title: Romantic Atheism: Poetry and Freethought, 1780-1830 (Cambridge Studies in Romanticism)
author:  Martin Priestman 
description: "Priestman's study adds the obvious but still overlooked and unquestionably important feature of atheism, especially as it gets expressed in the discourse of Romantic poetry. By addressing attacks (both oblique and direct) on conventional religion expressed in Romantic poetry, Priestman presents us with a study that is long overdue." Religion &amp; Literature<br /><br />"...a very conscientious, diligent, helpful, even moving book. Readers who share his assumptions may consider it definative." North Dakota Quarterly
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  A Positive Romance  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  # A Positive Romance
  
  
  ### Edward Bellamy
  
  
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  A POSITIVE ROMANCE
  
  By Edward Bellamy
  
  1898
  
  My friend Hammond is a bachelor, and lives in chambers in New York. Whenever
  we meet on my occasional visits to the city, he insists on my spending the
  night with him. On one of these occasions we had been at the opera during the
  evening, and had witnessed an ovation to a beautiful and famous singer. We had
  been stirred by the enthusiasm of the audience, and on our walk home fell to
  discussing a theme suggested by the scene; namely, the tendency of man to
  assume a worshipful attitude towards woman, and the reason for it. Was it
  merely a phase of the passional relation between the sexes, or had it some
  deeper and more mysterious significance?
  
  When I mentioned the former idea, Hammond demanded why this tendency was not
  reciprocal 