To such, to the half-eyed and the half-souled, to the
prosaic and the unsympathetic, be left all harsh condemnation of
Coleridge.
For the living, not for the dead, are these inadequate words spoken. The
writings of Coleridge--in tone high, refined, noble; in expression rich,
choice, copious; in spirit as pure as the sun's light; intellectually
of rare breadth and mellowness and brilliancy--are a healthful power in
literature, their influence solely for good, warming, strengthening,
elevating. As for Coleridge himself, his is an immortal name; and as
he walks through the ages his robes adjusting themselves with varying
grace, in harmony with the mutations of opinion, his inward life will be
ever fresh to his fellow-men, while his detractors will be shaken from
him as _gryllidoe_ from the tunic of the superb Diana.
* * * * *
=_Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-_= (Manual pp. 478, 503, 531.)
From "Essays," Second Series.
=_199._= INFLUENCE OF NATURE.
There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of
the year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, the
heavenly bodies, and the earth, make a harmony, as if Nature would
indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet,
nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and
we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that
has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the
ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts.
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