The Harvard Classics in a Year: A Liberal Education in 365 Days

by Amanda Kennedy

The Economy of the epoch imagined it had organized freecompetition, while it had but organized the oppression of the weak by the strong; of labor by capital; of poverty by wealth. The Poetry of the epoch had represented individuality in its every phase; had translated in sentiment what science had theoretically demonstrated; and it had encountered the void. But as society at last discovered that the destinies of the race were not contained in a mere problem of liberty, but rather in the harmonization of liberty with association—so did poetry discover that the life it had hitherto drawn from individuality alone was doomed to perish for want of aliment; and that its future existence depended on enlarging and transforming its sphere. Both society and poetry uttered a cry of despair: the death-agony of a form of society produced the agitation we have seen constantly increasing in Europe since 1815: the death-agony of a form of poetry evoked Byron and Goethe. I believe this point of view to be the only one that can lead us to a useful and impartial appreciation of these two great spirits.

Yass!!! This! This is what it's all about. While I believe that each human, or living organism for that matter, have an individual duty to ourselves to be the best we can be. However, we must remember that we are not alone- whether we like it or not. Therefore we must work together-under the most agreeable terms possiible- all the world's problems- solved right there!