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M A NSON'S V^ISION 
 
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 BY 
 
 Rev. Thomas Nield 
 
 THE ADVANCE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 
 
 1912 
 

 COPyHfOMTCO BY THE AUTHOH. 1919. 
 
 
CANTO I 
 
Manson's Vision 
 
 CANTO 1 
 
 My mind was burdened with a complex theme, 
 
 Involving the eternal verities, 
 
 And sank beneath the weight, when darkness came 
 
 And on its bosom lullabied my thoughts. 
 
 Becoming then oblivious of the weight, 
 
 I soon was in the borderland where dreams 
 
 Are born ; from whence, as from a chrysalis 
 
 Emerging, I became exalted to 
 
 A state of super-consciousness, in which 
 
 Existence was an exquisite delight, 
 
 And I a bubble on an ocean of 
 
 Placidity, While thus in sweet repose, 
 
 I saw the conformation of a ray 
 
 Of light, as when a rainbow dawns upon 
 
 The clouds, which, as I gazed on it, assumed 
 
 A contour and a personality. 
 
 Causing me wonderment expressionless. 
 
 For never on the earth had I beheld 
 
 Such blended beauty, having all the hues 
 
 That seem like hints of color in a shell, 
 
 Glinting in playful changefulness upon 
 
 A base of pearly purity ; and yet 
 
 So indistinct in outline as to give 
 
 No thought of size but that of majesty. 
 
6 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 While gazing on him, fascinated to 
 
 An awed deUght, a voice I seemed to feel, 
 
 My being penetrating with a sound 
 
 That was a liquid sweetness thrilling me. 
 
 And thus, in more than common speech, he said : 
 
 "Here is the threshold of a higher life; 
 
 A threshold thou art privileged to pass. 
 
 Receive thou, then, that life in plenitude. 
 
 With the equipment of its powers." 
 
 We rose above the atmosphere of earth 
 
 At once 
 Into a dark immensity, which made 
 More luminous the splendor of his sheen. 
 When to myself and my environment 
 A strange transition came, and I perceived 
 That space was an ethereal substance whose 
 Conductibility enabled us 
 To traverse distance with the speed of light, 
 As prompted by the impulse of his will. 
 In the vast circumambiency were worlds 
 In numbers baffling all the power of thought 
 And numerals to represent; with which 
 Compared the earth were as a golden coin, 
 The sun a silver shield. A startling burst 
 Of incandescent light enrobed them as 
 I gazed, and so o'erwhelmed me that I sank 
 Into a swoon of ecstasy. 
 
 Quickly 
 The one beside me more distinct became 
 In contour, and our natures seemed to blend. 
 As in the spectrum of a blissful life ; 
 Yet individual life, with knowledge his 
 
A POEM— CANTO I . 7 
 
 And mine the ignorance. Dumb in my awe 
 I viewed the scene, when he resumed discourse. 
 
 "Life is a ladder with successive rungs. 
 As in the Httle sphere on earth, from the 
 Minutest creature up to man, who in 
 Comparison is god to all below. 
 So in the realm of spirit. Rung on rung 
 It reaches till its top is near to God, 
 Who is disclosed in amplitude to suit 
 The varied scope of their intelligence, 
 Up to the throne. Here is a lower rung — 
 Infinity adumbrant — whence thou shalt 
 Ascend and see, as in a mirror, what 
 To direct vision were invisible." 
 At once the orbs were more distinctly grand ; 
 Nor telescope devised by man could give 
 An inkling of the magnitude to which 
 The separate ones enlarged as I beheld. 
 Al, though diverse, with sameness as the leaves 
 Upon a tree, not one but seemed a fit 
 Abode for beings with a lofty form 
 Of life. Nor orbs alone were magnified. 
 But my attendant grew in person more 
 Majestic, as a mountain when the sun's 
 Warm fingers fold away the curtains of 
 Its mist. And I myself seemed to myself 
 Enlarged to fuller rounded consciousness. 
 Intensified as with increasing life. 
 Expanded in my intellectual powers, 
 With open floodgates of desire to know 
 The m.ysteries of the spheres — floodgates through 
 which 
 
8 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 His will could pour a satisfying stream. 
 
