|
Book IX: Residence in France 1. Beaupuy(293-346) Among that band of officers was one, Already hinted at, of other mold— A patriot, thence rejected by the rest, And with an oriental loathing spurned As of a different caste. A meeker man Than this lived never, or a more benign, Meek, though enthusiastic to the height Of highest expectation. Injuries Made him more gracious, and his nature then Did breathe its sweetness out most sensibly, As aromatic flowers on Alpine turf When foot hath crushed them. He through the events Of that great change wandered in perfect faith, As through a book, an old romance, or tale Of Fairy, or some dream of actions wrought Behind the summer clouds. By birth he ranked With the most noble, but unto the poor Among mankind he was in service bound As by some tie invisible, oaths professed To a religious order. Man he loved As man, and to the mean and the obscure, And all the homely in their homely works, Transferred a courtesy which had no air Of condescension, but did rather seem A passion and a gallantry, like that Which he, a soldier, in his idler day Had payed to woman. Somewhat vain he was, Or seemed so, yet it was not vanity, But fondness, and a kind of radiant joy That covered him about when he was bent On works of love or freedom, or revolved Complacently the progress of a cause Whereof he was a part—yet this was meek And placid, and took nothing from the man That was delightful. Oft in solitude With him did I discourse about the end Of civil government, and its wisest forms, Of ancient prejudice and chartered rights, Allegiance, faith, and laws by time matured, Custom and habit, novelty and change, Of self-respect, and virtue in the few For patrimonial honour set apart, And ignorance in the labouring multitude. For he, an upright man and tolerant, Balanced these contemplations in his mind, And I, who at that time was scarcely dipped Into the turmoil, had a sounder judgement Than afterwards, carried about me yet With less alloy to its integrity The experience of past ages, as through help Of books and common life it finds its way To youthful minds, by objects over near Not pressed upon, nor dazzled or misled By struggling with the crowd for present ends. 2. "a hunger-bitten girl"(511) ...And when we chanced One day to meet a hunger-bitten girl Who crept along fitting her languid self Unto a heifer’s motion, by a cord Tied to her arm, and picking thus from the lane Its sustenance, while the girl with her two hands Was busy knitting in a heartless mood Of solitude, and at the sight my friend In agitation said, 'Tis against that Which we are fighting', I with him believed Devoutly that a spirit was abroad Which could not be withstood, that poverty, At least like this, would in a little time Be found no more, that we should see the earth Unthwarted in her wish to recompense The industrious, and the lowly child of toil, All institutes for ever blotted out That legalized exclusion, empty pomp Abolished, sensual state and cruel power, Whether by edict of the one or few; And finally, as sum and crown of all, Should see the people having a strong hand In making their own laws, whence better days To all mankind. But, these things set apart, Was not the single confidence enough To animate the mind that ever turned A thought to human welfare? That henceforth Captivity by mandate without law Should cease, and open accusation lead To sentence in the hearing of the world, And open punishment, if not the air Be free to breathe in, and the heart of man Dread nothing. (510-42)
Book X: Residence in France and French Revolution
1. September Massacre This was the time in which, enflamed with hope, To Paris I returned. Again I ranged, More eagerly than I had done before, Through the wide city, and in progress passed The prison where the unhappy monarch lay, Associate with his children and his wife In bondage, and the palace, lately stormed With roar of cannon and a numerous host. I crossed—a black and empty area then— The square of the Carousel, a few weeks back Heaped up with dead and dying, upon these And other sights looking as doth a man Upon a volume whose contents he knows Are memorable but from him locked up, Being written in a tongue he cannot read, So that he questions the mute leaves with pain, And half upbraids their silence. But that night When on my bed I lay, I was most moved And felt most deeply in what world I was; My room was high and lonely, near the roof Of a large mansion or hotel, a spot That would have pleased me in more quiet times, Nor was it wholly without pleasure then. With unextinguished taper I kept watch, Reading at intervals. The fear gone by Pressed on me almost like a fear to come. I thought of those September massacres, Divided from me by a little month, And felt and touched them, a substantial dread (The rest was conjured up from tragic fictions, And mournful calendars of true history, Remembrances and dim admonishments): ‘The horse is taught his manage, and the wind Of heaven wheels round and treads in his own steps; Year follows year, the tide returns again, Day follows day, all things have second birth; The earthquake is not satisfied at once; And in such way I wrought upon myself, Until I seemed to hear a voice that cried To the whole city, 'Sleep no more!' To this Add comments of a calmer mind,from which I could not gather full security, But at the best it seemed a place of fear, Unfit for the repose of night, Defenceless as a wood where tigers roam. (38-82)
2. Inner conflict as a republican who had to support the enemy which then was thought to be an ideal republic Such was my then belief—that there was one, And only one, solicitude for all. And now the strength of Britain was put forth In league with the confederated host; Not in my single self alone I found, But in the minds of all ingenuous youth, Change and subversion from this hour. No shock Given to my moral nature had I known Down to that very moment; neither lapse Nor turn of sentiment that might be named A revolution, save at this one time: All else was progress on the self-same path On which with a diversity of pace I had been travelling; this, a stride at once Into another region. True it is, ’Twas not concealed with what ungracious eyes Our native rulers from the very first Had looked upon regenerated France; Nor had I doubted that this day would come. But in such contemplation I had thought Of general interests only, beyond this Had never once foretasted the event. Now had I other business, for I felt The ravage of this most unnatural strife In my own heart; there lay it like a weight, At enmity with all the tenderest springs Of my enjoyments. I, who with the breeze Had played, a green leaf on the blessed tree Of my beloved country, nor had wished For happier fortune than to wither there, Now from my pleasant station was cut off, And tossed about in whirlwinds. I rejoiced, Yes, afterwards, truth painful to record, Exulted in the triumph of my soul When Englishmen by thousands were o’erthrown, Left without glory on the field, or driven, Brave hearts, to shameful flight. It was a grief, Grief call it not, ’twas any thing but that,- A conflict of sensations without name, Of which he only who may love the sight Of a village steeple as I do can judge, When in the congregation, bending all To their great Father, prayers were offered up Or praises for our country’s victories, And, 'mid the simple worshippers perchance I only, like an uninvited guest Whom no one owned, sate silent—shall I add, Fed on the day of vengeance yet to come! (228-75) 3. Wordsworth's Celebration of the French Revolution
O pleasant exercise of hope and joy, For great were the auxiliars which then stood Upon our side, we who were strong in love. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven! O times, In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways Of custom, law, and statute took at once The attraction of a country in romance! When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights When most intent on making of herself A prime enchanter to assist the work Which then was going forwards in her name. Not favored spots alone, but the whole earth, The beauty wore of promise, that which sets (To take an image which was felt, no doubt, Among the bowers of Paradise itself) The budding rose above the rose full-blown. What temper at the prospect did not wake To happiness unthought of? (690-708) 4. "Yielded up moral questions in despair"(901) ...A veil had been Uplifted. Why deceive ourselves?—’twas so, ’Twas even so—and sorrow for the man Who either had no eyes wherewith to see, Or seeing hath forgotten. Let this pass, Suffice it that a shock had then been given To old opinions, and the minds of all men Had felt it that my mind was both let loose, Let loose and goaded. After what hath been Already said of patriotic love, And hinted at in other sentiments, We need not linger long upon this theme, This only may be said, that from the first Having two natures in me (joy the one, The other melancholy), and withal A happy man, and therefore bold to look On painful things—slow, somewhat, too, and stem In temperament—I took the knife in hand, And, stopping not at parts less sensitive, Endeavoured with my best of skill to probe The living body of society Even to the heart. I pushed without remorse My speculations forward, yea, set foot On Nature’s holiest places. Time may come When some dramatic story may afford Shapes livelier to convey to thee, my friend, What then I learned—or think I learned—of truth, And the errors into which I was betrayed By present objects, and by reasonings false From the beginning, inasmuch as drawn Out of a heart which had been turned aside From Nature by external accidents, And which was thus confounded more and more, Misguiding and misguided. Thus I fared, Dragging all passions, notions, shapes of faith, Like culprits of the bar, suspiciously Calling the mind to establish in plain day Her titles and her honours, now believing, Now disbelieving, endlessly perplexed With impulse, motive, right and wrong, the ground Of moral obligation—what the rule, And what the sanction扉till, demanding proof, And seeking it in every thing, I lost All feeling of conviction, and, in fine, Sick, wearied out with contrarieties, Yielded up moral questions in despair, And for my future studies, as the sole Employment of the inquiring faculty, Turned towards mathematics, and their clear And solid evidence. (856-905)
|
|
|
Related Binaries
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related
Keyword
:
|
 
|
