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4 THE BLUE-COAT BOY [1772-
De Quincey can be trusted, he called "the immediate language
of the Holy Ghost'. Of several school-books which
he compiled, the most important was a Critical Latin Grammar
(1772), prefaced by a logical analysis of the case-forms,
wherein he defined the ablative—I do not know why De
Quincey says the accusative—as the 'Quale-quafe-quidditive'
case. His son's 'Quippe-quare-quale-quia-quidditive'
is an exaggeration. He did not in fact propose to adopt this
nomenclature for teaching practice, since 'Antiquity pleads
for the present names of the cases in opposition to Reason
and prevails'. But, oddly enough, his 'possessive' for 'genitive'
has since become common usage. In his lighter
moments he wrote English verses, and even accomplished
a translation of the Phormio of Terence as The Fair Barbadian,
which he sent to Garrick as suited to the English
stage. His private life' was marked by simplicity and an
extreme absent-mindedness, especially in matters of personal
appearance. To Gillman, as to Poole and De Quincey before
him, Coleridge would call him 'a perfect Parson Adams' and
'an Israelite without guile', and tell tales of his peculiarities
until the tears ran down his face. They were told, says Gillman,
of another clergyman in the neighbourhood as well.
Withal, wrote Coleridge in more serious mood, though
not a first-rate genius, he was a first-rate Christian. He
recalls 'that venerable countenance and name which form
my earliest recollections and make them religious*. He was
proud and tender to be told that he strongly resembled his
father in person and mind. He thought that he had inherited
from him a tendency to gout. And although 'one of the
most temperate men alive in his ordinary practice' the vicar
was sometimes affected by wine 'under the stimulus of
society and eager conversation'. There is material for the
student of heredity in all this. 1
Samuel Taylor came at the end of a long family. John
and Ann Coleridge had nine sons and one daughter. The
simplicity of the vicar was such that he would have apprenticed
his boys to traders, with the exception of Samuel him-
1 C. 2, 4, 240; G. 184, 327; Gillman, 2; Studies, 8; D.H. 13; De Q. ii. 164; L.P.
87; R..E.S. x. 451.