The Political Ideas of the English Romanticists

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Oxford University Press, H. Milford, 1926 - 242 pages
 

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Page 10 - Created half to rise, and half to fall; Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; Sole judge of Truth, in endless Error hurl'd: The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Page 168 - The loathsome mask has fallen, the man remains Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless, Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king Over himself; just, gentle, wise: but man Passionless; no, yet free from guilt or pain, Which were, for his will made or suffered them, Nor yet exempt, tho...
Page 167 - Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
Page 152 - Are we aware of our obligations to a mob ! It is the mob that labour in your fields, and serve in your houses — that man your navy, and recruit your army — that have enabled you to defy all the world,— and can also defy you, when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair.
Page 173 - And if then the tyrants dare, Let them ride among you there ; Slash, and stab, and maim, and hew ; What they like, that let them do. With folded arms and steady eyes, And little fear, and less surprise, Look upon them as they slay, Till their rage has died away...
Page 10 - Say first, of God above, or man below What can we reason, but from what we know? Of man, what see we but his station here, From which to reason, or to which refer? Through worlds unnumbered though the God be known, Tis ours to trace Him only in our own.
Page 152 - They never fail who die In a great cause : the block may soak their gore ; Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls — But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world at last to freedom.
Page 178 - It is our will That thus enchains us to permitted ill. We might be otherwise, we might be all We dream of happy, high, majestical. Where is the love, beauty and truth we seek, But in our mind? and if we were not weak, Should we be less in deed than in desire?' 'Ay, if we were not weak — and we aspire How vainly to be strong!' said Maddalo; 'You talk Utopia.
Page 195 - O World ! O life ! O time ! On whose last steps I climb, Trembling at that where I had stood before, — When will return the glory of your prime ? No more — oh never more ! Out of the day and night A joy has taken flight ; Fresh Spring, and Summer, and Winter hoar, Move my faint heart with grief, — but with delight No more — oh never more!
Page 174 - The great thing to do is to hold the balance between popular impatience and tyrannical obstinacy ; to inculcate with fervour both the right of resistance and the duty of forbearance. You know my principles incite me to take all the good I can get in politics, for ever aspiring to something more. I am one of those whom nothing will fully satisfy, but who are ready to be partially satisfied in all that is practicable.

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