,university ,libraries1 ,marilynda      
,fraser-,cunliffe1 ,sankar ,viswanathan1
 and ,distributed ,proofreaders ,europe 
at http3_/_/dp4rastko4net               
,,percy ,,bysshe ,,shelley              
,,as ,a                                 
,,philosopher ,,and ,,reformer4         
,,by                                    
,,charles ,,sotheran4                   
,,including ,,an ,,original ,,sonnet    
,,by                          ,,charles 
,w4 ,,frederickson                      
,,together ,,with               ,a      
,,portrait ,,of ,,shelley ,,and ,a      
,,view ,,of ,,his ,,tomb4        ,let us
 ,see the ,truth1 whatever that may     
be4--,shelley1 #ahbb4                   
,,new ,,york4                  ,,charles
 ,p4 ,,somerby1 #aci ,,eighth ,,street4 
#ahgf4     ,entered1 according to ,act  
of ,congress1 in the year #ahgf1  by    
,charles ,sotheran1  ,in the ,office of 
the ,librarian of ,congress1 at         
,washington4         99       99        
99       99       99     ,,to  ,,charles

 ,,william ,,frederickson1  ,,of ,,new  
,,york4   ,,dear ,,friend3  ,as in      
ancient times1 none were allowed        
participation in the ,higher ,mysteries1
 without having proved their fitness for
 the reception of esoteric truth1 so in 
these days only those seem to be        
permitted to breathe the hidden essence 
in ,shelley1 who have realized the acute
 phases of spiritality4 ,among the few  
who have enjoyed these bi-fold gifts1   
none have had more fortuitous experience
 than yourself1 to whom ,i now take the 
liberty of dedicating this volume4      
,yours fraternally1  ,,charles          
,,sotheran4  ,december1 #ahge4          
,illustration3 ,,view ,,of ,,shelley',s 
,,tomb1 ,,in ,,the ,,protestant         
,,cemetery1 ,,at ,,rome4 ,,from ,a      
,,sketch ,,by ,a4,j4 ,,strutt4          
99       99       99       99       99  
,to see the sun shining on its bright   
grass1 and hear the whispering of the   
wind among the leaves of the trees1     
which have overgrown the tomb of        

,cestius1 and the soil which is stirring
 in the sun-warm earth1 and to mark the 
tombs1 mostly of women and young        
children1 who1 buried there1 we might1  
if we were to die1 desire a sleep they  
seem to sleep4--,,shelley4     ,to the  
,memory  ,,of  ,,percy ,,bysshe         
,,shelley1  ,,by  ,,charles ,w4         
,,frederickson4       ,amid the ruins of
 majestic ,rome1     ,that told the     
story of its countless years1     ,i    
stood1 and wondered by the silent dust  
,of the ,eternal ,child4 ,oh1 ,shelley6 
,to me it was not given to know thy     
face1     ,save through the mirrored    
pages of thy works2     ,those whisper'd
 words of wood and wave1 are to mine    
ears1     ,sweet as the music of ocean's
 roar1 that breaks on sheltered shores4 
,thy sterner words of ,justice1 ,love   
and ,truth1     ,will to the struggling 
soul a beacon prove1     ,and barrier   
against the waves of tyranny and craft4 
,then rest1 ,cor ,cordium1 and though   
thy life     ,was brief in point of     

years1 its memory will outlive     ,the 
column'd monuments around thy tomb4     
99       99       99       99       99  
,,new ,,york1 ,nov4 #be1 #ahge4  ,,my   
,,dear ,,sotheran3--  ,the copy of the  
lines on our ,beloved-,poet1 which you  
requested1 are entirely at your         
service--make what use of them you      
please4  ,yours1 sincerely1  ,c4,w4     
,,frederickson4     ,,percy ,,bysshe    
,,shelley1 ,,as ,a ,,philosopher ,,and  
,,reformer4  ,a ,,paper ,,read ,,before 
,,the ,,new ,,york ,,liberal ,,club1    
,,on ,,friday1 ,,august #f,,th1 #ahge4  
,let us see the ,truth1 whatever that   
may be4--,,shelley1 #ahbb4   ,mr4       
,vice-,president and ,members of the    
,liberal ,club3  ,the ,blood of the     
,martyr is the ,seed of the ,church4    
,persecution ever fails in accomplishing
 its desired ends1 and as a rule lays   
the foundations broad and deep for the  
triumph of the objects of and principles
 inculcated by the persecuted4  ,driven 
from their homes by fanatical tyranny1  

not permitted to worship as they thought
 fit1 a band of noble and earnest1 yet  
on some points mistaken men1 were1 a    
little over two hundred and fifty years 
ago1 landed on this continent from the  
good ship ,mayflower4 ,the ,pilgrim     
,fathers were1 in their native land1    
refused liberty of conscience and       
freedom of discussion2 their apparent   
loss was our gain1 for if it had not    
been for that despotism1 and the        
corresponding re-action1 which made     
those stern old zealots give to others  
many of the inalienable rights of       
liberty denied to themselves1 you and ,i
 could not to-night perhaps be allowed  
to meet face to face1 without fear1 to  
discuss metaphysical and social         
questions in their broadest aspects1    
without the civil or theological powers 
intervening to close our mouths4        
,fragile in health and frame2 of the    
purest habits in morals2 full of devoted
 generosity and universal kindness2     
glowing with ardor to attain wisdom2    

resolved at every personal sacrifice to 
do right2 burning with a desire for     
affection and sympathy1 a               
boy-under-graduate of ,oxford1 described
 as of tall1 delicate1 and fragile      
figure1 with large and lively eyes1 with
 expressive1 beautiful and feminine     
features1 with head covered with long1  
brown hair1 of gracefulness and         
simplicity of manner1 the heir to a     
title and the representation of one of  
the most ancient ,english families1     
which numbered ,sir ,philip ,sidney on  
its roll of illustrious names1 just     
sixty-four years ago1 and in this       
nineteenth century1 for no              
licentiousness1 violence1 or dishonor1  
but1 for his refusal to criminate       
himself or inculpate friends1 was1      
without trial1 expelled by learned      
divines from his university for writing 
an argumentative thesis1 which1 if it   
had been the work of some ,greek        
philosopher1 would have been hailed by  
his judges as a fine specimen of        

profound analytical abstruseness--for   
that expulsion are we the debtors to    
theological charity and tolerance for   
,queen ,mab4  ,excommunicated by a      
mercenary and abject priesthood1 cast   
off by a savage father1 the admirer of  
that gloomy theology founded by the     
murderer of ,michael ,servetus1 and     
charged by his jealous brother writers  
as one of the founders of a ,satanic    
,school1 for neither immorality of life 
nor breach of the parental relation1 but
 for heterodoxy to an expiring system of
 dogmatism1 and for acting on and       
asserting the right of man to think and 
judge for himself1 a father was to have 
two children torn from him1 in the      
sacred name of law and justice1 by the  
principal adviser of a dying madman1    
,defender of the ,faith1 by ,law        
,established1 and by us despised as the 
self-willed tyrant1 who lost ,america   
and poured out human blood like water to
 gratify his lust of power4 ,by that    
,lord ,chancellor whose cold1 impassive 

statue has a place in ,westminster      
,abbey1 where ,byron's was refused      
admittance1 and whose memory1 when that 
stone has crumbled into dust1 will live 
as one who furnished an example for     
execrable tyranny over the parental tie1
 and that ,lord ,eldon whom an outraged 
father curses in imperishable verse3    
,by thy most impious hell1 and all its  
terrors2         ,by all the grief1 the 
madness and the guilt      ,of thine    
impostures1 which must be their errors1 
,that sand on which thy crumbling power 
is built2         99       99       99  
99       99       ,by all the hate which
 checks a father's love2         ,by all
 the scorn which kills a father's care2 
,by those most impious hands that dared 
remove         ,nature's high bounds--by
 thee1 and by despair4      ,yes1 the   
despair which bids a father groan1      
,and cry1 'my children are no longer    
mine4      ,the blood within those veins
 may be mine own1         ,but1 tyrant1 
their polluted souls are thine4'      ,i

 curse thee1 though ,i hate thee not4 ,o
 slave6         ,if thou could'st quench
 the earth consuming hell      ,of which
 thou art a demon1 on thy grave         
,this curse should be a blessing4 ,fare 
thee well4  ,sad as it is to contemplate
 any human being in his agony making use
 of such language to another2 and       
however much we may sympathize with the 
poet1 yet we cannot but have inwardly a 
feeling of rejoicing2 for1 if it had not
 been for this unheard of villainy1 we  
should probably never have had the other
 magnificent poetry and prose of ,percy 
,bysshe ,shelley composed during his    
self-imposed ostracism1 and which       
furnish such glorious thoughts for the  
philosopher1 and keen trenchant weapons 
for the reformer4  ,have any of my      
hearers ever stood1 in the calm of a    
summer evening1 in ,shelley's native    
land1 listening to the lovely warble of 
the nightingale1 making earth joyful    
with its unpremeditated strains1 and the
 woods re-echo with its melody8 ,or     

gazed upwards with anxious ken towards  
the skylark careering in the blue ether1
 far above this sublunary sphere of     
gross1 sensual earth1 there straining   
after immortality1 and         ,like a  
poet hidden1           ,in the light of 
thought1         ,singing hymns         
unbidden1           ,till the world is  
wrought     ,to sympathy with hopes and 
fears1 it heeded not1  pouring out such 
bursts of song as to make one almost    
worship and credit the fables1 taught in
 childhood at our mothers' knees1 of the
 angelic symphonies of heavenly choirs4 
,such was the poetry of ,shelley2 and as
 the music of the nightingale or the    
skylark is far exceeding in excellence  
that of the other members of the        
feathered kingdom1 so does ,shelley rank
 as a poet far above all other poets1   
making even the poet of nature1 the     
great ,wordsworth himself1 confess that 
,shelley was indeed the master of       
harmonious verse in our modern          
literature4 ,it is broadly laid down in 

the ,marvinian theory that all poets are
 insane4 ,i would much like to break a  
lance with the learned ,professor of    
,psychology and ,medical ,jurisprudence2
 but as the overthrow of this dogma does
 not come within the scope of my essay1 
,i would suggest to those who may have  
been influenced by that paper to read   
,shelley's ,defence of ,poetry4 ,i shall
 quote two extracts therefrom1 each     
pertinent to my subject4 ,the first     
describes the function of the poet3     
,but poets1 or those who imagine and    
express this      indestructible order1 
are not only the authors of language    
and of music1 of the dance1 and         
architecture1 and statuary1      and    
painting2 they are the institutors of   
laws1 and the      founders of civil    
society1 and the inventors of the arts  
of      life1 and the teachers1 who draw
 into a certain propinquity      with   
the beautiful and the true1 that partial
 apprehension      of the agencies of   
the invisible world1 which is called    

religion4  ,the other is in extension of
 the same idea1 and concludes the essay3
       ,poets are the hierophants of an 
unapprehended inspiration2      the     
mirrors of the gigantic shadows which   
futurity casts      upon the present2   
the words which express what they       
understand not2 the trumpets which sing 
to battle and feel      not what they   
inspire2 the influence which is moved   
not1 but      moves4 ,poets are the     
unacknowledged legislators of the       
world4  ,i have no hesitation in saying 
that for treating ,shelley as a         
philosopher1 ,i shall be attacked with  
great positivism by the disciples,a of  
manufacturers of bran-new ,brummagen    
philosophies dug out of ,aristotelian   
and other depths to which are added new 
thoughts1 not their own4 ,the reason    
which ,david ,masson offers in his      
,recent ,british ,philosophy for placing
 ,alfred ,tennyson among the same class 
is equally applicable now3  ,footnote   
,a3 ,if ,diogenes or ,socrates1 leaving 

,high ,olympus and sweet converse with  
the immortals1 were to condescend to    
visit ,new ,york some ,friday evening4  
,i am sadly afraid they would be        
astounded at many of their would-be     
brothers in philosophy4 ,on seeing the  
travestie of ancient academies and      
groves where the schools used to        
congregate1 the dialogues consisting of 
bald atheism under sheep's clothing to  
trap the unwary1 and termed ,the        
,religion of ,humanity1 of abuse and    
personality in lieu of argument1 of     
buffoonery called wit1 of airing pet    
hobbies alien to the subject instead of 
disputating1 of shouting vulgar claptrap
 instead of rhetoric1 etc4--,i sadly    
fear these stout old ,greeks1 having    
power for the nonce1 would1 throwing    
philosophy to the dogs in a moment of   
paroxysmal indignation1 despite         
physiognomies trained to resemble their 
own1 have these fellows casked up in    
tubs without lanterns1 but with the     
appropriate snuffers1 fit emblems of    

their faiths1 and dropped far outside   
,sandy ,hook4 ,a proper finale to the   
vapid utterance made by one of these    
gentry that all ,reformers should be    
annihilated1 ,imagine ,plato or         
,epicurus offering such a suggestion4 ,o
 tempora6 ,o mores6  ,to those who are  
too strongly possessed with our common  
habit of classifying writers into kinds1
 as historians1 poets1 scientific and   
speculative writers1 and so on1 it may  
seem strange to include ,mr4 ,tennyson  
in this list4 ,but as ,i have advisedly 
referred to ,wordsworth as one of the   
representatives and powers of ,british  
philosophy in the age immediately past1 
so ,i advisedly named ,tennyson as      
succeeding him in the same character4   
,though it is not power of speculative  
reason alone that constitutes a poet1 is
 it not felt that the worth of a poet   
essentially is measured by the depth and
 amount of his speculative reason8 ,even
 popularly1 do we not speak of every    
great poet as the exponent of the spirit

 of his age8 ,what else can this mean   
than that the philosophy of his age1 its
 spirit and heart in relation to all the
 great elemental problems1 find         
expression in his verse8 ,hence ,i ought
 to include other poets in this list1   
and more particularly ,mr4 ,browning and
 ,mrs4 ,browning1 and the late ,mr4     
,clough4 ,but let the mention of ,mr4   
,tennyson suggest such other names1 and 
stand as a sufficient protest against   
our absurd habit of omitting such in a  
connection like the present4 ,as if1    
forsooth1 when a writer passed into     
verse1 he were to be abandoned as       
utterly out of calculable relationship  
to all on this side of the boundary1 and
 no account were to be taken of his     
thoughts and doings1 except in a kind of
 curious appendix at the end of the     
general register8 ,what if philosophy1  
at a certain extreme range1 and of a    
certain kind1 tends of necessity to pass
 into poesy1 and can hardly help being  
passionate and metrical8 ,if so1 might  

not the omission of poets1 purely as    
being such1 from a conspectus of the    
speculative writers of any time1 lead to
 erroneous conclusions1 by giving an    
undue prominence in the estimate of all 
such philosophizing as could most       
easily1 by its nature1 refrain from     
passionate or poetic expression8 ,thus1 
would philosophy1 or one kind of        
philosophy in comparison with another1  
have seemed to had been in such a       
diminished condition in ,britain about  
the year #ahcj1 if critics had been in  
the habit of counting ,wordsworth in the
 philosophic list as well as ,coleridge1
 ,mackintosh1 ,bentham1 and ,james      
,mill8 ,was there not more of what you  
might call ,spinozaism in ,wordsworth   
than even in ,coleridge1 who spoke more 
of ,spinoza8 ,but that hardly needs all 
this justification1 so far as ,mr4      
,tennyson is concerned1 of our reckoning
 him in the present list4 ,he that would
 exclude ,in ,memoriam 7#ahej7 and ,maud
 7#ahee7 from the conspectus of the     

