We retire to our
rooms for freedom; to undress, bathe, unloose everything in freedom.
These, and much else, would not be proper in society.
_Other party answers_--Such is the rule of society. Not always so, and
considerable exceptions still exist. However, it must be called the
general rule, sanction'd by immemorial usage, and will probably always
remain so.
_First party_--Why not, then, respect it in your poems?
_Answer_--One reason, and to me a profound one, is that the soul of a
man or woman demands, enjoys compensation in the highest directions
for this very restraint of himself or herself, level'd to the average,
or rather mean, low, however eternally practical, requirements of
society's intercourse. To balance this indispensable abnegation, the
free minds of poets relieve themselves, and strengthen and enrich
mankind with free flights in all the directions not tolerated by
ordinary society.
_First party_--But must not outrage or give offence to it.
_Answer_--No, not in the deepest sense--and do not, and cannot. The
vast averages of time and the race _en masse_ settle these things.
Only understand that the conventional standards and laws proper enough
for ordinary society apply neither to the action of the soul, nor its
poets. In fact the latter know no laws but the laws of themselves,
planted in them by God, and are themselves the last standards of the
law, and its final exponents--responsible to Him directly, and not at
all to mere etiquette.
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