Coleridge and Boston Transcendentalism

Abstract

Chapter 2 relates Coleridge's seminal role in the development of Boston Transcendentalism. Two American interpreters were especially influential in the transatlantic transfer of Coleridgean ideas: James Marsh and Frederick Henry Hedge. Their commentaries extracted essential aspects of Coleridge's thought while also framing it in light of American concerns. James Marsh's preface to the American edition of Aids to Reflection promoted Coleridge's relevance for the renewal of American theology and philosophy and popularized the reason and understanding distinction. Hedge's 1833 article on Coleridge, which Emerson called a “living, leaping, Logos,” both summarized Coleridge's interpretation of German idealism and issued a call for intellectuals to “raise ourselves at once to a transcendental point of view.” Marsh's and Hedge's interpretations of Coleridge boosted his stature in America and indelibly shaped the development of Transatlantic Transcendentalism.