The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume Iii Part 1

The Literary Remains Of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

by Edited By Henry Nelson Coleridge.

VOL. 3.

PREFACE

For a statement of the circ.u.mstances 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 s.p.a.ces 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 G.o.dless 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 a.s.sert 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d's right to man's obedience on the fact of his almighty power,--a position falsely inferred from a misconceived ill.u.s.tration of St. Paul's, and which is less humbling to the creature than blasphemous of the Creator; and of the awless doctrine that G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sertions of Scripture;--if ever the Christian duty of faith in G.o.d through Christ is to be reconciled with the religious service of a being gifted by the same G.o.d 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 a.s.sertion; 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 circ.u.mspection.

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 acc.u.mulating 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 IDENt.i.tY.

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 a.s.sumed as the first, must be presumed as its antecedent; [Greek: thes], without an article, and yet not as an adjective. See John i. 18. [Greek: then oudes he_orake p_opote] as differenced from ib. 1, [Greek: kai thes 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 distinct.i.ty; 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 distinct.i.ties 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--ka 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 G.o.d, 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 beat.i.tude 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 compa.s.sion 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 G.o.d 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 pet.i.tions 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 a.s.saults 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 a.s.sisting) 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 G.o.d!

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.

PRAYER.

A man may pray night and day, and yet deceive himself; but no man can be a.s.sured of his sincerity, who does not pray. Prayer is faith pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d, 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 Mediator of mankind, yea, and of every creature, as the living and self-subsisting Word, the very truth of all true being, and the very being of all enduring truth; the reality, which is the substance and unity of all reality; 'the light which lighteth every man', so that what we call reason, is itself a light from that light, 'lumen a luce', as the Latin more distinctly expresses this fact. But it is not merely light, but therein is life; and it is the life of Christ, the co-eternal son of G.o.d, that is the only true life-giving light of men. We are a.s.sured, and we believe that Christ is G.o.d; G.o.d manifested in the flesh.

As G.o.d, he must be present entire in every creature;--(for how can G.o.d, or indeed any spirit, exist in parts?)--but he is said to dwell in the regenerate, to come to them who receive him by faith in his name, that is, in his power and influence; for this is the meaning of the word 'name' in Scripture when applied to G.o.d or his Christ. Where true belief exists, Christ is not only present with or among us;--for so he is in every man, even the most wicked;--but to us and for us.