Feb 26, 1812: Dinner at Godwin with Coleridge

On January 25, 1812, Henry Crabb Robinson writes in his diary the following: 

February 26th  A dinner party.  Coleridge, Godwin &c. &c. The company rather too numerous. Coleridge by no means the eloquent man he usually is. It was not till ten minutes before he went away that he fell into a declaiming;  mood "having," as Godwin, said "got upon the indefinites and the infinites," viz. the nature of religious conviction.  He contended that the external evidence of Christianity would be weak but for the internal evidence arising out of the necessity of our nature--our want of religion. He made use of one very happy allusion. Speaking of the mingling of subordinate evils with great good, he said, "though the serpent does twine himself round the staff of the god of healing."*...

* Godwin and Rough met at this party for the first time. The very next day Godwin called on me to say how much he liked Rough adding.  "By the by do you think he would lend me L 50 just now, as I am in want of a little money? He had not left me an hour before Rough came with a like question. He wanted a bill discounted and asked whether I thought Godwin would do it for him? The habit of both was so well known that some persons were afraid to invite them lest, it should lead to an application for a loan from some friend who chanced to be present.-- H.C.R.