button to main menu  Gents Mag 1853 part 2 p.372
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Gentleman's Magazine 1853 part 2 p.372
Postumianus, and for Postumianus on the strength of it to give up the wheat which his factor had seized; but though good for these purposes; it will not, we conceive, gain much belief at the present day. Such as it is, however, it was manifestly the origin of Coleridge's Poem, and as such we lay it before the reader without more apology.
Last winter the scarcity of corn in Rome was so great that out merchants attempted the voyage from Sardinia before the usual season for navigation had set in, hoping to supply the wants of the famishing city. A numerous fleet sailed, but scarcely had they left harbour, so Secundinianus told me the story, when a violent storm arose, that drove the ships back and dashed them on the rocky coast of the island. Secundinianus's vessel would have shared their fate, had not the crew thrown out anchors that kept it steady for a time, but the storm no what abating, they soon parted their cables, and the men, now panic-stricken, let down the life-boat, intending either to carry out anchors or to excape from the wreck which seemed near impending. The hurricane, however, in a moment split their frail bark upon the rocks, and the men lost their lives in the waves. One only, an old man who was working at the pump, was left behind, being either altogether forgotten or looked on as one whose life or death was of little importance. Meanwhile the ship, thus bereft of crew and anchors, drifted out into the open sea. The old man, who knew nothing of what had happened, felt the vessel pitching and rolling, and coming up from the hold found there was no object within view but the sea and the sky. The feeling of loneliness increased the terror which the perils that surrounded him naturally inspired, Six whole days and nights he passed without breaking bread, making, as the Psalmist saith, his tears his meat, and longing only for death to close the dreary scene.
Here we pause to compare the following stanzas from Coleridge:

But now the North wind came more fierce,
There came a tempest strong;
And Southward still for days and nights
Like chaff we drove along.
* * * *

Alone, alone - all, all alone,
Alone on the wide wide sea:
And Christ would take no pity on
My soul in agony.
* * * *

I clos'd my lids, and kept them close,
Till the balls like pulses beat;
For the sky and the sea, and the sea and the sky,
Lay like a load on my weary eye,
And the dead were at my feet.
We now resume the narrative of Paulinus.
At length our dear Lord, ever kind and compassionate, not only deigned to visit the old man in his misery, but gave him new life with the food of His Word. His sufferings were now ended, and blessed was their end; he shed tears as he told me how the Lord called him by name, and comforted him; how he bade him lighten the vessel by cutting away the mast. This indeed was a task which many strong men could not execute without danger to themselves and the vessel, but which he, lonely and weak as he was, and strong ony in the Word of God, feared not to undertake. He struck only two blows with his axe - blows that were weak enough, as an old man's would be - and the mast fell at once quite clear of the vessel, and at some distance off into the sea. After this, whatever service was needed, whether to hoist the sails or to work at the pump, the Lord, calling him by the name of Victor, would bid him put his hand to the work. And with reference to this name of Victor, I must not omit to state that among the ineffable mercies which the Lord heaped upon him, it was not the least, that He gave him a name to be sealed with in his New Birth - a name by which he is now known not only amongst men but amongst men but amongst angels - for his heathen appelation being Valgius, he has now the name of Victor from the Lord, being a Victor in the Lord, who made him by His Grace victorious by sea over shipwreck and tempest, and by land over Sin and the Devil. Wonderful indeed were the steadfastness and loving mercy of Jesus. If at any time the old man was sluggish in rising to his duties, he would first tap him gently with his hand, (molli manu ante praepalpans) then softly pluck his ear,* fearing lest He should alarm him by waking him on the sudden.
* This was a not unusual way of calling a person's attention among the Romans. Thus Virgil, in the Bucolics,

Cynthius aurem
Vellit et admonuit.
And Milton, imitating him, in Lycidas,

Phoebus replied, and touched our trembling ears.
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