philosophical literature of our time1   
has yet to learn what philosophy is4    
,whatever else ,in ,memoriam may be1 it 
is a manual for many of the latest hints
 and questions in ,british ,metaphysics4
  ,the soi-disant philosophers and      
classifiers of the sciences and arts who
 will not permit such poets as ,shelley 
and ,tennyson to be put in the category 
of philosophers1 remind one very        
forcibly of the passage in ,macbeth3    
,the earth has bubbles1 as the water    
has1 and these are of them6  ,as a poet 
and not as a poet1 as an acknowledged   
legislator for the race1 as a           
philosopher1 7a searcher after1 or lover
 of wisdom7 and as a political and      
social reformer1 it is my intention to  
treat ,shelley this evening1 and having 
finished my prefatory remarks1 will now 
regard him in those attributes which    
peculiarly should enshrine him in your  
hearts and mine4  ,the philosophical    
theories of advanced thinkers are always
 tinged with the reflex of that which   

called them forth1 or impeded them in   
their development1 consequently social  
bondage and the anarch custom being     
always present to ,shelley1 the great   
idea ever uppermost to him was that true
 happiness is only attainable in perfect
 freedom3 the atrocious system of       
fagging1 now almost extinct in the      
,english ,public ,schools and the       
tyrannical venality of ushers1 deeply   
impressed themselves on the mind of     
,shelley1 and he tells us1 in the       
beautiful lines to his wife1 of the     
remembrance of his endeavors to         
overthrow these abominations having     
failed1 of flying from the harsh and    
grating strife of tyrants and of foes   
and of the high and noble resolves which
 inspired him3         ,and then ,i     
clasp'd my hands1 and look'd around2    
,but none were near to mock my streaming
 eyes1         ,which pour'd their warm 
drops on the sunny ground4         ,so1 
without shame1 ,i spake3 ',i will be    
wise1         ,and just1 and free1 and  

mild1 if in me lies         ,such power2
 for ,i grow weary to behold            
,the selfish and the strong still       
tyrannize         ,without reproach or  
check4' ,i then controll'd     ,my      
tears2 my heart grew calm2 and ,i was   
meek and bold4         ,and from that   
hour did ,i1 with earnest thought1      
,heap knowledge from forbidden mines of 
lore2         ,yet nothing that my      
tyrants knew or taught1         ,i cared
 to learn2 but from that secret store   
,wrought linked armor for my soul1      
before         ,it might walk forth1 to 
war among mankind4         ,thus1 power 
and hope were strengthen'd more and more
         ,within me1 till there came    
upon my mind     ,a sense of loneliness1
 a thirst with which ,i pined4  ,the    
fruits born of this seed are discernible
 in every line of his works4 ,while     
having all reverence for his college    
companions1 ,aristotle1 ,aeschylus1 and 
,demosthenes1 his mind instinctively    
turns towards the deemed heretical works

 of the later ,french philosophers1     
,d',holbach1 ,condillac1 ,la ,place1    
,rousseau1 the encyclopaedists1 and     
other members of that school4 ,his      
intellect he furbishes with stores of   
logic and of chemistry1 in which his    
greatest love was to experimentalize2 of
 botany and astronomy1 in which he was  
more than a mere adept2 from ,hume1 too1
 whose essay on ,miracles1 wrong as it  
is in the main on many important points1
 was one of the alphas of his creed--and
 with deep draughts from his great      
instructor1 ,plato1 of whom he always   
spoke with the greatest adoration1 as1  
for instance1 in the preface to the     
,symposium3       ,plato is eminently   
the greatest among the ,greek           
philosophers2 and from1 or rather       
perhaps through him and      his master1
 ,socrates1 have proceeded those        
emanations of      moral and            
metaphysical knowledge1 on which a long 
series and      an incalculable variety 
of popular superstitions have           

sheltered their absurdities from the    
slow contempt of      mankind4  ,it is  
desirable to call attention to the great
 minds from whom the student of the     
early part of this century could only   
cull his knowledge--he had no ,spencer  
and no ,mill1 at whose feet to sit--he  
had in science none of the conclusions  
of ,darwin1 of ,huxley1 of ,tyndall1 of 
,murchison1 of ,lyell1 to refer to1 and 
yet ,i think1 that the careful reader   
will1 like myself1 find prefigured in   
,shelley's works much of that of which  
the world is in full possession to-day1 
and which the mystical ,occultists1     
,rosicrucians1 and ,cabalists have now1 
and have ever had1 conjoined to a       
mysterious command over the active      
hidden material and spiritual powers in 
the infinite domain of nature4  ,the    
idea of the ,supreme ,power or ,god1 as 
emanating from ,shelley1 is one of the  
most sublime to be found in the pages of
 metaphysical learning at the command of
 ordinary mortals4 ,by many it may be   

considered only a vague pantheism2 yet1 
rightly regarded in a reconciliative    
spirit1 it is of such an universal      
character as to harmonize with not only 
,deism1 ,theism and ,polytheism1 but    
even ,atheistical ,materialism4 ,listen 
to the following1 which ,i select out of
 numerous examples1 as a finger-post for
 others who seek the living springs of  
undefiled truth1 as in ,shelley3        
,whosoever is free from the             
contamination of luxury and      license
 may go forth to the fields and to the  
woods1      inhaling joyous renovation  
from the breath of ,spring1 and         
catching from the odors and sounds of   
autumn some diviner      mood of        
sweetest sadness1 which improves the    
softened heart4      ,whosoever is no   
deceiver and destroyer of his           
fellow-men--no      liar1 no flatterer1 
no murderer--may walk among his species1
      deriving1 from the communion with 
all which they contain of      beautiful
 or majestic1 some intercourse with the 

,universal      ,god4 ,whosoever has    
maintained with his own heart the       
strictest correspondence of confidence1 
who dares to examine      and to        
estimate every imagination which        
suggests itself to      his             
mind--whosoever is that which he designs
 to become1      and only aspires to    
that which the divinity of his own      
nature shall consider and approve--he   
has already seen ,god4  ,can any one    
cavil with these beautiful expressions1 
this outpouring of genius8 ,if such     
there be1 his heart and understanding   
must be sadly warped1 any appeal would  
be in vain1 for him the ,veil of ,isis  
could never be lifted4 ,after a careful 
study of ,shelley's works ,i can find   
nothing to warrant the execration       
formerly levelled at his head1 not even 
in the ,refutation of ,deism1 that      
remarkable argument in the ,socratic    
style between ,eusebes and ,theosophus  
in which1 as in all his prose works1 is 
displayed keen discernment1 logical     

acuteness1 and close analytical         
reasoning not surpassed by the greatest 
philosophers--most certainly his notions
 of ,god were not in unison with the    
current theological ideas1 and it was   
this daring rebellion against the       
popular faith1 the chief support of     
custom which caused all the trouble4 ,if
 ever he attempted to show the          
non-existence of ,deity1 his negation   
was solely directed against the gross   
human notions of a creative power1 and  
ergo a succession of finite creative    
powers ad infinitum1 or a ,personal ,god
 who has only been acknowledged in the  
popular teachings as an autocratic      
tyrant1 and as ,shelley puts it in his  
own language3       ,a venerable old    
man1 seated on a throne of clouds1 his  
breast the theatre of various passions1 
analogous to those      of humanity1 his
 will changeable and uncertain as that  
of an      earthly king4  ,not to be    
compared with the far different eternal 
and infinite4      ,spirit of ,nature6  

all sufficing power1     ,necessity6    
thou mother of the world6     ,unlike   
the ,god of human error1 thou           
,requirest no prayers or praises1 the   
caprice     ,of man's weak will belongs 
no more to thee     ,than do the        
changeful passions of his breast     ,to
 thy unvarying harmony4  ,and by this   
doctrine of necessity here apostrophised
 our philosopher instructs us in a      
lengthy statement of great clearness3   
,we are taught that there is neither    
good nor evil in the      universe1     
otherwise than as the events to which we
 apply      these epithets have relation
 to our own peculiar mode of      being4
 ,still less than with the hypothesis of
 a personal      ,god1 will the doctrine
 of necessity accord with the belief    
of a future state of punishment4 ,god   
made man such as he is1      and then   
damned him for being so2 for to say that
 ,god was      the author of all good1  
and man the author of all evil1 is      
to say that one man made a straight line

 and a crooked one1      and another man
 made the incongruity4  ,for you to     
better understand the exact position in 
which ,shelley placed himself1 it is    
elsewhere thus admirably expressed3     
,the thoughts which the word ',god'     
suggest to the human mind      are      
susceptible of as many variations as    
human minds      themselves4 ,the       
,stoic1 the ,platonist1 and the         
,epicurean1 the      ,polytheist1 the   
,dualist1 and the ,trinitarian1 differ  
entirely      in their conceptions of   
its meaning4 ,they agree only in        
considering it the most awful and most  
venerable of names1      as a common    
term to express all of mystery1 or      
majesty1 or      power1 which the       
invisible world contains4 ,and not only 
has      every sect distinct conceptions
 of the application of this      name1  
but scarcely two individuals of the same
 sect1 which      exercise in any degree
 the freedom of their judgment1 or      
yield themselves with any candor of     

feeling to the      influences of the   
visible world1 find perfect coincidence 
of      opinion to exist between        
them4444 ,god is neither the ,jupiter   
who sends rain upon the earth2 nor the  
,venus through whom      all living     
things are produced2 nor the ,vulcan who
 presides      over the terrestrial     
element of fire2 nor the ,vesta that    
preserves the light which is enshrined  
in the sun1 the moon1      and the      
stars4 ,he is neither the ,proteus nor  
the ,pan of the      material world4    
,but the word ',god' unites all the     
attributes      which these             
denominations contain and is the        
7inter-point7      and over-ruling      
spirit of all the energy and wisdom     
included      within the circle of      
existing things4  ,of these attributes  
generally supposed to appertain to      
,deity1 he writes3       ,there is no   
attribute of ,god which is not either   
borrowed      from the passions and     
powers of the human mind1 or which is   

not a negation4 ,omniscience1           
omnipotence1 omnipresence1              
infinity1 immutability1                 
incomprehensibility1 and                
immateriality1 are all words which      
designate properties and      powers    
peculiar to organized beings1 with the  
addition of      negations1 by which the
 idea of limitation is excluded4  ,there
 is no other writer1 ,i think1 who seems
 to grasp so clearly as ,shelley the    
everlasting and immutable laws of       
,naturismus1 or who believed so fully in
 the divine mission of man1 and the     
religion of humanity4 ,ever soaring into
 the ideal1 philosophizing by the aid of
 his emotional impulses1 ,shelley       
possessed1 like all true ,hermetists and
 ,theosophists imbued with mysticism1 a 
wonderful power of continued abstraction
 in the contemplation of the ,supreme   
,power4 ,his mentality1 described by one
 of his critics as essentially ,greek1  
simple1 not complex1 imaginative rather 
than fanciful1 abstract not concrete1   

intellectual not emotional1 contributed 
its share to his belief in a pantheistic
 philosophy1 making him find ,supreme   
,intelligence permeated through the     
whole of infinite and interminable      
,nature4 ,regarding the universe as an  
abstract whole1 he endorsed the         
fundamental metaphysics of ,plato1 and  
believed that passing phenomena are     
types of eternal archetypes1 embodiments
 of eternal realities4  ,even if despite
 of my assertions to the contrary1 there
 be those who still insist on the       
atheism of ,shelley1 they had better    
restudy the elementary axioms and learn 
to think--to those who imagine that     
there is but little difference between  
atheism and pantheism to the discredit  
of either1 ,i would remind them that    
,bacon in his ,moral ,essays1 lays down 
as a principle that3--       ,atheism   
leaves to man reason1 philosophy1       
nature1 piety1      laws1 reputation and
 everything that can serve to conduct   
him      to virtue2 but superstition    

destroys all these1 and erects          
itself into a tyranny over the          
understandings of men2 hence            
atheism never disturbs the government1  
but renders man more      clear-sighted1
 since he sees nothing beyond the       
boundaries of      the present life4    
,in making use of this quotation do not 
let it be presumed that ,i wish to      
endorse ,materialism2 my desire is to   
add the authority of a great mind like  
that of the ,elizabethan philosopher1 to
 the fact that superstition is so       
hateful that even blank1 bald atheism is
 preferable thereto4 ,i should state    
that ,bacon in extension of the extract 
,i have quoted1 speaking of this        
soul-destroying incubus on humanity     
observes that3--,a little philosophy    
inclineth men's minds to atheism2 but   
depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds
 to religion4  ,no amount of mere       
reasoning1 or argument a priori or a    
posteriori1 can prove the existence of  
the ,most ,high or destroy the same2 in 

every breast is implanted an innate     
belief in ,deity1 the inner             
consciousness of the race1 by the ,vox  
,dei speaking within1 has throughout all
 time1 the past and the present revelled
 in this sublimity1 and will continue to
 do so in the future1 notwithstanding   
the insane and insensate efforts of     
pseudo scientists or iconoclastic       
materialists--the brain and the heart   
must act in harmony to consolidate a    
pure philosophy1 for mere intellect     
alone is an untrustworthy guide4 ,by    
logic ,whately proved apparently        
indisputably the non-existence of       
,napoleon ,bonaparte1 at the time when  
there was no doubt in any reasonable    
mind that he was actually living in the 
flesh1 by the same means one can        
disprove one's own being1 and so by this
 unsafe method have ,i frequently heard 
the ,god idea very learnedly overthrown4
 ,on such occasions ,i have simply taken
 the words of the logicians for what all
 their idle wind is worth--,,zero4  ,the

 ,immortality of the ,soul has ever been
 a subject of primary importance to all 
philosophers--the last dying efforts of 
,socrates1 noblest of ,greece's sons1 as
 ,plato has shown us in the ,phaedo1    
were expended in a discussion on the    
pros and cons of an argument in favor of
 a future life4 ,many of the highest    
intelligences since his day have been   
endeavoring to prove this satisfactorily
 without the aid of theological         
revelation4 ,all mankind1 from sage to  
peasant1 from the most learned ,brahmin 
on the banks of the ,ganges to the      
untutored red ,indian beside the        
,mississippi1 has the question1 is there
 an existence after death1 been         
approached with the most earnest hopes  
to solve as one of the greatest         
mysteries4 ,shelley devoted a vast      
amount of energy to the elucidation of  
this occult1 yet overt1 truth2 and in   
one place remarks3       ,the desire to 
be forever as we are2 the reluctance to 
a      violent and unexperienced change1

 which is common to all2      the       
animate and inanimate combinations of   
the universe1 is1      indeed1 the      
secret persuasion which has 7among other
      reasons7 given birth to a belief  
in a future state4  ,full well he knew1 
that independent of matter1 there was a 
power1 which has been denominated by    
some1 ,spirit2 by others1 simply mind1  
force1 or intelligence2 and by          
metaphysical philosophers1 soul4 ,if he 
approached the subject logically1 as in 
his essay1 ,on a ,future ,state1 the    
ignis fatuus seems to escape him and be 
lost2 if poetically1 with the innate    
voice which speaks within us all1 ever  
present4  ,after close reasoning in the 
essay ,i have referred to1 he arrived at
 the conclusion that even       if it be
 proved that the world is ruled by a    
divine power1      no inference can     
necessarily be drawn from that          
circumstance      in favor of a future  
state4  and that       if a future state
 be clearly proved1 does it follow that 

it      will be a state of punishment or
 reward8  ,then in extension of the same
 argument he urges3       ,sleep        
suspends many of the faculties of the   
vital and      intellectual             
principle--drunkenness and disease will 
either      temporarily or permanently  
derange them4 ,madness1 or      idiotcy1
 may utterly extinguish the most        
excellent and      delicate of these    
powers4 ,in old age the mind gradually  
withers2 and as it grew and strengthened
 with the body1 so      does it with the
 body sink into decrepitude4  ,he also  
considered that3       ,it is probable  
that what we call thought is not an     
actual      being1 but no more than the 
relation between certain parts      of  
that infinitely varied mass1 of which   
the rest of the      universe is        
composed1 and which ceases to exist so  
soon as      those parts change their   
position with regard to each other4     
,thus color1 and sound1 and taste1 and  
odor1 exist only      relatively4  ,even

