The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume II Part 216

The same ant.i.thesis might be carried on with the elements of their several intellectual powers. Milton, austere, condensed, imaginative, supporting his truth by direct enunciation of lofty moral sentiment and by distinct visual representations, and in 405 the same spirit overwhelming what he deemed falsehood by moral denunciation and a succession of pictures appalling or repulsive. In his prose, so many metaphors, so many allegorical miniatures. Taylor, eminently discursive, acc.u.mulative, and (to use one of his own words) agglomerative; still more 410 rich in images than Milton himself, but images of fancy, and presented to the common and pa.s.sive eye, rather than to the eye of the imagination. Whether supporting or a.s.sailing, he makes his way either by argument or by appeals to the affections, unsurpa.s.sed even by the schoolmen in subtlety, 415 agility, and logic wit, and unrivalled by the most rhetorical of the fathers in the copiousness and vividness of his expressions and ill.u.s.trations. Here words that convey feelings, and words that flash images, and words of abstract notion, flow together, and whirl and rush onward like a stream, at once rapid and full 420 of eddies; and yet still interfused here and there we see a tongue or islet of smooth water, with some picture in it of earth or sky, landscape or living group of quiet beauty.

Differing then so widely and almost contrariantly, wherein did these great men agree? wherein did they resemble each 425 other? In genius, in learning, in unfeigned piety, in blameless purity of life, and in benevolent aspirations and purposes for the moral and temporal improvement of their fellow-creatures!

Both of them wrote a Latin Accidence, to render education more easy and less painful to children; both of them composed 430 hymns and psalms proportioned to the capacity of common congregations; both, nearly at the same time, set the glorious example of publicly recommending and supporting general toleration, and the liberty both of the Pulpit and the press!

In the writings of neither shall we find a single sentence, like 435 those meek deliverances to G.o.d's mercy, with which Laud accompanied his votes for the mutilations and loathsome dungeoning of Leighton and others!--nowhere such a pious prayer as we find in Bishop Hall's memoranda of his own life, concerning the subtle and witty atheist that so grievously perplexed 440 and gravelled him at Sir Robert Drury's till he prayed to the Lord to remove him, and behold! his prayers were heard: for shortly afterward this Philistine-combatant went to London, and there perished of the plague in great misery! In short, nowhere shall we find the least approach, in the lives and 445 writings of John Milton or Jeremy Taylor, to that guarded gentleness, to that sighing reluctance, with which the holy brethren of the Inquisition deliver over a condemned heretic to the civil magistrate, recommending him to mercy, and hoping that the magistrate will treat the erring brother with 450 all possible mildness!--the magistrate who too well knows what would be his own fate if he dared offend them by acting on their recommendation.

The opportunity of diverting the reader from myself to characters more worthy of his attention, has led me far beyond my 455 first intention; but it is not unimportant to expose the false zeal which has occasioned these attacks on our elder patriots.

It has been too much the fashion first to personify the Church of England, and then to speak of different individuals, who in different ages have been rulers in that church, as if in some 460 strange way they const.i.tuted its personal ident.i.ty. Why should a clergyman of the present day feel interested in the defence of Laud or Sheldon? Surely it is sufficient for the warmest partisan of our establishment that he can a.s.sert with truth,--when our Church persecuted, it was on mistaken principles 465 held in common by all Christendom; and at all events, far less culpable was this intolerance in the Bishops, who were maintaining the existing laws, than the persecuting spirit afterwards shewn by their successful opponents, who had no such excuse, and who should have been taught mercy by their own sufferings, 470 and wisdom by the utter failure of the experiment in their own case. We can say that our Church, apostolical in its faith, primitive in its ceremonies, unequalled in its liturgical forms; that our Church, which has kindled and displayed more bright and burning lights of genius and learning than all other protestant 475 churches since the reformation, was (with the single exception of the times of Laud and Sheldon) least intolerant, when all Christians unhappily deemed a species of intolerance their religious duty; that Bishops of our church were among the first that contended against this error; and finally, that since the 480 reformation, when tolerance became a fashion, the Church of England in a tolerating age, has shewn herself eminently tolerant, and far more so, both in spirit and in fact, than many of her most bitter opponents, who profess to deem toleration itself an insult on the rights of mankind! As to 485 myself, who not only know the Church-Establishment to be tolerant, but who see in it the greatest, if not the sole safe bulwark of toleration. I feel no necessity of defending or palliating oppressions under the two Charleses, in order to exclaim with a full and fervent heart, Esto perpetua! 490

