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destined niast of a high admiral ; and the Imagimifcidn teei&s with the thought of those distant seas over which it is to rear its head unsubdued , and of those mortal contests and thousand storms with which it is to struggle . It is not true even that the imagination leans to the side of material power .
When it seedas to do so , as in the instance of a 1 km hunting a flock , its sympathy is not with the strength , which is merely accidental , but with associations of majestic beauty which
spring from othter sources . ' It is not because the lion is the stronger that he is the more poetical- object , but be * - cause his form m grander , and it brings to our thoughts the confused ideas of those vast forests and awful caverns of
which he is sole master . A majestic serpent is not ennobled in our imaginations by possessing a deadly sting . The elephant is not the less stately because he is harmless . Poetry has less affinity with the victorious
oppressor than w $ th Ms triumphant victim . It delights to sympathize with right against mi g ht . It excites our feelings on befaalr > of She ill-fated , even when the balance of justice is nearly equal . How eanatestly do we ^ njoy all the brief successes of the Trojans
in the Iliad , whose glories are so shortly to perish ! ' In that stupendous work , the Chained iFrometiieus of JEbchylus , the oppression of right by might may b& said to be grandly embodied , and / the calmi triumph of the spiritual part of man over the external force that subdues th& frame , to be
nobly sung . There two beings , who are called StreiKgjth' and J ^ orce * the most naked persomifica&km ^ of brute power ever shadow ^ 'ifo-rth by a poet , chain their silent tftotfniote \ a * k > ne ° precipice , tor conveyingn a rgptohitd-maiiv In ? his will , * and / rin '^ lteiyusrte ^ of hist eause ^ a ) wie i 9 ! He > gifg ^ lyb - ^ Anft aieM € & Jno ^ gte » most ^ &jMm ^ lhkafi . ac& ^ t $ d : > pomnt m ft ^ B ^ fc ^^^^ k tl ^ fe & ^ L ' ^ " ^ ^^^ M * ^ m ^^ P ^^^^^^^^^^^ a — — ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^ C ^ P ^^ L ^ B D . a fl ^^ h ~ . ^^ L . _^ k ^ ^ k- ^ u ^^^^ ^^ ^^ L * ^ v ^^^^^ h ^^ f ^^ tf
^^ anki ^ stl ^^ \ qtfa * xm 9 $ m * Wales ) ihaiffi ^ &asra with riglit or * mtik «» ght & ^^^ ip ^ do ^^ titaeny defifefe ow imatttitatiqii ^^ Emt Pje nPdr ^ oHqrf ^ 4 lMM ) HA 8 ipid tor I wltb thfe i Hustiiote ^ tetuli f % 44 ^ penitential wefcrncd baainhitJ 2 di . w r :- ' V > hr
, ^ •; ^ te * ^ o ^^ s ?^ 4 % !^ 4 we ^ rcfj | H « d » ; < as ditiveliS rMEQ ttae ^ HKl ^« elf : aHr their P < Wfet im afitet iftto ^ lfibe ^ WJ 9 c t 8 , m
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a Grecian temple , are beautiful in themselves , and w&botft . the ^ id of association necessarily ^ fifect ^ the sensed with the feeling of pr ^ portiori aad grace * But others 4 e * twe ali their nobleness from the mind of the spectator . He who looks on Rome is not
enchanted with the wAoimq qt fc ^ ms of temples , pialaces and Baa ^ sive ruins , but awed by the s ^ iatse of lofty jpre senfees , by the recollection that he looks on the abodes of those who were masters of the world , by the confused
thronging of sublime remembrances , and the deep feeling of tl ^ perishableness of human majesty * If this . be true , even withi respect to material forms , how much more , does it apply to those trains of thought which attach themselves to mere * in&iifcutions * ai * d
render them sacred ! The imagination here " makes the meat it feeds on . ^ The long succession of nobles , the hierarchy of a church , the dignity of a throne ^ have * in themselves * no
inherent grandetiri But the imagination connects with them ideas of . sanctity and permanence , which ife 4 fterwardb delights to contemplate . It is not the mere feculty of aebniring , ; a taste tar the beautiful or sublime ^ , which the
humblest reverer of human institutions brings to their contemplations . The exquteite hueis with wl » ch he tinges them are in Mi own fancy . A village spire is in itself graceful , hut jj vhen w » feed it as pointing to heaven with siieffet finger , it is in ourselves that 4 hfe
consecrating association arisen Thuis , as all legitimate » . governirient is derived from the people ; & * € & > all the conse crations ojf human power emanate from the natui ^ il heart of all-ennoblmff man . It impa ^ t ^ to dbjects those gloriotis ijoloursi lwhich are * reflected back again iftHin < tihA > imagination and the
ai&d--tiWM& ' J $ : ¦ . ]!•¦•;) . '• • ' . . Mi J \ i- i ( H k ' .: '•* iflftfcl < granting to objects » of power all the ohisrhiB ^ wSiich fancy has ! shed on t \ idm- tbeyiure not the ^ stateliest or the mo ^ t ei uhrHi ^ thiii ^ s ifo # / a poet to 'c ^ hebFatea ^ Diiie' meanestf ahiects of
nature e ^ btiiire an antiquity ioore vendrtadbU thM thte PyradttMjs ^ 3 ? ISB roek » whicli '! endirciedi 6 i ? eece haves siftrvivcW tlife wrrerfkodfdt ^ theatres fowl t ^ niplea . * S ^ bvd&sA xvMch sweptrofettr Salainfe ds ! up and breathing- still ;; JStrth hath her own- € ioiepiniti 6 « j . Bier defep ; tone , untroaden varies ; her rivers pmiyeri forth' fttom % > \ m \ snovm springs ?;; hfer
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The Nonconformist . No . XVI . 9 J
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^ 0 L . XV . O
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 97, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/33/
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