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THE 
 
 ANGEL WOELD 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER POEMS. 
 
 BY 
 
 PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "FESTUS." 
 
 BOSTON: 
 TICK NOR, REED, AND FIELDS 
 
 MDCCCL. 
 
TT^ 
 
 '/ i v^ 
 
 PRINTED BY THURSTON, TORRY, AND CO., BOSTON. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 THE ANGEL WORLD 1 
 
 THE RETURN 78 
 
 HYMN OF THANKS 81 
 
 AUTUMN 83 
 
 THE RING 86 
 
 TO THE TRENT 89 
 
 AN ANCIENT LEGEND ••.... 92 
 
 LONDON ........ 97 
 
 A RUIN . . • .... 93 
 
 A FRAGMENT 99 
 
 LOVERS . 101 
 
 A MYTH 102 
 
 MORNING 103 
 
 A MYSTERY . . 107 
 
 PRAYER 108 
 
 HYMN 110 
 
 KNOWLEDGE 112 
 
THE ANGEL WOELD. 
 
 It was a holy festival in Heaven, 
 A joy of satisfaction at the close 
 Of some divinest epoch of the world. 
 
 Far round the infinite extremes of space 
 Star unto star spake gladness, as they sped 
 On their resplendent courses ; and a smile, 
 Enkindling on the countenances of the suns, 
 Thrilled to the heart of nature, while there rose. 
 Expressive of divine felicity, 
 A clear bright strain of music, like a braid 
 Of silver round a maiden's raiment, all 
 Imbounding and adorning. 
 
 There, in one 
 Of those most pure and happy stars which claim 
 Identity with Heaven, high raised in bliss, 
 1 
 
2 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Each lofty spirit luminous with delight, 
 
 Sat God's selectest angels, gathered round 
 
 The golden board of that palatial orb, 
 
 In spheral order. All the fruitage there 
 
 Of the immortal Eden, and the land 
 
 Of everlasting Light to please the sense 
 
 And satisfy the soul, the Tree of Life 
 
 In all its bright varieties could yield 
 
 Was lavished ; and its fragrance filled the skies. 
 
 The bright blue wine as though exprest from Heaven 
 
 Glittering with life went, moonlike, round and round 
 
 Times sacredly repeated 'mong the gods 
 
 And spirits who had each one earned his star 
 
 In that divinest conclave, as they held 
 
 Deep commune on the wondrous end imposed 
 
 By the Eternal Saviour of the world 
 
 Upon his infinite work ; — and all the harps — 
 
 Intwined about with nectar-dropping flowers 
 
 Which wither not though culled but on the brow 
 
 Or in the bosom bloom as in their fields — 
 
 Were trembling into silence, when there stepped, 
 
 Unseen before, into the joyous midst 
 
 Of that bright throng, surprised in holy ease, 
 
 A young and shining angel. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 In his air 
 Sat kingly sweetness, kind and calm command, 
 Yet with long suffering blended ; for the soil 
 Of dust was on his garb and sandalled sole ; 
 Dust on the locks of fertile gold which flowed 
 From his fair forehead rippling round his neck ; 
 Bedropt, defiled, with cold and cave-like dew. 
 One hand a staff of virent emerald held 
 As 't were a sapling of the tree of life, 
 And one smoothed in his breast a radiant dove 
 Flutterincp its winors in licrhtninn;s thousand-hued, 
 The sole companion of his pilgrimage. 
 Silent he stood and gazed. 
 
 The angels straight 
 Rose from their pearly seats inwreathed with gems 
 And priceless azure from the morning's mine, 
 And bowed the head and stretched the hand, ere yet 
 One welcoming word were uttered. Wine and bread- 
 Bread made of golden wheat — and wine of life — 
 Such only as immortal virtues use. 
 Before the guest were set ; and cool white robes 
 The angels gave him, floating halo-like 
 With fleecy glistening round his fainting limbs. 
 
4 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Twain of the thrones at once theh^ seats resigned ; 
 Ministrant Princedoms sang again the strain 
 Which fills the halls of hospitable Heaven 
 When that the holy enter, or the sons 
 Of Light hold high and hallowed festival. 
 
 Then spake the cherub chiefest of them all — 
 Bright Angel ! from vvrhatever sphere arrived, 
 Supernal and celestial, or some orb 
 Far off, of starry nature, — for the toil 
 Meseems, of travel, weighed upon ye erst, — 
 Now cheerily relieved, — instruct us, pray, 
 Who here assembled sit to celebrate. 
 By kind commission of our Lord, His love. 
 If we in aught thine ends can further aid 
 Or serve in thine intents, as fain we would. 
 For all, we know, is holy enters here. 
 By virtue of our King ; and we, prepared 
 Again for sacred action, instant are. 
 
 Thus he, his seat resuming, while a glance 
 
 Of bland approval beamed forth from every eye, 
 
 Wise reticence still reining-in each tongue. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Answered the stranger angel, rising slow, 
 Sunlike, from out his seat of clouded gold — 
 O kind ! O noble, natures ! well ye work 
 Your ministry of love, who thus pour forth 
 Unmeasured, unconditioned, your divine 
 Riches of works and words, that all who come, 
 Whether by invitation or by need. 
 May of the Sovereign's bounty, whom ye serve. 
 Like honour with His chosen friends, receive ; 
 Accept these thanks, this blessing ! — 
 
 As he ceased, 
 The air became all incense, and the skies, 
 As though endowed with native sunlife, showered 
 Around on all their iridescent smiles. 
 
 Oh not to us, rejoined the cherub host, 
 Be gratitude for duty barely done ; 
 All honour is our Lord's. To Him we owe 
 This gracious exaltation o'er the world. 
 Wherein His love sustains us ; His, who first 
 By one Omnipotent Fiat breathed us forth ; 
 Who, out of awful non-existence, us 
 Translated into life, and turned our souls 
 
6 
 
 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 To angel constellations, ranging free 
 Through all the eternal liberties of Light. 
 But if thou wilt, oh say, most holy guest ! 
 Whom we account us blessed to receive, 
 While yet the day doth solemnize the skies. 
 Wherefore thou hither comest, — how treated else 
 In other worlds, and whither now ; so we, 
 Haply, may wisdom gather from thy words. 
 Or help afford by deeds. 
 
 Then once again 
 That radiant youth, immortal as the morn. 
 Rose from the Crown of Heaven, and bending low 
 Spake with a soft, bright utterance, like the voice 
 Of very silence musing ; — so serene 
 His parlance, and his audience so attent. 
 
 O happy angels, heavenly and divine. 
 
 To whom nor sin, nor sigh, nor tear, nor woe, 
 
 Not even in imagination, come ; 
 
 And whose free lives in blest obedience pass 
 
 To one law pure, and sole — the law of love — 
 
 How shall ye hear, or I relate, the griefs 
 
 Of orbs disrupted and of spirits dyed 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD, 7 
 
 In blackest sin — of God's high rule reject — 
 
 His own deputed, exiled — rudely thrust 
 
 From ancient throne and old dynastic calm 
 
 Thought steadfast and eterne — and through the blank 
 
 Of lifeless night compelled to wander ; where, 
 
 But that afar he caught the friendly glance 
 
 Of your extreme and most felicitous star, 
 
 He might perchance have wandered still ; but since 
 
 A gracious ear to stranger's plaint be yours, 
 
 Let me, in briefest wise, recount the deeds 
 
 Of worlds far distant, wherewithal mine own 
 
 Be somewhat, and not wholly dimly blent ; 
 
 That ye in joy thus fortified, may thanks 
 
 Give for your peaceful lot, and further bless 
 
 God, who hath put it in your hearts to share 
 
 Those bounties with the stranger, ye enjoy. 
 
 To Him be praise and worship in all worlds ! — 
 
 Beyond the ken of angels, in the midst 
 
 Of a bright ring of worlds, an orb there is — 
 
 There is — ah me ! there was — an orb of light, 
 
 Once all mine own. In Heaven mine Angel-sire — 
 
 Such blest relations are, ye know, in Heaven — 
 
 Abode,and ruled in glory many a tribe 
 
 Elect of choicest virtues, He Himself 
 
8 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Sovereign and head of all cherubic thrones, 
 Abiel his name, mine Beniel, known on high, 
 His sole Son, and ye all are sons of God. 
 This orb, I, trusted with supremest powers 
 Paternal love could lend, myself had framed, 
 Myself with life endowed and loving things. 
 All life is sacred in its kind to Heaven, 
 And all things holy, beautiful, and good. 
 There angels dwelt as in the bosom of bliss ; 
 Peace, piety, and innocence and joy 
 Made up the square of Being. Worship was 
 The very air they lived in, righteousness 
 The ground they trode and builded on. 
 
 A land 
 It shewed of fountains, flowers, and honied fruits, 
 Of cool green umbrage, and incessant sun ; — 
 The rainbow there in permanent splendour spanned 
 The skies by ne'er a cloud deformed, of hue 
 Sterner than amber ; while on every hand 
 The clear blue streams singing and sparkling ran 
 The bloomy meads to fertilize ; while some 
 With honey, nectar, manna, milk, and wine, 
 Fit for angelic sustenance slow flowed. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Here palaces and cities, midst of groves, 
 Like giant jewels set in emerald rings ; 
 There, too, the bowery coverture of woods. 
 Ancient and dense, laced with all-tinted flowers, 
 Wherein were wont to sojourn in all peace, 
 Lamb, lion, eagle, ox, dove, serpent, goat, 
 And snow-white hart, each sacred animal 
 Cleansed from all evil quality, sin-instilled. 
 Speaking one common tongue, and gathered oft 
 In wisest parley, 'neath the sacred tree 
 Centring each mazy pleasance, intersect 
 With an invisible bound ; so sweet the force 
 Of nature, heavenly sanctioned. 
 
 All went well 
 For many a sunny cycle. Year by year 
 The souls of all things there were ripening fast 
 To spirit-like perfection ; day by day 
 Grew spirithood to deathless angel kind — 
 Angelic nature to Divine estate. 
 It seemed a happy contest which of all 
 Should happiest be. 
 
 Among that heavenly race 
 There dwelt two angel-sisters, nymphs divine, 
 
10 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 The daughters of the Lord of gods and men, 
 Star-dowered, light-portioned, forms full realized 
 Of the Eternal Beauty. 
 
 Yet how unlike 
 Their nature, and their loveliness ; in one 
 A soul of lofty clearness, like a night 
 Of stars, wherein the memory of the day 
 Seems trembling through the meditative air — 
 In whose proud eye, one fixed and arklike thought 
 Held only sway ; that thought a mystery ; — 
 In one, a golden aspect like the dawn — 
 Beaming perennial in the Heavenly east — 
 Of paly light ; she ever brightening looked 
 As with the boundless promise unfulfilled 
 Of some supreme perfection ; in her heart 
 That promise aye predestinate, alway sure, 
 Her breast with joy suffusing, and so wrought. 
 Her sigh seemed happier than her sister's smile : 
 Yet patient she and humble. 
 
 Of this twain 
 The elder my betrothed was, to me 
 In antemundane ages, by my sire. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 11 
 
 As of like royal issue with myself, 
 And seed divine reserved ; yet so disposed 
 Of this bright orb the triple herison, 
 That ere the elder entered on the whole, 
 The younger should the fair domain enjoy 
 Of her own chosen portion and delight. 
 Such the decree forestablished from of old. 
 Who shall gainsay the will supreme of God ? 
 For both He loved right well, but for my sake 
 The first the best, with whom was most secured 
 The bliss of all. 
 
 The younger now had reigned 
 In meekest wise for many a moonlike age 
 O'er her select dominion ; and delight 
 Leapt up its highest, when the news made known 
 By Wisdom, their high governante, spread abroad 
 Of nuptials nearing celebration. Vast 
 And rich in festive splendour were commenced 
 The sacred preparations : every heart 
 Impatient for the high propitious hour 
 When the Bride Queen of their own angel race 
 With me enthroned should sit, and rule with me. 
 
12 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Midst all this, suddenly a stranger star 
 
 Svvordlike in shape, as waved by hand unseen, 
 
 Far off in space appeared ; eclipsing swift 
 
 All lesser, nearer lights which nature shewed. 
 
 So rapidly from end to end it flew 
 
 Of Heaven's horizon — even as though it scorned 
 
 The quiet skies of that ecstatic sphere, 
 
 I spake of — that the third night it had vanished 
 
 Into the unknown infinite below ; 
 
 When to their wondering eyes the morrow morn, 
 
 Waked out of darkness into daily light, 
 
 A marvel mightier than the sworded star — 
 
 Which I alone perceived the Evil one 
 
 Had there unsheathed in Heaven where late it flamed 
 
 Behold, was present. 
 
 Bands of angels — whence 
 Was known not — thronged the groves and palaces. 
 Which decked our paradisal world, in air 
 And aspect, fair yet foreign, and distinct 
 Their every action with a shining grace 
 Which like a lodestar chained, unfelt, the eye ; 
 And made their loveliness, exceeding far 
 The holy beauty of the original tribes — 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 13 
 
 Erstwhile so happy — fatal. For these first 
 
 The heart divided, once entirely God's, 
 
 Whole and without a flaw ; first tuned their lyres 
 
 To angel-love alone, but half divine ; 
 
 First taught to separate self from Deity. 
 
