In the autumn of 1795 Coleridge married Miss Sarah Pricker of Bristol, a sister of the wife of his friend Charles Lloyd, Southey on the same day wedding himself to another sister. Coleridge now took a cottage at Nether Stowey, a village at the foot of the Quantock Hills, in Somersetahire, where he was in the immediate neighbourhood of his friend and benefactor Mr. Poole, and of Mr. Wordsworth, who was then living at All-Foxden. He was at this time in the habit of contributing verses to one of the London papers, as a means of sub aiatcnce. In 1796 he published a volume of poems, the greater num ber of which had been written at earlier periods, interspersed with some by Charles Lamb; and in 1797 a second edition appeared, with the addition of some poems by Charles Lloyd.
During the three years, moreover, in which Coleridge resided at Nether Stowey, the greater part of his principal poems was composed, though most of them were not published until later. In the conver sations on poetry which constantly took plane between Mr. Words worth and himself, was first formed the plan of the afterwards famous ' Lyrical Ballads;' and in pursuance of this the 'Ancient Mariner' and the first part of 'Christabel' were written in 1797. His tragedy, ' Remorse, was also written at this period.
Coleridge was at this period of his life a Unitarian. He says of himself, " I was at that time and long after, though a Trinitarian (i.e., ad normam Platonis) in philosophy, yet a zealous Unitarian in religion ; more accurately, I was a psilanthropist, one of those who believe our Lord to have been tha real son of Joseph, and who lay the main stress on the resurrection rather than the crucifixion." (`Biog. Lit,' voL i. p. 168.) While at Nether Stowey he preached in a Unitarian chapel at Taunton.
In 1793 Coleridge was enabled, through the munificence of the late Mr. Thomas Wedgwood, to visit Germany, for the purpose, as he ex presses it, of finishing his education. At Gottingen he attended Blumenbsch's lectures on physiology and natural history, and studied, in the notes of a young German student, Eichhorn's lectures on the New Testament. He took lessons from Professor Tyschen in the Gothic of Ulphilas, being anxious to attain a critical knowledge of the German language ; and went through a complete historical course of German literature. His acquaintance with the writiogs of the later German metaphysicians was .not formed until some time after his return to England.
After his return from Germany, Coleridge resided at the Lakes; where Mr. Southey and Mr. Wordsworth had then settled, the one at Keswick, and the other at Grasmere. The appellation of 'Lake-poets,' given to these three individuals after the publication of the Lyrical is well known.
Coleridge now became connected with the 'Morning Post,' and wrote both on politics and literature. From about 1808 to about 1814, he contributed to the Courier.' In 1804 he had visited his friend Dr. Stoddart at Malta ; and from May of that year to October of the next, he acted as secretary to Sir Alexander Ball, then governor of the island. After his return to England in 1808, he delivered a course of lectures on poetry and the fine arts at the Royal Institutiou: lecturing on poetry and history had long before been an occasional occupation of his, partly in conjunction with Southey, at Bristol The 'Friend' appeared in the course of the next year, being then published as a periodical at the Lakes. As a pecuniary speculation it was not much
more successful than the Watchman,' nor with reference to pecuniary advantage was it more judiciously conducted ; but it continued for a longer time. Mr. Wordsworth gave some literary assistance, eau tributing the Essay on Epitaphs,' which is now appended to the 'Excursion,' and the 'Introductory Essay' of the third volume.
Coleridge left the Lakes in 1810, and did not afterwards return to them ; his wife and children remained in the house of Southey, and wholly dependent on him. On Coleridge's first arrival in London he resided with Mr. Basil Montagu; and not long afterwards became the guest of Mr. Gillman at Highgate, in whose house he died. The many friendships which Coleridge attracted to himself through life, the sin cerity and constancy of which were abundantly shown, place in a striking light the amiability of his character; his neglect of his family and extreme carelessness respecting the obligations, both personal and pecuniary, which devolved upon him, as strikingly illustrate its weakness.
It was not before the commencement of his residence in London that be formed any very extensive acquaintance with the writings of the later German metaphysicians, by the adoption of whose method and terminology, rather than by any developmeut of a system, in his subsequent publications, he has come to be accounted the representa tive of German metaphysics among us. He published successively, between the years 1817 and 1825, the two 'Lay Sermons; the Bio grapbia Literaria,' the rifaccimento of the ' Friend,' the Constitution of the Church and State according to the Idea of each,' and the 'Aids to Reflection.' Coleridge having no profession, slothful and imprudent, was during the greater part of his life in pecuniary distress. After his connection with the newspaper-press had ceased, and his remaining hopes of self support were derived from his later poetical and prose publications, his publisher became a bankrupt iu 1819. This was a severe blow to Coleridge. The dependent situation in which it placed him preyed much upon his mind. We see him, in the collection of his letters published since his death, projecting various schemes to relieve himself. One of these was a scheme of systematic contribution to 'Blackwood's Magazine,' the publisher of which was his friend. Accordingly, No. 1 of a Selection from Mr. Coleridge's Literary Correspondence' appeared in the number of that magazine for October 1821, and was to have been followed by a sketch of the history and philosophy of superstition, with other interesting disquisitions; but the No. 2 never appeared. Continued ill health, combined with, and to a certain extent slanged by, a habit of using opium which Coleridge had contracted, having originally resorted to it under a mistaken notion for medicinal purposes, had taken away from him by this time even what little amount of perseverance he might once have possessed.