COLERIDGE'S TA TILE-TALIC.

IF a man of tolerable memory were to visit a convel.,:ilde person, who with good abilities possessed habits of reading and reflection, and some experience in business, pleasure, or social life, there must be strange peculiarities on one side or the other if he could not make a very amusing. book in the course of a dozen years, by putting down daily the best remarks which he hoard, and care- fully selecting and arranging them at the end. The reasons of this lie on the surface. In table-talk, the subjects are as boundless and various as our comprehension of the universe ; the talker can start from a haphazard observation of any idle p,•rson, or even set himself a going; the most dillicult part of a writer's task, the ponere totuni, is evaded—it is enough if a sentence or a paragraph is effective. In a judicious selection of table-talk fir the press, the discourses appear under great advantage: for it is the editor's duty " to weed the garden --to erase all oll'ensive doematism, as well as all trines, absurdities, or patty conslusions fauaded upon the floating and partial knowledge of the day. By this means, he presents us with the best thoughts struck out in a moment of excitement, yet freed from the commonplaces which even in the most laboured written work are necessary to connect them together; and is enabled to give us the gems of the mind with- out the setting. And delightful and valuable they ought to be; never tiring. from their brevity ; never satiating, from their variety ; sulking, front their pith and point ; startling, from their occasional paradox; and, with a little aid from imagi- nation, charming through the ease, playfulness, or earnestness of manner, which we can fancy accompanied their delivery.

In the work before us, we have some of these qualities; but solely, it would appear, front the reason already glanced at—that it would have been exceedingly difficult to have totally banished them. In spite of the intrinsie advantages attached to the kind of work, in spite of the reputation of CoIsRIncs for conversa- tional powers, and in spite of the prelusive panegyrics which he- ralded its publication, the book is a disappointing one. We read

it not always with pleasure; we rise from its perusal without car- rying much away to enrich the intellect, or to enlarge out' know-

ledge of practical life. But we have, on the contrary', an im- pression of dogmatical self-sufficiency; of rash and hasty conclu- sion; of theories founded on sentiment instead of reason ; and of

a system of philosophy, if such it can be called, which is nei- ther to rest upon observation nor experiment, but depends—if we comprehend it—upon the a priori invention of its author. How much of these defects may be chargeable upon COLERSOGEn and how much upon his reporter, we are not prepared to say. A good deal must be allowed for the lengthy and discursive style of a soliloquist, who spoke "in monologue rather than dialogue," and whose ideas were transcendental and obscure. But the violence and wordiness of parts of' the preface, the uncalled-for intrusion of the editor's notions, sometimes upon matters of opinion and some- times upon personal character, induce us to think that he wanted both taste and judgment to ethic the work, and perhaps to collect the materials. What kind of a task the collection must have been, he shall tell himself, in a passage which gives an idea of the uncle's conversation and the nephew's style. To leave the every-day circle of society, in which the literary and scientific rarely, the rest never, break thtough the sHI of personality; where anecdote everlasting-Iv intramottot and exclusive, and the mildest attempt to gene- ralize the Blind of faets, and to control temporary and individual phenomena by the application of eternal and °rem tiling principles, is uniumeigilde to many, and disagteeable to more; to leave this species of run verse, if converse it de- serves to lie called, and pass an entire day with Coleridge, was a marvellous eloatige indeed. It was a Sabb Itit past expiession sleep and tranquil and serene. You came to a titan who hail travelied in man) countries and in et iti- eal times, who hail seen and felt the world in most of its ranks and in many of its vicissi'udes atid the knessesa our to whom all literatore and genial art were absolutely subject, antl to whom, NI ith a tyasonahle allowance as to technical details, ail science was in a most (Art aot dinary degree fthiiliiir. Throughout a :nog-drawn day would this man talk to you, in low, equable, but clear