 While gazing in rapt silence, I beheld 
 
 Him swathed in iridescence, as it were 
 
 A robe of sunlight with sapphiric tint, 
 
 His countenance a beatific smile, 
 
 To which a glow of high intelligence 
 
 Gave captivating power, until I felt 
 
 So bound to him by bands of love I could 
 
 Not, would not, part; so close, his nature more 
 
 Transfused into my own, and I became 
 
 Subservient to his mind and will ; at which 
 
 My faculties unfolded as a rose 
 
 When quickening sunbeams burn within its heart. 
 
 Surely, I thought, in him was Deity, 
 
 Since less than Deity had no such power, 
 
 And I essayed to worship him, when he 
 
 At once forbade. 
 
 "Worship belongs to Him 
 Alone who flung these orbs as dewdrops from 
 The fingertips of His omnipotence, 
 To glitter in the boundless field of space. 
 I am, compared with Him, as mote to thee, 
 Or as an atom to infinity. 
 He is the Infinite who made the worlds 
 And all therein. In absoluteness of 
 His rule and essence of His being. He 
 Transcends our finite thought, though mirroring 
 His character in finite forms — which, to 
 Be understood, He must perforce employ — 
 Revealing it in various aspects known 
 As attributes, to serve as ideals for 
 The finite mind. Yet, as the final fact. 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 
 
 He has no attribute but that of Will — 
 
 Will as the universal law by which 
 
 All things exist and operate — and what 
 
 Are known as attributes are modes in which 
 
 His will displays activity that keeps 
 
 In endless whirl around some central plan. 
 
 To Him duration has no measurement, 
 
 But is a limitless arena where 
 
 His purposes have unincumbered play, 
 
 And are and will remain unchangeable. 
 
 For what He is He ever was, what knows 
 
 Has ever known, what does has ever had 
 
 In mind. From gravity of atoms to 
 
 The intermovements of the worlds that hang 
 
 In linked dependence, each on all and all 
 
 On each, no change that has been, is or will 
 
 Be, but belongs to one harmonious thought 
 
 And purpose ever clearly in His mind. 
 
 Hence nothing is but what He wills to be 
 
 Contributive to some great ultimate, 
 
 As vouched by sufferance when He could prevent. 
 
 E'en sin, by sufferance, has been in His plan. 
 
 But reprobated by the law of life 
 
 In its retributive effects. Wherefore 
 
 From no event comes disappointment or 
 
 Surprise, or other perturbation of 
 
 The mind, but He serenely contemplates 
 
 The grand concatenation of the whole. 
 
 Feeling toward all as He has ever felt, 
 
 Will ever feel — complacently. Elsewise 
 
 He must have wrought in ignorance, which but 
 
 A pigmy finite could conceive. All things 
 
10 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Are by and from and for Himself. Suns are 
 
 To Him as hands to thee, and planets as 
 
 His fingers. Gravitation is the grasp 
 
 That keeps them all in harmony, and light 
 
 A vitalizing thrill of energy 
 
 That weaves the variegated web of life. 
 
 From mite to man, in whom His attributes 
 
 Reflect with an immortal glow ; and thence 
 
 Expanding in a multiplicity 
 
 Of force, effulges in the beings at 
 
 Life's apex in the more transcendent orbs. 
 
 And thus He is the motive power in all, 
 
 While all His operations ramify 
 
 As law. His will and energy behind, 
 
 Directing all, as human thought and will 
 
 Direct the motors of the flesh. Not that 
 
 The seen are parts or elements of Him, 
 
 But media of communication to 
 
 The finite consciousness, and vehicles 
 
 Of energy, through which He executes 
 
 His purposes and. plans within the sphere 
 
 Of finite cognizance ; for only so 
 
 Can finite mind approximate the thought 
 
 Of Him as having personality." 
 
 But does not immanence, I asked, imply 
 His personality in everything, 
 So that in all are elements of Him ? 
 
