PART II.

I SPAKE ; before me visible answer grew.
I saw, reclined against the tree that cast
Its arms above, o'ershadowing the bank,
Two glorious shapes in one similitude
The one from harmonies of softened lines
Woven, in undulation waved of grace,
Swelling or lessening in gradations fine;
Flexile and yielding as a thing that asked
Support, which would upon that stay repose.
Something of Nature's outward aspect showed
From either form, as they a portion were
Of her material life.

The auguster shape
Embodied larger moulding; A DAM named
From the red earth that made. His rich locks fell
Like blossoms from the trees umbrageous, rolled
Down his full columned neck; his form embrowned
Was as the stately trunk whereon he leaned.
His eyes, as yet undimmed by grief, or age,
Reflected, river-like, the earth and sky:
His brow showed like a mountain eminence
Sky-challenging. He stood with mien sedate,
And staid reflection mirrored in his face,
As one ordained the priest of Nature, bound
To testify God's manifest harmonies.

Beside him stood the image of himself,
But softened and subdued as twilight resting
Upon day's bosom. In his form enlarged,
Beauty reclined on conscious strength, in her
On grace alone; her cheek had caught tints cast
From roses, her deep eyes reflected were
From heaven's profoundest azure; round her brows
Tendril-like locks shed lustrous light, escaped
From flowers that bound them; feeling of repose
Dwelt round her form, or rather from it grew,
Showing the will that on itself relied.
Majesty looked forth from that form august,
Such as became the mother of mankind,
Conscious of her great heritage decreed;
That the infinity of good and ill,
Strength to contend, the triumph and the fall,
With the redemption of humanity,
Should emanate from her.

She gazed on him,
Motionless as the tree whereon he leaned,
Or the calm air that stirred not the broad leaf
O'er-canopying; his eyes on earth were fixed,
As one who meditates, nor comprehends
The marvel that he contemplates. The shade
Of human thought o'ercast his brows, and proved
Its kindredship to pain. The ground, strewn o'er
With seared leaves shaken from their parent trees
By Autumn's red hand, showed like floors of heaven,
When the sun glows from western paradise.
Visible beauty breathed along the scene,
But wild and sad, prophetic of decay.
The day-orb, sunk beneath earth's bosom, cast
Lustre, not heat; his glorious brow declined,
As if he looked farewell to happiness
Departed. The fine mists that rose on air
From the sky-imaged stream o'erfilmed the cheek
Of Nature, casting shadows o'er her brow
Sympathy lived between them and the scene.
His fixed eye watched, yet saw not, that far stream,
Like a sky-tinted streak on earth reposed,
Winding through sinuous vales that heaved their breasts,
Shadowed, not hidden, by o'ertressing woods,
To where the purple of the horizon blended
With the impalpable sky. Beside him stood
Woman unchanged amid the changeable;
The shadow from his forehead cast on hers,
One self revealed; he turned his eyes on her,
His other life, or rather on his own;
As if thought grew from gazing, he began:

 ‘Life of my own life, thou! apart, yet one;
I have essayed to make the happiness
I have not found, save but in thee alone,
Myself in other form. As we behold
Ourselves reflected in each other's gaze,
So are our spirits one, each thought revealed.
We have lived, Eve, within this paradise,
Happy because content; we sighed for nought
Beyond our life; we knew our frailties,
But we reposed our trust upon the Power
Seen outwardly, and owned in our deep hearts.
But now an agency unseen, but felt,
A nameless presence ruling from without,
As inwardly, compels, and we obey.
Vain were truth hidden, Eve, from thy clear eyes,
Aught that doth enter in this human breast
Of good or ill, of shadow or of joy.
The change is manifest in outward shows;
The spirit of good that, sun-like, on us shone,
Is fled; its eyes were seen in cheering light,
Its open forehead was the sun-filled space,
Its respiration in the air; its shape
In glorious colour seen. Within the breath
And coming of great morn its step was heard;
Its love was shown in fructifying earth.

