Explore "A Reasoner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I am by the law of my nature a reasoner. A person who should suppose I meant by that word, an arguer, [1] would not only not understand me, but would understand the contrary of my meaning. I can take no interest whatever in hearing or saying any thing merely as a fact -- merely as having happened. It must refer to something within me before I can regard it with any curiosity or care. My mind is always energic -- I don't mean energetic; I require in every thing what, for lack of another word, I may call _propriety_, -- that is, a reason why the thing _is_ at all, and why it is _there_ or _then_ rather than elsewhere or at another time.
[Footnote 1: In his essay, "_Der einzig mögliche Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseyns Gottes_. " -- "The only possible argument or ground of proof for a demonstration of the existence of God. " It was published in 1763; the "Critique" in 1781. -- ED.]