He makes the latter the
logical, and the former the intuitive faculty. Even beasts possess
understanding, but reason, the gift of God to no less creature than man,
performs the functions of judgment on supersensual matters. "Reason,"
says he, "is the power of universal and necessary convictions, the
source and substance of truths above sense, and having their evidence in
themselves."[148] This admission to Rationalism has been eagerly seized
by the Coleridgean school, and elaborated in some of their writings.
Sin, according to Coleridge, is not guilt in the orthodox sense. When
Adam fell he merely turned his back upon the sun; dwelt in the shadow;
had God's displeasure; was stripped of his supernatural endowments; and
inherited the evils of a sickly body, and a passionate, ignorant, and
uninstructed soul. His sin left him to his nature, his posterity is heir
to his misfortunes, and what is every man's evil becomes all men's
greater evil. Each one has evil enough, and it is hard for a man to live
up to the rule of his own reason and conscience.
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