 granted that mind or thought be a part 
of1 or in fact1 the soul1 then he asks  
in what manner it could be made a proof 
of its imperishability1 as all that we  
see or know perishes and is changed4    
,here then comes the query1 ,have we    
existed before birth8 ,a difficult      
possibility to conceive of individual   
intelligence and if unprovable against  
the theory of existence after death4    
,he then winds up the whole by thinking 
that it is impossible that1       we    
should continue to exist after death in 
some mode      totally inconceivable to 
us at present4  and that only those who 
desire to be persuaded are persuaded4   
,this is but a rough outline of some of 
the principal features of his           
considerations on soul immortality from 
a logical basis1 and which1 after all1  
only constitute an argument1 to which1  
and the thoughts presented therein1 he  
did not necessarily bind himself4 ,there
 can be little doubt1 independently of  
what ,i have quoted1 that he did not    

believe in a future state as popularly  
accepted4 ,trelawney asked him on one   
occasion3 ,do you believe in the        
immortality of the spirit8 ,shelley's   
answer was unmistakable1 ,certainly not2
 how can ,i8 ,we know nothing2 we have  
no evidence4,b  ,footnote ,b3 ,those who
 desire to fully investigate ,shelley's 
ideas on the immortality of the soul1   
and the existence1 or nature1 of ,deity1
 will be amply repaid by reading ,w4,m4 
,rossetti's admirable memoir of the     
poet1 appended to the last two-volume   
,london edition of his works4  ,when we 
take ,shelley from a poetical           
standpoint1 or with the divine truism   
implanted by the ,ain-soph clamoring    
within to his intelligence for          
expression1 how confident he appears of 
a hereafter1 as in the ,adonais1 or in  
the following extract from an           
unpublished letter to his father-in-law1
 ,william ,godwin1 the property of my   
friend ,c4,w4 ,frederickson1 of ,new    
,york1 one of the most enthusiastic     

admirers of ,shelley1 and who has been  
often known to pay more than the weight 
in gold for ,shelleyana3       ,with how
 many garlands we can beautify the tomb4
 ,if we      begin betimes1 we can learn
 to make the prospect of the      grave 
the most seductive of human visions4 ,by
 little and      little we hive therein 
all the most pleasing of our dreams4    
,surely1 if any spot in the world be    
sacred1 it is that in      which grief  
ceases1 and for which1 if the voice     
within our      hearts mocks us not with
 an everlasting lie1 we spring upon     
the untiring wings of a pangless and    
seraphic life--those      whom we love  
around us--our nature1 universal        
intelligence1      our atmosphere1      
eternal love4  ,how exquisite these     
remarks and his description of a        
disembodied spirit3                     
it stood     ,all beautiful in naked    
purity1     ,the perfect semblance of   
its bodily frame1     ,instinct with    
inexpressible beauty and grace1         

,each stain of earthliness     ,had     
passed away1 it re-assumed     ,its     
native dignity1 and stood               
,immortal amid ruin4  ,it must appear   
impossible to any rational mind1 that1  
with the full evidence before their     
eyes1 materialists can attempt to claim 
,shelley as endorsing their doctrines1  
for even in the ,queen ,mab1 which has  
been considered by those not            
understanding it as a most atheistical  
poem1 he speaks of--                    
the remembrance     ,with which the     
happy spirit contemplates     ,its      
well-spent pilgrimage on earth4         
,positive dogmatists are tyrannically   
endeavoring to crush the belief in a    
soul1 that ,all which makes the-present 
life happy on earth1 the hope of our    
heritage in a future state4 ,to them the
 fact that the race from the dawn of    
history1 and through the ages has knelt 
down in abnegation before this          
inscrutable truth is nothing4 ,this     
glorious belief evolved from the        

primaeval ,cabala1 taught in ancient    
,egypt1 found contemporaneously in      
,india1 enunciated by scholarly ,rabbis1
 ever present before the ,chaldaean and 
,assyrian ,magi1 and laid down as axioms
 in the philosophical schools of ,greece
 and ,rome1 not only to be discovered a 
fundamental in the ,egyptian1 the       
,hebraistic1 the ,brahminical1 the      
,buddhistic1 the ,vedic1 but also in all
 the sacred books of every nation1 and  
handed down and perpetuated to these    
days as a sacred legacy from the past1  
by both ,mohammed and ,christ4 ,this1   
the great co-mystery of all the ancient 
mysteries1 shall remain ever present    
through all futurity like the existing  
order of the ,universe1 or rather1 of   
the part of it known to us1 to use the  
phraseology of ,john ,stuart ,mill4     
,nations may rise and fall1 theologies  
may flourish and decay1 but this        
glorious and divine inheritance shall   
never pass away4 ,let pseudo-scientists 
avail themselves of stale and exploded  

arguments1 and urge that there is no    
invisible world1 and therefore no       
immortality for man1 but honest         
scientists1 like ,professors ,tait and  
,stewart1 in the ,unseen ,universe1 will
 agree with the ,illuminati3 in the     
position assigned by ,swedenborg1 and by
 the ,spiritualists1 according to which 
they look upon the invisible world not  
as something absolutely distinct from   
the visible universe1 and absolutely    
unconnected with it1 as is frequently   
thought to be the case1 but rather as a 
universe that has some bond of union    
with the present2 and like ,tyndall1    
will be obliged in abject humility to   
acknowledge1 unlike the initiated       
occultist1 that3 ,when we endeavor to   
pass from the phenomena of physics to   
those of thought1 we meet a problem     
which transcends any conceivable        
expansion of the powers we now possess4 
,we may think over the subject again and
 again--it eludes all intellectual      
presentation--we stand at length face to

 face with the incomprehensible4        
,shelley was ever calling attention to  
the fact that either from ignorance or  
the casuistical sophistries of          
mal-interested teachers who have        
distorted the divine pristine truths for
 their own base ends1 emanated          
superstition1 the taint of all it looked
 upon2 and with no unsparing hand he    
flagellated the professors of the       
numerous false faiths1 bastardized from 
their original purity1 which have in    
their decay1 darkened the earth1 and    
with all the force of his powerful pen1 
mightier than any sword1 he ridiculed   
these gross theologies existant among   
men1 as in the following3               
,barbarous and uncivilized nations have 
uniformly adored1      under various    
names1 a ,god of which themselves were  
the      model3 revengeful1             
blood-thirsty1 groveling and capricious4
      ,the idol of a savage is a demon  
that delights in carnage4      ,the     
steam of slaughter1 the dissonance of   

groans1 the flames      of a desolated  
land1 are the offerings which he deems  
acceptable1 and his innumerable votaries
 throughout the      world have made it 
a point of duty to worship him to his   
taste4 ,the ,phoenicians1 the ,druids   
and the ,mexicans have      immolated   
hundreds at the shrines of their        
divinity1 and the      high and holy    
name of ,god has been in all ages the   
watchword      of the most unsparing    
massacres1 the sanction of the most     
atrocious perfidies4  ,of the treatment 
,judaism1 the foster mother of          
,christianity1 received at the poet's   
hands1 ,i will now recite two examples4 
,to ,moses1 the ,jehovah of the ,hebrews
 is thus made to speak3     ,from an    
eternity of idleness     ,i1 ,god1      
awoke2 in seven days' toil made earth   
,from nothing2 rested1 and created man2 
,i placed him in a paradise1 and there  
,planted the tree of evil1 so that he   
,might eat and perish1 and my soul      
procure     ,wherewith to sate its      

malice1 and to turn     ,even like a    
heartless conqueror of the earth1       
,all misery to my fame4 ,the race of men
     ,chosen to my honor1 with impunity 
,may sate the lusts ,i planted in their 
hearts4     ,here ,i command thee hence 
to lead them on1     ,until1 with       
harden'd feet1 their conquering troops  
,wade on the promised soil through      
woman's blood4     ,and make my name be 
dreaded through the land1     ,yet      
ever-burning flame and ceaseless woe    
,shall be the doom of their eternal     
souls1     ,with every soul on this     
ungrateful earth1     ,virtuous or      
vicious1 weak or strong--even all       
,shall perish to fulfill the blind      
revenge     7,which you to men call     
justice7 of their ,god4  ,in another    
place ,shelley is equally descriptive of
 the early stages of ,jewish history1   
and makes the following observations on 
the building of the ,temple of          
,jerusalem1 which rearing high its      
thousand golden domes to heaven1 exposed

 its glory to the face of day3     ,oh6 
many a widow1 many an orphan cursed     
,the building of that fane2 and many a  
father1     ,worn out with toil and     
slavery1 implored     ,the poor man's   
,god to sweep it from the earth1        
,and spare his children the detested    
task     ,of piling stone on stone1 and 
poisoning          ,the choicest days of
 life1          ,to soothe a dotard's   
vanity4     ,there an inhuman and       
uncultured race     ,howl'd hideous     
praises to their demon--,god2     ,they 
rushed to war1 tore from the mother's   
womb     ,the unborn child--old age and 
infancy     ,promiscuous perished2 their
 victorious arms     ,left not a soul to
 breathe4 ,oh6 they were fiends1        
,and what was he who taught them that   
the ,god     ,of nature and benevolence 
had given     ,a special sanction to the
 trade of blood8     ,his name and      
theirs are fading1 and the tales     ,of
 this barbarian nation1 which imposture 
,recites till terror credits1 are       

pursuing          ,itself into          
forgetfulness4  ,with the enlightenment 
of the present century in every         
department of knowledge1 so has a       
corresponding degree of advancement been
 thrown on the science of history1 which
 ,shelley only partially apprehended4   
,an enormous amount of new information  
is now to be gleaned from the writings  
of ,ewald1 ,fergusson1 ,bunsen1         
,deutsch1 ,max ,muller1 ,baring-,gould1 
,stanley1 and other scholars of         
,orientation1 which shows that the      
,hebrews1 like every other nation1      
passed through the various phases of    
,nomadism and ,pastoralism1 to that of  
offensive and defensive war4 ,the same  
as other races1 they came through the   
usual steps in religious                
progress--,fetishism1 ,astrolatry1      
,polytheism and ,monotheism4 ,during    
phases in their history they            
participated in the various forms of    
tree and serpent1 ,phallic1 or          
fire-worship4 ,they had1 as the ,talmud1

 ,targums1 and the ,old ,testament show1
 a knowledge of the ,egyptian or        
,chaldaic account of the creation and   
fall1 the latter still to be seen on the
 walls of the temple of ,osiris at      
,philae4 ,they had much knowledge of the
 ,cabala1 through their great prophet   
,moses1 who was learned in all the      
wisdom of the ,egyptians1 and1 like     
,pythagoras1 had been initiated into    
their mysteries1 and who both imparted  
the knowledge in part to their          
compatriots1 on which they both founded 
systems4  ,a great traveler1 and most   
learned modern writer on ,occultism1 who
 claims1 on good grounds1 to have been  
received into the ancient branch of the 
,rosie ,cross in the far ,east1 ,madame 
,helena ,p4 de ,blavatsky1 imparts the  
following particulars3 ,the first       
,cabala in which a mortal man ever dared
 to explain the greatest mysteries of   
the universe1 and show the keys to those
 masked doors in the ramparts of        
,nature1 through which no mortal can    

ever pass without rousing dread sentries
 never seen upon this side her wall1 was
 compiled by a certain ,simeon ,ben     
,jochai1 who lived at the time of the   
second temple's destruction4 ,only about
 thirty years after the death of this   
renowned ,cabalist1 his ,,mss4 and      
written explanations1 which had till    
then remained in his possession as a    
most precious secret1 were used by his  
son1 ,rabbi ,elizzar1 and other learned 
men4 ,making a compilation of the whole1
 they so produced the famous work called
 ,zohar 7,god's splendor74 ,this book   
proved an inexhaustible mine for all the
 subsequent ,cabalists1 their source of 
information and knowledge1 and all more 
recent and genuine ,cabalas were all    
more or less carefully copied from the  
former4 ,before that1 all the mysterious
 doctrines had come down in an unbroken 
line of merely oral tradition as far    
back as man could trace himself on      
earth4 ,they were scrupulously and      
jealously guarded by the wise men of    

,chaldea1 ,india1 ,persia and ,egypt1   
and passed from one initiate to another1
 in the same purity of form as when     
handed down to the first man by the     
angels1 students of ,god's great        
,theosophic seminary4  ,many ,free      
,thinkers1 in their anxiety to crush    
everything belonging to ,christianity1  
often forget that1 in throwing aside the
 ,hebrew records as utterly worthless1  
they are getting rid of one of the most 
ancient literatures in the world4 ,they 
also do not remember the history of a   
peculiar nation1 strangely preserved    
amid the fluctuations of time1 the      
purity and excellence of the ,book of   
,job1 the ,psalms1 and others which ,i  
could name4 ,they cast unmerited        
contempt on these compilations1 when1 at
 the same time1 they will throw         
themselves1 with almost ,fetish         
reverence1 and apparently rapt          
adoration1 before the ,institutes of    
,menu1 the ,bhagvat-,geeta1 the morals  
of ,chaoung-,fou-,tszee1 the            

,zend-,avesta1 the ,rig-,veda1 the      
,oracles of ,zoroaster1 the ,book of the
 ,dead1 the ,puranas1 the ,shastras1 and
 the like4  ,well may the ,sons of      
,israel be proud of their ancient       
descent4 ,they suffered through         
,christian persecutions                 
uncomplainingly--the torture1 the rack1 
the auto-da-fe--and yet they bowed their
 heads in submission to the will of     
,adonai4 ,to-day they stand upright and 
united1 as in olden times4 ,they have   
gained the victory over the false       
disciples of the ,nazarene1 who1 in days
 gone by1 forgot their erudition1 their 
medical knowledge1 their commercial     
activity1 and general culture4          
,pre-eminent in wealth and learning1    
they are found on the lecture-platform1 
in the fields of literature and science1
 in the councils of rulers1 on the      
exchange1 in the                        
legislature--everywhere4 ,when ,greece  
and ,rome were in their infancy1 this   
extraordinary people was in middle age2 

and when our ,saxon forefathers were in 
the lowest stage of barbarism1 they were
 in a state of high civilization2 and   
to-day1 although scattered1 they show a 
compact front1 firmly knit in the bonds 
of brotherly love1 a model for          
,christians4 ,the great reform movement 
now agitating ,judaism1 as well as every
 other species of political and         
metaphysical thought1 will eventually   
aid to consolidate all the races into   
one race--,humanity4  ,in order to make 
,christians prejudge ,shelley it has    
been the wont of theologians1 as usual  
in fighting their antagonists1 to cry up
 a false issue1 and to make their       
followers believe that he was rather    
more than a mere hater of ,jesus        
,christ1 and of the teachings of that   
religious and social reformer1 in fact1 
that he was an infidel of infidels4 ,to 
have no misconceptions--for it has been 
stated that ,shelley changed his views  
on ,christ1 which after ten years'      
careful study of his writings1 ,i       

utterly deny1 it should be thoroughly   
understood that he regarded this pious  
,israelite in a duismal aspect--as      
,christ the ,man1 and as ,christ the    
,god4 ,i must not1 while here1 forget   
that many advanced metaphysicians agree 
that they cannot satisfactorily prove   
the historical existence of ,christ1 and
 that they have to winnow through a vast
 amount of chaff to get at his presumed 
philosophy1 and the facts in his life1  
which like that of ,buddha is wrapped up
 in traditional fable4  ,for the ,man   
,christ1 ,jesus of ,nazareth1 the       
carpenter's carnate son1 the mystical   
,essene and occultist1 ,shelley exceeded
 in love and reverence many of the most 
earnest ,christians1 and in no          
theological writings can there be       
discovered such beautiful sentiments    
concerning the ,the ,regenerator of the 
,world1 and the ,meek ,reformer1 of whom
 he speaks as contemplating that        
mysterious principle called ,god1 the   
fundamental of all good1 and the source 

