Cole ridge, Samuel Taylor

poet, philosopher, and critic, born in Devons hire; pa ionately devoted to cla ical and metaphysical studies; educated at Christ's Hospital; had Charles Lamb for schoolmate; at Cambridge devoted himself to cla ics; falling into debt enlisted as a soldier, and was, after four months, bought off by his friends; gave himself up to a literary life; married, and took up house near Words worth, in Somersets hire, where he produced the "Ancient Mariner," "Christ a bel," and "Remorse"; preached occasionally in Unitarian pulpits; visited Germany and other parts of the Continent; lectured in London in 1808; when there took to opium, broke off the habit in 1816, and went to stay with the Gillmans at High gate as their guest, under whose roof, after four years' confinement to a sick-room, he died; among his works were "The Friend," his "Biograph i a Literaria," "Aids to Reflection," ., published in his lifetime, and "Confe ions of an Inquiring Spirit," "Literary Remains," and "Table Talk" after his death; he was a man of subtle and large intellect, and exercised a great influence on the thinkers of his time, though in no case was the influence a decisive one, as it had the most opposite effects on different minds; his philosophy was hazy, and his life was without aim, "once more the tragic story of a high endowment with an insufficient will" (1772-1834). See Carlyle's estimate of him in the "Life of Sterling."