was Leander swimming the Hellespont!" After
making some inquiries, his chance acquaintance subscribed to a library
for him, and the story runs that in a short time the young bookworm had
read "right through the catalogue."

In 1791 Coleridge entered Cambridge University. While there he was
deeply stirred by events in France--for the Revolution was in
progress--and ran some risk of being expelled by the open expression of
his radical views on politics. His fine ode, _France_, written several
years later, was the expression of this intense interest. During his
second year of study, while suffering from a fit of despondency, he
suddenly left the university--just why, no one knows--and went to
London. There he enlisted in the 15th dragoons under the name of Silas
Tompkyn Comberback. While he was in the service his awkwardness in
doing manual labor, especially in grooming his horse, led to his
exchanging tasks with his comrades: they performed his mechanical
duties, while he wrote letters for them to their wives or sweethearts.
A Latin inscription which he placed above his saddle in the stable led
to the discovery of his true condition, and about the same time his
friends learned of his whereabouts. At the end of four months in the
dragoons he was bought out and enabled to return to his studies. He
remained in Cambridge but a short time, however, leaving in 1794
without taking a degree.

The following year he married Miss Sara Fricker. This important step
was taken on the strength of a small sum promised by a bookseller for a
volume of poems which he was then writing. A month later his friend
Robert Southey--afterwards well known as an author--married his wife's
sister. Some time before this, the two young men had conceived the
idea of crossing the sea with a few congenial acquaintances and forming
an ideal community on the bank of the Susquehanna. Fortunately the
scheme was abandoned and the two dreamers turned their attention to
literary projects.

Coleridge's best work as a poet was done in 1797 and 1798, and probably
the inspiration came largely from his friendship with William
Wordsworth. During these two years the poets lived near each other in
the beautiful Cumberland country, and while taking long rambles over
the Quantock Hills they talked, planned, and wrote. The first result
of this intercourse was a joint volume of poems called _Lyrical
Ballads_, published in 1798. This included Coleridge's _An