LETTER 169. TO----

(--1816?)

If you had seen Lord Byron, you could scarcely disbelieve him--so beautiful a countenance I scarcely ever saw--his teeth so many stationary smiles--his eyes the open portals of the sun--things of light and for light--and his forehead so ample, and yet so flexible, passing from marble smoothness into a hundred wreathes and lines and dimples correspondent to the feelings and sentiments he is uttering.[97]]

FOOTNOTES:

[94] This is too strong an expression. It was not idleness, it was not sensual indulgence, that led Coleridge to contract this habit. No, it was latent disease, of which sufficient proof is given in this memoir.--[Note by Gillman.]

[95] [Letter CCVIII is our 166.]

[96] [Cottle or Estlin.]

[97] [Letters CCIX-CCXVIII follow 169.]