O Fiends of Superstition! not that oft
Your pitiless rites have floated with man's blood
The skull-pil'd Temple, not for this shall wrath
Thunder against you from the Holy One!
But (whether ye th' unclimbing Bigot mock
With secondary Gods, or if more pleas'd
Ye petrify th' imbrothell'd Atheist's heart,
The Atheist your worst slave) I o'er some plain
Peopled with Death, and to the silent Sun
Steaming with tyrant-murder'd multitudes;
Or where mid groans and shrieks loud-laughing Trade
More hideous packs his bales of living anguish
1796.
[[165]]
pious] pious 1796-1829.
[[176]]
mazy surge] tortuous-folds 1796.
[[177]]
imbreathe] inbreathe 1797, 1803, 1828, 1829.
[[202]]
An] A 1834.