[37] "He never could write a thing that was immediately required of him," says Mr. S., in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, of May, 1838. "The thought of compulsion disarmed him. I could name other able literary men in this unfortunate plight." One of the many grounds of argument against the sole _profession_ of literature.--S. C. [38] [Sir Archibald Alison, after having eulogized Sir Walter Scott, Byron, Campbell, Southey, and Moore, and indicated their relationship to the French Revolution, says: "But the genius of these men, great and immortal as it was, did not arrive at the bottom of things. They shared in the animation of passing events, and were roused by the storm which shook the world; but they did not reach the secret caves whence the whirlwind issued, nor perceive what spirit had let loose the tempest upon the earth. In the bosom of retirement, in the recesses of solitary thought, the awful source was discovered, and the Aeolus stood forth revealed in the original Antagonist Power of wickedness. The thought of Coleridge, even during the whirl of passing events, discovered their hidden springs, and poured forth in an obscure style, and to an unheeding age, the great moral truths which were then being proclaimed in characters of fire to mankind."--_History of Europe_, chap. lxiv.] [39] [No. XVII of _Gentleman's Magazine_.] [40] [Letter CCIX is our 151.] [41] [Letter 32.] [42] [Letter 43.] [43] The passage belongs to him as far as "heart's deep fervency." It concluded, when first written, with a reference to the unhappy thraldom of his powers, of which I have been speaking; for at that time, says the writer, in a private communication, "he was not so well regulated in his habits and labours afterwards." The verses are from a _Rhymed Plea for Tolerance_: in two dialogues, by John Kenyon. I wish that I had space to quote the sweet lines that follow, relating to the author's own character and feelings, and his childhood passed "in our Carib isle." They do justice to Mr. Kenyon's humility and cheerfulness, in what they say of himself, but not to his powers. CHAPTER XVIII MRS. COLERIDGE. LAST STAY AT THE LAKE DISTRICT