tion to that faith which every good man must eternally preserve, how little I am inclined to sympathize' with those of my religion who have pretended to prove the existence of God by the unassisted light of reason. I confess that the necessity of a revelation has been compromised by treacherous friends to Christianity, who have maintained that the sublime mysteries of the being of a God and the immortality of the soul are discoverable from other sources than itself. I have proved, that on the principles of that philosophy to which Epicurus, Lord Bacon, Newton, Locke and Hume were addicted, the existence of God is a chimera. The Christian Religion then, alone, affords indisputable assurance that the world was created by the power, and is preserved by the Providence of an Almighty God, who, in justice has appointed a future life for the punishment of the vicious and the remuneration of the virtuous. Now, O Theosophus, I call upon you to decide between Atheism and Christianity; to declare whether you will pursue your principles to the destruction of the bonds of civilized society, or wear the easy yoke of that Religion which proclaims "peace upon earth, good-will to all men." THEOSOPHUS. I AM not prepared at present, I confess, to reply clearly to your unexpected arguments. In the original, sympathise, contrary to Shelley's practice. I assure you that no 2 So in the Errata; but Epiphanes in the text. considerations, however specious, should seduce me to deny the existence of my Creator. I am willing to promise that if, after mature deliberation, the arguments which you have advanced in favour of Atheism should appear incontrovertible, I will endeavour to adopt so much of the Christian scheme as is consistent with my persuasion of the goodness, unity and majesty of God. FINIS. The imprint of A Refutation of Deism is as follows: London: Printed by Schulze & Dean, 13, Poland Street. [Of the two pamphlets issued in 1817 under the pseudonym of "The Hermit of Marlow," that whereof the title-page is reproduced opposite was clearly considerably the earlier. In an extant letter to Mr. Ollier, dated the 14th of March, Shelley asks "How does the pamphlet sell ?"— a question which cannot refer to the Address on the Death of the Princess Charlotte, as that event did not occur till the 6th of November. The date given in the MS. (see p. 89) as that on which the meeting should be held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, the 17th of March, also, of course, points to this as the pamphlet enquired after. By some good fortune the MS. used by the printer has escaped destruction and distribution, having been kept by Mr. Ollier, and sold by his family in July 1877. It is written on eighteen leaves, small 4to, on one side only, somewhat hastily, with many changes and erasures, and has the appearance of being the original draft, revised. The title-page, in Shelley's writing, with the exception of the draft imprint, originally commenced differently, A Proposal for a National Meeting of the... The MS. is now in the hands of Mr. Francis Harvey, bookseller, of 4, St. James's Street, by whose kind permission I have collated it with the printed text, and noted all variations and cancelled readings. These are not always by any means significant; but taken together they give us a glimpse of the measure of Shelley's fluency in writing such an address in the year 1817. A Proposal for Putting Reform to the Vote is an 8vo. pamphlet of one sheet, consisting of title-page and 13 pages of text, without head-lines and numbered centrally.-H. B. F.] |