For in this land of heaven's peculiar grace, TWILIGHT. I LOVE thee, Twilight! as thy shadows roll, Still as the hour, enchanting as the scene. And joy and sorrow, as the spirit burns, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. { Born 1772. THIS gifted thinker and poet was the son of the Rev. John Coleridge, Vicar of St Mary's Ottery, Devonshire, and was born on 20th October 1772. He received his education at Christ's Hospital, where, without desire or ambition, his talents and superiority placed him ever at the head of his class. In 1791 Coleridge entered Jesus College, Cambridge, where he remained till 1793. But having contracted some debts, in a fit of despondency he enlisted as a soldier in the 15th Light Dragoons. Here his education soon made his position in society known, and his friends, to his great satisfaction, as he made but a sorry dragoon, bought him off. In 1794 Coleridge became acquainted with Southey, and formed a friendship which affected his future history. In conjunction with him he wrote and published "The Fall of Robespierre," a poem, and spent the remainder of the year in lecturing on revealed religion, he having become a Unitarian. Southey and he afterwards married two sisters of the name of Fricker. Coleridge also established a periodical called "The Watchman," which however soon became defunct, from his incurable unpunctuality. He was at this time put to many shifts to obtain a living, though his family and friends were most anxious to help him. In 1798 appeared his fascinating tale of "The Ancient Mariner," "The Foster-Mother's Tale," &c.; and about the same time he was by the liberality of the Messrs Wedgewood, who settled £150 a-year on him, enabled to proceed to Germany to complete his education. On his return in 1800 he went to reside with Southey at Keswick; at this time his Unitarian views underwent a change, and he became a firm believer in the doctrine of the Trinity. The same year Coleridge issued his translation, or rather transfusion, of Schiller's "Wallenstein," in which he has thrown some of the choicest graces of his own fancy. He obtained also employment as an occasional contributor to the "Morning Post," his unbusinesslike habits making regular contributions impossible. In 1804 he went to Malta to recruit his health, which was suffering greatly from his addiction to opium; he obtained there the post of secretary to the Governor, but he only held the situation nine months. On his return he took up his abode at Grasmere; and in 1816, at the recommendation of Byron, he published Christabel, "a wild and wondrous tale." This was written many years before, but it appears to have been Coleridge's custom to retain his poems for years before publishing them. Coleridge now began to reap the fruits of his genius; he obtained considerable sums from his poetical and prose works, which had a very wide circulation. Fortunately for his after life he was able to give up the use of opium, which was proving so pernicious to his health. In 1816 he took up his residence with Mr Gilman, a surgeon, of Highgate Grove, to whose care and skill Coleridge was indebted for the comparative ease and comfort of his later days. He died at Highgate, 25th July 1834. FROM "THE ANCIENT MARINER.” "O WEDDING-GUEST! this soul hath been So lonely 'twas, that God himself "O sweeter than the marriage-feast, 'Tis sweeter far to me, To walk together to the kirk "To walk together to the kirk, And all together pray, While each to his great Father bends, 66 Farewell, farewell; but this I tell “He prayeth best who loveth best FROM "ODE TO THE DEPARTING YEAR [1795]." SPIRIT who sweepest the wild harp of time! Yet, mine eye fixed on heaven's unchanging clime, Ere yet the entered cloud foreclosed my sight, Hither, from the recent tomb, From Distemper's midnight anguish ; Love illumines manhood's maze; Or where, o'er cradled infants bending, |