IN
TWO CANTOS.
By
E. E. FOOT.
PROLOGUE.—It may be considered presumptuous of the Author that he should
have dared to venture in the paths of Allegory; but since he has been
guilty of doing so, he must bear whatever chastisement may be inflicted
upon him. The Poem is intended, in the first instance, to illustrate in
a figurative manner the frailty of the human mind—or rather, the natural
propensity of the human heart—in the pursuit of pleasure; which, if not
mercifully prevented by the interposition of Divine Providence, tends to
create an insatiate desire for new and unattainable delights; fosters
an intemperate habit; promotes an incessant craving after carnal joys;
and which inevitably involves a person in the whirlpool of vice, and
ultimately leads to the destruction of the Soul. In the second instance,
to depict (according to the Author’s humble ideas) the manner of mystic
glorification—instituted by the Sovereign of the Outer World—continually
going on in the dominions of his Satanic Majesty; but which, to the
unredeemed souls of departed creatures, is the sad state of everlasting
torment, consequent to perdition. And thirdly, the Author hopes this
representation[106] of the unblissful regions may have the effect of
retarding, at least—in some degree, the appetite for the pleasures, or
he would say: vanities of this life; and of eventually averting the evil
and direful calamity, by—“Turning the hearts of the disobedient unto the
wisdom of the just.”
[106] For it scarcely can be believed that there is such a place in
reality—viz., of a tangible nature; but if so, in what direction of the
boundless Profound can it be? and where are we to look for it?
The Death, Burial, and Destruction of Bacchus.
NOTE.—The Author has taken the liberty to use the celestial deities in
this poem in the category of planets, and to give to each of them the
imaginary character of a person.