New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-03-30
IFron D. oAnses'a E.aas on Conversation
Coleridge's MonoIogues

| Coleridge, unless he could have all the talk
would have none. But then this was not con
versation. 1t was not coilogniuna, or talking
| otth the company, but aiioquiua,, or talking to
the company. As Madame de Stael observed,
Coleridge talked and could talk only by mono
logue. Such d mode of systematic tfespass upon
| the conversational rights of whole party,
gathered together under pretense of amusement,
| IS fatal to every purpose of social intercourse
| whether that purpose be connected with the di.
rect use and the service of the intellect or with
| the general graees and amenities of life The
| result is the same under whatever impulse such
| an outrage is praeticed; but the impulse is not
llways the same; it varies, and so far the Grim.
mai intention varies In some people this gross
| excess takes its rise in pure arrogance. They
are fully aware of their own intrusion upon the
general privileges of the company; they are
aware OF the temper in which it is likely to be
received: but they persist willfully in the wrong,
| as sort of homage levied compulsory upon
| those who may wish to resist it, but hardly can
| do SO without violent interruption, wearing the
same shape of indecorum as that which they
| resent. In most people, however, it is not arro-
gance which prompts this capital offense against
social rights, but blind selfshntss, yielding
passively to its own instincts, without being dis
tinctly aware Of the degree in which this self
indulgence trespasses on the rights of others.
We see the same temper illustrated at times in
travelling; brutal person, as we are disp sed
| at first to pronounce him, but more frequently
one who yields nnconsciousiy to a lethargy OF
selhshness, plants himself at the public fireplace,
so as to exclude his fellow. travellers from all
buta fraction of the warmth. Yet he does not
do this in q spirit Of willful aggression upon
| others; he has but glimmering suspicion of the
odious shape which his own act assumes to others,
for the luxurious tOrpor of self indulgence has
extended It's mitst to the energy and clearness of
his perceptions. Meantime, Goleridge's habit Of
soliloquizing through whole evening of four or
five hours, had its origin neither in arrogance
nor in absolute selfishness. The fact was that
he could not talk unless hewere uninterrupted,
and unless he were able to count upon this con-
cession from the company. Il was silent CON
tract between him and his hearers. that nobody
should speak but himself If any man objected
to this arrangement, why did he Gomez For
the custom of the place, ier loci teing notorious
by coming at all he was understood to profess
his allegiance to the autocrat who presided 1t
was not, therefore, by an insolent usurpation
that Coleridge persisted in monology through
his whole life, but in virtue of concession from
the kindness and respect of his friends. You
could not be angry with him for using his priv
ilege for it was a privilege conferred by others,
and privilege which he was ready to resign as
soon as any man demurred to it. But though
reconciled to it by these considerations, and BY
the ability with which he used it, you could not
but feel that it worked i'll for all parties Him
self is tempted oftentimes into pure garrulity of
egotism, and the listeners it reduced to state
Of debilitated sympathy or of absolute torpor.
Prevented by the custom from putting questions,
from proposing doubts, from asking for explain.
ations, reaeting by no mode of mental ACTIVITY,
and condemned also to the mental distress OF
hearing opinions or doctrines stream past them
by flights which they must not arrest for a mo.
ment, so as even to take note of them, and
which yet they could not often understand, or,
seeming to understand, could not always ap-
prove, the audience sank at times into listless
condition of inanimate vacuity. To be acted
upon forever, but never to react, is fatal to the
very powers by which 81 jmpathy must grow, or
by which intelligent admiration can be evoked.
For his own sake, it was Coleridge's interest to
have forced his hearers into the active commerce
of question and answer, of objection and demur.
Not otherwise was it possible that even the at
tendance could be kept from dropping, or the
coherency and dependency of the arguments be
forced into light
MADAME DE sTAEL. -
The French rarely make mistake of this na-
ture. The graceful leyity of the nation could
not easily err in this direction, nor tolerate
such dsliration in the greatest of man. Not
the gay tszaRsramsnt only of the French people,
but Che parasular qualities Of the Frensh lan-