From Schelling he returned once
more to Kant as the thinker who had more closely approximated the truth.
His mind must have undergone a total revolution when he could write such
words as these: "Spite of all the superior airs of the
_Natur-Philosophie_, I confess that in the perusal of Kant I breathe the
air of good sense and logical understanding with the light of reason
shining in it and through it; while in the Physics of Schelling I am
amused with happy conjectures, and in his Theology I am bewildered by
positions which, in their first sense, are transcendental
(_ueberfliegend_), and in their literal sense scandalous."[145]
Coleridge became firmly settled in theistic faith. Occupying that as his
final position, he is destined to wield a great salutary power over
English thought. Dr. Shedd, in estimating the probable future influence
of his theistic system, says: "Now as the defender and interpreter of
this decidedly and profoundly theistic system of philosophy, we regard
the works of Coleridge as of great and growing worth, in the present
state of the educated and thinking world.
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