19 OCTOBER 1901, Page 13

rTo THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Permit me one

word on behalf of Coleridge's fellow- guest, whom I have always regarded as a wise man, both in his silence and in his speech. We know what Coleridge was as a monologian ; his dinner companion proved an excellent listener, and "nodded his head," never interrupting the oracle. Was not that wise ? When the apple dumplings came, the listener, a man of simple but excellent tastes, expressed his appreciation as became a diner, out. Coleridge, who had treated this sensible person as "my man," felt suddenly rebuked by the indirect criticism, of which he failed to see the humour. Really, at a dinner, it is the Coleridgian drone who plays the goose, not the sage author of the im- mortal saying: " Them's the jockies for me."—I am, Sir, &c.,

£G.