the space of thrice three Days and Nights, a thick cloud will cover the sky, and a heavy rain fall on the earth. Go ye therefore, ere the thirtieth sun ariseth, retreat to the Cavern of the River and there abide, till the Clouds have passed away and the Rain be over and gone. For know ye of a certainty that whomever that Rain wetteth, on him, yea, on him and on his Children's Children will fall-the spirit of Madness." Yes! Madness was the word of the voice: what this be, I know not! But at the sound of the word Trembling came upon me, and a Feeling which I would not have had; and I remained even as ye beheld and now behold me.' Confused mur The old man ended, and retired. murs succeeded, and wonder, and doubt. Day followed day, and every day brought with it a diminution of the awe impressed. They could attach no image, no remembered sensations to the Threat. The ominous Morn arrived, the Prophet had retired to the appointed Cavern, and there remained alone during the space of the nine Days and Nights. On the tenth, he emerged from his place of Shelter, and sought his Friends and Brethren. But alas! how affrightful the change! Instead of the common Children of one great Family, working toward the same aim by Reason even as the Bees in their hives by Instinct, he looked and beheld, here a miserable wretch watching over a heap of hard and unnutritious small substances, which he had dug out of the earth, at the cost of mangled limbs and exhausted faculties, and appearing to worship it with greater earnestness, than the Youths had been accustomed to gaze at their chosen Virgins in the first season of their choice. There he saw a former Companion speeding on and panting after a Butterfly, or a withered Leaf whirling onward in the breeze; and another with pale and distorted countenance following close behind, and still stretching forth a dagger to stab his Pre cursor in the Back. In another place he observed a whole Troop of his fellow-men famished, and in fetters, yet led by one of their Brethren who had enslaved them, and pressing furiously onwards in the hope of famishing and enslaving another Troop moving in an opposite direction. For the first time, the Prophet missed his accustomed power of distinguishing between his Dreams, and his waking Perceptions. He stood gazing and motionless, when several of the Race gathered around him, and enquired of each other, Who is this Man? how strangely he looks! how wild!-a worthless Idler! exclaims one: assuredly, a very dangerous madman! cries a second. In short, from words they proceeded to violence: till harrassed, endangered, solitary in a world of forms like his own, without sympathy, without object of Love, he at length espied in some foss or furrow a quantity of the mad❜ning water still unevaporated, and uttering the last words of Reason," It is in vain to be sane in a World of Madmen," plunged and rolled himself in the liquid poison, and came out as mad and not more wretched than his neighbours and acquaintance. This tale or allegory seems to me to contain the ob jections to the practicability of my plan in all their strength. Either, says the Sceptic, you are the Blind offering to lead the Blind, or you are talking the language of Sight to those who do not possess the sense of Seeing. To such objections it would be amply sufficient, on my system of faith, to answer, that we are not all blind, but all subject to distempers of "the mental sight," differing in kind and in degree; that though all men are in error, they are not all in the same error, nor at the same time; and that each therefore may possibly heal the other (for the possibility of the cure is supposed in the free-agency) even as two or more physicians, all diseased in their general health yet under the immediate action of the disease on different days, may remove or alleviate the complaints of each other. But in respect to the entertainingness of moral writings, if in entertainment be included whatever delights the imagination or affects the generous passions, so far from rejecting such a mean of persuading the human soul, or of declaring it with Mr. Locke a mere imposture, my very system compels me to defend not only the propriety but the absolute necessity of adopting it, if we really intend to render our fellow-creatures better or wiser. Previous to my ascent of Etna, as likewise of the Brocken in North Germany, I remember to have amused myself with examining the Album or Manuscript presented to Travellers at the first stage of the Mountain, in which on their return the Fore-runners had sometimes left their experience, and more often disclosed or betrayed their own characters. Something like this I have endeavoured to do relatively to my great predecessors in periodical Literature, from the Spectator to the Mirror, or whatever later work of merit there may be. But the distinction between my proposed plan and all and each of theirs' I must defer to a future Essay. From all other works the FRIEND is sufficiently distinguished either by the very form and intervals of its Publication, or by its avowed exclusion of the Events of the Day, and