The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of old religion, The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain, Or forest, by slow stream, or pebbly spring, Or chasms and watery depths; all these have vanished; They live no longer in the faith of reason; But still the heart doth need a language; still Doth the old instinct bring back the old names; Spirits or gods that used to share this earth With man as with their friend; and at this day 'Tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great, And Venus who brings every thing that's fair.

William Hazlitt a Unitarian minister's son was in the congregation having walked from Wem in order to hear him. These events cut cruelly into the hearts of old men: but the good Dr. To Coleridge the "cinque spotted spider" making its way upstream "by fits and starts" [Biographia Literaria] is not merely a comment on the intermittent nature of creativity imagination or spiritual progress but the journey and destination of his life.

Throughout his adult life Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder a condition not identified during his lifetime. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum which fostered a lifelong opium addiction.