of their grounds and gardens to direction sought
from his well-known taste and feeling. As to works of art, his criticism
was not that of one versed in the history of the schools, but, always
proceeding upon first principles, the 'prima philosophia,' as he called
it; and it was, as it appeared to me, of the highest order.

He was a very great admirer of _Virgil_, not so much as a creative poet,
but as the most consummate master of language, that, perhaps, ever
existed. From him, and Horace, who was an especial favourite, and
Lucretius, he used to quote much.[265]

[265] _Memoirs_, ii. 467-83.

* * * * *

(_g_) ON THE DEATH OF COLERIDGE.

The death of Coleridge was announced to us by his friend Wordsworth. It
was the Sunday evening after the event occurred that my brother and I
walked over to the Mount, where we found the Poet alone. One of the
first things we heard from him was the death of one who had been, he
said, his friend for more than thirty years. He then continued to speak
of him; called him the most _wonderful_ man that he had ever
known--wonderful for the originality of his mind, and the power he
possessed of throwing out in profusion grand central truths from which
might be evolved the most comprehensive systems. Wordsworth, as a poet,
regretted that German metaphysics had so much captivated the taste of
Coleridge, for he was frequently not intelligible on this subject;
whereas, if his energy and his originality had been more exerted in the
channel of poetry, an instrument of which he had so perfect a mastery,
Wordsworth thought he might have done more permanently to enrich the
literature, and to influence the thought of the nation, than any man of
the age. As it was, however, he said he believed Coleridge's mind to
have been a widely fertilising one, and that the seed he had so lavishly
sown in his conversational discourses, and the Sibylline leaves (not the
poems so called by him) which he had scattered abroad so extensively
covered with his annotations, had done much to form the opinions of the
highest-educated men of the day; although this might be an influence not
likely to meet with adequate recognition. After mentioning, in answer to
our inquiries about the circumstances of their friendship, that though a
considerable period had elapsed during which they had not seen much of
each other, Coleridge and he had been, for more than two years,
uninterruptedly, in as