ugh here to say that the daughter of
Coleridge was a woman of remarkable excellence, and if you wish to
disprove the adage that genius does not transmit itself she is a good
example to bring up--even though there is a difference between fact and
truth. James Coleridge was also the father of Mr. Justice Coleridge,
himself the father of Lord Chief Justice Coleridge.

And since iconoclasm is not out of place in an essay on Coleridge, it can
also be stated that when Sara Coleridge married her cousin she did a wise
thing. The marriage was a most happy one, and the children of these
cousins have shown themselves to be beyond the average. And once,
certainly not with his daughter in mind, Coleridge debated the question of
consanguinity with Charles Lamb, and proved to his own satisfaction at
least that the marriage of cousins was eminently sane, proper, just and
right, and fraught with the best results for humanity.

The only indictment that can be brought against the father of Coleridge is
that he was a zealous Latin scholar, and proposed that the term "ablative"
be abolished as insufficient, and in its stead should be used that of
"quale-quare-quiddative case." He was a simple, amiable, excellent man who
did his work the best he could, and was beloved by all the parish. As to
the excellence of the established order of things he had no
doubts--government and religion were divine institutions and should be
upheld by all honest men.

As to the vicar's wife we know little, but enough of a glance is given
into her character through letters to show that she had in her make-up a
trace of noble discontent. She was not entirely happy in her surroundings,
and the amiable ways of her husband were often an exasperation to her,
rather than a pleasure--even amiability can be overdone. He never saw more
than a mile from home, but her eyes swept England from Cornwall to
Scotland, and few men, even, saw so far as that a hundred years ago. The
discontent of Samuel Taylor Coleridge was the heritage of mother to son.
When Samuel was nine years of age the father passed away. The widow would
have been in sore financial straits had it not been for the older
children, and even as it was, strict economy and untiring industry were in
order. Out of sympathy, Mr. Justice Buller, who had been a pupil of the
Reverend John Coleridge, proposed to secure the youngest boy a scholarship
in Christ's Hospital School, and so we find him entered there, July
Eig