Ashington, Sussex.
"_God and the world_" (Vol. vii., pp. 134. 297.).--These lines are
found, as quoted by W. H., in Coleridge's _Aids to Reflection_, p. 87.,
ed. 1831. Coleridge gives them as the words of a sage poet of the
preceding generation (meaning, I suppose, the generation preceding that
of Archbishop Leighton, a passage from whose works he has introduced as
an aphorism just before). I have often wondered who this poet was, and
whether the last line were really a quotation from _Macbeth_, or whether
Shakspeare and the unknown poet had both but borrowed a popular saying.
I also had my suspicions that Coleridge himself might have patched the
verses a little; and the communication of your correspondent RT.,
tracing the lines in their original form to the works of Fulke Greville
Lord Brooke, now verifies his conjecture. It may be worth while to point
out another instance of this kind of manufacture by the same skilful
hand. In the first volume of _The Friend_ (p. 215., ed. 1818), Coleridge
places at the head of an essay a quotation of two stanzas from Daniel's
_Musophilus_. The second, which precedes in the original that which
Coleridge places first, is thus given by him:
"_Since writings_ are the veins, the arteries,
And undecaying life-strings of those hearts,
That still shall pant and still shall exercise
_Their mightiest powers when Nature none imparts;
And the strong constitution of their praise
Wear out the infection of distemper'd days_."
Daniel wrote as follows (vol. ii. p. 373., ed. 1718):
"_For these lines_ are the veins, the arteries
And undecaying life-strings of those hearts,
That still shall pant and still shall exercise
_The motion spirit and nature both imparts,
And still with those alive so sympathize,
As nourish'd with their powers, enjoy their parts_."