COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). Two autograph manuscript fragments, comprising an apparently unpublished epigram and an extract, including an aphorism, from Aids to Reflection, [1825].

Irregularly cut down from larger sheets, the first one page, 54 x 167mm, the second two pages, approx. 45 x 115mm, both tipped on to an album leaf, with authentication inscriptions; with a cut signature and subscription, ('And now God bless you / 'S.T. Coleridge') and, on the verso of the album leaf, four lines in the hand of Sir Walter SCOTT, listing three names including that of Goethe, with an authentication signed by Robert Cadell, 65 x 127mm.

Fragmentary manuscripts by Coleridge, including an apparently unpublished epigram. The 'Epigram' reads 'On thy own doors alone the Hinges rust. / Still somewhere else thou art, still somewhat else thou dost'. The fragment of Aids to Reflection comprise two brief passages: 'Those, who regard Religions as Matters of Taste, may consistently include all religious differences in the old Adage, De gustibus non est disputandum ... Aphorism XXIX [corrected from XXVIII] / Men of least Merit most apt to be contemptuous, because most ignorant & most overweening of themselves'.

The 'Epigram' is apparently unpublished. Coleridge's Aids to Reflection (1825) comprise an idiosyncratic selection from the works of the 17th-century divine, Archbishop Robert Leighton (1611-1684), expanded with his own thoughts and aphorisms: the texts by Leighton which precede and follow Coleridge's contributions are represented in this manuscript by abbreviated cues and page references. According to a near-contemoporary annotation, this is the 'very manuscript from which his Aids to Reflection was printed'.

The fragment in Walter Scott's hand lists three names and their addresses (perhaps part of a list of subscribers), including John Wilson Croker (at the Admiralty) and 'The Baron von Goethe-Weimar'. The authentication by Scott's close friend and publisher Robert Cadell is dated 21 August 1838. Scott corresponded with and admired Goethe: in his diary entry for 15 February 1827, which recorded the arrival of a letter from 'Baron Von Goethe', he described him as 'a wonderful fellow, the Ariosto at once, and almost the Voltaire of Germany'.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.