and nousiral tones, coneernitig things human atel divine ; marshalling his-

c harmonizing all experiment, pi obing the depths of your consciousness, and revealing visions of glory and of terror to the imagination ; but puliteg withal such flue ls of light upon the mind, that you might, for a season, like Paul, beconw blind in the very act of conversion. And this he would do, without so much as une allusion to himself, without a word of reflection on others save when any given set fall natio ally 'HI the way of his discourse, without toe auvy- tiotethat was not proof and illustration of a previous position ; geatif)ing no pissnin, indidgitig ut caprice, but, with it cola miotery over your soul, leading you onward mill 011:k 1.111 fer ever tin mesh a thounnol windings, yet with ito pause, to some magailicent point in irides a4 in a focus, all the party-coloured rays of his discourse should converge in light. In all this he was, in truth, your teacher and guide ; limit in a little while 4,:ou might forget that he was other than a lePows student and the companion of your way,, so playful was his manner, so simple his language, so sti;eetionaf the glat.ce of his pleasant eye. There were, hilleed, some whom Coleridge tired, and some whom lie sent asleep. It would oceasionally so happen, when the abstrmer mood was strong upon him, and the visiter was nan ow and miigctth.l. 1 have seen at Mines when you could not incarnate him, tshot he shook aside your petty questions or 41oulos, and burst with some impatience through the obst tele: of CO:21111011 C011- Vilsltiuti. Then, eseaped front the flesh. lie would soar upwards into an ittann- sphere alinost too rate to breathe, hut which seemed proper to nine, and there he would float at (MSC.

Let us proceed to that contents of the work. A considerable pat t nit' the Tall: consists or critical remarks; thal as these relate to single points, they arc, though not always unquestionable, amongst the best passages in that volume. Tile next topics which the most masterly hatellitig are the philological obierva- tians; though as these are frequently limited to the meaning of wottls, and sometimes only have re,:raril to somo taionte nicety of' translation in the New l'estai... ,,t, ititere.-o nut of a geseral hind. The personal descriptioos are comparatively few in number, and one or two of the atieedotes are coutiaan enough, though they are now probably told with mere precision ; but these parts are likely to he the most popular. l'Itero arc numerous political out- pouring.:, distinguished by a childish T,ryktn as regards opinion; some crude abuse of political economy, whose elements Mr. COLERIDGE does not seen, to have acquired ; and an ignorance of political facts, which, though excusable at the time of uttering the judgment, should, now that the truth of the matters is known, have induced their stippression,—as in the violent tirades against the Belgian Revolution. The remainder of the Talk is of a mis- cellaneous character,—rarely sensible, but sometimes striking; at other times merely cousisting of iniportawies, such as these—

Never take au iambus us it Christian name. A taciehee or a triln itch will du eery well. Edith and Paella* are my favourite names for women.

• Hot ha is :1 nuilet harm' Itdeeh, nil 1101V finding its uiiy Sontlinard front the lorel) stream from nhich it vas In the original, the diarial form is preserved throughout ; "Midlaer with December 18.22, and ending with .Iuly 1S34. In a our quotations we shall pay no more regard to chronology than is convenient, but bring observations of dial .rest elates into juxta- position, as it suits us. In the following extracts, the remarks on Othello arc spoken at an interval of' live yeses.

