have nothing to state that is at all satisfactory to myself. At its commencement, that is, after the first paralytic attack (it has been erroneously called apoplectic), in December, 1827, I was of opinion that there was some softening of the brain and some enlargement of the heart, without augmentation of its muscular substance. This opinion I expressed then to Drs. Babington and Holland, and I am now disposed to consider it as the most probable. It was my wish to have had the exact nature of his complaint and the cause of his death investigated by an anatomical examination. But this was contrary to his desire, and to a promise which I had made him at Rome. He had a dread of a post mortem examination, founded on an idea which occurred to his active mind, that it was possible for sensation to remain in the animal fibre after the loss of irritability and the power of giving proof to others of its existence. Consequently, such an investigation not having been made, his disease, as to its exact kind and the immediate cause of his death, must ever remain doubtful.

Before I quit this painful subject, I should remark that he had also a horror of being buried alive, before animation was completely extinct, and he desired that the interment should not be performed till after ten days. I was very anxious to have complied with this injunction, merely because it was his request; but at Geneva it was impossible, being contrary to law to keep a body so long unburied. The keeping it even three days was an indulgence; and as signs of putrefaction then began to appear, I made no opposition to the performance of the ceremony.

:

CHAPTER VIII.

PHILOSOPHER.

HIS POSTHUMOUS WORK, CONSOLATIONS IN TRAVEL, OR LAST DAYS OF A NOTICES RESPECTING IT. DESCRIPTION OF REMARKABLE DREAMS.-FRAGMENT OF A VISION.-PARTICULARS OF HIS PERSON, DISPOSITION, AND HABITS.

LETTERS OF HIS TO THE LATE
LETTER FROM MR. POOLE RE-

MR. COLERIDGE.-PORTRAITS OF HIM.
FERRING TO ONE.- LETTER FROM THE SAME GENTLEMAN ON HIS CHA-
RACTER GENERALLY.- CONCLUDING REMARKS.-LINES ON HIM BY
MR. SOTHEBY.

I HAVE now to speak of a work to which frequent allusions have been made in the preceding pages; a posthumous work, and my brother's only one, "Consolations in Travel, or Last Days of a Philosopher," with which, probably, most of my readers are already acquainted, as it has passed through two ample editions.

It consists, as has been already mentioned, of six dialogues. The first dialogue, called the " Vision," is held between Onuphrio, Philalethes, and Ambrosio, and relates to the progress of society, the advance of science and art, and their influence on mankind; with speculations on intellectual natures, and probable states of existence in other worlds. The scene is the Colosseum in Rome, by moonlight. The most important truth inculcated is, that in the progress of society, no useful discovery is lost; all great and real improvements are perpetuated; and that in consequence the welfare of mankind is in continued progression.

The scene of the second dialogue is the summit of Vesuvius, -the subject, discussions connected with the vision in the Colosseum, on religion generally, and on the Christian religion in particular; in which Ambrosio, an enlightened and liberal Catholic, acts the part of the Christian advocate, 1st, defending the Mosaic account of the creation of man, as in strict harmony with reason, and accordant with all just metaphysical views of the human mind; 2dly, maintaining that man was created with a religious feeling, or instinct, or knowledge, as represented by Moses, which declining with his fall, its place was supplied by Revelation, without which true religion must have become extinct on earth; and 3dly, deriving Christianity from Judaism,—the same pure theism as that of the patriarchs, but spiritualised, and generalised, so as to be fit for all mankind; founding his creed rather on the fitness of its doctrines than upon historical evidences, or the nature of its miracles, and repelling objections, derived from any apparent want of conformity in the doctrines of Christianity to the usual order of events, on "the principle that religion has nothing to do with the usual order of events."—" It is," he eloquently says, "a pure "It and Divine instinct, intended to give results to man which he cannot obtain by the common use of his reason, and which, at first view, often appear contradictory to it; but which, when examined by the most refined tests, and considered in the most extensive and profound relations, are, in fact, in conformity with the most exalted intellectual knowledge; so that, indeed, the results of pure reason ultimately become the same with those of faith. The tree of knowledge is grafted upon the tree of life; and that

fruit which brought the fear of death into the world, budding on an immortal stock, becomes the fruit of the promise of immortality."

The third dialogue is held at Paestum. A character is introduced, called "The Unknown," who takes the lead in the conversation; and, from circumstances connected with the locality, proceeds to general views of the geological structure of the earth, and of the revolutions or changes which our planet has undergone, deduced from actual observations on existing strata. From geology the conversation turns to religion; and "The Unknown" continues the defence of Christianity on the same ground as Ambrosio ; stating how, from a sceptic, which he was in his youth, he became a believer, from considering the intellectual faculties of brutes, compared with those of man, and by examining instinctive powers, which led him to the conclusion that revelation is to man in the place of instinct.

The same person appears in the fourth dialogue, which, as well as the two remaining, is held between him as the principal speaker and Philalethes and Eubathes. In the fourth, which is commenced at the falls of the Traun, in Styria, and concluded in the cavern of the Madelina, near Adelsburg, in Carniola, the conversation is partly relative to that singular animal the Proteus anguinus, partly on the subject of respiration and animal heat, and in part on the nature of the soul, and the destiny of man after death, in connection with belief in Christianity. In this last part, the main argument is upheld by "The Unknown," for the immateriality and consequent immortality of the soul, founded on the principle, or rather postulate, that sensibility and intelligence can

not result from any possible combination of any insensate unintelligent atoms.

The person called "The Unknown" appears in the fifth dialogue, in the character of a chemical philosopher, gives some account of himself; points out the importance of chemical science to society; describes what a true chemical philosopher ought to be; the qualities of mind and the studies requisite to form him; the method of promoting chemical science, and the spirit of philosophy in which it ought to be pursued.

The scene of the last dialogue is at Pola, in Istria; and in it are discussed principally the effects of time, or the changes which take place on the surface of our globe from the action of the various causes to which material forms are exposed. Such is a very slight outline of the work.

To me these dialogues are particularly interesting, from the circumstances under which they were written, and the time and manner in which they were concluded; from the deep interest he expressed in them himself when I read them to him during the height of his illness, and when he supposed he had not many hours to live; from his having bequeathed them to me in his will, and entrusted me with the publishing of them; and I may add also, from their nature and tendency as to doctrine, and the manner in which they display his character, as a poet, as a metaphysician, as a geologist, as a chemist, and as a Christian, and in each the philosopher, in the original, modest, and humble meaning of the word. As such he began his career; as such he terminated it; and as such I trust his name will descend to posterity.

In the notice which I prefixed to the "Conso