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THE LITERARY REMAINS

OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE



VOLUME THE THIRD



COLLECTED AND EDITED BY

HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE.



1838




TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JOHN HOOKHAM FRERE THE THIRD AND FOURTH VOLUMES
OF COLERIDGE'S REMAINS ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED.




  CONTENTS


  Preface
  Formula Fidei de SS. Trinitate
  Nightly Prayer
  Notes on 'The Book of Common Prayer'
  Notes on Hooker
  Notes on Field
  Notes on Donne
  Notes on Henry More
  Notes on Heinrichs
  Notes on Hacket
  Notes on Jeremy Taylor
  Notes on 'The Pilgrim's Progress'
  Notes on John Smith
  Letter to a Godchild




PREFACE

For a statement of the circumstances under which the collection of Mr.
Coleridge's Literary Remains was undertaken, the Reader is referred to
the Preface to the two preceding Volumes published in 1836. But the
graver character of the general contents of this Volume and of that
which will immediately follow it, seems to justify the Editor in
soliciting particular attention to a few additional remarks.

Although the Author in his will contemplated the publication of some at
least of the numerous notes left by him on the margins and blank spaces
of books and pamphlets, he most certainly wrote the notes themselves
without any purpose beyond that of delivering his mind of the thoughts
and aspirations suggested by the text under perusal. His books, that is,
any person's books--even those from a circulating library--were to him,
whilst reading them, as dear friends; he conversed with them as with
their authors, praising, or censuring, or qualifying, as the open page
seemed to give him cause; little solicitous in so doing to draw
summaries or to strike balances of literary merit, but seeking rather to
detect and appreciate the moving principle or moral life, ever one and
single, of the work in reference to absolute truth. Thus employed he had
few reserves, but in general poured forth, as in a confessional, all his
mind upon every subject,--not keeping back any doubt or conjecture which
at the time and for the purpose seemed worthy of consideration. In
probing another's heart he laid his hand upon his own. He thought pious
frauds the worst of all frauds, and the system of economizing truth too
near akin to the corruption of it to be generally compatible with the
Job-like integrity of a true Christian's conscience. Further, he
distinguished so strongly between that internal faith which lies at the
base of, and supports, the whole moral and religious being of man, and
the belief, as historically true, of several incidents and relations
found or supposed to be found in the text of the Scriptures, that he
habitually exercised a liberty of criticism with respect to the latter,
which will probably seem objectionable to many of his readers in this
country. [1]

His friends have always known this to be the fact; and he vindicated
this so openly that it would be folly to attempt to conceal it: nay, he
pleaded for it so earnestly--as the only middle path of safety and peace
between a godless disregard of the unique and transcendant character of
the Bible taken generally, and that scheme of interpretation, scarcely
less adverse to the pure spirit of Christian wisdom, which wildly arrays
our faith in opposition to our reason, and inculcates the sacrifice of
the latter to the former,--that to suppress this important part of his
solemn convictions would be to misrepresent and betray him. For he threw
up his hands in dismay at the language of some of our modern divinity on
this point;--as if a faith not founded on insight were aught else than a
specious name for wilful positiveness;--as if the Father of Lights could
require, or would accept, from the only one of his creatures whom he had
endowed with reason the sacrifice of fools! Did Coleridge, therefore,
mean that the doctrines revealed in the Scriptures were to be judged
according to their supposed harmony or discrepancy with the evidence of
the senses, or the deductions of the mere understanding from that
evidence? Exactly the reverse: he disdained to argue even against
Transubstantiation on such a ground, well knowing and loudly proclaiming
its utter weakness and instability. But it was a leading principle in
all his moral and intellectual views to assert the existence in all men
equally of a power or faculty superior to, and independent of, the
external senses: in this power or faculty he recognized that image of
God in which man was made; and he could as little understand how faith,
the indivisibly joint act or efflux of our reason and our will, should
be at variance with one of its factors or elements, as how the Author
and Upholder of all truth should be in contradiction to himself. He
trembled at the dreadful dogma which rests God's right to man's
obedience on the fact of his almighty power,--a position falsely
inferred from a misconceived illustration of St. Paul's, and which is
less humbling to the creature than blasphemous of the Creator; and of
the awless doctrine that God might, if he had so pleased, have given to
man a religion which to human intelligence should not be rational, and
exacted his faith in it--Coleridge's whole middle and later life was one
deep and solemn denial. He believed in no God in the very idea of whose
existence absolute truth, perfect goodness, and infinite wisdom, were
not elements essentially necessary and everlastingly copresent.

