PART IV.

H E scarce had closed his speech in sighs begun,
And ended, when before them slowly rose
Shaped from inwoven air, a growing form,
Human, but of dimension undefined.
What seemed a halo gathered round his brows,
As shed from star remote. His shadow fell
On Adam's front projected, till he stood
In darkness gathered like a circle round.
His eyes shot from their depths uncertain lights,
Where searching vision found no resting-place;
His voice was as the sound of forest leaves
Foretelling audibly the coming storm.

‘Sole son of earth! I am the doubt whose life
‘In thee is nurtured and matured.’

To whom
Our sire, as one on whose uncertain eyes
Breaks a vague ray, perturbing more than gloom:

‘Art thou a god who know'st, or seem'st to know
All wisdom, save the sole; denying all,
Maker, or will, or faculty save thine?’
Confronting our great Ancestor, with brow
Where purpose sate, restrained by baffled power,
Answered the light-bearer; in after time
Lucifer named; light that drew after him
A third of heaven.
‘I am as other life,
From the quick insect turning toward the star,
To the mote buried in earth's womb, a want,
A hope, an aspiration, doubt, and fear,
Even as thyself. Thou wouldst know all as I;
Thou dost create a god in thine own shape,
What other couldst thou mould? and givest him
Thy wants, and passions, and infirmities,
And this craving towards a higher state,
That grows, till prescience be faith, shall act
As wings to strengthen him to rise o'er ills,
And glory in life's sufferings.’
To whom
Adam, distrustful; ‘What is thy own state?
Thou who dost gather rays of setting suns
Within that form, obscure yet glorious;
Whose lustrous eyes look out from depths of thought
Inscrutable; whose visage speaks will foiled
And baffled purpose. Gazing upon thee,
I feel thou sayest truth, that we are one,
Of the same life, in grade ascendant thou,
Evolved from mightier energies. Bound to earth,
We kneel and pray to Him we have not seen,
But felt; a presence we believe and fear;
Thou turn'st to Him thou feel'st not, nor dost own.
Thus is thy state more restless, in the sense
Of aching want, in the desire to be
The potency thou art not; thus allied
To an imperfect power, that doth make
The inferior manifest.’ Responded him
The Energy sedate; ‘Offspring of Earth!
I seek for hidden knowledge even as thou;
It is the aspiration of all life
Though yonder infinite lights, from creeping things
Emerging from earth's darkness into day.
They seek, like thee, their origin; they call
On One the answerless; their law of life
The everlasting search of the Unknown.’
To whom our Sire:
‘Reveal the origin,
Spirits, or men, or self-created types,
Answered the Shape serene;
‘Because unfound,
Save in the strife of action, He whose name
And visible existence is in change.’

 To whom our Ancestor with saddened mien;
‘Alas for faith like thine! or rather doubt
From truth remote, wherein dwells wisdom none,
That doth impart nor comfort, nor repose,
Nor substant knowledge, nor its shadow, strength,
Nor hope, nor love; that no life-mover owns,
Save in the everlasting Universe.
The free-will given, the self-perceiving thought,
The love that pours itself in thankfulness;
The faith that sits submissive at the feet
Of reverence, turning to its source divine,—
These but the self-created; and, alas,
For thee, sublimer Spirit! with trust in nought.
Less perfect thou than I, yea, less of rest
And happiness is thine, for from winged faith
The strength is born whereon doth weakness rest’

 Then Eve spake, interposing as a ray,
Between dark clouds, each errant in its course,
The light withheld.
‘Adam! I fear this spirit,
Or rather bodied doubt, whose shadow falls
Upon the soul, darkening the vision of God.
A voice in me is heard ‘Distrust him still!’
The feeling of a self-supporting hope,
The consciousness of higher heritage,
Magnified in me with his utterance.’

 Responded Lucifer with voice benign;
‘Daughter of Earth! hast thou beheld thy God?’

