Chapter XXIII: Letter 146: To Cantab

21 Dec. 1809.

I thank the "_Friend's friend and a Cantab_" for his inspiriting Letter, and assure him, that it was not without its intended effect, of giving me encouragement. That this was not needless, he would feel as well as know, if I could convey to him the anxious thoughts and gloomy anticipations, with which I write any single paragraph, that demands the least effort of attention, or requires the Reader to enter into himself and question his own mind as to the truth of that which I am pressing on his notice. But both He and my very kind Malton Correspondent, and all of similar dispositions, may rest assured, that with every imaginable endeavour to make _The Friend_, _collectively,_ as _entertaining_ as is compatible with the main Object of the Work, I shall never so far forget the duty, I owe to them and to my own heart, as not to remember that _mere_ amusement is _not_ that main Object. I have taken upon myself (see Letter 145) all the blame that I could acknowledge without adulation to my readers and hypocritical mock-humility. But the principal source of the obscurity imputed must be sought for in the want of _interest_ concerning the truths themselves. (_Revel._ iii, 17.) My sole Hope (I dare not say expectation) is, that if I am enabled to proceed with the work through an equal number of Essays with those already published, it will gradually find for itself its appropriate Public.

S. T. COLERIDGE.[25]

Coleridge worked pretty hard at _The Friend_. He was ably assisted by Miss Sarah Hutchinson, who acted as amanuensis. _The Friend_ was first issued on 1st June 1809, and ceased with the twenty-seventh number on 10th March 1810. Like _The Watchman_, _The Friend_ was published by subscription and was not a financial success. In _The Friend_ Coleridge wrote in his most diffuse style. The long intricate sentence, imitative of that of the seventeenth century divines and political writers, was his favourite medium when writing on the Permanent Principles of things, and in it he often ran into prolixity. In a letter to Poole, of 28th January 1810 (_Letters_, 556), Coleridge defends himself for abandoning the Frenchified style of the _Spectator_, and the eighteenth-century Belles-Lettrists, who, in his estimation, had contributed to the taste for "unconnected writing" and "Reading made easy." Coleridge tried to awaken a deeper note in the English magazine, and make the periodical a vehicle for profound reflection and logically connected thought; and although Coleridge's own age was against him in this, the latter half of the nineteenth century has reversed the verdict in his favour.

While busy with _The Friend_, Coleridge was again contributing to _The Courier_ a series of letters supporting the Spaniards in their struggle against Napoleon, and endeavouring to maintain British sympathy for the inhabitants of the Peninsula. These letters are written with Coleridge's accustomed virility when writing for _The Courier_, and are almost as good as his Letters to Fox of 1802. It is a curious fact that when Coleridge stepped into _The Courier_ office, he abandoned for the time being his over-refinement of ideas and subtle disquisitive method of writing for a more popular style, as good as any leader-writer of the day. He had great versatility of talent in prose; in fact he had three styles of writing--his Philosophic style, his Journalist style, and his Letter-Writer's style, in the last of which he abandoned himself to the most curious and humorous freaks of construction and imagery, as when he apologizes for some warmth of expression, calling it "the dexterous _toss_, necessary to turn an idea out of its pudding-bag, round and _unbroken_."--_Letters_, 410.]

FOOTNOTES:

[15] [Letters CLXVIII-CLXX follow 139.]

[16] [_Edinburgh Review_, No. 12, p. 394, July 1808.]

[17] Copies of Letters from Mr. Savage to Coleridge, and from the
latter to the former, respecting the printing and publishing of
_The Friend_.

[18] [Letters CLXXI-CLXXII follow 141.]

[19] The printer with whom he had been negotiating respecting the
bringing out of _The Friend_.

[20] [Letters CLXXIII-CLXXIV follow 142.]

[21] [Letters CLXXV-CLXXVI follow 143.]

[22] [This argument is repeated in the next letter, printed in _The
Friend_.]

[23] [Coleridge did not publish this answer.]

[24] [Perhaps Robert Lloyd.]

[25] [Letters CLXXVII-CLXXX follow 146.]