of all happiness1 as every true poet and
 philosopher must have done4 ,it is     
impossible to turn to any page of his   
works1 where1 in speaking of ,christ1 he
 fails in this--he expatiates with as   
great fervor as ,renan1 ,seeley1 or     
,strauss1 on ,christ's exposing with    
earnest eloquence1 like all true members
 of the brotherhood of ,illuminati1 to  
which he belonged1 the panic fears and  
hateful superstitions which have        
enslaved mankind for ages1 and extols   
,his extraordinary genius1 the wide and 
rapid effects of his      unexampled    
doctrines1 his invincible gentleness and
      benignity1 7and7 the devoted love 
borne to him by his      adherents4     
,for the ,god ,christ1 as depicted by   
the ,sacerdotal order1 he had the       
greatest contempt4 ,it was impossible   
for a mind constituted like his to      
tamely rest contented with the          
incredible story forced on mankind's    
intelligence1 that the ,supreme ,power  
could or would for any wise purpose be  

transformed into a dove1 and re-enact   
the mythical part of ,jupiter with a    
,christian ,leda1 the ,jew carpenter's  
wife1 ,mary1 under the disguise of a    
bird4 ,such a story and the theory on   
which it rests ,shelley summarised as   
follows3       ,according to this book1 
,god created ,satan1 who1 instigated    
by the impulses of his nature1 contended
 with the ,omnipotent      for the      
throne of ,heaven4 ,after a contest for 
the empire1 in      which ,god was      
victorious1 ,satan was thrust into a pit
 of      burning sulphur4 ,on man's     
creation1 ,god placed within his        
reach a tree whose fruit he forbade him 
to taste1 on pain of      death2        
permitting ,satan1 at the same time1 to 
employ all his      artifice to persuade
 this innocent and wondering creature to
      transgress the fatal prohibition4 
,the first man yielded to this          
temptation2 and to satisfy      ,divine 
,justice the whole of his posterity must
 have been      eternally burned in     

hell1 if ,god had not sent his only ,son
      on earth1 to save those few whose 
salvation had been      foreseen and    
determined before the creation of the   
world4  ,the hero of this fabulous      
episode1 beneath which a great truth    
lies hidden1 the ,christian ,ahrimanes  
or ,typhon1 the ,devil1 as painted by   
,milton1 he considered a moral being1   
far superior to the ,god depicted by the
 same author1 and who1 under the form of
 the second person of the ,christian    
,trinity1 ,shelley tells us of coming   
humbly1      ,veiling his horrible      
,god-head in the shape     ,of man1     
scorn'd by the world1 his name unheard1 
,save by the rabble of his native town1 
,even as a parish demagogue4 ,he led    
,the crowd2 he taught them justice1     
truth1 and peace1     ,in semblance2 but
 he lit within their souls     ,the     
quenchless flame of zeal1 and blest the 
sword     ,he brought on earth to       
satiate with the blood     ,of truth and
 freedom his malignant soul4            

,elsewhere1 in extension of the same1 he
 puts the accompanying words in the     
mouth of ,god the ,father1 to illustrate
 the doctrine of ,christian ,atonement3 
,i will beget a son1 and he shall bear  
,the sins of all the world2 he shall    
arise     ,in an unnoticed corner of the
 earth1     ,and he shall die upon a    
cross1 and purge     ,the universal     
crime2 so that the few     ,on whom my  
grace descends1 those who are marked    
,as vessels to the honor of their ,god1 
,may credit this strange sacrifice1 and 
save     ,their souls alive4 ,millions  
shall live and die1     ,who ne'er shall
 call upon their ,saviour's name1       
,but unredeem'd go to the gaping grave2 
,thousands shall deem it an old woman's 
tale1     ,such as the nurses frighten  
babes withal2     ,these1 in a gulf of  
anguish an ,i of flame1     ,shall curse
 their reprobation endlessly1     ,yet  
tenfold pangs shall force them to avow1 
,even on their beds of torment1 where   
they howl1     ,my honor and the justice

 of their doom4     ,what then avail    
their virtuous deeds1 their thoughts    
,of purity1 with radiant genius bright1 
,or lit with human reason's earthly ray8
     ,many are call'd but few will ,i   
elect4  ,the popular faith of ,europe   
and ,america1 which experience          
demonstrates to this age has1 even as a 
means of reforming humanity1 been a     
complete failure1 ,shelley correctly    
believed1 had the same human foundation 
and origin as that of other revealed    
theologies--he sums up the proofs on    
which ,christianity rests1 miracles1    
prophecies1 and martyrdoms1 with great  
clearness2 proves the absurdity of the  
doctrine of miracles1 as taught by      
,christian writers1 shows the falseness 
of the so-called prophecies1 even       
granting the utmost warping of the real 
meaning of the ,old ,testament texts for
 ,christian purposes1 which he asserted 
were to be compared unfavorably with the
 oracles of ,delphos1 and points out    
that the ,mohammedan dying for his      

prophet1 or the ,hindoo immolating      
himself under the wheels of ,juggernaut 
could be cited equally as a proof of the
 divine origin of their faiths1 as the  
reputed martyrdoms of ,christians could 
of theirs4  ,the development of         
,christianity1 which was really founded 
by ,paul1 was a subject to which        
,shelley devoted much attention--he     
tells us that       ,the same means that
 have supported every other belief1 have
      supported ,christianity4 ,war1    
imprisonment1 assassination1      and   
falsehood2 deeds of unexampled and      
incomparable      atrocity1 have made it
 what it is4 ,the blood shed by the     
votaries of the ,god of mercy and peace1
 since the      establishment of his    
religion1 would probably suffice to     
drown all other sectaries now on the    
habitable globe4 ,we      derive from   
our ancestors a faith thus fostered and 
supported2 we quarrel1 persecute1 and   
hate1 for its      maintenance4 ,even   
under a government which1 while it      

infringes the very right of thought and 
speech1 boasts of      permitting the   
liberty of the press1 a man is pilloried
 and      imprisoned because he is a    
deist1 and no one raises his      voice 
in the indignation of outraged humanity4
  ,the numerical majority of            
,christians--the ,greek and ,roman      
,catholic--are as much pagans as their  
ancestors1 the ancient ,greeks and      
,romans were exoterically4 ,and why8    
,simply because on the break-up of the  
,roman empire--like ,mohammedanism      
afterwards1 which was the natural       
reformation and revolution from         
,christian image-worship--,christianity1
 in a natural succession1 and by        
fortuitous circumstances1 took          
possession of the executive1 and placed 
on the seat of power a ,christian       
,byzantine emperor in lieu of a pagan4  
,basilicas1 dedicated to ,jupiter1      
,mercury1 ,adonis1 ,venus and the       
deities of ,high ,olympus1 were         
re-dedicated to ,god the ,father1 ,god  

the ,son1 ,god the ,holy ,ghost1 the    
,virgin ,mary1 and the other saints 7or 
gods7 of the ,christian ,pantheon4      
,statues therein were rechristened1 and 
the sacrificial altars were simply      
transferred for the use of the          
eucharistical sacrifice4 ,the vestal    
virgins became nuns of the church2 the  
,sacerdotes1 her priests2 the mysteries 
of ,isis1 her ,agapae4 ,her incense1 her
 pictures1 her image-worship1 her holy  
water1 her processions1 and her         
prodigies1 too1 all came from the same  
source4 ,thus were the socialistic and  
communistic teachings1 based on the     
,philoic-,essenism of the ,reformer of  
,nazareth1 paganized1 prostituted1 and  
entirely misrepresented4 ,his life and  
labors were transformed from the natural
 into what was considered by the vulgar 
the supernatural1 and all those who     
dared--like ,hypatia1 with thousands of 
other pious and noble ancients--to deny 
his divinity1 were sacrificed to this   
new ,moloch1 set up by parricide        

,constantines1 or adulterers of the     
,theodosius caste4 ,thus through the    
ages1 has the race suffered under such  
murder1 rapine1 and lust1 as never      
disgraced tolerant ancient heathendom in
 the interests of paganism1 even as     
recently happened in ,central           
,america1,c and would happen everywhere 
else1 if priestcraft had the power to   
act without restraint1 so that1 as      
,shelley says1      ,earth groans       
beneath religion's iron age1      ,and  
priests dare babble of a ,god of        
,peace--      ,even whilst their hands  
are red with guiltless blood1           
,murdering the while1 uprooting every   
germ      ,of truth1 exterminating1     
spoiling all1      ,making the earth a  
slaughter-house4  ,footnote ,c3 ,i refer
 to the abominable outrages perpetrated 
a few months ago at ,san ,miguel1       
,panama1 where popular preachers were   
forced by the ecclesiastical powers to  
foment rebellion by violently denouncing
 the ,state authorities1 who had refused

 to allow a pastoral of the ,christian  
,bishop of ,san ,salvador1 hostile to   
the laws1 to be read in the churches4   
,having been put into a state of frenzy 
by one ,palacios1 a canon of the        
cathedral1 a fanatic mob revolted1      
liberated prisoners1 murdered generals  
in command1 massacred numbers of the    
best citizens1 set fire to the city with
 kerosene1 and destroyed over one       
million dollars' worth of property4     
,after this theological revolt had been 
put down1 passports1 couched in the     
following terms1 and sealed with the    
seal of the bishopric1 were found on the
 bodies of some of these holy murderers2
  ,,peter4--,open to the bearer the     
gates of heaven1 who has died for       
religion4              7,signed71       
,,george1 ,bishop of ,san ,salvador4    
,similar attempts were made by the      
,christian hierarchy in ,brazil against 
the ,masonic body2 but1 fortunately1 the
 emperor1 a liberal and an enlightened  
savant1 crushed the attempt under foot1 

and unmistakably proved1 to the         
satisfaction of humanity1 that he was   
not to be transformed into a nineteenth 
century ,charles the ,ninth or ,philip  
the ,second1 and act the cat's paw for  
,pio ,nono1 ex-carbonari and recusant   
mason1 to wreak his vengeance on the    
brethren whom he had betrayed4  ,to     
those who will look down the ages1 ,i   
would ask1 is this picture overdrawn8   
and further1 to remember that in        
,shelley's own words3       ,eleven     
millions of men1 women and children have
 been killed      in battle1 butchered  
in their sleep1 burned to death at      
public festivals of sacrifice1 poisoned1
 tortured1      assassinated and        
pillaged in the spirit of the religion  
of      peace1 and for the glory of the 
most merciful ,god4  ,is it amazing that
 he should have written such a highly   
wrought and admirably sustained tragedy 
as the ,cenci1 founded on facts1 and    
which has been deemed by competent      
critics the first since                 

,shakspeare--that he should have brought
 forward1 with vivid delineation1 the   
crimes of the priesthood--and that he   
should have made us remember the terrors
 of the bloody wars on heretics and     
heathen1 in words such as these3        
,yes6 ,i have seen ,god's worshippers   
unsheathe      ,the sword of ,his       
revenge1 when grace descended1          
,confirming all unnatural impulses1     
,to sanctify their desolating deeds2    
,and frantic priests wave the ill-omen'd
 cross      ,o'er the unhappy earth2    
then shone the sun      ,on showers of  
gore from the upflashing steel      ,of 
safe assassination1 and all crime       
,made stingless by the spirits of the   
,lord4      ,and blood-red rainbows     
canopied the land4      ,spirit6 no year
 of my eventful being      ,has pass'd  
unstain'd by crime and misery1          
,which flows from ,god's own faith4     
,i've marked his slaves      ,with      
tongues whose lies are venomous1 beguile
      ,the insensate mob1 and whilst one

 hand was red      ,with murder1 feign  
to stretch the other out      ,for      
brotherhood and peace2 and that they now
      ,babble of love and mercy1 whilst 
their deeds      ,are marked with all   
the narrowness and crime      ,that     
freedom's young arm dare not yet        
chastise8  ,protestant ,christians may  
urge that all this is not ,christianity2
 if it be not--for it is the record of  
the ,church--,i would ask1 what is8 and 
where shall we find the history of      
,christianity for the fifteen centuries 
before ,luther's time8 and where1       
to-day8 ,their predecessors plucked the 
plumage from the dying bird of          
mythology1 as they1 themselves1 have    
robbed the liberal orchard of all its   
choicest fruits and palmed them off as  
of their own growth4 ,protestants would 
not1 ,i dare say1 now countenance the   
persecutions of the past1 but yet1 ,i   
would tell them that their              
,protestantism has been a great mistake2
 and that1 at this moment1 there is no  

unity among the opposers of             
,catholicism1 who are split into a      
thousand sects1 wrangling for           
superiority1 like wolves over offal2 and
 that their churches are gradually      
converging toward ,rationalism on the   
one hand1 and ,catholic ,sacerdotalism  
on the other2 in regard to which last1  
the ,historical ,roman ,church--the only
 ,christian body which presents a solid 
phalanx--one must not be too            
iconoclastic1 remembering that1 in the  
monastic houses and great ecclesiastical
 libraries we have had conserved for us1
 although1 perchance by accident1 the   
records of all the philosophy1 all the  
jurisprudence1 all the polity1 all the  
literature1 and all the civilization of 
ancient ,greece and ,rome1 that remained
 from the ,alexandrian library and      
pre-,christian times--the mediaeval     
clerics were the great conservators of  
knowledge1 which we inherit directly    
from ,europe2 and we should be1         
therefore1 grateful to them equally with

 ,mohammedanism1 from which we received1
 through the ,crusaders and the ,moors1 
the basis of nearly all science and     
luxury1 from ,asia4 ,there were1        
undoubtedly1 many bad popes1 men as bad 
as the incestuous1 and1 according to the
 recent dogma1 the infallible ,alexander
 ,borgia2 priests who are not all vile1 
but many nobler than their system1      
acknowledge this with regret1 and among 
whom there are some whom ,i can         
reverence1 such as ,john ,henry ,newman1
 for instance1 whose life would         
favorably compare with that of ,shelley1
 or any liberal4 ,there have been popes1
 also1 whose lives have been as pure1 as
 disinterested1 and as virtuous as that 
of any stoic or epicurean4 ,we owe much 
to ,sixtus the ,fifth1 founder of the   
,vatican ,library1 and would-be         
regenerator of order in his temporal    
dominions2 to ,leo the ,great1 whose    
patronage of the arts has sent us down  
the wondrous statuary1 painting1 and    
works of genius1 which are the          

admiration of the world2 and to         
,hildebrand1 who brought together1 in   
one harmonious whole1 the struggling    
elements of ,european society4 ,it is   
well to note1 too1 in order that ,i may 
not be misunderstood1 that ,catholicism 
is better than savage ,fetishism1 and   
,rationalism in degree superior to      
either2 and1 further1 that ,liberalism  
should only war with evil principles1   
and not with men whom they are generally
 the exponents of ignorantly1 and to the
 best of their knowledge4 ,comtism,d    
acknowledges the fact that ,christianity
 was not simply a mere advance on1 but  
where we shall only find the            
civilization of ,europe as it was during
 mediaeval times1 and recognizes this   
most strongly1 by placing over fifty of 
these great geniuses and luminaries1    
popes1 bishops1 and saints of the       
,catholic ,church1 in the ,comtist      
,calendar1 under the sixth and seventh  
months dedicated to ,st4 ,paul or       
,catholicism1 and ,charlemagne or       

