ABSTRACT
The epithet 'wild-minded' is double-edged rather than condemnatory, 'wild' usually denoting a quality of fascination in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's verse. This chapter aims to read 'by anticipation' is a critical concept which itself reflects intuitive closeness to Plato. It shows that Plato deviated from the 'path of common sense' of his master Socrates, into 'errors which he adopted from foreign philosophy', not least that of concealing his real opinion. Plato's metaphysics are raising man his condition and nature, Plato unites him to certain imaginary divine principles, leads him through various orders of emanation and forms of intelligence to the Supreme Being, and represents these fictions of fancy as the first principles of wisdom. If Plato wrote nonsense, that is to say, it was dear gorgeous nonsense, worth the unravelling. Coleridge's willingness to discover Truth behind Plato's 'nonsense' reflects the fact that despite much initial agreement with Priestley, Coleridge never shared Priestley's contempt for ancient philosophy.
