quote · Legacy record
“But what is error?—Answer he who can!” The Sceptic somewhat haughtily exclaimed: “Love, Hope, and Admiration—are they not Mad Fancy’s favourite vassals? Does not life Use them, full oft, as pioneers to ruin, Guides to destruction? Is it well to trust Imagination’s light when Reason’s fails, The unguarded taper where the guarded faints? —Stoop from those heights, and soberly declare What error is; and of our errors, which Doth most debase the mind; the genuine seats Of power, where are they? Who shall regulate, With truth, the scale of intellectual rank?”
“But what is error?—Answer he who can!” The Sceptic somewhat haughtily exclaimed: “Love, Hope, and Admiration—are they not Mad Fancy’s favourite vassals? Does not life Use them, full oft, as pioneers to ruin, Guides to destruction? Is it well to trust Imagination’s light when Reason’s fails, The unguarded taper where the guarded faints? —Stoop from those heights, and soberly declare What error is; and of our errors, which Doth most debase the mind; the genuine seats Of power, where are they? Who shall regulate, With truth, the scale of intellectual rank?”
Approximate author period: c. 1810 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- William Wordsworth
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1810 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1770–1850)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 200 · printed citation: Wordsworth · subject: ERROR
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.