Ghost of a flea

Despite his new-found conservatism, Coleridge retained some surprisingly advanced views on social and economic matters. He criticised Burke's assumption that society, as it then was constituted, tended naturally towards a stable equilibrium. Coleridge especially recognised the destabilising impact on society of industrialisation.

Burke's mistake, argued Coleridge, was to dismiss revolutionary ideas as "having no charm but for robbers and assassins". On the contrary, because of the all too real suffering of much of the population, revolutionary ideals often proved particularly attractive to "noble and imaginative spirits".

To head off radical or subversive doctrines, it was not sufficient to be anti-revolutionary. One had to be prepared to offer a superior ideal with which to unite the nation. Moreover, substantial political and economic reforms were needed.