of all personal Politics. For a detail of the principal subjects, which I have proposed to myself to treat in the course of this work, I must refer to the Prospectus, printed at the end of this Sheet. But I own, I am anxious to explain myself more fully on the delicate subjects of RELIGION and POLITICS. Of the former perhaps it may, for the present, be enough to say that I have confidence in myself that I shall neither directly or indirectly attack its Doctrines or Mysteries, much less attempt basely to undermine them by allusion, or tale, or anecdote. What more I might dare promise of myself, I reserve for another occasion. Concerning POLITICS, however, I have many motives to declare my intentions more explicitly. It is my object to refer men to PRINCIPLES in all things; in Literature, in the Fine Arts, in Morals, in Legislation, in Religion. Whatever therefore of a political nature may be reduced to general Principles, necessarily indeed dependant on the circumstances of a nation internal and external, yet not especially connected with this year or the preceding-this I do not exclude from my Scheme. Thinking it a sort of Duty to place my Readers in full possession both of my opinions and the only method in which I can permit myself to recommend them, and aware too of many calumnious accusations, as well as gross misapprehensions, of my political creed, I shall dedicate my early numbers entirely to the views, which a British Subject in the present state of his Country ought to entertain of its actual and existing Constitution of Government. If I can do no positive good, I may perhaps aid in preventing others from doing harm. But all intentional allusions to particular persons, all support of, or hostility to, particular parties or factions, I now and for ever utterly disclaim. My Principles command this Abstinence, my Tranquillity requires it, TRANQUILLITY! thou better Name Thou ne'er wilt leave my riper age For O! dear Child of thoughtful Truth, To thee I gave my early youth, And left the bark, and blest the stedfast shore, Ere yet the Tempest rose and scar'd me with its' Roar. Who late and lingering seeks thy shrine, On Him but seldom, Power divine, Thy Spirit rests! Satiety And Sloth, poor Counterfeits of Thee, And dire Remembrance interlope, And vex the fev'rish Slumbers of the Mind :> The Bubble floats before, the Spectre stalks behind! But me thy gentle Hand will lead, At morning, through th' accustom'd Mead; And when the Gust of Autumn crowds, Thou best the Thought canst raise, the Heart attune, The feeling Heart, the searching Soul, And while within myself I trace The present Works of present Man A wild and dream-like trade of Blood and Guile Too foolish for a Tear, too wicked for a Smile! But I have transgressed from a Rule, which I had intended to have established for myself, that of never troubling my Readers with my own Verses. Ite hine, CAMENE! vos quoque, ite suaves, VIRGIL Catalect. VII. I shall indeed very rarely and cautiously avail myself of this privilege. For long and early Habits of exerting my intellect in metrical composition have not so enslaved me, but that for some years I have felt and deeply felt, that the Poet's high Functions were not my proper assignment; that many may be worthy to listen to the strains of Apollo, neighbours of the sacred choir, and able to discriminate, and feel, and love its genuine harmonies: yet not therefore called to receive the Harp in their own hands, and join in the concert. I am content and gratified, that Spenser, Shakespere, Milton, have not been born in vain for me and I feel it as a Blessing, that even among my Contemporaries I know one at least, who has been deemed worthy of the Gift; who has received the Harp with reverence, and struck it with the hand of power. Let me be permitted to conclude this prefatory Apology, or Catalogue raisonne of my future work, by addressing myself more particularly to my learned and critical Readers. And that I may win the more on them, let me avail myself of the words of one, who was himself at once a great Critic and a great Genius: Sic oportet ad librum, presertim miscellanei generis, legendum accedere lectorem, ut solet ad convivium conviva civilis. Convivator annititur omnibus satisfacere: et tamen si quid apponitur, quod hujus aut illius palato non respondeat, et hic et ille urbane dissimulant, et alia fercula probant, ne quid contristent convivatorem. Quis enim eum convivam ferat, qui tantum hoc animo veniat ad mensam, ut carpens quæ apponuntur nec vescatur ipse, nec alios vesci sinat? et tamen his quoque reperias inciviliores, qui palam, qui sine fine damnent ac lacerent opus, quod nunquam legerint. Ast hoc plusquam sycophanticum est damnare quod nescias. ERASMUS. PROSPECTUS OF THE FRIEND, A WEEKLY ESSAY, BY S. T. COLERIDGE. " IT is not unknown to you, that I have employed almost the whole of my Life in acquiring, or endeavouring to acquire, useful Knowledge by Study, Reflection, Observation, and by cultivating the Society of my Superiors in Intellect, both at Home and in foreign Countries. You know too, that at different Periods of my Life I |