f progression with lead him to the freedom of thought. Shelly had select reservations on technical culture and the possibility which ensued it in the redefining the leading social powers in everyday life.Again in the preface to The Revolt of Islam Shelley exposed his thoughts of divine power. In the preface he attacks the "erroneous and degrading idea which men have conceived a Supreme Being" but never attacks the Supreme Being itself. In The Defense of Poetry Shelley again talks of divine power and of the poet's role in discussing it. We are aware of evanescent visitations of thought and feeling . . . elevating and delighting beyond all expressions . . . It is as it were the interpenetration of a diviner nature through our own . . . Poetry redeems from decay the visitation of the divinity in man. It can be noted in many of Shelley's works that he adored ancient Greece. ". . .he worshiped the Golden Age of Greece of the past, and persuaded himself the would be a Golden Age of Greece in the future" (Gingerrich, 227). The parallels of the Golden Age of Greece with those of the time of Romanticism are numerous. Shelley's views of science, to which he owed much of his bittersweet pleasures in life, can be seen as a combination of approval and fear. Shelley's struggles with living a life of his own principles proved to be an arduous and life-taking task. Unlike his willingness to acquiesce in terms of marriage, Shelley held fast to his ominous belief of swimming. "Swimming. . .[is] a foolish precaution against death." Shelley later died at the early age of 29 as a result of drowning after his sailboat capsized....
