Year: 1860

lioCV W Ito CNuhSSCSut HuCS. w ulc, says
Jesus Christ, and when we awaken from
the langor of disease, the glories and hap.
piness of Paradise are around us. Our hap.
piness corresponds with, and is adapted to,
the nature of what is most excellent in our
being. We see God, and see that he il
good How magnificent is the conception
which this bold theory suggests to the con
temptation, even if it be no more than the
imagination Of some sublimest and most
holy poet, who, impressed with the lowell
ness and majesty Of his own nature, is i'm.
patient and discontented with the narrow
limits which this imperfect life and the dark
grave have assigned forever as his melan
choly portion"


How Shelley's mind seemed to be waver
ing as to Pantheism appears from this in
te.esting extract:


"God is represented by Jesus Christ, as
the power from which, and through which
the streams of all that is delightful flow.-
Jesus Christ attributes to this power to the
faculty Of the Will"


How far such doctrine in its ordinary
sense may be philosophically true, or how
far he Intentionally availed himself of a met.
aphOr easily understood, is foreign to the
subject to consider. This much is certain,
that he represent God as the fountain of ali
goodness, the uniform and unchanging mo-
tive Of the sanitary operations of the ma
terlal. blessed are those who have pre-.
served internal sanctity Of soul who are
conscious Of no secret deceit; who are the
same in act as they are in desire; who con-
ceal no thought, no tendencies of thought
from their own conscience; who are faithful
and sincere witnesses before the tribunal of
their own judgments, Of all that passes
within their minds. Such as these shall
see God. Those who have seen God have
been harmonized by their own will with so
exquisite consantaneity of power as to give
forth divinest melody when the breath of
universal being sweeps over their frame
That those that are pure in heart shall see
God, and that virtue is its own reward,
may be considered as equivalent asser-
tions."


We must add to this remarkable method
of thinking, the statement of Coleridge,
that Shelley, towards the close of his life.
declared that he had some doubts and diff.
culties on the subject Of religion, that only
Coleridge could solve, and expressed an
earnest desire to converse with him, that
Ills uiilu unSut oe Clear Oll tIliS great SuD.
ject.


When we remember that this wonderful
creature-the greatest of men in pure, in
tense, keen and subtle imagination, passed
from the world before he reached his thir-
tieth year, when we see the moral progress
he had made from the time he wrote Queen
Nab down to the date of his Essay on
Christianity, when We have the unanimous,
earnest, and passionate testimony of all who
knew him, to his adherence of low vice, to
his exquisite refinement, his tenderness, his
high sense of honor, his entire unselfish-
ness, his native simplicity of life and char
acter, his utter fearfulness in the cause Of
benevolence and freedom when we remem-
Der the testimony of Trelawney that the
moral and intellectual tone of their society
in Italy, depended upon him, and that when
he died, they 'degenerated apace," when we
find Mrs. Shelley living sad recluse for
his sake down to recent period, and low
ing him as woman scarcely ever loved man
we know not how to sum up this strange
and mysterious life. That he did not con-
scientiously resist God; that he was not
designedly rebel against his government,
seems clear; that he never understood
Christ and him crucified, seems equally
clear. His life is one of those problems
which we vainly strive to solve; one of
the enigmas which teach US how little we
know.