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Imperceptibly impelled by the awakening of the thinking principle — within us — we … get into the Chamber of Maiden-Thought … intoxicated with the light and the atmosphere, we see nothing but pleasant wonders, and think of delaying there for ever in delight. However among the effects this breathing is father of is that tremendous one of sharpening one's vision into the heart and nature of Man — of convincing one's nerves that the World is full of Misery and Heartbreak, Pain, Sickness and oppression — whereby This Chamber of Maiden-Thought becomes gradually darken'd and at the same time on all sides of it many doors are set open — but all dark — all leading to dark passages — We see not the balance of good and evil. We are in a Mist — We are now in that state — We feel ‘the burden of the Mystery’.
Keats's beautiful metaphor of life — that is, the life of the mind — as a ‘Mansion of Many Apartments’ describes his personal state at the end of his poetic apprenticeship, in the foreshadow of his inspired poetry of 1819. It is a prototypal parable of the infant-soul's explorations in the world of the mind, and also includes Keats's conception of a ‘general and gregarious advance of intellect’ in cultural history, in which new minds can take advantage of previous endeavours without having to rely totally on their ‘individual greatness of Mind’ for every step forward in development.2 In this context, Milton's ‘philosophy’ (conscious doctrine) is simple by comparison with Wordsworth (whom Keats also regarded as ‘a great Poet if not a Philosopher’);3 Keats saw