Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05: Little Journeys to the Homes of English AuthorsHubbard, Elbert
History
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 05: Little Journeys to the Homes of English Authors
Hubbard, Elbert
Authors, English -- Homes and haunts -- Great Britain; English literature -- History and criticism
Coleridge formulated no system, solved no complex problems, made no
brilliant discoveries. But his habit of analysis enriched the world
beyond power to compute. He taught men to think and separate truth from
error. He was not popular, for he did not adapt himself to the many. His
business was to teach teachers—he conducted a Normal School, and taught
teachers how to teach. Coleridge went to the very bottom of a subject, and
his subtle mind refused to take anything for granted. He approached every
proposition with an unprejudiced mind. In his "Aids to Reflection," he
says, "He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth will proceed
by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and then end in
loving himself better than all."
The average man believes a thing first, and then searches for proof to
bolster his opinion. Every observer must have noticed the tenuous, cobweb
quality of reasons that are deemed sufficient to the person who thinks he
knows, or whose interests lie in a certain direction. The limitations of
men seem to make it necessary that pure truth should come to us through
men who are stripped for eternity. Kant, the villager who never traveled
more than a day's walk from his birthplace, and Coleridge, the homeless
and houseless aristocrat, with no selfish interests in the material world,
view things without prejudice.
The method of Coleridge, from his youth, was to divide the whole into
parts. Then he begins to eliminate, and divides down, rejecting all things
that are not the thing, until he finds the thing. He begins all inquiries
by supposing that nothing is known on the subject. He will not grant you
that murder and robbery are bad—you must show why they are bad, and if
you can not explain, he will take the subject up and divide it into heads
for you.
First, the effect on the sufferer. Second, the evil to the doer. Third,
the danger of a bad example. Fourth, the injury to society through the
feeling of insecurity. Fifth, the pain given to the families of both doer
and sufferer. Next he will look for excuses for the crime and give all the
credit he can; and then finally strike a balance and give a conclusion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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