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V.

47.
God in man's nostrils breath'd the breath of life,—
The living soul. This was man's earliest creed;—
That men their spiritual life derive
From that supernal fountain whence proceed,
As scintillations from celestial fire,
The God-like powers which the souls of men inspire.

48.
It may be in that old world faith conceal'd,
The key to nature's mystery we find,
To scientific teaching unreveal'd;
That in the working of the infinite mind
There lies the secret of the first great cause,
In man, of mind, in nature of material force.

49.
In varying measure has this gift divine
Been shar'd by men; with dim and flick'ring light
'Tis seen in those of lower type to shine;
In nobler burns ever with time more bright;
Quench'd by its lustre baser instincts die
And social order grows from social anarchy.

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50.
And some have lived—the high-priests of mankind—
Prophet and Sage, whose souls have seem'd to dwell
In closer union with the infinite mind,
Whose thoughts have spread beyond the narrow cell
Of their own lives, illumining the page
Of the world's history through each succeeding age.

51.
And if in sounds of nature, men have dream'd
They heard th' Almighty speaking—in the storm
Or voices of the thunder-cloud—or deem'd
They saw the Deity in material form;
Or thought in Nature's portents they could read
The issues of the future by the fates decreed;

52.
Was superstitious fear alone the cause
Of these imaginings? or may we think
Such vague emotions had a deeper source—
Th' unconscious recognition of the link
'Twixt man and nature—that divine impress
Without which mind were void and matter motionless?