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IV.

33.
Reason or intellect, or mind, or soul,
Are but the names we give each several phase
Or function of the spiritual whole
Which manifests itself in various ways,
According to the various subjects brought
Within the range and cognizance of conscious thought.

34.
We ponder over nature's mysteries,
Seeking a cause for each observed effect;
But the first cause of life and motion lies
Beyond the reach of keenest intellect:
Is this mind-element the hidden cause
Of that which moves all nature, vaguely known as force?

35.
The finite mind, compell'd by nature's laws
Within the narrow sphere to operate
In which it dwells, feels it can change the course
Of circumstance; as fancy bids create
New forms of matter; and with cunning skill
Make nature's hidden powers subservient to its will.

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36.
But infinite mind, from all conditions free
Which curb man's action, needs must exercise
Similar power in infinite degree
To that which in ourselves we recognise;—
Infinite mind the omnipresent mean
By which all matter lives, and moves, and has its being:—

37.
Moves ever with the state and majesty
Of constant law. For mind, if infinite,
Consistent with itself must ever be;
And law is but a name t' express aright
The modes of nature 'neath the influence
Of perfect and omnipotent intelligence.

38.
Our own minds range throughout the infinite;
We speak of a beginning and an end;
But o'er such boundaries thought takes its flight
To where th' ideas of time and space extend
Throughout the measureless eternity,
Before beginning was and after end shall be.

39.
Imagination in its daring flight
Attempts, where reason fails, to realise
Nature's beginning; sees primeval night
And silence reign o'er earth and seas and skies;
How force as yet was not; as by some spell
Entranc'd, all matter lay, inert, immoveable.

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40.
See how God's spirit moving o'er the scene
Th' etherial element of force instill'd
The dead material particles between,
Till nature's universal atoms thrill'd
With that mysterious energy from whence
Atom o'er atom wields its mystic influence.

41.
Then like some mighty engine driv'n by force
Unknown, inscrutable, nature began
Her magic revolutions, change nor pause
To know whilst time thro' countless ages ran.
Then ether blaz'd with light; the voice of sound
Rang thro' the quiv'ring air its melody around.

42.
The atoms, joyful in their new born power,
Combine in infinite variety
Of ever-changing forms; tree, herb, and flower,
And moving habitants of land and sea,
Appear and fade; whilst ever re-appear
New forms, organic life's phantasmagoria.

43.
Life! but one phase of th' all-pervading law
Which rules the universe: the tend'rest blade
Which sunbeams from its earthy cradle draw
Springs upward by the same impulse which made
The Earth and all her planetary peers
Keep measure in the choral dances of the spheres.

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44.
Is this a poet's dream? Shall we deny
That chaos ever was? or say that force
Was one with matter from eternity—
Both coexistent—each effect and cause?
If 'twere, still in the dream we seem to see
How matter mov'd by mind is Nature's myetery.

45.
The sequence of events is measur'd by
Tenses and terms of time: no language can
Construct a dial for eternity,
Or measure out th' infinite with a span;
All's simultaneous in the infinite past:
Eternity, to man, has neither first nor last.

46.
From the small eyelet hole of Self, we view
The past and future, and the world around;
By what within ourselves we know is true
We measure all within our reason's bound;
Our own weak powers we infinitize
To comprehend the infinite which round us lies.