Coleridge in later years may no doubt have
overrated the effect of his own contributions on the circulation of the
_Morning Post_, but it must have been beyond question considerable,
and would in all likelihood have become far greater if he could have
been induced to devote himself more closely to the work of journalism.
For the fact is--and it is a fact for which the current conception of
Coleridge's intellectual character does not altogether prepare one--that
he was a workman of the very first order of excellence in this curious
craft. The faculties which go to the attainment of such excellence are
not perhaps among the highest distinctions of the human mind, but, such
as they are, they are specific and well marked; they are by no means the
necessary accompaniments even of the most conspicuous literary power,
and they are likely rather to suffer than to profit by association with
great subtlety of intellect or wide philosophic grasp. It is not to the
advantage of the journalist, as such, that he should see too many
things at a time, or too far into any one thing, and even the gifts of
an active imagination and an abundant vocabulary are each of them
likely to prove a snare.
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