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This study attempts to discover in the early poetry of Coleridge anticipations of the poetic excellence exhibited in "The Ancient Mariner." It begins by explaining that the years from 1787, the date of his first recorded poem, to 1798, when he travelled to Germany, may be divided into three periods: 1787 to 1794, the years spent at school and university; 1794 to 1796, the years of his discipleship to two eighteenth-century rationalists, Godwin and Hartley; and 1797 to 1798, the years of his happy fellowship with the Wordsworths. The poetry has markedly different characteristics in each of these periods. The study proceeds by discussing the poetry under three headings: ideas, imagery and symbolism, and form. Noticeable progress towards the degree of achievement found in "The Ancient Mariner" appears in each of these areas. Chapter One, which discusses Coleridge's ideas, begins by establishing that from 1787 to 1798 the poetry is characterized by attempts to explain and offer a solution for evil and suffering. From 1787 to 1794 Coleridge advocated a simple and trite schoolroom morality, largely based on Church-of-England doctrine. Then he turned to the rationalism of Godwin and Hartley, accepting their concept of necessity, of the mind as a tabula rasa, of private property and institutionalism as the prime sources of evil, and of environment, reason and necessity as forces working toward the perfection of man. Rejecting Godwin's atheism, he subscribed to Hartley's system, in which these same concepts were placed in a Christian framework. However, disillusioned by the sterility of rationalism, and by the failure of the French Revolution to advance the morality of society, he retired to Nether Stowey in December, 1796, confused in mind and depressed in spirit. There he established a more meaningful concept of morality. It was based on faith in man's mind, as was Godwin's, and was focused on religion, as was Hartley's. But, unlike the system of either master, it found its motivation in will rather than reason. "The Ancient Mariner" embodies this concept of morality. In Chapter Two the study proceeds by categorizing the imagery and symbolism in "The Ancient Mariner" into three groups, or clusters, and showing that each appears, at least in nucleus, throughout the early poetry. The first cluster, which describes the Mariner, from 1787 to 1794 is associated with poet figures, from 1794 to 1796 is associated with political and social reformers and the spiritually regenerate. In 1797 and 1798 it is associated with individuals who, through an act of self-less will, have achieved a degree of moral and spiritual regeneracy, or who have a mission to enlighten other men. The second cluster is related to the murder of the Albatross. From 1787 to 1794 murder is treated as the inevitable consequence of living in an evil world, as an act committed consciously by men helpless to do otherwise. From 1794 to 1796 murder is treated as an act of self-interest, and of opposition to God, an act which violates the laws of reason and nature. During 1797 and 1798 murder is treated as the inevitable result of a purely sensual mind, in contrast to a spiritual mind. The final cluster, nature imagery and symbolism, is characterized by duality throughout the early poetry. From 1787 to 1794 the positive and negative aspects of nature describe happiness and unhappiness in Coleridge's personal life, and successes and failures of his poetic imagination. From 1794 to 1796 the duality contrasts the self-centered, ignorant mind to the enlightened, rational mind, which senses divine order in creation. During 1797 and 1798 the dualism contrasts the vision of the sensual man to that of the spiritual man. Chapter Three discusses the three kinds of form in poetry: external form, technique and internal form. Poetry is differentiated from prose by having pleasure as its immediate end. Pleasure is provided by an intuitive recognition of unity in multeity. Therefore form in poetry must be characterized by unity. External form is the relation of various thoughts and feelings to each other in the framework of a poem. Almost all Coleridge's poems have a well-unified external form. The success of this kind of form is most fully expressed in a poem such as "The Ancient Mariner," in which a unified symbolic level is super-imposed upon a unified narrative level. Technique is the way in which a poet expresses his thoughts and feelings. The various elements of technique - diction, imagery, metre, rhyme and stanza form - are well unified when they are the best and most natural expression of the poet's thoughts and feelings, and therefore mutually support and explain each other. The technique of the early poetry is noticeably weak; its mastery in "The Ancient Mariner" is the product of ten years of apprenticeship. Internal form is the proportion between the degree of thought and the degree of feeling in a poem. In all good poems thought and feeling give rise to and balance each other; they are unified. The greatest and best poems contain deep thought - a sense of spirituality in the midst of social and political reform - and deep feeling - a love which concerns itself with the changes in individual men. Deep thought and deep feeling can occur only with the achievement of the ultimate end of poetry: moral or intellectual truth. The poetry of 1787 to 1794 is characterized by an overbalance of feeling, that of 1794 to 1796, by an overbalance of thought. "The Ancient Mariner" contains a fusion of deep thought and deep feeling conveyed on the symbolic level. Enchanting the reader through the pleasure yielded by the perfect harmony of all the parts, and suggesting to him through symbolic patterns that it contains deep truths of human experience, the poem draws him back into itself, that he might discover these truths, find greater unity, and achieve more pleasure. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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Romantic literature's preoccupation with subjectivity, and the nature of the self, is recognised as influential on modern conceptions of consciousness, and in particular as a precursor of psychoanalysis. This thesis examines Coleridge's understanding of consciousness, as expressed in his prose, to demonstrate that he theorised a language of the unconscious; a non-arbitrary, authentic language that remains inaccessible. By comparing this idea with Julia Kristeva's theory of Semiotic language, the thesis will show that this language is indeed recognised in her psychoanalytic theory as a product of the unconscious. Most importantly, it will show that while Coleridge's supernatural poetry laments the inaccessibility of unconscious language, Kristevan theory demonstrates it to be present in that very poetry.