 Yet seemed they not to teach but rather fled 
 
 All serious converse and instruction, soon 
 
 Curtailing worship and prolonging rest ; 
 
 As though true worship were not union high 
 
 With the Great Lord and universal Good, 
 
 Worthy of worship ceaseless and by all. 
 
 These, after mingling, as by chance or choice 
 In holy celebrations, when first asked 
 Their rank to name, and order, made reply 
 They were the youngest offspring of the Heavens, 
 Children of bliss and knowledge, richly dowered 
 With singular joys and rare immunities; — 
 That they were spirits of freedom, and their suit 
 And servage voluntary, whence alone 
 Budded what little merit they possessed ; 
 As otherwise their gracious Lord, they said. 
 Were mocked with forced compliance ; that all good 
 Sprang from the natural impulse of their souls 
 
14 
 
 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 And the proud pleasure of pure liberty ; 
 
 That they the measure of the skies fulfilled 
 
 The complement of all extremes of light ; 
 
 Of all celestial essence they the sum, 
 
 And after them was nothing ; — which to preach 
 
 Of their own selves was their sole business there 
 
 Wandering where'er to wander pleased them best. 
 
 Like, but unequal, as the eye to Heaven, 
 Errors the shape of truths put on ; as clouds 
 The forms of isles and continents assume. 
 From whence they sprang, suspended in the skies. 
 
 With such like words, so falsely seeming true, 
 
 And ofttimes urged, were many led aside 
 
 To question — doubt — deny — at last, cast off 
 
 The holy law ordained of Deity 
 
 Which makes His love sustaining Spirit alone 
 
 The cause and reason of all righteousness. 
 
 All peace, all bliss ; freewill the synonyme 
 
 Of selfish nature as opposed to God, 
 
 Blown up with self conceived deserts, and proud 
 
 To prove its own an independent power 
 
 Held, in duality, with Him on high. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 15 
 
 Vain, foolish, impious thought for aye begone ; 
 With all things false and foul for ever cease ! — 
 
 These, by divine permission, to myself 
 Such secretly confided, to the end 
 Which ye ere long shall wot of, presently 
 Seceded, — yet remained on outward terms 
 With their unshaken brethren as before. 
 But oh ! the absolute excellence was gone, 
 The plane of pure perfection broken through ; 
 It was as though some galaxy of stars 
 Had sunk and left a horrid rent in Heaven, 
 A ragged flaw athwart the sapphirine floor, 
 A foul chaotic chasm. 
 
 Still further spread, 
 As from some central and impulsive point 
 In ceaseless radiation, day and night. 
 Fresh errors, and reiterate wrongs and jars. 
 In vain I throned myself in judgment hall 
 Uttering decrees predestined as of yore ; 
 In vain I walked among them, beckoning back 
 Such as in false society had strayed : — 
 In vain I warned of evil ; shewed them all 
 
16 
 
 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 How God's exterminating judgments fell 
 Ever on sin, with woe to whom they came. 
 The testimony came to all in vain. 
 
 The disaffection spread. Oh ! still I weep 
 Recalling that declension, sad and wide ! — 
 
 By unsuspected frankness, having gained 
 Free access soon to the imperial Bride 
 The strangers next their machinations plied 
 Against the holy guide and nurse divine, 
 Immortal Wisdom, 'neath whose bounteous care 
 Had grown those angel sisters, since their birth 
 In the arcanest Heavens. Her, soon, alas ! 
 The wily wanderers whispered first away, 
 From wonted inculcation of deep lore 
 And holy truths, as narrowing down the souls 
 And marrincr the free actions and intents 
 Of the angelic pair ; to which base cheat 
 The elder — not the wiser — won too well 
 By much and false persuasion, at the last, 
 Gave in nor rued till after ; so mistaught 
 To gladden at the lack of all restraint 
 Upon the natural world-commanding will. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 17 
 
 Not so the younger, who, with tears profuse. 
 
 Grieved at the doom of parting from her guide, 
 
 The severance from her holy tutelage. 
 
 And losing of the golden words of life 
 
 Which her instructress taught her, who instilled 
 
 Into her soul the sacred elements 
 
 Of universal truth ; and gave to taste. 
 
 In prelibation of supremest bliss, 
 
 The essence of all knowledge. 
 
 God, she taught, 
 Himself was truth and justice, good and love. 
 The infinite reality, the one ; 
 Out of the unknown darkness of the depths 
 Of His great Being all existence sprang. 
 In various forms and multitudinous spheres, 
 Innumerous as the atoms of the light. 
 Or as the sands Time's mighty year-glass holds, — 
 Though it comprise all deserts ; that with Him 
 All nature's vast and elemental limbs 
 Are but the organs of His will. Himself 
 Above all bound, above all infinite ; 
 Whose action is all freedom — whose repose 
 Necessity — whose only word is Fate ; 
 
18 THE ANGEL WORLD, 
 
 With Him alone, she taught, was peace and Wiss ; 
 
 The bliss of Being is the love of God — 
 
 And primal beauty and eternal joy. 
 
 Whereof the vital music of all orbs 
 
 Forms but the faintest echo ; and the sign 
 
 Minutest of His high celestial will 
 
 To harmonize creation, and reduce 
 
 The pure perennial war of good and ill. 
 
 Into the musical peace which rules in Heaven — 
 
 Peace, victress of all war. For so, in Time, 
 
 The one and many make themselves the all ; — 
 
 Beauty the boundless medium. Love the end 
 
 Immutable, which renders all things one ; — 
 
 And though in outer worlds an outward war 
 
 There is, yet in the spiritual world. 
 
 The secret harmony of good and ill, 
 
 Which Being with existence reconciles 
 
 In the mid axis of necessity — 
 
 Prevails and hallows finally the whole. 
 
 So Wisdom made her favourite wise of heart. 
 
 And led the loved one through all holy spheres 
 
 And dwellings of seraphic bliss, and homes 
 
 Of perfect pleasure — even as the sun 
 
 Wades through the golden waters of the world 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 19 
 
 Up to the top point of the tower of Time, 
 
 Then steep descends — down to the lowest nook 
 
 Of furthest space, where earth spins round like clay 
 
 Upon the potter's wheel, the orb where bode 
 
 The last of happy beings, and the first 
 
 Of wretched creatures — seminriortal man — 
 
 Whose clay was tempered with a lymph divine, 
 
 The ante-natal wave of Paradise, 
 
 And fourfold fount of nature's heavenly flow ; — 
 
 Yet so self hidden in the cloud of sin — 
 
 So misadvised by those whose souls perfused 
 
 With earth-pent vapours and the reek of time, 
 
 Falsely oracular sit and agonize. 
 
 Preaching perdition — that though high in Heaven 
 
 The sunsmile of Salvation beamed, it beamed 
 
 Unrecognized — unrecked of — undivined. 
 
 Still after all these wanderings, knowing well 
 
 One single soul more wondrous than all worlds 
 
 Which mass the skies with miracles of light. 
 
 They rapture most and sweet contentment found, 
 
 Coolly triumphant, like the restful stars 
 
 Glowing in Heaven when Time's hot day is done, 
 
 Each in their proper orb and common sphere ; 
 
 To meditative converse most devote. 
 
20 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 And strict collation of the Spirit-book 
 With the pretemporal volume, writ of God ; 
 High in the archives of eternity 
 Treasured, the pure original of Life. 
 
 The elder Excellence, meanwhile, who longed 
 
 For pure and mere autocracy, unchecked — 
 
 Unled — uneyed — ruled with a random hand, 
 
 And an occasional sovereignty the all 
 
 But full totality, allotted her. 
 
 Of the original myriads of her race. 
 
 These loved her well ; and, willingly, themselves 
 
 Ascribed to her for ever, for that she 
 
 Gave them all freedom, wherefore. in return 
 
 They were her slaves in gratitude : and ripe 
 
 Any desire to grant or scheme abet. 
 
 Which pleased herself, or those intent to please. 
 
 Counsel, however sage, and precept fair, 
 Which seemed to savour of superior will, 
 Or tendency to better ends than theirs, 
 Were treason held at last, and Wisdom's words, 
 Bewrayed by guile, into a net were wrought, 
 For her own shining feet ; — alas, the day ! 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 21 
 
 Long was a pretext sought, and baffled oft ; 
 
 But never failure followed ill intent 
 
 And base success still sealed each fatal plot. 
 
 The hour of parting came, and Wisdom wrung 
 Her high uplifted hands — nor breathed — unless 
 To her she loved, that youthful saint — farewell ; — 
 Which well she wist were but a mock to make 
 Of valediction. How could that she left, 
 By any chance, fare well ? 
 
 Yet still she stayed, 
 Lingering around that once supremest sphere 
 Where, with the sister angels of her care. 
 In days of holy innocence and love. 
 She was of Eld so happy. Oft she made 
 For flight, but pausing, dropped ; and thus consumed 
 Her last night there, till every star had waned 
 Into the coming light ; and then her way 
 Upon her own bright wings she took to Heaven. 
 
 The vanishing flash of her seonian wing 
 Called forth a burst of triumph from the train 
 Of those insinuant tempters, as they marked — 
 
22 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 What close in deep divan they long had hoped ; — 
 And toward the elder of the angel twain, 
 Those regal nymphs, inheritors of Heaven, 
 Laden with crown and robe and sceptre, rushed 
 Tumultuous — and applausive, hailed her thus. 
 
 Be thou our Queen, O lofty angel fair ! 
 
 Worthy the sole and unobstructed rule 
 
 Of every sphere and every spirit race ; 
 
 Heart-honoured — Heaven-ordained — predestined heir 
 
 Of the bright line of asres numberless ! 
 
 Since God, creating atoms, first began. 
 
 And ended with this universal world. 
 
 Thou hast beheld no equal, nay no like. 
 
 Thee only we acknowledge, and for this, 
 
 Hold our arrival blessed. Empress, hail ! — 
 
 Then she elate, and with pride-blinded soul. 
 The towering seat, prepared for her, assumed — 
 And sat a sceptred monarch. 
 
 Far and wide 
 The tidings flew that I and all my rule 
 Were thrust aside ; and in the judgment seat 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 I sat and none attended ; or but came, 
 With false fictitious cause, to scoff and jeer. 
 
 Then came an edict of perpetual ban 
 And forcible exile 'gainst myself, and all 
 Who dared the fallen fortunes to support. 
 Or but to name as lawful. Thus the sword. 
 Whose fiery emblem glared at first in air. 
 Reigned and divided all things. Every gate 
 Of every temple straight was closed — and lo ! 
 Each high and heaven-allusive dome was filled 
 With hollow sounding emptiness alone. 
 
 Once — in the midst of their assembly high, 
 And in the palace hall, where erst were held 
 The courts of joy and audiences of love, — 
 Once I essayed to speak and hearing hoped. 
 But, ere a word, they bound me by the hands, 
 And drave me out with curses, taunts, and gibes. 
 Passing, thus manacled, the new made throne 
 Where sat the crowned traitress, of her crime 
 Conscious, and trembling 'mid the array of state 
 That girt her in, brightly, I spake ; — but not 
 In anger nor revenge ; for I foresaw 
 
 23 
 
24 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 The wretched end of all such mortal sin, 
 And knew the holy purposes of Heaven 
 Alone eternal and essential good ; — 
 Behold me thus ; I quit thee ; 't is thy will. 
 Me thou forswearest, who had loved thee more 
 Than all the tribes of angels, love thee still, 
 Despite the flatteries wherewith now thy soul 
 Is darkened and degraded. Know me true 
 The hour will come when thou shalt hold me yet 
 Dearer than now detested ; but 't is thou 
 Shalt change, not I. Watch, for I come again. 
 
 She answered with a smile, but trembled whilst : 
 And I departed that unhallowed hall. 
 
 In this, too, God permitted them success — 
 And in far more, that at the close He might 
 Their highest height o'ertop, and with the arms 
 Of love, all-conquering, fling forth more supreme 
 His thrice victorious standard. Such His will ; 
 Such, even in exile, now, the due, the dear 
 Obedience of my heart ; for well I knew 
 To change, or re-create, with Him perdured 
 As facile as to make. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 25 
 
 The younger angel maid 
 Who dauntless kept her faith, and still with me 
 Held sad and sacred commune — though by stealth — 
 Was suffered to remain, close cloistered first, 
 In solitude religious, for that they 
 The Empress' mind who swayed, dared not advise 
 To put her quite to death ; and that the tie 
 And natural sympathy of sisterhood. 
 The memory of the excellent times of old. 
 And flickering purposes of future years 
 Which played about the heart of her enthroned, 
 Together, wrought to spare her and preserve. 
 Anon, though bidden to busy herself alone 
 With her own matters and those mixed with them — 
 She, at convenient times, permission wrung 
 To walk abroad and tend her charities ; 
 But only in the humblest, homeliest guise. 
 And as the Queen had shrunk not to abjure 
 All past — all present — and all future love. 
 Between her and myself — her whilom Lord — 
 The younger in derision, they who mocked 
 Both, called the Bride Expectant and the Spouse. 
 
 Now, what a change came o'er that orb serene ! 
 
