Select Poetry.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 360, 5 April 1861, Page 4

Select Poetry.

[Mr. Editor-Having read some hnes in your paper from the pen of Bishop Heber entitled •; What is reheion " perhaps you will not object to insert the two following extracts from my scrap book on the same subject.—Senex Albos.] And as their gorgeous idol* rolled The signs and seasons through, They shaped the heavens in fancy's mould With forms and signals that foretold And warned them what to do. The elements they deified And worshipped with vain prayer, Craving the whirlwind to subside, And when the waters swelled their tide, Praying the waves to spare. Thus they the stars as gods designed, Thus from this source began Religion—whatsoe'er its kind, Wherever found 'tis but man's mind Personified by Man. 'Twas not for the farce of a hasty prayer Forgotten as soon as said, Nor fasting nor worship at glittering shrine With a crouching form and a face divine That man alone was made. All this may be done by the veriest wretch That sun or moon ere shone on, . With a brow of heaven, but a heart of hell, Whose life of curse and crime could tell Of many a dark deed done! Imbax's Vision. * The Sun.