Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Name: The London Magazine
Author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Summary

“The London Magazine”, published in 1824, is a work by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. It explores elements such as ghosts, youth and murderer.

Quotes from The London Magazine (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ Nor is the empire of the imagination less bounded in its own proper creations, than in those which were bestowed on it by the poor blind eyes of our ancestors. What has become of enchantresses with their palaces of crystal and dungeons of palpable darkness? What of fairies and their wands? What of witches and their familiars? and, last, what of ghosts, with beckoning hands and fleeting shapes, which quelled the soldier’s brave heart, and made the murderer disclose to the astonished noon the veiled work of midnight? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ Brutus’s dream has become a deception of his over-heated brain, Lord Lyttleton’s vision is called a cheat; and one by one these inhabitants of deserted houses, moonlight glades, misty mountain tops, and midnight church-yards, have been ejected from their immemorial seats, and small thrill is felt when the dead majesty of Denmark blanches the cheek and unsettles the reason of his philosophic son.
But do none of us believe in ghosts? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ The returning bride, who claims the fidelity of her betrothed; the murdered man who shakes to remorse the murderer’s heart; ghosts that lift the curtains at the foot of your bed as the clock chimes one; who rise all pale and ghastly from the church-yard and haunt their ancient abodes ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ The globe was then encircled by a wall which paled in the bodies of men, whilst their feathered thoughts soared over the boundary; it had a brink, and in the deep profound which it overhung, men’s imaginations, eagle-winged, dived and flew, and brought home strange tales to their believing auditors. Deep caverns harboured giants; cloud-like birds cast their shadows upon the plains ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ I have known two persons who at broad daylight have owned that they believed in ghosts, for that they had seen one. One of these was an Englishman, and the other an Italian. The former had lost a friend he dearly loved, who for awhile appeared to him nightly, gently stroking his cheek and spreading a serene calm over his mind. He did not fear the appearance, although he was somewhat awe-stricken as each night it glided into his chamber, and,
Ponsi del letto in su la sponda manca. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ But these are tame wonders, lions in leash; we do not invest Mungo Park, or the Captain of the Hecla, with divine attributes; no one fancies that the waters of the unknown river bubble up from hell’s fountains, no strange and weird power is supposed to guide the ice-berg, nor do we fable that a stray pick-pocket from Botany Bay has found the gardens of the Hesperides within the circuit of the Blue Mountains. What have we left to dream about? The clouds are no longer the charioted servants of the sun, nor does he any more bathe his glowing brow in the bath of Thetis ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ The Italian was a noble, a soldier, and by no means addicted to superstition: he had served in Napoleon’s armies from early youth, and had been to Russia, had fought and bled, and been rewarded, and he unhesitatingly, and with deep belief, recounted his story.
This Chevalier, a young, and (somewhat a miraculous incident) a gallant Italian, was engaged in a duel with a brother officer, and wounded him in the arm. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ We have the sun which has been weighed and measured, but not understood; we have the assemblage of the planets, the congregation of the stars, and the yet unshackled ministration of the winds:—such is the list of our ignorance. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ The Fortunate Isles have lost the glory that spread a halo round them; for who deems himself nearer to the golden age, because he touches at the Canaries on his voyage to India? Our only riddle is the rise of the Niger ”

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Source: Wikisource

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, The London Magazine (1824)

“ There is something beyond us of which we are ignorant. The sun drawing up the vaporous air makes a void, and the wind rushes in to fill it,—thus beyond our soul’s ken there is an empty space; and our hopes and fears, in gentle gales or terrific whirlwinds, occupy the vacuum; and if it does no more, it bestows on the feeling heart a belief that influences do exist to watch and guard us, though they be impalpable to the coarser faculties.
I have heard that when Coleridge was asked if he believed in ghosts,—he replied that he had seen too many to put any trust in their reality ”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Summary

Quotes from The London Magazine (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

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