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


happen to transcend the perch of understand
ing-teects ategi5ia, they may hint is all that
wanting comprehension well of his philosophy
| as his poetry.
There is another class who, thinking they discover IN
his writings the proofs of teasing subtey rather than
any real philosophical acumen proceed without compunc
ion absurd the very works which the former
class enough admire These latter agree to all that
be said in praise of his poetry is at the
of his philosophy and his theology But besides these vp
posite parties there is still third class who deem it wise
deal with Colerdge with any other author by yield
ing cheerful homage his merits, and yet ella ming to
criticize in independent spirit what they deem his
faults and defects We shall not leave it doubtful among
which Of these parties have chosen to array ourselves
Desiring to cultivate genial admiration of the Beaut
full and the True wherever found should be to
suffer iifsrencc - opinion dininishSqr sebsibE
ty to thSformer our love to the latter.
Ny system, says Coleridge himself, when speaking
in his latter days, " if may venture to give it fine
name is the only attempt know made to reduce
all kncwedges into harmony. 1t opposes other sys-
TEN, but shows what was true in each and how that
which was the particular in each of them became
error because it only half the truth have endeayor
ed unite the insulated fragments of truth and there
with to frame perfect mirror Such his system in
idea but unfortunately these insulated fragments
never framed into grand and perfect mirror" He
himself eclectic from all other systems and has
left his followers to be eclectcs from his SO far from re-
iucng preceding systems into single harmonious whole
he rather have gathered the fagmentary truths
culled from each only litter them again with Of
random profusion through this and that page of his
copous writings. His opinions were, moreover slow in
their growth and formation. His mental development
was eminently historic process" and hence it has
pass that much of what is asserted in his earlier
L laI
matured productions. And in this way only ex-
plain why it is that many conflicting creeds if not
evolved FROM are yet fortified by his writings In the
oogy, for instance find his authority adduced in
the service of evangelical orthodoxy and of rtuasm
Rationasts and Mystcs, yea, Swedenborgians and
Spiritual Rappers alike profess to find in his specua-
tions something confrmaory of their peculiar and avo
rite tenets.
In his theological opinions has himself confessed that
he wasoEg unsettled Many elapsed before his ark
touched Ararat and rested" So, too in philosophy he
often contradictory and in the bold search for truth
stands in any of himself. Thus it is that
painful ncertitude is left hanging the mind while
perusng nearly all his writings philosophical subjects.
Where there is not crack flaw there is hiatus calde
dnd As in his poetry Sir Walter Scott censured him
for the caprice and Incidence with which he wont to
throw from him in waptonness those unfinished
scraps of poesy which, like the Torso Of antiquity defed
the skill OF his poecal brchrsa coplete them;
too his philosophy and in higher degree he lies open
the and inspires the same regret Two
chiefly conspred to produce this effect One was
the wantof competency to relieve him from the vexaons
of the res augusta dom have remained poor" says
he by always having been poor and incapable of pur-
suing any great work for the want of competence
beforehand Another and stronger reason is to be found
in the dreamy resoluton which often stood between
what his brain conceived and his hand executed He
perpetualy planning works. without either finishing
abandoning his old 1t the old story Of the
bad consequences of having many in the fire. Cot
tie mentions less than fifty works which he projected
in his earlier days. not of which he eected
and these projects and reaching though
he had hoped for something like anteduyan longevity
For instance, from his 10th year, he had medtated
heroic poem the ''Siege of Jerusalem by Titus
should not think e ys) of devoting less than twenty
years to this poem ten years collect materials and
warm my mind with universal science. l would be a
toerabe mathematician. Iwoud thoroughly understand
Mechanics, HydrOstatics, Optics Astronomy, Botany,
Metallurgy, Fossiism Chemistry, Geology, Anatomy,
Medicine then the mind Of man then the mind Of men
in all travels voyages, and histories SO would spend
ten years the next five in the composition Of the poem
and the five last in the correction of it. So would WRITE
haply not unhearng Of that divine and nightly whispering
voice which speaks to mighty minds Of predestned gar
lands, starry and unwthering. SO, toe, he was per-
peualy intending to bequeath the world great prose
work sometimes it the Prma Philosopha, the
4 0mne Scibe, and sometimes the Harmony of Phi
osophy and the Christian Religion which, like sim-
lar design Of the wise and devout Pascal to be the
crownng effort of his life; but the work came to
4 light.
Our readers therefore, will not wonder il we fight
shy of any formal and ddactc of Coeridges
metaphysical system in its details In general terms we
would say it twas German ranscendenalism tempered
by his intense English partiaes, modified by his faith
in christianity and the established church, adorned and
and chastened with the advance Of age We know not
how in single sentence we better comprise con-
ception Of his doctrines in all their generality The great
primal Of his philosophy may however be deemed
worthy of more special designation. We alude to his
fundamental distinction between the and the
pERsrASprSo, which he pronounces pre-emnently the
gradus ad phosohiGm and without which cannot as
he thinks, escape thousand difficulties in theology
ethics, and metaphysics.
Reason he defines to be h power Of universal and
sa convictions hesomce and substance truths above sense
and haprng their erdeac in Themselves The understanding
is in general terms stated be the faculty BY wch we
reflect and generaise either the observations of the
senses the operations Of the mind, the pure cog
nons of the reason The reason, according Coeridge
fixed conemplave and self-evincive that is appeal
np in all its decisions only itself for the grounds and
substance Of their truth The mdersanding the other
hand s discursye reflective, and in all its judgments