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On our return to Göttingen, we found Coleridge there, and himself again. That he had not neglected, in his walk by himself, to and from Cassel, to take advantage of any opportunity that might occur, of gathering materials for reflection, is evident from the foregoing anecdote extracted from "The Friend ;" and he spun, I have no doubt, many a subtle thread of learned disquisition, in the course of his soliloquies on the road-if indeed those communings with himself ought to be called soliloquies-which I can imagine to have been carried on very much in the manner of conversations, between himself and the man I have so often seen him look at with admiration, when standing opposite to a mirror.

Monday, the 24th of June, having been fixed for his final departure from Göttingen, I had the pleasure of spending a most entertaining take-leave evening with him at Professor Blumenbach's. Our party, at supper, consisted, in addition to the professor's own family, of young Blumenbach's fellow tourists only; and the conversation, which was chiefly in German, was particularly sprightly and amusing on the part of the professor and Coleridge, who even then, after nine months' residence in Germany, thought it no undue precaution to carry with him a pocket dictionary, to which he hesitated not to apply, if he happened to be at a loss for a word; but this was seldom the case; and there was something inexpress

ibly comic in the manner in which he dashed on, with fluent diction, but with the very worst German accent imaginable, through the thick and thin of his subject. Mrs. and Miss Blumenbach, the ladies of the party, were as much astonished as they were highly delighted with him; and I do not think that their enjoyment was once interrupted, by any allusion whatever to Miss Matilda Pottingen; for it was well understood by us, that "Sweet Matilda," false or true, and all the rest about the "U-niversity of Gottingen," was far from being a favourite topic of conversation with the Göttingen ladies.

I am not sure whether it was upon this occasion, or some other, that Coleridge was much amused by a young lady's expressing her surprise that he, not being a German, could possibly understand Kant's philosophical writings, which were not even intelligible to her! And here (after having above alluded to a lady whose name cannot be so familiar at the present day as it once was) it may not be amiss to mention, before I proceed with Coleridge on his road to England, that full thirty-eight years have elapsed since Miss Matilda Pottingen first attracted great attention by making her debut before a British public in the "Anti-Jacobin" or 66 Weekly Examiner," the most successful periodical, perhaps, ever published. It proved, in fact, such a powerful engine on the side of loyalty and religion, that a brilliant run of eight

months sufficed so effectually to cripple the monster to which it was opposed, that it was constrained to hide its diminished head by withdrawing from the shores of Great Britain, with its pedlary of lies, blasphemies, and treason, into its original fastnesses of Gallic demonism. But jacobinism had long before spread from France into Germany, and was there hard at work in undermining the foundations of religion and all established governments. Of course, the stage was not lost sight of by it; and so insidious were its operations, that the very operatives themselves, enfeebled by the poison of this upas tree, seem scarcely to have been aware of the seductive tendency of their own writings.

I do not say this unadvisedly; for, during my residence in Germany, I saw abundant cause to suppose that there existed an almost judicial torpor in the minds of men upon the subject of revealed religion, under the influence of which the human will seemed in a manner to succumb, and to become a passive rather than an active faculty. In due time, England was in danger of being inundated with imitations and translations of the works of German poets, novelists, and play-wrights; and although it be but fair to admit that much information and amusement, unalloyed with mischief, came from the same quarter, yet the tendency to debase the tone of English morality was upon the whole considerable,

and served essentially to promote the scheme of subjugation, which the ambitious Corsican was about to prepare for us in common with the rest of Europe. We are accordingly presented in the "Anti-Jacobin" of June 4th, 1798, with the first act of a supposed German play, entitled "The Rovers," or, "The Double Arrangement," as an average specimen of the German theatre as then constituted.

The opening scene is laid at an inn in the town of Weimar, where there arrive in succession, Matilda, the mistress of Casimere, by whom she has several children-Cecilia, Casimere's wife-and soon after, unexpectedly as it would seem, Casimere himself. The ladies, who are unknown to each other, are allowed an opportunity, previously to his arrival, of unbosoming their griefs mutually in a fine strain of German sentimentality.

CECILIA." The way was dusty, Madam, but the weather was delightful. It recalled to me those blissful moments when the rays of desire first vibrated through my soul."

MATILDA.

"Thank heaven!

I have at last found a heart which is in unison with my own! yes, I understand you, the first pulsation of sentiment, the silver tones upon the yet unsounded harp

CECILIA." The dawn of life-when this blossom (putting her hand upon her heart) first expanded its petals to the penetrating dart of love!

MATILDA." Yes - the time-the golden time,

when the first beams of the morning meet and embrace one another! The blooming blue upon the yet unplucked plum!......

CECILIA." Your countenance grows animated, my dear Madam.

MATILDA." And yours too is glowing with illu

mination.

CECILIA. "I had long been looking out for a congenial spirit! my heart was withered; but the beams of yours have re-kindled it.

MATILDA." A sudden thought strikes me. Let us swear an eternal friendship.

CECILIA." Let us agree to live together! MATILDA. "Willingly (with rapidity and earnestness).

CECILIA." Let us embrace. (They embrace.) MATILDA.—“Yes; I too have loved! You too, like me, have been forsaken (doubtingly, and as if with a desire to be informed).

CECILIA. "Too true!

BOTH.-"Ah, these men!

MATILDA. "Oh Casimere !

These men!

CECILIA. (Aside.) "Casimere ! That name! Oh my heart, how it is distracted with anxiety! MATILDA." Heavens! Madam, you turn pale. CECILIA."Nothing-a slight megrim-with your

leave, I will retire.

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