With a biological emphasis on the slow natural flow of creation, the industrial revolution looked positively unnatural in retrospect. Mary Shelley exposes moral dilemmas that rise with technology created in contrast to natural flow in her novel Frankenstein . Victor, the monster s creator, ignores the moral implications and responsibilities of charging ahead into the technological future. Victor s lack of moral consideration is exactly the transgression the Romantics accuse the Enlightenment of committing. To take moral consideration for future actions means to examine the world with consideration given to examples of what the past.
Landscapes can represent the past with countless years of history frozen in ice.
Examples of past triumphs and mistakes are abundant in history, and to learn from our past is to examine the direction the future is moving. Delving into the past may include an examination of historical events or an exploration of fictional literature. While historical events may speak to consequences of actions, fictional events speak to the consequences of motives. Memories of actual events serve well enough to provide insight on human nature. The Romantics often use the ruins of Italy to demonstrate that in the western world s haste for development and power much of the beauty in the area is decaying, and just like the dissolving ruins the morality in civilization is dying.