SATAN ABSOLVED

A VICTORIAN MYSTERY

SATAN ABSOLVED

A VICTORIAN MYSTERY

BY

WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT

WITH A FRONTISPIECE AFTERGEORGE FREDERICK WATTS R.A.

LONDON AND NEW YORKJOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD1899

DEDICATED BY PERMISSIONTO MR. HERBERT SPENCER

[Pg v]

[Pg v]

PREFACE

In publishing this poem, the Author feels that some apology is needed. It deals with matters of a kind not usually treated in modern verse, and which ask to be approached, if at all, with dignity and reverence. He trusts that he will not be found lacking on this essential point. Nevertheless, he cannot expect but that he may wound by his plain speaking the feelings of those among his readers who sincerely believe that Nineteenth Century Civilisation is synonymous with Christianity, and that the English Race, above all those in existence, has a special mission from Heaven to subdue and occupy the Earth. The self-complacency of the Author’s countrymen on this head is too deeply seated to be attacked without offence. He has not, however, shrunk from so attacking, and from insisting on the truth that the hypocrisy and all-acquiring greed of modern England is an atrocious spectacle—one which, if there be any justice in Heaven, must bring a curse from God, as it has surely[Pg vi] already made the angels weep. The destruction of beauty in the name of science, the destruction of happiness in the name of progress, the destruction of reverence in the name of religion, these are the pharisaic crimes of all the white races; but there is something in the Anglo-Saxon impiety 

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