Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert SoutheyCottle, Joseph
General
Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey
Cottle, Joseph
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834; Southey, Robert, 1774-1843
But although all these cheering anticipations should be fully realized,
regrets will still exist. It will ever be deplored, that Mr. Coleridge's
system of Christian Ethics, had not yet been deliberately recorded by
himself. This feeling, however natural, is still considerably moderated,
by reflecting on the ample competence of the individual on whom the
distinction of preparing this system has devolved; a security that it
will be both well and faithfully executed, and which, in the same
proportion that it reflects credit on the editor, will embalm with
additional honours, the memory of SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE; a genius, who
in the opulence of his imagination, and his rich and inexhaustible
capabilities, as a poet, a logician, and a metaphysician, has not perhaps
been surpassed since the days of Milton.
The following letter of Mr. Coleridge, was written a short time before
his death, to a young friend. This deliberate exposition of his faith,
and at such a season, cancels every random word or sentence, Mr. C. may
ever have expressed or written, of an opposing tendency. In thoughtless
moments Mr. C. may sometimes have expressed himself unguardedly,
attended, on reflection, no doubt with self-accusation, but here in the
full prospect of dissolution, he pours forth the genuine and ulterior
feelings of his soul.
"To Adam Steinmetz Kinnaird,
My dear godchild,--I offer up the same fervent prayer for you now, as I
did kneeling before the altar, when you were baptized into Christ, and
solemnly received as a living member of his spiritual body, the church.
Years must, pass before you will be able to read with an understanding
heart what I now write. But I trust that the all-gracious God, the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, who, by his
only-begotten Son, (all mercies in one sovereign mercy!) has redeemed you
from evil ground, and willed you to be born out of darkness, but into
light; out of death, but into life; out of sin, but into righteousness;
even into 'the Lord our righteousness;' I trust that he will graciously
hear the prayers of your dear parents, and be with you as the spirit of
health and growth, in body and in mind. My dear godchild, you received
from Christ's minister, at the baptismal font, as your Christian name,
the name of a most dear friend of your father's, and who was to me even
as a son, the late Adam Steinmetz, whose fervent aspirations, and
paramount aim, even from early youth, was to be a Christian in thought,
word, and deed; in will, mind, and affections. I too, your godfather,
have known what the enjoyment and advantages of this life are, and what
the more refined pleasures which learning and intellectual power can
give; I now, on the eve of my departure, declare to you, and earnestly
pray that you may hereafter live and act on the conviction, that health
is a great blessing; competence, obtained by honourable industry, a great
blessing; and a great blessing it is, to have kind, faithful, and loving
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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