Priests might spin
Their veil, but not for me--'twas in fit place
Among its kindred cobwebs.'
He concludes by avowing impudently that Herbert is innocent and that
the impulse which prompted the monstrous perfidy of procuring his
death was -
'I would have made us equal once again.'
This is the commentary by Wordsworth on Godwin's parable by which he
illustrates the simplicity of action in what we call the soul.
'When a ball upon a billiard-board is struck,' etc. etc. 'Exactly
similar to this . . . are the actions of the human mind' (i. 306-7).
Lacy, one of the freebooters asks Wallace:-
'But for the motive?'
and Wallace replies:-
'Natures such as his
Spin motives out of their own bowels, Lacy!'
The Borderers is stuffed full with Godwinism. 'Remorse,' exclaims
Oswald,
'It cannot live with thought; think on, think on,
And it will die. What! In this universe,
Where the least things control the greatest, where
The faintest breath that breathes can move a world;
What! feel remorse, where, if a cat had sneezed,
A leaf had fallen, the thing had never been
Whose very shadow gnaws us to the vitals.
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