I wish my pockets were as yellow as George's Phiz! [Footnote 1: It appears that Mr. Burnett had been prevailed upon by smugglers to buy some prime cheap brandy, but which Mr. Coleridge affirmed to be a compound of Hellebore, kitchen grease, and Assafoetida! or something as bad.--[Cottle's note.]] The next letter must belong to the end of May or beginning of June. Cottle's note shows that the second edition of the poems was now published. LETTER 60. TO COTTLE Stowey (June), 1797. My dear Cottle, I deeply regret, that my anxieties and my slothfulness, acting in a combined ratio, prevented me from finishing my "Progress of Liberty, or Visions of the Maid of Orleans", with that Poem at the head of the volume, with the "Ode" in the middle, and the "Religious Musings" at the end. * * * In the "Lines on the Man of Ross", immediately after these lines, He heard the widow's heaven-breathed prayer of praise, He mark'd the shelter'd orphan's tearful gaze. Please to add these two lines. And o'er the portion'd maiden's snowy cheek, Bade bridal love suffuse its blushes meek. And for the line, Beneath this roof, if thy cheer'd moments pass. I should be glad to substitute this, If near this roof thy wine-cheer'd moments pass. "These emendations," Cottle adds, "came too late for admission in the second edition; nor have they appeared in the last edition. They will remain therefore for insertion in any future edition of Mr. Coleridge's Poems." The exact date on which Coleridge and Wordsworth met in the year 1796 has not been ascertained; but Coleridge speaks in the next letter as if he was now well acquainted with Wordsworth. Coleridge had been at Taunton early in June ('Letters, 220). On the 8th of June he wrote to Cottle. LETTER 61. TO COTTLE (8th) June, 1797. My dear Cottle, I am sojourning for a few days at Racedown, Dorset, the mansion of our friend Wordsworth; who presents his kindest respects to you. * * * Wordsworth admires my tragedy, which gives me great hopes. Wordsworth has written a tragedy himself. I speak with heartfelt sincerity, and I think, unblinded judgment, when I tell you that I feel myself a little man by his side, and yet I do not think myself a less man than I formerly thought myself. His drama is absolutely wonderful. You know I do not commonly speak in such abrupt and unmingled phrases, and therefore will the more readily believe me. There are, in the piece, those profound touches of the human heart, which I find three or four times in the 'Robbers' of Schiller, and often in Shakespeare, but in Wordsworth there are no inequalities. * * * God bless you, and eke [1] S. T. COLERIDGE. [2] [Footnote 1: The reader will have observed a peculiarity in most of Mr. Coleridge's conclusions to his letters. He generally says, "God bless you, and, or eke, S. T. C." so as to involve a compound blessing.--[Cottle.]] [Footnote 2: Letter LXXIII is our 61.]