Now in order to show that these inconveniences do attach to the principle itself, I will take my example of its operation from a respectable quarter, where no unkindly spirit is manifested in. tone or language. The seventh number of the Christian Miscellany of July, 1842, contains fifteen or sixteen pages of short extracts from Mr. Coleridge's writings, which are entitled "Contributions of S. T. Coleridge to the Revival of Catholic Truths.” I would suggest, by the way, that if my Father had taught only as such eclectics from his works would have him appear to have taught, his contributions to catholic truth would have been meagre enough, and might even have told in favor of much that he considered most uncatholic falsehood; had his views been conpressed within the bounds into which an implicit faith in the formal theology of early times must have compressed them, his system would have been lifeless and unreal as that which he was ever seeking to enliven and organize; he would have done little towards enlightening his generation, though he might have aided others to strengthen particular parties by bringing up again for current use obsolete religious metaphysics and neglected arguments a very different process from that of a true revival, which, instead of raising up the dead body of ancient doctrine, calls forth the life and substance that belong to it, clothed in a newer and more spiritual body, and gives to the belief of past ages an expansion and extension commensurate with the developed mind of our progressive race. Such was the revival of catholic truth at which he aimed, with whatever success, and to bring him in as an assistant in one of an opposite character, is, in my opinion, to do him injustice.

My immediate purpose, however, was not to notice the extracts themselves, but certain observations, respecting my Father, prefixed to them. They are contained in the little introduction, which speaks as follows:

"These excerpts are not brought forward as giving an accurate representation of Mr. Coleridge's opinions in all their modi. fications, or as specimens of his writings generally; they are rather the chance metal of a mine, rich indeed, but containing ores of every degree of value. They may, however, serve to show, how much he contributed by his elimination of powerful

truths, in the then unhealthy state of literature, to the revival of sounder principles. In doing this it is not surprising that one, who relied so much on himself, and was so little guided, at least directly, by external authority, should have fallen into some inconsistencies. These inconsistencies are rather the result of an undue development of certain parts of Christian philosophy, than she holding of opinions immediately heretical."

"The circumstances in his Christian course, which we may regard as having impaired his power of duly appreciating the relative value of certain Catholic truths, were his profession of literature, his having edited a newspaper, and having been engaged in a course of heretical and schismatical teaching. That he was rescued from these dangers and crimes, and to a great extent saved from their effects, is, it is not improbable, owing tc the circumstances of his early education. He was the son of a clergyman, admitted into the Church, and taught its doctrines by his pious and simple-hearted father, was impressed by his instructor, the Rev. James Bowyer, with the unrealities and hollowness of modern literature, and during his whole life was the subject of severe afflictions, which he received in patience, expressing for his past and often confessed sins, penitence in word, and doubtless penance in deeds. Through those means he may have attained his happy privilege, of uttering the most important truths, and clothing them in such language as rendered their reception more easy to minds not entirely petrified by the materialism of the day."

For Mr. Coleridge's sake alone it might be thought scarcely worth while to discuss the accuracy of remarks, which are perhaps at this time remembered by few, and, like a thousand others of similar tendency, cannot fail to be counteracted in their drift, so far as it is erroneous, by the ever renewed influence of his writings, as the returning waters sweep from the sea shore what children have scattered there during the ebb. For the sake of

The reader will perceive that I use this simile of the sea to denote, not the size or importance, but the comparative permanence of my father's writings. That he has achieved a permanent place in literature (I do not say what, or where), I certainly believe; and I also believe that no perso, ell acquainted with his writings will be disposed to deny the posi

right principle, I must observe, that in seeking to strengthen our own faith by casting any measure of discredit on minds which have not received it, we rather show our zeal in its behalf, than any true sense of its intrinsic excellence or confidence in its When a critic or biographer has a man's whole life,whole body of opinions-under review, he may fairly enough,though it is always a most difficult process,-attempt to show how, and to what extent, his character and modes of thought were affected by external circumstances; but I cannot help thinking it very unfair to pre-occupy a reader's mind with two or three points of a man's life selected out of his personal history, previously to introducing a few of his opinions to their notice. Every man who is in error, who cannot see the truth when it is before him, labors under some defect, intellectual or moral, and this may have been brought out,—I think such defects are never caused or implanted,-by circumstances; but it is hardly fair play to impute such defects to a writer or describe them as having corrupted his opinions, when the nature of the opinions themselves is adhuc sub lite among Christians and good men."

