The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-09-21

mOir that I would consider briefly
after the lapse of so many years. The
title is Memoir and Letters OF Sara
Coleridge.' 1t is edited with much
taste by her daughter. 1t Is to me
one of the most appetlzing as well as
one of the most enjoyable works OF
the kind in English literature that l
have met with in a long life OF read
ing. Sara Coleridge was the hlghly
endowed daughter of Samuel Iaylof
Coleridge, a great poet, essaylst, pnll-
osopher. conversationaliSt-
a most marvellous man. and one of
the most richly endowed Of English
men in the last two hundred years
He was indeed a man Of great orlgl-
nal poems, and yet in some sense a
failure. That is to say. that he ac-
complished really but little Of what
he was capable Of producing. His
complete works edited by Professor
Shedd, d. D., in seven volumes, and
publised by the Harpers within the
last ten or fifteen years. it may be,
are enough to show the royal endoW-
ment of the man. and no mar OF real
culture can afford not to know what
he has written. But TO ran unfortu-
nate opium habit hat paralyzed his
energies and impaired his great
mental powers he would probably
Milton. Somewhere that remarkable
English author and teacher, DR..
Thomas Arnold, of Rugby, father Of
that poe and esSayist, said OF Cole
ridge, that he was the greatest Eng
lish intellect since Milton. In another
place he said, 81 hin with all his
faults, DID Sa mwas more Of a great
man than any one who has lived with
in the four seas in my memory. A
man who could thus impress DR.. Ar
mold and a still greater, more Origl-
nal man, Thomas De Quincy, must
have been a centenarii homines-in-
deed a man of the centuries.
record. He said OF Coleridge: This
illustrious man.. the largest and most
spacious intellect, the sublest and
most comprehensive, in my judgment,
that has yet existed among men" He
was, I may not doubt, a greater man
by far and naturally than was Lord
Bacon or any other Englishman save
only Shakespeare and Milton. His
poetry is of a very high range-so
high indeed as to entitle him to be
named with the six or eight foremost
poets of his own land or of the English
speaking race. His philosophical
powers are admittedly of a striking
range, and among the men best quail
flied to estimate his intellectual en-
dowments he is confidently pro-
nounced as among the most profound
famous English ~essayist, a man Of
much p~rofundity himself, says of
CoIeridge, that Ibis mind contained
an astonishing map of all sorts of
knowledge, while in his power n
ann of putting it to use, he dis
term genius than any mortal I ever
saw or ever expect to see His con-
versational powers were unique, Won
derful, surprising all contemporaries,
and those of any man who ever was
born in Great Britain. Perhaps more
descriptions by men Of parts have been
written Of CoIeridge's talks than of
all the other famous takers in Eng
lish literature combined. He was in
deed the ond and enchantment of
all men who came within the circle
Of his marvellous colloQuial fascina-
ton. He had three children of orig
inal gifts, namely Derwent, Hartley
and the finely endowed Sara mention
cal, and it is the only instance of a
great poet having a son of decided
poetic gifts. His daughter, Sara, was
a woman of sweet and rare charms Of
gifts and character, and Of fine men
tai endowment and we'll cultivated. If
you really love literature, and are not
merely a dabbler, you can not fail
to be interested in the volume men
toned at the beginning of this imper-
feet Hartley was born in
writings are his poems and a prose
volume entitled Lives Of Northern
Wcrthies"-English people. Derwent
made an interesting volume on his
gifted brother he called "a Memoir Of
Hartley Coleridge." Sara was born in.
1903 n died in 1852, in the 49th
year Of her age. A work by her, OF
which I know nothing special. is
"h~antasmion." She and her brother
Derwent lived at Keswick. Hartley
lived all of his life probably near
Bristol.
The Coleridges were a family of
marked endowments and distinction.
There we're several who wen distinc-
ton. The Lord Chief Justice Of the
name. who died some fifteen years
since, was considered the most e1o-
quent advocate at the English bar for
the sixty years or more preceding, and
was a superior lawyer besides. and