Thus minded, he sought to justify the ways of God to man in the only way
in which they can be justified to any one who deals honestly with his
conscience, namely, by showing, where possible, their consequence from,
and in all cases their consistency with, the ideas or truths of the pure
reason which is the same in all men. With what success he laboured for
thirty years in this mighty cause of Christian philosophy, the readers
of his other works, especially the Aids to Reflection, will judge: if
measured by the number of resolved points of detail his progress may
seem small; but if tested by the weight and grasp of the principles
which he has established, it may be confidently said that since
Christianity had a name few men have gone so far. If ever we are to find
firm footing in Biblical criticism between the extremes (how often
meeting!) of Socinianism and Popery;--if the indisputable facts of
physical science are not for ever to be left in a sort of admitted
antagonism to the supposed assertions of Scripture;--if ever the
Christian duty of faith in God through Christ is to be reconciled with
the religious service of a being gifted by the same God with reason and
a will, and subjected to a conscience,--it must be effected by the aid,
and in the light, of those truths of deepest philosophy which in all Mr.
Coleridge's works, published or unpublished, present themselves to the
reader with an almost affecting reiteration. But to do justice to those
works and adequately to appreciate the Author's total mind upon any
given point, a cursory perusal is insufficient; study and comprehension
are requisite to an accurate estimate of the relative value of any
particular denial or assertion; and the apparently desultory and
discontinuous form of the observations now presented to the Reader more
especially calls for the exercise of his patience and thoughtful
circumspection.

With this view the Reader is requested to observe the dates which, in
some instances, the Editor has been able to affix to the notes with
certainty. Most of those on Jeremy Taylor belong to the year 1810, and
were especially designed for the perusal of Charles Lamb. Those on Field
were written about 1814; on Racket in 1818; on Donne in 1812 and 1829;
on The Pilgrim's Progress in 1833; and on Hooker and the Book of Common
Prayer between 1820 and 1830. Coleridge's mind was a growing and
accumulating mind to the last, his whole life one of inquiry and
progressive insight, and the dates of his opinions are therefore in some
cases important, and in all interesting.

The Editor is deeply sensible of his responsibility in publishing this
Volume; as to which he can only say, in addition to a reference to the
general authority given by the Author, that to the best of his knowledge
and judgment he has not permitted any thing to appear before the public
which Mr. Coleridge saw reason to retract; and further express his hope
and belief that, with such allowance for defects inherent in the nature
of the work as may rightfully be expected from every really liberal
mind, nothing contained in the following pages can fairly be a ground of
offence to any one.

It only remains to be added that the materials used in the compilation
of this Volume were for the greatest part communicated by Mr. Gillman;
and that the rest were furnished by Mr. Wordsworth, the Rev. Derwent
Coleridge, the Rev. Edward Coleridge, and the Editor.

Lincoln's Inn, March 26, 1838



[Footnote 1: See 'Table Talk', p. 178, 2nd edit.]




FORMULA FIDEI DE SANCTISSIMA TRINITATE.

1830.


THE IDENTITY.

The absolute subjectivity, whose only attribute is the Good; whose only
definition is--that which is essentially causative of all possible true
being; the ground; the absolute will; the adorable [Greek: pr_opr_oton],
which, whatever is assumed as the first, must be presumed as its
antecedent; [Greek: theos], without an article, and yet not as an
adjective. See John i. 18. [Greek: theon oudeis he_orake p_opote] as
differenced from ib. 1, [Greek: kai theos aen o logos]

But that which is essentially causative of all being must be causative
of its own,--'causa sui', [Greek: autopat_or]. Thence


THE IPSEITY.

The eternally self-affirmant self-affirmed; the "I Am in that I Am," or
the "I shall be that I will to be;" the Father; the relatively
subjective, whose attribute is, the Holy One; whose definition is, the
essential finific in the form of the infinite; 'dat sibi fines'.

But the absolute will, the absolute good, in the eternal act of
self-affirmation, the Good as the Holy One, co-eternally begets


THE ALTERITY.

The supreme being; [Greek: ho ont'os 'on]; the supreme reason; the
Jehovah; the Son; the Word; whose attribute is the True (the truth, the
light, the 'fiat'); and whose definition is, the 'pleroma' of being,
whose essential poles are unity and distinctity; or the essential
infinite in the form of the finite;--lastly, the relatively objective,
'deitas objectiva' in relation to the I Am as the 'deitas subjectiva';
the divine objectivity.

N.B. The distinctities in the 'pleroma' are the eternal ideas, the
subsistential truths; each considered in itself, an infinite in the form
of the finite; but all considered as one with the unity, the eternal
Son, they are the energies of the finific; [Greek: panta di' autou
egeneto--kai ek tou plaer'omatos autou haemeis pantes elabomen.]  John
i. 3 and 16.

But with the relatively subjective and the relatively objective, the
great idea needs only for its completion a co-eternal which is both,
that is, relatively objective to the subjective, relatively subjective
to the objective. Hence


THE COMMUNITY.

The eternal life, which is love; the Spirit; relatively to the Father,
the Spirit of Holiness, the Holy Spirit; relatively to the Son, the
Spirit of truth, whose attribute is Wisdom;'sancta sophia'; the Good in
the reality of the True, in the form of actual Life. Holy! Holy! Holy!
[Greek: hilasthaeti moi].