,feudal ,civilization respectively4 ,we 
should thank the followers of ,comte for
 thus bringing to our notice what we    
might be liable to occasionally forget  
in our bigotry and frequent             
over-anxiety4  ,footnote ,d3 ,comtism1  
or ,positivism is that casuistical      
system of modern ,atheism1 founded by   
,auguste ,comte1 the ,ignatius ,loyola  
of ,materialism1 and which that learned 
pantarchical madman strung together in  
,esquirol's lunatic asylum4 ,it is an   
insidious philosophy1 full of           
,jesuistry1 and teaches a soi-disant    
,religion which is ,ir-religion1 a      
pseudo-,god1 which has no conceivable   
existence1 and an impossible immortality
 of the soul1 ignoring a future state4  
,the present crusade of ,comtism in our 
midst1 with false colors flying can be  
justly compared to that of ,st4         
,francois ,xavier in ,hindostan4  ,in   
popularizing terms wrongly1 lies much   
mischief4 ,if the misapplied term       
,christianity1 signify the current      

notion1 zeal for truth1 the good of     
mankind1 and active virtue or           
,christism1 the reputed precepts of     
,christ1 then ,shelley taught that      
ethical system1 and the so-called       
,christian world which persecuted him1  
the opposite4  ,no one believed1 better 
than ,shelley1 in the necessity of      
continuity1 and that all theological    
systems are a portion of the development
 of ,humanity4  ,it should likewise be  
remembered1 that even in the grossest   
superstition1 as in the highest belief1 
the underlying aspiration1 veiled       
perhaps1 under some beautiful myth1 is a
 straining after the pure and the good1 
and1 as ,shelley puts it3       ,all    
original religions are allegorical1 or  
susceptible of      allegory1 and1 like 
,janus1 have a double face of false and 
true4  ,it should also be considered1   
that it is better not to interfere with 
the faith of the ignorant1 but let them 
remain in an exoteric condition1 until  
they are properly developed by          

sufficient education and consequent     
intelligence4 ,it is just as much the   
duty of advanced thinkers not to tamper 
with the beliefs of men who are in an   
early stage of progress1 as it is not to
 put a flaming torch in the possession  
of a lunatic1 or a razor in the hands of
 a child4  ,shelley1 in his philosophy1 
accepted all this1 with the full        
consciousness that in the end truth     
would prevail--he yearned for the time  
when priest-led slaves would            
,cease to proclaim that man             
,inherits vice and misery1 when force   
,and falsehood hang even o'er the       
cradled babe1     ,stifling with rudest 
grasp all natural good1  and for that   
epoch when the ,mohammedan1 the ,jew1   
the ,christian1 the ,deist1 and the     
,atheist will live together in one      
community1 equally sharing the benefits 
which arise from its associations1 and  
united in the bonds of charity and      
brotherly love4  ,with ,shelley we can  
turn with delight to the gospels of the 

future1 as of the ancient past2 and the 
ramifications of the ,trinity of a truly
 ,rational ,religion1 ,mature1 ,science1
 and ,art1 where we have1 instead of    
idle prayers1 addressed to gross        
material idols1 or the impossible       
entities hitherto depicted in           
theological systems1 a feeling of real  
satisfaction in learning how to live    
rather than to die1 and in practicing   
virtue and benevolence for their own    
sakes1 than for improbable rewards in   
the unsatisfactory hereafter1 enunciated
 from the theological platform4  ,like a
 true religionist1 ,shelley tells us    
that aspirations to ,madre ,natura1 like
 the following1 should be poured out in 
silent1 grateful communion with         
,omnipresence1 and not in temples made  
by hands3          ,spirit of ,nature6  
here6     ,in this interminable         
wilderness     ,of worlds1 at whose     
immensity         ,even soaring fancy   
staggers1         ,here is thy fitting  
temple4             ,yet not the        

slightest leaf     ,that quivers to the 
passing breeze         ,is less instinct
 with thee2         ,yet not the meanest
 worm     ,that lurks in graves1 and    
fattens on the dead         ,less shares
 thy eternal breath4         ,spirit of 
,nature6 thou6     ,imperishable as this
 scene1     ,here is thy fitting temple4
  ,from such a soul-inspiring altar     
should praises like these be raised1 and
 with what sacred feeling would the pure
 worshipper revel where spirits live and
 dream--where all that is sweet in      
sound1 or pure in vision floats on the  
air1 or passes dimly before the sight1  
for as the late ,professor ,j4,g4 ,hoyt1
 in his essay on ,shelley beautifully   
points out--,to him everything was ,god1
 and ,god was everything4 ,every place  
was peopled with forms of beauty and    
animated with living intelligences4     
,hills and valleys1 forests and         
fountains1 were each thronged with      
presiding deities--bright effluences    
from the ,diving that stirred within1   

and shone above the whole4  ,in leaving 
the first portion of my paper1 ,i will  
make the following quotation from a     
remarkable article on ,shelley in the   
pages of the ,national ,magazine1 which 
all minds unshackled1 and free from     
prejudice1 must acknowledge to be       
correct in the main1 and which admirably
 sums up his efforts in metaphysical    
philosophy4 ,our attention is called to 
the fact that we discover in all        
,shelley's writings a freer and purer   
development of what is best and noblest 
in ourselves4 ,we are taught in it to   
love all living and lifeless things1    
with which in the material and moral    
universe we are surrounded--we are      
taught to love the wisdom and goodness  
and majesty of the ,almighty1 for we are
 taught to love the universe1 his symbol
 and visible exponent4 ,god has given   
two books for the study and instruction 
of mankind2 the book of revelation and  
the book of nature4 ,in one at least of 
these was ,shelley deeply versed1 and in

 this one he has given admirable lessons
 to his fellow-men4 ,throughout his     
writings1 every thought and every       
feeling is subdued and chastened by a   
spirit of unutterable and boundless     
love4 ,the poet meets us on the common  
ground of a disinterested humanity1 and 
he teaches us to hold an earnest faith  
in the worth and the intrinsic          
,godliness of the soul4 ,he tells us--he
 makes us feel that there is nothing    
higher than human hope1 nothing deeper  
than the human heart2 he exhorts us to  
labor devotedly in the great and good   
work of the advancement of human virtue 
and happiness1 and stimulates us        
,to love and hear--to hope till hope    
creates     ,from its own wreck the     
thing it contemplates4  ,it is observed 
by ,shelley that       ,the exertions of
 ,locke1 ,hume1 ,gibbon1 ,voltaire1     
,rousseau1      and their disciples in  
favor of oppressed and deluded          
humanity1 are entitled to the gratitude 
of mankind4 ,yet it      is easy to     

calculate the degree of moral and       
intellectual      improvement which the 
world would have exhibited1 had they    
never lived4 ,a little more nonsense    
would have been talked      for a       
century or two2 and perhaps a few more  
men1 women and      children burnt as   
heretics4 ,we might not at this moment  
have      been congratulating each other
 on the abolition of the                
,inquisition in ,spain4  ,the vast      
impetus1 which these extraordinary      
geniuses gave to freedom in metaphysical
 strongholds1 led to a corresponding    
degree of liberty in the political and  
social relations4  ,shelley was not one 
who                            beheld   
the woe     ,in which mankind was bound1
 and deem'd that fate     ,which made   
them abject1 would preserve them so4    
but on the contrary was aware of the    
progressive character of the race1 and  
threw himself with all his heart and    
soul into the cause of ,republicanism1  
and never slackened in his efforts till 

death took him from his work4 ,his      
noblest endeavors were directed toward  
the cause of suffering humanity1 crushed
 under the weight of despotism2 and his 
tuneful lyre was ever struck in behalf  
of the ,goddess of ,freedom1 to whom1 in
 that soul inspiring ,ode to ,liberty1  
he offers chaplets of the most glorious 
verse to rouse the nations from their   
apathy4 ,he has given us his reflections
 on the ,english ,revolution1 when      
,cromwell crushed royalty under his feet
 in the person of the tyrant ,charles   
,stuart1 and which1 notwithstanding1    
rose again to befoul1 in the profligacy 
and debauchery of the second ,carolian  
epoch2 on the ,french ,revolution1 when 
an intelligent people drove out a brood 
of vampires1 who had drained the blood  
of ,france too long1 to be replaced by  
atrocious demagogues1 hateful           
priest-ridden ,bourbons and a ,napoleon 
,bonaparte1 the wholesale ,jaffa        
poisoner1 on whose death ,shelley wrote 
lines pregnant with republican feelings3

      ,i hated thee1 fallen tyrant6 ,i  
did groan     ,to think that a most     
ambitious slave1     ,like thou1        
shouldst dance and revel on the grave   
,of ,liberty4 ,thou mightst have built  
thy throne     ,where it had stood even 
now2 thou didst prefer     ,a frail and 
bloody pomp1 which time has swept       
,in fragments towards oblivion4         
,massacre1     ,for this ,i pray'd would
 on thy sleep have crept1     ,treason  
and ,slavery1 ,rapine1 ,fear and ,lust1 
,and stifled thee1 their minister4 ,i   
know     ,too late1 since thou and      
,france are in the dust1     ,that      
virtue owns a more eternal foe     ,than
 force or fraud2 old custom1 legal      
crime1     ,and bloody ,faith1 the      
foulest birth of time4  ,with full      
knowledge of all this1 he hopefully     
looked with loving eyes toward this side
 of the ,atlantic1 to your magnificent  
constitution and model ,republic1 built 
on the consolidated masonic bases of    
,liberty1 ,equality1 and ,fraternity1 as

 did also the mass of my compatriots1   
who1 suffering under a more intolerant  
despotism1 and unable to help           
themselves1 had no hand or voice in the 
attempted tyranny1 from which your      
forefathers properly rebelled one       
hundred years ago4  ,in ,hellas we find 
,shelley advocating the cause of        
,greece1 and it is believed1 that that  
poem assisted his friend ,byron in the  
determination to wield his sword in the 
cause of ,grecian ,liberty4 ,the ,revolt
 of ,islam1 his most mystical work1 next
 to his early effort1 ,st4 ,irvyne1 or  
the ,rosicrucian1 is full of the most   
majestic and sympathetic thoughts1 and  
underlying its weirdness we have all    
those elements which essentially compose
 a poem in the cause of a liberal and   
comprehensive morality1 and with the    
view of kindling in the bosom of his    
readers a virtuous enthusiasm for those 
doctrines of liberty and justice1 that  
faith and hope in something good1 which 
neither violence1 nor misrepresentation1

 nor prejudice1 nor the continual       
presence and pressure of evil1 can ever 
totally extinguish among mankind4  ,can 
we wonder that ,shelley could be else   
than ,republican when he regarded what  
,thackeray afterward summed up with     
biting irony1 the record of the reigning
 house of ,great ,britain1 the mad      
,guelph ,defenders of the ,christian    
,faith7871 the results of whose labors  
have been corroborated by ,greville and 
recent writers8  ,to what a line of     
monarchs1 was ,shelley called upon to   
give allegiance and prostrate himself   
before1 and can we be astonished that he
 thus describes the state these         
abominable ,hanoverians had ,england in 
#ahai3      ,an old1 mad1 blind1        
despised and dying king1--              
,princes the dregs of their dull race   
who flow     ,through public scorn1 mud 
from a muddy spring1--        ,rulers   
who neither see1 nor feel1 nor know1    
,but leech-like to their fainting       
country cling1        ,till they drop   

blind in blood without a blow1--     ,a 
people starved and stabbed in unfilled  
field1--        ,an army which          
liberticide and prey     ,make as a     
two-edged sword to all who wield1--     
,golden and sanguine laws which tempt   
and slay--     ,religion ,christless1   
,godless1 a book sealed1--     ,a       
,senate--time's worst statute           
unrepealed1--        ,are graves from   
which a glorious phantom may     ,burst 
to illumine our tempestuous day8  ,to   
aid ,republicanism1 he threw himself    
with fervor into the cause of the       
unhappy ,caroline of ,brunswick2 and on 
her account he wrote ,god ,save the     
,queen1 in imitation of the ,british    
national anthem1 and the satirical piece
 entitled ,swellfoot1 the ,tyrant4 ,in  
the following words he attacked the     
prime minister1 ,lord ,castleragh1 whose
 reactionary counsels were transforming 
,england into a state analogous to that 
of ,russia to-day3         ,then trample
 and dance1 thou oppressor1         ,for

 thy victim is no redressor6            
,thou art sole lord and possessor       
,of her corpses1 and clods and          
abortions--they pave         ,thy path  
to a grave4  ,for the ,lord ,chancellor1
 ,eldon1 his hatred was intense2 for1 in
 addition to the crime of robbing him of
 his children1 this occupant of the     
wool-sack1 had made the seat of justice 
an appanage for his lust of wealth and  
power4 ,i have already quoted some      
verses on this renowned lawyer1 and will
 now present you with two others bearing
 on the same subject3     ,next came    
,fraud1 and he had on1     ,like ,lord  
,eldon1 an ermine gown2     ,his big    
tears 7for he wept well7     ,turned to 
mill stones as they fell2     ,and the  
little children1 who     ,round his feet
 played to and fro1     ,thinking every 
tear a gem1     ,had their brains       
knocked out by them4  ,in ,queen ,mab1  
,shelley has presented us with an       
unmistakable portraiture of the ,first  
,gentleman in ,europe2 and in the       

following lines1 which ,i have taken    
from this poem1 ,i have chosen two      
extracts1 descriptive of the origin of  
political despotism1 and the reason of  
its continuance3     ,whence1 thinkest  
thou1 kings and parasites arose8        
,whence that unnatural line of drones1  
who heap     ,toil and unvanquishable   
penury     ,on those who build their    
palaces1 and bring     ,their daily     
bread8 ,from vice1 black1 loathsome     
vice1     ,from rapine1 madness1        
treachery and wrong2     ,from all that 
genders misery1 and makes     ,of earth 
this thorny wilderness2 from lust1      
,revenge and murder4         99       99
       99       99       99     ,nature 
rejects the monarch1 not the man2       
,the subject1 not the citizen2 for kings
     ,and subjects1 mutual foes1 forever
 play     ,a losing game into each      
other's hands1     ,whose stakes are    
vice and misery4 ,the man     ,of       
virtuous soul commands not nor obeys4   
,power1 like a desolating pestilence1   

