Lay Sermons

The Lay Sermons of S. T. Coleridge bring history and philosophy to bear on the contemprary social ills of the industrial revolution. Politicians and leaders of the country Coleridge calls to their reponsibility and look to the Bible for the moral wisdom they need for governance. In Blessed are Ye that Sow beside All Waters, Coleridge addresses people of the middle classes with warning, encouragement and guidance. The present distress of the industrial revolution was being agitated by demagogues, but it's real source, in the first place, was in the want of old interests in religion, philosophy and ancestry which counterbalanced the spirit of wealth-accumulation and secondarily, the principles of trade applied to what was never meant to be an object of trade: agriculture. These works of Coleridge have largely been neglected, but there will scarcely be found more instructive or suggestive materials on our current exonomical, national and political situation.