26 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Through all the day was revelry and mirth — 
 No respite knew the night, till no one recked 
 Of natural order or of dues divine. 
 While the neglected damsel at the gates 
 Of her imperious sister — at whose beck 
 All luxuries started into life and use ; — 
 In servile garb, and oft with ashes crowned 
 As in contempt, an outcast sat forlorn. 
 
 O ! royal menial — O ! imperial thrall — 
 Companion of the angels in their height ! 
 How lowly art thou fallen ; and yet how pure, 
 Seen in the sin consuming light of God — 
 How meek — how perfect in all servitude ! — 
 
 These contumelies and worse, unvexed, she bore 
 
 Unheeding, uncomplaining. Day by day — 
 
 Her to impress with due sense of disgrace, 
 
 Was she led in, before the obsequious crowd, 
 
 In sackcloth clad, to make obeisance meet 
 
 Unto the Sisterly Majesty, which she 
 
 Coldly, for peace-sake, made ; nor all hope lacked 
 
 That some few gold-grains Time might number still 
 
 Among the barren sands he measured forth ; — 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 27 
 
 That Wisdom yet might wonn with them again 
 
 And her usurping sister, still beloved, 
 
 Though for this deed condemned, her seat resign 
 
 To the divine dynasty. In this 
 
 Hope she survived, nor wholly stood alone. 
 
 While all — almost — in that strange change of rule 
 
 And law agreed, a certain few there were 
 
 Nathless, within whose hearts the echoes staid 
 
 Of those last words I uttered ; and these found 
 
 Joy unconceived in hoping still they might 
 
 In act be verified ; and oft — as best 
 
 They could — they comforted the angel child. 
 
 Daily and nightly, she, upon her knees, 
 Besought God to rekindle, in the hot 
 And blinding darkness of her heart who ruled, 
 The lovelight of His presence, and to quench 
 The desolating river of their wrath — 
 Who first infested that fair world with sin. 
 
 At night too, in the wilderness we met — 
 For what was once a garden shewed but then 
 A drear and desert wold : and there from her, 
 
28 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 I, banished — learned what things and how befel : — 
 And me she never left without a prayer — 
 Despite the wrongs I suffered with herself, 
 Wrongs which too many loudly joyed to hear — 
 That I for all would pray and intercede. 
 
 There were who spared not breath to shew, that she 
 
 Strove in my heart her sister to supplant ; 
 
 Though I, who knew her well, knew better far — 
 
 And, for that she was faithful, sought to bound 
 
 All blessing in herself — and circumscribe 
 
 Through forfeiture of infidelity, 
 
 The promise made to both, of highest bliss. 
 
 Which from their birthplace they had brought with 
 them : 
 
 And writ in silvery phylacteries hung — 
 
 In the one openly, the other hid. 
 
 As though ashamed thereof — around their brows ; 
 
 That so they might be known — those twins divine — 
 
 The daughters of the Most High God. 
 
 To each 
 As creatural life, was trial still decreed, 
 That they might know to relish good and joy — 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 29 
 
 The woe of saintly innocence accused — 
 
 The purifying suffering of sin. 
 
 Yet such — although they knew not this — that both 
 
 Should vanish, and good only and pure joy 
 
 Encrown each other finally. In all 
 
 Worlds there are truths and secrets only known 
 
 And justifiable, to Him who laid 
 
 Their sure foundations ; trembling though they stand 
 
 Upon the countless columns of the air. 
 
 By secret instigation thus the heart 
 Was poisoned, of the Angel Queen, to shun. 
 And doubt her innocent sister. Time by time 
 Such imputations cast, failed not to work 
 Wrath in the royal breast, though reckless all 
 Of former love, or future. 'T was enough 
 3o proud presumption were but whispered round : 
 Thus visited. 
 
 Within the central square, 
 Fronting the glittering palace, stood the throne — 
 Which changed so much the aspect of that orb. 
 And which I told of first — whereon each day 
 She, ministering blind justice, sat absorbed 
 
30 THE ANGEL WORLD 
 
 In love of her own empery ; rapt to hear 
 
 The adulation of her foreign train ; 
 
 To trifle with her sceptre as a toy, 
 
 And court the rainbow flashes, startling bright, 
 
 Of the star-gemmed tiara ; to her eyes 
 
 Jewels well worth the satrapies of Heaven ; — 
 
 Rich in all fancied virtues to attract 
 
 Good, or from evil fend ; the which same gems 
 
 She oft would deftly moralize, and prove 
 
 To the subservient glozers ranged around. 
 
 How well they did become her, how much stead, 
 
 The breast, the brow whereon they dazzling lay ; 
 
 Now gleaming forth defiant, now reposed 
 
 In silent capabilities of light. 
 
 There, in her radiant siege, that angel Queen — 
 
 What time the Sister, so abased as wont 
 
 Meekly came forth in pale humility. 
 
 Low bending like the crescent moon, when first 
 
 Born of the golden calm the western sky 
 
 Rejoiceth in, prophetic, to perform 
 
 Due reverence — sat, and eyed askance ; then spake ; 
 
 While o'er her head attendants from behind — 
 
 Pavonian canopy of azure held, 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 31 
 
 In manner of a sunshade, her to screen 
 
 From the high glory that would else have slain : — 
 
 Fair-seeming Sister, is it true that thou — 
 
 In my default — aspirest to espouse 
 
 The angel prince, my sometime lord and lover, 
 
 He exiled, thou in bonds ? If so, content. 
 
 Ye well befit each other, and so far 
 
 As merits make, are equal, in my mind. 
 
 Answered the younger of the twain divine. 
 
 O heavenly consort ! — O affianced bride 
 
 Of God's own Son ! Be there 'tween thee and me 
 
 Nor struggle, nor misdoubt. They both malign, 
 
 Who sow the seeds of discord broad-cast here. 
 
 We each have our forenoted lot. Be mine — 
 
 The power, the privilege of servitude. 
 
 Be thine, command. My faith can never change. 
 
 But thou hast fallen from service to a throne — 
 
 Though he who ever loves, nor swerves from that 
 
 His heart hath fixed on once — with me consort, 
 
 It is but for a season, and our talk 
 
 Is of thee always. Countless prayers are thine. 
 
32 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 I, too, have my devotions, and serve God 
 Doubtless, although I worship not with thee, 
 RepUed the elder, bowing from her throne ; 
 We worship each our star, but all in Heaven. 
 
 We may not worship but the Invisible ; — 
 Answered the younger, firm. 
 
 No matter, now ; 
 Rejoined the angel monarch, smlHng bright 
 On her confederated beguilers round : 
 Who smoothly sanctioned every pearly word 
 That beauteous and imperial rebel spake ; — 
 My temple is my heart. My seat is fixed 
 Here in the midst of friends ; and by this crown 
 Each gem a sacred talisman of power. 
 Or amulet protective from all harm, — 
 Wrought by the spirits of the elements 
 And wondrously endowed, — I swear, and be 
 The oath, as death,- irrevocable — I, 
 The dull alliance ye design abjure. 
 Nor Lord, nor living equal shall be mine. 
 Depart, and let him know our fixed resolve. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 33 
 
 Incipient murmurs of applause ran round 
 
 The lustrous throng — when lo ! an omen strange. 
 
 While yet she spake, the jewels of her crown 
 Erewhile obtested, in the sight of all 
 Dropped, several, down, — a sadly splendid lapse 
 Like meteor showers autumnal in the skies, — 
 Whose fancied virtues in her false esteem 
 Were that which made her royal ; down they fell 
 And but enriched the dust. 
 
 With deep dismay 
 She eyed the empty sockets — and was still. 
 Stricken with shame, too, slowly slid away 
 That parasitic court. 
 
 The younger, then. 
 Who at her sister's feet her seat still sought ; — 
 O Sister ! O divine one ! O most dear ! 
 There is a jewel more than worth all these — 
 These but the shining rubbish of a wreck. 
 Wilt thou not seek it ? 'T is, for asking, thine ; — 
 A friend there is — a lover — one most true. 
 Who would not thus desert thee, though it had been 
 
34 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Thyself, by judgment, hurled into the dust — 
 But there he would have comforted thee. 
 
 No more ! 
 Said the haught Empress, I have cast my lot; — 
 Then hurried from her throne and disappeared. 
 
 Next came the crime of crimes with curses crowned, 
 Staggering precipitate. No lack was there 
 Of direful sign and portent ; chief was this — 
 Each day grew murker, for the light of truth 
 Suns those serenest firmaments ; and all 
 The falsehoods each one uttered, lie by lie. 
 Rolled into rings of darkness round their heads — 
 Till the conglomerate gloom obscured the day. 
 And each one so infringed the other's view. 
 That contact in collision ceased. And still, 
 With gathering shades the stranger spirits grew 
 Still lovelier, and, like light outletting flowers. 
 Glowed in the lengthening ev-e ; and oft at night 
 As the stars streamed their silver radiance forth — 
 Alternating with azure and all gems — 
 Or as in nacrine blent in one soft blaze. 
 Their rosy bowers they trimmed ; and training low 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 35 
 
 The honied wreaths, heavy with odorous dew, — 
 
 Warbled a vesper song, inviting mirth 
 
 And amicable converse in the shade. 
 
 There likewise they averred to serve their God — 
 
 Whose living emblem dwelt, they said, among them — 
 
 With natural worship and symbolic rites 
 
 Of souls regenerated ; there impart 
 
 The esoteric truths which nature veiled, 
 
 Of the one triplicative essence ; there — 
 
 All cosmogonic and theurgic lore, 
 
 Without consideration, open free 
 
 To the enraptured eye — and but for one 
 
 Prostration of the spirit duly made, 
 
 The sacred fire and secrets of the stars. 
 
 Night after night these proffers were proclaimed — 
 
 And mysteries more enchanting still, with smiles. 
 
 Hinting of happier revelations yet, 
 
 When those they loved were perfected in faith. 
 
 These smiles at first were answered but with smiles. 
 
 Incredulous, rebuking. See, said they. 
 
 In impious invocation of that doom, 
 
 How the night lengthens we have brought with us ; — 
 
 Permitted to this end, that out of night 
 
3G 
 
 THE ANGEL WORLD, 
 
 And preternatural darkness such as this, 
 May spring that luminous vision we enjoy, 
 And in oursleves create, of things divine. 
 Partake ye with us. Thus they tempted on. 
 Wonder at last awoke desire. 
 
 Among 
 The original seed angelic, was a sage 
 Of dominant lineage — for undated years 
 Prime counsellor of good — who oft had urged 
 Obedience, and reproof on all who erred 
 In listening to the promissory guests, 
 One wasted atom, even, of an hour — 
 And most deplored their advent. Him it seemed 
 Good to the Great One — who controls all life, 
 And circumscribes all action, so to prove 
 His further ends superior — to permit 
 One moment's fragile converse with the spirit 
 Chief of those voluntary visitants. 
 Who lay reclined on fragrant flowers, as though 
 Dreaming, yet only half dissolved in sleep ; — 
 The radiant chaplet drooping, and the zone 
 Coerulean, featly tricked with semblant stars, 
 Unloosened for repose. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 87 
 
 Arise, he cried, 
 Sternly. And wherefore ? said the angel guest ; — 
 In wise and happy idlesse, half divine, 
 Those live who how to spend their life know best ; 
 Our rest is contemplation : worship our 
 Sole work. The weak alone unceasingly 
 Devote themselves to action ; but for us, 
 We mightiest are in rest. This eve return — 
 And I will show thee that we worship here. 
 
 What more, in speech, hath never been divulged ; 
 But neither was it much. Away he turned — 
 His heart assaulted by a storm of thought. 
 The day he passed in musing and in prayer 
 Repeated, but unsatisfied. At night. 
 When all the stars burned brightliest, and the bowers 
 Of song were silent, he in stealth returned — 
 And lo ! the Spirit slumbering as before. 
 
 ! sweet and soft salute of sacred sleep — 
 The starry eyes, and lightning lids of earth, 
 And evening, slowly sealing, and the cheek 
 Of angel painting with a pearlier calm ; 
 How wert thou mocked then ! 
 
38 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Morn came, and he 
 Returned not, — poor apostate ! Soul by soul 
 Who went to seek him stayed ; so strong the spell, 
 One dread defection cast ; in every bower 
 But that wherein he was, 't was said he hid ; 
 And soon each flowery canopy one concealed — 
 The proselyte of idols — slave of self, 
 Who was to seek, but never to be found. 
 
 Pity them, now, ye angels ! for, like you, 
 Equal — almost — in favor of their Lord, 
 Were once those lapsed ones. These are heart-wrung 
 tears. 
 
 At these words, sympathetic tears swam o'er 
 For the first time, from each celestial eye. 
 As trees autumnal shed their leafy tears 
 In golden showers, shaken by sudden gust ; — 
 Tears not to be forbid. 
 
 In saddest tone 
 Resumed the Heavenly Stranger his discourse. 
 Ne'er to be found, I said. But who can find 
 A limit to the mercy of our Lord .? 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 39 
 
 In like estate they never may be found — 
 They never shall be ; still, for all is hope, 
 Hope — the immortal virtue of the saints. 
 
 But let the time-glass of their sins run down, 
 Whose recollection whelms me still with woe. 
 
