collapse, in fact, was simply the cause of all the lamentable external
results which followed it, while itself due only to predetermined
internal conditions over which the sufferer had no control--then to be
sure _cadit qu'stio_. At London or at the Lakes, among newspaper
files or old folios, Coleridge's life would in that case have run the
same sad course; and his rejection of Mr. Stuart's offer becomes a
matter of no particular interest to disappointed posterity. But be that
as it may, the "old folios" won the day. In the summer of 1800 Coleridge
quitted London, and having wound up his affairs at his then place of
residence, removed with his wife and children to a new and beautiful
home in that English Lake country with which his name was destined,
like those of Southey and Wordsworth, to be enduringly associated.


FOOTNOTES

1. De Quincey's error, in supposing that Coleridge's visit to Germany
to "complete his education" was made at an earlier date than this
journey with the Wordsworths, is a somewhat singular mistake for one so
well acquainted with the facts of Coleridge's life. Had we not his own
statement that this of 1798 was the first occasion of his quitting his
native country, it so happens that we can account in England for nearly
every month of his time from his leaving Cambridge until this date.


2. It has only within a comparatively recent period been ascertained
that the visit of the Wordsworths to Germany was itself another result
of Thomas Wedgwood's generous appreciation of literary merit. It
appears, on the incontrovertible testimony of the Wedgwoods' accounts
with their agents at Hamburg, that the expenses of all three travellers