"found themselves in "The Siege of Corinth,' "I hardly know how; but I adopted another 66 passage, of greater beauty, as a motto to a "little work I need not name*, and paraphrased "without scruple the same idea in Childe "Harold. I thought it good because I felt it 66 66 deeply the best test of poetry. His psycho 'logical poem was always a great favourite of "mine, and but for me would not have appeared. "What perfect harmony of versification!" And he began spouting Kubla Khan:' It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she play'd, "Madame de Staël was fond of reciting poetry "that had hardly any thing but its music to "recommend it." * The stanzas beginning" Fare thee well !** "And pray," asked I, "what has Kubla Khan?"" "I can't tell you," said he; " but it delights "me." And he went on till he had finished the Vision. 1 "I was very much amused with Coleridge's "Memoirs.' There is a great deal of bon"hommie in that book, and he does not spare "himself. Nothing, to me at least, is so enter 66 66 66 1 taining as a work of this kind—as private 6 biography: Hamilton's Memoirs,' for instance, that were the origin of the style of "Voltaire. Madame de Staël used to stay, that "De Grammont' was a book containing, with "less matter, more interest than any she knew. "Alfieri's Life' is delightful. You will see my "Confessions in good time, and you will won"der at two things-that I should have had so "much to confess, and that I should have confessed so much. Coleridge, too, seems sensible 66 enough of his own errors. His sonnet to the "Moon is an admirable burlesque on the 66 Lakists, and his own style. Some of his "stories are told with a vast deal of humour, " and display a fund of good temper that all his 66 66 disappointments could not sour. Many parts "of his Memoirs' are quite unintelligible, and "were, I apprehend, meant for Kant; on the proper pronunciation of whose name I heard "a long argument the other evening. "Coleridge is like Sosia in Amphytrion ;' " he does not know whether he is himself or "not. If he had never gone to Germany, nor "spoilt his fine genius by the transcendental 66 philosophy and German metaphysics, nor "taken to write lay sermons, he would have "made the greatest poet of the day. What poets had we in 1795? Hayley had got a Coleridge might 66 monopoly, such as it was. "have been any thing: as it is, he is a thing "that dreams are made of."" 66 Being one day at Moloni's the bookseller's at Pisa, a report was in circulation that a subject belonging to the Lucchese States had been taken up for sacrilege, and sentenced to be burnt alive. A priest who entered the library at that moment confirmed the news, and expressed himself thus:-" Scelerato!" said he," he took the consecrated wafers off the altar, and threw them contemptuously about the church! What punishment can be great enough for such a monstrous crime? Burning is too easy, a death! I shall go to Lucca,-I would almost go to Spain,-to see the wretch expire at the stake!" Such were the humane and Christian sentiments of a minister of the Gospel! I quitted him with disgust, and immediately hastened to Lord Byron's. "Is it possible?" said he, after he had heard my story. "Can we believe that we live in the "nineteenth century? However, I can believe 66 any thing of the Duchess of Lucca. She is "an Infanta of Spain, a bigot in religion, and of "course advocates the laws of the Inquisition. "But it is scarcely credible that she will "venture to put them into effect here. We "must endeavour to prevent this auto da fé. "Lord Guilford is arrived:-we will get him "to use his influence. Surely the Grand Duke 664 of Tuscany will interfere, for he has himself "never" signed a death-warrant since he came -upon the throne."" 66 Shelley entered at this moment horror-struck: he had just heard that the criminal was to suffer the next day. He proposed that we should mount and arm ourselves as well as we could, set off immediately for Lucca, and endeavour to rescue the prisoner when brought out for execution, making at full speed for the Tuscan |