 Not many darkening days had passed away 
 
 Before the mighty mysteries stood revealed, 
 
 And strangest aphanisms, one by one. 
 
 Of those once loved and honoured most, made clear. 
 
 Beneath the shade delicious of a wood — 
 In whose Elysian glades those strangers fixed 
 At first their dwelling, and therein prepared 
 Their secret rites and sacred mysteries — 
 Skirting the gold sands of the sapphire sea. 
 Were those deceived assembled ; so deceived, 
 The day they weened was longer, brighter, now ; 
 And each the other hailed as happier then 
 Than in the ages past. Forth flashed the song 
 Upwards like earth-born lightning, and the dance — 
 Of crystalline symmetry — skimmed around the shore, 
 In vortices of light ; the world-queen there 
 
40 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Now mixing with the mirthful throng, now sole, 
 Seeking in thought repose. Oh ! this, they cried, 
 Is joy — the bliss of liberty. 
 
 At once 
 That senseless dream to dissipate, lo I there rushed. 
 Out of a cave, with toppling crags o'erhung, 
 A hugeous monster, such as never Night 
 With murderer's mind engendered, when his heart 
 Lay panting underneath the conscience pang — 
 Like fawn beneath a wolf's jaw. Dragonlike 
 In lengthening volumes stretched his further part, 
 Incalculably curled ; but in the front. 
 On one wide neck a hundred heads he reared. 
 Which spake with every mouth a hundred tongues. 
 Through teeth of serried daggers black with blood 
 The breath he drew in day he breathed out night. 
 And he descended to the sea to drink. 
 Though close by his cave a cool bright river ran ; 
 For it was thirst the monster better loved 
 Than aught that thirst could quench. The abhorrent sea 
 Shrank backwards, tide by tide ; but he pursued, 
 Triumphing in its fascinating fear. 
 Into the very midst ; — then gorged, returned, 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 41 
 
 Soul-sodden to the shore, where prone he lay 
 Before his horrid hold ; with stormy joy 
 Gnashing his steely teeth, and with his tail. 
 Now close contorted, and now far out launched, 
 Sweeping the shiny slime of the wide sea sands. 
 
 In still and dreadful wonder, grouped by fear, 
 Astound and awestruck stood the duped allies 
 Of the delusive strangers. Ceased at once 
 The choir-maze astroeidal ; shouts of joy 
 And gratulation, all ceased. 
 
 First to speak 
 Was one, the last who lapsed from pure estate. 
 
 Be this the god ye serve ? — The god ye sware 
 That we should this day see ? — Our god, said they. 
 
 And are we bound to adore him who have passed 
 Through your mysterious rules, and on us ta'en 
 His worship by the oath of fire } 
 
 Ye are, 
 In tones of hate, replied the spirit chief, 
 
42 THC ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 By whom that wise one told of, late, was lost — 
 There standing as the hierophant of hell ; — 
 Behold, ye are before him — bow the knee. 
 
 And the vast monster smiled ; on every face 
 A hot and lurid smile — like the red light 
 Which hovereth o'er the earthquake yet unborn, 
 Though quick. Oh woe ! 
 
 When all — such answer made 
 As heretofore recorded — with remorse 
 Were smitten, and repentance, and aside 
 Turned them to go ; — the hierophant exclaimed. 
 Give to the mighty one his victim due ! 
 
 Then those destroyers seized the angel youth 
 Who first recanted his accursed oath. 
 And cast him at the monster's feet, which cried. 
 No more of these ignoble victims ; hence ! 
 Bring me the royal bride, and I depart. 
 
 Soon as these fearful words were heard, lament 
 
 And consternation seized the greater half 
 
 Of those there present — and most base resolve 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 43 
 
 Filled up like molten lead the others' hearts. 
 
 Which cruel purpose when the sister-queen 
 Saw — to that living idol, fierce and foul, 
 She knelt, and touched with natural sorrow, him 
 Besought the child to spare. 
 
 Take what, she said. 
 Take all though wilt, but leave alone this one — 
 My sweet and sacred sister. She with me 
 Once in the happy past, and innocent, lived 
 A pure perpetual blessing ; from her hand 
 Came boundless bounties ; not a word she spake 
 But seemed a benediction ; her bright heart 
 With lovelight glowed, forever at the full. 
 In days of old o'er all the orb she ranged. 
 And reigned where'er she ranged. All things rejoiced 
 In her ecstatic advent. By her touch 
 The thrall a throned prince became ; the dead 
 Dawned into life ; o'er all things spread the spell 
 Of her resplendent presence. That they touched 
 Her very footsteps gladdened, as the waves 
 Leap into light and vanish in a smile. 
 But now — because of deeds thou know'st too well. 
 
44 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Deeds, peradventure, for repentance meet — 
 Immured, she lives the life of charity 
 In the still precincts of her holy home, 
 With many a lovely handmaiden around 
 In starry palace templed, till the hour 
 Of our celestial nuptials, as she deems, 
 If sorrow have not wronged her reason — come. 
 I, her rebukes of love have ofttimes borne 
 And scorned, and heaped upon her infamies. 
 Which she hath thrice forgiven ; but let her not 
 Be out of life abolished, who hath done 
 Such good, and been so harmless at the worst. 
 
 Thou speakest as the she-fool only can — 
 Retorted then the angry terror ; rise ! 
 The very reasons thou dost name for life 
 Are those wherefore I hate her unto death. 
 Go ! thou thyself shall bind her to yon rock, 
 Or I will slay ye both. His tongue then ceased 
 Its frightful thunder-clang, nor spake he more. 
 
 Meanwhile, those basest few who thought to win 
 The tyrant monster's favour, and preserve 
 Themselves from fatal end — death-threatened now 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 45 
 
 Sought out the sorrowing maiden, and disguised 
 In borrowed robes of cheerful thanksgiving, 
 Entered the heavenly sanctuary wherein. 
 At the high altar ministering she stood, 
 Presaging sorrows soon to be fulfilled ; 
 Predicting woes accomplished while foretold. 
 These, in mock worship mingling with the rest. 
 Yea even in mine own presence — for in her, 
 'Midst all these woes, did I sole solace find — 
 Her, sudden, seized and bound, and hurried off 
 To a lone sea-crag, circled by the sea. 
 And, for the monster's evening victim, left. 
 
 Then vowed I to deliver her from her foes — 
 And for the rescue armed. The lightning steed, 
 Which pastures on the air, and is the sign 
 Of the divine destruction of all worlds, — 
 The sparkles of whose hoofs, in falling stars, 
 Struck from the adamantine course of space. 
 Stream o'er the skies, — in swift and solemn joy, 
 Came trembling at my call. A lance of light, 
 A sunbeam tempered in eternal fire, 
 I in mine hand assumed, and forth we fared. 
 
46 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Wide o'er the waters rose a wail of woe 
 
 With a fierce shout of exultation twined — 
 
 For chained to a dark rock, rough and high, the sea 
 
 Was loathly yielding back to land, — there stood — 
 
 Arrayed in Paradisal purity 
 
 Alone, that meek and innocent angel-maid ; — 
 
 The monster wading greedily through the waves, 
 
 Her to devour; — the angels, some aghast, 
 
 Exulting some ; her sister as half-dead 
 
 Fell fainting from her seat ; the light alone 
 
 Of falling stars, with blinks of lightning mixed. 
 
 Lamping the red horizon fitfully. 
 
 Midway between the rock and the sea we met ; 
 
 And though the creature bellowing would have fled. 
 
 And have defiled the eye of light no more. 
 
 Yet was I there to slay as well as save. 
 
 The lance of light I couched ; and straight my steed. 
 
 Who knew instinctive all his dread devoir. 
 
 Drove on like an inevitable storm ; — 
 
 The weight behind propelled the point before 
 
 Through the whole monstrous mass, till in the heart, 
 
 Quivering it stood, triumphant Down then dropped 
 
 The soulless corse. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 47 
 
 The beauteous captive's bonds 
 I, instant, burst, and wrapped her sacred limbs, 
 In the same robes I wore — of golden web 
 And azure wove ; for forth I sped at first 
 Of conquest confident, mine armour dight 
 With trophies rich beseeming such event ; — 
 And on the rock where long she swooning lay, 
 Though conscious she was saved from direst death, 
 I laid her, perfect in pure loveliness. 
 And in that garb of glory. 
 
 Then there came 
 A voice, as of a star-cloud in the sky. 
 Approving, and all blessing I had done ; 
 Formed, too, beneath the cloud, a rainbow bright; 
 From whose arch, falling as in circular wind, 
 And in diminishing spires, this bird of light. 
 The sign and augury of peace divine, 
 GoD-missioned, hovered round me for a time, 
 Then nestled in my bosom — as ye see. 
 
 But not so from the orb, where still remained 
 Those recreant spirits, who, with loud lament, 
 Wept their extinguished god ; him to revive 
 
48 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Striving with all their strength. In vain they strove. 
 
 Now, lest the venomous vapours of his corpse 
 
 Should the whole sphere impost, it was decreed, 
 
 By crown alike and lieges, all alarmed. 
 
 To offer to the soul of the dead beast 
 
 His body as a solemn holocaust ; — 
 
 Nought else like worthy of such sacrifice. 
 
 With a vast mass of pompous rights, the Queen, 
 
 In sordid robes of false humility, 
 
 And all her proudest subjects, head declined, — 
 
 In mournful train, upon a mighty mound 
 
 Upreared by the seaside, the heapy corpse 
 
 Of the terrific slain laid out ; — and balked 
 
 In their last complot, lo ! another seized 
 
 Their souls — instinct with hate more murderous still 
 
 Mine own destruction. 
 
 Me, where I remained. 
 Protecting her I honoured, they approached. 
 Beseeching I would witness the last rites 
 And public incremation of the dead, 
 In proof that I with them was reconciled, 
 Ere they for aye departed. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 49 
 
 This I did — 
 Knowing full well their most recondite sins 
 And secretest intentions ; they the while 
 Unknowing wholly mine. 
 
 No sooner came 
 I to the seat, in right opposal placed, 
 To that despotic empress, than they urged 
 Me to revivify the hateful frame — 
 The incarnation of that fleshly hell, 
 1 had, for her sake whom I loved, destroyed ; — 
 But once for all their quest refused ; whereat. 
 The throned one brake her sceptre in her wrath, 
 And cried, — have done with him ! I own him not, 
 And have forsworn him. Let him die his death. 
 
 Thereto I answered not — within myself 
 Secretly praying but that God would make 
 The spirit fair concordant with the form, 
 And whp was beauteous, lovely. 
 
 They forthwith — 
 Tempter and tempted hating me alike — 
 Rushed on and bound me fast ; no sooner bound, — 
 
 4 
 
50 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Than from the Heavenly Father of us all, 
 All power I felt transfused into mine hands : 
 Yet let them work their will, that all might be 
 Accomplished in their nature, and the great 
 Designs of God fulfilled which He sole knew. 
 
 Three days and nights, or rather one long night. 
 
 But by diverse degrees of darkness marked, 
 
 Again it died, in foul offensive fumes 
 
 Exhaled away ; so vast that carcass grim ; 
 
 Around v/hose molten mass, too, the whole time 
 
 Were fierce and bloody combats, tribe 'gainst tribe, 
 
 In honour of the dead one, till at last. 
 
 Me on that burning and abhorred bier — 
 
 That carnal hell impersonate, all fire, 
 
 Kemorseless cast they ; and their sin-palled eyes 
 
 Perceived not tliat a Heaven-sent cloudlet caught 
 
 Safe in its soft, cool bosom ; there create 
 
 By love divine of God, that mercy might 
 
 The dear decrees of judgment execute, 
 
 And scathless free the Being bound and doomed. 
 
 High upv/ards rose, then, in Heaven's darkening face, 
 Wide wavering from innumerable tongues, 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 51 
 
 Like to the desert sand-cloud or simoom, 
 
 The columned execrations of the crowd, 
 
 But far below me swept ; they neared not e'en 
 
 The prospect of my feet. Such malice grieved — 
 
 How grievous to the soul of love, all sin ! 
 
 Yet need more made they should be won to God, 
 
 Thus praying, I to the rock returned, where lay 
 
 Entranced that lovely maiden of the main 
 
 And stirless, still. Her straight I raised and bore, 
 
 Gently and lovingly, within these arms. 
 
 To a lone star as yet unblessed with life, 
 
 Which round a larger and exterior orb. 
 
 The central mirror of the world, wherein 
 
 Are shadowed all things past and yet to come — 
 
 Rolls restless in the Heavens, that so she might. 
 
 Awakening, see new cause to bless her Lord. 
 
 There, all enchanting, she enchanted lay ; 
 
 Beheld of all, beloved of her kind ; 
 
 I, guarding. 
 
 Meanwhile, in that wretched orb 
 Prevailed continuous night, and all things died 
 That drew their life from light ; the flowers their life 
 
53 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Breathed out in incense, and the trees laid down 
 Their leafy crowns, forlorn ; the herbal earth 
 In withered, barren, senseless nakedness, 
 Lay like a clayey corpse. 
 
