Coleridge again a week later concerning the present poem,
Lamb said:--

"I am aware of the unpoetical caste of the 6 last lines of my last
sonnet, and think myself unwarranted in smuggling so tame a thing into
the book; only the sentiments of those 6 lines are thoroughly congenial
to me in my state of mind, and I wish to accumulate perpetuating tokens
of my affection to poor Mary."

It has to be borne in mind that only three months had elapsed since the
death of Mrs. Lamb, and Mary was still in confinement.

Page 18. _To a Young Lady_. Signed C.L.

_Monthly Magazine_, March, 1797, afterwards copied into the _Poetical
Register_ for 1803, signed C.L. in both cases. We know these to be
Lamb's from a letter to Coleridge of December 5, 1796. The identity of
the young lady is not now known.

* * * * *

Page 19. _Living without God in the World._

The _Annual Anthology,_ Vol. I., 1799.

Vol. I. of the _Annual Anthology_, edited by Southey for Joseph Cottle,
was issued in September, 1799; and that was, I believe, this poem's
first appearance as a whole. Early in 1799, however, Charles Lloyd had
issued a pamphlet entitled _Lines suggested by the Fast appointed on
Wednesday, February 27, 1799_ (Birmingham, 1799), in which, in a note,
he quotes a passage from Lamb's poem, beginning, "some braver spirits"
(line 23), and ending, "prey on carcasses" (line 36), with the prefatory
remark: "I am happy in the opportunity afforded me of introducing the
following striking extract from some lines, intended as a satire on the
Godwinian jargon."

Writing to Southey concerning this poem, Lamb says:-"I can have no
objection to you printing 'Mystery of God' [afterwards called 'Living
without God in the World'] with my name, and all due acknowledgments for
the honour and favour of the communication: indeed, 'tis a poem that can
dishonour no name. Now, that is in the true strain of modern modesto
vanitas."

* * * * *

Page 21. _BLANK VERSE_, BY CHARLES LLOYD AND CHARLES LAMB, 1798.

Charles Lloyd left Coleridge early in 1797, and was in the winter
1797-1798 living in London, sharing lodgings with James White (Lamb's
friend and the author of _Original Letters, etc., of Sir John Falstaff_,
1796). It was then that the joint production of this volume was entered
upon. Of the seven poems contributed by Lamb only "The Old Familiar
Faces" (shorn of one stanza) and the