It would seem, however, that nothing but Coleridge's
own disinclination prevented this connection from taking a
form in which it would have profoundly modified his whole future
career. In a letter to Mr. Poole, dated March 1800, he informs his
friend that if he "had the least love of money" he could "make sure of
??2000 a year, for that Stuart had offered him half shares in his two
papers, the _Morning Post_ and the _Courier_, if he would devote
himself to them in conjunction with their proprietor. But I told
him," he continues, "that I would not give up the country and the lazy
reading of old folios for two thousand times two thousand pounds,--in
short, that beyond ??350 a year I considered money as a real evil."
Startlingly liberal as this offer will appear to the journalist, it
seems really to have been made. For, writing long afterwards to Mr.
Nelson Coleridge, Mr. Stuart says: "Could Coleridge and I place
ourselves thirty years back, and he be so far a man of business as to
write three or four hours a day, there is nothing I would not pay for
his assistance. I would take him into partnership, and I would enable
him to make a large fortune." Nor is there any reason to think that the
bargain would have been a bad one for the proprietor from the strictly
commercial point of view.
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