_Coleridge a Prophet._--Among the political writers of the nineteenth
century, who has shown such prophetic insight into the sad destinies of
France as Coleridge? It is the fashion with literary sciolists to ignore
the genius of this great man. Let the following extracts stand as evidences
of his profound penetration.
_Friend_, vol. i. p. 244. (1844):
"That man has reflected little on human nature who does not perceive
that the detestable maxims and correspondent crimes of the existing
French despotism, have already dimmed the recollections of democratic
phrenzy in the minds of men; by little and little have drawn off to
other objects the electric force of the feelings which had massed and
upholden those recollections; and that a favourable concurrence of
occasions is alone wanting to awaken the thunder and precipitate the
lightning from the opposite quarter of the political heaven."
Let the events of 1830 and 1848 speak for themselves as to the fulfilment
of this forecast.
_Biographia Literaria_, vol. i. p. 30. (1847), [after a most masterly
analysis of practical genius]:
"These, in tranquil times, are formed to exhibit a perfect poem in
palace, or temple, or landscape-garden, &c.... But alas! in times of
tumult they are the men destined to come forth as the shaping spirit of
ruin, to destroy the wisdom of ages in order to substitute the fancies
of a day, and to change kings and kingdoms, as the wind shifts and
shapes the clouds."
Let the present and the future witness the truth of this insight. We have
(in Coleridge's words) "lights of admonition and warning;" and we may live
to repent of our indifference, if they are thrown away upon us.