The transcriber adds in a footnote, “The author was at this time, at seventeen, remarkable for a plump face.”
The “Reminiscences of an Octogenarian” (The Rev. Leapidge Smith), contributed to the Leisure Hour, convey a different impression: “In person he was a tall, dark, handsome young man, with long, black, flowing hair; eyes not merely dark, but black, and keenly penetrating; a fine forehead, a deep-toned, harmonious voice; a manner never to be forgotten, full of life, vivacity, and kindness; dignified in person and, added to all these, exhibiting the elements of his future greatness.”—Leisure Hour, 1870, p. 651.
[130] Origine de tous les Cultes, ou Religion universelle.
[131] Thelwall executed his commission. The Iamblichus and the Julian were afterwards presented by Coleridge to his son Derwent. They are still in the possession of the family.
[132] The three letters to Poole, dated December 11, 12, and 13, relative to Coleridge’s residence at Stowey, were published for the first time in Thomas Poole and his Friends. The long letter of expostulation, dated December 13, which is in fact a continuation of that dated December 12, is endorsed by Poole: “An angry letter, but the breach was soon healed.” Either on Coleridge’s account or his own it was among the few papers retained by Poole when, to quote Mrs. Sandford, “in 1836 he placed the greater number of the letters which he had received from S. T. Coleridge at the disposal of his literary executors for biographical purposes.” Thomas Poole and his Friends, i. 182-193. Mrs. Sandford has kindly permitted me to reprint it in extenso.
[133] “Sonnet composed on a journey homeward, the author having received intelligence of the birth of a son. September 20, 1796.”
The opening lines, as quoted in the letter, differ from those published in 1797, and again from a copy of the same sonnet sent in a letter to Poole, dated November 1, 1796. See Poetical Works, p. 66, and Editor’s Note, p. 582.
[134] Coleridge’s Poetical Works, p. 66.
[135] Compare Lamb’s letter to Coleridge, December 5, 1796. “I am glad you love Cowper. I could forgive a man for not enjoying Milton, but I would not call that man my friend who should be offended with the ‘divine chit-chat of Cowper.’” Compare, too, letter of December 10, 1796, in which the origin of the phrase is attributed to Coleridge. Letters of Charles Lamb, i. 52, 54. See, too, Canon Ainger’s note, i. 316.
[136] “Southey misrepresented me. My maxim was and is that the name of God should not be introduced into Love Sonnets.” MS. Note by John Thelwall.