Millions to fight compell'd, to fight or die
In mangled heaps on War's red altar lie . . .
When legal murders swell the lists of pride;
When glory's views the titled idiot guide.
It is the "cold advisers of yet colder kings" who have "the power to breathe / O’er all the world the infectious blast of death".
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Man must assert his native rights, must say
We take from Monarchs' hand the granted sway;
Oppressive law no more shall power retain,
Peace, love, and concord, once shall rule again,
And heal the anguish of a suffering world;
Then, then shall things which now
confusedly hurled,
Seem Chaos, be resolved to order's sway,
And error's night be turned to virtue’s day -
P B Shelley Poetical Essay (1807)
(A rediscovered Pamphlet lost for 200 years)
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