"Spirit of nature, no!
The pure diffusion of thy essence throbs
Alike in every human heart:
Thou aye erectest there
Thy throne of power unappealable:
Thou art the judge beneath whose nod,
Man's brief and frail authority
Is powerless as the wind,
That passeth idly by.
Thine the tribunal which surpasseth
The shew of human justice,
As God surpasseth man!
Who would have imagined, from such language, he could ever arrive at the startling proposition, "there is no God!" In the following stanza, p. 31, we have man unconsciously fulfilling the will of the Spirit of Nature! In p. 35, we are asked—
"———Hath Nature's soul,
That formed this world so beautiful; that spread
Earth's lap with plenty, and life's smallest chord
Strung to unchanging unison; that gave
The happy birds their dwelling in the grove;
That yielded to the wanderers of the deep
The lovely silence of the unfathom'd main;
And fill'd the meanest worm that crawls in dust
With spirit, thought, and love:—on man alone,
Partial in causeless malice, wantonly
Heaped ruin, vice, and slavery; his soul
Blasted with withering curses; placed afar
The meteor happiness, that shuns his grasp,
But serving on the frightful gulph to glare,
