It must also be stated that Coleridge did not neglect his wife in the pecuniary sense. He allowed Mrs. Coleridge to enjoy the whole of the Wedgwood Pension (less £20 a year which he granted to her mother, Mrs. Fricker).[45] In his brief bursts of prosperity he also remitted her supplementary sums, £110 was sent from Malta, and £100 more promised. When _Remorse_ was a success he sent her £100, on 20th January 1813 (_Letters_, 603), and another £100 was promised in a month. Coleridge also effected an insurance on his life for £1,000, with profits, before going to Malta, the premium for which was £27 5_s._ 6_d._ per annum. This was paid to the end of his life, sometimes, no doubt, by the help of friends; and the policy realized £2,560. The charge, therefore, that Coleridge neglected or deserted his wife and family is without foundation. Stuart, in an article otherwise by no means favourable to Coleridge, acquits him on this charge. He says Coleridge "never deserted them in the sense which the words imply. On the contrary, he always spoke of them to me with esteem, affection, and anxiety. He allowed to them the greatest part of his income, but that was sometimes insufficient for their comfortable subsistence, and he himself was usually more distressed for money than they;" (_Gentleman's Magazine_, 1838). We may add that Coleridge was a man of a vestal purity; and, in spite of his own experience, never said anything in disparagement of the marriage bond. Coleridge paid his last visit to the Lake District in the spring of 1812, 23rd February to 26th March (_Letters_, 575). He quitted his wife on cordial enough terms, and wrote an agreeable letter to her from London (_Letters_, 579), of date 21st April. But he never returned to Keswick. That mysterious gulf which he has described so wonderfully and weirdly in _Christabel_ which separates sundered hearts, widened with the years; and They stood aloof, the scars remaining!] FOOTNOTES: [44] [See also _Eolian Harp_, and _Lines written on having left a place of Retirement_.] [45] [After 1812 the pension was reduced by half.] CHAPTER XIX REMORSE AT DRURY LANE[46] By what I _have_ effected, am I to be judged by my fellow-men; what I _could_ have done is a question for my own conscience.--S. T. C. As the _Biographia Literaria_ does not mention all Mr. Coleridge's writings, it will be proper to give some account of them here. The Poetical Works in three volumes include the _Juvenile Poems_, _Sibylline Leaves_, _Ancient Mariner_, _Christabel_, _Remorse_, _Zapolya_, and _Wallenstein_.