So gloomy were our apprehensions, that ever the death of Mr. C. was mournfully expected, at no distant period! for his actions, at this time, were, we feared, all of a suicidal description.

The reader will judge what my concern must have been, at receiving the following letter from Mr. Coleridge, in the March of 1815.

Dear Cottle,

"Calne, March 7, 1815,

You will wish to know something of myself. In health, I am not worse than when at Bristol I was best, yet fluctuating, yet unhappy! in circumstances 'poor indeed!' I have collected my scattered, and my manuscript poems, sufficient to make one volume. Enough I have to make another. But till the latter is finished, I cannot without great loss of character, publish the former on account of the arrangement, besides the necessity of correction. For instance, I earnestly wish to begin the volumes, with what has never been seen by any, however few, such as a series of Odes on the different sentences of the Lord's Prayer, and more than all this, to finish my greater work on Christianity, Christianity, considered Philosophy, and as the only Philosophy.' All

as

the materials I have in no small part, reduced

what can having to

to form, and written, but oh me! I do, when I am so poor, that in turn off every week, from these to some mean subject for the newspapers, I distress myself, and at last neglect the greater wholly, to do little of the less. If it were in your power to receive my manuscripts, (for instance what I have ready for the press of my poems) and by setting me forward with thirty or forty pounds, taking care that what I send, and would make over to you, would more than secure you from loss, I am sure you would do it. And I would die (after my recent experience, of the cruel and insolent spirit of calumny,) rather than subject myself, as a slave, to a club of subscribers to my poverty.

If I were to say I am easy in my conscience, I should add to its pains by a lie; but this I can truly say, that my embarrassments have not been occasioned by the bad parts, or selfish indulgences of my nature. I am at present five and twenty pounds in arrear, my expenses being at £2 10s. per week. You will say I ought to live for less, and doubtless I might, if I were to alienate myself from all social affections, and from all conversation with persons of the same educa

tion. Those who severely blame me, never ask, whether at any time in my life, I had for myself and my family's wants, £50 beforehand.

Heaven knows of the £300. received, through you, what went to myself. No! bowed down under manifold infirmities, I yet dare to appeal to God of the truth of what I say, I have remained poor by always having been poor, and incapable of pursuing any one great work, for want of a competence beforehand.

S. T. Coleridge."

This was precisely the termination I was prepared to expect. I had never before, through my whole life refused Mr. C. an application for money; yet I now hesitated; assured that the sum required, was not meant for the discharge of board, but for the purchase of opium, the expense of which, for years, had exceeded the Two pounds ten shillings per week. Under this conviction, and after a painful conflict, I sent Mr. C. on the

* This statement requires an explanation, which none now can give. Was the far larger proportion of this £300 appropriated to the discharge of Opium debts? This does not seem unlikely, as Mr. C. chiefly lived with friends, and he could contract few other debts.

next day, a friendly letter, declining his request, but enclosing a five pound note. It happened that my letter to Mr. Coleridge passed on the road, another letter from him to myself, far more harrowing than the first. This was the last letter I ever received from Mr. C. and which in after years, I sometimes felt, without perhaps duly considering that new scenes, connexions, and pursuits, had a natural tendency to force the thoughts into new channels.*

The following is Mr. Coleridge's second letter from Calne.

"Calne, Wiltshire, March 10, 1815,

My dear Cottle,

I have been waiting with the greatest uneasiness for a letter from you. My distresses are impatient rather than myself: inasmuch as for the last five weeks, I know myself to be a burden,

*It is a consolation to reflect, that, in the year 1821, being in London, I called to see Mr. Coleridge, at Mr. Gillman's, when he welcomed me in his former kind and cordial manner. The depressing thought filled my mind, that that would be our final interview in this world, as it was. On my going away, Mr. C. presented me with his "Statesman's Manual," in the Title-page of which he wrote, "Joseph Cottle, from his old and affectionate friend, S. T. Coleridge."

on those to whom I am under great obligations ; who would gladly do all for me; but who have done all they can! Incapable of any exertion in this state of mind, I have now written to Mr. Hood, and have at length bowed my heart down, to beg that four or five of those, who I had reason to believe, were interested in my welfare, would raise the sum I mentioned, between them, should you not find it convenient to do it. Manuscript poems, equal to one volume of 230 to 300 pages, being sent to them immediately. If not, I must instantly dispose of all my poems, fragments and all, for whatever I can get from the first rapacious bookseller, that will give any thing-and then try to get my livelihood where I am, by receiving, or waiting on daypupils, children, or adults, but even this I am unable to wait for without some assistance: for I cannot but with consummate baseness, throw the expenses of my lodging and boarding for the last five or six weeks on those, who must injure and embarrass themselves in order to pay them. The Friend' has been long out of print, and its re-publication has been called for by numbers.

Indeed from the manner in which it was first circulated, it is little less than a new work. To