"Dupes of a deep delusion!" -- I knew I had read that phrase decades ago in a book about sound symbolism by Reuven Tsur (he was interested in the oo-ee-ee-oo sequence of vowels) and that it was a quote from some poem or the other (Romantic-era English, from the feel of it), so I just now looked it up.
It turns out to be from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a 1798 poem with the extraordinarily appropriate title "Fears in Solitude." I quote the passage that cut the deepest when I read it.
O Britons! O my brethren! I have toldMost bitter truth, but without bitterness.Nor deem my zeal or factious or mis-timed;For never can true courage dwell with them,Who, playing tricks with conscience, dare not lookAt their own vices. We have been too longDupes of a deep delusion! Some, belike,Groaning with restless enmity, expectAll change from change of constituted power;As if a Government had been a robe,On which our vice and wretchedness were taggedLike fancy-points and fringes, with the robePulled off at pleasure. Fondly these attachA radical causation to a fewPoor drudges of chastising Providence,Who borrow all their hues and qualitiesFrom our own folly and rank wickedness,Which gave them birth and nursed them.
The problem is not political. The solution is not political. Stop distracting yourself; play no more tricks with conscience. Gaze no more in the bitter glass; beloved, gaze in thine own heart.
Those last few sentences (some of them pinched from Yeats) are addressed to myself and myself only -- but, hey, if the shoe fits . . .
1 comment:
That's a good poem. I can't remember reading it before; so I'm glad I encountered it here.
As for being a dupe of delusion, deep or otherwise, I believe this is a big part of our mortal experience. We have all been dupes at one time or other and will inevitably be dupes in the future as well. I was a dupe of a deep delusion a couple of years ago. Who knows what delusions I have yet to fall into, but the closer I draw to Christ, the better I seem to get at detecting delusions, but a great deal of mortal life remains in the realm of trial and error.
This is where Bruce's concept of learning is relevant and meaningful for me. Recognizing the delusion is tough sometimes; repenting involvement in it is even tougher. But if I remember I am here to learn, I can approach this kind of tough learning with serious repentance. At the same, I can avoid beating myself up needlessly for errors of judgement/discernment. I can also avoid hauling around shame and guilt as if it were luggage I have to take with me everywhere I go.
Anyway, this comment seems to be more of a note to self inspired by your post than it is anything else. Please consider it as such.
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