We
have got Coleridge's Literary Remains, in which I do rejoice greatly. I think with all his faults old Sam was more of a great man than any one who has lived within the four seas in my memory. It is refreshing to see such
a union of the highest philosophy and poetry, with so full
a knowledge, on so many points at least, of particular facts.
But yet there are marks enough that his mind was a little
diseased by want of a profession, and the consequent
unsteadiness of his mind and purposes; it always seems to
me that the very power of contemplation becomes impaired or perverted, when it is made the main employment of life. Yet I would fain have more time for contemplation than I have at present. [to W. W. Hull, 16 November 1836; I, 59]
References
Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn. The life and correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D.D., late head-master of Rugby school, and regius professor of modern history in the University of Oxford. 4th ed. 2 vols. London: B. Fellowes, 1845.
Last modified 13 August 2006