,pollutes whate'er it touches2 and      
obedience1     ,bane of all genius1     
virtue1 freedom1 truth1     ,makes      
slaves of men1 and of the human frame   
,a mechanized automaton4  ,shelley      
believed in reformation1 not revolution2
 and in the ,revolt of ,islam and his   
,irish pamphlets1 we find him advocating
 a bloodless revolution1 except where   
force was used1 and then force for      
force1 if compromise were hopeless4 ,his
 idea was ever the foundation of        
political systems founded on that of    
this country1 or on the ancient ,greek  
,republic4 ,he says3       ,the study of
 modern history is the study of kings1  
financiers1 statesmen1 and priests4 ,the
 history of ancient      ,greece is the 
study of legislators1 philosophers1 and 
poets2      it is the history of men    
compared with the history of            
titles4 ,what the ,greeks were was a    
reality1 not a promise4      ,and what  
we are and hope to be is derived1 as it 
were1 from      the influence of these  

glorious generations4  ,hoping almost   
against hope for the regeneration of his
 country1 he submitted to the people of 
,england a proposal for putting to the  
vote the great reform question1 which   
was filling the public mind2 but he was 
conscious that in the then unprepared   
state of public knowledge and feeling1  
universal suffrage was fraught with     
peril1 and remarks that although        
,a pure republic may be shown1 by       
inferences the most      obvious and    
irresistible1 to be that system of      
social order      the fittest to produce
 the happiness and promote the genuine  
eminence of man4 ,yet nothing can less  
consist with reason1      or afford     
smaller hopes of any beneficial issue1  
than the      plan which should abolish 
the regal and the aristocratical        
branches of our constitution1 before the
 public mind1      through many         
gradations of improvement1 shall have   
arrived      at the maturity which shall
 disregard these symbols of its         

childhood4  ,an essay has come down to  
us 7unhappily unfinished71 in which he  
argues in favor of ,government by       
,juries4 ,it is but a fragment2 and yet 
it shows us that his mind was ever in   
search of the right solution of the     
question of proper legislation for the  
masses4 ,william ,pitt1 with enemies on 
every side1 publicly acknowledged the   
extraordinary genius which impelled the 
,american revolution1 and admired the   
constitution of this country1 as well as
 the masterly character of the          
,declaration of ,independence4 ,in      
unstinted praise does he speak of the   
learning and remarkable public spirit of
 the signers4 ,with equal praise1 ,i am 
confident1 everyone must eulogize the   
,declaration of ,rights1 compiled by    
,shelley1 which he put before his       
countrymen sixty-three years ago4       
,therein he has given the whole of his  
conception of the correct theory of     
government1 and it cannot fail to be    
read by advanced minds with feelings of 

genuine pleasure4  ,the race has        
suffered through its long martyrdom with
 the horrors of war4 ,one tyrant after  
another1 to aid his accursed ambition or
 revenge his spite upon a brother       
monarch1 has cursed the unhappy earth   
and humanity with the terrors of        
long-continued devastation and          
bloodshed4 ,with burning pen has        
,shelley depicted war in its most       
hideous aspects1 and by most beautiful  
comparisons has he shown us the         
sublimity of peace4 ,he points out1 that
     ,war is the statesman's game1 the  
priest's delight1     ,the lawyer's     
jest1 the hired assassin's trade4  ,he  
repudiates the notion that man1 if left 
free1 would wantonly heap ruin1 vice1 or
 shivery1 or curse his species with the 
withering blight of war2 and he shows us
 how     ,kings1 priests1 and statesmen 
blast the human flower1     ,even in its
 tender bud2 their influence darts      
,like subtle poison through the         
bloodless veins     ,of desolate        

society4 ,the child1     ,ere he can    
lisp his mother's sacred name1          
,swells with the unnatural pride of     
crime1 and lifts     ,his baby sword    
even in a hero's mood4     ,this infant 
arm becomes the bloodiest scourge       
,of devastated earth3 whilst specious   
names1     ,learnt in soft childhood's  
unsuspecting hour1     ,serve as the    
sophisms with which manhood dims        
,bright reason's ray1 and sanctifies the
 sword     ,upraised to shed a brother's
 innocent blood4  ,in other places he   
seems to prophetically point out what   
this generation appears to              
comprehend--the judiciousness of        
arbitration--which in the future will be
 the true panacea for this frightful    
affliction of humanity4  ,to the current
 ,irish questions ,shelley devoted much 
of his time1 and took up his residence  
in ,dublin1 to aid the independence of  
,ireland1 which might1 under proper     
treatment1 have been made one of the    
brightest spots in the ,british         

,dominions2 but the inhabitants of      
which1 owing to centuries of ,english   
misrule and oppression1 had1 in certain 
parts1 fallen into a condition not much 
superior to that of those of ,central   
,africa4 ,when we contemplate what      
,ireland was before the ,norman and     
,saxon had set their feet there1 the    
most prejudiced antagonist of the       
,celtic race cannot but be astonished at
 the picture presented to us after their
 usurpation4 ,when ,saxondom was in a   
state of barbarism1 this branch of the  
,celts was civilized4 ,aldfred1 king of 
the ,northumbrian ,saxons1 has given us 
the experiences of a ,saxon in ,ireland 
over a thousand years ago4 ,in a poem of
 his own composing1 he tells us that he 
found noble1 prosperous sages1 learning1
 wisdom1 welcome1 and protection1 kings1
 queens1 and royal bards1 in every      
species of poetry well skilled4         
,happiness1 comfort1 and pleasure1 the  
people famed for justice1 hospitality1  
lasting vigor1 fame1 and long blooming  

beauty1 hereditary vigor--and the       
monarch concludes his really curious    
account by saying3     ,i found in the  
fair1 surfaced ,leinster1     ,from     
,dublin to ,slewmargy1     ,long-living 
men1 health1 prosperity1     ,bravery1  
hardihood and traffic4      ,i found    
from ,ara to ,gle1     ,in the rich     
country of ,ossory1     ,sweet fruit1   
strict jurisdiction1     ,men of truth1 
chess-playing4      ,i found in the     
great fortress of ,meath1     ,valor1   
hospitality1 and truth1     ,bravery1   
purity1 and mirth--     ,the protection 
of all ,ireland4      ,i found the aged 
of strict morals1     ,the historians   
recording truth--     ,each good1 each  
benefit that ,i have sung1     ,in      
,ireland ,i have seen4  ,such is the    
statement of ,king ,aldfred1 and the    
,venerable ,bede informs us that in     
,ireland1 ,saxons and other foreigners  
were hospitably received1 entertained   
and educated1 furnished with books1     
etc41 all gratuitously4  ,up to the     

middle of the sixteenth century1 ,i     
find1 after careful study in the        
,leabhar-,gabhala1 the ,annals of the   
,four ,masters1 of ,clonmacnoise1 of    
,loch ,ce1 and other historical records1
 the same continued apparent prosperity1
 but after the ,english took possession 
of the larger portion of the country1   
only the records of anarchy1 despotism1 
and misery4 ,before the ,reformation1 or
 so long as the ,english settlers       
remained within the pale1 ,ireland had  
been as happy as ,ultramontanism would  
allow1 but from the accession of        
,elizabeth and the consequent attempted 
enforcement of a new theology1 against  
the wishes of the people1 a fearful     
succession of despotism is revealed4 ,to
 force ,protestantism on the ,irish1    
,catholicism was put down by the most   
stringent laws--the torture chamber     
never empty1 the scaffold rarely free   
from executions1 the seaports closed1   
and manufactures forbidden to be        
exported2 black laws of a most          

iniquitous character1 exceeding in      
ingenuity the devices of ,tilly or      
,torquemada1 placed on the statute book4
 ,the punishment for being a recusant   
,catholic1 or ,papist1 was death1 and it
 is a known fact that one ,protestant   
commander1 ,sir ,william ,cole1 of      
,fermanagh1 made his soldiers massacre  
in a short period seven thousand of the 
vulgar sort1 as ,borlase informs us4    
,elsewhere the ,english behaved in the  
same manner1 and on the authority of    
,bishop ,moran it is asserted that the  
,puritans of the ,north shot down       
,catholics as wild beasts1 and made it  
their business to imbrue their swords in
 the hearts' blood of the male children4
 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,s4,c4 ,hall1 in their  
valuable work on ,ireland1 state that   
the possessors of the whole province of 
,ulster were driven out under pain of   
mortal punishment from their homes and  
lands1 without roof over their heads1 to
 be pent up in the most barren portion  
of ,connaught1 where to pass a certain  

boundary line was instant death without 
trial1 and where it was commonly said1  
,there is not wood enough to hang a man1
 water enough to drown him1 nor earth   
enough to bury him4 ,one hundred        
thousand ,catholics were sold as slaves 
to the ,west ,indian and ,north         
,american planters by the public        
authority of the ,cromwellian           
government4 ,such was the way these     
,christians showed their love for their 
fellow ,christians1 and can it be       
wondered that ever since than there has 
been one continual succession of        
uprisings in that most unhappy country8 
,as the sinew of ,ireland's people in   
this country were driven by necessity1  
fleeing from the terrors of starvation  
and insufficient existence at home1 so  
were the best of the race in the two    
previous centuries necessitated to fly  
to the ,european continent1 where we    
find them enrolled1 for instance1 in the
 service of the ,king of ,france1 and   
having revenge on their oppressors on   

the field of ,fontenoy4 ,elsewhere in   
every country of ,europe do we discover 
them or their descendants in the front  
ranks1 and at the helm of affairs--in   
,spain1 ,o',donnell and ,prim2 in       
,france1 ,mac ,mahon and ,lally         
,tollendal2 in ,austria1 ,o',taafe and  
,maguire4  ,when ,shelley arrived in    
,dublin in #ahab1 he soon found himself 
joined to the body of the ,repeal party1
 which was endeavoring to obtain back   
the parliament which had been stolen    
from them by ,british gold1 less than a 
quarter of a century before1 and to have
 the ,catholic ,emancipation ,bill made 
law4 ,he published two remarkable1      
political pamphlets1 in those days the  
only mode by which a statesman could    
appeal to the people1 in which it may be
 noticed how well he could write in a   
popular style1 to effectually serve a   
purpose4 ,they also prove his enthusiasm
 for the liberty of discussion1 and how1
 although he was always willing to treat
 on politics alone1 he was preoccupied  

with metaphysical questions which       
continually crop out4  ,in the first1   
which he called ,an ,address to the     
,irish ,people1 and wrote during the    
first week of his residence in ,ireland1
 he commences by eulogizing the ,irish1 
explains to them that all religions are 
good which make men good1 and shows     
that1 being neither ,protestant nor     
,catholic1 he can offer the olive branch
 to each4 ,he then points out the weak  
spots in each other's conduct in the    
past1 the necessity of toleration1 and  
the crime of persecution--how different 
this was to what ,christ taught6  ,he   
endeavors to prove that arms should not 
be used--that the ,french ,revolution1  
although undertaken with the best       
intentions1 ended badly because force   
was employed4 ,he recommends sobriety1  
regularity and thought2 for the ,irish  
not to appeal to bloodshed1 but to      
agitate determinedly for ,catholic      
emancipation and repeal1 which should be
 ensured through the use of moral       

persuasion4 ,and concluding with an     
appeal to ,catholic and ,protestant to  
bear with each other1 using mildness and
 benevolence1 and to mutually organize a
 society which       ,shall serve as a  
bond to its members for the purpose of  
virtue1 happiness1 liberty and wisdom by
 the means of      intellectual         
opposition to grievances1  he winds up  
by saying3       ,adieu1 my friends6    
,may every sun that shines on your green
      island see the annihilation of an 
abuse1 and the birth of an      embryon 
of melioration6 ,your own hearts--may   
they become the      shrines of purity  
and freedom1 and never may smoke to the 
,mammon of ,unrighteousness ascend from 
the polluted altar of      their        
devotion4  ,in a postscript to this     
pamphlet1 he urges       ,a plan of     
amendment and regeneration in the moral 
and      political state of society1 on 
a comprehensive and      systematic     
philanthropy which shall be sure though 
slow in      its projects2 and as it is 

without the rapidity and danger      of 
revolution1 so will it be devoid of the 
time-servingness      of temporizing    
reform2  and quotes ,lafayette3       ,a
 name endeared by its peerless bearer to
 every lover of      the human race1    
',for a nation to love liberty1 it is   
sufficient that she knows it to be free2
 it is sufficient      that she wills   
it4'  ,his other ,dublin pamphlet1 ,a   
,proposal for an ,association of        
,philanthropists1 consists of remarks of
 the same character as the former1 but  
he gives a summary of the ,french       
,revolution1 which he endeavors to clear
 from the slurs which had been cast     
thereon4 ,the information has come down 
to us through one of ,shelley's         
biographers1 that he spoke at several   
meetings in ,dublin4 ,at the one in     
which he made his first appearance in   
public he aroused a large assembly to   
enthusiasm by his fervid eloquence1 and 
yet1 notwithstanding all his efforts1   
his toleration unfortunately became the 

great stumbling-block in his attempts on
 behalf of ,ireland1 for we learn that  
at another meeting of patriots3         
,so much ill-will against the           
,protestants was shown1 that            
,shelley was provoked to remark that the
 ,protestants were                      
fellow-,christians and fellow-subjects1 
and were therefore      entitled to     
equal rights and equal toleration with  
the      ,papists4 ,of course1 he was   
forthwith interrupted by savage         
yells4 ,a fierce uproar ensued1 and the 
denouncer of bigotry      was compelled 
to be silent4 ,at the same meeting1 and 
afterward1 he was even threatened with  
personal violence1      and the police  
suggested to him the propriety of       
quitting      the country4  ,by many it 
has been said that ,shelley was         
unsuccessful in his self-imposed task1  
but he was simply before his time1 and  
no wonder1 when we remember the         
condition of ,ireland at the time of his
 visit4  ,we know to-day that much of   

what he demanded has been conceded to   
,ireland by liberal ,english            
governments4 ,an alien ,church has been 
disestablished2 public education1       
,catholic emancipation1 and a good deal 
more1 has been given4 ,in the late      
repeal movement1 the young ,ireland     
party1 the ,fenian organization1 and the
 present ,home ,rule agitation1 we find1
 as ,shelley wished1 ,catholic and      
,protestant working arm in arm1 their   
colors being an admixture of orange and 
green--a healthy sign4  ,those who      
dislike this noble people--for the name 
is legion of those who are fond of      
shouting ,no ,irish need apply--,i would
 recommend to think calmly over ,irish  
history1 to remember the frightful      
outrages put upon this generous1        
warm-hearted1 and impulsive race for    
centuries1 and read up ,froude1         
,mitchell1 ,goldwin-,smith1 ,mc,gee1    
,moran1 and other ,irish historians4    
,we know what the ,irish are capable of1
 and that in ,ireland1 as here1 after a 

generation or two of education1 the old 
theological belief becomes by a gradual 
process less and less strong4  ,on      
,september #fth1 #ahai1 a red letter day
 was added to the ,english calendar1    
through the slaughter by cavalry of a   
number of unarmed men1 who were         
agitating1 peaceably1 for the rights of 
labor4 ,this is known to posterity as   
the ,peterloo ,massacre1 and happened in
 ,manchester1 on the site of the present
 superb ,free ,trade ,hall1 erected by  
the ,free ,traders to commemorate the   
ultimate triumph of their cause over the
 capitalists1 who1 in the manufacturing 
districts1 were1 until a few years back1
 always aided by the military in putting
 down strikes or demands for increase of
 wages4  ,at the time of this outrage   
,shelley was in ,italy2 in consequence  
of it his attention was concentrated    
more than previously on the labor       
question1 and he immediately composed   
half a dozen in spiriting poems1 full of
 the fire of genius2 in one of which he 

calls1 with a voice of thunder1 to the  
,i4     ,men of ,england6 wherefore     
plough     ,for the lords who lay ye    
low8     ,wherefore weave1 with toil and
 care1     ,the rich robes your tyrants 
wear8                        ,,ii4      
,wherefore feed and clothe and save1    
,from the cradle to the grave1          
,those ungrateful drones who would      
,drain your sweat--nay1 drink your      
blood8                       ,,iii4     
,wherefore1 bees of ,england1 forge     
,many a weapon1 chain1 and scourge1     
,that these stingless drones may spoil  
,the forced produce of your toil8       
,,iv4      ,have ye leisure1 comfort1   
calm1     ,shelter1 food1 love's gentle 
balm8     ,or what is't ye buy so dear  
,with your pain1 and with your fear8    
,v4      ,the seed ye sow1 another      
reaps2     ,the wealth ye find another  
keeps2     ,the robes ye weave1 another 
wears2     ,the arms ye forge1 another  
bears4                        ,,vi4     
,sow seed--but let no tyrant reap2      

