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Gentleman's Magazine 1851 part 1 p.585
judging only from his note-books and miscellaneous papers, and taking no account of that which persihed with him, would surely have ranked him among the most copious and most instructive, as well as the most delightful, writers of his age, had he exerted the resolution or possessed the faculty of combining his materials on any considerable scale or on any given plan. The hope and intention of turning his literary talent to account in this way he never ceased to cherish, and he was not wanting in exertion. He mastered several modern languages, French, Italian, and German, which it had not fallen in his way to acquire in youth. He had commenced the study of Hebrew, expressly with a view to theological investigation, and had begun to apply his knowledge, rudimental as it was, to good purposes. He read and wrote incessantly; he made copious collections; the margins of his books are filled with carefully-written annotations, evidently intended for future use, to which in some few cases thay had been actually applied; but by far the largest portion is unpublished. His note-books, which are very numerous, and bear quaint names, are full of original matter, little cycles of speculation, sometimes profound, often acute and sagacious, almost always original and characteristic, but thrown together without an attempt at method. There (sic) are always written in the first person, somewhat after the manner of Montaigne, Even extracts from books, lexicography, facts in natural history, &c. are interveined with something of his own, and not unfrequently of himself."
From these note-books, &c. it is intended to publish a selection. We hope it will be a copious one; for we expect to find in such dispersed observations some of the very best fruits of his mind. We do not anticipate the less from them, because they are desultory and without method. Thick books are imposing things, and treatises which comprehend and exhaust the subject they treat of have a value of their own; but in most cases the reader has to pay for the completeness of the whole in an inferior treatment of many parts. The thought which rises to the surface without pressing, generally contains all the cream. And, after all, what worse name do such scattered contemplations deserve that that of essays? Essays they are, according to the true meaning of the word and truest use of the thing: not prize essays, in which the writer labours to say all that can be said, but natural essays, in which, without binding himself to any formal method, he sets down whatever occurs to him as worthy of saying. From these promised selections, therefore, we hope to derive new and important evidence as to the scope and character of Hartley Coleridge's mind, and it would be premature to attempt an estimate of it until they appear.*
We have expressed a hope that the selection will be copious. Let us hope also that it will not be timid. He was a devout Christian, but a great foe to sectarianism within the Church as well as without, and if he has spoken his mind freely on the religious questions of the day, he must have said much that neither Oriel nor Exeter Hall will willingly sanction. We trust the editor will remember that he is not responsible for his brother's opinions, but that he is responsible for giving a faithful representation of them. The views of a devout layman, who has bound himself by no articles, are very valuable just now; and the editor should consider what his views were, not what will be thought of them.
As a poet, his character must be judged by the volumes before us, which contain all he left which has been thought worth publishing. The peoms in the first volume have been familiar to us for the last sixteen years; and, as we find that our interest in them has not abated, we cannot doubt that their worth is genuine and their
* Since this was written, the "Essays and Marginalia" have appeared, in two volumes; the first consisting of papers formerly contributed to magazines and annuals, with a few others found among the author's MSS.; the seond, chiefly of notes written in margins of books; but some extracts from the note-books are interspersed. These quicken our appetite for a second selection, which is to follow "if the reception of the present volumes justify the undertaking." Of this we trust there can be no doubt. The Essays, though printed before, have lost none of their interest, and to nine readers in ten are new. The Marginalia are all well worth preserving. And the Note-books promise to be better still; for Hartley Coleridge, naturally concise and pithy, writes best when he has most room.
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