 How changed from that bright orb 
 The rolling skies had erst rejoiced to see ; 
 Whereto the orient sun was wont to send. 
 As to some eaglet orb that loved the light, 
 His earliest beam to wake the welcomer ; 
 Signal to all of worship ! Now, alas ! 
 Cloaked in impenetrable night it glode 
 A black abomination through the skies, 
 A reptile world abhorred of all and shunned. 
 Then fire was used for light, and each one bare 
 With him a pitchy torch which reeked of hell ; 
 Supplied by those deceptive guests who now — 
 Their doubtful shapes resumed — incited strife, 
 Commutual hatred, war ; and ground to dust 
 The victim of their mystic mockeries, 
 Whh wrongs elaborate and self torturing sins. 
 
 She who, so prompt to rule alone, had deemed 
 Herself a Queen for aye they laughed to scorn, 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 53 
 
 Deposed and dungeoned, chained as mad — and slain — 
 
 But that their hate preserved her. There she lay, 
 
 In wretchedness repentant, wrecked in soul ; 
 
 Scarce floating on the ages. How she longed 
 
 Then, for her sister's voice — and hoped 'gainst hope 
 
 For other accent than her own lone lips 
 
 Ke-echoed from the walls that coffined her ; — 
 
 For one embrace once prized beyond all price ! 
 
 But such desire as yet might nought avail. 
 
 Be sure the Great Perfector hath well earned 
 
 All that He gladdeneth over, as His own, 
 
 Throughout the threefold world ; though Him it wrought 
 
 Measureless dole, for the Divine is born 
 
 Ever of bitterness ; and well I ween. 
 
 Where sacrifice is not, is never fire. 
 
 There lay the stricken despot humbled down 
 
 Into a penitent angel, sad and meek. 
 
 Bright city, hallowed temple down were razed — 
 Nay, e'en their deep foundations rooted up ; 
 The sacred groves were fired, and tree by tree. 
 Charred into naked blackness ; all the soil 
 Was grisly ashes only. Day and night 
 The skies rang with the cries of myriads' woe. 
 
51 
 
 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Till the stars shuddered, and the orb was shook 
 Wherein I watched the awakening of the maid. 
 
 Close by her feet, insculptured, on the couch 
 Whereon she lay, was seen a child who held 
 An hour glass in his hand. Ten times it turned 
 Upwards and downwards ; at the twelfth it fell, 
 And falling broke ; and as it fell, she rose ; 
 Rose, like a lily bending o'er its stem. 
 Gently until she stood. 
 
 And hark, she cried, 
 Beloved ! hearest thou not that wail of woe ? 
 I know it, whence it comes. Oh let us hence 
 Hasten, and Heaven beseech to save, to save ! 
 
 Then stirred the dove divine, imbosomed here ; 
 
 And I obeyed its impulse as of God, 
 
 From whom it came ; and calling to my side 
 
 A cloudlet — like a silver swan that sailed 
 
 The deeps of air — we clasped its snowy down. 
 
 And swiftly winged our way ; — till drawing nigh, 
 
 Again, that dark apostate orb, the tears 
 
 Of my beloved one fell like raindrops down. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 66 
 
 Thus moved, I said unto the air, be fire ; 
 And to the waters, be ye flames ; and straight 
 It was so ; for it seemed but meet to purge 
 The sanctuary in this wise, so defiled. 
 
 From side to side, from end to end, it burned, 
 From pole to pole it blazed — from sea to sea ; 
 Till, in the central city of that sphere. 
 Now shining ruins only, from the height 
 Of one immoveable mountain monument, 
 Forked like a double pyramid, which sole 
 Survived the splendid wreck, was spied, far off 
 On the horizon, the unbroken ring 
 Of round beleaguering fire, which, swift as thought, 
 The nations all into one death-doomed flock, 
 Relentless, hunted. 
 
 Midst this fiery woe, — 
 Struck suddenly, as out of vertical space, — 
 Once more the blazing swordstar shewed in Heaven ; 
 Which many, fearful, deemed, if brandished then 
 By the same hand as first, would cleave in twain 
 Their self accursed sphere, and hurl its dust, 
 With them, for aye, into the deadly void. 
 
56 THE ANGEL WORLD, 
 
 Near and more near on waves of light it rode, 
 
 Swiftly triumphing, and with blinding beam, 
 
 Till full above the centre of the orb — 
 
 The conflagration of the sphere self-quelled, 
 
 As though in presence of a mightier power — 
 
 Slowly descending, it alit at last. 
 
 And upright stood ; — no more a flaming sword, 
 
 But sunbright cross ; 'neath whose redemptive light, 
 
 And restorative radiance, all the seeds 
 
 Of life leapt upwards in the face of Heaven. 
 
 There now it stands, and all who will, may live. 
 Seeking its light. Alas for creature will ! 
 The darkness and the light still stand opposed. 
 Ceaseless, as is the war 'tween good and ill. 
 Which win and lose eternally in turn ; 
 While these vivific globules, stars y'cleped. 
 Roll through the veins galactic of the heavens ; — 
 So long as lasts creation. 
 
 Go, I said, thou pure 
 And selfless spirit ! Take thou this golden key, — 
 Which saying, I from out my bosom took 
 The true and triple key of all the worlds. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 57 
 
 Which nought may let ; which opes whatever can 
 
 Be shut, and shuts whatever be oped ; which turns 
 
 The wards of Heaven's own gates of solid light, 
 
 The portals of the palace of the Sun — 
 
 No eye create shall else behold ; — and placed 
 
 In her pure palm. This take and ope, I said, 
 
 The prison wherein she groaning — dying — lies. 
 
 Restore her to the vital light. Strike off 
 
 The manacles from her hands ; and from her feet 
 
 Loosen the gory fetters ; in her wounds 
 
 Pour thou the oil of peace, and wash with streams 
 
 Of living waters. Clothe her with thyself 
 
 As thou art clothed. Oh cheer her heart with hope 
 
 And inspiration of thy faith, and say 
 
 I sent thee to redeem her. Tell her, still. 
 
 My love hath never altered ; not in grief, — 
 
 In passion not, not in disgrace, nor guilt ; — 
 
 Howe'er inconstant her heart, or opposed, 
 
 Her love I with an everlasting love ; — 
 
 The one am I unchanging ; — what beside 
 
 Thou wilt, for thou canst only utter truth. 
 
 Go ! and may He who over-orders all. 
 
 Speed thee upon thy quest. 
 
58 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 She, wordless, went, 
 But looked her thanks — which seemed to promise full 
 Accomplishment of precept — on a wind 
 Wafting herself away. 
 
 I, who, while all 
 That dark defection reigned, had warned in vain — 
 Now having seen in recompense most dear 
 Heaven's own eternal standard planted there, 
 As in all orbs, triumphant ; and once more 
 By this dear monitor, this God-gift moved, 
 That sphere to quit ; — first in myself resolved 
 The mighty stream of Time to pass, which bounds 
 And separates the realms of sense and soul 
 From Heaven's eternal spirit-land, that I, 
 Might to the sire of all which live, present 
 For all, the supplications of my heart ; — 
 And that the prayerful love of that bright maid 
 For her beloved sister, might receive 
 The seal of God's acceptance. 
 
 On this high 
 And arduousest emprise behold me bound ; — 
 Yet, ere I left my cloudlet car, whence late 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 59 
 
 I marked that world-wreck, once again I gazed 
 Thitherward, and beheld before the gates 
 Of a half-buried palace — black as death, 
 Its marble portals — locked in blest embrace, 
 The well-beloved twain. 
 
 A voice then spake — 
 The voice of one joy-hearted, soft and clear 
 As bells at early morn, on that blest day, 
 Named in the breast-laws of each starry orb. 
 Wherein Eternity entwines with Time 
 Its golden strands, and weds the world to Heaven ; — 
 Arise ! come forth, beloved sister, rise. 
 How blest am I to serve thee, to release ! 
 Nor doubt, nor wait. Behold thy handmaid me. 
 Gifts bring I for thee, gifts of countless price — 
 Of priceless worth. Thy lover Lord commands 
 Array thee for the bridals. Lo ! the new 
 And shining robes, by heavenly fingers wrought, — 
 Fit for the form divine of her whose love 
 Is hallowed in the eternal rites of Heaven. 
 So shall we dwell together here in bliss. 
 Till He shall come who ever comes to all 
 His promise sanctifies. Improve the hour 
 
60 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Which yet remains, in all obedience clear ; 
 And deck thyself in weeds of righteousness, 
 With jewels of good deeds adorned, and clad 
 In golden garments redolent of praise. 
 For infinite is every gift of His 
 Divine bestowing ; and Salvation's cup, 
 And Nature's, He to overflowing fills. 
 
 With joy I heard — I saw. Nor longer then 
 
 Awaited, but where most the starlands crowd 
 
 The potent north, soared upwards, space by space, 
 
 And firmament by firmament of stars. 
 
 Leaving in turn behind ; passing unharmed 
 
 Upon the verge of Being, where the path 
 
 Narrows to almost nothing, the monsters foul 
 
 Earth-dust and Death-night — things ye know not of — 
 
 Yet fatal beasts to all who, me before, 
 
 That way had urged. But God hath favoured me. 
 
 And nigh thereto, the Golgotha of worlds — 
 
 The charnel-house of Time — where skull-like orbs, 
 
 Extinct of life, with rotten, sickly light. 
 
 Defiled the purview, and advance delayed ; 
 
 Yet shrinking nought, though shuddering, passed I on, 
 
 Through all uncleanness, clean, all foulness, pure. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 61 
 
 Hungered, athirst and faint with fasting, still, 
 My purposed way I held, till bright afar. 
 The kindly radiance of this angel world 
 Beaconed me hither — and I came. Ye now, 
 Thanks for your holy hospitality. 
 Behold me journeying to the city of God, 
 There to prefer my prayers, and plead for those 
 Whom still I love, though drawn aside to trust 
 The natural strength allotted them, and not — 
 With sole reliance — God ; who thus to all 
 By failure e'en of angels, when He wills, 
 Asserts in all. His high supremacy. 
 
 Let whoso feels in holy will inspired. 
 Me to accompany, speak — to that bright throne 
 Where God, our Father, in all glory sits. 
 The world in holy audience at His feet ; — 
 And there with me, while giving praise for all. 
 His word hath made and saved, for those not yet 
 Redeemed, pray ceaselessly. 
 
 Uprising then 
 As 't were a constellation, suddenly, 
 Seven of those gracious angels pressed around, 
 
63 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Eager for friendly escort ; when the chief 
 Cherub who welcomed first that pilgrim bright, 
 Thus said ; — Another holy day, made blest 
 By our dear guest — how different he from those 
 Deceptive friends he tells of ! — hath now slid 
 Into the passive strength-restoring night ; 
 Rest also ye. 
 
 Such is mine own intent, 
 Replied the eloquent guest ; and less for that. 
 These life-tried limbs have gone through, than their 
 
 sakes. 
 Who know not half the flight they meditate. 
 
 Then worship before rest ; as was the wont 
 
 In every alternation of the day, 
 
 Ere action, or refreshment, or repose. 
 
 Last, on their happy couches, odorous all 
 
 Of flowery incense, lay the angels down ; 
 
 Shading their faces with the plumy gold 
 
 Of their space searching pinions ; sacred sleep 
 
 Stealing the starry wonders of their eyes. 
 
 And with divinest visions hallowing all. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 63 
 
 Morn, like a maiden glancing o'er her pearls, 
 Streamed o'er the manna-dew, as though the ground 
 Were sown with starseed ; — and the angels rose, 
 Each from his hallowed couch, and — duly made 
 The sole oblation of the heart to God — 
 Stood ready for departure ; taking leave, 
 For a brief space, of their beloved compeers ; 
 With many an ardent longing for the way. 
 As yet untried — 'neath such sweet leadership. 
 
 At length the last embrace, last look, exchanged, 
 
 High upward the bright bevy, like to light 
 
 Out of the crowned north, — shot ; on and on, 
 
 Through firmamental fields of furthest space, 
 
 Till at the brink of a vast river they, 
 
 Arriving, halted, which pervaded Heaven ; — 
 
 Swift as a cataract, yet unbroken, still 
 
 And level as the mean line of the sea. 
 
 Thick with chaotic matter and unformed — 
 
 Like the volcanic blood which bounds unseen 
 
 In veins of lightning through earth's cavernous heart — 
 
 Mid ruined orbs, like broken ice-lumps, rolled, 
 
 Melting and crumbling, to the ocean deeps 
 
 Of vast eternity, it gushed along. 
 
64 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Its depths were darkness self; but every wave, 
 Which curled out of the mass, seemed light alive, 
 Though but an instant. 
 
 On an eminent height. 
 Which overpeered the stream, the angels sate. 
 Then said the angel leader to the rest. 
 What see ye past the river ? And they said, 
 We nothing see beyond. Athwart this stream. 
 If stream it be — and not a shoreless main — 
 Is more than we can ken. 
 
 But I, returned 
 The questioner, see beyond the clear bright land 
 Of Heavenly immortality, mine own 
 By birthright and by gift ; and thither, we. 
 
