Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/46

28 built for us to dwell in as kings! We are like the parvenu leading Aristippus through his sumptuous mansion, on whom the philosopher spat, finding no other object in the place mean enough to be fouled with expectoration.

In the preface to the "Revolt of Islam," written in 1817, Shelley speaks of Supreme Being and Deity, not, as heretofore, of Power. He declares that he does not speak against the Supreme Being itself, but against the erroneous and degrading idea which men have conceived of a Supreme Being. In the first half of the first canto he distinctly and magnificently develops a sort of Manicheism. Two Spirits, the Good and the Evil, are struggling for the supreme sway. The Evil spirit is still predominant; but each successive combat finds him weaker and the Good stronger than heretofore. The final issue shall be the perfect triumph of the Good and destruction of the Evil. This philosophy is yet further expounded in the "Prometheus Unbound," written in 1819. Herein Jupiter, the representative of the Evil spirit, is cast down, and "the tyranny of heaven shall never be reassumed." Herein also Shelley (like Plato, among others, before him) declares that "Almighty God," "Merciful God," made the living world and all that it contains of good; and the Evil spirit, now ruling, all the evil—"madness, crime, remorse, . . . hell, or the sharp fear of hell." Scene iii., Act 2, shows the Nature-worship fading away. But the most prominent and pervading idea of the poem is Pantheistic. The Good spirit which at last triumphs is, indeed, typified in the Titan Prometheus, and not in a man; but no faith in or worship of this Deliverer is required from men who would be saved. The Universal Mind is freed and purified; the earth and the moon grow more glorious, and fertile,