The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1866-09-29
Misffllatteons.
shelley's Beauties and Dofects.

Quite number OF New England Tfanscendcn-
ialisis says the Philadelphia Lesigcr every year
20 TO Europe, visit Rome find the grave OF Shell
ley and come or write home, holding up this
wayward sou Of genius 10 the admiration Of the
world, not only as poet Of exquisite sensibii,y
which he was, but as ono whose life and prinri-
pies were worthy Of sympathy and admiration.
which he was not. \ recent writer speaks Of
" the cruel injustice with which Shelly was hun
ted in the abused names OF morality and religion.
He Is represented as one Of the puresi and most
virtuous beings who ever lived-a sort of perse-
cuted saint and martyr ofa new and higher kind
Of religion. II Is but proper that a trucr esti-
mate OF him, both as poet and rs man. should
be formed By both friends aud foes There Is
An exquisite beauty in this poetry, and n sort Of
intellectual elevation and renneHeht that ulanv
Of those who have most severely judged him rs a
man have been too slow TO admit. To his real
elevation, loftiuess and love Of dreamy beauty
and godness go far as be knew anything about
them, adequate justice has not been done, lcr.
haps, by those Who can see no goodness from
any but their own-stand-pOint. Perhaps no Que
ever bad purer lore Of abstract truth. SO iar rs
he could sce H..
There Is one road
To peace and that " truth. which follow -
Love sometimes lead, as,ray to mi.rry
But lore Of truth, or what appears snch 10
| the individual. is not the only virtue and may
where other qualities are wanting, b. most dam
gerous. II was So with Shelley. There was
want Of that reverence for ihosc-olier aud wiser
than himself which made him practically aud
theoretically set nj defiance all the fundamental
principles of duty both 10 tod aui man, aGd in
a manner most dangerous and pcrnciOus.
youth Of seventeen, in his second term al Oxforl
q not distinguished rs a scholar, aud with very
slight me,aphy steal reading, just beginning log
ic, publishes n work TO shoW ' The Necessity OF
Atitism ; aud when the authorities took to
q ali
| five heads Of colleges requesting them 10 assent
| to his argument Every college officer knows
that, with such want OF due respect appare nj su-
perioriiy Vi instructors "a natural and proper
reverence for the unseen was not 10 be expected
With such an insane conceii II was hest he should
he sent away and nothing shows more his ig-
norance OF the principles by which all govern
meni mus, be conducted than his surprise that
body Of distinguished Clcgyman, his insiruc-
tors, should have felt shocked and insulted, and
expelled him.
No doubt he was generous, earnest, loving,
| and SO far unselfish-nol proud like Byron--but
this love was worse than his hate sometimes for
IL was accompanied with principles Of such gross
and universal ,iceniiouSness rs 10 produce the
suicide Of his abandoned first wife while be was
living with one who became hs second. DR..
johnson used TO say that he loved good haicr.
Here was one great defect in Shelley be loved
every body aud everything In certain way, but
nobody and nothing exclusively. lie hated
nothing, however evil. or himself he writes ::
" Alas, good friend, what profit can you see in
hating such hateless thing as mc There is no
sport in hate where all the rage is on one side. -
Ills defects Of character two Of the most CONF
mon aud most fatal 10 human happiness aud vir-
| tue thai can possibly he conceived. lie lacked
reverence and hc lacked moral purity. lie even
gloried in bis shame and was the deliberate enc
my Of the saneiity Of marriage No doubt IL
will bc said these were the immalutities Of youth,
and had he lived longer he would become wiser.
lie did ouigrow his atheism. and he would per-
| haps have seen the wisdom Of that great funda-
mental law OF all that Is highest aud hollesi in
| the ties Of life-the law which Christianity ca
presses as the great dictate of nature tsclfin
| gard TO marriage.
The suicide Of beautiful girl, who had forsa-
ken all for him, ough, 10 have enlightened him.
But he was a creature Of impulse, one who defed
| bic own impulses aud fell down and worshippcd
them, and no wonder II be can find plenty whc
sympathike with him. There was no self denial
| In him no real effort 10 conform the individual
| life aud action to universal standard Of duty ou
of and beyond the Individual self. II Is on ihes'
ancSsnts that the wisest and hes, consider the
dreamy imagination of Shelley not wise In phi
/ losphy for men. nor safe or pnre IN virtue aud
morals for their daughters. IL he may and mus
be read for his beauties, IL stSgd he at lcas, wit
a clear understanding OF bis ui'ss defeetivenes'
as 10 points most essential 20 an elevated anhood
| i0 real nobeness of character.