Mrs. H. N. Coleridge's three volumes of her father's _Essays
on his own Times_ deserve to live as literature apart altogether
from their merits as journalism. Indeed among the articles in the
_Morning Post_ between 1799 and 1802 may be found some of the
finest specimens of Coleridge's maturer prose style. The character of
Pitt, which appeared on 19th March 1800, is as remarkable for its
literary merits as it is for the almost humorous political perversity
which would not allow the Minister any single merit except that which
he owed to the sedulous rhetorical training received by him from his
father, viz. "a premature and unnatural dexterity in the combination of
words." [6] The letters to Fox, again, though a little artificialised
perhaps by reminiscences of Junius, are full of weight and dignity. But
by far the most piquant illustration of Coleridge's peculiar power is
to be found in the comparison between his own version of Pitt's speech
of 17th February 1800, on the continuance of the war, with the report
of it which appeared in the _Times_ of that date. With the
exception of a few unwarranted elaborations of the arguments here and
there, the two speeches are in substance identical; but the effect of
the contrast between the minister's cold state-paper periods and the
life and glow of the poet-journalist's style is almost comic.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124