 ''He is not that through which He operates ; 
 For that which moves a thing is not the thing. 
 Thou art not what thou wert, and yet thou art. 
 Then what thou wert had something that was not 
 Thyself, while yet as real as thyself. 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 
 
 It gaged the possibilities of thought, 
 
 And biased all thy moods and impulses. 
 
 But now thou art a sublimated self. 
 
 Therefore, although it was thy vehicle 
 
 Of action, it was not thyself, or now, 
 
 Without it, thou wert not thyself. So while 
 
 In matter His potential immanence 
 
 Is seen, to the last atom, matter is 
 
 Not God, nor yet an element of Him. 
 
 He has sustained the universal frame 
 
 Of being in a creakless harmony, 
 
 And unto those in every orb revealed 
 
 Himself so graciously, so greatly blest 
 
 Its occupants, that they have seemed to be 
 
 The special objects of His providence. 
 
 The individual person in His eye, 
 
 As though he were the sole inhabitant. 
 
 What thou art thinking mine is not my power 
 
 But His, whose will I represent, my bliss 
 
 That will to do. Thou shalt attend me and 
 
 Behold His works with vision clarified." 
 
 Then he took flight, as human lips would say; 
 Yet movement was but as a play of mind. 
 From orb to orb as that from thought to thought, 
 Unhampered by the thrall of gravity. 
 The chafe of friction and the consciousness 
 Of time, when, as the panorama of 
 A dream, the scene dissolved and we were on 
 An orb whose magnitude made earth a dwarf, 
 Its substance as of light solidified. 
 With splendor that had blinded fleshly eyes. 
 
12 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 But little was that made me think of earth. 
 
 No wanton winds in blustering- carnival; 
 
 No sun oppressed with scorch of torrid heat; 
 
 Nor Arctic rigors racked with ruthless cold ; 
 
 But all was balmy as the breath of June ; 
 
 So equable, I nothing thought of heat 
 
 Or cold, as one at noon thinks not of light; 
 
 And silence and serenity were as 
 
 A circumambient atmosphere perfumed 
 
 With peace, which to inhale I thought was heaven. 
 
 Peopled it was with beings who, compared, 
 
 Made man a speck of insignificance. 
 
 Stately they were in form, so far as form 
 
 Definable they had, and in their mien 
 
 As dignified as Justice in his robes, 
 
 And ceaseless in some high activity. 
 
 As though intent upon congenial tasks. 
 
 Yet every motion had reposeful ease, 
 
 As eagle floating on the upper air. 
 
 While happiness in every feature played, 
 
 As twinkling sunbeams on a shimmering lake. 
 
 Who, whence and what those blessed ones ? I asked ; 
 
 To which he answered me : 
 
 "These are the first 
 And sole inhabitants of this abode ; 
 A world prepared for them and they for it. 
 Eons on eons have elapsed since then ; 
 And here in some sublime activity 
 Will they remain. Spirit they are, and yet 
 In elemental matter bodied, which 
 Is an attenuated substance as 
 Removed from grosser forms as gases from 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 13. 
 
 Granitic rock, hence from decay exempt, 
 
 To whom the name of death is all unknown. 
 
 Were they pure spirit, thou couldst see them not; 
 
 And lower spirits but in part perceive 
 
 The higher glories of superior ones. 
 
 In this disrobement of thy lower self, 
 
 Thy nature is exalted to a plane 
 
 Where these and higher orders thou mayst glimpse,. 
 
 As the dull ox beheld thee in the flesh, 
 
 But not the essence of their nature see. 
 
 God only is pure spirit, hence unseen ; 
 
 Than which but little can be told, since words 
 
 Express but what is knowable ; while He 
 
 In person is unknown, except as He 
 
 Impinges on the consciousness, making 
 
 The finite feel His immanence, and as 
 
 Revealed His character. To finite He 
 
 Is infinite as earth is to an ant, 
 
 Unmeasured by imagination's line. 
 
 Enthroned in vastness greater than His works. 
 
 While occupying space in definite 
 
 Extent, since having personality. 
 
