The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]Shelley, Percy Bysshe
General
The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Vol. 1 [of 2]
Shelley, Percy Bysshe
English prose literature
and intolerable in the mass of political grievance.
In no case employ violence or falsehood. I cannot too often or too
vividly endeavour to impress upon your minds that these methods will
produce nothing but wretchedness and slavery--that they will at the
same time rivet the fetters with which ignorance and oppression bind
you to abjectness, and deliver you over to a tyranny which shall render
you incapable of renewed efforts. Violence will immediately render
your cause a bad one. If you believe in a providential God, you must
also believe that he is a good one. And it is not likely a merciful
God would befriend a bad cause. Insincerity is no less hurtful than
violence; those who are in the habit of either, would do well to
reform themselves. A lying bravo will never promote the good of his
country--he cannot be a good man. The courageous and sincere may, at
the same time, successfully oppose corruption, by uniting their voice
with that of others, or individually raise up intellectual opposition
to counteract the abuses of Government and society. In order to
benefit yourselves and your country to any extent, habits of sobriety,
regularity, and thought are previously so necessary that, without these
preliminaries, all that you have done falls to the ground. You have
built on sand; secure a good foundation, and you may erect a fabric to
stand for ever--the glory and the envy of the world.
I have purposely avoided any lengthened discussion on those grievances
to which your hearts are, from custom and the immediate interest of the
circumstances, probably most alive at present. I have not, however,
wholly neglected them. Most of all have I insisted on their instant
palliation and ultimate removal; nor have I omitted a consideration
of the means which I deem most effectual for the accomplishment of
this great end. How far you will consider the former worthy of your
adoption, so far shall I deem the latter probable and interesting
to the lovers of human kind. And I have opened to your view a new
scene--does not your heart bound at the bare possibility of your
posterity possessing that liberty and happiness of which, during
our lives, powerful exertions and habitual abstinence may give us a
foretaste? Oh! if your hearts do not vibrate at such as this, then ye
are dead and cold--ye are not men.
I now come to the application of my principles, the conclusion of
my Address; and, O Irishmen, whatever conduct ye may feel yourselves
bound to pursue, the path which duty points to lies before me clear and
unobscured. Dangers may lurk around it, but they are not the dangers
which lie beneath the footsteps of the hypocrite or temporizer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account