Othello must not lie eonceirel es it negro, but a high and chivalrous Moot ish

chief. Shakspcat c the spit it of the eliaraeter from the Spanish poetry which was prevalent in England in his time. Jealousy dues not strike me as the point in his passion : I take it to he tattier an agony that the creature, whom he had believed angelic, with whom he had garnet ell up his heart, and whom he could not help still hiving, should be pored impure and worthless. It was the struggle not to love her. It was a moral indignation and regret that should so fall: "But yet the pity of it, logo! O, (ago! the pity of it, lago!" In addition to this, his honour was concerned. Iago would tut have succeeded but by hinting that his honour was compromised. There is no ferocity in Othello ; his mind is majestic and composed. lie deliberately determines to die; and speaks his last speech with a view of showing his attachment to the Venetian state, though it had superseded hint. • • • I have often told you that 1 do nut think there is any jealousy, properly so called, in the character of Othello. There is 110 predisposition to suspicion, which I take to he an essential term in the deiluition of the wotil. Desdemoos very truly told Emilia that he was not jealous, that is, of a jealous habit ; and lie says so as truly of himself. Iago'ssuggestion::, you see, are quite new to Rile; they do not correspond with any thing of a like nature previously in his mind. If lkssaleinona had, in fact, been guilty, no one would have thought of calling Othello's conduct that of a jealous num. He could not act otherwise than he did with the lights he had ; whereas jealousy can never he strictly right. See how utterly unlike Othsliu is to Leontes, in the Winter's Tale, or even I0 Lconatus, to C!,,mbtline. 'The jealousy of the first proceeds from an evident trifle, and something'll:4: hatted is mingled with it ; and the conduct of Lena ttull in accepting the wager and 'exposing his wife to the trial, denotes a jealous •• temper already funned.

Schiller has the material sublime; to produce an effect, he sets you a whole town on fire, and throws infants with their mothers into the flames, or locks up a father in an old tower. But Shakspeare drops a handkerchief, and the same

or greater effects follow. Lear is the most tremendous effort of Shakspeare as a poet ; Hamlet as a philosopher or meditator ; and Othello is the union of the

two. There is something gigantic and unformed in the former two; but in the latter, every thing assumes its due place tool proportion, and the whole mature powers of his mind are displayed in admirable

It seems, to my ear, that there is a sad want of harmony in Lord Boron's verses. Is it not unnatural to be always connecting very great intellectual power with utter depravity ? Does such a combination often really exist in count !ttani ?

There are several ghost discussions, treated with as much gravity as Dr...Ionsisosr. was in the habit of bestowing upon them, but not with so much respect. The impossibility of ghosts is proved, by an elaborate disquisition on substance and shadow. The following remarks are striking, but not true; though the facts al-

leged by the talker seem to furnish the right conclusion. The vulgar, who are persuaded of the frequent appearance of ghosts, may fancy they have seen one, and have only " a headache:- if au enlightened mind actually believes himself in the presence Of one, lie can only consider it a inn aide; and the shock (in the pri- mitive meaning of the word) is so great as to shatter the system : but any other surprise has a similar effect, according to its degree of intensity.

Ghost stories are absurd. Whenever a real ghost appears—by w'it'h I mean some man or woman dressed up to frighten another—if the supernatut al charac-

ter of the apparition has 'Well for a moment believed, the effects on the spectator have tdways been most tett ible ; cony tileion, idioms', madness, Or even death On the spit. Consider the awful deecriptions in the Old Testament of the effiets of a spiritual presence on the prophets and seers of the Hebrews ; the terror, the exceeding great Mt ad. the utter loss of all animal power. But in our common ghost stories, you always find that the seer, after a most appalling, apparition, as yOU are to believe, is tplite well the torxt day. Perhaps he may have a head, ache ; but that is the mashie of the t ffect produced. Alston, a man ot genius

and the best peinter vet produced by A mei It c, when he was in Eagland told me an anecdote which catifirtos what 1 have been saying. It was, I TIM& in

the Voiversite of Cambridge, near Biston, that a certain youth took it into his

wise head to 'endeavour to convert a To)1-Painish companion of his by appear- ing as a ghost before him. Ile aceordingly dressed himself up in the usual way, having previmide. extracted the bail horn the pistol which always lay near the

head of his frimiti's bed. ("pmt filet ow:thing, and seeing the ,ipparitiott, the who was to be frightened, A., very cooliy Itioked his companion the ghost in the face, and said—" I know you. This is a gotta joke but you see I run not frightened. Now you V:1111,11." 'flu. ;;hoer -teed "Come," said A.,

"that is enweelt. I shall get angry. Away !" Still the ghost moved not.

