The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.
Wordsworth, William
English literature -- 19th century
successfully resisted, and even overthrown. In the first place, then, I
think that there are great errors in the survey of the comparative
strength of the two empires, with which you begin your book, and on
which the first 160 pages are chiefly employed. You seem to wish to
frighten the people into exertion; and in your ardour to attain your
object, that of rousing our countrymen by any means, I think you have
caught far too eagerly at every circumstance with respect to revenue,
navy, &c. that appears to make for the French. This I think was
unnecessary. The people are convinced that the power of France is
dangerous, and that it is our duty to resist it to the utmost. I think
you might have commenced from this acknowledged fact; and, at all
events, I cannot help saying, that the first 100 pages or so of your
book, contrasted with the brilliant prospects towards the conclusion,
have impressed me with a notion that you have written too much under the
influence of feelings similar to those of a poet or novelist, who
deepens the distress in the earlier part of his work, in order that the
happy catastrophe which he has prepared for his hero and heroine may be
more keenly relished. Your object is to conduct us to Elysium, and, lest
we should not be able to enjoy that pure air and purpurial sunshine, you
have taken a peep at Tartarus on the road. Now I am of your mind, that
we ought not to make peace with France, on any account, till she is
humiliated, and her power brought within reasonable bounds. It is our
duty and our interest to be at war with her; but I do not think with
you, that a state of peace would give to France that superiority which
you seem so clearly to foresee. In estimating the resources of the two
empires, as to revenue, you appear to make little or no allowance for
what I deem of prime and paramount importance, the characters of the two
nations, and of the two governments. Was there ever an instance, since
the world began, of the peaceful arts thriving under a despotism so
oppressive as that of France is and must continue to be, and among a
people so unsettled, so depraved, and so undisciplined in civil arts and
habits as the French nation must now be? It is difficult to come at the
real revenue of the French empire; but it appears to me certain,
absolutely certain, that it must diminish rapidly every year. The armies
have hitherto been maintained chiefly from the contributions raised upon
the conquered countries, and from the plunder which the soldiers have
been able to find. But that harvest is over. Austria, and particularly
Hungary, may have yet something to supply; but the French Ruler will
scarcely quarrel with them for a few years at least. But from Denmark,
and Sweden, and Russia, there is not much to be gained. In the mean
while, wherever his iron yoke is fixed, the spirits of the people are
broken; and it is in vain to attempt to extort money which they do not
possess, and cannot procure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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