 In whose immensity the mind is lost 
 
 As a dropt pebble in the vastest sea. 
 
 And seeing thus that finite spirits may 
 
 Not pierce the veil that hides the Infinite, 
 
 He can but manifest Himself to those 
 
 Beneath through media on their plane. So, in 
 
 Gradation, those above see those below". 
 
 Thus is one law applied to every sphere. 
 
 These, in the nascence of their being, had 
 
 Probationary testing, to impart 
 
14 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 A fixedness to fealty. The test 
 
 They stood and evil so refused, which was 
 
 A cup within their reach that sparkled at 
 
 The brim. So they acquired a strength that made 
 
 Their will a moral adamant." 
 
 Evil- 
 Evil — evil ! How the word rang in me, 
 To and fro, as though I were a belfry 
 Where it clanged and lingered — lingered dolefully. 
 Never before had it so ill a sound, 
 Or such a sough of mystery in its tone. 
 Evil I thought impossible; for how 
 Impurity where purity was throned? 
 How hell-seed in a soil so like to heaven? 
 What could be here to give it nourishment ? 
 The thought was in my mind a rankling thorn, 
 O'er which I needed not to wince in words, 
 For it was seen by him attending as 
 At noonday one might see a printed page, 
 And he discoursed upon the mystery thus : 
 
 "Think not of evil as an entity — 
 A thing created — nor a quality 
 Or attribute of aught created, nor 
 Occasioned by the Infinite, save as 
 The foresight of the possibility 
 Involved in the creative act, with the 
 Resultant actuality, is such. 
 Finite existence is dependent on 
 The Infinite, from whom its being came ; 
 Whose will is law, obeying which the life 
 Becomes an ornament of burnished gold, 
 Or, disobeying, is a blot upon 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 15 
 
 Creation's brow. Thus, then, evil and good, 
 As moral qualities, are attitudes 
 Of will toward what is known of God, and willed 
 To know and do. As active causes they 
 Produce phenomenal effects, as they 
 Antagonize or are obedient to 
 The equipoise of universal law. 
 As seeing is an action of the eye, 
 Which, closing, darkens, opening, sees the light, 
 And leads to stumbling or to steady step. 
 So finite will — the moral motor of 
 The I — determines finite destiny. 
 Entailing retribution or reward. 
 As breathing has no moral quality. 
 So sin is not nor yet reward to such 
 As could not otherwise than as they do. 
 But these intelligences were endowed 
 With moral power, hence were amenable 
 To moral law, and as their exercise 
 Of power their destiny became, since in 
 Its use they showed their attitude of will, 
 And grew habituated to, and so 
 Established in, their loyalty. Choosing 
 Obedience, they resisted its reverse ; 
 For possibilities of power tempt to 
 Its willful exercise, which exercise 
 Is evil as a cause with its effects." 
 Let ignorance, I said, apologize 
 For my presumption when I ask, What bar 
 Could stay benevolent Omnipotence 
 From making them infallible, that so 
 Might be an infinite of harmony? 
 
i6 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 "Are they too low or high to fit thy thought? 
 InfalHble, they had been brutes or gods, 
 Of law unconscious or superior to. 
 Not that the Infinite would do, and this 
 To do would be to contradict Himself; 
 Since 'twere to will their independence of 
 His will. But all besides the Infinite 
 Is of the Infinite, hence finite and 
 Conditioned on conformity to law, 
 Which has essential uniformity. 
 Its operations in the various spheres 
 Developing the parts of one vast plan. 
 Were they infallible, they were above 
 All other orders of intelligence. 
 And thus thy question is reduced to this : 
 Why were not they made more than Seraphim 
 And Cherubim? As well ask. Why above 
 The brute? Or, Why not all infallible? 
 Enough for thee to know : the Infinite 
 Displays Himself in works of infinite 
 Diversity, be it in matter, mind 
 Or moral consciousness and power. 
 In matter thou mayst see His thoughts expressed 
 In dovetailed variformity — beauty, 
 Sublimity and grandeur blent — to be 
 The scaffolding of life, from which to build 
 The spirit skyward. So has ever been ; 
 For matter ever was, in infinite 
 Extension, never more nor less than now. 
 But matter furnishes benevolence 
 No object to receive its benefits. 
 Only through conscious life, from lowest forms 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 17 
 