FOOTNOTES:

[1097:1] First published in _Sibylline Leaves_ in 1817: included in 1828, 1829, and 1834. The 'Apologetic Preface' must have been put together in 1815, with a view to publication in the volume afterwards named _Sibylline Leaves_, but the incident on which it turns most probably took place in the spring of 1803, when both Scott and Coleridge were in London. Davy writing to Poole, May 1, 1803, says that he generally met Coleridge during his stay in town, 'in the midst of large companies, where he was the image of power and activity,' and Davy, as we know, was one of Sotheby's guests. In a letter to Mrs. Fletcher dated Dec. 18, 1830 (?), Scott tells the story in his own words, but throws no light on date or period. The implied date (1809) in Morritt's report of Dr. Howley's conversation (Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, 1837, ii. 245) is out of the question, as Coleridge did not leave the Lake Country between Sept. 1808 and October 1810. Coleridge set great store by 'his own stately account of this lion-show' (ibid.). In a note in a MS. copy of _Sibylline Leaves_ presented to his son Derwent he writes:--'With the exception of this slovenly sentence (ll. 109-19) I hold this preface to be my happiest effort in prose composition.'

[1097:2] William Sotheby (1756-1838), translator of Wieland's _Oberon_ and the _Georgics_ of Virgil. Coleridge met him for the first time at Keswick in July, 1802.

[1097:3] 'The compliment I can witness to be as just as it is handsomely recorded,' Sir W. Scott to Mrs. Fletcher, _Fragmentary Remains of Sir H.

Davy_, 1858, p. 113.

LINENOTES:

[24] _he_ 1817, 1829.

[41] What follows is substantially the same as _I then_ 1817, 1829.

[56] _realize_ 1817, 1829.

[93] outrageous] outre, 1817, 1829.

[95] _escape-valves_ 1817, 1829. _liver_ 1817, 1829.

[106] afterwards] afterward 1817, 1829.

[119] '_I . . . Law_' 1817, 1829.

[125] _h.e.l.l and Purgatory_ 1817, 1829.

[135] a Euripides _1817_: an Euripides 1829.

[136] _so_ natured 1817, 1829.

[172] _pa.s.sion . . . any_ 1817, 1829.

[173] _poetic_ 1817, 1829. For _betrayed in_ r. _betrayed by_, Errata, 1817, p. [xi].]

[174] in the grotesque 1817.

[195] am author] am the author 1817.

[203] my body MS. corr. 1817.

[212-3] _The . . . Thoughts_ 1817, 1829.

[213-4] _The . . . Tombstone_ 1817, 1829.

[238] insolencies] _indolence_ 1829.

[238-9] _and the . . . rebels_ 1817, 1829.

[252] _in . . . taste_ 1817, 1829.

[256] _positive_ 1817, 1829. Opposite] Oppositive 1829, 1893.

[264] _his_ 1817, 1829.

[267] PARADISE LOST 1817, 1829.

[273] former] preceding MS. corr. 1817.

[278] and as] as MS. corr. 1817.

[295] _pictures_ 1817, 1829.

[296] _thoughts_ 1817, 1829.

[310] _wish . . . should_ 1817, 1829.

[312] _will be_ 1817, 1829.

[316] _daresay_ 1817, 1829.

[320] _daresay_ 1817, 1829.

[320-1] _insolencies . . . rebels_ 1817, 1829.

[335] _him_ 1817, 1829.

[346] _us_ 1817, 1829.

[347] _human_ TOO-MUCH 1817, 1829.

[349] has] have 1817.

[360] _feelings_ 1817, 1829.

[361] _authors_ 1817, 1829.

[373] _called_ 1817, 1829.