Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1888-03-14
Pet q Hsne.

From Oxford, Shelley va expelled
for the publication OF IN athestacal
pamphlet, . proceeding which seemed
TO have niled him with the astcniah-
mont with which the execution Of the
law always strikes those who do mot
understand how far the necessities Of
human nature must modify the appli-
cation Of abstract ethics. Shelley was
probably the best scholar and the
purest man in Oxford at the time, but
that h Of itself no eason why he should
not pass his examinations, and keep his
terms, and comply with the formal
law Of the University. Society cannot
treat exceptional characters with ex-
ceptional Indulgence A college can
not form . new rule for o genius
Courts know nothing of abstract JUS
tice; they deal with conventional rights
aud duties. Society is always trying,
in it's laundering way, to base conven-
tional rights on abstract right, and in
the course of centuries may succeed,
and the great value Of men like Cole
ridge and Shelley 10, that their life Is an
endeavor to reconcile conventional
rules and abstract principles, or at
least a struggle against the contra
diction these usually involve.
a Shelley's expulsion from Oxford
reused his fathers anger against him
in a way which the persistent following
out Of an evil life would never have
done. To be expelled from the uni
versity for wickedness would have been
condoned by society, but to be ex-
PEELED for independence brought with
it the expulsion from good society, .
social death compared with which
moral suicide was venial. His friend
Hogg, though not sharing his opinions,
certainly not sharing his responsibility,
invited q share of his punishment, and
submitted to a sentence Of expulsion
which he could have avoided by . tame
submission to an authority which. il
exercised with harshness. certainly was
we'll within it's legitimate and formal
bounds. It il q strong evidence Of the
force Of Shelley's personality--that force
which makes q divine thing of human
nature when selfish impulses constitute
no part of the dynamic energy Of o
character-that this cautious, cynical,
clear-headed Northumbrian, with his
own way to make, fully conscious of
the disadvantage which the lack of an
academic degree would be to him in
his career, was ready to sacrifice these
advantages in his loyalty to q friend,
when the friend gained nothing by the
sacrifice. 1t is this attraction of un-
selfishness, of devotion to abstract
right, OF enthusiasm for ideas, that
makes Shelley q force in literature.
For, with all his crudity and limita-
ton of thought, there is something in
him which every man recognizes as his
ideal, an ideal so rare and SO precious
that we linger over il with affection
and part from it with regret, but with
o sense OF thankfulness that such q
character is not an abstraction, since
humanity holds the power of clothing
it in flesh and blood.
In London Shelley committed the
objectionable sin which admits in En-
glish society of no palliation nor ex-
cuse. He married . girl beneath him
in social position, and, worse than all,
q girl without any money. After such
q step his father, of course, could have
no more to say to him. Had not the
landed property been entailed, the two
children, Shelley and his wife, would
soon have starved: and it is never to be
forgotten that the laws of England,
against the injustice of which Shelley
rebelled, had the beneficial effect OF
making him from the pecuniary stand
point, independent. If he was disin-
herited of parental affection, counsel,
guidance, he was always the heir OF
Field place. The tragedy of the mar
riage was that Harriet Westbrook
lacked so radically in sincerity and ear
ness of soul that she could be .
true mate to Shelley. She failed him
just as the shallow, commonplace. con-
ventionally afiectionate daughter of
Polonius failed Hamlet. It was not =
love match, for Shelley was too young
to know the master passion, and Har-
riet's soul too narrow to hold 1t. 1t
was a marriage of within, fancy-a step
especially hazardous where either of
the parties is by nature capable of
strong feeling, and neither governed
by prudence, ~reflectio,n ~self-control, or
Judgment. --Temple SdT.