PREFACE. 



THE accompanying pages contain the unfinished 

 Sketch of a Theory of Life by S. T. Coleridge. Every- 

 thing that fell from the pen of that extraordinary man 

 bore latent, as well as more obvious indications of 

 genius, and of its inseparable concomitant originality. 

 To this general remark the present Essay is far from 

 forming an exception. No one can peruse it, without 

 admiring the author's comprehensive research and pro- 

 found meditation ; but at the same time, partly from the 

 exuberance of his imagination, and partly from an 

 apparent want of method (though, in truth, he had a 

 method of his own, by which he marshalled his thoughts 

 in an order perfectly intelligible to himself), a first 

 perusal will, to many readers, prove unsatisfactory, 

 unless they are prepared for it by an introduction of a 

 more popular character. This purpose, therefore, I 

 shall endeavour to accomplish ; it being to be under- 

 stood that I by no means make myself responsible 

 either for Mr. Coleridge's speculations, or for the 

 manner in which they are enunciated; and that, on 

 the contrary, I shall occasionally indicate views from 

 which I dissent, and expressions which perhaps the 