IC By ,"ej tettlated A., "if you ail not in three minims go away, Ill shoot

you." Ile waited the time. deliberately levelled the }ism:, fired, and with it

small) at the iotwohility cf the tient e, became convoked, and afterward, died. The very instant 1.c believed it to be a ghost, his human nature tell befote it.

lu despite ).f his nit: rell and Tor: prejudices, COLERIDGE could

te.t got nver e two the facts within his limited experience foxed iii:0;1 hint as to the jolildegt and incompetency of his Tory frLials. Here we see the truth forcing itself out, as it were-

] never was much solsiect to violent political humours or accesses of feelings. When I eves very young, I wrote and spoke very enthes itstically, but it was always on subjects cootie/mil with some grand general pi ineiple, the violation of

which 1 thottelit I could !mint out. As to mere details of administration, I honestly that:gilt that giIim.iees :mil limn in Mitre must, of course, know tonal

better than any private petsen could possibly ; find it was not till I went to Malta.. and had to correspond with official characters myself, that 1 thilv under- stood the extreme shallowuess and ignorance with which men, (it' some note too, Were able, after a certain fashion, to carry on the government of important de- partments of the empire. 1 then quite assented to Oxenstiern's eavimg, Neseis, nti /ills eptrint ',arra sarientia regitur munthis.

tongue can describe the moral corruption of the Maltese when the island was surreudered to us. There was not a family in it in which a wife or a daughter was nut a kept mistress. A marquis of ancient family applied to Sir Alexander Ball to be appointed his valet. "illy valet !" said Ball, " what can

you mean, Sir"' The 111,111111,i said, lie hoped lie should then have had the lionour of presenting petition, to his Excellency. " Oh, that is it, is it ?" said Sir Alexander : " toy valet, siir, brushes my clothes and brings them to me. If he dared to meddle with matters of public. business, I should kick him down stairs."

In short, Malta was an Augean stable, and Ball had all the iaclination to be a Hercules. His task was most difficult, although his qualifications were remark- able. I remember an Engli,11 (dim of vet.'"). high lank soliciting him for the renewal of a pension to an ahantIoned woman who had been notoriously treacherous to us. hat oilieet had promised the woman as a matter of coot se —she having sacrificed her daughter to him. Ball was determined, as fir as he could, to prevent Mahe from being made a nest of home !rummage. He con- sidered, as was the fart, that there was a contract between England and the Maltese. Hence the Government at home, especially Dundas, disliked him, and never allowed him any other title than that of Civil Commissioner. We have, I believe, nearly succeeded in alienating the hearts of the inhabitants from us. Every officer in the island ought to be a Maltese, except those belonging to the immediate executive: IOW. per annum to a Maltese, to enable him to keep a gilt carriage, will satisfy him, where an Englisbman must have •30001. * Baron on Humboldt, brother of the great traveller, paid me the following compliment at Home. "I confess, Mr. Coleridge, I had toy suspicions that you were here in a political capacity of sortie sort or other ; but upon reflection I acquit you. For in Germany, and, I believe, elsewhere on the Continent, it is generally understood that the English Government, in order to divert the envy and jealousy of the world at the power, wealth, anti ingenuity of your nation, makes a point, as a ruse de guerre, of sending out none but fools of gentlemanly birth and connexions as diplomatists to the courts abroad. An exception is, perhaps, sometimes made for a clever fellow, if sufficiently libertine and unprin- opted." Is the case much altered now, do you know ?

