Thou canst not find one spot
Whereon no city stood.—Canto II.
Ianthe thanks the fairy for this vision of the past and says that from it she will glean a warning for the future
So that man
May profit by his errors and derive
Experience from his folly.
Volney’s traveler wonders that past experience has not taught mankind a lesson, and that destruction is not a thing of the past. The Spirit, in Queen Mab, is shown the miserable life that kings live. They have no peace of mind; even their “slumbers are but varied agonies.” They are heartless wretches whose ears are deaf to the shrieks of penury. The fairy says that kings and parasites arose—
From vice, black loathsome vice:
From rapine, madness, treachery, and wrong.
This is somewhat stronger than Volney’s dictum that paternal tyranny laid the foundations of political despotism. Canto IV of Queen Mab contains a description of the horrors of war. In Les Ruines there is an account of the war between Russia and Turkey. Both attribute this horrible evil to cupidity, “the daughter and companion of ignorance.” Volney’s traveler is then vouchsafed a glimpse of the “new age” when Equality, Liberty, and Justice will reign supreme. The final chapters of Les Ruines describe a disputation between the doctors of different religions, which ends in convincing the people that all religions are false. The ministers of the various sects contradict and refute one another, opposing revelations to revelations and miracles to miracles, until they render it evident that they are all deceived or deceivers. Man himself is to blame for having been duped. Religion exists because man is superstitious and tolerates the imposition of priests. “Thus, agitated by their own passions, men, whether in their individual capacity, or as collective bodies, always rapacious and improvident passing from tyranny to slavery, from pride to abjectness, from presumption to despair, have been themselves the eternal instruments of their misfortunes.”[26] In the notes to Queen Mab, Shelley says that as ignorance of nature gave birth to gods the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.
But now contempt is mocking thy gray hairs;
Thou art descending to the darksome grave
Unhonored and unpitied, but by those
Whose pride is passing by like thine.
And sheds like thine a glare that fades before the sun
Of Truth, and shines but in the dreadful night
That long has lowered above the ruined world.[27]
The third part of Queen Mab contains a glowing picture of the Golden Age—of the world as it will be, when reason will be the sole guide of men. For this Shelley is indebted mainly to Godwin’s Political Justice.
For his denunciation of the professions Shelley is indebted to the Essay on “Trades and Professions” in Godwin’s Enquirer. With regard to commerce, Godwin says that the introduction of barter and sale into society was followed by vice and misery. “Barter and sale being once introduced, the invention of a circulating medium in the precious metals gave solidity to the evil, and afforded a field upon which for the rapacity and selfishness of man to develop all their refinements.”[28] Shelley says:
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness
The signet of its all-enslaving power
Upon a shining ore, and called it gold.[29]