Alexandria Advertiser And Commercial Intelligencer

THE FOLLY OF ATHEISM.

AN ODE BY DR. DARWIN.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

DULL Atheist! could a giddy dance

Of atoms, lawless hurled,

Construct so wonderful, so wise,

So harmonized a world?

Why do not Arabs driving sands,

The sport of every storm,

Fair structures, the child of chance,

Or gorgeous temples form?

Presumptuous wretch! thyself survey,

That leathern fabric scan;

Tell me from whence th' immortal dust,

The god, the reptile man?

Where wast thou, when this populous earth

From chaos burst its way,

When stars exulting sang the morn,

And hailed the new-born day?

What, when the embryo speck of life,

The miniature of man,

Nursed in the womb, its tender form

To stretch and swell began?

Say, didst thou warp the fibre woof?

Or mould the sentient brain?

Thy fingers stretch the living nerve!

Or fill the purple vein?

Didst thou then bid the bounding heart

Its endless toil begin?

Or clothe in flesh the hardening bone,

Or weave the silken skin?

Who bids the babe, to catch the breeze,

Expand his panting breast;

And with impatient hands, untaught,

The milky rill arrest?

Or who with unextinguished love

The mother's bosom warms,

Along the rugged paths of life

To bear it in her arms?

A God! a God! the wide earth shouts,

A God! the heavens reply;

He moulded in his palm the world,

And hung it to the sky.

Let us make man!--With beauty clad,

And health in every vein;

And reason throned upon his brow,

Stepped forth majestic man.

Around he turns his wondering eyes,

All Nature's works surveys;

Admires the earth; the skies; himself!

And tries his tongue in praise.

Ye hills and vales! ye meads and woods!

Bright sun and glittering stars!

Fair creatures, tell me, if you can,

From whence and what I am?

What parent power, all great and good,

Does thee around me own;

Tell me, Creation, tell me how

To adore the vast Unknown;

According to his M. S. copy