Through no bodily sense does she perceive
justice, beauty, goodness, and other ideas. The philosopher
has a lifelong quarrel with bodily desires, and he should welcome
the release of his soul.'
1. 3. _'Tis we who, lost in stormy visions_, &c. We, the so-called
living, are in fact merely beset by a series of stormy visions which
constitute life; all our efforts are expended upon mere phantoms, and
are therefore profitless; our mental conflict is an act of trance,
exercised upon mere nothings. The very energetic expression, 'strike
with our spirit's knife invulnerable nothings,' is worthy of remark. It
will be remembered that, according to Shelley's belief, 'nothing exists
but as it is perceived': see p. 56. The view of life expressed with
passionate force in this passage of _Adonais_ is the same which forms
the calm and placid conclusion of _The Sensitive Plant_, a poem written
in 1820;--
'But, in this life
Of error, ignorance, and strife,
Where nothing is but all things seem.
And we the shadows of the dream,
It is a modest creed, and yet
Pleasant if one considers it,
To own that death itself must be,
Like all the rest, a mockery.
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