COLERIDGE AND THE SUPERNATURAL.
[To TIED EDITOR OF Tun "SPECTATOR."] Sin—May I remark, with reference to the inferiority of the second part of " Christabel," that much of the witchery which pervades the first portion of this unique poem is due to the fact that the circumstances related take place by night P The wonderful weirdness seems to fade "at the crowing of the cock," and thenceforth, as the writer of the article says, the reader comes into a world of daylight, and has, in places, to remember that he is not reading Wordsworth. The most weird passage in the second part of " Christabel " is Bracy's dream, ending,— " I woke, it was the midnight hour, The clock was echoing in the tower,"
where the poet goes back to the night once more.
I wonder whether any of your readers have ever noticed the resemblance between Coleridge's picture of the dim hall in Sir Leoline's castle, beginning,— " The brands were fiat, the brands wero dying, Each 'mid its own white ashes lying," and Scott's description of the hall in the lodge on Ellen's
Isle
"The hearth's decaying brands wore red, And deep and dusky lustre shed," &c.
Lathland, West Hartlepool, February 16th.
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