Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge

Specimens of the Table Talk of
S.T.Coleridge

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Title: Specimens of the Table Talk of S.T.Coleridge
Author: Coleridge
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8489] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 26, 2003]

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TALK OF S.T.COLERIDGE ***

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[The Greek transliterations throughout this file are either missing or
very suspect.]
[Illustration: F. Finden sculp. _London, John Murray, Albernarle St.
1837_]
[autographed: Dear Sir, Your obliged servant. S. T. Coleridge]
SPECIMENS OF THE TABLE TALK OF SAMUEL TAYLOR
COLERIDGE.
TO JAMES GILLMAN, ESQUIRE, OF THE GROVE, HIGHGATE,
AND TO MRS. GILLMAN, This Volume IS GRATEFULLY
INSCRIBED.

PREFACE.
* * * * *
It is nearly fifteen years since I was, for the first time, enabled to
become a frequent and attentive visitor in Mr. Coleridge's domestic
society. His exhibition of intellectual power in living discourse struck
me at once as unique and transcendant; and upon my return home, on
the very first evening which I spent with him after my boyhood, I
committed to writing, as well as I could, the principal topics of his
conversation in his own words. I had no settled design at that time of
continuing the work, but simply made the note in something like a
spirit of vexation that such a strain of music as I had just heard, should
not last forever. What I did once, I was easily induced by the same
feeling to do again; and when, after many years of affectionate

communion between us, the painful existence of my revered relative on
earth was at length finished in peace, my occasional notes of what he
had said in my presence had grown to a mass, of which this volume
contains only such parts as seem fit for present publication. I know,
better than any one can tell me, how inadequately these specimens
represent the peculiar splendour and individuality of Mr. Coleridge's
conversation. How should it be otherwise? Who could always follow to
the turning-point his long arrow-flights of thought? Who could fix
those ejaculations of light, those tones of a prophet, which at times
have made me bend before him as before an inspired man? Such acts of
spirit as these were too subtle to be fettered down on paper; they live--if
they can live any where--in the memories alone of those who witnessed
them. Yet I would fain hope that these pages will prove that all is not
lost;--that something of the wisdom, the learning, and the eloquence of
a great man's social converse has been snatched from forgetfulness, and
endowed with a permanent shape for general use. And although, in the
judgment of many persons, I may incur a serious responsibility by this
publication; I am, upon the whole, willing to abide the result, in
confidence that the fame of the loved and lamented speaker will lose
nothing hereby, and that the cause of Truth and of Goodness will be
every way a gainer. This sprig, though slight and immature, may yet
become its place, in the Poet's wreath of honour, among flowers of
graver hue.
If the favour shown to several modern instances of works nominally of
the same description as the present were alone to be considered, it
might seem that the old maxim, that nothing ought to be said of the
dead but what is good, is in a fair way of being dilated into an
understanding that every thing is good that has been said by the dead.
The following pages do not, I trust, stand in need of so much
indulgence. Their contents may not, in every particular passage, be of
great intrinsic