BIB_ID
415805
Accession number
MA 1853.1
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1821 February 12.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (2 pages, with address) ; 22.6 x 18.3 cm
Notes
This collection, MA 1853, is comprised of seven autograph letters signed from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to C.A., Tulk, written from February 12, 1821 through April 10, 1824.
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel with postmarks to "C.A. Tulk, Esq're. M.P. / Regency Park."
This letter is from the Joanna Langlais Collection, a large collection of letters written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge to various recipients. The collection has been divided into subsets, based primarily on Coleridge's addressees, and these sub-collections have been cataloged individually as MA 1848- MA 1857.
Address panel with postmarks to "C.A. Tulk, Esq're. M.P. / Regency Park."
Provenance
Purchased from Joanna Langlais in 1957 as a gift of the Fellows with the special assistance of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Mr. Homer D. Crotty, Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Hyde, Mr. Robert H. Taylor and Mrs. Landon K. Thorne. Formerly in the possession of Ernest Hartley Coleridge and Thomas Burdett Money-Coutts, Baron Latymer.
Summary
Commenting on the theology of Swedenborgianism; saying 'They say, Coleridge! that you are a Swedenborgian!' Would to God! (I replied fervently) they they were any thing;" discussing, at length, the principles of Reason and Understanding and the distinctions between the two; discussing "Vital Power", Instinct and Understanding; commenting on Reason saying "First, in Reason there is and can be no degree. Deus introit aut non introit. - Secondly, in Reason there are no means nor ends : Reason itself being one with the ultimate end, of which it is the manifestation. Thirdly, Reason has no concern with things (i.e., the impermanent flux of particulars) but with the permanent Relations; & is to be defined, even in it's lowest or theoretical attribute, as the Power which enables man to draw necessary and universal conclusions from particular facts or forms - ex. gr. from any 3 cornered thing that the 2 sides of a Triangle are & must be greater than the third. - From the Understanding to the Reason there is no continuous ascent possible, it is a metabasis...even as from the air to the Light. The true essential peculiarity of the Human Understanding consists in it's capability of being irradiated by the reason - in it's recipiency - & even this is given to it by the presence of a higher power than itself. What then must be [the] fate of a nation that substitutes Locke for Logic, and Paley for Morality, and one or the other for Polity and Theology, according to the predominance of Whig or Tory predilection? - Slavery : or a commotion is at hand! - But if the Gentry and Clerisy (including all the learned & educated) do this, then the nation does it - or a commotion is at hand. Acephalum enim, aurâ quamvis et calore vitali potiatur, morientem rectius dicimus quam quod vivit. - With these thoughts was I occupied when I received your very kind and most acceptable present - & the results I must defer to the next post;" sending his regards to Mrs. Tulk.
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