A NIGHTLY PRAYER.

1831.

Almighty God, by thy eternal Word my Creator, Redeemer and Preserver!
who hast in thy free communicative goodness glorified me with the
capability of knowing thee, the one only absolute Good, the eternal I
Am, as the author of my being, and of desiring and seeking thee as its
ultimate end;--who, when I fell from thee into the mystery of the false
and evil will, didst not abandon me, poor self-lost creature, but in thy
condescending mercy didst provide an access and a return to thyself,
even to thee the Holy One, in thine only begotten Son, the way and the
truth from everlasting, and who took on himself humanity, yea, became
flesh, even the man Christ Jesus, that for man he might be the life and
the resurrection!--O Giver of all good gifts, who art thyself the one
only absolute Good, from whom I have received whatever good I have,
whatever capability of good there is in me, and from thee good
alone,--from myself and my own corrupted will all evil and the
consequents of evil,--with inward prostration of will, mind, and
affections I adore thy infinite majesty; I aspire to love thy
transcendant goodness!--In a deep sense of my unworthiness, and my
unfitness to present myself before thee, of eyes too pure to behold
iniquity, and whose light, the beatitude of spirits conformed to thy
will, is a consuming fire to all vanity and corruption;--but in the name
of the Lord Jesus, of the dear Son of thy love, in whose perfect
obedience thou deignest to behold as many as have received the seed of
Christ into the body of this death;--I offer this my bounden nightly
sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, in humble trust, that the
fragrance of my Saviour's righteousness may remove from it the taint of
my mortal corruption. Thy mercies have followed me through all the hours
and moments of my life; and now I lift up my heart in awe and
thankfulness for the preservation of my life through the past day, for
the alleviation of my bodily sufferings and languors, for the manifold
comforts which thou hast reserved for me, yea, in thy fatherly
compassion hast rescued from the wreck of my own sins or sinful
infirmities;--for the kind and affectionate friends thou hast raised up
for me, especially for those of this household, for the mother and
mistress of this family whose love to me hath been great and faithful,
and for the dear friend, the supporter and sharer of my studies and
researches; but above all, for the heavenly Friend, the crucified
Saviour, the glorified Mediator, Christ Jesus, and for the heavenly
Comforter, source of all abiding comforts, thy Holy Spirit! O grant me
the aid of thy Spirit, that I may with a deeper faith, a more enkindled
love, bless thee, who through thy Son hast privileged me to call thee
Abba, Father! O, thou who hast revealed thyself in thy holy word as a
God that hearest prayer; before whose infinitude all differences cease
of great and small; who like a tender parent foreknowest all our wants,
yet listenest well-pleased to the humble petitions of thy children; who
hast not alone permitted, but taught us, to call on thee in all our
needs,--earnestly I implore the continuance of thy free mercy, of thy
protecting providence, through the coming night. Thou hearest every
prayer offered to thee believingly with a penitent and sincere heart.
For thou in withholding grantest, healest in inflicting the wound, yea,
turnest all to good for as many as truly seek thee through Christ, the
Mediator! Thy will be done! But if it be according to thy wise and
righteous ordinances, O shield me this night from the assaults of
disease, grant me refreshment of sleep unvexed by evil and distempered
dreams; and if the purpose and aspiration of my heart be upright before
thee who alone knowest the heart of man, O in thy mercy vouchsafe me yet
in this my decay of life an interval of ease and strength; if so (thy
grace disposing and assisting) I may make compensation to thy church for
the unused talents thou hast entrusted to me, for the neglected
opportunities, which thy loving-kindness had provided. O let me be found
a labourer in the vineyard, though of the late hour, when the Lord and
Heir of the vintage, Christ Jesus, calleth for his servant.

'Our Father', &c.

To thee, great omnipresent Spirit, whose mercy is over all thy works,
who now beholdest me, who hearest me, who hast framed my heart to seek
and to trust in thee, in the name of my Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, I
humbly commit and commend my body, soul, and spirit.

Glory be to thee, O God!




NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.


PRAYER.

A man may pray night and day, and yet deceive himself; but no man can be
assured of his sincerity, who does not pray. Prayer is faith passing
into act; a union of the will and the intellect realizing in an
intellectual act. It is the whole man that prays. Less than this is
wishing, or lip-work; a charm or a mummery. 'Pray always', says the
Apostle;--that is, have the habit of prayer, turning your thoughts into
acts by connecting them with the idea of the redeeming God, and even so
reconverting your actions into thoughts.


THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST.

The best preparation for taking this sacrament, better than any or all
of the books or tracts composed for this end, is, to read over and over
again, and often on your knees--at all events, with a kneeling and
praying heart--the Gospel according to St. John, till your mind is
familiarized to the contemplation of Christ, the Redeemer and Med