Literature and Philosophy in Nineteenth Century British Culture

Dr Monika Class is a senior lecturer in English Studies at the Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Sweden Cian Duffy is professor and chair of English literature at Lund University, Sweden

Literature and Philosophy in Nineteenth Century British Culture

Volume 1: Literature and Philosophy of the Romantic Period

Edited by Monika Class and Cian Duffy

Table of contents

General Introduction: "No longer such an Ancient Quarrel: Literature and Philosophy in Nineteenth-Century British Culture", Giles Whiteley

Volume Introduction: "From Ancient Rivalry to Reciprocity: Romantic-era Literature and Philosophy: " — Monika Class

Part 1. Knowledge and Belief

Part 1. Introduction: "God, Nature, and the Secularization of Morality and Knowledge" — Monika Class

1. William Paley, ‘The Unity of the Deity’, of Natural Theology

2. Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin), ‘An Address to the Deity’ of Poems

3. Catharine Macaulay, The Question of Free Will and Necessity’, of Letters on Education

4. Friedrich August Nitsch, "Influence of Kant's Principles of Religion" of A General and Introductory View of Professor Kant Concerning Man, the World and the Deity

5. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Aphorisms on That Which Is Indeed Spiritual Religion: Aphorism VIII’, of Aids to Reflection

6. Henry Crabb Robinson, ‘Letter from an under-Graduate, at the University of Jena, on the Philosophy of Kant’

7. Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘Julian and Maddalo: A Conversation’, of Posthumous Poems

8. Francis Jeffrey, ‘Stewart’s Account of the Life and Writings of Dr Thomas Reid’

Part 2. Self

Part 2. Introduction: "The Reciprocity of Literature and Philosophy at the Intersection of Self and Other" — Monika Class

9. Thomas Beddoes, ‘Of the Brunonian Doctrine’, of The Elements of Medicine of John Brown

10. Elizabeth Hamilton, ‘Operation of the Selfish Principle in the Spirit of Party’, of A Series of Popular Essays

11. Charlotte Smith (neé Turner), ‘Sonnet XXXII: To Melancholy’, of Elegiac Sonnets

12. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘The Imagination’ From Biographia Literaria, or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions

13. William Wordsworth. Book II ‘School-time Continued’, of The Prelude

14. John Keats, ‘Letter to Bailey, 22 November 1817; Letter to Brothers, 22 December 1817’

15. William Hazlitt. Excerpt from An Essay on the Principles of Human Action: Being an Argument in Favour of the Natural Disinterestedness of the Human Mind

16. Thomas Carlyle, ‘The Everlasting Yea’, of Sartor Resartus

Part 3. Art and Criticism


Part 3. Introduction: "Philosophical Aesthetics and Beyond" — Cian Duffy

17. Archibald Alison, ‘Of the Effect Produced upon the Imagination by Objects of Beauty and Sublimity’, of Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste

18. John Aikin and Anna Laetitia Barbauld (née Aikin), ‘On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror’, of Miscellaneous Pieces,

19. Ann Radcliffe, ‘On the Supernatural in Poetry’

20. Richard Payne Knight, Excerpt from The Landscape, a Didactic Poem

21. Joanna Baillie, ‘Introductory Discourse to Plays on the Passions’, of A Series of Plays

22. Isaac D’Israeli, ‘On some Characteristics of a Youth of Genius’, of An Essay on the Manners and Genius of the Literary Character (

23. Charles Lamb, ‘On the Genius and Character of Hogarth; with some Remarks’

24. Baroness Holstein Staël, "Influence of the New German Philosophy on Literature and the Arts’, of Germany

25. Thomas de Quincey, ‘Lessing: Gallery of the German Prose Classics. By the English Opium Eater. Part II’,

26. Percy Bysshe Shelley, ‘A Defence of Poetry’ in Essays, Letters from Abroad, Translations and Fragments

Part 4. Society

Part 4. Introduction: "Literature, Philosophy, and Revolution" — Cian Duffy

27. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris

28. Thomas Paine, Excerpt from Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution

29. Mary Wollstonecraft, ‘Some Instances of the Folly which the Ignorance of Women Generates’, of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

30. Hannah More ‘On the Education of Women’, of Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education

31. Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, ‘Tasks’, of Essays on Practical Education

32. Jeremy Bentham, Excerpt from An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Printed in the Year 1780, and Now First Published

33. William Godwin, ‘Objection to the System from the Principle of Population’ of Enquiry Concerning Political Justice

34. Thomas R. Malthus, ‘Error of Mr. Godwin’, of An Essay on the Principle of Population

35. James Stephen, Excerpt from The Opportunity; or, Reasons for an Immediate Alliance with St. Domingo

36. Thomas Carlyle, "Review of Anticipation; or, a Hundred Years Hence [on the Signs of the Times]’

Index