[44] I forget the exact title, not having seen the book since 1823, and then only for one day; but I believe it was Schelling's "Kleine Philosophische Werke."
[45] "Whatever Time, or the heedless hand of blind Chance, hath drawn down from of old to this present in her huge drag-net, whether fish, or seaweed, shells or shrubs, unpicked, unchosen, these are the Fathers." Milton's Tract Of Prelatical Episcopacy, published in 1641.—M.
[46] This might pass as a description of De Quincey himself in his later years, if not all through his life.—M.
[47] At the date of this first meeting of De Quincey with Coleridge, De Quincey was twenty-two years of age and Coleridge nearly thirty-seven.—M.
[48] Seiris ought to have been the title—i.e. Σειρις (Seiris), a chain. From this defect in the orthography, I did not in my boyish days perceive, nor could obtain any light upon, its meaning.
[49] Another sentence of faulty grammar: a rare thing with De Quincey.—M.
[50] Arthur Young's numerous works, published between 1768 and 1812, are mainly on agricultural subjects, in the form of tours and statistics, but include political doctrines and theories.—M.
[51] The service consisted in a gift by De Quincey of £300 conveyed to Coleridge through the Bristol bookseller Cottle. Coleridge's receipt to Cottle for the money is dated 12th November 1807. Coleridge knew nothing more at the time than that the gift came from "a young man of fortune who admired his talents." De Quincey, who had but recently attained his majority, had then plenty of money. He wanted, indeed, to make the gift £500; but Cottle insisted on reducing the sum.—M.
[52] Coleridge was born there 21st October 1772, the youngest of a family of nine brothers and four sisters, three of the sisters by a previous marriage of his father.—M.
[53] A Critical Latin Grammar, published for the author in 1772, and Sententiæ Excerptæ, explaining the Rules of Grammar, printed for the author in 1777. He also published a political sermon. Besides being vicar of Ottery St. Mary, he was master of the grammar school there.—M.