Brennen

How about page and line or even just Canto #.

Rick Seddon


----- Original Message -----
From: "Brennen Lukas" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 10:22 AM
Subject: Re: Rom. Pound


> "...Is that despotism
>      or absolute power...unlimited sovereignty,
>      is the same in a majority of a popular assembly,
>      an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junto,
> and a single emperor, equally arbitrary, bloody,
> and in every respect diabolical. Wherever it has resided
> has never failed to destroy all records, memorials,
> all histories which it did not like, and to corrupt
> those it was cunning enough to preserve....."
>
> I really like how the sound of the words sneaks up on me in this passage.
On
> the first quick read, the first five lines seem like a boring list of
> socio-political jargon. But as I stare harder, I see the complex rhyming:
> soverignty/assembly/arbitrary; aristocratical/oligarchical/diabolical. The
> oddly positioned ellipse adds the interesting complication of at least one
> unfinished thought.
>
> Furthermore, I think the passsage is a thought-provoking statement in
purely
> philosophical terms, although the phrasing makes it very, very difficult
to
> unravel the "message." My interpretation is that that "unlimited
> sovereignty," or total power, is a terrible thing in all of the many forms
> in which it is manifested.  Maybe that isn't very original idea, but it's
> certainly presented in a unique way.
>
> Just my two (or three) cents,
> Brennen Lukas
>
> http://members.cox.net/blukas/frames_index.html
>
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