Distresses and Discontents. In the same year he published his Biographia Literaria; or, Biographical Sketches of my Literary Life and Opinions. And a volume of poems under the title of Sibylline Leaves. In 1818 the drama of Zapolya. In 1825, Aids to Reflection, in the Formation of a manly Character, on the several Grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion; illustrated by select Passages from our elder Divines, especially from Archbishop Leighton. This work is an invaluable manuel to those who wish to form a truly manly character. It reached a second edition in 1830; and a third is announced for immediate publication. It also has been lately reprinted in America. And to close the list of Coleridge's works, in 1830, a small volume, On the Constitution of the Church and State, according to the Idea of each, with Aids toward a right Judgment on the late Catholic Bill.

Besides these, he has left several works ready for the press. In a letter to a friend, in the beginning of 1821, he thus speaks of what he then had ready, "I have already the written materials and contents, requiring only to be put together, from the loose papers and commonplace or memorandum books, and needing no other change, whether of omission, addition, or correction, than the mere act of arranging, and the opportunity of seeing the whole collectively bring with them of course1. Characteristics of Shakspeare's Dramatic Works, with a Critical Review of each Play; together with a relative and comparative Critique of the Kind and Degree of the Merits and Demerit of the Dramatic Works of Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Massinger. The History of the English Drama; the accidental Advantage it afforded to Shakspeare, without in the least detracting from the perfect Originality or proper Creation of the

Shakspearian Drama; the Contradiction of the latter from the Greek Drama, and its still remaining Uniqueness, with the Causes of this, from the combined Influences of Shakspeare himself, as Man, Poet, Philosopher; and finally, by conjunction of all these dramatic poets; and of the Age, Events, Manners, and State of the English Language.' This work, with every art of compression, amounts to three volumes of about five hundred pages each. 2. Philosophical Analysis of the Genius and Works of Dante, Spencer, Milton, Cervantes, and Calderon, with similar, but more compressed Criticisms on Chaucer, Ariosto, Donne, Rabelais, and others, during the Predominance of the Romantic Poetry. In one large volume. These two works will, I flatter myself, form a complete code of the principles of judgment and feeling applied to works of taste, and not of poetry only, but of poesy in all its forms, painting, statuary, music, &c. &c. 3. The History of Philosophy, considered as a Tendency of the Human Mind, to exhibit the Powers of the Human Reason, to discover by its own Strength the Origin and Laws of Man and the World, from Pythagoras to Locke and Condillac.' Two volumes. 4. 'Letters on the Old and New Testament, and on the Doctrine and Principles held in common by the Fathers and Founders of the Reformation, addressed to a Candidate for Holy Orders; including Advice on the Plan and Subjects of Preaching, proper to a Minister of the Established Church.'

"In the completion of these four works, I have literally nothing more to do than to transcribe; but, as I before hinted, from so many scraps and Sibylline leaves, including margins of books and blank pages, that, unfortunately, I must be my own scribe, and not done by myself, they will be all but lost, or perhaps, (as has been too often the case already) furnish feathers for the caps of

others; some for this purpose, and some to plume the arrows of detraction, to be let fly against the luckless bird from whom they had been plucked or moulted.

"In addition to these-of my GREAT WORK, to the preparation of which more than twenty years of my life have been devoted, and on which my hopes of extensive and permanent utility, of fame, in the noblest sense of the word, mainly rest; that, by which I might—

'As now by thee, by all the good be known,

When this weak frame lies moulder'd in the grave;
Which self-surviving I might call my own,

Which Folly cannot mar, nor Hate deprave.

The incense of those powers, which, risen in flame,
Might make me dear to Him from whom they came.'

Of this work, to which all my other writings (unless I except my poems, and these I can except in part only) are introductory and preparative; and the result of which (if the premises be, as I, with the most tranquil assurance, am convinced they are-insubvertible, the deduction legitimate, and the conclusions commensurate, and only commensurate with both) must finally be a revolution in all that has been called philosophy or metaphysics in England and France, since the era of the commencing predominance of the mechanical system, at the restoration of our second Charles; and with this the present fashionable views, not only of religion, morals, and politics, but even of the modern physics and physiology, you will not blame the earnestness of my expressions, nor the high importance which I attach to this work; for how, with less noble objects, and less faith in their attainment, could I stand acquitted of folly and abuse of time, talents, and learning, in a labour of three fourths of my intellectual life. Of this work, something more than a volume has been dictated by me, so as to exist fit for the press,

e

to my friend and enlightened pupil, Mr. Green; and more than as much again would have been evolved and delivered to paper, but that, for the last six or eight months, I have been compelled to break off our weekly meeting, from the necessity of writing (alas! alas! of attempting to write) for purposes, and on the subjects of the passing day."

As Coleridge lived thirteen years after this time, most likely he finished this Magnum Opus, and completed his other works. However, the world will not be long without the benefit of what he may have left, as his Literary Remains are advertised for publication, edited by his son-in-law, Mr. H. N. Coleridge.

For the last nineteen years of his life he lived in peace and loving-kindness with his excellent friends Mr. and Mrs. Gillman, of Highgate-grove. Occasionally lecturing at various public institutions; now and then writing a poem; delighting and instructing all who came within his sphere, by his extraordinary conversational powers; but principally labouring for posterity, in the completion of his System of Philosophy, and other works, already mentioned.

For many years before his death he was afflicted with great bodily weakness and pain, yet he was not considered near death till a few days before the melancholy event. For some days he knew that his hour was come. His sufferings were extreme and constant, but they had not power to disturb the tranquillity of his mind, or ruffle the sweetness of his temper. This great poet and philosopher

* See those delightful volumes, recently published, entitled, Letters, Conversations, and Recollections, of S. T. Coleridge, vol. 1. pp. 151-156. We cannot too strongly recommend them to the attentive perusal of all who wish to become acquainted with the inmost soul of Coleridge.

breathed his last at half-past six o'clock, in the morning of Friday, the 25th of July, 1834. In love and peace with all mankind.

Shortly before his death, he wrote for himself the following beautiful and unaffected epitaph.

Stop, Christian passer-by! Stop, child of God,
And read, with gentle breast. Beneath this sod
A poet lies, or that which once seemed he
O, lift a prayer in thought for S. T. C.!
That he who many a year with toil of breath
Found death in life, may here find life in death!

Mercy for praise— -to be forgiven, for fame

He asked, and hoped through Christ. Do thou the same."

On the 2nd of August he was buried at Highgate New Church. His funeral was strictly private, being attended only by his family and a few of his most intimate friends. A handsome marble tablet has been erected by his friends Mr. and Mrs. Gillman, in the New Church at Highgate. It bears the following inscription :

Sacred to the Memory of

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE,

Poet, Philosopher, Theologian.

This truly great and good man resided for
The last nineteen years of his life

In this Hamlet.

He quitted "the body of this death,"
July 25th, 1834,

In the sixty-second year of his age.
Of his profound learning and discursive genius,
His literary works are an imperishable record.
To his private worth,

His social and Christian virtues,

James and Ann Gillman,

The friends with whom he resided,
During the above period, dedicate this tablet.

Under the pressure of a long

And most painful disease,

His disposition was unalterably sweet and angelic.