ABSTRACT
The chapter describes the attack on the romantics and on the Lake Poets in particular. The main defect of all modern art is that it concerns itself too much with effects and too little with causes, too much with emotions and too little with what arouses them. Peacock's attack upon poetry seemed novel when he made it, though it was really of the same nature as the attacks when Sidney answered in his 'Apology for Poetry'; and Shelley's Defence is very like Sidney's Apology. Shelley's purpose was to answer utilitarian objections to poetry; and his answer has this defect, that he judges it too much himself by utilitarian standards. Shakespeare also could take delight in the conflict of good and evil in this life as being part of its necessary imperfection, and as containing all the infinite promise of that imperfection.
