Page:Queen Mab (Shelley).djvu/236

44 Fairy conducts the soul of Ianthe, he declares it to be the fitting temple for the Spirit of Nature; while nevertheless the lightest leaf, the meanest worm, are equally instinct with the eternal breath. In p. 16, we have the epithets of "changeless nature," and "eternal nature's law," as regulating the eloquent harmony of the "circling systems." At p. 19, we have an appeal to "the poor man's God," to sweep from the face of the earth something which displeases Mr. Shelley. Then we are asked, what must have been the nature of the being who taught that

The close of the second Canto gives us some peculiar reasoning, and singular opinions—such as that every atom of the earth was once living man—that every drop of rain had circulated in human veins—that cities had, at one or other period, covered the surface of the globe—and that insects think, feel, and live like man:—but no glimpse of atheism. In pages 30, and 31, we have the following stanza, in which a bold and just comparison is made with that Being, whose existence he afterwards denies:—