Of the personal weaknesses which prevented the just development
of the powers, enough, perhaps, has been incidentally said in the
course of this volume. But, in summing up his history, I shall not, I
trust, be thought to judge the man too harshly in saying that, though
the natural disadvantages of wretched health, almost from boyhood
upward, must, in common fairness, be admitted in partial excuse for his
failure, they do not excuse it altogether. It is difficult not to feel
that Coleridge's character, apart altogether from defects of physical
constitution, was wanting in manliness of fibre. His willingness to
accept assistance at the hands of others is too manifestly displayed
even at the earlier and more robust period of his life. It would be a
mistake, of course, in dealing with a literary man of Coleridge's era,
to apply the same standards as obtain in our own days. Wordsworth, as
we have seen, made no scruple to accept the benevolences of the
Wedgwoods. Southey, the type of independence and self-help, was, for
some years, in receipt of a pension from a private source. But
Coleridge, as Miss Meteyard's disclosures have shown, was at all times
far more willing to depend upon others, and was far less scrupulous
about soliciting their bounty, than was either of his two friends.
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