PREFACE. THE present volume completes the publication of Coleridge's Marginalia. The Notes on Luther, with some other articles of less extent, and the larger portion of the Omniana, have already appeared in the four volumes of literary Remains edited by the late H. N. Coleridge. The remainder, constituting about two-thirds of the whole, is now published for the first time.* This portion of the Author's writings is now contained in five volumes, of which the two first, entitled "Notes on Shakspere and other Dramatists," are exclusively critical. The two which followed, entitled "Notes on English Divines," are exclusively theological. The contents of the present volume are of a varied character, and present * The new matter is distinguished in the Table of Contents by an asterisk. 425460 specimens of the Author's way of thinking, not only on religion and politics, but on questions of natural philosophy, philology, and other topics, bearing in this respect some relation to his "Table Talk." The motives which have led to the publication of the Theological Notes have been sufficiently set forth by the first Editor, in the Preface to the third and fourth volumes of the "Literary Remains," to which reference has already been made in the preface to the "Notes on English Divines." (The Historical and Political Notes will be read with interest, as exhibiting the sentiments of the Author during the latter period of his life. They make it evident that his political principles, however adapted to the varying phase of circumstance, suffered no real change, and that he remained to the last, what he had been from the first, a genuine English Publicola. Warmly attached to the institutions of his country, and especially anxious for the permanency and well-being of the National Church, he sought to enlighten, and in this way to support, the Conservative party in the State :) but the whole bearing of his mind was toward liberty—that freedom alike of thought and action which he believed to be essential to the dearest interests of man. Hence his stern opposition to the doctrines, and to the policy, by which it was sought to uphold the dynasty of the Stuarts, of whose motives and personal character he takes the least favourable view. His opinions on these points are expressed in these notes with an unreserved vehemency of language, which bears witness to the depth and earnestness of his feeling. Of the miscellaneous notes several refer to points of physical science on which the Editor is not qualified to pronounce an opinion. They refer in some cases to obsolete theories, and may perhaps contain statements at variance with modern discovery: yet, being few in number, they appear worthy of preservation, if only as showing into what devious paths the Author's researches led him, and the spirit of divination which followed him as a lamp into the darkest places. If, here and there, the light which it casts constitutes a portion of the forms which it reveals, yet the method displayed in the examination, and the singular mastery of expression with which the results are communicated, will, it is believed, sufficiently repay perusal. The arrangement of these volumes has been adopted with a view to the convenience of purchasers, and has been followed as closely as circumstances permitted. The "Notes on Burnet," might have been added to those on 'English Divines," but were overlooked by the Editor to whose hands the papers had only just been transferred. ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, CHELSEA, September 7th, 1853. |