ABSTRACT
We have so recently offered to the public an examination of the poetical pretensions of Mr. Coleridge, and have taken so much collateral notice of the powers and accomplishments of this peculiar writer, that our present task is necessarily much lightened. 1 His collection of Sibylline Leaves, or Poems, has served us for an Introduction to his ‘Literary Life’; and thus we have reversed the order intended by the author himself: but, we hope, with no inconvenience to our readers. We have presented them with the fruits, or, at all events, with the Leaves of this original tree, before we displayed its roots, or pursued its ramifications; and perhaps, on the whole, the method which we have adopted may afford Mr. Coleridge the fairest chance of being duly appreciated. However this may be, we must now proceed to a compara 377tively brief analysis of the work before us; and, following the writer’s own divisions, animadvert on the defects or lay open the fairer parts of the performance.
