NOTES BY THE AUTHOR 271

3 (p. 249 above).¹

“In one of the noblest poems.”-Coleridge’s Ode to France:-

“Ye Clouds! that far above me float and pause,

Whose pathless march no mortal may control!^a

Ye Ocean-Waves! that wheresoe’er ye roll,

Yield homage only to eternal laws!^b

Ye Woods ! that listen to the night-birds singing,^c

Midway the smooth and perilous slope reclined,^d

Save when your own imperious branches swinging,^e

Have made a solemn music of the wind!

Where, like a man beloved of God,^f

Through glooms, which never woodman trod,^g

How oft, pursuing fancies holy,

My moonlight way o’er flowering weeds I wound,

Inspired, beyond the guess of folly,^h

By each rude shape and wild unconquerable sound!

O ye loud Waves ! and O ye Forests high !

And O ye Clouds that far above me soared !

Thou rising Sun ! thou blue rejoicing Sky !^ik

Yea, every thing that is and will be free !

Bear witness for me, wheresoe’er ye be,

With what deep worship I have still adored

The spirit of divinest Liberty.”

^a If controlled by God, are they therefore more free?

^b Is the ship they bear less noble in obeying those, and her captain also?-and does she gain dignity in disobeying her helm?

^c Pure nonsense.

^d Why midway, any more than at the top, or the bottom?

^e Is it honourable then to be imperious, but not to be obedient-and what are the branches imperative of? to what?

^f Nonsense again. We are not more like “men beloved of God,” when we walk in a wood, than when we walk out of one.

^g Are woodmen naturally profane persons?

^h Holiness, and Inspiration of an unguessable height, claimed perhaps too confidently, for the fancies of a moonlight walk, among rude shapes and unconquerable noises.

^{I k} The rising sun has not been before noticed; nor does it appear why the author considers it more “free” in rising than setting. Of all objects in Creation, the sun is the last which any rational person would think of as moving in “the spirit of divinest Liberty,” or could wish that it should be permitted to do so.²

Noble verse, but erring thought: contrast George Herbert:-

“Slight those who say amidst their sickly healths,

Thou livest by rule. What doth not so but man?

Houses are built by rule, and Commonwealths.

Entice the trusty sun, if that you can,

From his ecliptic line; beckon the sky.

Who lives by rule, then, keeps good company.”

¹ [”17, p. 183” in eds. 1 and 2. “Appendix V.” in later editions.]

² [These notes were added in the 1880 edition. For another criticism of Coleridge, see Vol. IV. pp. 391-393.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]