| And though thou notest from thy safe recess |
| Old Friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air, |
| Love them for what they are; nor love them less, |
| Because to thee they are not what they were. |
L. Do you expect to be able permanently to abide by such solace?
A. I do not expect so Olympian a calmness, that at first, when the chain of intercourse is broken, when confidence is dismayed, and thought driven back upon its source, I shall not feel a transient pang, even a shame, as when
“The sacred secret hath flown out of us,
And the heart been broken open by deep care.”
The wave receding, leaves the strand for the moment forlorn, and weed-bestrown.
L. And is there no help for this? Is there not a pride, a prudence, identical with self-respect, that could preserve us from such mistakes?
A. If you can show me one that is not selfish forethought of neglect or slight, I would wear it and recommend it as the desired amulet. As yet, I know no pride, no prudence except love of truth.
Would a prudence be desirable that should have hindered our intimacy?
L. Ah, no! it was happy, it was rich.
A. Very well then, let us drink the bitter with as good a grace as the sweet, and for to-night talk no more of ourselves.
L. To talk then of those other, better selves, the poets. I can well understand that Coleridge should have drunk so deeply as he did of this bitter-sweet. His nature was ardent, intense, variable in its workings, one of tides, crises, fermentations. He was the flint from which the spark must be struck by violent collision. His life was a mass in the midst of which fire glowed, but needed time to transfuse it, as his heavenly eyes glowed
