ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how the author admires and reveres Coleridge and how he was in favour of thinking about poetry, in favour, of applying intelligence to literature. The author quotes from Mr Eliot an example of what has become a general custom among literary men in discussing Coleridge. In the author's opinion, the effect of Dr Richards' book is to justify Mr Eliot's judgement. In any case, one reminds oneself that, though there are no doubt different ways of thinking profitably about poetry, Mr Eliot's best criticism stands as an exemplar and a criterion of rigour, relevance and purity of interest, a criterion that very little writing about poetry can afford to challenge. The author's interest in Coleridge's philosophical explorations is in the interests of Bentham's Theory of Fictions, the aim of the book being to show how out of that theory may be developed a science to take 'the place of philosophy'.
