Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
AtheismArthur Hugh Clough (18191861)
“T
“And truly it’s a blessing,
For what he might have done with us
It’s better only guessing.”
“Or really if there may be,
He surely didn’t mean a man
Always to be a baby.”
“It matters very little,
For I and mine, thank somebody,
Are not in want of victual.”
Who scarce so much as doubt it,
Think there is none, when they are well,
And do not think about it.
The shadow of the steeple;
The parson, and the parson’s wife,
And mostly married people;
So thankful for illusion;
And men caught out in what the world
Calls guilt and first confusion;
Disease, and sorrow strike him,—
Inclines to think there is a God,
Or something very like him.