Quotation by William Wordsworth

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A multitude of causes unknown to former times are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor.

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth (1770–1850), British poet. Preface, Lyrical Ballads, 2nd edition (1801).

Among the causes Wordsworth perceived were, "the great national events which are daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies."

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