 To those upon its highest altitudes, 
 
 He manifests His ampHtude of power, 
 
 Appreciated but by those endowed 
 
 With attributes that miniature His own ; 
 
 As conscience, judgment, moral quality 
 
 Of will, their selfhood's crown. These, in 
 
 Benevolence, He so creates. Yet He 
 
 Himself was never solitarily 
 
 Existent, but through" the eternal years 
 
 His bliss was in benevolent employ, 
 
 In modes appropriate to infinity ; 
 
 Beyond the fact of which our thoughts are lost 
 
 Upon a shoreless sea. But this is known : 
 
 These beings are; and as their greatness such 
 
 Is their capacity for bliss or woe. 
 
 Balanced upon their attitude of will; 
 
 By consonance of which is harmony." 
 
 As lifts 
 A mist and leaves the landscape laughing in 
 A lustrous light, so lifted he the mist 
 That erst had lain upon my thoughts, while yet 
 The pillars of an old conception fell 
 From under me, to learn that matter is 
 Eternal, since I thought this property 
 Belonged to God alone, when, to relieve 
 My weak perplexity, he thus resumed : 
 "While matter is no element of God, 
 It is the medium manifesting His 
 Activity. Imagine, if thou canst. 
 Duration ere the birthdays of the worlds, 
 With naught existent but the Infinite; 
 Nothing but spirit, in passivity 
 
i8 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 From all eternity, eternally 
 
 Without the bliss activity affords. 
 
 If he was satisfied with such a state, 
 
 Why change? If not, why not eternally 
 
 As now? His nature was eternally 
 
 The same. Enough. He ever was as now. 
 
 The revolutions of the wheels of change 
 
 Are a continuance of eternal thought, 
 
 Hence of eternal action, the result 
 
 Of thought, with something to be acted on." 
 
 Since, I replied, all forms of things began, 
 And He, the Maker, was before the made, 
 A period was when He preceded all. 
 
 "Things are expressions of His active thought; 
 And since He ever thought, things ever were. 
 Beginnings being but in change of forms, 
 Beyond which fact a thousand questions rise, 
 Which to the finite are a labyrinth, 
 Where thought may wander and be ever lost. 
 Finites need know no more than what He is 
 To them in their dependence on His will ; 
 And only curiosity would more. 
 To man He is revealed in threefoldness. 
 To meet the threefold aspect of his need — 
 One God, yet three in personality. 
 Who ever was and did as now, in the 
 Expression of His will and character." 
 
 But how conceive Him three, I asked, unless 
 It be as Infinites, three Gods? To which 
 He thus replied : 
 
 "Man is a trinity in one — 
 A body, mind and spirit. So the brain — 
 Reason, memory and imagination one. 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 19 
 
 So God, the source of law, the Go-between 
 
 The law and penalty in man's behalf, 
 
 And Immanence that links the finite to 
 
 The Infinite in steadfast loyalty. 
 
 Man needs to look to Him as threefold in 
 
 Efficiency, conveyed in threefoldness 
 
 Of mode. So would the Infinite assist 
 
 The finite toward a comprehension of 
 
 Himself. Three Gods implies three minds; and this 
 
 That they have separate thoughts and wills and deeds. 
 
 But all creation has a unity 
 
 Of action, and the selfsame autograph 
 
 Of mind and will, attesting thereby that 
 
 Who made and rules is One ; while, as revealed 
 
 To man, there is the cognizance of three 
 
 In spiritual operation, which 
 
 Is. the whole alphabet of what man knows : 
 
 And finite mind must have a finite bound. 
 
 Since one, they must alike be infinite, 
 
 Acting as different lobes of one great brain, 
 
 The vehicle of one sole mind. But this 
 
 Is liking that which has no like, measuring 
 
 An infinite extent with finite span. 
 
