Page:Queen Mab (Shelley).djvu/229

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TO QUEEN MAB.
37

If this were not evident from the fact that such unlimited licence would only be available to man, it would be found in his simile between love, and belief. A woman, he says, may be rejected, when another more lovely appears;—as a creed may be dismissed, when it is shewn to be inferior to another. The argument, of course, supposes the lady as insensible and indifferent as the creed! No mischief is done to the creed, by the desertion:—ergo, says Mr. Shelley, no mischief could be done to the lady, by an abandonment. The creed cannot feel slighted;—ergo, the lady ought not to feel herself insulted. The creed is not rendered the less eligible to other admirers;—ergo, the lady is in the same situation, and remains as desirable to others, as before! The creed is only a series of sentences, well or ill put together—ergo, the lady is only a beautiful human form, with no mind, no affections, no feelings, no rights! The creed is a mere combination of the letters of the alphabet, which combination may be changed at the pleasure of the party;—ergo, the lady is only an ornament, which may be changed, on the slightest variation of taste on the part of the lover! Is it necessary to waste any time, in the refutation of such contemptible, but yet such dangerous opinions! The least