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Robert Southey, from the 'Preface'
to his Vision of Judgment (1821)
The publication of a lascivious book is one of the worst
offences which can be committed against the well-being of society. It is a
sin, to the consequences of which no limits can be assigned, an those
consequences no after repentance in the wrier can counteract. Whatever
remorse of conscience he may feel when his hour comes (and come it must!) will
be of no avail. The poignancy of a death-bed repentance cannot cancel one
copy of the thousands which are sent abroad; and as long as it continue to be
read, so long is he the pander of posterity, and so long is he heaping up guilt
upon his soul in perpetual accumulation. ______________
The school which they have set up may properly be called
the Satanic school; for though their productions breathe the spirit of Belial in
their lascivious parts, and spirit of Moloch in those loathsome images of
atrocities and horrors which they delight to represent, they are more especially
characterized by a Satanic spirit of pride and audacious impiety, which still
betrays the wretched feeling of hopelessness wherewith it is allied.
Robert Southey is, of course, the "Bob Southey... the poet
laureate" referred to in the dedication to Don Juan.
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