ABSTRACT
Coleridge spoke feelingly of Godwin and the unjust treatment he had met with. In apology for Southey’s review of Godwin’s “Life of Chaucer,” Coleridge ingeniously observed that persons who are themselves very pure, are sometimes on that account blunt in their moral feelings. Coleridge used strong language against those who were once the extravagant admirers of Godwin, and afterwards became his most bitter opponents. Coleridge said there was more in Godwin, after all, than he was once willing to admit, though not so much as his enthusiastic admirers fancied. He had openly opposed him, but nevertheless visited him. Curran declared that Milton was incapable of a delicate or tender sentiment towards woman. Curran did not render these heresies palatable by either originality or pleasantry. Godwin defended Milton with zeal, and even for his submission to Cromwell, who, he said, though a usurper, was not a tyrant, nor cruel.
