tin extinguishers; two mats; a pair of slippers; a cheese-toaster; two large tin spoons; a Bible; a keg of porter; coffee; raisins; currants; catsup; nutmegs; allspice; cinnamon; rice; ginger and mace. The next day, probably after the receipt of these articles, Coleridge writes to Poole, calling it "our comfortable cot." In the same letter, he says, "In the course of half a year I mean to return to Cambridge, having previously taken my name off from the University's control, and, hiring lodgings there for myself and wife, finish my great work of Imitations in two volumes. My former works may, I hope, prove somewhat of genius and of erudition; this will be better; it will show great industry and manly consistency."† But before the end of the year he had moved from Clevedon to Bristol, then, to Stowey, to visit his friend Mr. Thomas Poole, and then back again to Bristol. Here again he set about preparing his poems for publication; but similar delays were interposed as before, and the volume made but slow progress. In February, he wrote, during a fit of despondency occasioned by the clouds hanging over the future, and by the sense of his own remissness,

"It is my duty and business to thank God for all his dispensations, and to believe them the best possible; but, indeed, I think I should have been

*Cottle's Reminiscences, p. 30.

↑ Biographia Literaria, ii. 348.

more thankful, if he had made me a journeyman shoemaker instead of an author by trade. I have left friends; I have left plenty; I have left that ease which would have secured a literary immortality, and have enabled me to give to the public works conceived in moments of inspiration, and polished with leisurely solicitude; and, alas! for what have I left them? For who deserted me in the hour of distress, and for a scheme of virtue impracticable and romantic."

It is left to conjecture what prospects of plenty or ease Coleridge can refer to in this letter, as having been left by him, and of whose desertion he complains, unless it be that of Southey, with whom he had had a quarrel some months before, on occasion of the abandonment of the Susquehannah scheme, which Southey's good sense and improved prospects had led him to renounce, before Coleridge was convinced of its extravagance.

At last, in April, 1796, his volume of poems appeared, containing most of those pieces which have since been published under the title of Juvenile Poems. Among them were his well-known sonnet to Schiller, and the long poem called Religious Musings, which contains passages of much beauty. Meanwhile, Coleridge, who had "given up" in October "all thoughts of a Magazine for various reasons," had issued proposals in December for "a Miscellany to be called The Watchman, to be published on every eighth day from

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the first of March, to supply at once the places of a Review, Newspaper, and Annual Register." He spent a month on a tour to solicit subscriptions, and visited Worcester, Birmingham, Liverpool, and other places, preaching as a Unitarian wherever he could get an invitation to do so. He returned to Bristol in February, 1796, having succeeded in obtaining a large number of subscribers. The first number of The Watchman was issued on the 1st of March, the tenth and last on the 13th of May. The causes of its sudden failure were numerous. Coleridge himself wrote not more than a third of it, and even his portion had little striking merit. The prospectus had promised too much; the subscribers, becoming dissatisfied, fell off faster than they had been obtained, till at length the work did not pay its expenses.* Whatever was valuable and of a permanent nature in it was included in his later publications.

Plan after plan now succeeded, with such rapidity as to prevent any one of them from being carried into execution. First, Poole proposed to

* In a letter to Poole, Coleridge says:- "I have received two or three letters from different Anonymi, requesting me to give more poetry. One of them writes thus:

'Sir, I detest your principles; your prose I think very so so; but your poetry is so beautiful that I take in your Watchman solely on account of it. In justice therefore to me, and some others of my stamp, I entreat you to give us more verse and less democratic scurrility.

'Your Admirer,- not Esteemer.'"

purchase an annuity for his friend, of which Coleridge writes, "Concerning the scheme itself I am undetermined. Not that I am ashamed to receive; God forbid! I will make every possible exertion; my industry shall be at least commensurate with my learning and talents; if these do not procure for me and mine the necessary comforts of life, I can receive as I would bestow, and in either case, - receiving or bestowing,be equally grateful to my Almighty Benefactor."* From this time. Coleridge seems to have been contented for the most part, to be dependent on his friends for the means of support. During the last year or two, Cottle had made him frequent presents. He had given him the paper on which The Watchman was printed, had borne a large share of the burden of the loss on it, and seems, through the whole course of his acquaintance with Coleridge, to have been a generous and unexacting friend.

The plan for the annuity failed, and Coleridge thought of taking charge of a school, which was offered to him on very advantageous terms. At the same time, Mr. Perry, the editor of the London Morning Chronicle, proposed to him to write for his paper, with the promise of liberal compensation; but Coleridge hesitated, and nothing was done. At last, Mr. Charles Lloyd, the son of a

* Biographia Literaria, ii. 367.

banker at Birmingham, where he had become acquainted with Mr. Coleridge, proposed to be received as an inmate in his family, "and made him such a pecuniary offer that Mr. Coleridge immediately acceded to the proposal." Lloyd was a young man of amiable disposition, and of considerable literary taste. Suffering from a deranged state of the nervous system, he imagined that a residence with Coleridge would at once enable him to cultivate his mind and improve his health. Coleridge consequently took a house at Stowey, near Mr. Poole. Here his eldest son was born, inheriting in equal measure the genius and the infirmities of his father. He was named after the metaphysician David Hartley, of whom Coleridge was then an admiring disciple. Wordsworth was living near Stowey, and with him Coleridge had already contracted a close intimacy. And now, with a home of his own, and with friends around him, there seemed nothing to prevent him from accomplishing some of those literary projects which he had so often dreamed of. Two years before, he had read to Cottle" a list of eighteen different works, which he had resolved to write, several of them in quarto." Now was the time for him to prepare at least some one of them. But "men of genius," it is said, "are rarely either prompt in action or consistent in general conduct. Their early habits have been those of contemplative indolence, and the day