,find wealth--let no impostor heap2     
,weave robes--let not the idle wear2    
,forge arms--in your defence to bear4   
,,vii4      ,shrink to your cellars1    
holes1 and cells2     ,in halls ye deck1
 another dwells4     ,why shake the     
chains ye wrought8 ,ye see     ,the     
steel ye tempered1 glance on ye6        
,,viii4      ,with plough and spade1 and
 hoe and loom1     ,trace your grave1   
and build your tomb1     ,and weave your
 winding sheet1 till fair     ,england  
be your sepulchre6  ,by far the finest  
composition brought out by this occasion
 was the ,masque of ,anarchy1 a         
magnificent poem of ninety-one verses4  
,anarchy he describes as riding on a    
white horse1,e in alliance with theology
 and statecraft1 and whose admirers were
 lawyers and priests4  ,footnote ,e3    
,this doubtless alludes to the ,house of
 ,hanover1 the principal charge on whose
 armorial bearings is a white horse4    
,after a series of powerful             
delineations1 he describes slavery and  

freedom1 justice1 wisdom1 peace and     
love1 in exquisite terms4 ,then he turns
 to their lamps--science1 poetry1 and   
thought1 which make secure the lot of   
the dwellers in the cot4  ,he           
advises--,that1 on some spot of ,english
 ground1 should be convened a great     
assembly of the fearless and the free1  
who shall come from the bounds of the   
,english coast1 and from every hut1     
village1 and town1 where1 for other's   
misery and their own1 they live1 suffer1
 and moan4 ,also1      ,from the        
workhouse and the prison1      ,where1  
pale as corpses newly risen1            
,women1 children1 young and old1        
,groan for pain1 and weep for cold2     
,from the haunts of daily life1         
,where is waged the daily strife        
,with common wants and common cares1    
,which sow the human heart with tares4  
,when face to face with their           
oppressors1 no force should be used1 but
 instead             strong and simple  
words1     ,keen to wound as sharpened  

swords1     ,and wide as targes let them
 be1     ,with their shade to cover ye4 
,the description of the ,peterloo       
massacre which follows1 is one of the   
finest pieces of composition in the     
language1 and the poem concludes by     
calling the ,men of ,england1 ,heirs of 
,glory1 ,heroes of ,unwritten ,story1 to
      ,rise like lions after slumber    
,in unvanquishable ,,number6      ,shake
 your chains to earth1 like dew         
,which in sleep had fall'n on you2      
',,ye ,,are ,,many--,,they ,,are ,,few4'
  ,in a pamphlet1 written ostensibly on 
the death of the ,princess ,charlotte1  
he calls attention to the fact that     
three men had been executed in the      
interests of the big-hearted and        
generous capitalists1 of whom we        
now-a-days hear so much from their      
interested admirers1 but whose wings are
 now fortunately clipped4  ,shelley     
considered that there was no real wealth
 but man's labor1 and that speculators  
pandering to selfishness1 the           

twin-sister of debased theology1 took a 
pride in the production of useless      
articles of luxury and ostentation4     
,imbued with this spirit1 a man of      
wealth imagines himself a patriot when  
employing laborers on the erection of a 
mansion1 or a woman of fashion indulging
 in luxurious dress1 fancies she is     
aiding the laboring poor4 ,he observes  
of such instances as these3       ,who  
does not see that this is a remedy which
 aggravates1      whilst it palliates   
the countless diseases of society8 ,the 
poor are set to labor--for what8 ,not   
the food for which they      famish2 not
 the blankets for want of which their   
babes are      frozen by the cold of    
their miserable hovels2 not those       
comforts of civilization without which  
civilized man is far      more miserable
 than the meanest savage1 oppressed as  
he is      by all its insidious evils1  
within the daily and taunting           
prospect of its innumerable benefits    
assiduously exhibited      before him2  

no1 for the pride of power1 for the     
miserable      isolation of pride1 for  
the false pleasures of the hundredth    
part of society4  ,labor is required for
 physical1 and leisure for moral        
improvement4 ,what is wanted1 he        
considered1 is a state to combine the   
advantages of both and have the evils of
 neither4 ,in fact1 any unnecessary     
labor which deprives the race of        
intellectual gain1 and all times not    
required for the manufacture of         
commodities which are necessary for the 
subsistence of humanity1 should be      
occupied only in mental or physical     
culture4  ,shelley lays down as a       
principle that commerce is the venal    
interchange of what human art or nature 
yields1 and which should not be         
purchased by wealth1 but demanded by    
want4 ,labor and commerce1 when badly   
regulated1 scatter withering curses and 
open      ,the doors to premature and   
violent death1      ,to penury1 famine1 
and full-fed disease4  ,wealth was a    

living ,god1 who rules in scorn1 and    
whom peasants1 nobles1 priests1 and     
kings blindly reverence1 and by whom    
everything is sold--the light of heaven1
 earth's produce1 the peace of outraged 
conscience1 the most despicable things1 
every object of life1 and even life     
itself4  ,in a proper condition of      
society1 which should be strictly       
co-operative1 there would necessarily be
 no pauperism1 and      ,no meditative  
signs of selfishness1      ,no jealous  
intercourse of wretched gain1      ,no  
balancings of prudence1 cold and long2  
,in just and equal measure all is       
weighed2      ,one scale contains the   
sum of human weal4      ,and one the    
good man's heart4  ,the fruits of       
,shelley's enunciations on the labor and
 capital questions1 and the school of   
political economists to which he        
belonged1 have made wondrous progress4  
,the world is beginning to see that     
labor has the unrestricted right of     
coalition1 that there should be only a  

standard day's work1 according to the   
wants of society1 with prohibition of   
labor for at least one day in the week2 
that legislation is required for the    
protection of the life and health of the
 working man1 and that mines1 factories1
 and workshops should be strictly       
controlled by sanitary officers selected
 by labor2 that no children's work      
should be permitted1 or women's1 which  
may be considered unhealthy2 that prison
 work should be regulated1 and that     
laborers' co-operative and benevolent   
societies should be administered        
independently of the ,state4  ,liberals 
must learn from their enemies1 must     
organize and let the ramifications of   
unshackled thought spread through the   
lands1 and must1 above all1 conserve the
 control of education4 ,whereever there 
is a church or chapel1 let there be     
beside it a hall or club1 in which shall
 be inculcated the simple doctrines of a
 pure1 integralised religion4  ,on the  
statute book of ,england there yet      

remains a law directed against the      
freedom of the press and discussion2 to 
even discuss the question of the        
divinity of ,christ was considered      
blasphemy1 and the person so offending  
was punished most severely by the       
criminal laws4 ,at the present time this
 wretched remnant of the dark ages is   
practically a dead letter4 ,the friends 
of ,shelley suffered from this most     
intolerant spirit4 ,keats1 it is        
believed by many1 was wounded unto death
 for daring to speak on behalf of       
freedom1 and we are given glimpses in   
the ,adonais of his feelings on the     
subject2 ,leigh ,hunt and his brother   
were imprisoned and fined for the same2 
the publisher of the pirated edition of 
,shelley's ,queen ,mab was cast into    
,newgate2 ,eaton1 a ,london bookseller1 
had been sentenced by ,lord             
,ellenborough to a lengthened           
incarceration1 for publishing ,paine's  
,age of ,reason1 and hundreds of others 
suffered similarly4 ,the abominable     

circumstance of ,eaton's conviction     
caused great uproar2 the ,marquis of    
,wellesley1 in the ,house of ,lords1    
stated it was contrary to the mild      
spirit of the ,christian religion2 for  
no sanction can be found under that     
dispensation which will warrant a       
government to impose disabilities and   
penalties upon any man on account of his
 religious opinions4 ,shelley1 who was  
then only nineteen years of age1 and had
 himself suffered from bigotry at       
,oxford1 threw himself publicly into the
 controversy with great vehemence1 with 
a composition of great eloquence and    
logical exactness of reasoning1 and the 
truths which it contains on the subject 
of universal toleration are now         
generally admitted4 ,lady ,shelley1 from
 whom ,i have just quoted1 says that her
 husband's father1 from his earliest    
boyhood to his latest years1 whatever   
varieties of opinion may have marked his
 intellectual course1 never for a moment
 swerved from the noble doctrine of     

unbounded liberty of thought and speech4
 ,to him the rights of intellect were   
sacred2 and all kings1 teachers1 or     
priests who sought to circumscribe the  
activity of discussion1 and to check by 
force the full development of the       
reasoning powers1 he regarded as enemies
 to the independence of man1 who did    
their utmost to destroy the spiritual   
essence of our being4  ,to ,shelley's   
able advocacy1 and to his appeals       
against the stamping out of political   
and social truths opposed to custom1    
particularly the celebrated letter to   
,lord ,ellenborough1 it cannot be denied
 that the toleration now enjoyed in     
,great ,britain owes much4  ,shelley was
 one of those who most earnestly        
deprecated punishment by death4 ,in his 
early years1 if a man stole a sheep1 or 
shot a hare1 committed forgery or       
larceny1 was a recusant catholic or a   
wizard1 there was1 on his conviction1   
but one penalty meted out--death4 ,to   
,shelley's sensitive nature1 this       

painted and tinged everything around him
 with an aspect of blood4 ,in one of his
 political pamphlets1 summoning all his 
energies1 he depicts in fearful colors1 
the depraved example of an              
execution--how it brutalized the race1  
and how it was the duty of man not to   
commit murder on his fellow-man1 in the 
name of the laws4 ,the abolition of the 
first of these1 he stated that reformers
 should propose on the eve of a great   
political change4 ,he considered that   
the punishment by death harbored revenge
 and retaliation1 which legislation     
should be the means of eradicating1 and 
he urged that       ,governments which  
derive their institutions from the      
existence of circumstances of barbarism 
and violence1 with      some rare       
exceptions1 perhaps1 are bloody in      
proportion as      they are despotic1   
and form the manners of their subjects  
to      a sympathy with their own       
spirit4  ,in ,england1 as in many other 
countries1 capital punishment is now    

only employed on conviction of murder or
 high treason4 ,in ,spain and ,italy it 
was totally abolished1 on the foundation
 of their young republics4 ,thus have   
the labors of ,shelley1 and other       
reformers for the good of humanity1     
aided to extinguish crime made law4     
,cruelty to animals was another reform  
agitated by ,shelley4 ,his love for the 
animal kingdom and hatred of            
blood-shedding1 was so great1 that he   
personally carried the passion to such  
an extent as to become a vegetarian1 and
 endeavored to induce others to be the  
same1 in an admirable argument of some  
length in the notes to ,queen ,mab4     
,the subject of the ,rights of ,women is
 approached and expatiated on1 perhaps  
learnedly1 by individuals utterly       
incompetent to deal with the question4  
,such persons1 frequently armed with    
,sunday-school platitudes1 believing in 
the inferiority of women1 consequent on 
the supposed fall1 and doubtless with   
heads paved with good intentions1 as a  

certain place is said to be1 do more    
harm than good to the cause4 ,this is   
not wanted1 and is worse than useless4  
,to found a real republic on a solid    
basis1 it can be legislated for only by 
removing the ancient landmarks by a     
gradual process1 and coming face to face
 with a new order of things1 without    
bias or prejudice borrowed from the     
past4 ,thus that noble woman1 ,mary     
,wolstonecraft1 as well as ,john ,stuart
 ,mill1 ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley1 and    
numerous others1 have treated this      
all-important question1 which cannot be 
shirked by the race4 ,true reformers    
ask3 ,what was the condition of the sex 
in the past8 ,look down the revolving   
cycles and note4 ,in ancient ,egypt1    
woman in the upper classes was almost   
the equal of man1 and although1 like    
,cleopatra1 she could wield the sceptre1
 yet in the lower her condition was     
wretched2 in ,asia1 a mere slave and    
object of ,zenana lust2 in savagedom1 a 
beast of burthen4 ,in ,rome and ,greece1

 ,shelley shall tell the story3         
,among the ancient ,greeks the male sex1
 one half of the      human race1       
received the highest cultivation and    
refinement2      whilst the other1 so   
far as intellect is concerned1 were     
educated as slaves1 and were raised but 
few degrees in all      that related to 
moral or intellectual excellence above  
the      condition of savages4444 ,the  
,roman women held a higher              
consideration in society1 and were      
esteemed almost as the      equal       
partners with their husbands in the     
regulation of      domestic economy and 
the education of their children4        
,regard the incidents of a ,jewish      
wooing1 in which the woman had no voice1
 and of the marriage1 the infernal      
punishments for adultery1 and the       
accounts of the seraglios of the ,hebrew
 kings equalled only by ,turkish harems1
 and some of the passages in the        
inspired ,book of ,numbers1 for         
instance1 in which the horrible truth is

 frequently too evident1 and only       
equalled by the fact that after lust had
 played out its passion1 unfortunate    
women1 taken in captivity1 could1 by    
divine command1 be turned adrift to rot 
or starve4 ,in ,christian ,feudalism we 
find nothing much better4 ,if ,i have   
read history correctly1 and ,i may be   
wrong--the upper-grade women in         
mediaeval ,europe1 who were adored1 not 
with love1 but with lascivious and      
sensual worship1 by ,christian knights  
and troubadours1 and who1 like criminals
 to the halter1 were forced1 rarely with
 their own consent1 into the arms of men
 they disliked or had never seen1 or    
were placed in conventual houses against
 their wills4 ,of the lower-grade women1
 ,i need only offer one example--and    
that is sufficient to show their awful  
degradation2 the ,french and ,german    
feudal lord had the right of cuissage1  
or1 in plain ,english1 the embraces of  
his serf-retainer's bride on the        
marriage night4  ,shelley considered    

that in consequence of all this1 men had
 forgotten their duties to the other    
sex1 and that even at the time at which 
he lived woman was still in great social
 bondage1 improperly educated1 tied down
 by restrictions1 and refused           
participation in the higher positions of
 labor4 ,he called not in vain1 against 
the inequality of the sexes1 and        
asserted that woman's position must and 
should be altered by forgetting the     
tyranny of the past1 and1 be determined1
 for the good of the future4  ,we should
 be rejoiced that eloquent exponents of 
the abominations of former ages1 the    
evils of the present1 and the proper    
position of the future1 are now hard at 
work4 ,the ,women's ,rights party is up 
teaching men their duties on every      
continent2 in distant ,india1 the       
,brahmo ,somaj is battling1 not vainly1 
against the horrors of the ,zenana1 and 
in conservative ,england1 which has been
 stormed1 and the forlorn hope is now   
taking possession of the citadel2       

everywhere it is the same4 ,yes1 woman1 
thanks to ,shelley and the reformers1 is
 about to be emancipated and free2 free 
to earn her living1 how1 where1 and when
 she likes2 the equal of man1 who shall 
no longer play such fantastic tricks as 
he did in the past1 in proof of his     
dignity and superiority4 ,the fourth of 
,july is not long past and gone2 ,i     
trust that in the dim vista of the      
future1 our descendants will keep a     
national holiday1 or a day to be set    
apart on which shall be celebrated the  
,declaration of the ,independence of    
,women1 and then1 perhaps1 ,shelley's   
description of woman in the             
,episychidion will be more apparent3    
,seraph of heaven6 too gentle to be     
human1      ,veiling beneath the radiant
 form of woman      ,all that is        
unsupportable in thee1      ,of light1  
and love1 and immortality4  ,i now      
approach a very delicate portion of my  
essay3 the question of the marriage     
relation4 ,by many it is scouted with   

much virtuous indignation1 but ,i       
conceive that the liberal1 who1 like too
 many1 dare not discuss this matter in  
its broadest and widest aspects1 should 
be stigmatized as unworthy of the name4 
,christ is reported to have urged the   
admirers of his ethical system to take  
up their cross and follow him1 leaving  
father1 mother1 wife1 children1 and all 
they may have--thus ,shelley acted1 and 
it bears as equally pregnant lessons to 
free thinkers as it did to those ,syrian
 fishermen4 ,oh1 that liberals had as   
much faith in the truth1 in the efficacy
 of their cause1 as the first           
,christians are said to have had in the 
teachings of that ,christ whom they     
regarded not as a ,divinity1 but as a   
son of ,god1 as we to-day are sons of   
,god1 of the most high6 ,oh1 that we    
could carry that faith into our beliefs1
 and the determination to be stopped at 
no obstacle which may bar the progress  
of truth1 which must conquer in the end6
  ,the favorite theme in the writings of

