The Literary Remains of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Volume I Part 13

THE ALTERNATIVE.

This way or that, ye Powers above me!

I of my grief were rid-- Did Enna either really love me, Or cease to think she did.

1826.

THE EXCHANGE.

We pledged our hearts, my love and I,-- I in my arms the maiden clasping; I could not tell the reason why, But, oh! I trembled like an aspen.

Her father's love she bade me gain; I went, and shook like any reed!

I strove to act the man--in vain!

We had exchanged our hearts indeed.

1826

WHAT IS LIFE?

Resembles life what once was deem'd of light, Too ample in itself for human sight?

An absolute self--an element ungrounded-- All that we see, all colours of all shade By encroach of darkness made?-- Is very life by consciousness unbounded?

And all the thoughts, pains, joys of mortal breath, A war-embrace of wrestling life and death?

1829.

INSCRIPTION FOR A TIME-PIECE.

Now! It is gone.--Our brief hours travel post, Each with its thought or deed, its Why or How:-- But know, each parting hour gives up a ghost To dwell within thee--an eternal Now!

1830.

EPITAPHION AUTOGRAPHTON

Quae linquam, aut nihil, aut nihili, aut vix sunt mea;-- Do Morti;--reddo caetera, Christe! tibi. [sordes.]

A COURSE OF LECTURES

PROSPECTUS.

There are few families, at present, in the higher and middle cla.s.ses of English society, in which literary topics and the productions of the Fine Arts, in some one or other of their various forms, do not occasionally take their turn in contributing to the entertainment of the social board, and the amus.e.m.e.nt of the circle at the fire side. The acquisitions and attainments of the intellect ought, indeed, to hold a very inferior rank in our estimation, opposed to moral worth, or even to professional and specific skill, prudence, and industry. But why should they be opposed, when they may be made subservient merely by being subordinated? It can rarely happen, that a man of social disposition, altogether a stranger to subjects of taste, (almost the only ones on which persons of both s.e.xes can converse with a common interest) should pa.s.s through the world without at times feeling dissatisfied with himself. The best proof of this is to be found in the marked anxiety which men, who have succeeded in life without the aid of these accomplishments, shew in securing them to their children. A young man of ingenuous mind will not wilfully deprive himself of any species of respect. He will wish to feel himself on a level with the average of the society in which he lives, though he may be ambitious of distinguis.h.i.+ng himself only in his own immediate pursuit or occupation.

Under this conviction, the following Course of Lectures was planned. The several t.i.tles will best explain the particular subjects and purposes of each: but the main objects proposed, as the result of all, are the two following.

1. To convey, in a form best fitted to render them impressive at the time, and remembered afterwards, rules and principles of sound judgment, with a kind and degree of connected information, such as the hearers cannot generally be supposed likely to form, collect, and arrange for themselves, by their own una.s.sisted studies. It might be presumption to say, that any important part of these Lectures could not be derived from books; but none, I trust, in supposing, that the same information could not be so surely or conveniently acquired from such books as are of commonest occurrence, or with that quant.i.ty of time and attention which can be reasonably expected, or even wisely desired, of men engaged in business and the active duties of the world.

2. Under a strong persuasion that little of real value is derived by persons in general from a wide and various reading; but still more deeply convinced as to the actual mischief of unconnected and promiscuous reading, and that it is sure, in a greater or less degree, to enervate even where it does not likewise inflate; I hope to satisfy many an ingenuous mind, seriously interested in its own development and cultivation, how moderate a number of volumes, if only they be judiciously chosen, will suffice for the attainment of every wise and desirable purpose; that is, in addition to those which he studies for specific and professional purposes. It is saying less than the truth to affirm, that an excellent book (and the remark holds almost equally good of a Raphael as of a Milton) is like a well chosen and well tended fruit tree. Its fruits are not of one season only. With the due and natural intervals, we may recur to it year after year, and it will supply the same nourishment and the same gratification, if only we ourselves return to it with the same healthful appet.i.te.

The subjects of the Lectures are indeed very different, but not (in the strict sense of the term) diverse; they are various, rather than miscellaneous. There is this bond of connexion common to them all,--that the mental pleasure which they are calculated to excite is not dependent on accidents of fas.h.i.+on, place, or age, or the events or the customs of the day; but commensurate with the good sense, taste, and feeling, to the cultivation of which they themselves so largely contribute, as being all in kind, though not all in the same degree, productions of genius.

What it would be arrogant to promise, I may yet be permitted to hope,--that the execution will prove correspondent and adequate to the plan. a.s.suredly, my best efforts have not been wanting so to select and prepare the materials, that, at the conclusion of the Lectures, an attentive auditor, who should consent to aid his future recollection by a few notes taken either during each Lecture or soon after, would rarely feel himself, for the time to come, excluded, from taking an intelligent interest in any general conversation likely to occur in mixed society.

'Syllabus of the Course'.

I. January 27, 1818.--On the manners, morals, literature, philosophy, religion, and the state of society in general, in European Christendom, from the eighth to the fifteenth century, (that is from A.D. 700, to A.D. 1400), more particularly in reference to England, France, Italy and Germany; in other words, a portrait of the so called dark ages of Europe.

II. January 30.--On the tales and metrical romances common, for the most part, to England, Germany, and the north of France, and on the English songs and ballads, continued to the reign of Charles I. A few selections will be made from the Swedish, Danish, and German languages, translated for the purpose by the Lecturer.

III. February 3.--Chaucer and Spenser; of Petrarch; of Ariosto, Pulci, and Boiardo.

IV. V. VI. February 6, 10, l3.--On the dramatic works of Shakspeare. In these Lectures will be comprised the substance of Mr. Coleridge's former courses on the same subject, enlarged and varied by subsequent study and reflection.

VII. February l7.--On Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ma.s.singer; with the probable causes of the cessation of dramatic poetry in England with s.h.i.+rley and Otway, soon after the restoration of Charles II.

VIII. February 20.--Of the life and all the works of Cervantes, but chiefly of his Don Quixote. The ridicule of knight errantry shewn to have been but a secondary object in the mind of the author, and not the princ.i.p.al cause of the delight which the work continues to give to all nations, and under all the revolutions of manners and opinions.

IX. February 24.--On Rabelais, Swift, and Sterne: on the nature and const.i.tuents of genuine Humour, and on the distinctions of the Humorous from the Witty, the Fanciful, the Droll, and the Odd.

X. February 27.--Of Donne, Dante, and Milton.

XI. March 3.--On the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, and on the romantic use of the supernatural in poetry, and in works of fiction not poetical.

On the conditions and regulations under which such books may be employed advantageously in the earlier periods of education.

XII. March 6.--On tales of witches, apparitions, &c. as distinguished from the magic and magicians of Asiatic origin. The probable sources of the former, and of the belief in them in certain ages and cla.s.ses of men. Criteria by which mistaken and exaggerated facts may be distinguished from absolute falsehood and imposture. Lastly, the causes of the terror and interest which stories of ghosts and witches inspire, in early life at least, whether believed or not.

XIII. March 10.--On colour, sound, and form in Nature, as connected with poesy: the word "Poesy" used as the generic or cla.s.s term, including poetry, music, painting, statuary, and ideal architecture, as its species. The reciprocal relations of poetry and philosophy to each other; and of both to religion, and the moral sense.