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February , 1824 . Thoughts on the Connexion between Poetry and Religion . WE should certainly be led to expect , previous to any observations of our own on tire subject , that the poetical mind would be , generally
speaking , a devotional mind ; that a soul filled with the love of beauty would naturally cleave to things eternally beautiful . Taking up religion as the grand thing which gives dignity to man , because it places him in close connexion with his Maker , and because it carries on his existence
beyond the grave , the poets have every possible inducement to make the most of so magnificent a subject , and . it cannot be doubted that they have oftea keenly felt and powerfully depicted the influence of its sublime truths .
Because they have done this— -because they have thrown the light of their minds upon religious subjects , and in the fervency of their expressions outdone more sober believers , perhaps a greater value has been attached to their testimony both for and against religion
than is just . It does not often happen t \ iat imagination is the growth of a man ' s latter dsys . It is , on the contrary , in youth that it is most active , and it is In youth that poetry knd religious fervour are generally united . And , beautiful as is this union
while It lasts , there is much reason to regret , both as to the effect on society and on the individual , that it is so seldom grounded on evidence- ^—that it is so much more frequently , like any other bright dream of the mind , cherished or discarded according to the
changeable fancy of him who entertains it . The poets are rarely systematic people ; and yet their love of what is great in sentiment and beautiful in theory , is too often mistaken by themselves and others for that knowledge of religion which is
properly an exercise of the understanding . They drink . willingly , in their early days , copious draughts from the fountain of religious inspiration . By and bye , comes the questioning period of
life when beauty and grandeur have ceased to be new- when the restless mind finds something more attractive in analyzing its sensations than In submitting to them ; and all we have
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felt , or fearecfc or hoped , or wished for , must be subjected to the process of rigorous investigation . And will not religion bear investigation ? We all know that it has borne the scrutiny of the subtlest minds— -that some of the
acutest of logicians , philosophers and mathematicians , the world has ever seen , have tried and prayed it , and confessed themselves satisfied . But there are many reasons which might well lead us to expect that the imaginative mind would find many obstacles to belief , arising out of its own peculiarities . Have we not abundant
testimony to the extreme tenacity with which the devout Catholic adheres to fanciful observances interwoven with his religion ? And is it not so common an observation as almost to be trite , that when you have shaken his faith in these , you have given a shock to the whole fabric of bis Christianity also ? I think it is evident that a
similar shpek , and often with similar success , is given to the belief of the poet , when he begins to discard his j uvenile imaginations . Yet he who has been early accustomed to dwell on the subject in his retirements , and has confounded his own notions oi
religion with the abstract idea of religion itself , is not always able * and still less frequently willing , to allow that , with regard to the proper foundation of belief , he may have every thing- yet to leans . It is the hardest thing in the world to persuade men in this state , that the truths which they have heretofore received on trust—which
they now despise themselves for so receiving—are , nevertheless , " worthy of all acceptation . " There is much to be deplored , much deserving of our sincere sympathy in such a condition of mind as this . It should not hastily be concluded , and surely it is paying *
religion no compliment to conclude , that the sceptical mind is always insensible to the blessings it loses by scepticism—that it has no sufferings , no sacrifices . There may be an after pleasure , a pride in these things ; in
the consciousness of having risen above what is called prejudice ; ( and a ^ great part of such a religion as we have described was prejudice ;) but there is no mind , containing in itself the elements of any thing great and noble , but must , at first , find it a painful
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100 Thoughts on . the Connexion between Poetry and Religion .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1824, page 100, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2521/page/36/
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