And then would
they think it greater Delight than they had before. And then would he
say to them, that if they would die for him and for his Love, that after
their Death they should come to his Paradise; and they should be of the
Age of the Damsels, and they should play with them, and yet be Maidens.
And after that should he put them in a yet fairer Paradise, where that
they should see the God of Nature visibly, in His Majesty and in His
Bliss. And then would he show them his Intent, and say to them, that if
they would go slay such a Lord, or such a Man that was his Enemy or
contrarious to his List, that they should not therefore dread to do it
and to be slain themselves. For after their Death, he would put them in
another Paradise, that was an 100-fold fairer than any of the tother;
and there should they dwell with the most fairest Damsels that might be,
and play with them ever-more.
"And thus went many divers lusty Pachelors to slay great Lords in divers
Countries, that were his Enemies, and made themselves to be slain, in
Hope to have that Paradise."
FRANCE: AN ODE
When Coleridge republished this poem in the _Post_ in 1802 he prefixed
to it the following
ARGUMENT
_First Stanza_. An invocation to those objects in Nature the
contemplation of which had inspired the Poet with a devotional love of
Liberty. _Second Stanza_. The exultation of the Poet at the commencement
of the French Revolution, and his unqualified abhorrence of the Alliance
against the Republic.
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