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Lectures on the English Poets - Delivered at the Surrey Institution by William Hazlitt
page 10 of 257 (03%)
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love,
Till that a capable and wide revenge
Swallow them up."--

The climax of his expostulation afterwards with Desdemona is at that
line [sic],

"But there where I had garner'd up my heart,
To be discarded thence!"--

One mode in which the dramatic exhibition of passion excites our
sympathy without raising our disgust is, that in proportion as it
sharpens the edge of calamity and disappointment, it strengthens the
desire of good. It enhances our consciousness of the blessing, by making
us sensible of the magnitude of the loss. The storm of passion lays bare
and shews us the rich depths of the human soul: the whole of our
existence, the sum total of our passions and pursuits, of that which we
desire and that which we dread, is brought before us by contrast; the
action and re-action are equal; the keenness of immediate suffering only
gives us a more intense aspiration after, and a more intimate
participation with the antagonist world of good; makes us drink deeper
of the cup of human life; tugs at the heart-strings; loosens the
pressure about them; and calls the springs of thought and feeling into
play with tenfold force.

Impassioned poetry is an emanation of the moral and intellectual part
of our nature, as well as of the sensitive--of the desire to know, the
will to act, and the power to feel; and ought to appeal to these
different parts of our constitution, in order to be perfect. The
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