 Descending to the shore, he stooped, and dipped 
 Into the stream his hand ; which filling full, 
 He tasted, and thus spake. Ye waters — once 
 Of death — but now of life eternal, take 
 Back the libation I have made of ye ; 
 And be ye changed for ever. Uttering this, 
 He cast the dark remainder in the flood. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 65 
 
 That instant changed into a flood of life, 
 Flashing with light celestial to its depths 
 Of bottomless infinitude ; — and straight, 
 Grasping the bright branch of an olive tree. 
 Which bowed with verdant gold the peaceful shore, 
 He therewith sprinkled, one by one, the band 
 Who him accompanied ; with these pure rites 
 Making them free, initiate into Heaven, 
 And death the lesser mysteries of life. 
 
 The solemn marvel of these gladsome deeds, 
 
 Each heart lit up with self-evolving joy. 
 
 And round him all stood linked in one embrace. 
 
 Behold, he said ; for fit it is that now 
 
 We keep our course ; and close below there lay, 
 
 Moored but a little distance from the side, 
 
 A crescent-boat, translucent as a star. 
 
 Wherein they all embarked, in godly dread. 
 
 If lightning were the gross corporeal frame 
 Of some angelic essence, whose bright thoughts 
 As far surpassed in keen rapidity. 
 The lagging action of his limbs as doth 
 
 5 
 
66 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Man's mind his clay ; with like excess of speed 
 
 To animated thought of lightning, flew 
 
 That moon-horned vessel o'er life's deeps divine; — 
 
 Far past the golden isles of memory 
 
 Where only names exist and things are not ; 
 
 Mingled wherewith a cloudy counterpart 
 
 Mocks every islet, and therein are lost 
 
 Those upon whom the bright seductive sea 
 
 Smiles wreckful ; and sincerest smoothness feigns. 
 
 They went, they knew not how. It was as though 
 
 The finite, mingling with the infinite. 
 
 Produced an utter ravishment and sense 
 
 Of o'erabundant reason. At the last. 
 
 Heaven's azure shores they made, and leapt on land, 
 
 Scarce had they touched that land of life, when lo ! 
 
 From every footfall, like soft waves of light, 
 
 A murmuring music sprang, as if its own 
 
 It welcomed to its bosom, with soft joy 
 
 Rejoicing inwardly. The sacred soil. 
 
 To this premortal music vibrating. 
 
 The same w^hich Faith hears in the still of Time — 
 
 Their chief saluted ; kneeling, likewise, they. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 67 
 
 Then he embraced them all and each in turn. 
 
 Here let us build, said he, a tower of light ; 
 
 That all upon the further side may know 
 
 We have in safety crossed the flood. Himself 
 
 Placed the foundation-stone, and one by one, 
 
 Masses of dazzling adamant which starred 
 
 The shining shore, like flowers that fringe the banks 
 
 Of woodland brook, they piled up altarwise 
 
 At his command. On every stone engraved, 
 
 In gleamy darkness, was the name of God ; 
 
 For every star a stone ; and every name 
 
 A separate title symbolizing love. 
 
 A sheaf of lightning on the head he placed. 
 
 Which with the skies innate communion held. 
 
 And burned in correspondence. Thus was all 
 
 With the pure blessing of perfection crowned. 
 
 Their journey called them on ; and pleased they trode 
 
 That land of solid concord ; yet not long 
 
 The lower line of progress kept. Aloft 
 
 Once more they stretched the light-related wing, 
 
 High in the face of Heaven's eternal towers. 
 
 Which still immeasurably distant shewed, 
 
68 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Of soul enkindling brilliance, and a power, 
 
 Light-uttering splendour, that at first appeared 
 
 Enough to quench their lesser beam. But this 
 
 As they approached them strengthened, and enlarged, 
 
 In heart and effluence. Whilst the happy seven 
 
 Were marvelling at such change, inwrapt in thought, 
 
 Lost in the labyrinth of boundless love. 
 
 Self-humbled by the glory on them poured. 
 
 They found that Heaven was close to them ; and they 
 
 The shining basement of the walls had reached 
 
 Of the celestial citv, which did itself 
 
 Enclose, or seemed, the essential universe ; — 
 
 And standing by the glowing gate of prayer. 
 
 About to enter, missed their stranger friend. 
 
 In holy wonder lost, still greater now. 
 
 Each to the other turned, yet nothing spake. 
 
 For silence sealed each tongue. But straight on high 
 
 A voice spake for them, saying — Enter ye. 
 
 For I am He who led ye hither ; I 
 
 Who lead ye still, the Son. Then rushed on all, 
 
 Like eagre swallowing up its streamy way. 
 
 The whole mysterious truth. And they obeyed 
 
 The word magnetic, the divine constraint. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 69 
 
 They entered. All was silent. One sole voice, 
 Through the serene eternity of Heaven, 
 Streamed upwards towards the Ineffable ; — nor harp, 
 Nor hymn, nor breath beside ; nor thought, nor hope 
 Of all Creation, but therein was bound. 
 
 Father, He said, I pray for all the worlds, 
 
 Whom Thou, by these creating hands, hast made. 
 
 And linked with mine. Though fallen they be by sin, 
 
 Through trusting in themselves, and not in Thee, 
 
 Let not imperfect nature, tried by Thy 
 
 Perfection, their eternal ruin prove. 
 
 Rather let me that glory I partake 
 
 With Thee, to them dispense, that Heaven's pure light 
 
 The darkness of the world may clarify. 
 
 And Time, impregned by Thy pure Spirit, bring forth 
 
 Divine eternity ; death's bitter flood 
 
 O'erpast, the pure regeneration come 
 
 To all life, saved and sanctified to Thee. 
 
 He ceased ; and, issuant from the eternal throne, 
 Came like a cloud of light, the bright response, 
 The Godhead in expression, uttering love 
 In laws more broad than light, which thus were known. 
 
70 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Son ! for Thy sake I make the world mine own ; 
 
 For Thy sake hallowed, and in Thee redeemed, 
 
 The universal life exempt from sin. 
 
 That love which founded first the skyey stars 
 
 Shall see no bound, and so be satisfied 
 
 With sempiternal ingrowth. World on world,- 
 
 The illuminated missal of the skies, 
 
 Thou turnest, leaf by leaf, in turn shall close. 
 
 Thy spirit only, which Thyself hast poured 
 
 Into the worlds of life, shall live for aye, 
 
 And in this presence, as the angel man. 
 
 Acknowledging his Lord and Thee his love. 
 
 In everlasting union all shall dwell 
 
 With Thee, who giving up the joys of Heaven, 
 
 And union with the One. for life discerpt. 
 
 And spheres of shining sadness, madest Thyself, 
 
 Sinless, a perfect sacrifice for sin. 
 
 Therefore in Thee shall sin and death be sanctified. 
 
 And flesh made spirit, human nature made 
 
 Divinity, vice virtue, and earth Heaven. 
 
 As in creating light, is night destroyed, 
 
 So every bodily organ shall be changed 
 
 Into a spirit-sense ; and human power 
 
 Into divinest faculty ; each fault 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 71 
 
 Into a pure possession and stronghold. 
 
 Behold ! the worlds Thou prayedst for, all are Thine ; 
 
 And that in chief I gave Thee, recreant once — 
 
 To bliss restored and glorified in grace, 
 
 Made happier and diviner far than first, 
 
 The earnest of the harvest of the skies ; — 
 
 Behold it at Thy feet : the creature lures 
 
 Of mystery and idolatry, become 
 
 Pure faith and simple worship; the blazing sword, 
 
 Whose firebirth of incendiary sins 
 
 Wrapped at the last in pitchy flames the orb 
 
 Of stainless beauty, so created — now 
 
 Transformed, the fateful mysteries of the cross 
 
 Foreshadows and confirms. Lo, there it stands ; 
 
 And all thou prayedst for, perfected ere prayed. 
 
 God said ; responsive silence caught the words, 
 And hid them in her heart, as night the stars. 
 
 Glowing and sparkling in the life-rayed sun 
 Of the celestial firmament, glided up 
 On pinions wide of playful lightnings poised. 
 That sphere Elysian consummate in bliss. 
 And all the angels thereto bent their gaze 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 As stars in nightly council watch the earth. 
 
 Then looked and saw, three paces from the light, 
 
 'Midst of that pure and renovated orb, 
 
 Beside the gardened bank of a bright stream, 
 
 A fair and lofty lady, clad in robes 
 
 Of seagreen hue, engirdled with a zone 
 
 All variously tinct, and round her brow, 
 
 Encrowned with peaks of quivering fire, a veil 
 
 Of heavenly azure. In one hand she held 
 
 A tower, and in the other hand a tree. 
 
 Sat at her feet a melancholy maid. 
 
 Pale, perfect, and serene, between whom passed 
 
 A mutual smile of sympathy and trust. 
 
 As though their lot were linked ; yet knew they not 
 
 How, nor the invisible presence of the Heavens. 
 
 These, as they both intently eyed, at last 
 
 One to the other spake. Sweet Sister, mine. 
 
 Sleep thou, and let me wait his coming sole. 
 
 Me He expects to watch, but would not thou. 
 
 Thereon, that lovely lady laid her down 
 
 Below a rock, whereby, in woods embowered, 
 
 And scented with all flowers, the river flowed, — 
 
 Her last words, watch ; in sooth. He will not come 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 73 
 
 Or not to me, who wrought him so great bale. 
 
 And the sun set ; still watched the maiden meek, 
 And at midnight she prayed. 
 
 My Lord, my God ! 
 Thine is the Spirit which commands and smiles ; 
 The soul which serves and suffers ; — Thine the stars 
 Tabled upon Thy bosom like the stones 
 Oracular of light, on the priest's breast ; 
 Thine the minutest mote the moonbeams shew ! 
 Let but Thy words come true, and all are blest ; 
 Be but Thine infinite intents fulfilled, — 
 And what shall foil the covenanted oath 
 Whereon the mounded earth is based ? — and lo ! 
 The whole at last redeemed and glorified. 
 
 While thus she prayed. Heaven looking on, came down 
 
 From His eternal heights the Angel-GoD, 
 
 Upon whose breast the sun blazed ; and He stood 
 
 Between them ; and the lady rose all pale ; 
 
 But the mild maiden gladdened in her heart. 
 
 The Angel took the maiden by the hand, 
 
74 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 And said, O thou who watchedst and hadst faith, 
 What shall be thy reward ? 
 
 If I, she said. 
 Have done well, 't was from reverence of Thee 
 And love of Thy divine love ; she, alas. 
 Being infinitely worthier of Thy heart. 
 Predestined from the first to Thy bright breast, 
 Than I the thousand virtues to proclaim. 
 Which own Thee Lord for ever. What though sin, 
 Serpent-like, fanged her, and she fell, I knew 
 That Thou by touch couldst heal her, and Thy power 
 To do good equally by Thy will to do, 
 AVhose love is world-wide. Were there due to me 
 Of guerdon aught, it should be still to serve 
 And dwell with both for aye. Be, then, to her 
 The vow performed first promised, and let my 
 Betrothal, Lord ! in her espousals end. 
 
 Then whelmed with gratitude, the royal dame, 
 
 In all her bridal beauty cast her down 
 
 And clasped her handmaid's knees and wept aloud. 
 
 But her the Angel raised and dried her tears, 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 75 
 
 With His serenest smiles, and blessed them both. 
 ,, Come ye with me, He said, beloved come ! 
 I The handmaid's faith hath saved the mistress throne. 
 
 Be one my sister, and be one, my bride ; 
 
 Each than the other dearer, more divine. 
 
 The world's wide doomring is the land I rule, 
 
 My home is Heaven, and mine inheritance 
 
 Both shall enjoy, predestinate of God. 
 
 The Father to the Son gives all in Time, 
 
 The Son restores all in Eternity 
 
 Unto His Sire ; and I myself to Him. 
 
 Then, one by either hand. He led them up ; 
 This, with the holy presence and august, 
 Most like the mother goddess, city crowned, 
 Now tiar'd as with the towers of Paradise ; 
 That, with the lucid crescent on her brow, 
 To the high seats of old prepared for both. 
 
 And all the angels and the spirits blest. 
 They who had erred, and they who taught to err — 
 Along with those, who wise and pure withstood 
 Temptation, yet now wisest, humblest were — 
 
76 THE ANGEL WORLD. 
 
 Dwelt in that sphere, concentric with the Sun, 
 Which ruled the skies supernal ; and they passed 
 Upward and downward as best listed them. 
 
 And Wisdom passed amidst them, like a thought 
 
 Among a gladsome circle. And the face 
 
 Of all the orbs was changed. Then, too, was seen 
 
 The great unveiling of all mysteries, 
 
 Creation glorified : in childlike calm. 
 
 Lapped in the mantle of eternal rest. 
 
 The jubilant song swelled circling through the courts 
 
 Of everlasting joy, like a round wave, 
 
 Till it suffused all life, and touched the stars 
 
 On the unlimited eye-line of pure space. 
 
 Smiled the Eternal Son, who can alone 
 Behold the Invisible and Heaven then saw, 
 Reflected in the face of Him Divine, 
 Born of the Light as eye glance of the Eye, 
 The unseen likeness of the Ineffable One ; 
 Each like the other as the skv and sea, 
 Imbosoming the imaged Infinite. 
 
THE ANGEL WORLD. 77 
 
 The Son Eternal smiled ; and from his throne 
 Stretched out the hand of blessing o'er the world ; 
 And blest it was — for ever — blest it is. 
 
