8 6 1: What then is God? Some moonstruck sophist stood
8 6 8, 9:
And that men say God has appointed Death
On all who scorn his will to wreak immortal wrath.
8 7 1-4:
Men say they have seen God, and heard from God,
Or known from others who have known such things,
And that his will is all our law, a rod
To scourge us into slaves—that Priests and Kings
8 8 1: And it is said, that God will punish wrong;
8 8 3, 4:
And his red hell’s undying snakes among
Will bind the wretch on whom he fixed a stain
8 13 3, 4:
For it is said God rules both high and low,
And man is made the captive of his brother;
9 13 8: To curse the rebels. To their God did they
9 14 6: By God, and Nature, and Necessity.
9 15. The stanza contains ten lines—lines 4-7 as follows:
There was one teacher, and must ever be,
They said, even God, who, the necessity
Of rule and wrong had armed against mankind,
His slave and his avenger there to be;
9 18 3-6:
And Hell and Awe, which in the heart of man
Is God itself; the Priests its downfall knew,
As day by day their altars lovelier grew,
Till they were left alone within the fane;