It is obvious that to show the _Essay_ is wholly out of accord with Shelley’s temper and views on matters of religion in 1815, and on the other hand to show he was more strongly interested in the Moschian verse at a later period of his career, when his temper and views were in accordance with those of the _Essay_, is to sweep away the whole of the editorial argument. It is not too much to say that in 1815 Shelley could no more have written the _Essay_, than he could have composed the music of a great opera. On the other hand, the _Adonais_ affords conclusive evidence that the poet was influenced by both Bion and Moschus during the composition of the noble elegy. Besides the translated fragment of the Elegy on the Death of Bion, by Moschus (written on the same paper as the portion of the _Essay on Christianity_), Shelley left a translation of Bion’s _Elegy on the Death of Adonis_, both manuscripts being in the style of the poet’s later penmanship. Yet further, the Shelleyan manuscript of the translated fragment of Bion’s _Elegy on the Death of Adonis_ exhibits on its back a draft of _Pan, Echo, and the Satyr_, translated from the Greek of Moschus. Thus, whilst the last-named manuscript shows that Shelley was working about the same time on translations from both Greek poets, and the _Adonais_ affords conclusive evidence that its author was influenced in its composition by the same two poets, the manuscript of the translated fragment of the _Elegy on the Death of Bion_ shows it to have been produced by Shelley’s pen in the same period as the _Essay on Christianity_. It follows, therefore, that the _Essay on Christianity_ was produced at least in the same period as the _Elegy on John Keats_. This abundant evidence that the _Essay on Christianity_ should be assigned to the _Adonais_ period of Shelley’s literary career is further confirmed by these two important facts: (1) That the temper and reasoning of the _Essay_ are in harmony with Shelley’s views and feeling on religious matters towards the close of his life; and (2) That in conversation with Trelawny, who knew the poet only at the close of his career, Shelley ‘said he had wished to write a _Life of Christ_, revoking the hasty afterthought’ (expressed in a note to _Queen Mab_) ‘that Jesus was an ambitious man who aspired to the throne of Judea,’ at the same time adding ‘that he found the materials too deficient for reconstructing a _Life_ having some solidity and authority,’--words indicating that at a time no long while anterior to his brief association with Trelawny, the poet had been reconsidering and reshaping his views of the Saviour’s career. Mr. Rossetti justly remarks that the _Essay on Christianity_ may have been the out-come of this project. Most readers will also think the out-come, instead of being ascribed to a period prior to the composition of _Laon and Cythna_, should be assigned to the _Adonais_ term of the poet’s story.