 The greatest intellects accept the fact 
 
 As fact without dissecting it; the less 
 
 Would grasp the concept of the Infinite 
 
 And make a manikin of Deity, 
 
 On which to exercise their ignorance. 
 
 Look back to earth and find thy problem there. 
 
 What knew a polyp of thy attributes ? 
 
 Its difficulty and thy own were twins. 
 
 To it thou wert a being infinite — 
 
20 MANSOX'S riSION 
 
 Matter in relative infinity. 
 
 With life and its implied activities ; 
 
 Mind with imagination that creates ; 
 
 Reason that tests the currency of thought, 
 
 With Memory as an archive of the past, 
 
 And Spirit spreading pinions to explore 
 
 Infinity; all tenanted within 
 
 The selfsame space. How it had tottered in 
 
 Approaching thee, and sunk at last beneath 
 
 The burden of attempt ! But greater is 
 
 The distance twixt the Infinite and thee. 
 
 Hence why thy totter and thy sinking in 
 
 Attempt. Now, in the stress and cramp of thy 
 
 Perplexity, know this: the circle of 
 
 Infinity no finite mind can square ; 
 
 Nor diverse worlds are gauged by selfsame rules 
 
 Of measurement. Spirit and matter have 
 
 Their separate laws, differing in their range 
 
 Of possibilities, and each requires 
 
 Its own specific alphabet, to be 
 
 Its vehicle of thought and fact. Spirit 
 
 In matter finds but faint analogies, 
 
 So limited the compass of its laws. 
 
 Wert thou pure spirit, thou mightst understand 
 
 Where Cherubim and Seraphim come short. 
 
 But in thy ignorance thou reachest up 
 
 As might the polyp reach toward thee, in vain 
 
 Attempt to grasp what lies beyond thee. Those, 
 
 With natures on the highest finite peak, 
 
 See not the mystery's heart whose throb they feel. 
 
 Still they indulge no questionings, to make 
 
 A ripple on the surface of their peace." 
 
A POEM— CANTO I 21 
 
 That said, I ventured thus : Thy words imply 
 That Infinite was pent in finite space; 
 To which he condescended this reply : 
 
 "As Infinite He fills infinity, 
 And being such. He infinitely does. 
 Earth is the fraction of a fraction of 
 His universe, but all man's universe, 
 Who thinks himself monopolizing- the 
 Attention of the Infinite. But though 
 He condescends to man's estate, and in 
 Epiphany made known His character, 
 He so was manifested in all worlds, 
 In guise of their inhabitants, to have 
 Them, in the spectrum of His mind, blent as 
 A varihued and yet harmonious whole ; 
 And one eternal method operates. 
 Hence He is manifested now in worlds 
 Beyond thy count ; and so, as worlds decay, 
 Dissolve, reintegrate in other forms, 
 In the activities of endless change, 
 He will reveal Himself in finity ; 
 Insentients govern by dynamic law, 
 The lower sentients by impulsive, and 
 The higher orders by volitional." 
 
 That said, he paused as if to give me time 
 For thought, when came a sense of blissfulness. 
 And I was calmed upon a sea of splendor. 
 Silence was as the spirit of a sound 
 That had a haunting sweetness of its own, 
 And peace fell on my spirit softly as 
 A fleck of moonlight on a drowsy flower, 
 Or as the sunshine of a pleasant dream. 
 Was that the gate to endless paradise? 
 
CANTO II 
 
CANTO II 
 
 A change — earthward or hellward I surmised. 
 
 It was descent to an inferior sphere, 
 
 And ended in antithesis from light 
 
 To darkness, dense as a cloud dropt on 
 
 Us in extinguishment of everything 
 
 Save consciousness, retaining which was as 
 
 A mockery, the awful silence an 
 
 Obsession, or a mourner dumb at 
 
 The funeral of a world. At first it seemed 
 
 As though existence might be ended with 
 
 A gasp, while I had not ability 
 
 To give the gasp. I felt, but saw not, my 
 
 Attendant's presence. Lacking that, I could 
 
 Have wished myself dissolved to nothingness ; 
 
 For nothing seemed there but myself and he, 
 
 Shut in a sepulchre of loneliness. 
 
