The following is the prospectus of Mr. Coleridge's series of Political
lectures.
S. T. Coleridge proposes to give, in Six Lectures, a comparative view
of the English Rebellion under Charles the First, and the French
Revolution.
The subjects of the proposed Lectures are,
FIRST. The distinguishing marks of the French and English character,
with their probable causes. The national circumstances precursive
to--1st, the English Rebellion.--2nd, the French Revolution.
SECOND. The Liberty of the Press. Literature; its Revolutionary
powers. Comparison of the English, with the French Political Writers,
at the time of the several Revolutions. Milton. Sydney.
Harrington.--Brissot. Sieyes. Mirabeau. Thomas Paine.
THIRD. The Fanaticism of the first English and French Revolutionists.
English Sectaries. French Parties. Feuillans. Girondists. Faction of
Hebert. Jacobins. Moderants. Royalists.
FOURTH. 1st, Characters of Charles the First, and Louis the
Sixteenth. 2nd, of Louis the Fourteenth and the present Empress of
Russia. 3rd, Life and Character of Essex and Fayette.
FIFTH. Oliver Cromwell, and Robespierre.--Cardinal Mazarine, and
William Pitt.--Dundas, and Barrere.
SIXTH. On Revolution in general. Its moral causes, and probable
effects on the Revolutionary People, and surrounding nations.
It is intended that the Lectures should be given once a week; on
Tuesday Evenings, at eight o'clock, at the Assembly Coffee House, on
the Quay. The First Lecture, on Tuesday, June 23d, 1795. As the
author wishes to ensure an audience adequate to the expenses of the
room, he has prepared subscription tickets for the whole course,
price Six Shillings, which may be had at the Lecture Room, or of Mr.
Cottle, or Mr. Reed, Booksellers.
Mr. Coleridge's Theological lectures succeeded, of which the following is
the prospectus.
Six Lectures will be given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, on Revealed
Religion, its Corruptions, and its Political Views.
These Lectures are intended for two classes of men, Christians and
Infidels; to the former, that they be able to give a reason for the
hope that is in them; to the latter, that they may not determine
against Christianity, from arguments applicable to its corruptions
only.
The subjects of the FIRST LECTURE, are--The Origin of Evil. The
Necessity of Revelation deduced from the Nature of man. An
Examination and Defence of the Mosaic Dispensation.
SECOND.--The Sects of Philosophy, and the Popular Superstitions of
the Gentile World, from the earliest times to the Birth of Christ.
THIRD.--Concerning the Time of the Appearance of Christ. The Internal
Evidences of Christianity. The External Evidences of Christianity.
FOURTH.--The External Evidences of Christianity continued. Answers to
Popular and Philosophical objections.
FIFTH.--The Corruptions of Christianity, in Doctrines. Political
Application.
SIXTH.--The grand Political Views of Christianity--far beyond other
Religions, and even Sects of Philosophy. The Friend of Civil Freedom.
The probable state of Society and Governments, if all men were
Christians.
Tickets to be had of Mr. Cottle, Bookseller.
Sometimes a single Lecture was given. The following is an Advertisement
of one of them.
To-morrow Evening, Tuesday, June 16th, 1795, S. T. Coleridge will
deliver (by particular desire) a Lecture on the Slave Trade, and the
duties that result from its continuance.
To begin at 8 o'clock, at the Assembly Coffee House, on the Quay.
Admittance, One Shilling.
It may be proper to state that all three of my young friends, in that day
of excitement, felt a detestation of the French war then raging, and a
hearty sympathy with the efforts made in France to obtain political
ameliorations. Almost every young and unprejudiced mind participated in
this feeling; and Muir, and Palmer, and Margarot, were regarded as
martyrs in the holy cause of freedom. The successive enormities, however,
perpetrated in France and Switzerland by the French, tended to moderate
their enthusiastic politics, and progressively to produce that effect on
them which extended also to so many of the soberest friends of rational
freedom. Mr. Coleridge's zeal on these questions was by far the most
conspicuous, as will appear by some of his Sonnets, and particularly by
his Poem of "Fire, Famine, and Slaughter;" though written some
considerable time after. When he read this Poem to me, it was with so
much jocularity as to convince me that, without bitterness, it was
designed as a mere joke.
