(1729). His mystical writings are the product of his later years, and owe much to the influence of Boehme, whose works he became acquainted with in 1734. What is commonly known as Law's translation of Boehme's works is really a re-edition of the old translation, undertaken in Law's memory by Ward and Langcake. (Brit. Encycl., ninth edition, art. Boehme.) PAGE 99 1. 1. The Ethics of Spinoza. Cp. Hazlitt (Spirit of the Age, Coleridge). 'Spinoza became his God, and he took up the vast chain of Being in his hand... but poetry redeemed him from his spectral philosophy.' In 1803 Coleridge wrote of Spinoza: 'If Spinoza had left the doctrine of miracles untouched, and had not written so powerfully in support of universal toleration, his ethics would never have brought on him the charge of Atheism. His doctrine, in this respect, is truly and severely orthodox in the reformed Church.' Cp. also the marginal notes on his copy of the Ethics (quoted partially in Dr. Martineau's Study of Spinoza, and printed in the Athenaeum, April, 1897), where Coleridge writes:-'I cannot agree with Jacobi's assertion that Spinosism as taught by Spinoza is Atheism. For though he will not consent to call things essentially disparate by the same name, and therefore denies human intelligence to the Deity, yet he adores his Wisdom, and expressly declares the identity of Love, i. e., perfect Virtue or concentric Will, in the human Being, and that with which the supreme loves himself, as all in all. It is true he contends for Necessity; but then he makes two disparate classes of Necessity, the one identical with Liberty (even as the Christian Doctrine"Whose service is perfect freedom"), the other Compulsion or Slavery.' See also Crabb Robinson, Diary, &c., Dec. 20, 1810; Biog. Lit. ii. 217. Yet to the end Coleridge classed Spinoza with the pantheists. See The Friend (1818), IÏ. xi (Coleridge, Works, ed. Shedd. ii. 470); Letter to Brabant (1815); Westm. Review, April, 1870; Crabb Robinson, Diary, &c., Nov. 3, 1812; and T. T., March 10, 1827, and April 30, 1830. From a letter to Stuart in 1814 (Letters, p. 632), it appears that Coleridge contemplated a treatise on Spinoza and Spinosism, as part of the opus magnum, to bear the title' Logos Agonistes'. 12. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). The works here mentioned were published in the following order:-The Critique of Pure Reason (1781); the Metaphysical Elements of Natural Science (1786); the Critique of judgment (1790); Religion within the bounds of Pure Reason (1793). 22. the chapter on original apperception. ed. Hartenstein, 1867, Bd. III. s. 114. Kant's Werke, PAGE 100 1. 3. the hair-breadth escapes of Wolf. Wolff's teaching at Halle gave offence to his theological colleagues, who secured his expulsion from Prussia in 1723. On the accession of Frederick the Great in 1740, he was reinstated in his chair with every mark of esteem. Kant, too, came into conflict with the orthodox party in Prussia. In 1792, when his work on Religion within the bounds of Pure Reason had been partly published in the Berlin Journal, the publication of the remainder was forbidden, and he was obliged to bring it out in Königsberg. In consequence a pledge was exacted from him not to write again upon religious subjects, to which he adhered until the death of Friedrich Wilhelm II in 1797. 4. The expulsion of the first among Kant's disciples. Coleridge is alluding to Fichte, who in 1798 was driven from Jena on a charge of Atheism, based on his preface to his friend Forberg's essay on the 'Development of the Idea of Religion'. In this paper (entitled 'On the Grounds of our belief in a Divine Government of the Universe'), God is defined as the moral order of the Universe, the eternal law of right which is the foundation of our being; and any other mode of existence is denied to him. 9. In spite therefore of his own declarations. Sara Coleridge (Biog. Lit. 1847, i. 157) aptly compares these remarks upon Kant with Schelling, Abhandlung zur Erläuterung, &c. (Werke, I. i. 405). 16. I entertained doubts likewise. Yet it is on this very point that Coleridge seems most sincerely at one with Kant, except indeed that for him the moral consciousness has a wider scope, and its evidence is more convincing. Cp. Biog. Lit. i. 135, esp. 1. 36; ii. 216, and marginal note in Tenneman's Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. viii, where Coleridge complains that the Kanteans 'separate the Reason from the Reason in the Will, or the theory from the Practical man', and adds 'Whether the object given in the Idea belongs to it in its own right as an Idea, or is super-induced by moral Faith, is really little more than a dispute in terms, depending on the Definition of Idea. What more cogent proof (of the objective reality of the Ideas) can we have than that a man must contradict his whole human being in order to deny it?' The theoretical ge PAGE 101 1. 5. Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre. portion of Fichte's system is contained in the Grundlage der sammten Wissenschaftslehre (1794) and Grundriss des Eigenthümlichen d. Wissenschaftslehre (1794), and a general introduction to the whole system in the Begriff der Wissenschaftslehre (1794). The practical philosophy is contained in the Grundlage des Naturrechts (1796), and System der Sittenlehre (1798). 