Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/313

 and sold all his copyrights to the Longmans at a valuation, in which the value of the 'Lyrical Ballads' was put down as nil. He thereupon begged the worthless copyright from Longman, and presented it to Wordsworth. Wordsworth explained the failure, he adds, by the severity of the reviews and by the ' Ancient Mariner,' which nobody seemed to understand (, Reminiscences, 259). A third edition of Coleridge's previous volume, however, was contemplated in 1798. Coleridge contributed to the ' Monthly Magazine ' for November 1797 three sonnets ridiculing himself, Lloyd, and Lamb. Some misunderstanding arose with his two friends, attributed by Cottle to this performance, or to Coleridge's proposing to exclude his friends' poems from the projected edition. It was almost certainly due to some silly tattling of Lloyd's (see, Lamb, ii. 16). Lamb was on friendly terms with Coleridge in January 1798. He afterwards wrote a sarcastic letter, in which were included certain ' theses quædam theologicæ,' intimating that Coleridge's high qualities were combined with self-conceit and insincerity. Lloyd left Coleridge's family for Birmingham about the same time. Lamb and Coleridge speedily resumed the old friendship, and Lamb saw the next edition (1803) of Coleridge's poems through the press, his own and Lloyd's being excluded (see a reference to the separation in Lamb's dedication of his works to Coleridge, 1818).

Coleridge, during his stay at Stowey, preached occasionally in the Unitarian chapel at Taunton, p. 94 ; Estlin Letters, p. 39). He thought of becoming a regular minister in the persuasion, although he felt some scruples, and feared that his political notoriety would be against him (Estlin Letters, p. 61). In a letter to Cottle (p. 171) he says that a draft for 100l. has been sent to him by Josiah Wedgwood, 'in order to prevent the necessity of his going into the ministry.' John, Josiah, and Thomas Wedgwood had inherited the fortune of their father, the elder Josiah, who died on 3 Jan. 1795. John had taken Cote House, at Westbury, near Bristol, towards the end of 1797. Here Thomas, a man of great abilities and miserable health, often stayed. He had already passed some time at Clifton, to be under the care of Dr. Beddoes (1760-1808) [q.v.], and had probably made Coleridge's acquaintance through Poole. The brothers were munificent to many poor men of promise, especially Mackintosh and John Leslie of Edinburgh. Coleridge returned the 100l. after some hesitation. He had received an invitation to be minister at Shrewsbury, and he went thither to try the place in January 1798. William Hazlitt (b. 10 April 1778) was then with his father, a Unitarian minister at Wem, near Shrewsbury. He has left a graphic account of Coleridge as he then appeared. Hazlitt describes the extraordinary impression produced by the 'half-inspired speaker,' and his kindly notice of the minister's son, who afterwards spent three weeks with him at Nether Stowey. At Hazlitt's house Coleridge announced that he had received an offer of an annuity of 150l. from Josiah and Thomas Wedgwood, on condition of devoting himself entirely to philosophy and poetry. Coleridge, says Hazlitt, seemed to make up his mind to accept the proposal while 'tying on one of his shoes' (see Christian Reformer, 1834, p. 838, for his letter of resignation). In fact, he certainly hesitated longer (Estlin Letters, pp. 63-73). The acceptance of the annuity led to his separation from the Unitarian body. His later language implies a more rapid divergence of opinion than seems actually to have been the case. His letters to Estlin in 1802 show that up to that date he was still on the whole a Unitarian (ib. p. 86) His philosophical reading had hitherto been chiefly in the English writers, especially Berkeley, Hartley, and Priestley. His early study of Plotinus had been followed by some acquaintance with the mystical writers to whom he acknowledges his obligations in the ' Biog. Lit.' (chap. ix.) His early poems are marked by a kind of platonic pantheism oddly combined with reverence for the materialism of Hartley and Priestley. The Wedgwoods' munificence now enabled him to fulfil a plan already formed for studying the ' Kantian philosophy ' in Germany. He started in company with Wordsworth and Miss Wordsworth, the expenses of Coleridge at least being paid by the Wedgwoods (, p. 99). He left Yarmouth for Hamburg on 16 Sept. 1798, and has given some description of his tour in 'Satyrane's Letters,' published in the 'Friend' and the 'Biographia Literaria' (other letters were printed in the ' Amulet,' and more fully in the ' New Monthly Magazine ' for 1835, pt. iii. 211-26). Coleridge and Wordsworth visited Klopstock at Hamburg. The Wordsworths went to Gozlar, while Coleridge settled with a protestant pastor at Ratzeburg, where he set vigorously to work upon the language. In January 1799 he moved to Gottingen, where he met Carlyon, who has described the period in his 'Early Years and Late Reflections.' Coleridge seems to have been popular with his fellow-students, and to have indulged freely in his ' perennial pastime ' of disquisition. In May 1799 he made a walking tour through the Hartz, and wrote the 'Lines on ascending the Brocken.' He attended the lectures of