universe, and absolutely unconnected with it, as is frequently thought
to be the case, but rather as a universe that has some bond of union
with the present;" and like Tyndall, will be obliged in abject humility
to acknowledge, unlike the initiated occultist, that: "When we endeavor
to pass from the phenomena of physics to those of thought, we meet a
problem which transcends any conceivable expansion of the powers we now
possess. We may think over the subject again and again--it eludes all
intellectual presentation--we stand at length face to face with the
incomprehensible."

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 ends,
emanated superstition, the taint of all it looked upon; and with no
unsparing hand he flagellated the professors of the numerous false
faiths, bastardized from their original purity, which have in their
decay, darkened the earth, and with all the force of his powerful pen,
mightier than any sword, he ridiculed these gross theologies existant
among men, as in the following:

"Barbarous and uncivilized nations have uniformly adored,
under various names, a God of which themselves were the
model: revengeful, blood-thirsty, groveling and capricious.
The idol of a savage is a demon that delights in carnage.
The steam of slaughter, the dissonance of groans, the flames
of a desolated land, are the offerings which he deems
acceptable, and his innumerable votaries throughout the
world have made it a point of duty to worship him to his
taste. The Phoenicians, the Druids and the Mexicans have
immolated hundreds at the shrines of their divinity, and the