"Souls there above who once below all things,
All things inherit, and are priests and kings, 2320
Pillars immovable, princes unto God,
No more outgoing from that high abode,
Where past and future present are alway,
And years a thousand even as a day".
Who here have lived, or would have lived, the law[24],
Exalted, numbered with the gods, he saw,
One with the wisdom of Omniscience,
And glorious with All Intelligence.
So thorough and so just the perfect plan,
Weighing the motive with the work of man! 2330
Nor this the tithe of what those tongues unfold,
Nor tithe of tithe of what can ne'er be told.
As unto Judah's one and Joseph's three[25],
Who tasted of translation's ecstacy;
Or him who, spared from Babel's doom, beheld
Messiah's unclothed spirit[26], faith-compelled;
Or him of Tarsus, tranced, the triple seer[27]
Of things unlawful to be uttered here;—
As unto souls like these was given to see
The marvel past, the mystery to be, 2340
So upon him, their peer of modern days,
The Source of all-revealing sends its rays.
Broken the fountains of the upper deep;
Opened the sepulchres where ages sleep;
The past, the future, now the present leaven;
With truth from earth blends righteousness from heaven,
Welding the parted links of being's chain,
Old making new, the dead live again.
O message marvelous to eyes and ears!
Voices and visions of the mystic spheres! 2350
Voices of noonday, visions of the night,
Whisperings of angels, and their presence bright!
Voice of the Architect of Life's vast Plan,
Speaking as God to God, as man to man!
CANTO EIGHT
The Lifted Ensign[1]
Armed now with knowledge, panoplied with power,
With two-edged sword of God's authority,
Girded by heavenly hands on shepherds twain[2],
The first and second of a gathering flock,
Transcribers of the buried book of gold,
Whose mystic page, unsealed by gift divine, 2360
Save part withheld of mightier mystery,
Now challenges the wise and wondering world;—
Armed and equipt, with staff, and stone in sling,
Strong in the Lord, the God of Israel,
The dauntless David of a later day
Fares forth to meet the Giant of Untruth[3].
Thenceforth a warrior and a wanderer,
A victor hated for his victories;
Targe for the javelin of jealousy;
Hunted and hounded through the wilderness; 2370
Outlawed by all, all save a loyal few,
The patient sharers of his painful lot,
Companions of his mortal pilgrimage,
Recalled with him, their earthly errand o'er,
To grace the courts of High Jerusalem.
But ere a day for that departure dawns,
Unveiled once more the face of mystery.
Speaks from the musty tomb of buried time,
The all-remembering Spirit of the Past: