Specimens of the Table Talk of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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СКАЧАТЬ 1: "Enter Lady FALCONBRIDGE and JAMES GURNEY.

      BAST. O me! it is my mother:—How now, good lady?

       What brings you here to court so hastily?

      LADY F. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he?

       That holds in chase mine honour up and down?

      BAST. My brother Robert? Old Sir Robert's son?

       Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man?

       Is it Sir Robert's son that you seek so?

      LADY F. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy,

       Sir Robert's son: why scorn'st thou at Sir Robert?

       He is Sir Robert's son; and so art thou.

      BAST. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while?

      GUR. Good leave, good Philip.

      BAST. Philip?—Sparrow! James,

       There's toys abroad; anon I'll tell thee more.

      [Exit GURNEY."

      The very exit Gurney is a stroke of James's character.—ED.]]

      * * * * *

      The latest book of travels I know, written in the spirit of the old travellers, is Bartram's account of his tour in the Floridas. It is a work of high merit every way.[1]

      [Footnote 1: "Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the extensive territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws, &c. By William Bartram." Philadelphia, 1791. London, 1792. 8vo. The expedition was made at the request of Dr. Fothergill, the Quaker physician, in 1773, and was particularly directed to botanical discoveries.—ED.]

      * * * * *

      March 13. 1827.

      THE UNDERSTANDING.

      A pun will sometimes facilitate explanation, as thus;—the Understanding is that which stands under the phenomenon, and gives it objectivity. You know what a thing is by it. It is also worthy of remark, that the Hebrew word for the understanding, Bineh, comes from a root meaning between or distinguishing.

      * * * * *

      March 18. 1827.

      PARTS OF SPEECH.—GRAMMAR.

      There are seven parts of speech, and they agree with the five grand and universal divisions into which all things finite, by which I mean to exclude the idea of God, will be found to fall; that is, as you will often see it stated in my writings, especially in the Aids to Reflection[1]:—

      Prothesis.

       1.

       Thesis. Mesothesis. Antithesis.

       2. 4. 3.

       Synthesis.

       5.

      Conceive it thus:—

      1. Prothesis, the noun-verb, or verb-substantive, I am, which is the previous form, and implies identity of being and act.

      2. Thesis, the noun.

      3. Antithesis, the verb.

      Note, each of these may be converted; that is, they are only opposed to each other.

      4. Mesothesis, the infinitive mood, or the indifference of the verb and noun, it being either the one or the other, or both at the same time, in different relations.

      5. Synthesis, the participle, or the community of verb and noun; being and acting at once.

      Now, modify the noun by the verb, that is, by an act, and you have—

      6. The adnoun, or adjective.

      Modify the verb by the noun, that is, by being, and you have—

      7. The adverb.

      Interjections are parts of sound, not of speech. Conjunctions are the same as prepositions; but they are prefixed to a sentence, or to a member of a sentence, instead of to a single word.

      The inflections of nouns are modifications as to place; the inflections of verbs, as to time.

      The genitive case denotes dependence; the dative, transmission. It is absurd to talk of verbs governing. In Thucydides, I believe, every case has been found absolute.[2]

      Dative:—[Greek:——]

       Thuc.VIII. 24. This is the Latin usage.

      Accusative.—I do not remember an instance of the proper accusative absolute in Thucydides; but it seems not uncommon in other authors: [Greek:——]

      Yet all such instances may be nominatives; for I cannot find an example of the accusative absolute in the masculine or feminine gender, where the difference of inflexion would show the case.—ED.]

      The inflections of the tenses of a verb are formed by adjuncts of the verb substantive. In Greek it is obvious. The E is the prefix significative of a past time.

      [Footnote 1: P. 170. 2d edition.]

      [Footnote 2: Nominative absolute:—[Greek: theon de phozos ae anthropon nomos, oudeis apeirge, to men krinontes en homoio kai sezein kai mae—ton de hamartaematon.]—Thuc. II. 53.]

      _June 15. 1827.

      MAGNETISM.—ELECTRICITY.—GALVANISM.

      Perhaps the attribution or analogy may seem fanciful at first sight, but I am in the habit of realizing to myself Magnetism as length; Electricity as breadth or surface; and Galvanism as depth.

       June 24. 1827.

      SPENSER.—CHARACTER Of OTHELLO.—HAMLET.—POLONIUS.—PRINCIPLES AND

       MAXIMS.—LOVE.—MEASURE FOR MEASURE.—BEN JONSON.—BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER.—

       VERSION OF THE BIBLE.—SPURZHEIM.—CRANIOLOGY.

      Spenser's Epithalamion is truly sublime; and pray mark the swan-like movement of his exquisite Prothalamion. [1] His attention to metre and rhythm is sometimes so extremely minute as to be painful even to my ear, and you know how highly I prize good versification.

      [Footnote 1: How well I remember this Midsummer-day! I shall never pass such another. The sun was setting behind Caen Wood, and the calm of the evening was so exceedingly deep that it arrested Mr. Coleridge's attention. We were alone together in Mr. Gillman's drawing-room, and Mr. C. left off talking, and fell into an almost trance-like СКАЧАТЬ