It has already been mentioned that when the first volume of Wordsworth's
_Lyrical Ballads_ was published, _The Ancient Mariner_ was included in it,
as a poem by an anonymous friend. It had been the intention of Coleridge
to publish another poem in the second volume; but it was considered
incongruous, and excluded. That poem was the exquisite ballad entitled
_Love_, or _Genevieve_.
HIS HELPLESSNESS.--With no home of his own, he lived by visiting his
friends; left his wife and children to the support of others, and seemed
incapable of any other than this shifting and shiftless existence. This
natural imbecility was greatly increased during a long period by his
constant use of opium, which kept him, a greater portion of his life, in a
world of dreams. He was fortunate in having a sincere and appreciative
friend in Mr. Gilman, surgeon, near London, to whose house he went in
1816; and where, with the exception of occasional visits elsewhere, he
resided until his death in 1834. If the Gilmans needed compensation for
their kindness, they found it in the celebrity of their visitor; even
strangers made pilgrimages to the house at Highgate to hear the rhapsodies
of "the old man eloquent.
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