7:--"At first I thought him very plain,--that is, for about
three minutes. He is pale, thin, has a wide mouth, thick lips, longish,
loose-growing, half-curling, rough, black hair. His eye is large and
full, and not dark, but gray;--such an eye as would receive from a heavy
soul the dullest expression, but it speaks every emotion of his animated
mind. He has fine, dark eyebrows, and an overhanging forehead."

This is De Quincey's sketch of him in 1807:--"In height he seemed about
five feet eight inches, in reality he was an inch and a half taller.[K]
His person was broad and full, and tended even to corpulence; his
complexion was fair, though not what painters technically call fair,
because it was associated with black hair; his eyes were soft and large
in their expression, and it was by a peculiar appearance of haze or
dimness which mixed with their light." "A lady of Bristol," writes De
Quincey, "assured me she had not seen a young man so engaging in his
exterior as Coleridge when young, in 1796. He had then a blooming and
healthy complexion, beautiful and luxuriant hair, falling in natural
curls over his shoulders."

Lockhart says,--"Coleridge has a grand head, but very ill-balanced, and
the features of the face are coarse; although, to be sure, nothing can
surpass the depth of meaning in his eyes, and the unutterable dreamy
luxury of his lips."

Hazlitt describes him in early manhood as "with a complexion clear and
even light, a forehead broad and high, as if built of ivory, with large
projecting eyebrows, and his eyes rolling beneath them like a sea with
darkened lustre. His mouth was rather open, his chin good-humored and
round, and his nose small. His hair, black and glossy as the raven's
wing, fell in smooth masses over his forehead,--long, liberal hair,
peculiar to enthusiasts."

Sir Humphry Davy, writing of Coleridge in 1808, says,--"His mind is a
wilderness, in which the cedar and the oak, which might aspire to the
skies, are stunted in their growth by underwood, thorns, briers, and
parasitical plants; with the most exalted genius, enlarged views,
sensitive heart, and enlightened mind, he will be the victim of want of
order, precision, and regularity."

Leigh Hunt speaks of his open, indolent, good-natured mouth, and of his
forehead as "prodigious,--a great piece of placid marble."

Wordsworth again:--

"Noisy he was, and gamesome as a boy,
Tossing his limbs about him in delight."

In the aut