'FOND OF THE DAZZLE OF WIT, FOND OF SUBTLETY OF ARGUMENT'

COLERIDGE (SAMUEL TAYLOR, 1772-1834, poet) REMARKABLE EARLY AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ('S.T. Coleridge'), to his brother the Rev. George Coleridge, containing a fine and subtle exposition of his views about religion when only twenty-two years of age, with some hints of the inner struggle that he had suffered between the disparate sides of his personality and mind

'...I long ago theoretically and in less degree experimentally knew the necessity of Faith in order to regulate Virtues -- nor did I ever seriously disbelieve the existence of a future State -- In short my religious Creed bore and perhaps bears a correspondence with my mind and heart -- I had too much Vanity to be altogether a Christian -- too much tenderness of Nature to be utterly an Infidel. Fond of the dazzle of Wit, fond of subtlety of Argument, I could not read without some degree of pleasure the levities of Voltaire, or the reasonings of Helvetius -- but tremblingly alive to the feelings of humanity, and susceptible of the charms of Truth my Heart forced me to admire the beauty of Holiness in the Gospel forced me to love the Jesus, whom my Reason (or perhaps my reasonings) would not me permit to worship -- my Faith therefore was made up of the Evangelists and the Deistic Philosophy -- a kind of religious Twilight -- I said -- perhaps bears -- Yes! My Brother -- for who can say -- now I'll be a Christian -- Faith is neither altogether voluntary, or involuntary -- We cannot believe what we choose -- but we can certainly cultivate such habits of thinking and acting, as will give force and effect energy to the Arguments on either side...'

Coleridge also discusses the details of his arrangements for his forthcoming discharge from the army and return to Cambridge, calculating his expenses and expressing concern about his lack of funds ('...surely my Brother I am not so utterly abandoned as not to feel the meaning and duty of Economy -- O me! I wish to God I were happy -- but it would be strange indeed, if it were so...') and expresses his gratitude and penitence ('...believe me your severities only wound me as the awake the Voice within to speak ah! how more harshly! I feel gratitude and love towards you, even when I shrink and shiver...'), 3 pages, folio, on large paper, integral address leaf, with manuscript and stamped postmarks, early pencil endorsement 'Discharge Letter', trace of seal, small hole where opened, 30 March 1794

This letter is a fine example of Coleridgean prose. It is published in the Collected Letters, edited by E.L. Griggs, vol. i. pp. 77-78.

It was written just before Coleridge's discharge from the army. Depressed and distracted by College debts, as well as by a continuing infatuation with Mary Evans, he had left Cambridge and on 2 December 1793 enlisted in the 15th or King's Light Dragoons in London. He had adopted the pseudonym Silas Tomkyn Comberbache to conceal his identity and whereabouts from his family. He was rescued from his folly by his family, particularly his brother George.

Richard Holmes in his magisterial biography of Coleridge picks out this letter for special comment, noting that it 'marks the beginning of his Unitarian phase, which would lead him for several years into a radical view of Christianity as a philosophy of social reform, with strong egalitarian overtones, which were evidently encouraged by his army experience.' (p. 58).

Those to his brother are among the most important of Coleridge's earliest surviving letters and reflect one of the most important relationships of his life. His brother gave him indispensable practical aid in his early years and Coleridge regarded him as 'my Brother -- my Father!'; he dedicated the second edition of his Poems to him; later he would write of him: 'In his moral character he approaches every way nearer to Perfection than any man I ever knew -- indeed, he is worth the whole family in a Lump.'

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