ENERGY OF MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS. 35 MARCH 12, 1827. Roman Catholics.—Energy of Man and other Animals.—Shakspeare in minimis.-Paul Sarpi.—Bartram's Travels. I HAVE no doubt that the real object closest to the hearts of the leading Irish Romanists is the destruction of the Irish Protestant Church, and the re-establishment of their own. I think more is involved in the manner than the matter of legislating upon the civil disabilities of the members of the Church of Rome; and, for one, I should be willing to vote for a removal of those disabilities, with two or three exceptions, upon a solemn declaration being made legislatively in Parliament, that at no time, nor under any circumstances, could or should a branch of the Romish hierarchy, as at present constituted, become an estate of this realm.* Internal or mental energy and external or corporeal modificability are in inverse proportions. In man, internal energy is greater than in any other animal; and you will see that he is less changed by climate than any animal. For the highest and lowest specimens of man are not one half so much apart from each other as the different kinds even of dogs, animals of great internal energy themselves. For an instance of Shakspeare's power in minimis, I generally quote James Gurney's character in King John. How individual and comical he is with the four words allowed to his dramatic life !+ And pray look at Skelton's Richard Sparrow also! * See Church and State, second part, p. 189. "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? Paul Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent deserves your study. It is very interesting. 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.* A MARCH 13, 1827. The Understanding. 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. LADY F. Where is that slave, thy brother? where is he? 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? 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. * "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. PARTS OF SPEECH.- -GRAMMAR. 37 MARCH 18, 1827. Parts of Speech.-Grammar. THERE HERE 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, the noun-verb, or verb-substantive, I am, which is the previous form, and implies identity of being and act. 2. Thesis, the noun. 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 an acting at once. Now, modify the noun by the verb, that is, by an act, and you have 6. The adnoun, or adjective. *P. 170, 2nd edition, 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 propositions; but they are prefixed to a sentence, or to a member of a sentence, instead of to a single word. The inflexions of nouns are modifications as to place; the inflexions 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.* The inflexions 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. JUNE 15, 1827. PERHAPS the attribution or analogy may seem fanciful at first sight, but I am in the habit of realising to myself Magnetism as length; Electricity as breadth or surface; and Galvanism as depth. * Nominative absolute:—θεῶν δὲ φόβος ἢ ἀνθρώπων νόμος οὐδεὶς ἀπεῖργε, τὸ μεν κρίνοντες ἐν ὁμοίῳ καὶ σέβειν καὶ μὴ · τῶν δὲ ἁμαρτημάτων οὐδεὶς ἐλπίζων μέχρι τοῦ δίκην γενέσθαι βιοὺς ἂν τὴν τιμωρίαν ἀντιδοῦναι. — Thục. II. 63. Dative:-εἰς γομένοις αὐτοῖς τῆς θαλάσσης καὶ κατὰ γῆν πορθουμένοις ενεχείρησαν τινες πρὸς Αθηναίους ἀγαγεῖν τὴν πόλιν.—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:ὦ ξεῖνε, μὴ θαύμαζε πρὸς τὸ λιπαρές, τέκν ̓ εἰ φανέντ' άελπτα μηκύνω λόγον. 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. CHARACTER OF OTHELLO. 39 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. PENSER'S Epithalamion is truly sublime; and pray mark the swan-like movement of his exquisite Prothalamion.* 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. I have often told you that I do not think there is any jealousy, properly so called, in the character of Othello. There is no predisposition to suspicion, which I take to be an essential term in the definition of the word. Desdemona very truly told Emilia that he was not jealous, that is, of a jealous habit, and he * 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 state for ten minutes whilst contemplating the beautiful prospect before us. His eyes swam in tears, his head inclined a little forward, and there was a slight uplifting of the fingers, which seemed to tell me that he was in prayer. I was awe-stricken, and remained absorbed in looking at the man, in forgetfulness of external nature, when he recovered himself, and after a word or two fell by some secret link of association upon Spenser's poetry. Upon my telling him that I did not very well recollect the Prothalamion: "Then I must read you a bit of it," said he; and fetching the book from the next room, he recited the whole of it in his finest and most musical manner. I particularly bear in mind the sensible diversity of tone and rhythm with which he gave : "Sweet Thames! run softly till I end my song," the concluding line of each of the ten strophes of the poem. When I look upon the scanty memorial, which I have alone preserved of this afternoon's converse, I am tempted to burn these pages in despair. Mr. Coleridge talked a volume of criticism that day, which, printed verbatim as he spoke it, would have made the reputation of any other person but himself. He was, indeed, particularly brilliant and enchanting; and I left nim at night so thoroughly magnetized, that I could not for two or three days afterwards reflect enough to put anything on paper.-ED. |