ADVERTISEMENT.

This new edition of my Father's Biographia Literaria was partly prepared for publication by his late Editor. The corrections of the text in the first nine or ten chapters of Vol. I., and in the first three or four of Vol. II., are by his hand; the notes signed “Editor” were written by him; and he drew up the Biographical Supplement (the first three chapters of it containing the Letters), which was placed at the end of the second volume. His work it has fallen to me to complete, and the task has been interesting, though full of affecting remembrances, and brought upon me by the deepest sorrow of my life. The biographical sketch I have published as I found it, with trifling alterations and omissions, filling up a few gaps and supplying the mottoes. Had the writer himself taken it up again, he would probably have improved and continued it.

I have only to add that my thanks are due to many kind friends, who have assisted me in my part of the undertaking with advice, information, or loan of books; especially my Father's dear Friend and Fellow Student, Mr. Green, Archdeacon Hare, and my brother-in-law, Mr. Justice Coleridge. I am also much indebted for help towards my work to Mr. Pickering, by whom a great number of the books referred to in the notes were placed in my hands.

CHAP. I. Motives to the present work-Reception of the Author's

first publication-Discipline of his taste at school-Effect of con-

temporary writers on youthful minds-Bowles's Sonnets—Compa-

rison between the poets before and since Pope . . . . 141

CHAP. II. Supposed irritability of men of genius brought to the

test of facts-Causes and occasions of the charge-Its injustice . 163

CHAP. III. The Author's obligations to Critics, and the probable

occasion-Principles of modern Criticism-Mr. Southey's works

and character

. . . . 179

CHAP. IV. The Lyrical Ballads with the Preface-Mr. Wordsworth's

earlier poems-On Fancy and Imagination—The investigation of

the distinction inportant to the Fine Arts

. . 194

CHAP. V. On the law of Association-Its history traced from Aris-

totle to Hartley . . . . . . . 211

CHAP. VI. That Hartley's system, as far as it differs from that of

Aristotle, is neither tenable in theory, nor founded in facts . 230

CHAP. VII. Of the necessary consequences of the Hartleian Theory-

Of the original mistake or equivocation which procured its

admission-Memoria technica . . . . . 237

CHAP. VIII. The system of Dualism introduced by Des Cartes-Re-

fined first by Spinoza and afterwards by Leibnitz into the doctrine

of Harmonia præstabilita-Hylozoism-Materialism-None of

these systems, or any possible theory of association, supplies or

supersedes a theory of Perception, or explains the formation of

the Associable .

.245

PAGB

CHAP. IX. Is Philosophy possible as a science, and what are its con-

ditions ?-Giordano Bruno-Literary Aristocracy, or the existence

of a tacit compact among the learned as a privileged order-The

Author's obligations to the Mystics--to Immanuel Kant-The dif-

ference between the letter and the spirit of Kant's writings, and

a vindication of prudence in the teaching of Philosophy-Fichte's

attempt to complete the Critical system--Its partial success and

ultimate failure-Obligations to Schelling; and among English

writers to Saumarez . . . . . . 254

CHAP. X. A chapter of digression and anecdotes, as an interlude

preceding that on the nature and genesis of the Imagination or

Plastic Power-On Pedantry and pedantic expressions Advice

to young authors respecting publication—Various anecdotes of the

Author's literary life, and the progress of his opinions in Religion

and Politics

· · · · · · · 279

CHAP. XI. An affectionate exhortation to those who in early life feel

themselves disposed to become authors . .

· .324

CHAP. XII. A Chapter of requests and premonitions concerning the

perusal or omission of the chapter that follows . . . 333

Chap. XIII. On the Imagination or Esemplastic power . .

CHAP. XIV. Occasion of the Lyrical Ballads, and the objects origi-

nally proposed- Preface to the second edition-The ensuing con-
troversy, its causes and acrimony-Philosophic definitions of a

Poem and Poetry with scholia
CHAP. XV. The specific symptoms of poetic power elucidated in a

critical analysis of Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis, and Rape of

Lucrece
CHAP. XVI. Striking points of difference between the Poets of the

present age and those of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries-

Wish expressed for the union of the characteristic merits of both 464
CHAP. XVII. Examination of the tenets peculiar to Mr. Wordsworth

-Rustic life (above all, low and rustic life) especially unfavorable
to the formation of a human diction-The best parts of language
the product of philosophers, not of clowns or shepherds—Poetry
essentially ideal and generic-The language of Milton as much
the language of real life, yea, incomparably more so than that of
the cottager . . . . . . . 474

PAGE

Chap. XVIII Language of metrical composition, why and wherein

essentially different from that of prose-Origin and elements of
metre-Its necessary consequences, and the conditions thereby
imposed on the metrical writer in the choice of his diction . 491

CHAP. XIX. Continuation.- Concerning the real object which, it is

probable, Mr. Wordsworth had before him in his critical preface

-Elucidation and application of this . . . . 517
CHAP. XX. The former subject continued—The neutral style, or

that common to Prose and Poetry, exemplified by specimens from
Chaucer, Herbert, and others . . . . . 527

CHAP. XXI. Remarks on the present mode of conducting critical

Journals . . . . . . . . 536

CHAP. XXII. The characteristic defects of Wordsworth's poetry,

with the principles from which the judgment, that they are de-
fects, is deduced-Their proportion to the beauties—For the
greatest part characteristic of his theory only . . . 546

---