XIII.

But still will he—the thoughtful—sanguine-hearted
With greater zeal by Time and Life imparted
Swear fearless fealty, in age as youth,
To highest Reason and all-questioning Truth!
That Reason which must own
Inferior truths alone
Are yet within the range of proof,
As wholly to be sifted, fathomed, known:
While to some glimpses of the higher,
That wake most wise desire,
Soar as they may above us and aloof,
Through Feeling checked by Reason we may still aspire!
And still will he exclaim,
With thought as daring, earnestness the same:
"O heat of loving Heart! 0 Light of chainless Mind!
When will conviction flash on dull mankind,
That you are One and True; to doubt you, false and blind!
And O, them One Ineffable! O Being
In infinite ubiquitous persistence
By our conceptions inconceivable—to all our seeing
Invisible! yet forced upon us as unknown Existence
By all Existence known! O Thou
The source of Soul and Nature, Man and Brute
Whom in this sensuous deep thou dost immerse—
Thou hast ordained that deep shall still avow
Thyself—some shadow of Thyself reveal—
Potent o'er inmost conscioness to steal;
A conscious brooding Presence—through thy Universe
For ever everywhere intrusive—
For ever everywhere elusive—
Resistlessly suggestive, yet inexorably mute!—
page 487 Thou, in the very strangeness of the Mystery
Of everything that is—this actual Here and Now—
A mystery impenetrable—from the highest cope
Of heaven with Astral Systems flung along its slope
To the minutest microscopic spark
Or speck of life obscure in air or earth or sea—
Some viewless animalcule—such a vivid shield
Of trembling rings of iridescent splendour
The very Rainbow by its side would yield
The palm—has no such glory to attend her
As we are startled to find there, unseen
By unassisted sense; a glow
Of Beauty and Power divine that, from below
Rising to meet the Power and Beauty above
That through those star-worlds limitless expand—
Floods all the Universe with boundless Love!
Until we feel, we darkling men—
So darkling in our nook of narrow days
And cramping thoughts and creeping ways—
As in the midst, stark-blind with light, between
That Infinitesimal and Infinite we stand—
Feel wholly plunged, enveloped in the blaze
Of the abounding Presence then
Of that creative Beauty and Power divine—
Say rather, O Unnameable, of Thine!—
Yes! in this Mystery, though dark as night
Yet beautiful and wonderful beyond the scope
Of utmost admiration; yet a joy to mark
Amd marvel at, exhaustless by all thirst
For joy Thyself didst plant within us first;
Thou hast therein writ thy decree
It shall for Man for ever be
Inevitable to conclude Thee good and just;
page 488 Most rational to hold a boundless Hope;
Most tenderly ennobling utterly to trust
In the Omnipotence of Love and Thee!
Therefore we thank Thee! therefore boldly say:
' Man! thou momentary ray
Shot from the hidden Splendour far away—
Sheet-lightning gleam of a perceptive power
Taking wide Nature's surface for its dower;
0 phantom-puppet of miraculous clay!
Thou that art launched into the infinite void
Upon thy sparkling bubble-world upbuoyed;
And—as an Insect on a floating
leaf Runs to and fro, incapable of flight,
And works and waves in air its horns so slight—
Dost ever, on thy voyage brief,
Keep stretching towards some unimagined goal
Hid in the blank abyss of Light
The feeble feelers of thy Soul!
Poor Atom on the Ocean of the All—
Hold bravely onward! faint not yet nor fall-
Some day shall come full answer'to thy call!'"

Enough—the homely reel of Life we hold—
Of Amo' life and Ranolf' is unrolled;
She and her thoughtful thoughtless Wanderer bold,
Slight subjects of a lingering theme,
Faint visions of a too protracted dream,
Sink down—and like the ghosts of every-day,
The solid real flesh-phantoms—fade away!