Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Reason

[The ending of a long prose essay titled ``On the Constitution of Church and State'', which I have not seen.]

... Finally, what is Reason ? You have often asked me ; and this is my answer :--

Whene'er the mist, that stands 'twixt God and thee,
[Sublimates] to a pure transparency,
That intercepts no light and adds no stain--
There Reason is, and then begins her reign !
But alas !

------`tu stesso, ti fai grosso
Col falso immaginar, sì che non vedi
Ciò che vedresti, se l'avessi scosso.'

(Dante, Paradiso, Canto 1, lines 88-90)

1830, published 1830

Translation of the Italian

(proofed against E. H. Coleridge's 1927 edition of STC's poems)

To rest of poems

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