Page:Queen Mab (Shelley).djvu/240

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48
REPLY, &c.

seems to prophecy of the Millenium, for he says:—

"How sweet a scene will earth become!
Of purest spirits a pure dwelling-place
Symphonious with the planetary spheres,
When man with changeless nature coalescing
Will undertake regeneration's work,
When its ungenial poles no longer point
To the red, and baneful sun,
That faintly twinkles there!"

How "changeless nature" is to change, until the poles change their direction, by a little of man's assistance in removing them, it was not worth Mr. Shelley's while to stoop from his flight to inform us; but, setting the absurdity aside, there is in these lines a full recognition of that superior power to which the name of God is peculiarly assigned. He employs the same figurative language, and ascribes to this power those attributes which are ascribed to him by the most devout writers. Mr. S. may exceed them in the fervour of his enthusiasm; but he has adopted the basis of all their ideas of divinity. That this Power should have been insulted, by being painted as the "prototype of human misrule," affords no reason for the climax at which Mr. S. afterwards arrives; not by any rational gradation, but by a sudden