According to him the great
discourser only "seemed to wander," and he seemed to wander the most
"when in fact his resistance to the wandering instinct was greatest,
viz. when the compass and huge circuit by which his illustrations moved
travelled farthest into remote regions before they began to revolve.
Long before this coming round commenced most people had lost him, and,
naturally enough, supposed that he had lost himself. They continued to
admire the separate beauty of the thoughts, but did not see their
relations to the dominant theme." De Quincey however, declares
positively in the faith of his "long and intimate knowledge of
Coleridge's mind, that logic the most severe was as inalienable from
his modes of thinking as grammar from his language."
Nor should we omit the testimony of another, a more partial, perhaps,
but even better informed judge. The _Table Talk_, edited by Mr.
Nelson Coleridge, shows how pregnant, how pithy, how full of subtle
observation, and often also of playful humour, could be the talk of
the great discourser in its lighter and more colloquial forms. The
book indeed is, to the thinking of one, at any rate, of its frequent
readers, among the most delightful in the world.
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