It is probable enough, therefore, that the young lay-
preacher did not quite relish being silenced by the elder, and that his
account of the sermons was coloured by the recollection that his own
remained undelivered. There is an abundance of evidence that the
"glorious islets" emerged far more often from the transcendental haze
than Carlyle would have us suppose. Hazlitt, a bitter assailant of
Coleridge's, and whose caustic remark that "his talk was excellent if
you let him start from no premisses and come to no conclusion" is cited
with approval by Carlyle, has elsewhere spoken of Coleridge as the only
person from whom he ever learned anything, has said of him that though
he talked on for ever you wished him to talk on for ever, that "his
thoughts did not seem to come with labour and effort, but as if borne
on the gusts of genius, and as if the wings of his imagination lifted
him from his feet." And besides this testimony to the eloquence which
Carlyle only but inadequately recognises, one should set for what it is
worth De Quincey's evidence to that consequence of thought which
Carlyle denies altogether. To De Quincey the complaint that Coleridge
wandered in his talk appeared unjust.
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