The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 1838Gillman, James
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The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: 1838
Gillman, James
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834; Critics -- Great Britain -- Biography; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
His note-books abound with "his hints and first thoughts; "as he says,
his "Cogitabilia rather than actual cogitata à me,"--not always to be
understood as his fixed opinions, but often merely suggestions of the
disquisition, and acts of obedience to the apostolic command of "Try all
things, hold fast that which is good." Among them is the following
characteristic of the man and his feelings, noted down for some future
disquisition.
"Würde, Worthiness, VIRTUE, consist in the mastery over the sensuous
and sensual impulses; but Love requires INNOCENCE. Let the lover ask
his heart whether he could endure that his mistress should have
'struggled' with a sensual impulse for another, though she overcame it
from a sense of duty to him? Women are LESS offended with men, from
the vicious habits of men in part, and in part from the difference of
bodily constitution; yet still to a pure and truly loving woman it
must be a painful thought. That he should struggle with and overcome
ambition, desire of fortune, superior beauty, &c. or with desire
objectless, is pleasing; but 'not' that he has struggled with positive
appropriated desire, i.e. desire 'with' an object. Love in short
requires an absolute 'peace' and 'harmony' between all parts of human
nature, such as it is, and it is offended by any war, though the
battle should be decided in favour of the worthier.
This is perhaps the final cause of the 'rarity' of true love, and the
efficient and immediate cause of its difficulty. Ours is a life of
probation, we are to contemplate and obey 'duty' for its own sake, and
in order to this we, in our present imperfect state of being, must see
it not merely abstracted from, but in direct opposition to the 'wish',
the 'inclination'. Having perfected this, the highest possibility of
human nature, he may then with safety harmonize 'all' his being with
it; 'he may' LOVE!--To perform duties absolutely from the sense of
duty, is the 'ideal', which perhaps no human being ever can arrive at,
but which every human being ought to try to draw near unto. This is in
the only wise, and verily, in a most sublime sense to see God face to
face; which, alas! it seems too true, that no man can do and 'live',
i.e. a 'human' life. It would become incompatible with his
organization, or rather it would 'transmute' it, and the process of
that transmutation to the senses of other men would be called
'death'.--Even as to caterpillars; in all probability the caterpillar
dies, and he either does not see, which is most probable, or at all
events he does not see the connection between the caterpillar and the
butterfly, the beautiful Psyche of the Greeks.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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