 ,shelley is ,eros1 love of the         
individual1 of the race1 of nature1 and 
in this he follows ,christ1 in whose    
system of ,philosophy1 ,love is ever the
 pre-dominating idea which permeates    
mankind with its beneficial effects1 and
 will1 when the bastard tinsel with     
which the truths of the ,nazarene are   
hidden1 be replaced by that pure gold   
which it is impossible to trace in the  
enunciations of any previous            
philosopher4 ,this subject is always    
present to ,shelley1 and he thus appeals
 in one of his poems to the      ,great 
,spirit1 deepest ,love6      ,which     
rulest and dost move      ,all things   
which live1 and are4  ,in another place 
he inquires--       ,what is love8 ,ask 
him who lives1 what is life8 ,ask him   
who      adores1 what is ,god8  ,and in 
the same essay he describes love as     
,the bond and sanction which connects   
man with man1 and with      everything  
which exists4  ,elsewhere he points out 
that the attainment of love       urges 

forth the power of man to arrest the    
faintest shadow      of that without the
 possession of which there is no rest   
nor      respite to the heart over which
 it rules1 7and that7 so soon      as   
this want or power is dead1 man becomes 
the living      sepulchre of himself1   
and what yet survives is the mere husk  
of what once he was4  ,of such was      
,shelley's philosophy of love1 and ,i   
would ask if it be conceivable that the 
abominable calumny prompted by          
theological virus1 that he kept a       
seraglio1 as his friend ,leigh ,hunt    
informs us was reported1 had any real   
existence4 ,shelley was too pure for any
 such idea as that of promiscuous sexual
 intercourse to be acted on by himself2 
his life1 which lies open before us1    
refutes the diabolical invention4 ,the  
fact was1 that at the early age of      
nineteen he married ,harriet ,westbrook1
 the daughter of a retired tavern       
keeper1 a woman without soul and that   
congeniality of disposition which a man 

overflowing with the pulses of genius   
should have chosen4 ,after a wretched   
existence without intellectual sympathy1
 and on the advice of her father1 who   
did not agree with his ideas on         
religion1 they parted by mutual consent1
 never to meet again4 ,shelley about    
this period met his second wife1 a woman
 of the highest powers of mind and charm
 of body1 ,mary ,wolstonecraft ,godwin1 
the authoress of ,frankenstein and other
 works1 daughter of ,william ,godwin1   
the novelist1 and author of ,political  
,justice and ,mary ,wolstonecraft1 the  
gifted writer of ,the ,rights of ,women4
 ,we are told by ,lady ,shelley that1   
,to her1 as they met one eventful day in
 ,st4 ,pancras churchyard1 by her       
mother's grave1 ,bysshe1 in burning     
words1 poured forth the tale of his wild
 past1 how he had suffered1 how he had  
been misled1 and how1 if supported by   
her love1 he hoped1 in future years1 to 
enroll his name with the wise and good1 
who had done battle for their fellow-men

 and been true through all adverse      
storms to the cause of humanity4        
,unhesitatingly she placed her hand in  
his1 and linked her fortune with his    
own4  ,after the death of his first     
wife1 on the solicitation of ,godwin1   
who was anxious for the landed interests
 of his grandchildren1 a legal union was
 performed4 ,after looking on this      
episode1 in the most charitable manner1 
,i am confident the sternest moralist   
cannot but acknowledge that the         
passionate love of a boy should not be  
held a serious blemish1 in a man whose  
subsequent life was exceptional in      
virtue and beneficence4  ,believing1 as 
,i have explained1 in the divinity of   
love1 ,shelley regarded everything in   
the relation of the sexes with the most 
intense horror1 which was not consistent
 with freedom2 and by which he most     
certainly did not signify the license   
attributed by many4 ,when he looked     
around and saw the withering blast of   
forced marriages1 conjugal hatred and   

prostitution1 can we be astonished at   
his passionately exclaiming3      ,even 
love is sold2 the solace of all woe     
,is turned to deadliest agony1 old age  
,shivers in selfish beauty's loathing   
arms1      ,and youth's corrupted       
impulses prepare      ,a life of horror 
from the blighting bane      ,of        
commerce1 whilst the pestilence that    
springs      ,from unenjoying           
sensualism1 has filled      ,all human  
life with hydra-headed woes8  ,in a most
 important essay bearing on this        
passage1 which should be widely studied1
 he observes3       ,love is inevitably 
consequent upon the perception of       
loveliness4 ,love withers under         
constraint2 its very essence      is    
liberty2 it is compatible neither with  
obedience1      jealousy1 nor fear2 it  
is then most pure1 perfect1 and         
unlimited1 where its votaries live in   
confidence1 equality1      and          
unreserve4  ,he then urges3       ,a    
husband and wife ought to continue so   

long united as they      love each      
other4 ,any law which should bind them  
to      cohabitation for one moment     
after the decay of their      affection1
 would be a most intolerable tyranny1   
and the most      unworthy of           
toleration2 and there is nothing immoral
 in      this separation1 for love is   
free4 ,to promise forever to      love  
the same woman1 is not less absurd than 
to promise to      believe the same     
creed4  ,he states categorically that   
,the present system of constraint does  
no more1 in the      majority of        
instances1 than make hypocrites or open 
enemies4      ,persons of delicacy and  
virtue1 unhappily united to those       
whom they find it impossible to love1   
spend the loveliest      season of their
 lives in unproductive efforts to appear
      otherwise than they are1 for the  
sake of the feelings of      their      
partners or the welfare of their mutual 
offspring2 and      that the early      
education of their children takes its   

color      from the squabbles of the    
parents4 ,they are nursed in a          
systematic school of ill-humor1         
violence1 and falsehood1 and      the   
conviction that wedlock is indissoluble 
holds out the      strongest of all     
temptations to the perverse4 ,they      
indulge      without restraint in       
acrimony and all the little tyrannies   
of domestic life1 when they know that   
their victim is      without appeal4 ,if
 this connection were put on a rational 
basis1 each would be assured that       
habitual ill-temper would      terminate
 in separation1 and would check this    
vicious and      dangerous propensity4  
,he conceived from the re-arrangement of
 the marriage relation by greater       
facility of divorce than was to be had  
sixty years ago1,f       ,a fit and     
natural arrangement would result4       
,footnote ,f3 ,it should be remembered  
that in ,shelley's day divorce was      
obtainable by the most wealthy only1 at 
an enormous cost and by a lengthy       

process1 precluding the slightest       
opportunity for the middle and poorer   
classes to avail themselves thereof4    
,shelley by no means asserts that the   
intercourse would be promiscuous1 but on
 the contrary believed that from the    
relation of parent to child a union is  
generally of longer duration1 placed on 
such a footing1 and marked above all    
others with generosity and              
self-devotion4  ,we are on the eve of   
great religious changes1 which must     
consequently disturb all the social     
relations4 ,historical ,christianity    
still holds to her old text1 of marriage
 being a sacrament1 and therefore       
indissoluble4 ,the founder of ,comtism  
developing this dogma1 urges that after 
the death of either husband or wife the 
duty of the survivor is not to re-marry4
 ,great ,britain and many of the        
,american ,states have conceded greater 
freedom in divorce1 so as to carry out  
in a large measure the arguments of     
,shelley1 while the theory of what is   

termed the sovereignty of the individual
 is propounded by the leaders of the    
free love party1 as a cure for the      
present and former difficulties4        
,whatever may be the outcome of the     
present widespread discussions ,i know  
not1 but ,i have belief in the supreme  
intelligence and in humanity1 and am    
certain that neither the home nor the   
race will suffer1 but that out of all   
this agitation will come more refined   
sentiment and truer morality4  ,i must  
now conclude4 ,it has been said that    
there are two things in which the       
professors of all theologies have       
agreed-,to persecute all other sects1   
and plunder their own4 ,shelley1 who    
subscribed to no theology1 was          
persecuted by them during his entire    
life1 but he ever forgave his           
persecutors1 who he was confident acted 
through ignorance of his real motives1  
and he tells us3       ,i have thought  
to appeal to something in common and    
unburden my inmost soul to them4 ,i have

 found my language      misunderstood1  
like one in a distant and savage land4  
,the      more opportunities they have  
afforded me for experience1 the         
wider has appeared the interval between 
us1 and to a greater      distance have 
the points of sympathy been withdrawn4  
,with a      spirit ill-fitted to       
sustain such proof1 trembling and       
feeble through its tenderness1 ,i have  
everywhere sought      sympathy1 and    
have found only repulse and             
disappointment4  ,do we misunderstand   
him8 ,i think not1 and ,william ,howitt1
 a representative of the people1 shall  
answer for them3 ,for liberty of every  
kind he was ready to die4 ,for          
knowledge1 and truth1 and kindness1 he  
desired only to live4 ,he was a rare    
instance of the union of the finest     
moral nature and the finest genius4 ,if 
he erred1 the world took ample revenge  
upon him for it1 while he conferred in  
return his amplest blessing on the      
world4 ,it was long a species of heresy 

to mention his name in society2 that is 
passing fast away4 ,it was next said    
that he never could become popular1 and 
therefore the mischief he could do was  
limited4 ,he has become popular1 and the
 good he is likely to do will be        
unlimited4 ,the people read him1 though 
we may wonder at it1 and they comprehend
 him4  ,this estimate is not overrated1 
for1 having confidence in his mission to
 humanity1 he was fortified by the      
belief of his existing as an            
indestructible portion of interminable  
nature and the universal mind1 which in 
all high intelligences lives through the
 ages1 not only in the individual       
consciousness of the spirit1 but in that
 immortality of soul or mind1 which     
lives in the race4  ,he hated the       
superstitions of ,christian ,fetishism  
and tyranny over the intellect1 but     
loved ,christ and the other philosophers
 with a genuine affection2 he loved     
humanity1 and was ever fond of examining
 its highest phases1 as1 for instance1  

through the doctrines of perfect        
equality in the sexes--yet he recognised
 that sudden changes were prejudicial   
before sufficient progress had been     
accomplished4 ,to destroy1 you must     
replace4 ,justice he considered the sole
 guide1 reason and duty the only law4   
,his morality was not that of           
pharasaical tartuffes1 nor of prudish   
knickerbockers1 who with wide           
phylacteries1 sit in the high places to 
be seen of men4 ,he only combatted evil 
principles and fought hard in favor of  
good4  ,he has been quoted as being too 
transcendental2 he may be to dullards   
with imperfect reasoning faculties1 or  
theologians1 who only see through       
fanatical and green-monsterish          
spectacles1 but to men who have a live  
philosophy equally adapted to modern as 
well as ancient thought1 he is as clear 
as the noon-day sun4 ,all that is       
required1 to comprehend ,percy ,bysshe  
,shelley1 is integralism of that high   
order which has ever believed in the    

ultimate perfectibility of human nature1
 and looked forward to a period when a  
new golden age would return to earth1   
when all the different creeds and       
systems of the world would be           
amalgamated into one1 crime disappear1  
and man1 freed from shackles1 civil and 
religious1 bow before the throne 'of his
 own awless soul1' or 'of the power     
unknown1' whose veil it is the ambition 
of theosophy to raise for humanity1 and 
remain the inscrutable no longer4  ,i   
have completed my task1 and with        
humility ,i make the statement1 knowing 
that before me are many who could have  
performed it as completely as ,i have   
crudely4 ,i look upon my essay1 in which
 ,i have treated my subject popularly1  
with intention1 as a beacon1 whence a   
little light may be shed dimly1 hoping  
that others1 better qualified1 will     
bring you face to face with the full    
rays4  ,i have shown you ,shelley in his
 writings1 his life and poetry1 only    
where they trench on his philosophical  

and reform ideas--,i could have related 
to you much about his inflexibly moral1 
generous1 and unselfishly benevolent    
character--his pure1 gentle and loveable
 existence--his utter abnegation of     
self1 learnt from the hermetic          
philosophy1 and his despisal of         
transitory legislative honors--how he1  
the heir to thousands of dollars        
annually1 and a baronetage1 threw aside 
pecuniary considerations for love of the
 truth and benevolence1,g and how1      
therefrom1 he was often nearly dying of 
hunger in the streets4 ,i could have    
treated him simply as a poet1 full of   
experienced impetuosity1 subtlety of    
expression1 and precision of verse1 but 
,i have aimed to exhibit one side of his
 immortality to you1 which lives in and 
by the race1 for humanity4  ,footnote   
,g3 ,in his heart there was nothing     
depraved or unsound2 those who had      
opportunities of knowing him best1 tell 
us that his life was spent in the       
contemplation of nature1 in arduous     

study1 or in acts of kindness and       
affection4 ,a man of learning1 who      
shared the poverty so often attached to 
it1 enjoyed from him at one period a    
pension of a hundred pounds sterling a  
year1 and continued to enjoy it till    
fortune rendered it superfluous4 ,to    
another man of letters1 in similar      
circumstances1 he presented fourteen    
hundred pounds2 and many other acts like
 these are on record to his immortal    
honor4 ,himself a frugal and abstemious 
ascetic1 by saving and economising1 he  
was able to assist the industrious      
poor--and they had frequent cause to    
bless his name4--,national ,magazine4   
,cut short in the youth of manhood1 who 
can tell what ,percy ,bysshe ,shelley   
might1 not have become1 living for us   
even perhaps at this moment8 ,what need 
we care1 though1 for does not the       
,empire of the dead increase of the     
living from age to age8 ,shelley's      
terrestrial body may have been cast up  
by the waves on the lonely ,italian     

shore1 in sweet companionship with the  
souls of ,keats and ,sophocles4 ,his    
mundane elements1 purified through the  
fire1 may have returned to their kindred
 elements1 and been                 made
 one with ,nature1 where is heard       
,his voice in all her music1 from the   
moan     ,of thunder to the song of     
night's sweet bird2       ,he is a      
presence to be felt and known1     ,in  
darkness and in light1 from herb and    
stone1       ,spreading itself where'er 
that ,power move1     ,which has        
withdrawn his being to its own2         
,which wields the world with            
never-wearied love1       ,sustains it  
from beneath1 and kindles it above4     
,his cinereal ashes may lie beneath the 
cypresses1 near the dust of the ,adonais
 of his muse1 under ,roman sod1 and     
where he said3       ,to see the sun    
shining on its bright grass1 and hear   
the      whispering of the wind among   
the leaves of the trees1 which      have
 overgrown the tomb of ,cestius1 and the

 soil which is      stirring in the     
sun-warm earth1 and to mark the tombs1  
mostly of women and young children1 who1
 buried there1 we      might1 if we were
 to die1 desire a sleep they seem to    
sleep4  ,all this may have happened1 but
 why need we repine1 for as eternal as  
the sea1 as infinite as ,nature1 and as 
the phoenix1 he revivifying lives1      
transmigrated and transfused into       
humanity1 for with certainty we know    
that      ,he lives1 he wakes--'tis     
,death is dead1 not he4  ,immortal amid 
immortals1 his spirit in communion with 
the ,most ,high1 fully conscious in its 
individuality--immortal amid mortals1   
his place need never be refilled1 for he
 stands betwixt the old and the         
new--immortal amid the sons of song1 do 
poets still breathe his divine          
afflatus--immortal amid philosophers and
 the regenerators of the race1 with     
,buddha1 with ,moses1 with ,socrates1   
with ,mahomet1 with ,christ--immortal   
amid the noble1 the virtuous1 the good1 

the wise--immortal as when living here1 
for from spirit-spheres we hear him     
bidding us repeat3     ,nor let us weep 
that our delight is fled      ,far from 
these carrion-kites that scream below2  
,he wakes or sleeps with the enduring   
dead2      ,thou canst not soar where he
 is sitting now4     ,dust to the dust6 
but the pure spirit shall flow          
,back to the burning fountain whence it 
came1     ,a portion of the ,eternal1   
which must glow      ,through time and  
change1 unquenchably the same1          
99       99       99       99       99  
,peace6 peace6 he is not dead1 he doth  
not sleep--      ,he hath awaken'd from 
the dream of life--    ',tis we1 who1   
lost in stormy visions1 keep      ,with 
phantoms an unprofitable strife2        
,and in mad trance1 strike with our     
spirits' knife1      ,invulnerable      
nothings6   ,,finis ,,coronat ,,opus4