May 3. 1830
Black Colonel
What an excellent character is the black Colonel in Mrs. Bennett’s “Beggar Girl!”1
If an inscription be put upon my tomb, it may be that I was an enthusiastic lover of the church; and as enthusiastic a hater of those who have betrayed it, be they who they may.2
Notes
1 This character was frequently a subject of pleasant description and enlargement with Mr. Coleridge, and he generally passed from it to a high commendation of Miss Austen’s novels, as being in their way perfectly genuine and individual productions.—ED.
2 This was a strong way of expressing a deep-rooted feeling. A better and a truer character would be, that Coleridge was a lover of the church, and a defender of the faith! This last expression is the utterance of a conviction so profound that it can patiently wait for time to prove its truth.—ED.