TERRORISM AS A SYSTEMATIC POLICY EMPLOYED BY A FEW TO IMPOSE THEIR OUTLOOK OR WILL THROUGH THE INTIMIDATION OF THE PASSIVE MANY, OR THE POWERFUL ANTAGONIST, IS MUCH OLDER THAN THE WORD FOR WHICH IT ORIGINATED IN THE FRENCH 18TH CENTURY REIGN OF TERROR. TERRORIST ACTIVITY CAN BE TRACED TO THE ANCIENT INITIATORY RITES OF MALE SECRET SOCIETIES WHICH INCLUDED ACTIONS INTENDED TO TERRIFY NONINITIATES OR ENEMIES AND TO THE 11TH-CENTURY ISMAILI SECT KNOWN AS THE ASSASSINS WHO KILLED THEIR LEADER'S ENEMIES. TERRORISM THROUGHOUT LITERATURE HAS CARRIED THE WEIGHT OF ENDORSEMENT AS WELL AS HORRIFIED DISAPPROVAL. VIEWPOINTS OF VARIOUS WRITERS ON TERROR ILLUMINATE THE FACT THAT 'TERRORISM IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.' IN SOME CASES, THE DEED ITSELF MAY BE SEEN AS QUESTIONABLE, WHILE THE DOER APPEARS AS AN UNWORLDLY IDEALIST GOVERNED BY LOFTY PRINCIPLES WHOSE PURITY IS DEMONSTRATED BY HIS SELF-IMMOLATION. UNITING BEAUTY WITH TERROR, MANY TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY WRITERS, POETS, AND ARTISTS, FROM WILDE TO KAFKA, SYMPATHIZE WITH OR ARE FASCINATED BY THE AESTHETICS OF TERROR, AN APPRECIATION SHARED BY SOME OF THE MOST IDEOLOGICAL TERRORIST LEADERS, SUCH AS SALOMON WITTENBERG OR VERA FIGNER. THE IDEA THAT TERRORISM CAN BE CREATIVE, AND THAT WITHOUT ITS AGONY THE NEW SOCIAL OR NATIONAL BIRTH COULD NEVER COME ABOUT, IS PERHAPS MOST CONSUMMATELY EXPRESSED IN YEATS' POEM ON THE EASTER RISING OF 1916, WHICH ECHOES SHELLEY'S 'TEMPESTUOUS LOVELINESS OF TERROR.' THROUGHOUT LITERATURE, PERSONS ADMIT TERRORISM IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES IF NOT IN OTHERS, RECOGNIZING IT AS AN ACCEPTABLE OR REGRETTABLE ASPECT OF THE SACRED RIGHT OF RESISTANCE. LITERARY REFERENCES ARE MADE WITHIN THE TEXT, BUT NO FOOTNOTES ARE PROVIDED. (MHP)