"On Poesy or Art," Coleridge writes that "art itself might be defined as of a middle quality between a thought and a thing. . . . It is the ®MDUL¯figured®MDBO¯®MDNM¯ language of thought" (®MDUL¯LL®MDNM¯ 2:218 [emphasis mine]).

“. . . [A] symbol is characterized by a translucence of the Special in the Indivudual, or of the General in the Special, or of the Universal in the general: above all by the translucence of the Eternal through and in the Temporal. It always partakes of the reality which it renders intelligible; and while it enuciates the whole, abides itself as a living part in that unity of which it is the representative” (Symbol and Allegory, The Statesman’s Manual 30).

“The truth is that Images and Thoughts possess a power in and of themselves, independent of that act of the Judgement or Understanding by which we affirm or deny the existence of a reality correspondent to them.

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§73 " In looking at objects of nature while I am thinking, as at yonder moon, dim-glimmering through the window- pane, I seem rather to be seeking, as it §74 were asking, a symbolical language for something within me, that already and for ever exists, than observing anything new. §75 Even when the latter is the case, yet still I have always an obscure feeling, as if that new phenomenon were the dim awaking of a forgotten or hidden truth of my inner nature. §76 While I was preparing the pen to make this remark, I lost the train of thought which had led me to it."