‘It is with nations as with individuals. In tranquil moods and peacable times we are quite practical. Facts only and cool common sense are then in fashion. But let the winds of passion swell, and straitway men begin to generalize; to connect by remotest analogies; to express the most univeral positions of reason in the most glowing figures of fancy; in short, to feel particular truths and mere facts, as poor, cold, narrow, and incommensurate with their feelings.’
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘The Statesman’s Manuel’ (December 1816). In ‘The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Lay Sermons. Edited by R.J. White’. London, Princeton, 1972, p. 15.
© 1972 Routledge & Kegan Paul
