MY DEAR SIR, 66 Accept my thanks for your kind remem“brance of me, and for the proof of it in the 66 present of your tribute of friendship, I have "read it with uninterrupted interest, and with "satisfaction scarcely less continuous. In adding the three last words, I am taking the word satisfaction in its strictest sense: for had I "written pleasure, there would have been no ground for the limitation. Indeed as it was, it is a being scrupulous over much. For at the "two only passages at which I made a moment's "halt (viz. p. 3, §, and p. 53, last line but five,) "she had seldom oppressive awe, my not objection but stoppage at the latter amounted only to a doubt, a quære, whether the trait of "character here given should not have been fol"lowed by some little comment, as for instance, "that such a state of feeling, though not de"sirable in a regenerate person, in whom belief "had wrought love, and love obedience, must 66 yet be ranked amongst those constitutional "differences that may exist between the best and "wisest Christians, without any corresponding "difference in their spiritual progress. One saint fixes his eyes on the palm, another saint "thinks of the previous conflict, and closes them "in prayer. Both are waters of the same foun"tain-this the basin, that the salient column, 66 66 "both equally dear to God, and both may be "used as examples for men, the one to invite the thoughtless sceptic, the other to alarm the reck"less believer. You will see, therefore, that I "do not object to the sentence itself; but as a "matter of feeling, it met me too singly and suddenly. I had not anticipated such a trait, and "the surprise counterfeited the sensation of perplexity for a moment or two. On as little ob"jection to any thing you have said, did the "desiderium the sense of not being quite satisfied, proceed in regard to the 44. p. 3. In the 'particular instance in the application of the "sentiment, I found nothing to question or qua 66 66 66 66 66 66 lify. It was the rule or principle which a cer"tain class of your readers might be inclined to deduce from it, it was the possible generaliza"tion of the particular instance that made me pause. I am jealous of the disposition to turn Christianity or Religion into a particular business or line. Well, Miss, how does your pencil go on, I was delighted with your last landscape. Oh, sir, I have quite given up that, I have got into the religious line.' Now, my dear sir, the rule which I have deduced "from the writings of St. Paul and St. John, and '(permit me also to add) of Luther, would be "this. Form and endeavour to strengthen into an "habitual and instinct-like feeling, the sense of "the utter incompatibility of Christianity with 86 66 66 66 66 66 every thing wrong or unseemly, with whatever betrays or fosters the mind of flesh, the pre"dominence of the animal within us, by having habitually present to the mind, the full and lively conviction of its perfect compatibility with whatever is innocent of its harmony, with "whatever contra-distinguishes the HUMAN from "the animal; of its sympathy and coalescence "with the cultivation of the faculties, affections, "and fruitions, which God hath made peculiar to man, either wholly or in their ordained combi"nation with what is peculiar to humanity, the blurred, but not obliterated signatures of our original title deed, (and God said, man will we "make in our own image.) What?-shall Chris tianity exclude or alienate us from those powers, acquisitions, and attainments, which Christianity is so pre-eminently calculated to elevate "and enliven and sanctify? 66 66 66 66 "Far, very far, am I from suspecting in you, my dear sir, any participation in these preju"dices of a shrivelled proselyting and censorious religionist. But a numerous and stirring fac"tion there is, in the so called Religious Public, "whose actual and actuating principles, with "whatever vehemence they may disclaim it in words, is, that redemption is a something not yet effected that there is neither sense nor "force in our baptism-and that instead of the Apostolic command, Rejoice, and again I say 66 66 "unto you, rejoice; baptized Christians are to "be put on sackcloth and ashes, and try, by "torturing themselves and others, to procure a "rescue from the devil. Again, let me thank " you for your remembrance of me, and believe "me from the hour we first met at Bristol, with "esteem and regard, 66 Your sincere friend, DEAR FRIEND, "S. T. COLeridge." Ramsgate, 28th Oct. 1822. "Words I know are not wanted between you and me. But there are occasions so awful, "there may be instances and manifestations of friendship so affecting, and drawing up with "them so long a train from behind, so many "folds of recollection as they come onward on "one's mind, that it seems but a mere act of justice to oneself, a debt we owe to the dignity of our moral nature to give them some record; ་་ a relief which the spirit of man asks and de"mands to contemplate in some outward symbol, "what it is inwardly solemnizing. I am still too "much under the cloud of past misgivings, too "much of the stun and stupor from the recent peals and thunder-crush still remains, to permit "me to anticipate others than by wishes and 46 prayers. What the effect of your unwearied "kindness may be on poor M.'s mind and con 66 duct, I pray fervently, and I feel a cheerful trust that I do not pray in vain, that on my own "mind and spring of action, it will be proved not "to have been wasted. I do inwardly believe, that I shall yet do something to thank you, my dear-in the way in which you would wish to "be thanked-by doing myself honour.-Dear "friend and brother of my soul, God only knows how truly, and in the depth, you are loved and prized by your affectionate friend, "S. T. COLeridge." During the first lecture of the course in 1817, a young man of modest demeanor sent him a letter, and afterwards introduced himself, stating that he was a student in literature, and from his conversation, he struck Coleridge as one much more attached to the better part of our nature than to the love of gain. An intimacy consequently took place, and Coleridge addressed many letters to him, from which will be selected such as are critical or autobiographical. Fortunately they have been preserved, and are too valuable not to form a part of this volume. The following is an answer to the first letter Coleridge received from him : 66 DEAR SIR, Wednesday Morning, Jan. 28th, 1818. "Your friendly letter was first delivered to me at the lecture-room door on yesterday even |
