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ather than his scepticism or sophistry. But his later turn to Christianity, and the revisions to ThePrelude that followed as a consequence, led to the changes in the poem that did compromise hisoriginal stoic principles and confuse the logic of his argument. As a consequence, the ‘hiding places’of his poetic power became more hidden, and the virtues and vices of his position were, once againopen to interpretation. One of the very last revisions to The Prelude, probably made in 1832, was there-description of the Prophet of Nature’s authority. In his revised state he would speak, ‘A lastinginspiration, sanctified / By reason, blest by faith’.291