"Eiem.ents That Are Wanted"
Lionel Trilling
IT
IS A CENTURY
ago this year that John Stuart Mill angered his
Benthamite friends by his now famous essay on Coleridge in
which, writing sympathetically of a religious and conservative
philosopher, he avowed his intention to modify the rigid material–
ism of utilitarian thought. Mill did not speak out for Coleridge
for
what are sometimes called "romantic" reasons-that is, because
he thought transcendentalism was warmer and more glowing than
utilitarianism. He did think so, but the reason he urged attention
to Coleridge was that he thought Coleridge's ability "to see further
into the complexities of the human feelings and intellect" offered
something practical to add to Bentham's too "short and easy"
political analysis. And he told his radical friends that they should
make their prayer this one: "'Lord, enlighten thou our enemies'
... sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions and
consecutiveness and clearness to their reasoning powers: we are in
danger from their folly, not from their wisdom...."
The book of Coleridge's which Mill mentioned most often
was the volume usually referred to as
Church
and
State;
its full
title
is
On the Constitution of the Church and State, According to
lhe
Idea
of Each
and it is from this work that T. S. Eliot's newest
essay takes not only its special meaning of the word "idea" but
also
its whole inspiration.* Mr. Eliot has always said that a con·
nection with the past, more or less consciously maintained, is neces·
sary
for intellectual and artistic virtue. For reasons which scarcely
need exploration he himself has found his own most useful affinity
with
the seventeenth century and the thirteenth. Yet for all his en·
mity to romanticism, his own true place in politics and religion is
'The Idea of a Christian Society.
Harcourt, Brace and Company. $1.50.
367
