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affections – as the only means of preventing the passions from turning the Reason into an hiredAdvocate’ (398). I would suggest that this new attitude of mind was one he had developed from hisdiscussion with Wordsworth. 29 The concepts and the ideas can be seen to reflect Wordsworth’s openminded,un-dogmatic approach to philosophy, indicative of his adoption of Cicero’s position, as anAcademic Sceptic. This would appear to have been a novel concept for Coleridge who had a naturalcompulsion for needing to define truth in terms of absolute certainty. I compose the argument of thisthesis according to such an assumption, and argue that in March 1798 Coleridge was in awe ofWordsworth’s intellect, rather than vice versa. Wordsworth had provided Coleridge with a new‘philosophy’ of life, one that Coleridge would find hard to adhere to, and would not be able tomaintain. Wordsworth, however, does remain constant in his stoic attitude of mind, which will berepresented again in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads when he describes his own habits of meditation,and their importance to building up a stable and wise character.Contrary to the influential readings of Wordsworth made by Jonathan Wordsworth in TheMusic of Humanity (1969), and echoed by Stephen Gill in William Wordsworth: A Life (1989), I seethe Ms B text of ‘The Ruined Cottage’ as a production of Wordsworth’s own mind – which had beenimpressed more by the mind of Cicero than Coleridge. Jonathan Wordsworth had made a point ofasserting that Coleridge had provided Wordsworth with the knowledge he needed to develop his newpoetic voice in The Ruined Cottage and had, most especially, provided him with a ‘one-life’philosophy. Much critical attention had been given to exploring Coleridge’s ideas at this time in orderto define the particular shape of his ‘one-life’ philosophy – so as to then appreciate the influence thatit had on Wordsworth. I argue here that it was Cicero’s representation of early Stoic philosophy thatprovided Wordsworth with a ‘one-life’ philosophy at this time; one that differed radically fromColeridge’s conception. Rather than following Jonathan Wordsworth’s and Gill’s assertions thatWordsworth owed an intellectual debt to Coleridge at this time, I accept Coleridge’s representation ofhis feelings of deference to Wordsworth’s intellect – as his letters attest – and I have no reason todoubt his sincerity in 1798. 30 Before concluding this discussion of Coleridge’s remarks aboutWordsworth in the earlier days of their relationship, I also want to make note, in passing, ofColeridge’s remarks about Wordsworth’s eloquence in his letter to Estlin. It is during this period thatWordsworth had declared to James Tobin that he was dedicating himself to the pursuit of ‘eloquence’in his poetry, having just demonstrated it, with style, in The Ruined Cottage. In the letter to Estlin,Coleridge related that though this was the case in his poetry, Wordsworth rarely demonstrated hiseloquence in conversation – except in animated debate, in private, with Coleridge himself. It would29 Coleridge’s comments in this letter need to be compared with his earlier attitude of mind as expressed to JohnThelwall: ‘ In conversation I am impassioned and oppose what I deem [error] with an eagerness, which isoften mistaken for personal asperity – but I am ever so swallowed up in the thing, that I perfectly forget myopponent (CL I 260). It would seem that in conversation with Wordsworth he was unable to be so selfcentered.Not only did he obviously choose to listen, he seems to have done so with attention.30 I briefly touch on Jonathan Wordsworth’s and Gill’s representations of Wordsworth in Chapter 9.56