In conformity with my determination to state occurrences, plainly, as
they arose, I must here mention that strange as it may appear in
Pantisocritans, I observed at this time a marked coolness between Mr.
Coleridge and Robert Lovell, so inauspicious in those about to establish
a "Fraternal Colony;" and, in the result, to renovate the whole face of
society! They met without speaking, and consequently appeared as
strangers. I asked Mr. C. what it meant. He replied, "Lovell, who at
first, did all in his power to promote my connexion with Miss Fricker,
now opposes our union." He continued, "I said to him, 'Lovell! you are a
villain!'" "Oh," I replied, "you are quite mistaken. Lovell is an honest
fellow, and is proud in the hope of having you for a brother-in-law. Rely
on it he only wishes you from prudential motives to delay your union." In
a few days I had the happiness of seeing them as sociable as ever.
This is the last time poor Robert Lovell's name will be mentioned in this
work, as living. He went to Salisbury, caught a fever, and, in eagerness
to reach his family, travelled when he ought to have lain by; reached his
home, and died! We attended his funeral, and dropt a tear over his grave!
Mr. Coleridge, though at this time embracing every topic of conversation,
testified a partiality for a few, which might be called stock subjects.
Without noticing his favorite Pantisocracy, (which was an everlasting
theme of the laudatory) he generally contrived, either by direct
amalgamation or digression, to notice in the warmest encomiastic
language, Bishop Berkeley, David Hartley, or Mr. Bowles; whose sonnets he
delighted in reciting. He once told me, that he believed, by his constant
recommendation, he had sold a whole edition of some works; particularly
amongst the fresh-men of Cambridge, to whom, whenever he found access, he
urged the purchase of three works, indispensable to all who wished to
excel in sound reasoning, or a correct taste;--Simpson's Euclid; Hartley
on Man; and Bowles's Poems.
In process of time, however, when reflection had rendered his mind more
mature, he appeared to renounce the fanciful and brain-bewildering system
of Berkeley; whilst he sparingly extolled Hartley; and was almost silent
respecting Mr. Bowles. I noticed a marked change in his commendation of
Mr. B. from the time he paid that man of genius a visit. Whether their
canons of criticisms were different, or that the personal enthusiasm was
not mutual; or whether there was a diversity in political views; whatever
the cause was, an altered feeling toward that gentleman was manifested
after his visit, not so much expressed by words, as by his subdued tone
of applause.
The reflux of the tide had not yet commenced, and Pantisocracy was still
Mr. Coleridge's favourite theme of discourse, and the banks of the
Susquehannah the only refuge for permanent repose. It will excite great
surprise in the reader to understand that Mr. C.'s cooler friends could
not ascertain that he had received any specific information respecting
this notable river. "It was a grand river;" but there were many other
grand and noble rivers in America; (the Land of Rivers!) and the
preference given to the Susquehannah, seemed almost to arise solely from
its imposing name, which, if not classical, was at least poetical; and it
probably by mere accident became the centre of all his pleasurable
associations. Had this same river been called the Miramichi or the
Irrawaddy, it would have been despoiled of half its charms, and have sunk
down into a vulgar stream, the atmosphere of which might have suited well
enough Russian boors, but which would have been pestiferous to men of
letters.
The strong hold which the Susquehannah had taken on Mr. Coleridge's
imagination may be estimated by the following lines, in his Monody on
Chatterton.
"O, Chatterton! that thou wert yet alive;
Sure thou would'st spread the canvass to the gale,
And love with us the tinkling team to drive
O'er peaceful freedom's UNDIVIDED dale;
And we at sober eve would round thee throng,
Hanging enraptured on thy stately song!
And greet with smiles the young-eyed POSEY
All deftly masked, as hoar ANTIQUITY.
Alas, vain phantasies! the fleeting brood
Of woe self-solaced in her dreamy mood!
Yet I will love to follow the sweet dream,
Where Susquehannah pours his untamed stream,
And on some hill, whose forest-frowning side
Waves o'er the murmurs of his calmer tide;
And I will build a cenotaph to thee,
Sweet harper of time-shrouded minstrelsy!
And there soothed sadly by the dirgeful wind,
Muse on the sore ills I had left behind."
In another poem which appeared only in the first edition, a reference is
again made to the American "undivided dell," as follows: