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Annotations to Boyd's Historical Notes on Dante t1472
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Dublin, 1785
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A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE INFERNO, with some other POEMS
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relative to the ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN NATURE
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PAGE 35 [But] the most daring flights of fancy, the most
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accurate delineations of character, and the most artful conduct
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of fable, are [not, even] when combined together,
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sufficient of themselves to make a poem interesting. [Deletions
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by Blake]
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PAGES 35-36 The discord of Achilles and Agamemnon may produce the
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most tragical consequences; but if we, who are cool and impartial
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in the affair . . . cannot enter warmly into the views of either
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party, the story, though adorned with all the genius of an Homer,
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will be read by us with some degree of nonchalance. The
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superstition that led the Crusaders to rescue the Holy Land from
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the Infidels, instead of interesting us, appear frigid, if not
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ridiculous. We cannot be much concerned for the fate of such a
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crew of fanatics, notwithstanding the magic numbers of a Tasso .
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. . we cannot sympathise with Achilles for the loss of his
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Mistress, when we feel that he gained her by the massacre of her
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family.
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nobody considers these things while they read Homer or
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Shakespear or Dante
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PAGE 37 When a man, where no interest is concerned, no
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provocation given, lays a whole nation in blood merely for his
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glory; we, to whom his glory is indifferent, cannot enter into
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his resentment.
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false All poetry gives the lie to this
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PAGES 37-38 Such may be good poetical characters, of that
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mixt kind that Aristotle admits; but the most beautiful mixture
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of light and shade has no attraction, unless it warms <or
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freezes> the heart. It must have something that engages the
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sympathy, something that appeals to the [moral sense]
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<passions & senses>; for nothing can thoroughly captivate the
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fancy, however artfully delineated, that does not awake the
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sympathy and interest the passions [that enlist on the side
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of Virtue] and appeal to our native notions of right and
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wrong. [Deletions and insertions by Blake]
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PAGES 38-38 It is this that sets the Odyssey, in point of
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sentiment, so far above the Iliad. We feel the injuries of
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Ulysses; . . . we seem to feel the generous indignation of the
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young Telemachus, and we tremble at the dangers of the fair
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Penelope . . . we can go along with the resentment of Ulysses,
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because it is just, but our feelings must tell us that Achilles
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carries his resentment to a savage length, a length where we
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cannot follow him.
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If Homers merit was only in these Historical combinations &
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Moral sentiments he would be no better than Clarissa
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PAGES 39-40 ILIACOS EXTRA MUROS PECCATUR; ET INTRA. It is
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a contest between barbarians, equally guilty of injustice,
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rapine, and bloodshed; and we are not sorry to see the vengeance
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of Heaven equally inflicted on both parties.
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Homer meant this
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Aeneas indeed is a more amiable personage than Achilles; he
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seems meant for a perfect character. But compare his conduct
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with respect to Dido with the self-denial of Dryden's Cleomenes,
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or with the conduct of Titus in the Berenice of Racine, we will
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then see what is meant by making a character interesting.
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Every body naturally hates a perfect character because they
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are all greater Villains than the imperfect as Eneas is here
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shewn a worse man than Achilles in leaving Dido
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PAGES 45-46 Antecedent to and independent of all laws, a
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man may learn to argue on the nature of moral obligation, and the
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duty of universal benevolence, from Cumberland, Wollaston,
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Shaftesbury, Hutcheson . . . but, would he feel what vice is in
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itself . . . let him enter into the passions of Lear, when he
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feels the ingratitude of his children; of Hamlet, when he learns
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the story of his father's murder; . . . and he will know the
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difference of right and wrong much more clearly than from all the
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moralists that ever wrote.
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the grandest Poetry is Immoral the Grandest characters
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Wicked. Very Satan. Capanius Othello a murderer.
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Prometheus. Jupiter. Jehovah, Jesus a wine bibber
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Cunning & Morality are not Poetry but Philosophy the Poet is
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Independent & Wicked the Philosopher is Dependent & Good
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Poetry is to excuse Vice & show its reason & necessary
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purgation
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PAGE 49 The industrious knave cultivates the soil; the
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indolent good man leaves it uncultivated. Who ought to reap the
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harvest? . . . The natural course of things decides in favour of
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the villain; the natural sentiments of men in favour of the man
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of virtue.