 ‘We lived before that Being, we decline
With his receding influence; even now
The blessing felt and consciousness of life
Vibrates in us with weaker pulse; and earth
Owns sympathy with her human child. Behold
Her ruins round us lying! her decay
Images forth our own; that we must droop,
And fall together. The life-quickening heat,
Once from her heart respired, is felt no more.
Tints brightest on her cheek are earliest seared;
The beautiful of flower and fruit have passed.
The winds breathe wailing notes as if they told
Our doom with human voices; the cold air
Contracts the shuddering and shrinking sense,
Felt as a thing ungenial and severe.
Nor wanes the earth alone; cloud-glories fade,
Their sharper edges crisping the fine air.
The mists that slumbered o'er her brow are raised,
And leave it bared. Hills nearer round us close;
Yet the sun downward sheds its mellowing rays,
Lingering upon her forehead lovingly,
As he were conscious that he looked upon
A glory and a life that must depart;
As if sad Nature watched the fading steps
Of beauty in departure, hallowing each
With blessing in their flight; as if the air
Echoed the mournful truth from our deep hearts.

 ‘Our vital strength, fed by that fire, declines;
I feel we are a portion of his light;
Else wherefore feel we saddened when he sinks,
And, when he rises, life, and strength, and joy,
While he casts over the broad face of heaven
Glory we cannot look on, and on earth
Hues where the eye reposes, till the heart
Pours forth itself in love and gratefulness?
Now, from the dark recesses of the night,
Evil steals, serpent-like, and twines itself
Round Nature's form, shedding from yonder star
Its influence malign.

‘Then winds come forth,
And warn us, cowering, to rest; we feel
Our impotence against a foe unseen.
Changed air becomes a power and presence felt,
Yea, a necessity that urges hence,
To follow that blest sun revealing still
A paradise it opens when it sets.
But now the life-giver, removed afar,
Hears us no more, infusing in us less
Of His divine vitality; he looks
Colder upon us, evil is the cold.

 ‘Two powers contend within us, each opposed;
Two inward voices heard; indwelling faith,
The consciousness of the beneficent
Present in us, as in the life He made;
The other drawn not or from thee, or me,
Fear and distrust of Him, the Power unknown,
We see not, but feel working round us still.
For now compulsion, as with fiery hands,
Urges us hence, to search for food erewhile
Found on earth's breast, or pendant from each bough,
When, from on high, God looked upon his works,
And saw that life was good; but now to live
Is labour; toil of arm and sweat of brow,
And watchful eye and hand to gain the food
Earth yields no more. The spirit of love is fled;
Evil steals joy from us that comes no more.’

 He ceased, but rather her response to hear,
Than his full breast confess, with thought o'ercharged,
His eyes toward earth inclined, clouds gathering o'er
Shadowed the inward light within obscured.
His head reposed on her fair shoulder, veiled
With golden hair; her eyes grew on his face.
Then woman spake, our earliest comforter,
Healer and soother of our mortal griefs,
And fount of hope. The mother of mankind
Turned upon him her countenance, where sate
Majestic consolation and repose.

 ‘Adam! one truth has life to us revealed;
Happiness dwells within ourselves: beyond
Is change, and fluctuation, and decay.
Earth is the expression of the Maker's face
Of love toward us, and his wisdom felt
In outward shows of things, elusive made,
To lead us toward Him, the permanent.
Thou hast o'erstepped the path of happiness,
Where flowered the blossom found when most unsought;
Nor a want proved, nor yearning owned, but felt
In the full consciousness of grateful life
Whose shadows give the quiet that is joy.
We question when we should adore, we sigh
For happiness, until the want we make
Becomes a pain. Earth, basking in the sun,
Yielded us fruitage, for a while withdrawn,
To wake in us the faculty that slept,
To guard existence given. I, too, have watched,
Forms beautiful decline; joy-giving hues
Like breath of God respired o'er that He made,
Fade from us; flowers that looked love, and died
In odours to renew their life, for He
Creates not things to perish utterly.
We mourn the outward changes of a life
Whose change is light and shade, and death their rest
I, too, have heard one voice; within us dwells
Another of reproof, revealing truth
Found by our self-made faith, according strength
That o'ercomes evil, bodied forth by thee.’