b PREFACE. 



author himself, on revision, would have seen reason to 

 correct. 



It is clear that Mr. Coleridge considers the unity of 

 human nature to result from two combined elements, 

 Body and Soul ; that he regards the latter as the prin- 

 ciple of Reason and of Conscience (both which he has 

 largely treated in his published works), and that the 

 " Life/' which he here investigates, concerns, in rela- 

 tion to mankind, only the Body. He is far, however, 

 from confining the term "Life" to its action on the 

 human body ; on the contrary, he disclaims the divi- 

 sion of all that surrounds us into things with life, and 

 things without life ; and contends, that the term Life is 

 no less applicable to the irreducible bases of chemistry, 

 such as sodium, potassium, &c., or to the various forms 

 of crystals, or the geological strata which compose 

 the crust of our globe, than it is to the human body 

 itself, the acme and perfection of animal organization. 

 I admit that there are certain great powers, such as 

 magnetism, electricity, and chemistry, whose action 

 may be traced, even by the limited means which 

 science at present possesses, in admirable gradation, 

 from purely unorganized to the most highly organized 

 matter : and, I think, that Mr. Coleridge has done this 

 with great ingenuity and striking effect ; but what I 

 object to is, that he applies to the combined operation 

 of these powers, in all cases, the term Life. If we 

 look back to the early history of language, we shall 

 probably find that this word, and its synonymes in 



