SOURCE: Chandler, David. “A Study of Charles Lamb's ‘Living without God in the World.’” The Charles Lamb Bulletin, no. 99 (July 1997): 86-101.

In the following essay, Chandler explicates Lamb's largely neglected poetic response to atheism entitled “Living without God in the World.”

Mystery of God! thou brave and beauteous world, Made fair with light and shade and stars and flowers, Made fearful and august with woods and rocks, Jagg'd precipice, black mountain, sea in storms, Sun, over all, that no co-rival owns, But thro' Heaven's pavement rides as in despite Or mockery of the littleness of man! I see a mighty arm, by man unseen, Resistless, not to be controul'd, that guides, In solitude of unshared energies, All these thy ceaseless miracles, O world! Arm of the world, I view thee, and I muse On Man, who trusting in his mortal strength, Leans on a shadowy staff, a staff...