COLERIDGE'S UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS.
(Vol. ix., p. 496.)
In an article contained in the Number of "N. & Q." for May the 27th last, and signed C. Mansfield Ingleby, an inconsiderate, not to say a coarse attack has been made upon me, which might have been spared had the writer sought a private explanation of the matters upon which he has founded his charge.
He asks, "How has Mr. Green discharged the duties of his solemn trust? Has he made any attempt to give publicity to the Logic, the 'great work' on Philosophy, the work on the Old and New Testaments, to be called The Assertion of Religion, or the History of Philosophy, all of which are in his custody, and of which the first is, on the testimony of Coleridge himself, a finished work?... For the four works enumerated above, Mr. Green is responsible."
Now, though, by the terms of Coleridge's will, I do not hold myself "responsible" in the sense which the writer attaches to the term, and though I have acted throughout with the cognizance, and I believe with the approbation of Coleridge's family, yet I am willing, and shall now proceed to give such explanations as an admirer of Coleridge's writings may desire, or think he has a right to expect.
Of the four works in question, the Logic—as will be seen by turning to the passage in the Letters, vol. ii. p. 150., to which the writer refers as "the testimony of Coleridge himself"—is described as nearly ready for the press, though as yet unfinished; and I apprehend it may be proved by reference to Mr. Stutfield's notes, the gentleman to whom it is there said they were dictated, and who possesses the original copy, that the work never was finished. Of the three parts mentioned as the components of
the work, the Criterion and Organon do not to my knowledge exist; and with regard to the other parts of the manuscript, including the Canon, I believe that I have exercised a sound discretion in not publishing them in their present form and unfinished state.
Of the alleged work on the Old and New Testaments, to be called The Assertion of Religion, I have no knowledge. There exist, doubtless, in Coleridge's handwriting, many notes, detached fragments and marginalia, which contain criticisms on the Scriptures. Many of these have been published, some have lost their interest by the recent advances in biblical criticism, and some may hereafter appear; though, as many of them were evidently not intended for publication, they await a final judgment with respect to the time, form, and occasion of their appearance. But no work with the title above stated, no work with any similar object—except the Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit—is, as far as I know, in existence.
The work to which I suppose the writer alludes as the History of Philosophy, is in my possession. It was presented to me by the late J. Hookham Frere, and consists of notes, taken for him by an eminent shorthand writer, of the course of lectures delivered by Coleridge on that subject. Unfortunately, however, these notes are wholly unfit for publication, as indeed may be inferred from the fact, communicated to me by Coleridge, that the person employed confessed after the first lecture that he was unable to follow the lecturer in consequence of becoming perplexed and delayed by the novelty of thought and language, for which he was wholly unprepared by the ordinary exercise of his art. If this History of Philosophy is to be published in an intelligible form, it will require to be re-written; and I would willingly undertake the task, had I not, in connexion with Coleridge's views, other and more pressing objects to accomplish.
I come now to the fourth work, the "great work" on Philosophy. Touching this the writer quotes from one of Coleridge's letters:
"Of this work something more than a volume has been dictated by me, so as to exist fit for the press."
I need not here ask whether the conclusion is correct, that because "something more than a volume" is fit for the press, I am therefore responsible for the whole work, of which the "something more than a volume" is a part? But—shaping my answer with reference to the real point at issue—I have to state, for the information of Coleridge's readers, that, although in the materials for the volume there are introductions and intercalations on subjects of speculative interest, such as to entitle them to appear in print, the main portion of the work is a philosophical Cosmogony, which I fear is scarcely adapted for scientific readers, or corresponds to the requirements of modern science. At all events, I do not hesitate to say that the completion of the whole would be requisite for the intelligibility of the part which exists in manuscript.
I leave it then to any candid person to decide whether I should have acted wisely in risking its committal to the press in its present shape. Whatever may be, however, the opinion of others, I have decided, according to my own conscientious conviction of the issue, against the experiment.
But should some farther explanation be expected of me on this interesting topic, I will freely own that, having enjoyed the high privilege of communion with one of the most enlightened philosophers of the age—and in accordance with his wishes the responsibility rests with me, as far as my ability extends, of completing his labours,—in pursuance of this trust I have devoted more than the leisure of a life to a work in which I hope to present the philosophic views of my "great master" in a systematic form of unity—in a form which may best concentrate to a focus and principle of unity the light diffused in his writings, and which may again reflect it on all departments of human knowledge, so that truths may become intelligible in the one light of Divine truth.
Meanwhile I can assure the friends and admirers of Coleridge that nothing now exists in manuscript which would add materially to the elucidation of his philosophical doctrines; and that in any farther publication of his literary remains I shall be guided, as I have been, by the duty which I owe to the memory and fame of my revered teacher.
Joseph Henry Green.
Hadley.