A DEFENCE OF POETRY AND OTHER ESSAYS
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
CONTENTS
ON LOVE
ON A FUTURE STATE
ON THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH
SPECULATIONS ON METAPHYSICS
SPECULATIONS ON MORALS
CHAPTER I. ON THE NATURE OF VIRTUE
CHAPTER II.
ESSAY ON THE LITERATURE, THE ARTS, AND THE MANNERS OF THE ATHENIANS
ON THE SYMPOSIUM, OR PREFACE TO THE BANQUET OF PLATO
A DEFENCE OF POETRY
ON LOVE
What is love? Ask him who lives, what is life? ask him who adores, what is God?
I know not the internal constitution of other men, nor even thine, whom I now address. I see that in some external attributes they resemble me, but when, misled by that appearance, I have thought to appeal to something in common, and unburthen my inmost soul to them, I have found my language misunderstood, like one in a distant and savage land. The
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