The point of CANNING.S joke in the following is old enough ; but can the Lord -- with his nonsensical gabble and his bad French be LONDONDERRY? The ChalaCICI" and the circumstances resemile him.

execrable. Ile had followed the Russian army into Trance, and seen a rod deal of the great men concerned in the war : of none of dares things did he say a word, but went on, sometimes in English and sometimes in French, gabbling.

about cookery and dress and the like. At last he paused for a little, and I said a few words, remarleing how a great image may be reduced to the ridiculous and contemptible by bringing the constituent parts into prominent detail ; and men- tioned the grandeur of the Deluge and the preservation of Mir ill Genesis and the " Paradise Lost," and the 1 tidiest uus effect produced by Draytou's ilescriptioa in Flood Ana mow the beams are walltimw front the wood,

As 1,etl of ra‘ine. as that chew the end.

'she king of beasts hi: flay (loth saippress,

And to the ails leads (luau the lioness:

The 1,t111 for hi: beloved male (loth low, And to the ark In logs on the fair-eyed eow,"&c.

Hereupon Lord --- resumed ; and spoke in raptures of a picture which he bad Lode seen Of Noah's ark, and said the animals were all matehing two and two, the little ones first, allil that the elephants rattle last in great majesty, and filled up the foreground. " Alt ! no doubt, my Lord," said Catmint! ; your elephants, Wise fellont! staid behind to peck up their trunks!!! Tills floored the Ambassador for hall au hour.

We had got down ill our notes some specimens of political vio- lences, and a good many economical absurdities and contradic- tions, especially some rare nonsense on the !'urn-law's and the National Debt: which latter Air. r....oLIJ:InGE. evidently thought a mere fiction altogether, and not tho representative of capital once existin7, but wasted in the Tory wars. All these, however, we pass for peace' sake ; and take instead, a vindication of the GREY ]Ministry from the charge of stopping the paltry thousand guineas a year devoted to the reward of literary men, whilst they maintained the odious pension-list. It will be seen that the stop- page tot& place in a direction too sacred to he more than glanced at. The explanation originated in a coarse attack of the West- 1?,?ricir upon COMM! fir being a pensioner ; which is rebutted in a manner eqmilly coarse. In I `eel or Ise:2, George the Tomtit founded the Royal Society of Literature, which was incorpor dot by charter ill [Sen. The King gave a thousand guineas a year out of his men private pocket to be die1tilouttel amongst ten literary men, to be called Royal Associates, and to he selected at the discretion of the Council. It is true that this was done under a Tory Government : but I believe the Go- vernment had no more to do with it than the 11...,!nzinstre Review. It was the mere act of George the Tomtit's Dtvn pri,mrely temper. The gentlemen chosen to receive this bounty were the following : Samuel Taylor (7ttletidge; Rev. I:11%1%1rd I am:es ;

Rev. John .lainieotti, D.D. ; Bev. Thome.. Ifelear Malthus; Tbornas .1 inns Mathias; James ; Sir ruseley; William Itactie ; Bev. I leto y John Todd; Sharon Turner.

1 have leten told tit Is a majority of these permne, all the woelel knowe that three or four at heist el- clean. were NVitigs of strong water ; hot probably no one ever before iniaginrd that their politival cpini, it, Ina any thing to do with their bving elmo,en veil A-socia:vs. I have 1.card and believe that their only

qualifications were ling.:tore and III lartone; ;tall the King wished. This annual donation of lord. a <•.tt• teas re..,•ivod by Coletidge during the re- main:ler of thorm the l'oorth's life. lo tic first y■ ar if the present coign the payment Sias sopped without notiro, ie the . of a eurreot quarter ; and

was not reeoutinuctl during Coke ittte's 111.... It is true that this resumption of the Rural bounty took place under a Whig Gevernment; but I believe the eatinot justly claim any merit with time 1:-.,..arni.ixter Reeiete for having advised that act ; en the contrary, to the best of toy, knowledge, Lord Grey, Lord Ileougham, and some other inembees of the Whig Ministry, disapproved and regretted it. But the money was private money, and they could of course have no control over it.

We believe it may be added, in justice to Lord GREY, that he offered to continue the pension out of his own pocket, but that CoLERIDGE spiritedly declined receiving it as the gift of an in- dividual.