New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1842-12-21
Shelley.

There is passage in HURTS Preface TO Shell
Lays" Masque Of Anarchy" which always
struck me as curious and sadly enough illus
uating the psychological history Of that wretch
eddy deluded poet. 1t is from pamphlet writ
zen by SHELLEY, and it shows how his mind, af
was slowly but surely coming back into the sun.
Light Of truth, when memorable Death cut him OFF
with all his imperfections his head
20 With respec. to Universal Suffrage" says
SHELLEY, :" / confess | consider its adoption
the present unprepared state Of public knowledg,
ard feeling, fraught NTH peril. | think non,
but those who register their names as paying 8
certain small sum, in direc, taxes, ought at pre-
sent 10 send members to Parliament. The con
sequences Of the immediate extension of the elect
i've franchise to every male adult would be to place
power in the hands Of men who BRUTAL tor
pi9, and ferocious. II is 10 suppose, that M'
qualities belonging TO demagOgue are such as
are sufficient TO eadow legislator. allow
Major CARrwRlGHr's argument to be unanswera
BILE; abstraciedy, it is the right of every human
being to have share in the government: yet no
thing can be less consistent with reason, OF afford
smaller hopes of any beneficial issue, than Tho
plan which should abolish the regal and arsto.
cratica branches of our constitution, before toe
public mind, through many gradalions of improve
ment, shall have arrived at the maturity which
can disregard these symbols of its childhood"
Apart from its sinsularly bad English, do no
think this extract would appear much out o.
place upon the pages of Blackrood.
great change must have come over the spirit u
the author of "Queen Mab,'' before he could sec
that the carrying into practice of his darling thee
ries was 'fraught with peril There was time
in his life, "a very dark and unhappy time 1t wa
too,) when SHELLEY utterly disregarded conse
quences, as unworthy Of the attention OF the true
Reformer, and when plotting his wild and reck
less schemes of human improvement, he appears
to have goated over the licentious picture which
his imagination conjured up, and to have waited
with flashing eye and impatient spirit for Eng.
land to follow Paris in the 'deathdance OF demo
cratic liberty There was always an apparent
malgnity, mysterious sehshness acout the man:
he fascinated his friends, but he did not make
them love him. BYRON used to call him th'
Snake, and very good name 1t was for him
with his two sparkling eyes, and lean body hab-
tied in black.
think there was nothing which SHELLEY could
worship in Earth, Heaven or He'll, save the Sn
premacy of Soul. In this Religion he was per
fec. devotee, without any discrimination, withou,
any worldly wisdom, but he never looked beyond
the Earth, nor beyond. himself He felt within
him great soul, and he called upon all men TO
worship and obey it. He knew no human being
greater than himself. All weaker Intelligence,
he expected to bow down, in the dust at his feet
to leara Of him. If they would not PROSTATE
themselves, he booted and scofed at them with
perfect fury until exhausted, when sense OF his
pitiahle weakness, rendered the acute by the
great Idea within him, came over him and made
him amiabie for time. He treated his old father,
who was very respectable parsonage, in the mos
shameful and unflial manner. He was constanr
torture and torment is his family. His logical
combats always ended in q quarrel. lie chal'
lenged the Examining Master Of his College &c
dispute with him the existence of God, and be-
cause the learned gentleman declined contro,
versy, he abused him in the vtuperative
style, and for his impudence and unblanhing i'm
piety. he summarily dismissed from Oxford
The University mind would not submit to his mind
and he was furious. The heart OF poor girl whom
he seduced, surrendered at discretion and he wa.
pleased. Tired of his conquest, he deserted her
aud she committed suicide at which he only grievec
because he did not like thar any OF his sers should
do so trivial thing kill themselves withou
his permission. He CRASHED his teeth in impoten
contempt at the Lord Chancellor. Over KEATS he
exercised an almost unbounded intluencc-awins
him into submission with look, and in way to
be accounted for only upon the principles of Mes
merism had 1t from very near relation o
KEATS, that the Intimacy subss,iug between him
SaELLs1 was ANY put penenClat 10 tHV
younger poet. l do not see how it could be other.
wise.
SRELLEY confessed to an intimate friend, a shor
time before his death, with tears in his eyes, that
he had been tcrong-aH ,crongi" He had mis-
taken the world-he had mistaken his fellow ken
and, worse than all, he had mistaken himself, ano
nc wept ct his own weakness. To such mind al
ms the agency of disappointed Ambition must have
been terrible, like that of Satan in the burning pit
It's very character made It's disappointment more
Undesirable. He saw Ear above, glimpses of g hghe,
ana more potent Spirituality than he had attained
unmingled with the Dross of Earth and sanctifed
oytne highest Love. The scales fell from his ewes
oniy that he might be blinded by the eulsence of
hsner Soni.p than he had ever before dreamed
n'. iiau Nc nVea every thing to have been hoped
ior ios ne was no ordinary creature and wopd
havealscoFeVed tue troh only 10 act tand preach il
for in so doing ne would have obts;,cd n. ,o,sr
he coveted but ne died, a warnps 70 all mo, 81
higher impulses, against throwing themselves ,ro,
the wretchedly unsatisfying resources of Tho Tn,o
lect, against over-estimating their own snr;,,,.1
power and that of their ellew nortals. Upb.nnv
indeed, is he who can discover in the rrea, N,
which he loves, cherishes asd venerates no uigb,,
and supernatural EsSEScE, which he cannot com
prehend, but which he cannot bat worship as b
workshops nothing else. The very FIRST step i
Spiritual Progress and Culture is to discover gu
own Weakness and Dependence, and the need {
a humble reliance on a Mightier than we. Whe
this want i. distinctly recognized, the great Labo
is half accomplished, and with this recognition Wi
come The healthy Self Esteem, and the just Sell
> Estimate which are such essential elements in tn
building up of fee, brave, caraest and generou
Spirit