and so
sorely afflicting his friends. Wordsworth dealt with him like a father,
recognizing the weakness of his character, and perhaps being able to
trace it to inherited tendencies,--the elder Coleridge's devotion to
opium being well known. Poor Hartley lies with Wordsworth's own family
in the little churchyard at Grasmere, and we trust in that quiet retreat
sleeps well, at the foot of his friend and master.

Wordsworth's last years were of great solemnity and calm. He lived in
retrospection, and dwelt much upon the unseen world. The deep
spirituality of his nature was shown in all his later life. He was
absorbed, as it were, in thoughts of God, and of the ultimate destiny of
man. All worldly interests died out, and he was able to write even of
his fame:--

"It is indeed a deep satisfaction to hope and believe that my
poetry will be, while it lasts, a help to the cause of virtue and
truth, especially among the young. As for myself, it seems now of
little moment how long I may be remembered. When a man pushes off
in his little boat into the great seas of Infinity and Eternity, it
surely signifies little how long he is kept in sight by watchers
from the shore."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THOMAS DE QUINCEY.

The Florentines used to point Dante out to strangers in these words:
"There goes the man who has been in hell." With much truth could these
words have been spoken of Thomas De Quincey, at any time after he began
to suffer from his excess in opium eating, which was while he was still
a young man,--and especially would these words have been true of him,
after he began his struggles to free himself from the thraldom of that
most seductive vice. James Payn thus describes his appearance:--

"Picture to yourself a very diminutive man, carelessly--very
carelessly--dressed; a face lined, care-worn, and so expressionless
that it reminded one of 'that dull, changeless brow, where cold
Obstruction's apathy appalls the gazing mourner's heart,'--a face
like death in life. The instant he began to speak, however, it lit
up as though by electric light; this came from his marvellous eyes,
brighter and more intelligent (though by fits) than I have ever
seen in any other mortal."

Another writes:--

"Conceive a little, pale-faced, woe-begone, and attenuated man,
with short indescribables, no coat, check shirt, and a neck-cloth