My principal objection, however, to the statements I have quoted is that they are incorrect either in the letter or the spirit, or both. It is plain enough that the real aim of the Miscellanist was not to exhibit the amount of Catholicity in an individual mind, but to spread what he considered to be Catholic truth, and to this my Father's character as a man was made subservient. On first reading his prefix I regarded one of its assertions as a pure mistake, and on this subject received the following testimonial from

tion, except those who represent the Edinburgh Review, of twenty and thirty years ago..

2 I wish the reader to observe that I attach little or no importance to the remarks of the Chr. Miscellany, in themselves; as an index of a state of feeling in certain quarters, and an instance of what is daily practised, to the production of injury and irritation more than any real good, they' are not insignificant. Personality is a poisoned weapon in religious warfare; and all religious statements in these days are necessarily a warfare, open or undeclared. Personal character should never be dealt with at second hand; it should be left to those who undertake the trouble and responsibility, while they possess the zeal, of the biographer.

Mr. Wordsworth, with whose great and honored name it must ever be the pride and pleasure of the friends of Coleridge to associate his.

-"I feel absolutely certain that your Father never was Editor of any periodical publication whatsoever except The Watchman and The Friend, neither of which, as you know, was long continued, and The Friend expressly excluded even allusion to temporary topics; nor, to the best of my remembrance, had The Watchman anything of the character of a newspaper. When he was very young he published several sonnets in a London newspaper. Afterwards he was in strict connexion with the editors or at least proprietors of one or more newspapers, The Courier and The Morning Post; and in one of these, I think it was the later, your Father wrote a good deal.'

"So convinced was I of the great service that your Father rendered Mr. Stuart's paper, that I urged him to put in his claim to be admitted a proprietor; but this he declined, having a great disinclination to any tie of the kind. In fact he could not bear being shackled in any way. I have heard him say that he should be sorry, if any one offered him an estate, for he should feel the possession would involve cares and duties that would be a clog to him."—3

The "Newspaper" which is supposed to have retarded my Father's growth in Catholicism, it now occurs to me, may have been The Watchman, as in that miscellany the domestic and foreign policy of the preceding days was reported and discussed; but I still think, that the impression which this statement, together with the inference drawn from it, is calculated to convey, is far from just. To be for any length of time the editor of a periodical work, which is the successful organ of a party, whatever principles that party may profess, nay even if they call themselves Catholic, is indeed to be in a situation of some danger to the moral and spiritual sense: but such was never my father's situation. When he is described as having been impaired in his religious mind by editing a newspaper, would any one guess

The reader is referred to chap. v. of the Biographical Supplement for an account of Mr. C.'s connexion with Mr. Stuart.

the fact to be this, that, in his youth, he put forth ten numbers of a miscellaneous work, one portion of which was devoted to the politics of the times, and was unable to make it answer because he would not adapt it to the ways of the world and of newspapers in general? Let those who have been led to think that Mr. Coleridge's services to public journals may have deadened his religious susceptibilities consider, not only the principles which he professes and the frame of mind which he displays on this very subject in the tenth chapter of the present work, but the character of his newspaper essays themselves; had the writer, to whose remarks I refer, done this, before he pronounced judgment, I think he could not have failed to see that my Father conformed the publications he aided to himself and his own high views, in proportion to the extent of his connexion with them, not himself to vulgar periodical writing. The Edinburgh Reviewers indeed, in the year 1847, flung in his teeth, “Ministerial Editor." With them the reproach lay in the word Ministerial. Tempora mutantur-but the change of times has not yet brought truth to the service of my Father, or made him generally understood.

Not however the connexion with newspapers merely, but the profession of literature is specified as one among other causes, which alienated my Father's mind from Catholicity. The peculiar disadvantages of the "trade of authorship" Mr. Coleridge has himself described in this biographical fragment; he has shown that literature can scarcely be made the means of living without being debased; but he himself failed in it, as the means of living, because he would not thus debase it,—would not sacrífice higher aims for the sake of immediate popularity. Literature, pursued not as a mere trade, is naturally the ally, rather than the adversary, of religion. It is indeed against our blessed Lord, if not for him; but though it has its peculiar danger, inasmuch as it satisfies the soul more than any other, and is thus inore liable to become a permanent substitute for religion with the higher sort of characters, yet surely, by exercising the habits of abstraction and reflection, it better disciplines the mind for that life which consists in seeking the things that are above while we are yet in the flesh, than worldly business or pleasure.