to an immediate conclusion.  He spoke of Wolfe as the first Metaphysician they had in Germany.  Wolfe had followers; but they could hardly be called a sect, and luckily till the appearance of Kant, about fifteen years ago, Germany had not been pestered by any sect of philosophers whatsoever; but that each man had separately pursued his inquiries uncontrolled by the dogmas of a master.  Kant had appeared ambitious to be the founder of a sect; that he had succeeded:  but that the Germans were now coming to their senses again.  That Nicolai and Engel had in different ways contributed to disenchant the nation;[235] but above all the incomprehensibility of the philosopher and his philosophy.  He seemed pleased to hear, that as yet Kant’s doctrines had not met with many admirers in England—­did not doubt but that we had too much wisdom to be duped by a writer who set at defiance the common sense and common understandings of men.  We talked of tragedy.  He seemed to rate highly the power of exciting tears—­I said that nothing was more easy than to deluge an audience, that it was done every day by the meanest writers.’

I must remind you, my friend, first, that these notes are not intended as specimens of Klopstock’s intellectual power, or even ’colloquial prowess,’ to judge of which by an accidental conversation, and this with strangers, and those two foreigners, would be not only unreasonable, but calumnious.  Secondly, I attribute little other interest to the remarks than what is derived from the celebrity of the person who made them.  Lastly, if you ask me, whether I have read THE MESSIAH, and what I think of it?  I answer—­as yet the first four books only:  and as to my opinion—­(the reasons of which hereafter)—­you may guess it from what I could not help muttering to myself, when the good pastor this morning told me, that Klopstock was the German Milton——­’a very German Milton indeed!!!’——­Heaven preserve you, and S.T.  COLERIDGE.

[235] These disenchanters put one in mind of the ratcatchers, who are said and supposed to rid houses of rats, and yet the rats, somehow or other, continue to swarm.  The Kantean rats were not aware, I believe, when Klopstock spoke thus, of the extermination that had befallen them:  and even to this day those acute animals infest the old house, and steal away the daily bread of the children,—­if the old notions of Space and Time, and the old proofs of religious verities by way of the understanding and speculative reason, must be called such.  Whether or no these are their true spiritual sustenance, or the necessary guard and vehicle of it, is perhaps a question.