for the time within the dilated sphere of his
intellectual Being. It is equally possible, though
not equally common, that a reader left to
himself should sink below the poem, as that
the poem left to itself should flag beneath the
feelings of the reader. But in my own in-
stance, I had the additional misfortune of hav-
ing been gossipped about, as devoted to meta-
physics, and worse than all to a system in-
comparably nearer to the visionary flights of
Plato, and even to the jargon of the mystics,
than to the established tenets of Locke.
ever therefore appeared with my name was con-
demned before hand, as predestined metaphy-
sics. In a dramatic poem, which had been sub-
mitted by me to a gentleman of great influence
in the Theatrical world, occurred the following
passage.-

O we are querulous creatures! Little less
Than all things can suffice to make us happy:
And little more than nothing is enough

To make us wretched.

What

Aye, here now! (exclaimed the Critic) here come Coleridge's Metaphysics! And the very same motive (that is, not that the lines were unfit for the present state of our immense Theatres; but that they were Metaphysics*) was

* Poor unlucky Metaphysies! and what are they? A single sentence expresses the object and thereby the contents of this science. Tved oéavrov: et Deum quantum licet et in Deo

assigned elsewhere for the rejection of the two following passages. The first is spoken in answer to a usurper, who had rested his plea on the circumstance, that he had been chosen by the acclamations of the people.—

What people? How conven'd? Or if conven'd,
Must not that magic power that charms together
Millions of men in council, needs have power
To win or wield them? Rather, O far rather,
Shout forth thy titles to yon circling mountains,
And with a thousandfold reverberation

Make the rocks flatter thee, and the volleying air,
Unbribed, shout back to thee, King Emerich!
By wholesome laws to embank the Sovereign Power;
To deepen by restraint; and by prevention
Of lawless will to amass and guide the flood

In its majestic channel, is man's task

And the true patriot's glory! In all else

Men safelier trust to heaven, than to themselves

When least themselves: even in those whirling crowds
Where folly is contagious, and too oft

Even wise men leave their better sense at home

To chide and wonder at them, when return'd.

The second passage is in the mouth of an old and experienced Courtier, betrayed by the man in whom he had most trusted.

And yet Sarolta, simple, inexperienced,

Could see him as he was and oft has warn'd me.

omnia scibis. Know thyself: and so shalt thou know God, as far as is permitted to a creature, and in God all things.-Surely, there is a strange-nay, rather a too natural-aversion in many to know themselves.

Whence learnt she this? O she was innocent.
And to be innocent is Nature's wisdom.

The fledge dove knows the prowlers of the air
Fear'd soon as seen, and flutters back to shelter!
And the young steed recoils upon his haunches,
The never-yet-seen adder's hiss first heard!
Ah! surer than suspicion's hundred eyes
Is that fine sense, which to the pure in heart
By mere oppugnancy of their own goodness
Reveals the approach of evil!

As therefore my character as a writer could not easily be more injured by an overt-act than it was already in consequence of the report, I published a work, a large portion of which was professedly metaphysical. A long delay occurred between its first annunciation and its appearance; it was reviewed therefore by anticipation with a malignity, so avowedly and exclusively personal, as is, I believe, unprecedented even in the present contempt of all common humanity that disgraces and endangers the liberty of the press. After its appearance, the author of this lampoon was chosen to review it in the Edinburgh Review: and under the single condition, that he should have written what he himself really thought, and have criticized the work as he would have done had its author been indifferent to him, I should have chosen that man myself both from the vigour and the originality of his mind, and from his particular acuteness in speculative reasoning, before all others. I remembered Catullus's lines,

Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri,
Aut aliquem fieri posse putare pium.

Omnia sunt ingrata: nihil fecisse benigne est :
Imo', etiam tædet, tædet obestque magis.

Ut mihi, quem nemo gravius nec acerbius urget
Quam modo qui me unum atque unicum amicum habuit.

But I can truly say, that the grief with which I read this rhapsody of predetermined insult, had the Rhapsodist himself for its whole and sole object and that the indignant contempt which it excited in me, was as exclusively confined to his employer and suborner. I refer to this Review at present, in consequence of information having been given me, that the innuendo of my "potential infidelity," grounded on one passage of my first Lay Sermon, has been received and propagated with a degree of credence, of which I can safely acquit the originator of the calumny. I give the sentences as they stand in the sermon, premising only that I was speaking exclusively of miracles worked for the outward senses of men. "It was only to overthrow the usurpation exercised in and through the senses, that the senses were miraculously appealed to. REASON AND RELIGION ARE THEIR OWN EVIDENCE. The natural sun is in this respect a symbol of the spiritual. Ere he is fully arisen, and while his glories are still under veil, he calls up the breeze to chase away the usurping vapours of the night-season, and thus converts the air itself into the mini

ster of its own purification: not surely in proof or elucidation of the light from heaven, but to prevent its interception.

"Wherever, therefore, similar circumstances co-exist with the same moral causes, the principles revealed, and the examples recorded, in the inspired writings render miracles superfluous: and if we neglect to apply truths in expectation of wonders, or under pretext of the cessation of the latter, we tempt God and merit the same reply which our Lord gave to the Pharisees on a like occasion.”

In the sermon and the notes both the historical truth and the necessity of the miracles are strongly and frequently asserted. "The testimony of books of history (i. e. relatively to the signs and wonders, with which Christ came) is one of the strong and stately pillars of the church; but it is not the foundation!" Instead, therefore, of defending myself, which I could easily effect by a series of passages, expressing the same opinion, from the Fathers and the most eminent Protestant Divines, from the Reformation to the Revolution, I shall merely state what my belief is, concerning the true evidences of Christianity. 1. Its consistency with right Reason, I consider as the outer Court of the Temple-the common area, within which it stands. 2. The miracles, with and through which the Religion was first revealed and at