6. by commencing with an act instead of a thing, i.e. the original Deed-act, or Thathandlung by which the Ego affirms itself as real. Cp. Letter to J. H. Green, 1817 (Letters, p. 682): 'Fichte... hath the merit of having prepared the ground for, and laid the first stone of, the dynamic philosophy by the substitution of Act for Thing, Der einführen Actionen (sic) statt der Dinge an Sich.' 14. a crude egoismus, a boastful... hostility to Nature. Cp. marginal note in Fichte's Bestimmung des Menschen (Brit. Mus. Library copy): 'This man who, page after page, can rant away in the perfect silence of the human Consciousness, grounding all on an equivoque of the word I!' And further: 'The same contradiction between the Heart and the Reason-nay, worse than the Necessitarians. They preach the wisdom of considering the Assassin-the Dagger: but Fichte says that Duty or the law of Conscience is the Voice of God-that for man there is no other truth but this and in this: yet this very voice commands him to act, and feel what he knows to be a lie and unjust. All this by a juggler's trick of dividing his individuality into the knowing and the acting (handelnde) man!' PAGE 102 1. 7. Schelling's Natur-Philosophie, &c. Schelling's Ideen zu einer Phil. der Natur was first published in 1797; a second edition, a recast of the former (durchaus verbesserte Auflage) appeared in 1803. Schelling also published in 1799 an Entwurf zu einem System der Natur-Philosophie: oder Ueber den Begriff der speculativen Physik. 19. the dramatic lectures of Schlegel. Cp. Biog. Lit. i. 22 f. n., and note. 22. all the main and fundamental ideas. Cp. letter to J. T. Coleridge, 1825 (Letters, p. 375): 'All the elements, the differentials.. of my present opinions existed for me before I had seen a word of German metaphysics, later than Wolf or Leibnitz. But what will this avail? A High German transcendentalist I must be content to remain.' And to J. H. Green (1817: Letters, p. 683): As my opinions were formed before I was acquainted with the schools of Fichte and Schelling, so do they remain independent of them, though I con- and profess great obligations to them in the development of my thought, and yet seem to feel that I should have been more useful if I had been left to evolve them without knowledge of their coincidence.' And to Robinson he said (Diary, &c., May 3, 1812), that from Fichte and Schelling 'he had not gained one great idea'. This assertion is in harmony with Green's own opinion. (See letter to Sara Coleridge, Biog. Lit. 1847, Introd. xxxiv.) In PAGE 103 1.6. Schelling has lately... avowed. This avowal was made, as Archdeacon Hare first pointed out (see Biog. Lit. 1847, i. 164), some eleven years before. See Schelling, Werke I. vii. 120: 'I am not ashamed of the names of many so-called enthusiasts, but I will avow openly and make it my boast that I have learnt from them, as soon as I can make that boast justly.' a marginal note (date uncertain) to Schelling's Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit, &c. (quoted Biog. Lit. 1847, i. 303), Coleridge writes: How can I explain Schelling's strange silence respecting Jacob Boehme? The identity of his system was exulted in by the Tiecks at Rome in 1805, to me-and these were Schelling's intimate friends. The coincidence in the expressions, illustrations, and even in the mystical obscurities, is too glaring to be solved by mere independent coincidence in thought and intention.' Here Coleridge seems to write in ignorance of Schelling's acknowledgement to Boehme. (See also Crabb Robinson, Diary, &c., Aug. 13, 1812.) F.N. Mr. Richard Saumarez, surgeon to the Magdalen Hospital, London. He also published A Dissertation on the Universe in general, and on the Procession of the Elements in particular (1796); Principles and Ends of Philosophy (1811), and other works. PAGE 104 1. 4. Kant's followers, &c. Cf. Schiller's epigram, 'Kant's Ausleger': Wie doch ein einziger König so viele Bettler in Nahrung Setzt. Wenn die Könige bauen, haben die Kärrner zu thun. 9. To Schelling we owe, &c. Coleridge is here_more_complimentary to Schelling than of wont. Cp. Letter to J. H. Green, 1817 (Letters, 683): 'Schelling is too ambitious, too eager to be the Grand Seignior of the allein-selig Philosophie to be altogether a trustworthy philosopher. But he is a man of great genius: and, however unsatisfied with his conclusions, one cannot read him without being whetted or improved': and marginal note to Schelling's Philosophische Untersuchungen über das Wesen der menschl. Freiheit, &c. (Biog. Lit. 1847, App. I, 311): The more I reflect, the more I am convinced of the gross materialism which underlies the whole system.' This note probably belongs to a later period in Coleridge's life. C. Robinson (Diary, &c., June 3, 1824): Coleridge metaphysized à la Schelling while he abused him.' PAGE 105 1. 10. the 1st volume of his collected Tracts. Schelling's Philosophische Schriften, Erster Band, Landshut, 1810 (the only one published in this edition). 12. a small pamphlet against Fichte. The Darlegung des wahren Verhältnisses der Natur-Philosophie zu der verbesserten Fichte'schen Lehre (1806) (Werke I. vii, pp. 1-130). 19. Albeit, I must confess. Milton, The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty, Bk. II, ch. i (ref. Biog. Lit. 1847). PAGE 106 1. 7. Simon Grynaeus. The same passage is quoted in The Friend, 1818 (Third Introductory Essay), with some difference of reading. Simon Grynaeus (1493-1541) was a learned theologian and philologist of the Reformation. 13. Est medius ordo, &c. Barclay's Argenis, Lib. I, Leyden, 1630, pp. 63-4. There are (as is pointed out in Biog. Lit. 1847) some omissions from the original. 22. As therefore physicians. From Hooker's Eccles. Polity, Bk. I, § 8, with omissions and slight alterations (ref. Biog. Lit. 1847). PAGE 107 1. 3. Che s'io non erro, &c. Satire di Salvator Rosa, La Musica, I. i. 10 (ref. ib.). CHAPTER X PAGE 107 1. 9. Esemplastic. Coleridge has been accused of 16. pedantry consists, &c. The following passage on the use PAGE 108 1. 23. Darwin in his Zoonomia. Zoonomia, or Laws PAGE 109 1. 4. sensuous. 'A coined word, used by Milton.' 9. intuition. (1) 'Ready power of perception': so used by 14. objective and subjective. The old scholastic sense of 19. encouraged and confirmed, &c. This distinction, as a dis- |