Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-04-16


marcaoa where the begins and the understand
Ing end SO that practically while admitting its general
truth how is to conduct any higher
or s. knowledge than might have attained without
bel previously acquainted with the distinction Must
T. athlete be taught the difference between the fexor
and extensor muscles before he be rustedn the pam
cratic contests Is it safe to believe the evidence o1
oversight until have learned TO distinguish be-
tween the aqueous crystalline, and ytreous humors
And analogcaly, may he not his mind for all the
purposes that mind is given for without srmsing
the distinction in question As subject Of theoretical
and abstract speculation disposed to acknowledge
its interest and value but when it is aimed make this
g distinction without difference" indsp 4hk pre-
lminary all safe investigations in reigio 11s and
philosophy, compelled to demur nor a. HeFhsnf
the philosophical w0rS,~rt Of smnl satcic III New
England are in general disposed attach value
it than that we have ourselves given truth ALL it
is not Coerdge would have believe, of those
great primordia truths which lie at the basis of divine
philosophy but viii not further press the point lest
we may risk of being set down by our Cole
rdgean pundits for sheer Panurge, "a polarded man,
man destitute of the pure reason.
1t would be easy for us 10 enumerate many topics OF
ethical philosophical and religious speculation in which
Coeridge leaves scarcely any for faufndng save
to those who in affecting to be critical really CEN
serious Had he accomplished nothing more by his vo
luminous writings than the confutation of Benthamism
in politics. of Malthusianism in political economy, and Of
what may call Paeyism in moral philosophy, he
would in judgment have neither lived nor written in
vain On the latter especially of these ism the doc
trne Of general consequences of selfish expe-
diency in morals, he is expression of his
particularly fne;' and whenever wish to refresh
and quicken contempt for this ignobe creed find
n and he in to
he has spread out his glowing pages. Splendid rhe-
toric scathng irony, and solid argument all COM
bined expose the hdeous features of such system Of
morals-a system which, considering how greatly flowers
the dignity Of human nature always reminds us OF the
royal NebuchadneIzar after he had gone to grass dwell
ling with the beasts of the field and merging his
hood into the brute till his hairs grown like eagles
feathers, and his nails like birds claws"
But after ALL the writings of Coleridge to not
much valuable for any general system of philosophy
which may be culed from them, for the light they
throw few particular subjects such have named
for the vast repository of facts thoughts, feelings
ncies and suggestions which he has gathered from the
wide wild wilderness of unarranged bookznowedge,"
from every of nature field of science and walk of
to his genius, his works resemble the
sructured pile that rising in midst to the Father
of his Country with hewn from almost every quar-
under the heavens We know Of other author whose
pages thicky with the seeds Of thought
a-sslrr~d and -rnhryaste ernx whichs falling ge-
NAL soil, hardly fail to yield hundredfod. His
must be stold intellect indeed which is reused,
quickened startled and vvhed by the creative genius of
this great master in the world of mind For this
ampled suggestyeness most prize his works True,
there ncompeteness about nearly every thing he has
touched and the swift current of his thought sometimes
seems to us to flow along muddy enough, bearing
,ho Will
god but sticks chips, floating weeds, and froth But
we are not that this very incOmpleteness does
not add to the peculiar value Of his works
Ideas which are set forth full-orbed and definite,
thoughts terse and round may be very good
in the memory for second use but do not however
truly furnish the pabulum with which to recruit in
teecual strength, those which, by Of their in
choae perfection require sweat from own brow
before they incorporated with mental acquisitions
The former may lie idle, nay feless in the mind, and
there accumulate until it shall become the mere charne
house Of dead thoughts the latter by their very
energetic and procreative they impregnae with
forms Of life the teeming brain they fecundate the
plastic mind that contempates them with original though
kindred conceptions like the piled rods which the pa
trarch in sacred story laid before the eyes his
hocks have laid too many eggs exclaims Coleridge
himself in the hot sands of this wilderness the world
with ostrich carelessness and ostrich oblivion. The
greater part indeed have been trod under foot and
forgotten but yet small number have crept forth into
e furnish feathers for the caps Of Others and
still to plume the shafts in the quiyers Of my
mics" Well has he been compared to one who, with
long and large arm collected precious armfus in what
ever direction he pressed forward yet still took up so
much than he could keep together that those who
follow him CLEAN from his continual droppngs than
he himself brought home. Coleridges mind in fne la
bored under plethora Of thought instead of mastering
his genius he mastered by it, Each idea it rises
before his mental gaze to hold mirror rejecting
it in almost endless vistas lines Of thought
and straighway he is lured from the goal which he
tended and starts in pursuit Of objects charming
new There those who maintain that in all his APP
parent wilderness of dgressons he is yet pursuing the
thread Of his miraculous logic the difficulty Of tracing
which, in the Of Greek strophe Pndarc ODE
es precisely in the very fact Of its mnuteness and
universaity may be but since this clew is gener-
ally undiscoyerabe, reminded Of Dean Swifs joke
about the papa nfabiity and do see the use of
if we not to know where to find it. We were about
to make alusion to his conversational powers and colo
quia habits to which latter he was wonderfully addicted
- learning, power and time
(Too much Of all) thus wasting in vain war
OF feryid colloquy
when reminded of Carlyes description Of his
surprising talk, which, with due abatements made for
the exaggerated dction of that literary Cyclops is we
doubt not, faithful SKETCH and with which we must
conclude reluctantly part these random observa
tons a favorite author:
The good man, he was now getting old towards sixty
perhaps; and gave you the idea of life that had been