Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1880-12-18

To my conception Of a man Of gonius, FOR
his miid flowed ON "liko to tho Pontick
sc,, that "nc'cr feels retiring cbb. " IL
was always ready FOR action like the hare,
it slept with it's eyes open. Ho would at
nny given moment range from the subtlest
and most nbstruso question in motnphy ysics
to tho architectural beauty in contrivnnco
of n flower of the field aud the gorgeous
moss of his imagery would increase nud
dinto aud flash forth such coruscntons of
smiles and startling theories that ono wns
in perpetual aurora borcalis of fancy. AS
llnFhtt once said of him. " llo would talk
on forever, and you wished him TO talk on
forever. His thoughts never seemed to come
with labor or effort, hut ms if borno on
the gusts OF genius, and ms if tho wings
of his imagination lifted him of his feet.
This is as truly Ms POLITICALLY described. lIo
would not only illustrate theory or an
argument with sustained and superb
figure, but in pursuing the current of his
thought he would bubble up with sparkle
Of fancy SO fleet and brilliant that the Mt
tcutiou, though startled and arrested, was
not broken. He would throw these into
the stream of his argu mont, MS wnifs and
strnys. Notwithstanding his wealth of
language and prcdigious power in ampli-
fcatiou, no one, | think, unless it were
Shakespeare or Bacon }, possessed with
himself equal power of condensation. He
would frequently comprise tho elements of
a noble thcorcm in two or three words;
and like the genuine offspring of poets
brain, it always came forth in golden
halo. | remember once in discoursng
upon the architecture of the Middle Ages,
hn rnln hn fnt ,pta
magnificent abstraction - and in two
words. A Gothic cathedral" he said,
sis like a petritied religion.
In his prose, MS well as in his poetry,
Coleridge's comparisons are almost uni.
| formly short and unostentatous and not
on that account the less forcible: they nro
scriptural in character; indeed it would be
| difficult to find ono more apt to the pur-
pose than that which he has used and yet
| it always appears to be unprcmeditated
Hore is n random example of what mean
II is au uaimportataut one, but it serves
for casual illustration of his force in COM
parisou. 1t is the last line in that strange
and impressive fragment in prose, "Tho
| Wanderings of Cain -" And they three
passed over the white sands, and between
the rocks. silent as their shadows. 1t
| WIZ pe uiHcuit, tu'nK, 10 nhu stronger
image than that, to convey the idea of the
utter negation of sound, with motion.
Like all men of genius, and with the
gift of eloquence, Coleridge had power
and subtlety in Interpretation that would
persuade an ordinary listener against the
conviction of his senses. 1t has been said
of him that he could persuade Christ
ian he was Platonist, Deist that he
was Christian, and an Atheist that he
believed in a God. The preface to his ode
of '' Fire, Famine, and Slaughter, where.
in he labors to show that Pitt the Prime
Minister was not the object of his invectve
at the time of his composing that famous
war eclogue, is at once a triumphant
specimen of his talent for special pleading
and ingenuity in sophistication.
MARY CowDEN CLARKE.