Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Infidelity, Reason, Natural Theology, Design, Causation, Natural Law

    Informs the atheist: ''Tis vain to reason—thou hast overcome / Her firm foundations and destroyed her light; / 'Tis thou art deaf, but nature is not dumb, / Hear but her voice, and it will guide thee right'. Directs the attention to design in nature, asking if chance could create such a world. Points to the atheist's belief in causality, observing: 'Oh, tell us, how can your eternal laws, / Without eternal lawgiver proceed?'. (322) Declares that, even if a being 'less than God' had framed the universe, that being must ultimately be traced to a self-existent and eternal cause (323).