But many of his opinions have been perverted, and speculations
have been based upon them by numerous admirers who, proudly claiming him
for authority, thrust upon the world those sentiments which bear less
the impress of the master than the counterfeit of the weaker disciple.
A large cluster of important and familiar names appears in testimony of
the deep and immediate impression produced by the opinions of Coleridge.
Julius Charles Hare, not the least worthy of the number, has been one of
the prominent agents in communicating to the English people the
principles of that thinker, who was not superior to him in moral
earnestness and profound reverence. When lecturing as Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge, Hare was attentively heard by John Sterling,
Maurice, and Trench. He drank deeply of the spirit of Coleridge, of whom
he was ever proud to call himself a "pupil," and who, in connection with
Wordsworth, was the instrumentality by which he and others "were
preserved from the noxious taint of Byron."[152]
From whatever side we view Hare's life, it is full of interest.
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