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Untitled Article
by sinister sanctity with the name of " divine right , " and darkened with " blinded flies , and mortal members" hiding the cobwebs of poisonous craft and destruction ; those who dare think for themselves , and act upon their convictions , very naturally toss back the libel upon nature into the inflamed
faces of the crowned Pretenders . This truth the despots would consume ; this hope beyond the multitude of swinish legitimacy , they would destroy and utterly cast out ; but vain is the frantic effort ; wasteful the impious prayers and sacerdotal curses ; intangible the spirit of man ' s necessary progression .
The struggles of despair will only expedite their downfal . Their violent curses will recoil upon themselves and die in abrupt awe and silence , like the wandering thunders of ancient chaos before the organic moulding of Creation . The idiot pagods of a den of thrones , totter and nod , and make mouths at the iron-heeled march of time . The " visible event" blinds
them as with solar beams ; they shake their disarmed hands at the rising heart of man . But their knell has pealed ; not a mourner or a hope will follow them to futurity . This tragedy represents the spirit of feudalism in admirable perfection . It is a true picture of the mind of man in general , under such a withering and perverting influence , and of the particular exceptions . A curious instance is here manifested of the instinctive truth of poetic imagination ; the fact being
evidently not intended by the author ; viz ., there is not a single character in the whole tragedy who is more than one degree above a fool , except the serfs . We mean , thatBertulphe , his daughter , Denis , and the old wretch Philippe , are the only individuals who possess sufficient strength of mind to rise continuously above their circumstances , even in theory . Bouchard makes many truly noble efforts , but they cost him too much to be thoroughly sincere , and he either falls back upon convention , or oscillates between the social fiction and the substantial truth . •¦ \ % s ¦» f ¦ j m ¦» \ j %
^ __ y a . > w ^ * v ^ s * » JV * - V- ' *~ - * T *~ r \^ y * ' " * - ^ s * ^ * J » - *~• w' -v ~ r * . a ^ smr -m . . m v ^«< */ » - *~ -r - - » * .- ^ , m . -v ^^ »/ m . m . v _> t ^ J ¦*_ - » f--r *^ s jmt AAV % .- A . V Jl VA w AJk m like one of the human efiigies that were kept swinging in mid air during a nacred rite among the Romans . Even the prince , Earl Charles , makes sundry amiable and well-meant efforts to give nature , poor devil , its due ! But all in vain ; the very attempt , however , the passing disposition , is something ; and , considering liis crown and other disadvantages of station , •* Charles the Good " is really a very respectable sort of a man .
Gratitude is of course out of the question with princes , all the services of inferiors in station being bounden duties . In short , except the serfs , they are all , more or less , the cre&tures of convention . Some of the nobles , as well as citizens , make occasional exclamations against tyranny , but one feels no atom of faith in their practical continuity . The majority , as usual , have a weakly instinctive leaning to the side of power . One of the nobles says , with an air of astonishment ,
Untitled Article
130 The Provost of Bruges .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 130, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/2/
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