[132] It is not to be forgotten that the author of Robinson Crusoe was also an Englishman. His other works, such as the Life of Colonel Jack, &c., are of the same cast, and leave an impression on the mind more like that of things than words.
[133] This character was written in a fit of extravagant candour, at a time when I thought I could do justice, or more than justice, to an enemy, without betraying a cause.
[134] For instance: he produced less effect on the mob that compose the English House of Commons than Chatham or Fox, or even Pitt.
[135] As in the comparison of the British Constitution to the “proud keep of Windsor,” etc., the most splendid passage in his works.
[136] Mr. Coleridge named his eldest son (the writer of some beautiful sonnets) after Hartley, and the second after Berkeley. The third was called Derwent, after the river of that name. Nothing can be more characteristic of his mind than this circumstance. All his ideas indeed are like a river, flowing on for ever, and still murmuring as it flows, discharging its waters and still replenished—
“And so by many winding nooks it strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean!”
[137] The description of the sports in the forest:
“To see the sun to bed and to arise,
Like some hot amourist with glowing eyes,” etc.
[138] Perhaps the finest scene in all these novels, is that where the Dominie meets his pupil, Miss Lucy, the morning after her brother’s arrival.
[139] This essay was written just before Lord Byron’s death.