Volume 19 / Part 2 — Material Faith.

Give me a God whom I can prove

By certain academic rules,

Approved by all the learned schools;

And if he fitteth not our groove,

We'll leave him for unscienced fools

To idolize.

But if his attributes should be

All classed within high Reason's bound—

His origin and parts be found

With analytics to agree—

This God, whom we can solve and sound,

We'll patronize.

But still our right we will reserve—

A sacred privilege of Science—

To herald forth our non-compliance

With Scriptural accounts that swerve

From our grand basis; such defiance

We'll not endure.

We'll rule out the creation chapter;

'Tis so absurd! and lacks support

Of brilliant sages in our court

Whose own hypotheses are apter.

So exit Moses' crude report

For something newer.

The Bible we will not reject

In toto; no, we'll let it stand,

Lest our fair fame should bear a brand;

But when we've banished ev'ry sect,

Then forth we'll drag from Lethe's sand

Our fossil link!

Completing the material chain

By philosophic labor wrought,

And beaten out by mighty thought!

Eureka! what a motley train

Of dry bones, labelled to a jot,

Round Learning's brink!

Such wondrous titles ne'er were heard

In all the mythologic lore!

We'll drape in gloom of Stygian shore

All held as truth; and at our word

Darkness, in cloak of Light, shall soar

To Reason's throne!

[pg 408]

Then, when this wheeling globe is ours,

We'll send God forth a wand'ring myth

Void, and bereft of son, or kith:

And stone-eyed fossils, robed in flowers,

From sea of spice to frozen frith,

Shall teach alone.