THE RETURIs\ 
 
 They come, from the ends of the earth, 
 
 White with its aged snows ; 
 From the bounding breast of the tropic tide, 
 
 Where the day-beam ever glows ; — 
 From the east where first they dwelt, 
 
 From the north, and the south, and the west, 
 j Where the sun puts on his robe of light, 
 ' And lays down his crown to rest. 
 
 Out of every land they come — 
 
 Where the palm triumphant grows, 
 Where the vine overshadows the roofs and the hills, 
 
 And the gold-orbed orange glows ; 
 
THE RETURN. 79 
 
 Where the olive and fig-tree thrive, 
 
 And the rich pomegranates red, 
 Where the citron blooms, and the apple of ill 
 
 Bows down its fragrant head. 
 
 From the lands where the gems are born — 
 
 Opal and emerald bright ; 
 From shores where the ruddy corals grow. 
 
 And pearls with their mellow light ; 
 Where silver and gold are dug, 
 
 And the diamond rivers roll, 
 And the marble white as the still moonlight 
 
 Is quarried, and jetty coal ; — 
 
 They come — w^ith a gladdening shout ; 
 
 They come — with a tear of joy ; 
 Father and daughter, youth and maid, 
 
 Mother and blooming boy. 
 A thousand dwellings they leave, 
 
 Dwellings — but not a Home ; 
 To them there is none but the sacred soil, 
 
 And the land whereto they come. 
 
80 THE RETURN. 
 
 And the Temple again shall be built, 
 
 And filled as it was of yore ; 
 And the burden be lift from the heart of the world. 
 
 And the nations all adore ; 
 Prayers to the throne of Heaven 
 
 Morning and eve shall rise, 
 And unto and not of the Lamb 
 
 Shall be the sacrifice. 
 
HYMN OF THANKS 
 
 Through pain and through peril, temptation and harm, 
 We are saved by His love, for the Lord lent His arm ; 
 By the sea's bounding wave and the blue river's rim, 
 As the morn grew up bright, or as eve came down dim, 
 By the cliff and the beach, and the mountain's bleak 
 
 brow, 
 We have knelt — for we felt — then, and ever, as now ; 
 By the stones of the street — or the green valley's sod. 
 Was the light of the Lord, and Thy Glory, O God ! 
 
 From the strength of the storm and the grasp of the sea. 
 And the lightning's red wrath. Heaven ransomed are 
 
 we ; 
 From the arms of the forceful, the wiles of the base. 
 We have turned to Thee, Lord ! and Thy comforting 
 
 face ; 
 
 6 
 
82 HYMN OF THANKS. 
 
 In the courts of the Idols we thought on Thy power, 
 And shrank not, nor bowed in the terrible hour, — 
 Our life, and our all, at a savage's nod. 
 But were saved to Thee, Lord ! and Thy glory, O God. 
 
 By fountain and garden, and palace and grove, 
 Where the gay and the beautiful gather to rove ; 
 Where the vine o'er the violet flourishes green. 
 And the roses fill up the soft season between ; 
 Where the temples are worthy of God to behold, 
 And the altars are blazing with jewels and gold ; 
 Wherever we travelled — or voyaged — or trod - • 
 Was the light of the Lord, and Thy glory, God ! 
 
A U T U M N . 
 
 'T IS Autumn — and the winds are high 
 And storm-clouds scud across the sky ; 
 The yellow groves on Dee's dark side 
 Grow paler each approaching tide, 
 As though they feared the rising waves 
 Would sweep them to untimely graves. 
 
 No flowers are now with dew-lit eye 
 To lure the light breeze loitering by ; 
 No roses shed their rich perfume 
 From hearts just hid in sweets and gloom ; 
 But barren stem and withered leaf 
 Are all that 's left for love and grief. 
 
 Behind yon hills which fence the west 
 The sun sets on the sea's wild breast ; 
 
84 AUTUMN. 
 
 Not as in summer time he went 
 
 A warrior to his crimson tent, 
 
 While all the glory of the world 
 
 Stood waving like a flag unfurled 
 
 Around him, as the bright one bowed, 
 
 And laid him on a golden cloud ; 
 
 But wan and weary, sick and dim, 
 
 He dies, and Heaven seems nought to him : 
 
 So glares the dying on the dead, 
 
 Stretched upon battle's gory bed. 
 
 The clouds, careering swift on high. 
 In continents overspread the sky ; 
 And mists come reeking up the plain. 
 And pattering quick the chilling rain, 
 And sullen l\Joel Famma shrouds 
 Her column-crowned head in clouds. 
 
 From Grosvenor's woods are falling fast 
 The leaves beneath the loosening blast ; 
 Yet lovelier now those groves appear 
 Than in the noontide of the year. 
 Where crimson blends with deepest green, 
 And brown and amber glow between ; 
 
AUTUMN. 85 
 
 So sunset hath the richest sky, 
 So saints look happiest as they die. 
 
 The floods are flowing, and the Dee 
 Rolls black and swollen to the sea ; 
 Yet still by fits that haunted stream 
 Flickers beneath the moon's pale beam, 
 Like a face smiling through a dream. 
 And mine, a stranger's footstep falls 
 Round my ancestral city's walls. 
 Beneath the steep sharp-slanted shade 
 By moonlight from the minster made — 
 In silence, for no soul is nigh 
 To brave or love the storm but I 
 
THE RING. -A BALLAD 
 
 (( 
 
 Thus to a fair Venetian maid, 
 The proudest of the train, 
 
 With which the Doge went forth arrayed 
 To wed his vassal main. 
 This very day," her lover said, 
 Will Venice go the sea to wed.'' 
 
 *' Now tell me, lady, what to do. 
 
 To win this hand of thine ; 
 I '11 risk both soul and body too, 
 
 For such a prize divine." 
 '' I '11 have the bridal ring," said she, 
 " Wherewith the Doge will wed the sea." 
 
 Came forth the Doge and all his train, 
 And sailed upon the sea ; 
 
THE RING. A BALLAD. 87 
 
 The banners waved, and music's strain 
 
 Rose soft and heavenwardly ; — 
 And blue waves raced to seize the ring 
 Which glided through them glittering. 
 
 The lover through the bright array- 
 Rushed by the Doge's side : — 
 
 A plunge — and plume and mantle gay 
 Lay lashing on the tide ; 
 
 He heard a shriek, but down he dived, 
 
 To follow where the ring arrived. 
 
 He sought so long, that all above 
 
 Behoved him gone for aye. 
 Nor knew they 't was his haughty love 
 
 Who shrieked and swooned away. 
 At length he rose to light — half-dead — 
 But held the ring above his head. 
 
 The lady wept — the lover smiled — 
 
 She had not deemed he would 
 Have dared it, — was a foolish child — 
 
 And loved as none else could. 
 
88 THE RING. A BALLAD. 
 
 " Take it and be a faithful bride 
 To death," the lover said, and died. 
 
 The lady to a convent hied, 
 And took the holy vows, 
 
 And was till death a faithful bride 
 To her Eternal spouse. 
 
 And then the ring her lover gave 
 
 They buried with her in the grave. 
 
TO THE TRENT. 
 
 Of all the rivers in the land, 
 
 Thee most I love, fair Trent, 
 For in thy stream and by thy banks 
 
 My happiest hours I 've spent. 
 'Twas there, hard bye, I first drew breatli, 
 
 There hope to end my days ; 
 And every where I '11 tell till death 
 
 My native river's praise. 
 
 Oh ! Shannon hath a wilder shore, 
 
 And Thames a richer freight. 
 And silver-linked Forth is banked 
 
 By more baronial state ; 
 But neither hath a purer wave, 
 
 Nor deeper, stiller stream ; 
 
90 TO THE TRENT. 
 
 'T is quiet as a grassy grave, 
 Or a saint's dying dream. 
 
 Let me, in sunshine or in storm, 
 
 Still linger by her side ; 
 I '11 alvvay look on her with love, 
 
 And speak of her with pride. 
 By rock and mead, and grove and isle, 
 
 She goes from deep to deep ; 
 I love her in her dawning smile, 
 
 And in her sunset sleep. 
 
 And when she riseth with the rain, 
 
 And bringeth forth her flood. 
 And sweeps up to the high town's foot 
 
 Her spoil of field and wood, — 
 I love her more than ever then, 
 
 For then she hath her will ; 
 And over mounds and herds and men 
 
 She bears the victory sti.l. 
 
 May such a calm triumphant course 
 To sacred souls be given. 
 
TO THE TRENT. 1)1 
 
 That, river-like, though born on earth, 
 
 They image only Heaven : 
 And tending ever towards the light. 
 
 In this their earthly race, 
 Meet, mixing with eternity. 
 
 In joy, their Maker's face. 
 
AN ANCIENT LEGEND 
 
 A STONE stands in a rustic town 
 
 Which once the neighbouring hill did crown ; 
 
 Nigh to the house of God it lay 
 
 Before 't was set where now it stands, 
 
 And how and why there, graybeards say, 
 
 Was ne'er the work of mortal hands. 
 
 But list, and ye eftsoons shall know. 
 
 From runes translated into rhyme, 
 
 How saint and fiend would have it so 
 
 Far back within the olden time. 
 
 That holy church stands fair and free. 
 Those festive bells peal merrily. 
 As well they might and still they may 
 On many a bright autumnal day. 
 
AN ANCIENT LEGEND. 93 
 
 When both in hostel, cot, and hall, 
 They hold the village festival. 
 
 The godly rustics on that day 
 At church had met to praise and pray. 
 And thank the Giver of all good, 
 Through Him that died upon the rood. 
 For harvests stored and daily food ; 
 And as saint Wilfrid's care they claimed, 
 Oft in their prayers his name was named. 
 
 At morn, at noon, at eventide. 
 Their task the merry ringers plied. 
 Pealing each time with joy increased 
 A welcome to the rustic feast. 
 
 But it roused the wrath of the fell fiend. 
 As high o'er minster-fane he leaned, 
 In the dim glooming of the day 
 Blent with the moonlight's silvery gray. 
 Quoth he, " I hate that holy peal. 
 Yon festal church my wrath shall feel." 
 
 lie said ; and from the stately lands. 
 
94 AN ANCIENT LEGEND. 
 
 Whereon the high cathedral stands, 
 He heaved a huge gray granite stone 
 Erst as a Druid's altar known ; 
 And lifting it between his teeth, 
 And three times scantly drawing breath, 
 Wide on the air his arms he spread 
 And dropped it on'the minster's head ; 
 E'en as an eagle drops a hare 
 Brought for her callow younglets' fare. 
 
 Upon the main tower straight he stands, 
 And as he glanced o'er field and fell, 
 He weighed the weapon in his hands 
 And took his aim and distance well ; 
 And when the moon's last glimmering ray 
 Died on the tall church spire away, 
 Three hours he gazed it through the dark, 
 Nor winked his eye once on the mark. 
 As midnight tolled, for mightiest then 
 Is all demoniac power o'er men. 
 The rock he raised — Foul fiend forbear ! - 
 And hurled it hurtling through the air. 
 
 Saint Wilfrid, from his seat above, 
 
AN ANCIENT LEGEND. 9& 
 
 Where with the blest, whose deathless days 
 Are passed 'tween deeds of sacred love 
 And their adored Redeemer's praise, 
 Cast on the house of praise and prayer, 
 The object of his hallowed care, 
 One glance, and marked the missile fly 
 Midway betwixt the earth and sky. 
 
 A momentary prayer he made ; 
 
 And there the mighty mass was stayed ; 
 
 Aloft in air the altar hung, 
 
 As moveless as before 'twas flung. 
 
 Then spake saint Wilfred : " Baflied fiend, 
 What evil can from Heaven be screened ? 
 Though in the depth of midnight thou 
 Didst ween to crush yon pile below, 
 Yet know that to celestial eyes 
 Divinest daylight never dies. 
 And saints defend the things they love, 
 As God protects the saints above. 
 While men invoke their holy names, 
 And on their prayers for succour call, 
 
96 AN ANCIENT LEGEND. 
 
 So long shall saints fulfil their claims, 
 So long their shrines shall never fall." 
 
 He ceased ; the air-arrested rock 
 Fell earthwards with a harmless shock, 
 A long half mile beyond the bound 
 Of the good church's hallowed ground. 
 The Demon, balked, made off in rage. 
 And the stone slept for many an age. 
 
 And still — a startling sight I ween — 
 
 'I'he foul fiend's teeth-dints may be seen ; 
 
 And still, though gray and wondrous old. 
 
 The stone itself is never cold, 
 
 But keeps within its fated forni 
 
 A gust of the fiend's fire-breath warm. 
 
LONDON 
 
 I LOVE thee, London ! for thy many men, 
 
 And for thy mighty deeds and scenes of glory ; 
 
 For all great thoughts and things into thy story 
 Drain themselves — of the heart or hand or pen. 
 I love thee in all hours : the most, though, when 
 
 The busy heart of universal man 
 
 Seems throbbing through thee, without pause or plan, 
 Yet, haply well, to God's all loving ken. 
 
 Thou art the greatest thing on the earth's face 
 That man hath made ; thou art what man can do. 
 
