If the propositions of this Discourse are tenable, the "state of progressive collapse" is precisely that state in which alone we are warranted in considering All Things.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that a progressive collapse of ideas allows for a comprehensive understanding of all things.
Edgar Allan Poe posits that only in a state of progressive collapse can we effectively contemplate and analyze all aspects of existence. This implies that through the unraveling or questioning of established ideas and beliefs, we can gain greater insight and understanding of the world around us, ultimately leading to a more holistic perspective on life and its complexities.
In practice
In a debate about social issues, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of reevaluating existing beliefs.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.
It never got weird enough for me.
Some of the homes that have been built in the last 10 years just appall me. Why do humans need huge homes? I was born poor and I didnβt know you bought clothes at anything but the Goodwill until I went to college. Some of our mentality about what it means to have a good life is, I think, not going to help us in the next 50 years. We have to think through how to choose a meaningful life where weβre helping one another in ways that really help the Earth.
These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.
The earliest sensation at the onset of illness, often preceding the recognition of identifiable symptoms, is apprehension. Something has gone wrong, and a glimpse of mortality shifts somewhere deep in the mind. It is the most ancient of our fears.
...our eyes locked in one of those looks that sometimes happen between strangers, when both wordlessly agree that reality contains sinkholes whose depths neither can ever hope to fathom.
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