Chronology -- Prologue: Literary life, 1815 -- 'The discipline of his taste at school': Christ's Hospital and Cambridge -- 'The progress of his opinions in religion and politics': the radical years -- 'A known and familiar landscape': conversations -- 'The poet, described in Ideal perfection': Annus mirabilis -- 'The toil of thinking': private notes and public newspapers -- 'To rust away': the lost years 1800-6 -- 'The one Proteus of the fire and the flood': critic for hire -- 'To preserve the soul steady': the sage of Highgate.