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false
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PAGES 56-67 As to those who think the notion of a future
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Life arose from the descriptions and inventions of the Poets,
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they may just as well suppose that eating and drinking had the
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same original . . . The Poets indeed altered the genuine
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sentiments of nature, and tinged the Light of Reason by
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introducing the wild conceits of Fancy . . . But still the root
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was natural, though the fruit was wild. All thatnature
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teacheis, that there is a future life, distinguished into
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different states of happiness and misery.
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False
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Nature Teaches nothing of Spiritual Life but only of Natural
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Life
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HISTORICAL ESSAY OF THE STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE
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THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES: WITH RESPECT TO
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THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE
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[P 74, blank at the end of "A Comparative View"]
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Every Sentiment & Opinion as well as Every Principle in
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Dante is in these Preliminary Essays Controverted & proved
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Foolish by his Translator If I have any Judgment in Such Things
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as Sentiments Opinions & Principles
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PAGE 118 . . . horrors of a civil war. <dagger>--Dante was
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at this time Prior of Florence and it was he who gave the advice,
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ruinous to himself, and pernicious to his
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country, of calling in the heads of the two factions to
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Florence.
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<dagger>Dante was a Fool or his Translator was Not That is
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Dante was Hired or Tr was Not
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It appears to Me that Men are hired to Run down Men of
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Genius under the Mask of Translators, but Dante gives too much
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Caesar he is not a Republican
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Dante was an Emperors <a Caesars> Man Luther also left the
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Priest & joind the Soldier
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PAGES 129-130 The fervours of religion have often actuated
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the passions to deeds of the wildest fanaticism. The booted
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Apostles of Germany, and the Crusades of Florence, carried their
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zeal to a very guilty degree. But the passion for any thing
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laudable will hardly carry men to a proper pitch, unless it be so
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strong as sometimes to push them beyond the golden mean.
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How very Foolish all this Is
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PAGE 131 Such were the effects of intolerance even in the
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extreme. In a more moderate degree, every well-regulated
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government, both ancient and modern, wereso far
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intolerantas not to admit the pollutions of every
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superstition and every pernicious opinion. It was from
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a regard to the morals of the people, that the Roman Magistrates
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expelled the Priest of Bacchus, in the first and most virtuous
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ages of the republic. It was on this principle that the
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Persians destroyed thetemples of Greece wherever
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they came
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If Well regulated Governments act so who can tell so well as
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the hireling Writer whose praise is contrary to what he Knows to
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be true
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Persians destroy the Temples & are praised for it
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PAGES 133-134. The Athenians and Romans kept a watchful
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eye, not only over the grosser superstitions, but over impiety . . .
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Polybius plainly attributes the fall of freedom in Greece to
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the prevalence of atheism . . . It was not till the republic was
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verging to its fall, that Caesar dared in open senate to laugh at
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the SPECULATIVE opinion of a future state. These were the times
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of universal toleration, when every pollution, from every clime,
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flowed to Rome, whence they had carefully been kept out
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before.
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What is Liberty without Universal Toleration
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PAGES 135-136 I leave it to these who are best acquainted
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with the spirit of antiquity, to determine whether a species of
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religion . . . had or had not a very principal share in raising
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those celebrated nations to the summit of their glory: their
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decline and fall, at least, may be fairly attributed to
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irreligion, and to the want of some general standard of morality,
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whose authority they all allowed, and to which they all appealed.
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The want of this pole-star left them adrift in the boundless
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ocean of conjecture; the disputes of their philosophers were
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endless, and their opinions of the grounds of morality were as
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different as their conditions, their tastes, and their
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pursuits.
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Yet simple country Hinds are Moral Enthusiasts Indignant
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against Knavery without a Moral criterion other than Native
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Honesty untaught while other country Hinds are as indignant
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against honesty & Enthusiasts for Cunning & Artifice
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PAGE 148 . . . but there are certain bounds even to
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liberty . . .
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If it is thus the extreme of black is white & of sweet sower
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& of good Evil & of Nothing Something