Coleridge

Coleridge Synopsis

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. I am grieved, said Southey, that you never met Coleridge. All other men whom I have ever known are mere children to him, and yet all is palsied by a total want of moral strength. He is like a lump of coal rich with gas, said Scott, which lies expending itself in puffs and gleams, unless some shrewd body will clap it into a cast-iron box, and compel the compressed element to do itself justice. He is the only person I ever knew, who answered to the idea of a man of genius, said Hazlitt; he is the only person from whom I ever learnt anything. His genius had... angelic wings, and fed on manna. He talked on for ever; and you wished him to talk on for ever. He is, said De Quincey, the largest and most spacious intellect, the subtlest and most comprehensive that has yet existed among men. Impiety to Shakespeare! cried Landor; treason to Milton! I give up all the rest, even Bacon. Certainly, since their day we have had nothing at all comparable with him.