New-York daily tribune., 1843-05-26
VOL. sEi. NO. Al.

! al
deccssors. have, however, necessarily led to iur-
ther reflections. What are these laws and forms
and where are they to be sought for Are they
! Iaus oC nature or laws of the mind Is the
man of genius the author of them, or does he
merely perceive them and adapt himself to them?
1t has been found impossible TO affirm either posi-
! tion-to adopt either form Of language as the
! sufficient and exclusive one Those who endea-
vor TO do so are coon seen to contradict them
selves; some unconscious phrase asserts IN one
| sentence that which was denied In the previous
one. 1t seems to follow that the law of the ina
gination is a law of fellowship or intercommunion
with nature; You cannot describe it IN any terms
which 90 not imply this to be the case; you can
not 90 deeper than to say. that 1t creates only as
far as It secs and that 1t sees only SO far as 1t has
the faculty Of creating just as sight and sound
can neither be predicated solely of the eye nor Of
the thing behcld-of the ear nor of the thing
heard, but arc the product of BOTH
The work is dedicated 10 the Rev. DERwENT
CoLERIDGE, son of SAMUEL TAYLOR CoLERIDGE,
to the influence Of whose writings the author at
tributes in great degree the general character Of
his own philosophical convictions.
Every one who has felt this influence" says
he in his dedication, must, think, be anxious
TO acknowledge it. You NAV well be surprised
therefore, that in a book Of some length | have
referred to it so seldom. Twenty years ago you
might have attributed such an omission to COW
ardlv and eshonorabc dread of being associated
with an unpopular name. But at the time !
wrote the bascst man could not have been affect
cd by such u motive this, for the different
English parties which. during Mr.. Coleridye's
lifetime, had only differed in the degrees of their
dislike to him, were scranbling for a share of his
opinions. 1t seemed to me that the only danger
of another reaction lay in the ambition of his ad-
rnirers to make him responsible for their state
ments Of his views or their inference from them.
To this evil | wished not to be accessory. never
had any persona! acquaintance with him. | had
no means, therefore, of correcting the impressions
of him which | had derived from his works.
was Of course liable to the greatest mistakes OF
judgement in my Interpretation Of these. as well
as to the moral temptation Of pcrvcrting them to
my own purposes. | thought it better, therefore,
to seem even to myself ungratclul and plagiarist
than TO incur the risk of abusing his name to the
support of sentiments which he might have dis
approved, and, perhaps, of hinderng from
proliling by his WISDOM because | had taught
them to connect 1t with my 1ollles.
The whole dedication, which is somewhat ex-
tended, is most eloquent and discriminating ex-
position of the general character Of the works of
CoLERIDGE and of the influence which they have
cxcrted. The following passage presents most
beautifully and truly one feature Of CoLERIDGE's
personal history
"There arc persons who feel no affection for
book unless they can associate it with a living
name. am not sure whether | labor under this
incapacilv. but | own that the books of Mr.. Cole
ridge manly interesting to me as the biogra-
pv of one who passed through the struggles of
the age to which VIC are succeeding, and who was
able, after great effort and much sorrow to disco
yer IA resting-placc. Those juvenile poems which
exhibit him to us when he was seeking in Unta-
ranism refuge from the fiatncss and the false
hood of Il mere State Chrlstianty-thc fierce and
marnticent ode in which he sees the old Euro.
pcan world of convention and oppression falling TO
pieces and rcoiccs IN the s.ght-thc noble recan-
tation of his hopes from republican asccndancy-
his ode to Dependency, cmbodving so perfectly
the feelings Of a man who. after the dsappoint-
mcnt of all practical hopes. had sought i'll medta-
ton for delivcrancc and rest, and then on return
inr TO the actual world had found its glory de-
parted and his capacities oienjoymcnt dead-these
poems have always seemed to me so intensely and
painfully real, and so expressive OF what thou
sands OF minds in different measures have been
experiencing, that | do not suppose that have
ever done Justice TO any Of them merely as work
of art do not think there is any thing neon
sstent in this acknowledgement with the belief,
that in him as in every great poet the exercise OF
the creative faculty implied seli-forgcttulness and
the power of passing beyond the region OF person
al experience. No one can utter the thoughts oi
other men as we'll as his own, can be III any de
gree the spokesman ofhis time, to whom tins quail
lty docs net belong. But ii consists, should I'M
anne, nearly always with much of inward suffer
inc The person who enters most into what
number of others are experiencing, does, IN the
strictcst and liveest sense experience II himself.
On these points, however. we have no night to
speak, and If speak ignorantly. YOU must relnem
Der, that merely pretend to tell you what my
own impressions have been, not to make them
standard for other readers. our fathers greater
poems, such as the Ancient Mariner and Chrsta-
belle seem undoubtedly to belong to the region OF
the pure imagination. But question whether
should be as much interested as | am even IN
these if did not discover in them many VEINS
and fbres which seem to me to connect them
with his personal being, If they did not help me
to read more clearly the history Of his mind and
thercin the history OF our time
His Friend Biographa Literaria, Aids to
Reflections and other works, are each criticised
with the same clear insight and warm apprecia-
ton The author acknowledges his perpetual
and deep Indebtedness to the writings OF Cole
RIDGE in every department OF his inquiry, and, IN
the following passage, administers rcbuke as
severe as il is deserved 10 those who ceaseleSsly
mai igned HIM while living. and who have as per
tinacously prcycd upon his memory since his
death: