with the British Association, and talked with his old vigour in Thirlwall's room. He soon afterwards became weaker, and died gently 25 July 1834. An account of his death is in the 'Memoirs of Sara Coleridge' (i. 109-117). A post-mortem examination revealed no cause of his long sufferings. Mrs. Coleridge survived till 1845.
Coleridge's conversation is described as astonishing by all who heard him. Carlyle in the 'Life of Sterling,' Hazlitt in the 'Spirit of the Age,' De Quincey (Works, ii. 54-6), and Henry Nelson Coleridge in preface to 'Table Talk,' may be compared (see also Dibdin, Reminiscences, i. 253; Talfourd in Last Memorials of Lamb; Wordsworth, Memoir, ii. 443, for Wordsworth's impression). They agree, except that the first two failed to perceive what was evident to the others, that his apparent rambling was governed by severe logical purpose. Lamb (Gillman, p. 1 82) said that Coleridge talked like an angel, and added 'but after all his best talk is in the "Friend."' Readers of that work will be able to judge for themselves whether the wanderings were real or apparent. Mme. de Staël's statement that he was great in monologue but bad in dialogue was made to Crabb Robinson (Diary, i. 314). His personal appearance has been described by Hazlitt, Miss Wordsworth, De Quincey, Carlyle, and Southey. The last says (Fraser, July 1878) that the power of his eye, forehead, and brow was astonishing; but that nothing could be 'more imbecile than the rest of his face.' He says of himself to Thelwall in 1796: 'My face, unless when animated by immediate eloquence, expresses great sloth and great, indeed almost idiotic, good nature. Tis a mere carcase of a face, fat, flabby, and expressive chiefly of inexpression. Yet I am told that my eyes, eyebrows, and forehead are physiognomically good. . . . As to my shape, 'tis a good shape enough if measured; but my gait is awkward, and the walk of the whole man indicates indolence capable of energies. I am and ever have been a great reader, and have read almost everything, a library cormorant. I am deep in all out-of-the-way books, whether of the monkish times or the puritanical era. I have read and digested most of the historical writers, but I do not like history. Metaphysics and poetry and "facts of mind" (i.e. accounts of all the strange phantasms that ever possessed your philosophy-dreamers from Tauth, the Egyptian, to Taylor, the English pagan) are my darling studies. In short, I seldom read except to amuse myself, and 1 am almost always reading. Of useful knowledge I am a so-so chemist, and I love chemistry, all else is blank; but I will be (please God) an horticulturist and a farmer. I compose very little; and I absolutely hate composition. Such is my dislike that even a sense of duty is sometimes too weak to overpower it. I cannot breathe through my nose; so my mouth with sensual thick lips is almost always open.'
Portraits of Coleridge were painted for Cottle by Vandyck (1795), and by Robert Hancock, in crayons (1796). These and a portrait by Washington Allston (1814) are in the National Portrait Gallery. His portrait was also taken by Hazlitt in 1803, and by Northcote in 1804. both for Sir G. Beaumont. The statement that Allston painted another portrait in 1806 is erroneous. A painting by Phillips is engraved in 'Table Talk.' A drawing by Maclise for 'Fraser's Magazine' is now at South Kensington.
Coleridge alone among English writers is in the front rank at once as poet, as critic, and as philosopher. In his first-rate poems the philosophy, though it may determine the principles, does not intrude into the execution. They illustrate the canon which he quotes from Milton (Literary Remains, ii. 9), that poetry should be 'simple, sensuous, passionate.' Like Spenser he is a poet's poet. The 'Ancient Mariner' at least has gained popularity, but his direct influence is less remarkable than his influence upon more popular poets. He supplied the imaginative essence which they alloyed with elements more prosaic but more immediately acceptable. Coleridge explained Hazlitt's indifference to the 'Arabian Nights' by saying, 'You never dream,' and added that there was 'a class of poetry built on the foundation of dreams' (Plain Speaker, 1826, i. 47). His own poems
