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
These principles," says he, "I held philosophically, while in respect
of revealed religion, I remained a zealous Unitarian. I considered the
idea of a Trinity a fair scholastic inference from the being of God,
as a creative intelligence; and that it was therefore entitled to the
rank of an esoteric doctrine of natural religion: but seeing in the
same no practical or moral bearing, I confined it to the schools of
philosophy. The admission of the Logos, as hypostasized (i.e. neither
a mere attribute nor a personification), in no respect removed my
doubts concerning the incarnation and the redemption by the cross;
which I could neither reconcile in 'reason' with the impassiveness of
the Divine Being, nor in my moral feelings with the sacred distinction
between things and persons, the vicarious payment of a debt and the
vicarious expiation of guilt.
A more thorough revolution in my philosophic principles, and a deeper
insight into my own heart were yet wanting. Nevertheless, I cannot
doubt, that the difference of my metaphysical notions from those of
Unitarians in general 'contributed' to my final re-conversion to the
'whole truth' in 'Christ;' even as according to his own confession the
books of certain Platonic philosophers (Libri quorundam Platonicorum)
commenced the rescue of St. Augustine's faith from the same error,
aggravated by the far darker accompaniment of the Manichean heresy."
Perhaps it is right also to state, that no small share of his final
reconversion was attributable to that zeal and powerful genius, and to
his great desire that others should become sharers in his own
acquirements, which he was so desirous to communicate. During his
residence at the foot of Quantock, his thoughts and studies were not
only directed to an enquiry into the great truths of religion, but,
while he stayed at Stowey, he was in the habit of preaching often at the
Unitarian Chapel at Taunton, and was greatly respected by all the better
and educated classes in the neighbourhood.
He spoke of Stowey with warmth and affection to the latest hours of his
life. Here, as before mentioned, dwelt his friend Mr. Thomas Poole--the
friend (justly so termed) to whom he alludes in his beautiful dedicatory
poem to his brother the Rev. George Coleridge, and in which, when
referring to himself, he says,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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