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 50 COLERIDGE accoutrements. After four months' service, a Latin sentence which he had inscribed on the stable wall under his saddle revealed his scholar- ship, and the captain of his troop, having suc- ceeded in learning his real history, restored him to his friends. He now became associated at Bristol with two other poetical enthusiasts, Southey, a student from Oxford, and Lovell, a young Quaker. Southey, like Coleridge, was an ardent republican and Unitarian, and for his faith had just forfeited the honors of Oxford. These three conceived a splendid scheme of emigration. They determined to found amid the wilds of the Susquehanna a commonwealth which was to be free from the evils and tur- moils which then agitated the world, in which a community of goods was to be enjoyed, and from which selfishness was to be proscribed. But this scheme of pantisocracy, as it, was termed, failed from want of money and from other practical difficulties ; and the three pan- tisocratists, having married in 1795 three sis- ters, the Misses Fricker of Bristol, began to turn their attention to the reformation of England. Coleridge had already collected a small volume of his juvenile poems, for which he had receiv- ed 30* guineas from a benevolent and appre- ciative publisher, Mr. Joseph Cottle; and he now entered upon an undertaking from which he expected great results, namely, the estab- lishment of a periodical in prose and verse to be entitled "The Watchman," and to advocate liberal opinions. He himself canvassed the northern manufacturing towns for subscribers, preaching wherever he stayed on Sunday in Unitarian chapels, and returned with a sub- scription list full of promise. Yet the periodi- cal, owing partly to a want of punctuality in its issue, partly to its learned philosophical con- tents, and partly to the fact that its opinions were not those which its supporters had ex- pected, was dropped at the 10th number with a loss. In 1796 Coleridge took a cottage at Nether Stowey, in Somersetshire, where his means were increased by receiving into his fam- ily a Cambridge friend and poet, Charles Lloyd, the son of a wealthy banker, who, merely from love and admiration, had proposed living with him. He published in 1796, in connection with Charles Lamb, a small volume of poems, the greater number of his own contributions to which had been written at earlier periods ; and to a second edition in the next year verses were added by Lloyd. Wordsworth having moved to Allfoxden, about two miles from Stowey, the kindred feelings of the two poets united them in the closest friendship. They rambled together over the Somerset hills, dis- cussing the principles of poetry and planning their famons lyrical ballads. It was in this happiest period of Coleridge's life that he wrote his most beautiful poetry, the first part of " Christabel," the " Ancient Mariner," and the " Ode to the Departing Year ;" and a mutual ition of the poets to write a play produced his tragedy of "Remorse." He received in 1798 an invitation to become a Unitarian min- ister in Shrewsbury, and preached his proba- tion sermon there, the great impression pro- duced by which has been recorded by Haz- litt, who was one of his audience ; but he did not preach again. The munificence of Josiah Wedgwood enabled him to visit Germany, and immediately after the publication of the " Lyrical Ballads " he and Wordsworth set out upon the journey together. He attended the lectures of Blumenbach and Eichhorn at Got- tingen, formed an acquaintance with Tieck, and obtained a familiarity with German litera- ture and philosophy. At no other period of his life did he work so industriously as du- ring his residence in Germany; and on his return in 1800 he brought back, in addition to his mental acquisitions, a large collection of materials for a life of Lessing. He passed six months in London engaged in translating Schil- ler's " Wallenstein," and in writing for the " Morning Post ;" after which he joined South- ey, who had settled at Keswick, amid the lakes and mountains of the north of England, in the neighborhood of Wordsworth, who resided at Grasmere. His opinions had now changed; the republican had become a royalist, and the Unitarian a devoted champion of the estab- lished church. In 1804 he went to Malta, hoping to improve his health, and acted as secretary to Sir Alexander Ball, the governor. He returned in 1806 by the way of Sicily and Italy, his health not improved ; nor was im- provement to be expected, since he went to Malta an opium eater, and returned with the habit growing upon him. His nominal resi- dence from this time till 1810 was at Keswick, but his absences were frequent, and his re- turns, according to Southey, more incalculable than those of a comet. He was often with Wordsworth at Grasmere, was occasionally in London lecturing, and during the year 1809 was engaged in writing "The Friend," his second periodical, which extended to 27 num- bers. In 1810 he left the lakes for London, and resided for a time with Mr. Basil Montagu. He then made his home for three or four years with Mr. Morgan at Hammersmith, and in 1816 placed himself under the care of Mr. Gillman, a surgeon at Highgate, in the hope that he might be broken of his fatal propensity to opium. In Mr. Gillman he found the kindest of friends, and lived in his house during the last 18 years of his life. It was here that he published the wild and wondrous tale of " Christabel," which had been written long before his second tragedy, entitled "Zapoyla," and several prose works, the principal of which were his "Statesman's Manual," two "Lay Sermons," "Biographia Literaria," and "Aids to Reflection." Here, too, he was visited by numerous friends and admirers, who came to listen to his marvellous conversation. The published volumes of his " Table Talk " can give but a faint idea of those extraordinary monologues which attracted many thoughtful