Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/53

 COLERIDGE odes, was recognized as a man of superior tal- ent and scholarship, and was associated with Praed, Macaulay, Moultrie, and others of his university, in writing for " Knight's Quarterly Magazine." His papers, which were under the signature of "Joseph Haller," treated chiefly questions of English history, and were distinguished for their soundness of opinion and breadth of view. On account of ill health in 1825 he accompanied his uncle, the bishop of Barbadoes, on a voyage to that island, and on his return published a lively and very suc- cessful narrative of his experiences, under the title of " Six Months in the West Indies." He was called to the bar in 1826, and attained a good practice in the court of chancery, but de- voted his leisure to an assiduous study of litera- ture, and to the society and conversation of his uncle, S. T. Coleridge, whose daughter he married. In 1830 he published an " Introduc- tion to the Study of the Greek Classic Poets." A more important task devolved upon him as literary executor of his uncle, and under his care the volumes of the " Table Talk," " Liter- ary Remains," and " Confessions of an Inquir- ing Spirit " were given to the public. He en- dured a painful illness during the latter years of his life, and was often prostrated for months, but suffered with a cheerful mind. COLERIDGE, Sir John Duke, an English law- yer, son of Sir John Taylor Coleridge, born in 1821. He studied at Eton and at Balliol college, Oxford, and became fellow of Exeter college. He was called to the bar in 1847, was recorder of Portsmouth from 1855 to 1865, and was made queen's counsel in 1861. In 1865 he was returned to parliament for Exeter, in 1868 was made solicitor general, and in 1871 attorney general. In 1873 he became chief justice of the court of common pleas. COLERIDGE, Sir John Taylor, an English judge, nephew of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, born at Tiverton, Devonshire, in 1790. He received his education at Corpus Christi college, Ox- ford, where he distinguished himself by bril- liant scholarship, and in 1819 was called to the ir. For many years he went the western rcuit, and in 1835 he was appointed a justice the king's bench. For 23 years he* occu- )ied this post, retiring in June, 1858, when he Tas appointed a privy councillor. On the oc- rion of his retirement from the bench, in the resence of a full court, the attorney general Idressed him in behalf of his associates at the in an impressive speech, to which Jus- ice Coleridge feelingly replied. His remarks memorable as containing advice to the younger members of the profession directly in conflict with the dogma of Lord Brougham, that the lawyer should know nobody but his client and no interests but his client's interests. He became editor of the " Quarterly Review" upon the retirement of Gifford in 1824 ; but resigned in 1825, on account of his professional engagements, and was succeeded by Lockhart. He published an annotated edition of Black- stone's "Commentaries" (4 vols., 1825), and a " Memoir of the Rev. John Keble " (1869). COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, an English poet and philosopher, born at Ottery St. Mary, Dev- onshire, Oct. 21, 1772, died at Highgate, Lon- don, July 25, 1834. He was the youngest child of a learned and singularly amiable cler- gyman, and became an orphan at the age of nine years. By the kindness of a friend he was presented to Christ's hospital, in London, where he received the principal part of his education, and began a lifelong intimacy with Charles Lamb, who was one of his schoolfellows. His juvenile character prefigured his future career. He was a playless day-dreamer, solitary and uninterested in the ordinary amusements of childhood ; yet he made great advances in clas- sical knowledge, and was early distinguished by rare powers of discourse. Charles Lamb speaks of him as " the inspired charity boy, to whom the casual passer through the cloisters listened entranced with admiration, as he un- folded in deep and sweet intonations the mys- teries of lamblichus or Plotinus, or recited the Greek of Homer or Pindar." Before his 15th year he had read through a London circulating library, catalogues, folios, and all, and had be- wildered himself in metaphysical studies and in meditating on the problems of theology. So great was his pleasure in abstract speculations that he describes himself as having lost all in- terest in particular facts, in history or romance, and even poetry seemed insipid to him. With- out ambition or worldly wisdom, he at one time proposed apprenticing himself to a shoemaker whose shop was near the school. In his 17th year the sonnets of William Lisle Bowles were presented to him, and such was his admiration of them that he used frequently to transcribe them for presents to the friends for whom he had most regard. These simple poems recalled his idealizing mind to a juster estimate and love of realities, and having in 1791 become deputy Grecian, or head scholar, at Christ's hospital, he obtained a presentation thence to Jesus col- lege, Cambridge. He remained in the univer- sity but two years, during which he paid no attention to mathematics, but gained the prize for a Greek ode. At the outbreak of the French revolution he became obnoxious to his superi- ors from his acceptance of the revolutionary principles. With an enthusiastic and hopeful view of human nature, and an impetuous zeal in the cause of freedom, he hailed the early events of that epoch of continental history as the promise of a new era. His feelings at this period form the theme of one of his odes, enti- tled "France," and pronounced by Shelley the finest ode of modern times. Suddenly leaving Cambridge in the midst of his university career, he wandered about for a day or two in London, gave his last penny to a beggar, and enlisted in a regiment of cavalry under the assumed name of Comberback. The poet, however, made but an awkward dragoon, and wrote letters for his comrades while they attended to his horse and