 Answered our human Mother fervently:
‘Yea, in the outward forms of earth and sky
His presence I have seen, and felt, and heard,
But most within this reverential heart.
I never knelt and unrewarded rose;
Then, or in twilight, when earth faded from me,
Or when the stars, their bright eyes opening, showed
I was not all alone; or when the sun,
Set in mid-heaven, beheld me praying till
I felt the Father listened to his child.
I never breathed my gratitude but felt
That I was heard, the conscious prayer received,
And happiness given beyond my offering;
Knowledge of sinfulness, of slothful life,
That, from the roots of our humility,
Is born the faith, whose blossoming is love.’
Then spake the Power composed; ‘Well hast thou proved,
Thy gentler elements of being; life
That doth repose upon the strength it trusts,
Till from its want creating the support,
Which is necessity. The hours shall come
When thou shalt prove that duty, self-imposed,
Gives happiness, which is contentment drawn
From feeling of the law of right fulfilled.
Couldst thou but know, fiail human flower! that liv'st,
Confiding most in things unseen, unknown;
The sacrifice that shall be thine, not blood
Of brutes, but immolation of the heart;
Privations, agonies from thee entailed,
Or rather from the germs within thee born;
The malady, daily wasting, the decay
Of vital strength and of material power,
Drying the sap of life until the plant
Sinks withering to dust, thou wast, even now,
Stricken to earth, as thou shalt be hereafter!’

 Then, panoplied in fervid faith sublime,
With brow where truth reposed as on its throne,
Answered the ancestral mother:
‘Spirit of Light!
Thou on whose front power limited is traced,
And baffled purpose, while thou spak'st, I felt
New strength grow in me from thy hopelessness.
Faith, love, and hope, the indwelling triad, make me
A portion of the Being that instilled.
Nor deem our human aspirations vain,
Longings, or wants of an imperfect life;
Oh, rather, are they elements of power
Tending toward heaven, where rises nought more pure,
For from that yearning grows the wingèd strength,
Ascending from the altar of our hearts,
To pour to Him their thankfulness.’
‘I am
The appointed mother of the human race;
I feel the grandeur of my heritage,
That all of glorious, pure, and high, and good,
From me shall emanate. I draw the truth
From my prophetic soul; that I shall be
Parent of good and ill, of all that lives,
Or fair, or dark, enfolded, flower-like,
In our great life.’
‘I know our human will,
Conscious of strength, on higher power reposed,
Though foiled awhile, in the long strife o'ercomes.
That tendency to truth, or seeing God
In all things, is the purpose of our life,
Unfelt by doubt, but by the lowliness
Of love that duty owns, humility,
And self-restraint opening on peace supreme;
That good and ill grow forth from our own hearts,
Or made our pain or joy. Within ourselves
I feel the trials of mankind; distrust,
Weakness of will from ebbing faith or power,
Our natural inheritance entailed.
I feel our race through crime and endless strife
Of blood, and death, and false idolatries,
Shall rise into a being pure as thine,
But of a higher knowledge, soaring on
The wings of faith; thou, whose sublimest light
Is lustre-veiled, while they, in life enlarged,
Reflecting truth, shall reach the height of peace,
In the Creator found.’
To whom our Sire;
‘Even whilst thou didst speak, with ardent eyes,
And the prophetic tongue by God inspired,
The Spirit passed, as if he grew from doubt,
Thy faith annihilated. Oh, be thou
Of woman ever bless'd! From thee and thine
Shall emanate the faith by feeling found,
The intuitive vision opening on God
To us, through thee, its fountain-source revealed.’

 ‘Inspire me with thy wisdom, even now
While shadows gather o'er the face of day,
Reflecting on our hearts its tone subdued;
While stars, like watching eyes, look out from heaven;
And you large moon her luminous brow reveals,
Orbing o'er earth's dark side, filling the air
With sacred light that enters in our hearts;
Until our spirits pass into the scene,
And life is a thanksgiving and a joy.’