[Illustration: Portrait.]

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REMINISCENCES OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE AND ROBERT SOUTHEY


by JOSEPH COTTLE

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INTRODUCTION.


It is with a solemnized feeling that I enter on these Reminiscences.
Except one, I have survived all the associates of my earlier days. The
young, with a long life in perspective, (if any life can be called long,
in so brief an existence) are unable to realize the impressions of a man,
nearer eighty than seventy, when the shadows of evening are gathering
around, and, in a retrospective glance, the whole field of past vision
appears, in all its complexities, like the indistinct tumults of a dream.
The acute reasoner--the fiery politician--the eager polemic--the emulous
aspirant after fame; and many such have I known, where are they? and how
mournful, if any one of them should be found, at last, to have directed
his solicitudes, alone, to material objects;--should have neglected to
cultivate his own little plot of earth, more valuable than mines! and
have sown no seeds for eternity. It is not a light motive which could
have prompted me, when this world of "Eye and Ear" is fast receding,
while grander scenes are opening, and so near! to call up almost
long-forgotten associations, and to dwell on the stirring, by-gone