[6] '_Science not always fathomable._' Several distinguished Frenchmen have pursued a course of investigations into these fenestral phenomena, which one might call the _Fata Morgana of Frost_; and, amongst these investigators, some--not content with watching, observing, recording--have experimented on these floral prolusions of nature by arranging beforehand the circumstances and conditions into which and under which the Frost Fairy should be allowed to play. But what was the result? Did they catch the Fairy? Did they chase her into her secret cells and workshops? Did they throw over the freedom of her motions a harness of net-work of coercion as the Pagans over their pitiful Proteus? So far from it, that the more they studied the less they understood; and all the traps which they laid for the Fairy, did but multiply her evasions. [7] The passage occurs at p. 354, vol. ii. of the _Lectures_; and we now find, on looking to the place, that the illustration is drawn from 'a dell of lazy Sicily.' The same remark has virtually been anticipated at p. 181 of the same volume in the rule about 'converting mere abstractions into persons.' [8] It is true that Mr. De Quincey _did_ make the mistake of supposing Coleridge to have 'calculated on' a remark which Mrs. Coleridge justly characterises as a blind one. It _was_ blind as compared with the fact resulting from grounds not then known; else it was _not_ blind as a reasonable inference under the same circumstances. [9] If for the words 'more than fifteen years' we say sixteen or seventeen, as Coleridge died in 1834, this article would be written in 1850 or 1851.--ED. [10] 'The Saintly Herbert,' the brother, oddly enough, of the brilliant but infidel Lord Herbert of Cherbury; which lord was a versatile man of talent, but not a man of genius like the humble rustic--his unpretending brother. [11] In saying this, Coleridge unduly disparaged his own personal advantages. In youth, and before sorrow and the labour of thought had changed him, he must have been of very engaging appearance. The _godlike forehead_, which afterwards was ascribed to him, could not have been wanting at any age. That exquisite passage in Wordsworth's description of him, 'And a pale face, that seem'd undoubtedly As if a blooming face it ought to be,'