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Untitled Article
to the modern feelings and practices of Englishmen , but as applied to the Roman people , just as Shakspeare has painted them . Coriolanus himself was essentiall y a noble being , a noble of nature ' s fashioning , with an intense abhorrence of every thing base or meanminded , who , had he lived in the present day , would
have said to Whigs and Tories alike , ' a plague on both your houses ; ' he would have been a heart-whole leader in the great cause of human nature , which has been espoused by those who are best described as philosophic radicals . His brain would have wrought in the council , and his hand wotild have wrought , if needful , in the onslau g ht provoked by the upholders of oppression . But Coriolanus lived at a period when the science of moral
philosophy had made little progress ; he could not , therefore , dive into the depths of all things , and regulate his actions by the rules of strict justice . He was the creature of impulse , but his impulses were noble , though misguided . Patriotism , and that of the narrowest kind , was the virtue of his time ; and he was a
patriot—generous—i . e . loving his kind , by which word' kind ' he recognised the inhabitants of Rome only , even after the manner of his teaching . To promote the general welfare of Rome , he was ever willing to sacrifice self , coveting nothing in return but the good opinion of his fellows , yet which good opinion
he would stoop to no meanness to secure . The Romans were a nation of robbers , by whom power was universally recognised as right , and they held themselves together by their superior skill and courage , against the armed hatred of the surrounding nations , who probably possessed little more morality than themselves , and somewhat less intellect and energy . It is not a very long time in
modern Europe , that the principle has been acknowledged , that a moral right may exist independent of brute force , and our notions of international morality are still very far from being based upon the principles of justice . Coriolanus was a moral man , according to tne notions existing at his time ; and all moral men , all who act according to their consciences , are deserving of respect , whether their morality be sound or unsound . Who is there ,
Whig or Tory , who will attempt to heap dirt on the memory of the noble-minded Andrew Marvel ? Who is there worthy the name o ( man , or woman , who cannot feel the blood moving quicker , while the oft-told tale of the shoulder of mutton is recounted ? Does not Andrew Marvel rank with William Tell ,
even though the courage of the former was passive , and of the latter active ? Yet Andrew Marvel was an upholder of mischievous commercial monopoly , and an enemy of free trade ; and his patriotism was purely and exclusively British , ' as witness his satire on the Dutch , who were then held to be the < natural
enemies * of England : — Holland * that scarce deserves the name of land , As but the offscouring of the British sand ;
Untitled Article
Coriolanus no Aristocrat . 48
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/45/
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