XI.

To mystic depths and mistier. Hegel shrouds
Himself and Faith in denselier-rolling clouds.
Like Arab genie sore opprest in fight;
His splendour flashes through redoubled night
Thoughts are the same as Things; and what is true
Of one must be so of the other too;
So Non-existence, as a thought, must be
Tike pure Existence, a reality.
Of Being absolute, and uncombined
With qualities of any form or kind,
What can we know or predicate aright?
Is not Non-being in the self-same plight?
The positive and negative descried
In all things, must be these and nought beside;
For each Idea or Object (which you please—
Both are the same) developes into these;
But these destroy and shut each other out,
A negative is all they bring about;
But as the idea is there, and must remain.
That negative must be denied again.
As Abstract Space, for instance, cannot be
Conceived as boundless, or as bounded either;
Yet must be one, to be at all, you see,
Then cannot be at all, because 'tis neither:
A negative that meets denial clear.
For space is something after all, and here.
page 47 That last negation, then, the Idea revives,
And real essential Being to it gives
In the "Conditioned" where alone it lives.
Those magnet-poles, the two extremes, are gone,
And in the central point survive alone
Object and Subject, Universe and Soul,
Are in that centre, one and real, and whole;
Each in itself a nothing we may call,
But their relation to each other—all.
Like alkali and acid, they attract
Each other, meet, and perish in the act—
The effervescence rests the only fact
So the "Becoming"—the immediate spring
From Nought to Somewhat, is the vital thing;
"Well, well!" broke out our student here, "at least
It cannot be denied this great High Priest
Of metaphysic Mysteries, has the wit,
The ant-lion boasts who scoops his coneshaped pit
In subtlest sand, and there securely hides;
And when into the trap the victim slides,
And strives in vain to climb the slipping sides,
Down, deeper down, the crafty digger goes,
And o'er his prey such blinding dust showers throws,
He triumphs quickly, and the intruder draws
Bewildered into those remorseless jaws
But when unflinching Hegel flatly laid
The axiom down he would not have gainsaid,
Disdaining compromise—dispute—or flout
(Settling so coolly Hamlet's staggering doubt)
"To Be is Not-to-be "—and" Not-to-be
"To Be "—agree to that, or disagree,
"'Tis Logic's first great axiom, and most true!"
What Could a youth with risible organs do,
page 48 At this, Philosophy's last grand exploit?
But "ding the book the distance of a quoit"
Away, and with a shout of laughter loud,
Take to his pipe and blow—as clear a cloud.