BIB_ID
415958
Accession number
MA 1856.18
Creator
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 1772-1834.
Display Date
London, England, 1825 May 10.
Credit line
Purchased from Joanna Langlais, 1957.
Description
1 item (3 pages, with address) ; 22.9 x 18.6 cm
Notes
Coleridge gives neither a place nor a date of writing. Based on other letters from this period, Griggs suggests that it was written on or near May 10, 1825, almost certainly in London. See the published edition of the correspondence, cited below, for additional information.
This collection, MA 1856, is comprised of 48 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Henry Green and 2 autograph manuscripts, written between 1817 and 1834. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1856.1-50).
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 as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel: "J.H. Green, Esqre / 46 / Lincoln's Inn Fields."
This collection, MA 1856, is comprised of 48 letters from Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Joseph Henry Green and 2 autograph manuscripts, written between 1817 and 1834. See the collection-level record for more information (MA 1856.1-50).
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 as MA 1848-1857.
Address panel: "J.H. Green, Esqre / 46 / Lincoln's Inn Fields."
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
Concerning the possibility of a "Metropolitan University"; saying that he has been thinking about and researching the subject and that he is prepared to present the results of his work in three discourses; listing what the discourses would cover, including the history of European universities, what a university should truly be, where British universities have fallen short ("Cambridge and Oxford national blessings; but not true Universities"), the advantages and disadvantages to having a university in a great city and finally "A full Exposé of the Plan and Means of the greatest practicable approximation to the Ideal of the University at the present time [...] Display of the probable Consequences on the Wealth, Worth and character of the Country at large and of the Metropolis in particular"; saying that he is sure he could make the subject entertaining, but unsure whether it would draw an audience sufficient to cover the costs of renting a room, advertising, etc; considering whether he should present these discourses in the press instead; saying that he is willing to endure the fatigue that public speaking and the city always causes him if he felt he could be effective in promoting a "useful and desirable Object"; asking for Green's opinion: "A single Line of, I think, you would have a sufficient Audience -- or I fear, not -- would be enough...".
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