 Look on it. Lord ! and greaten it with Thy grace. 
 Hundreds of shrines therein are Thine ; — too few. 
 
 Let the world worship God ! ye cities, bow ! 
 And last and lowest, thou, proud London, thou ! 
 
 7 
 
A RUIN 
 
 In a cot-studded, fruity, green deep dale. 
 
 There grows the ruin of an abbey old ; 
 
 And on the hill side, cut in rock, behold 
 A sainted hermit's cell ; so goes the tale. 
 What of that ruin ? There is nothing left 
 
 Save one sky-framing window arch, which climbs 
 Up to its top point, single stoned, bereft 
 
 Of prop or load. And this strange thing sublimes 
 The scene. For the fair great house, vowed to God, 
 
 Is hurled down and unhallowed ; and we tread 
 O'er buried graves which have devoured their dead ; 
 
 While over all springs up the green-lifed sod. 
 And arch, so light and lofty in its span — 
 So frail and yet so lasting — tis like man. 
 
A FRAGMENT 
 
 As in a round wide view from some tall hill, 
 
 Central and isolate, it happeneth oft 
 
 The furthest things on all sides eyeable 
 
 Are village temples tapering to the skies. 
 
 Be such, too, the horizon of the soul ; 
 
 And every ultimate object, unto Heaven 
 
 Calmly aspiring, indicate its end. 
 
 And sanctify the limits of our life. 
 
 For as, in gentlest exhalations, earth 
 
 Breathes forth the glistening steams which high in air 
 
 Glow, sunlipped, into clouds of rosy gold. 
 
 Or seek again her breast in fruitful dew ; 
 
 So of our aspirations and desires. 
 
 Might we endow the skyey calm of life 
 
 With retributive blessings, and a clime 
 
 Of love create about us bright and boon ; 
 
100 A FRAGMENT. 
 
 An everlasting spring of holy good, 
 
 And venerable beauty. But, alas ! 
 
 Men breathe forth passions which fall back in blights, 
 
 And stormy desolations, that defile 
 
 The sky-born streams, and flood life's fields with woe. 
 
 The evil in our nature we can act 
 
 Always and utter ; but the inner good 
 
 Hath inexpressive boundlessness. Earthlike, 
 
 Each carries with him his own atmosphere, 
 
 Or pure or foul, where'er we orbitate. 
 
LOVERS 
 
 The rose is weeping for her love, 
 
 The Nightingale ; 
 And he is flying fast above, 
 
 To her he will not fail. 
 Already golden eve appears, 
 
 He wings his way along ; 
 Ah ! look, he comes to kiss her tears. 
 
 And soothe her with his song. 
 
 The moon in pearly light may steep 
 
 The still blue air ; 
 The rose hath ceased to droop and weep, 
 
 For lo ! her love is there. 
 
 He sings to her, and o'er the trees 
 
 She hears his sweet notes swim ; 
 The world may weary ; she but sees 
 
 Her love, and hears but him. 
 
A MYTH 
 
 Apollo laid his lyre upon a stone ; 
 
 The stone was seized with music ; and the touch 
 Of mortal could awake the god's own tone 
 
 For ever after. Marvel ye not much. 
 Wherever God may choose, or man may dwell, 
 This is an ever acting miracle. 
 
 When once the gift of Godlike poesy 
 
 Hath touched the heart, it answers everything 
 
 In its own tongue, but with a harmony 
 
 Instinct of Heaven. Let the world, then, fling 
 
 Its arms of honour round the Poet's breast. 
 
 And Heaven may hear Earth's music, and have rest. 
 
 
MORNING. 
 
 She comes ! how lovely are her smiles. 
 
 The ever glorious morn ! 
 Up from old Ocean and his isles, 
 
 Her rosy chariot borne 
 By the winged steeds of Light, 
 Spurning far the shades of night ; 
 While Darkness gathers round her head 
 Her heavy wings which late lay spread 
 
 Wide o'er the sleeping world ; 
 She quits her throne ; she flies away — 
 She flings up her usurped way — 
 
 To shame and exile hurled. 
 Thus, Falsehood, fly, in that blest hour. 
 When Truth takes up for aye her long lost right and 
 power ! 
 
104 MORNING. 
 
 11, 
 
 The goddess beautiful and bright ! 
 
 She waves her hand on high, 
 And straight the Sun pours forth his might 
 
 And splendour o'er the sky. 
 The wakeful lark now leaves her nest, 
 And bears to Heaven the guileless breast ; 
 The eagle rushes strong from rest. 
 To meet and prove his burning gaze 
 Upon the Sun's congenial blaze, 
 
 And steal his golden hue ; 
 Above the sphere of earth to soar. 
 Till e'en the native cliff no more 
 
 Points to his piercing view ; 
 Hail, mighty winged creature, there 
 May none thy high dominion share ; 
 King of the trackless, sightless, boundless air ! 
 
 Ill, 
 
 And hail, Aurora ! still by thee 
 Our mother Earth 's caressed ; 
 
 And in return we worship thee. 
 Yea, all pronounce thee blest. 
 
MORNING. 105 
 
 Lo ! they come from greenwood bowers, 
 Bands of maids with fresh-culled flowers ; 
 To thee no death doomed lamb they bring, 
 Nor burned, nor blood stained offering, 
 
 To deck thy turfy shrine ; 
 But swiftly, gaily, borne aloft 
 By healthful breeze, thy favours oft 
 They tell, thy name divine. 
 Oh ! grant their prayers, inspire their praise. 
 While unto thee their pure and thankful chant they raise. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Fair Morn ! though light and fleet thy stay, 
 Though brief, thy brilliant smile. 
 
 Yet balances the frowns of day. 
 
 The world's great woes, and wile ; 
 
 Worship of self and gust for gain. 
 
 And all the rudeness of that reign 
 
 Which worldly usage doth maintain. 
 
 I dearly love to look on thee. 
 
 For thou an earnest art to me 
 
 Though short thine earthly stay. 
 
 Of time to come when woe shall die, 
 
106 MORNING. 
 
 And vice and falsehood both shall fly, 
 
 Oh happy, holy day ! 
 Then shall the just soul heavenward borne, 
 Leaving the dust garb it had worn, 
 With holy passion hail Immortal Morn ! 
 
A MYSTERY 
 
 Friend ! many a year hath passed 
 
 Since last I clasped thine hand — 
 It may be we shall meet no more 
 
 Till in the Heavenly land ; 
 Still grief can ne'er erase, nor joy 
 
 Eclipse, the bliss hath been ; 
 And us one ceaseless, burning thought 
 
 Still oscillates between. 
 
 And yet another name there is, — 
 
 The fates ask always three — 
 With thine, dear friend, and mine conjoined, 
 
 In endless unity ; 
 Yet all are severed, as by death, 
 
 At destiny's command ; 
 And though a thousand read these lines 
 
 But twain shall understand. 
 
PRAYER 
 
 Yea ! even here as everywhere, let man 
 Worship his Recreator, and the world 's 
 Made perfect by preliminary fire. 
 
 O Thou, who in the inaccessible depths 
 
 Dwellest, of all central Being, and of whom 
 
 We can see but the star dust of Thy feet, 
 
 Left on Heaven's roads ; from world, nathless,to w^orld. 
 
 From firmament to firmament, can we trace 
 
 Each soul his individual link with Thee ; 
 
 The pure invisible touch which makes us Thine, 
 
 The something more substantial than the sun, 
 
 More general than the void, yet nested here, 
 
 As through the airy silence of the soul 
 
 Swifter than eagle rushing on the wind. 
 
 Thou sweep'st into possession when Thou wilt. 
 
 So many are Thy mercies there is nought 
 
PRAYER. 109 
 
 But this to pray for, left ; — Continue that 
 Thou givest ! To cease pertaineth not to Thee. 
 
 The elements may all confusedly fail, 
 
 And burning systems stiffen or depart 
 
 Into their graves of darkness and decay ; — 
 
 The Sun, at length, exhausted in the strife 
 
 With his setherial victor, sleep and die ; — 
 
 And firmaments conglobe them, till at last 
 
 The universe concentre in one orb. 
 
 Fit for Thy footstool only. Change like this 
 
 Ten thousand times may happen, till it fall, 
 
 To the observant spirits at Thy right hand, 
 
 Noteless by re-occurrence ; Man, the while, 
 
 Restored into the essence whence he came, — 
 
 One with the great ones who have dwelt in him, — 
 
 Who cannot deal with less than infinities, 
 
 Nor utter what is not divine and true, — 
 
 Shall ripen in Thy bosom till he grow, 
 
 Through endless Heavens triumphant and serene. 
 
 Into the throned God thou badst him be. 
 
H Y M N 
 
 Who shall commemorate all Thy chosen names 
 Thou who art Sire at once and Son of man ? 
 Servant, friend, brother, bridegroom, husband, Lord, 
 Priest, advocate, physician, teacher, guide. 
 King, conqueror, and master, world-adored ! 
 Owner of all things here, and almoner ! — 
 Thou the Divine Protagonist of time. 
 The everlasting sacrifice ; the world's 
 Eternal victim, Thou, and victor God ! 
 On high the light of all perfections, here 
 The blessed shadow ! Sun of righteousness, 
 And star of wisdom, lonely in the Heavens ! — 
 The cloud of glory in life's wilderness, 
 The splendour in the temple ; Temple, rock, 
 City of refuge ! Branch and root, and vine ! 
 Tree, too, of Life, of knowledge ! Ahiiond tree 
 First flowering from the wintry world of death ! — 
 
HYMN. Ill 
 
 Thou too the olive, whence distils the oil 
 
 Of inspiration for the elect anoint ! — 
 
 Robe, sceptre, crown, and shield ! Eye, arm, and 
 
 head ! — 
 Earth's corner stone and architect of Heaven ! — 
 Fire, fountain, river ! Sacrifice for sin, 
 And Sin itself! The serpent of the saved. 
 The Angel of redemption, and our God ! — 
 Curse trans-essentiate into blessing ! Man, 
 Angel, and Deity ! The All in all. 
 The one sole Being of the universe ! 
 The Lord of armies, and the Prince of Peace, 
 Whose humblest follower is a prince with God ! — 
 Our fellow-heir and our inheritance. 
 Witness and Judge, and ransom and reward, 
 Originator, Mediator, Fine ! 
 For Thou art all of these, and Thou alone ! — 
 
KNOWLEDGE 
 
 The knowledge of God is the wisdom of man — 
 
 This is the end of Being, wisdom ; this 
 
 Of wisdom, action ; and of action, rest ; 
 
 And of rest, bliss ; that by experience sage 
 
 Of good and ill, the diametric powers 
 
 Which thwart the world, the thrice-born might discern 
 
 That death divine alone can perfect both. 
 
 The mediate and initiate ; that between 
 
 The Deity and nothing, nothing is. 
 
 The Atlantean axis of the world 
 
 And all the undescribed circumference. 
 
 Where earth's thick breath thins off to blankest space 
 
 Uniting with inanity, this truth 
 
 Confess, the sun-sire and the death- world too, 
 
 And undeflected spirit pure from Heaven, 
 
 That He who makes, destroying, saves the whole. 
 
KNOWLEDGE. 113 
 
 The Former and Re-former of the world 
 In wisdom's holy spirit all renew. 
 
 To know this, is to read the runes of old, 
 
 Wrought in the time-outlasting rock ; to see 
 
 Unblinded in the heart of light ; to feel 
 
 Keen through the soul, the same essential strain, 
 
 Which vivifies the clear and fire-eyed stars, 
 
 Still harping their serene and silvery spell 
 
 In the perpetual presence of the skies, 
 
 And of the world-cored calm, where silence sits. 
 
 In secret light all hidden ; this to know — 
 
 Brings down the fiery unction from on high, 
 
 The spiritual chrism of the sun. 
 
 Which hallows and ordains the regnant soul — 
 
 Transmutes the splendid fluid of the frame 
 
 Into a fountain of divine delight. 
 
 And renovative nature ; — shews us earth, 
 
 One with the great galactic line of life 
 
 Which parts the hemispheral palm of Heaven ; 
 
 This with all spheres of Being makes concord 
 
 As at the first creation, in that peace, 
 
 Promotional, preelemental, prime. 
 
 Which is the hope of earth, the joy of Heaven, 
 
 8 
 
114 KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 The choice of the elect, the grace of life, 
 The blessing and the glory of our God. 
 
 And — as the vesper hymn of time precedes 
 
 The starry matins of Eternity, 
 
 And daybreak of existence in the Heavens, — 
 
 To know this, is to know we shall depart 
 
 Into the storm surrounding calm on high. 
 
 The sacred cirque, the all-central infinite 
 
 Of that self blessedness wherein abides 
 
 Our God, all kind, all loving, all beloved ; — 
 
 To feel life one great ritual, and its laws, 
 
 Writ in the vital rubric of the blood, 
 
 Flow in obedience and flow out command, 
 
 In sealike circulation ; and be here 
 
 Accepted as a gift by Him who gives 
 
 An empire as an alms, nor counts it aught, 
 
 So long as all His creatures joy in Him, 
 
 The great Rejoicer of the Universe, 
 
 Whom all the boundless spheres of Being bless. 
 
 6 4 5 •.,;^ 
 
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