Contents - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

Coleridge’s landlord at Greta Hall. They had been discussing a portrait of Wordsworth recentlypainted by William Hazlitt, and Coleridge relates that:Sir G & his wife both say, that the Picture gives them an idea of you as a profound strongmindedPhilosopher, not as a Poet - I answered (& I believe, truly -) that so it must needs do,if it were a good Portrait - for that you were a great Poet by inspirations, & in the Moments ofrevelation, but that you were a thinking feeling Philosopher habitually - that your Poetry wasyour Philosophy under the action of strong winds of Feeling - a sea rolling high. (CL II. 957) 34Then, in January 1804, Coleridge paints what, at a first reading, appears to be his mostflattering appreciation of Wordsworth ‘the Philosopher’. His description was written shortly after hehad spent nearly a month convalescing in the Wordsworth household over the Christmas period of1803 and the new year of 1804. In a letter to Richard Sharp, in which he relates with certain envy thatWordsworth’s is ‘the happiest Family I ever saw’, 35 he names Thomas Wedgwood and Wordsworth asexamples of ‘genuine Philosophers’. After a brief discussion of Wedgwood’s virtuous character, hethen turns to that of Wordsworth:Mr. Wordsworth does not excite that almost painfully profound moral admiration, which thesense of the exceeding Difficulty of a given Virtue can alone call forth, & which therefore Ifeel exclusively toward T. Wedgwood; but on the other hand, he is an object to becontemplated with greater complacency – because he both deserves to be, and is, a happy man– and a happy man, not from natural Temperament – for therein lies his main obstacle – notby enjoyment of the good things of this world – for even to this Day from the first Dawn ofhis Manhood he has purchased Independence and Leisure for great & good pursuits by austerefrugality and daily Self-denial – nor yet by an accidental confluence of amiable and happymakingFriends and Relatives, for everyone near to his heart had been placed there by Choiceand after Knowledge and Deliberation – but he is a happy man because he is a Philosopher –because he knows the intrinsic value of the Different objects of human Pursuit, and regulateshis Wishes in Subordination to that Knowledge – because he feels, and with a practical faith,the Truth … that we can do but one thing well, & that therefore we must make a choice – hehas made that choice from his early youth, has pursued it & is pursuing it – and certainly nosmall part of his happiness is owing to this Unity of Interest, & that Homogeneity of characterwhich is the natural consequence of it – & which that excellent man, the Poet Sotheby,noticed to me as characteristic of Wordsworth. (CL II 1033-4)This passage is a remarkable example of Coleridge’s conflicted feelings towards Wordsworth in 1804.Caught between feelings of admiration and envy at Wordsworth’s success in both his poetry and hisdomestic affections, he pens a subtle epideictic that criticises Wordsworth while ostensibly praisinghim. Wordsworth is praised as a philosopher, but Coleridge also implies that his philosophical abilitiesare a matter of habit rather than genuine intellect. In emphasising that Wordsworth is a ‘happy man’Coleridge is not suggesting that Wordsworth is always in good humour – earlier remarks in the letterabout the ‘hypochondriacal Graft in his nature’ anyway, forestall such a reading. He is in factreferring to Wordsworth’s ethos – his disposition or character, and to the nature of his actualphilosophical beliefs.34 The painting was not flattering and was later destroyed.35 Coleridge notes that this is the case, despite Wordsworth’s constitutional ‘occasional Fits of HypochondriacalUncomfortableness’.58