ABSTRACT
Coleridge is one of the great seminal thinkers of the nineteenth century and was recognised as such in his own day. He is of interest for two other reasons than that educed at the end of the last chapter. The first is his conception of the role of an educated elite, a 'clerisy', in a society threatened both by the inadequacies of the traditional ruling class and by pressures from below for a social realignment; the other is his view of mind and knowledge, which was strongly opposed to the fashionable associationism and empiricism. And, springing out of this latter view, is a new emphasis on the role of the arts — especially that of the Poet.
