The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Volume 1

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Reeves and Turner, 1880 - Prose literature

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Page 132 - Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature* Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between Th
Page 69 - Art thou afear'd To be the same in thine own act and valour, As thou art in desire ? Would'st thou have that Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem; Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," Like the poor cat i
Page 205 - Whence and what art thou, execrable shape! That dar'st, though grim and terrible, advance Thy miscreated front athwart my way To yonder gates? through them I mean to pass, That be assured, without leave asked of thee: Retire, or taste thy folly; and learn by proof, Hell-born! not to contend with spirits of Heaven!
Page 324 - Ireland! thou emerald of the ocean, whose sons are generous and brave, whose daughters are honorable and frank and fair, thou art the isle on whose green shores I have desired to see the standard of liberty erected — a flag of fire — a beacon at which the world shall light the torch of Freedom!
Page 395 - If these individuals think that the form of government which they, or their forefathers constituted is ill adapted to produce their happiness, they have a right to change it.
Page 241 - Had friends — my early friends are fled : How cheerless feels the heart alone, When all its former hopes are dead ? Though...
Page 386 - Helvetius and Condorcet established principles ; but if they drew conclusions, their conclusions were unsystematical, and devoid of the luminousness and energy of method. They were little understood in the Revolution. But this age of ours is not stationary. Philosophers have not developed the great principles of the human mind that conclusions from them should be unprofitable and impracticable. We are in a state of continually progressive improvement.
Page 372 - ... the lion lay down with the lamb, and the infant play with the basilisk — For it supposes the extermination of the eyeless monster bigotry, whose throne has tottered for two hundred years.
Page 398 - The government of a country ought to be perfectly indifferent to every opinion. Religious differences, the bloodiest and most rancorous of all, spring from partiality.
Page 333 - Irishman who speaks for his own liberty and the liberty of his wife and children ? No ; he will steadily persevere, and sooner shall pensioners cease to vote with their benefactors than an Irishman swerve from the path of duty. But steadily persevere in the system above laid down, its benefits will speedily be manifested. Persecution may destroy some, but cannot destroy all, or nearly all ; let it do its will. Ye have appealed to truth and justice, show the goodness of your religion by persisting...

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