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    f ^ idcif&fir ^ y ^ isciieiKJe , { however gT $ ata jBut & a statesman , tbi £ ^ i ga ^ foi ^ tjje poetical is doubly ancjf ^ rg bly pleasing , from the jsu ]^< $ gcl \ dry 2 iess of his studies , aft ^ lrjbhedchara cter he is apt to ^ t&in ipr worldliness . We are ^ lljghted to see , that

    sympathizing with poetry , he most p ? oba . bly sympathizes with all of us , and that , in attributi ng to him a mere regard for expediences and worldly success , we do him the injustice which in truth is done to most

    men by one another , when they undervalue what is at their heart's core , and take for granted even those avowals of cunning and misbelief which

    are themselves generated by an erroneous principle of sociality , arid a regard for what their neighbours will think of them . If it were suddenly to become a fashion for men to have faith

    in one another , and think the best , Bond street and Regent street would be crowded tomorrow with poetry and sentiment ; not because fashion is fashion w ( for that is a child ' s reason ) $ but ; because fashion itk&K arises from the social

    principle ,, x ^ however narrowly exercised , and goes upon the ground of people ' s regard for their mutual good opinion . Statesmen are too often

    unjustly treated in men's minds , as practisers of mere cunning and expedience , and lovers qf power . Much self-love ifc doubtless among them , and much Iwe $£ ^ oweflM ' 'Wke ^ is it not ? But hi |^; Mj ^ ions are ofteiler mingled with

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    the very cunniagancLxes ^ pedience , than , the nan ? ow-i » inded suppose ; and * in truths the yery position they occupy * and $ he

    largeness of the interests ; m which they deal , tend to create such aspirations where they do not very consciously exists for a man cannot be habitually interested , even on his own

    account , with the well-being of nations and his fellow-creatures , without feeling his nature expand in the conversancy . They earn to feel as " England / and as France , " or at least as the

    influential portion of the country , and not as mere heads of a party , however the partizanship may otherwise guide them or be identified with their form of policy . By and by we hope they may feel , not as " England" or as " France , " but as

    all the world ; and so they will , as all the world advances in knowledge and in fluen ce . Now poetry is the breath of beauty , flowing around the spiritual world , as the winds that wake

    up the flowers do about the material ; and in proportion as statesmen have a regard for poetry , and for what the highest poetry loves , they " look abroad / ' as Bacon phrased it ; " into universality , " and the universe partakes of the benefit . Bacon himself wrote

    verses , though he had not heart enough to write good ones ; but his great knowledge told him , that Verses were good things to like .

    We hitiiSt ^ ijib ^ ss din ^ re-^ U ^^ np , pn this tempting subject into the smallest pogsi-

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    f | 0 Of Statesmen who hm& miiteh Verses .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1837, page 280, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1836/page/55/