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The geologist James Hector (1834-1907) was, by any measure, the most important and influential scientist in nineteenth century New Zealand. In the mid 1860s, he became the first Director of the New Zealand Geological Survey and the Colonial Museum. Thereafter he ran the Colonial Laboratory, set up the Meteorological Service and the Wellington Botanical Gardens and was responsible for the establishment of the New Zealand Institute, acting as its manager and editor of its Transactions and Proceedings for more than 30 years. This work explores the formative years of his career from his early years in Scotland, his experiences with the Palliser Expedition in Canada, and pivotally, his first four years in New Zealand as the first Otago Provincial Geologist. By the time of James Hector�s entry as a medical student to Edinburgh University in 1852, he had already developed a strong interest in natural history, particularly geology. Although he graduated M.D. from Edinburgh in 1856, that course of study served only as a means of access to the natural sciences. Hector�s interest and training in geology developed at an opportune time, when there was increasing demand for geologists to explore the expanding industrial British Empire for coal and other mineral raw materials. Hector�s reputation in geology in Edinburgh brought him to the attention of that most influential British geologist, Sir Roderick Murchison, whose recommendation led to his appointment to the British North American Expedition of 1857 (the Palliser Expedition). Hector was acknowledged, on several counts, as a major contributor to the success of the expedition. When the Otago Provincial Government in New Zealand requested advice on the appointment of a geologist for the province, Murchison predictably proposed Hector. Having reviewed and assessed his work in North America, this thesis deals with the arrival of Hector as Otago Provincial Geologist in Dunedin during the prosperity of the gold rush of the early 1860s. For the first nine months he explored the central and eastern areas of the Province (Chapter 2) and the following year led the exploration of the West Coast, where there was potential for coal, gold and timber-and reputedly copper-and the prospect of providing a commercial route to Melbourne. The two month long expedition up the Matukituki Valley preceded the exploration by ship of the West Coast of the South Island as far north as Martins Bay. The latter became a major triumph on the strength of the contemporary perception of a route between Queenstown and Martins Bay potentially opening up a direct contact between Dunedin and Melbourne. From mid-1864, Hector�s life was governed by the organisation of the International Exhibition, which opened in Dunedin in January 1865. In that context, he travelled to seek support and participation from the other provinces of New Zealand, a political and administrative commission which he combined with geological exploration. After the closure of the successful Exhibition in May 1865 and subsequent to the conclusion of his appointment on 1st April 1865, Hector left Otago in August to take up the newly created post of Director of the New Zealand Geological Survey in Wellington. The parting was not administratively smooth and relations between Hector and the Otago Provincial Government were strained by the lack of a final, definitive, report on the Geology of Otago. An overview of Hector�s geology, specifically his interest in coal and gold, and the evolution of his views on the vexed question of the role of glaciers as geomorphologic agents is provided. James Hector was a man of versatile ability and strong leadership. His scientific skills as a field geologist and the administrative abilities, developed during his explorations in British North America and southern New Zealand, led ultimately to his long and successful career as New Zealand�s chief scientist at a formative time in its history.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

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