Introduction

Abstract

The orientation of Coleridge’s religious beliefs changed over the years. Once he began to question the orthodoxy in which he had been brought up, he was strongly attracted by the radical and Unitarian beliefs followed by many young people of his time. When these in turn came to seem facile—particularly in view of the violence displayed in the French Revolution—he was more drawn to those who shared his disillusionment, yet still hoped that human beings might find a better way of expressing their potential for good. For a time his ideas were dominated by his relationship with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, and more especially by the feeling for the ‘one Life’ which developed during their period together in north Somerset. His quest at that time was for a religious position that would take account of that. The possibility that a probing of the deepest places of the human mind would throw light on the truths of religion also led to some of his most interesting and suggestive investigations during the period immediately following, the results of which sometimes appear in letters but are most commonly to be traced in his notebook entries.