at all costs to bully Ireland. Coleridge,
indeed, went so far as to wish to cut the last link with Ireland as the
only means of saving England. Discussing the Irish question, he said:

I am quite sure that no dangers are to be feared by England from
the disannexing and independence of Ireland at all comparable with
the evils which have been, and will yet be, caused to England by
the Union. We have never received one particle of advantage from
our association with Ireland.... Mr. Pitt has received great credit
for effecting the Union; but I believe it will sooner or later be
discovered that the manner in which, and the terms upon which, he
effected it made it the most fatal blow that ever was levelled
against the peace and prosperity of England. From it came the
Catholic Bill. From the Catholic Bill has come this Reform Bill!
And what next?

When one thinks of the injury that the subjection of Ireland has done the
English name in America, in Russia, in Australia, and elsewhere in quite
recent times, one can hardly deny that on this matter Coleridge was a
sound prophet.

It is the literary rather than the political opinions, however, that will
bring every generation of readers afresh to Coleridge's _Table Talk_. No
man ever talked better in a few sentences on Shakespeare, Sterne, and the
tribe of authors. One may not agree with Coleridge in regarding Jeremy
Taylor as one of the four chief glories of English literature, or in
thinking Southey's style "next door to faultless." But one listens to his
_obiter dicta_ eagerly as the sayings of one of the greatest minds that
have interested themselves in the criticism of literature. There are
tedious pages in _Table Talk_, but these are, for the most part, concerned
with theology. On the whole, the speech of Coleridge was golden. Even the
leaden parts are interesting because they are Coleridge's lead. One wishes
the theology was balanced, however, by a few more glimpses of his lighter
interests, such as we find in the passage: "Never take an iambus for a
Christian name. A trochee, or tribrach, will do very well. Edith and Rotha
are my favourite names for women." What we want most of all in table talk
is to get an author into the confession album. Coleridge's _Table Talk_
would have stood a worse chance of immortality were it not for the fact
that he occasionally came down out of the pulpit and babbled.

XIII.--TENNYSON: A TEM