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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2011
John Stuart Mill once declared that Coleridge and Jeremy Bentham were the two creative minds in the English thought of their time. It was characteristic of Mill to take the impartial standpoint from which such dissimilar thinkers could be likened in originality and eminence. One fears that neither of them could have been equally dispassionate in judging the other, and it would be hard to say which would have felt the deeper resentment if he could have foreseen the company in which he was to be placed. The period to which they belong was not rich in speculative talent so far as England was concerned, and few will dispute the justice of Mill's compliment to the two men who really left an enduring mark. It will be the purpose of this article to look at Coleridge in his special relation to the progress of theology, an aspect of his writings by which he would himself beyond all doubt have been most anxious to be appreciated. Julius Hare declared that by his work in this field he had shown himself “the true sovereign of modern English thought.” Kingsley at his moment of deepest doubt on religious matters received Aids to Reflection with “utter delight.” The leaders of the Cambridge Apostles — particularly Maurice and Sterling — could find no words to express their indebtedness but those which St. Paul judged fitting in Philemon towards himself, and acknowledged that they owed to Coleridge their very souls. But while all are agreed that his influence was significant, perhaps beyond that of any one else, upon the development of thinking at that time in the English Church, there are reasons which make his precise place somewhat difficult to specify.
1 Dissertations, Vol. I, p. 393.
2 Cf. Life of Coleridge, by Dykes Campbell, p. 256.
3 Charles Kingsley: Letters and Memories of his Life, Vol. I, p. 53.
4 Prefatory Memoir of John Sterling in Essays and Tales, by J. S., I, xiv.
5 Cf. Yeast, Chap. III, “He [the vicar] told me, hearing me quote Schiller, to beware of the Germans, for they were all pantheists at heart.”
6 Life of Sterling, Chap. VIII.
7 Never Too Late to Mend.
8 Apologia, p. 93.
9 Reflections.
10 Essays and Reviews, p. 296.
11 Letters on the Oxford Counter-Reformation, in Short Studies, IV.
12 Used in an article in the Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1836, On the Conditions of Classical Learning.
13 Natural Theology, Chap. X.
14 Tracts for the Times, No. 85.
15 Cf. Sydney Smith's article “Methodism” in the Edinburgh Review, where a multitude of illustrations is collected.
16 Far from the Madding Crowd, Chap. XLII.
17 Evangelical Teaching: Dr. Cumming; in George Eliot's Essays.
18 Barchester Towers, Chap. XLIII.
19 Rural Rides, I, 42.
20 Coningsby, VII, iii. Cf. Archdeacon Grantly in Barchester Towers, “Even the Greek play bishops were better than this.”.
21 Tancred, III, v.
22 Aids to Reflection, p. 159 seq. Cf. The Friend, I, 206–217.
23 Paradise Lost, Bk. V.
24 Aids to Reflection, p. 192.
25 Ibid. p. 154.
26 The Friend, II, iii.
27 Ibid.
28 Aids to Reflection, p. 135 seq.
29 Biog. Lit., Chap. X. Was Coleridge here thinking of Shelley's lines (Revolt of Islam, VIII):
“What is that Power? Ye mock yourselves and give
A human heart to what ye cannot know;
As if the cause of life could think and live.”.
30 Loc. cit.
31 Loc. cit.
32 Excursion, Bk. IV.
33 Paradise Lost, VII.
34 Aids to Reflection, 99.
35 Cf. Grammar of Assent, Chap. VIII.
36 Biog. Lit., Chap. X.
37 Loc. cit.
38 The Friend, II, ii.
39 Biog. Lit., Chap. XII. Cf. Sir W. Hamilton's famous analogy between common sense and the common law, as both requiring judicious interpretation (Notes on Reid).
40 Aids to Reflection, 108.
41 Bampton Lectures, Lect. VII.
42 Coleridge's insistence that the moral reason is no mere complicated calculating of pleasures, and that this intuitive quality in conscience is the true ground of philosophic theism, shows remarkable prevision of a great debate that still rages. Cf. his very suggestive point that wherever genuine morality has given way to a scheme of ethics founded on utility its place is soon challenged by the spirit of honor. Yet honor is but “the shadow or ghost of virtue deceased” (The Friend, II, ii).
43 Confessions, Letter II.
44 Confessions, Letter IV.
45 Confessions, Letter I.
46 Biog. Lit., Chap. X.
47 Loc. cit.
48 Aids to Reflection, p. 92.
49 The point is precisely the same as in the Lutheran controversy with Eck, where it has always seemed to the present writer that the Roman disputant was right.
50 Biog. Lit., Chap. XII.
51 Discussions, p. 790.
52 Cf. Sartor, passim.
53 Essay on Diderot.
54 Dean Church, The Oxford Movement, p. 148.