[150] The Rev. H. F. Cary, 1772-1844, the well-known translator of the _Divina Commedia_. His son and biographer, the Rev. Henry Cary, gives the following account of his father's first introduction to Coleridge, which took place at Littlehampton in the autumn of 1817:--
"It was our custom to walk on the sands and read Homer aloud, a practice adopted partly for the sake of the sea-breezes.... For several consecutive days Coleridge crossed us in our walk. The sound of the Greek, and especially the expressive countenance of the tutor, attracted his notice; so one day, as we met, he placed himself directly in my father's way and thus accosted him: 'Sir, yours is a face I _should_ know. I am Samuel Taylor Coleridge.'" _Memoir of H. F. Cary_, ii. 18.
[151] It appears, however, that he underrated his position as a critic. A quotation from Cary's _Dante_, and a eulogistic mention of the work generally, in a lecture on Dante, delivered by Coleridge at Flower-de-Luce Court, on February 27, 1818, led, so his son says, to the immediate sale of a thousand copies, and notices "reëchoing Coleridge's praises" in the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly Reviews_. _Memoir of H. F. Cary_, ii. 28.
[153] Joseph Henry Green, 1791-1863, an eminent surgeon and anatomist. In his own profession he won distinction as lecturer and operator, and as the author of the _Dissector's Manual_, and some pamphlets on medical reform and education. He was twice, 1849-50 and 1858-59, President of the College of Surgeons. His acquaintance with Coleridge, which began in 1817, was destined to influence his whole career. It was his custom for many years to pass two afternoons of the week at Highgate, and on these occasions as amanuensis and collaborateur, he helped to lay the foundations of the _Magnum Opus_. Coleridge appointed him his literary executor, and bequeathed to him a mass of unpublished MSS. which it was hoped he would reduce to order and publish as a connected system of philosophy. Two addresses which he delivered, as Hunterian Orations in 1841 and 1847, on "Vital Dynamics" and "Mental Dynamics," were published in his lifetime, and after his death two volumes entitled _Spiritual Philosophy, founded on the Teaching of S. T. Coleridge_, were issued, together with a memoir, by his friend and former pupil, Sir John Simon.