172 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



fallen. He was a mighty Prophet sitting on his grave, which 

 gaped and took him in before the full burthen of his inspira- 

 tion had been sung. Therefore should he be dealt with in 

 charity, which forgiveth and hopeth much. 



Every thorough student of Shelley smiles at his ravings 

 against Eeligion, because he perceives that, simply, they are 

 monomaniac. He had dwelt upon the fixed idea of its 

 abuses, which he so keenly deplored until he had come to 

 place them for the thing itself ; while he had, in reality 

 calling it by another name to himself taken more of its es- 

 sence into his heart than many who have born a better name. 



That all his morality apart from those vagaries with re- 

 gard to social organization and perfectibility which he, in com- 

 mon with Coleridge, Southey, and other bright and true souls, 

 was misled by in early life was of a Christian spirit, is per- 

 fectly transparent ; though he was unconscious of this himself. 



He was working his way up through clouds of error, made 

 splendid by his genius, to the clearer atmosphere of Faith 

 glimpses of which he had already been visited by through 

 the rifts. Had he lived, we have no question, he would have 

 mounted to a realization of Faith, and calmly settled with 

 folded wings upon the " Eock of Ages." 



We see indications, towards the last, that he might have 

 even reached the opposite extreme of high Conservatism in 

 Christianity. Students who cannot get beyond the " notes 

 to Queen Mab," in their appreciation of Shelley as a Man 

 and a Poet, had better have had nothing to do with him. 

 His works are dangerous play-things for children of any age ! 



But we have not room in the repletion of a philosophic 

 mood to say all in this connection we should be glad to say 

 about Shelley. This we intend to make a future occasion to 

 do. "We have seen that never were Bird and Poet so mated. 



Let but the impulse of some holy, even though miscalcu- 

 lated, purpose be presented of some deed of loyal chivalry 

 to Her he knew as Truth, come to him in the humble walks 

 he chose, and 



