THE

STATESMAN'S MANUAL;

OR, THE BIBLE THE BEST GUIDE TO POLITICAL SKILL AND FORESIGHT: A LAY SERMON, ADDRESSED TO

THE HIGHER CLASSES OF SOCIETY,

WITH AN APPENDIX,

CONTAINING COMMENTS AND ESSAYS CONNECTED WITH THE

STUDY OF THE INSPIRED WRITINGS.

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.

Second Edition:

WITH THE AUTHOR'S LAST CORRECTIONS AND NOTES,

BY

HENRY NELSON COLERIDGE, ESQ. M. A.

Ad isthæc quæso vos, qualiacunque primo videantur aspectu, attendite, ut qui vobis forsan insanire videar, saltem quibus insaniam rationibus cognoscatis.—GIORDANO BRUNO.

A LAY SERMON,

ETC.

For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel; which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God.-PSALM lxxviii. 5, 6, 7.

If our whole knowledge and information concerning the Bible had been confined to the one fact of its immediate derivation from God, we should still presume that it contained rules and assistances for all conditions of men under all circumstances; and therefore for communities no less than for individuals. The contents of every work must correspond to the character and designs of the workmaster; and the inference in the present case is too obvious to be overlooked, too plain to be resisted. It requires, indeed, all the might of