544 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 241. 



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 un- 

 finished state. 



Of the alleged work on the Old and New Testa- 

 ments, to be called The Assertion of Religion, I 

 have no knowledge. There exist, doubtless, in 

 Coleridge's handwriting, many notes, detachedfrag- 

 ments and marginalia, which contain criticisms on 

 the Scriptures. Many of these have been pub- 

 lished, some have lost their interest by the recent 

 advances in biblical criticism, and some may here- 

 after appear ; though, as many of them were evi- 

 dently 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. Un- 

 fortunately, 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 lec- 

 ture 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 exer- 

 cise 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 accom- 

 plish. 



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 re- 

 sponsible for the whole work, of which the " some- 

 thing 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 inter- 

 calations 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 com- 

 pletion of the whole would be requisite for the 

 intelligibility of the part which exists in manu- 

 script. 



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. What- 

 ever may be, however, the opinion of others, I have 

 decided, according to my oWn conscientious con- 

 viction 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 com- 

 munion with one of the most enlightened philoso- 

 phers 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 sys- 

 tematic 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. 



KING JAMES'S IRISH ARMY EIST, 1689. 



(Vol. ix., pp.30, 31. 401.) 



I was much pleased at Mr. D'Alton's an- 

 nouncement of his work ; and I should have re- 

 sponded to it sooner, if I could have had any idea 

 that he did not possess King's State of the Pro- 

 testants in Ireland ; but his inquiry about Colonel 

 Sheldon, in Vol. ix., p. 401., shows that he has 

 not consulted that work, where (p. 341.) he will 

 find that Dominick Sheldon was " Lieutenant- 

 General of the Horse." But after the enumera- 

 tion of the General Staff, there follows a list of 

 the field officers of eight regiments of horse, seven 

 of dragoons, and fifty of infantry. In Tyrconnel's 

 regiment of horse, Dominick Sheldon appears as 

 lieutenant-colonel. This must have been, I sup- 

 pose, a Sheldon junior, son or nephew of the 

 lieutenant-general of horse. This reference to 

 King's work has suggested to me an idea which I 

 venture to suggest to Mr. D'Alton as a prelimi- 

 nary to the larger work on Irish family genea- 

 logies which he is about, and for which we shall 



