The Vicissitudes of Shelley's Queen Mab: A Chapter in the History of Reform (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Vicissitudes of Shelley's Queen Mab: A Chapter in the History of Reform

Once again in the English-speaking race has the victim of the reforming passion appeared. In the vastness of America a man with commensurate vastness of concep tion awoke from the dream of everyday life some thirty years ago, and preached a new gospel of reform. Walt Whitman, the poet of democracy and of the natural man, is the latest Avatar of the true passion for reform and he goes on to this day adding and adding to the heads of his propaganda.

This passion for reforming the world, then, is generic. Other victims of it might be named; but these will suffice for the present purpose of illustrating the sense in which the passion is regarded as inspiring Shelley. Whence and how this passion was breathed into his nos trils when he became a living soul, is a problem for historians and psychologists. The whence indeed is not so hard a matter, for Shelley was born in 1792, when the spirit of revolt was in the air; and the French Revo lution was the central historic fact during the period in which his early years fell. But why the concentrated spirit of that movement, wafted across the Channel, should have entered into the scion of a long line of Sussex squires, is a question bootless to ask and impossible to answer. Stranger still, and greatly to the advantage of humanity, the essential spirit of the Revolution took shape in Shelley free from the accidentals of violence and bloodshed; and his almost universal tolerance never taught him to tolerate cruelty or savagery in any form, no matter what the end to be attained. Thus the passion for reforming the world was with Shelley not only a passion for attaining somehow to the supremacy of good and the abolition of evil, but also for reforming funda mentally the means of reform; and that, I take it, is almost as high an ideal as the mind can shape. The Nazarene reformer Confessed that he came not to bring peace but a sword: Shelley brought no sword, and would hear of none.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Vicissitudes of Shelley's Queen Mab: A Chapter in the History of Reform

A Passion for reforming the world is perhaps as exalted a form of enthusiasm as can be named in the catalogue of passions which besiege the human soul. In its integrity it manifests itself but seldom. Demagogues who clamour for a scrambling redistribution of this world's goods, and who have personally much to gain and nothing to lose, are common figures enough in the world's history. But the true Avatar of the reforming passion appears and re-appears at long intervals. In Judea we find him the friend of publicans and sinners, perfect in all the essentials of human goodness, one for whom the words self and abnegation had no separate existence. In Athens he appears in the person of Socrates, the man of subtle intellect, vast powers of body and mind, unflinching courage and infallible moral perceptions, egotistical perhaps in his manner and way of thought, button-holing the Athenians and ever insisting on the right, and facing all consequences, even to death, as one not made to die.

In modern England the archetypal victim of this passion was Shelley. It colours his whole life from a time long before he had reached manhood, and enters constantly into the details of his daily existence.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.