If I could but have a tolerably numerous audience to my first, or first and second Lectures on the History of Philosophy,[174] I should entertain a strong hope of success, because I know that these lectures will be found by far the most interesting and _entertaining_ of any that I have yet delivered, independent of the more permanent interests of rememberable instruction. Few and unimportant would the errors of men be, if they did but know, first, _what they themselves meant_; and, secondly, what the _words_ mean by which they attempt to convey their meaning; and I can conceive no subject so well fitted to exemplify the mode and the importance of these two points as the History of Philosophy, treated as in the scheme of these lectures. Trusting that I shall shortly have the pleasure of seeing you here,
I remain, my dear sir, yours most sincerely, S. T. COLERIDGE.
MY DEAR GREEN,--I forgot both at the Lecture Room and at Mr. Phillips's to beg you to leave out for me Goethe's "Zur Farbenlehre." It is for a passage in the preface in which he compares Plato with Aristotle, etc., as far as I recollect, in a spirited manner. The books are at your service again, after the lecture. Either Mr. Cary or some messenger will call for them to-morrow! I piously resolve on Tuesday to put my books in some order, but at all events to select yours and send all of them that I do not want (and I do not recollect any that I do, unless perhaps the little volume edited by Tieck of his friend's composition), back to you. I am more and more delighted with Chantrey. The little of his conversation which I enjoyed _ex pede Herculem_, left me no doubt of the power of his insight. Light, manlihood, simplicity, wholeness. These are the _entelechy_ of Phidian Genius; and who but must see these in Chantrey's solar face, and in all his manners? Item: I am bewitched with your wife's portrait. So _very_ like and yet so ideal a portrait I never remember to have seen. But as Mr. Phillips[175] said: "Why, sir! she was a sweet subject, sir! That's a _great_ thing."
As to my own, I can form no judgment. In its present state, the eyes appear too large, too globose, and their colour must be made lighter, and I thought that the face, exclusive of the forehead, was stronger, more energetic than mine seems to be when I catch it in the glass, and therefore the forehead and brow less so--not in themselves, but in consequence of the proportion. But of course I can form no notion of what my face and look may be when I am animated in friendly conversation. My kind and respectful remembrances to your Mother, and believe me, most affectionately,