The abatement is painfully just; but while Coleridge lived, this very indolence and moral imbecility added to the interest he excited, and gave a mystic splendor as of a divine inspiration to his mental performances. The distinction between unhealthiness and inspiration has never been clearly marked, and the voluble utterances of the feebly outlined and loosely jointed soul easily passed for oracles. Thus his moral deficiencies aided his influence. His wonderful powers of conversation or rather of effusion in the midst of admiring friends helped the illusion and the fascination. He really seemed inspired while he talked; and as his talk ranged through every domain, the listeners carried away and communicated the impression of a superhuman wisdom. The impression that Coleridge made on minds of a very different order from Carlyle's, is given in the following lines by Aubrey de Vere: "No loftier, purer soul than his hath ever With awe revolved the planetary page From infancy to age, Of knowledge, sedulous and proud to give her The whole of his great heart, for her own sake; For what she is: not what she does, or what can make. And mighty voices from afar came to him; Converse of trumpets held by cloudy forms And speech of choral storms. Spirits of night and noontide bent to woo him; He stood the while lonely and desolate As Adam when he ruled a world, yet found no mate. His loftiest thoughts were but as palms uplifted; Aspiring, yet in supplicating guise-- His sweetest songs were sighs. Adown Lethean streams his spirit drifted, Under Elysian shades from poppied bank, With amaranths massed in dark luxuriance dank. Coleridge, farewell! That great and grave transition Which may not king or priest or conqueror spare. And yet a babe can bear, Has come to thee. Through life a goodly vision Was thine; and time it was thy rest to take. Soft be the sound ordained thy sleep to break; When thou art waking, wake me, for thy Master's sake."