PREFACE. 11 



very much misplaced in strict philosophical investiga- 

 tions ; and these particular figures, which might be 

 quite consistent with the atheistical philosophy of 

 Lucretius, sound ill in the mouth of a pious Christian, 

 which Mr. Coleridge undoubtedly was. He probably 

 adopted them unconsciously from Bacon ; but Bacon's 

 use of the word Nature ought rather to have served as 

 a warning than an example ; for it has contributed, in 

 no small degree, to the atheistical philosophy of recent 

 times. 



The prevalent natural philosophy of the present day 

 is that which is called corpuscular, because it assumes 

 the existence of a first matter, consisting of corpuscula 

 or atoms, which are supposed to be definite, though 

 extremely small, quantities, invested with the qualities 

 of extension, impenetrability, and the like ; and from 

 certain combinations of these qualities, Life is con- 

 sidered, by some persons, to be a necessary result. 

 This philosophy Mr. Coleridge combats. The supposed 

 atoms, he says, are mere abstractions of the mind; and 

 Life is not a thing, the result of atomic arrangement 

 or action, but is itself an act, or process. He refutes 

 various definitions of Life, such as, that it is the sum 

 of all the functions by which death is resisted ; or, that 

 it depends on the faculty of nutrition, or of anti- 

 putrescence. His own definition he proposes merely 

 as an hypothesis. Life, he says, is " the principle of 

 Individuation," that is to say, it is a power which 



