Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 2: being The Biographical Supplement of Coleridge's Biographia LiterariaColeridge, Samuel Taylor
General
Biographia Epistolaris, Volume 2: being The Biographical Supplement of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834 -- Correspondence
Suffice it to say, that effects were produced which acted on me by
terror and cowardice, of pain and sudden death, not (so help me God!) by
any temptation of pleasure, or expectation, or desire of exciting
pleasurable sensations. On the very contrary, Mrs. Morgan and her sister
will bear witness so far, as to say, that the longer I abstained, the
higher my spirits were, the keener my enjoyments--till the moment, the
direful moment arrived, when my pulse began to fluctuate, my heart to
palpitate, and such falling abroad,[82] as it were, of my whole frame,
such intolerable restlessness, and incipient bewilderment, that in the
last of my several attempts to abandon the dire poison, I exclaimed in
agony, which I now repeat in seriousness and solemnity, "I am too poor
to hazard this." Had I but a few hundred pounds, but £200--half to send
to Mrs. Coleridge, and half to place myself in a private mad house,
where I could procure nothing but what a physician thought proper, and
where a medical attendant could be constantly with me for two or three
months (in less than that time, life or death would be determined), then
there might be hope. Now there is none!! O God! how willingly would I
place myself under Dr. Fox, in his establishment; for my case is a
species of madness, only that it is a derangement, an utter impotence of
the volition, and not of the intellectual faculties. You bid me rouse
myself: go bid a man paralytic in both arms, to rub them briskly
together, and that will cure him. "Alas!" he would reply, "that I cannot
move my arms, is my complaint and my misery." May God bless you, and
Your affectionate, but most afflicted,
S. T. COLERIDGE.[83]
"On receiving this full and mournful disclosure," Cottle says, "I felt
the deepest compassion for Mr. C.'s state, and sent him the following
letter. (Necessary to be given to understand Mr. Coleridge's reply.)"
COTTLE TO COLERIDGE
Dear Coleridge,
I am afflicted to perceive that Satan is so busy with you, but God is
greater than Satan. Did you ever hear of Jesus Christ? That he came into
the world to save sinners? He does not demand, as a condition, any merit
of your own, he only says, "Come and be healed!" Leave your idle
speculations: forget your vain philosophy. Come as you are. Come and be
healed. He only requires you to be sensible of your need of him, to give
him your heart, to abandon with penitence, every evil practice, and he
has promised that whosoever thus comes, he will in no wise cast out. To
such as you Christ ought to be precious, for you see the hopelessness of
every other refuge. He will add strength to your own ineffectual
efforts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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