llies, the bit is taken out of his mouth, and, as he is
turned out upon the common, he is very apt to deem himself exempt from
all the rules incumbent on those who keep the king's highway. And so
they play fantastic tricks before high heaven.

The lady authors are not exempt from these vagaries, being exposed to
the same temptations; and all I can allow Mrs. Baillie in favour of the
fair sex is that since the time of the Aphras and Orindas of Charles
II's time, the authoresses have been ridiculous only, while the authors
have too often been both absurd and vicious. As to our leal friend Tom
Campbell, I have heard stories of his morbid sensibility chiefly from
the Minto family, with whom he lived for some time, and I think they all
turned on little foolish points of capricious affectation, which perhaps
had no better foundation than an ill-imagined mode of exhibiting his
independence. But whatever I saw of him myself--and we were often
together, and sometimes for several days--was quite composed and manly.
Indeed, I never worried him to make him get on his hind legs and spout
poetry when he did not like it. He deserves independence well; and if
the dog which now awakens him to the recollection of his possessing it,
happened formerly to disturb the short sleep that drowned his
recollection of so great a blessing, there is good reason for enduring
the disturbance with more patience than before.

But surely, admitting all our temptations and irregularities there are
men of genius enough living to restrain the mere possession of talent
from the charge of disqualifying the owner for the ordinary occupation
and duties of life. There never were better men, and especially better
husbands, fathers, and real patriots, than Southey and Wordsworth; they
might even be pitched upon as most exemplary characters. I myself, if I
may rank myself in the list, am, as Hamlet says, indifferent honest, and
at least not worse than an infidel in loving those of my own house. And
I think that generally speaking, authors, like actors, being rather
less commonly believed to be eccentric than was the faith fifty years
since, do conduct themselves as amenable to the ordinary rules of
society.

This tirade was begun a long time since, but is destined to be finished
at Abbotsford. Your bower is all planted with its evergreens, but must
for seven years retain its original aspect of a gravel pit.

(Rest lost.)

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-18