Biographia Literaria

versy on poetic diction. It will hardly be necessary to add that for such errors as I have fallen into I am alone and entirely responsible. My acknowledgements are also due to the Trustees of Dr. Williams's Library for kindly allowing me to consult the manuscript of H. C. Robinson's Diaries; while to the readers of the Clarendon Press I am indebted for much valuable assistance in the correction of proofs.

The circumstances leading to the composition of the Biographia Literaria could not be fully dealt with in the Introduction itself without too marked a digression from the main theme. I have therefore made them the subject of a Supplementary Note, which will be found appended to the Introduction.

1907.

INTRODUCTION

CONTENTS

I. Early years

II. Germany

III. Keswick: Coleridge and Kant

IV. Malta.

V. Lectures and 'The Friend'.

VI. The 'Biographia Literaria': Coleridge and

VOLUME I

Schelling

VII. 'On Poesy or Art'

VIII. Later years

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE

CHAPTER I.-The motives of the present work-Reception

of the Author's first publication-The discipline of his

taste at school-The effect of contemporary writers on

youthful minds-Bowles's Sonnets-Comparison be-

tween the Poets before and since Mr. Pope.

CHAPTER II. Supposed irritability of men of Genius-

Brought to the test of facts-Causes and Occasions of

the charge-Its Injustice

CHAPTER III.-The Author's obligations to critics, and the

probable occasion-Principles of modern criticism--

Mr. Southey's works and character

CHAPTER IV.-The Lyrical Ballads with the preface—

Mr. Wordsworth's earlier poems of fancy and imagina-

tion-The investigation of the distinction important to

the fine arts

PAGE

CHAPTER V.-On the law of association-Its history traced

from Aristotle to Hartley

CHAPTER VI.-That Hartley's system, as far as it differs

from that of Aristotle, is neither tenable in theory, nor

founded in facts

CHAPTER VII.-Of the necessary consequences of the Hart-

leian theory-Of the original mistake or equivocation

which procured admission for the theory-Memoria

technica.

CHAPTER VIII.—The system of DUALISM introduced by

Des Cartes-Refined first by Spinoza and afterwards

by Leibnitz into the doctrine of Harmonia præstabilita—

Hylozoism-Materialism-Neither of these systems, or

any possible theory of association, supplies or supersedes

a theory of perception, or explains the formation of the

associable

CHAPTER IX. Is philosophy possible as a science, and

what are its conditions?-Giordano Bruno-Literary

aristocracy, or the existence of a tacit compact among

the learned as a privileged order-The author's obliga-

tions to the Mystics-to Immanuel Kant-The difference

between the letter and the spirit of Kant's writings, and

a vindication of prudence in the teaching of philosophy-

Fichte's attempt to complete the critical system-Its

partial success and ultimate failure-Obligations to

Schelling; and among English writers to Saumarez

CHAPTER X.-A chapter of digression and anecdotes, as an

interlude preceding that on the nature and genesis of

the imagination or plastic power-On pedantry and

pedantic expressions-Advice to young authors respect-

ing publication-Various anecdotes of the author's lite-

rary life, and the progress of his opinions in religion and

politics.

CHAPTER XI.-An affectionate exhortation to those who in

early life feel themselves disposed to become authors.

PAGE

107

152

CHAPTER XII.-A chapter of requests and premonitions
concerning the perusal or omission of the chapter that
follows

CHAPTER XIII.-On the imagination, or esemplastic power

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BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA

CHAPTER XIV.-Occasion of the Lyrical Ballads, and the
objects originally proposed-Preface to the second
edition-The ensuing controversy, its causes and
acrimony-Philosophic definitions of a poem and
poetry with scholia

CHAPTER XV.-The specific symptoms of poetic power
elucidated in a critical analysis of Shakespeare's Venus
and Adonis, and Lucrece

CHAPTER XVI.-Striking points of difference between the
Poets of the present age and those of the 15th and
16th centuries-Wish expressed for the union of the
characteristic merits of both

CHAPTER XVII.-Examination of the tenets peculiar to
Mr. Wordsworth--Rustic life (above all, low and rustic
life) especially unfavorable to the formation of a human
diction-The best parts of language the product of
philosophers, not of clowns or shepherds-Poetry
essentially ideal and generic-The language of Milton
as much the language of real life, yea, incomparably
more so than that of the cottager