SOURCE: Adkins, Nelson F. “Nature” and “Deism.” In Philip Freneau and the Cosmic Enigma, pp. 17-57. New York: Russell & Russell, 1949.

In the following excerpt, Adkins explores the formation of Freneau's complex religious philosophy from his abandonment of the orthodoxy of his parents to his turn toward nature and deism.

Ii

Nature

… Any attempt to assert the precise moment of Freneau's break with fundamentalist religious doctrine would, indeed, be hazardous. It seems valid to assume that the poet's mind could never have been wholly free from those great social and religious principles to which his age had so eloquently given expression. At least one familiar but vital question must early have proved disquieting to his inherited orthodoxy. Has not our civilization so marred and corrupted man's way of life that if ever he is to regain his happiness and contentment he must seek once more the simplicity of nature...