Record Number: 33906

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have employ’d the last term chiefly in making myself master of...the Νικομάχεια Ἠθικὰ of Aristotle...With regard to the Ethics, I cannot but think it is treating Aristotle unfairly to take a single treatise, evidently design’d to be taken in concert with his other works, contemplating virtue merely as far as it is a mean of political welfare, and to palm this part upon young men as a whole. One thing I cannot but admire in this Philosopher; that tho’ he lived under a despotism, in a court, and in habits of intimacy with great men, he never pays any compliments to his patrons; much less lays down any slavish principles, in which he has a great superiority over Lord Bacon’.

Century:

1800-1849

Date:

Between 1 Jan 1817 and 18 Mar 1817

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Oxford
county: Oxfordshire
specific address: Merton College

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Hartley Coleridge

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

19 Sep 1796

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Oxford undergraduate student

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Aristotle

Title:

Nicomachean Ethics

Genre:

Classics, Philosophy

Form of Text:

Print: Book, university set text

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

33906

Source:

Print

Author:

Hartley Coleridge

Editor:

Grace Evelyn and Earl Leslie Griggs

Title:

Letters of Hartley Coleridge

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1936

Vol:

n/a

Page:

14-15

Additional Comments:

Letter from Hartley Coleridge to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 18 March 1817, Merton College.

Citation:

Hartley Coleridge, Grace Evelyn and Earl Leslie Griggs (ed.), Letters of Hartley Coleridge, (London, 1936), n/a, p. 14-15, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=33906, accessed: 13 March 2025

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Additional Comments:

This letter also mentions Pindar (see separate record) and 'Nemesius', which Hartley was asked to translate by his father but which he has been unable to find: 'I cannot tell you that I have proceeded on the work you proposed to me, being unable to procure a copy of Nemesius in Oxford, although it was published there in 8vo., 1671.' Hartley also says of his university studies: 'There are many things I stand in need of your instruction in, both in classics and other matters, particularly Logic, in which a Parrot might pass an examination at Oxford'.