Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit.

COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor.

Published by William Pickering, London, 1840

About this Item

1 blank leaf + half title + TP + [v]= Advertisement + [v]ii-x + half title + [1]-95 + [96] = Printer's Information + 1 blank leaf + 9 leaves = 16 pp. of publisher's catalog, small Octavo in fours, First Edition.Rather than the philosophical work that the title implies, this is a collection of seven letters written by Coleridge "On the Inspiration of the Scriptures". The "Advertisement" in the front of the book claims this little volume contains "the key to most of the Biblical criticisms scattered throughout the Author's own writings."Coleridge was a critic, romantic poet and philosopher whose "place in English history… is that he developed a form of idealism in vitual isolation from the main stream of empirical philosophy. In developing his own philosophical insights, Coleridge turned to Kant. He had two reasons for doing this. First, he was deeply dissatisfied with the mechaniistic theory of mind still flourishing in English philosphy, since he was unable to formulate within its terms certain views about poetic imagination; while Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790) had, however, set out with great rigor, and within a much more tractable conceptual framework, views essentially similar to Coleridge's own. Second, Coleridge thought he saw in Kant's Trancendental Dialect a way of combating the chronic latitudinarianism in English theology that had predominated throuout the eighteenth centruy and continued until the time of the Oxford Movement." (EP, vol. 2, p. 134) Original dark green morrocco-grained cloth with printed spine label. The label is a bit worn and lightly chipped but still 90% readable. Small bookplate (Abel E. Berland) on side of front cover. Minor foxing early and late with a few marginal smudges. Comes in a half-morocco clamshell box. A very nice copy. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.

Seller Inventory # 877

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit.
• Publisher: William Pickering, London
• Publication Date: 1840
• Edition: FIRST EDITION.