 Moments had kinship to eternity ; 
 
 And while I wondered whether they would end, 
 
 The gleaming of a lurid light appeared. 
 
 Moving like serpents having fiery eyes ; 
 
 And as they slid, accentuating more 
 
 The darkness, one by one they coiled themselves 
 
 In lettered shapes, of import greater than 
 
 When lightning fingers wrote a nation's doom 
 
 Amid old Babylonia's revelry. 
 
 Too awful were the words for speech of earth. 
 
 Immovable and dumb with horror, I 
 
 Beheld for period seeming long enough 
 
26 MAX SON'S riSION 
 
 To sweep the circuit of the dial face 
 
 Of time, then turned imploringly toward him 
 
 Beside me for relief, when thus he spake: 
 
 "What here thou seest is the typic pall 
 That finally shall wrap this blasted orb. 
 With those dread characters its epitaph. 
 No resurrecting trump shall then be heard, 
 To thrill its vanished glories into life ; 
 Nor sinless ones desire to see its form, 
 Since this envelopment of darkness is 
 An indication of the frown of God. 
 None e'er will pay the tribute of a tear. 
 Nor even night winds moan its requiem, 
 But all avoid it with a shudder, as 
 A spot of all the universe accursed." 
 
 As thus he spake a crawling horror stole 
 About me, with a snaky coldness, till 
 I fain had shrieked and fled. But more I feared 
 To hear myself in such a solitude ; 
 And fixed I was as at the center of 
 A world, bound by enfettering gravity. 
 Knowing my trepidation, he withdrew 
 To where the mitigated darkness was 
 As the enswathment of a fog when chill 
 November hugs a northern isle, and gave 
 A modicum of ease, at which I dared 
 To speak. Oh ! where and what, I asked, the cause 
 Of this superlative of horror, this 
 Unhealing sore upon the universe? 
 Surely the infinitely Good not so 
 Defaces His own work. Yet who in His 
 Despite ? 
 
A POEM— CANTO II 27 
 
 "This world," said he, "was more than fair; 
 A diamond sparkling in the crown of space, 
 Peopled by beings in material garb, 
 Exceeding man in scope of attribute. 
 To whom the Infinite vouchsafed to be 
 Upon their level in a perfect life; 
 Which being emulous to imitate, 
 He then withdrew His manifested form 
 And made them wards of an angelic host, 
 With one of archangelic rank as head, 
 Who, as their tutors, prompted them to a 
 Development of all their powers, until 
 They reached a semi-angelhood, and so 
 Were fitting for disrobement of the flesh — 
 The garb of being — to expand their powers 
 With unentrammeled freedom, and themselves, 
 As angels, minister to others in 
 A lower sphere. In these conditions was 
 A test of fealty in him who held 
 The seal of deputized authority, 
 Whose greatness proved a great infirmity; 
 For after he had recognized and bowed 
 As liege before supreme authority. 
 He was seduced, by thought sophistical. 
 To see himself exalted to a sphere 
 Of independency, yet prompted by 
 A motive of divine beneficence ; 
 And then he reasoned with himself that, as 
 Within the bound of his activities 
 He was an almoner of blessing, and 
 In blessing blest, a wider sphere would yield 
 Commensurate results. Then with the cue 
 
28 M/l\'SON'S IISION 
 
 That lotif^ experience i^ives, and powers whose wing 
 
 Could take a wider sweep, why should those powers 
 
 Be cramped within so limited a sphere? 
 
 Why deaf lo voices of necessity, 
 
 Which came to Fancy's ear like voices in 
 
 A dream ? And why the underleaders and 
 
 Their hosts be yawning in the drowse of half 
 
 Activity? Such was the treacherous thought, 
 
 When Ainplifer — than whom no greater is 
 
 Beneath the Jntinite — was sent to check 
 
 The foreseen mental veer, that, thus forewarned, 
 
 The deed might bear the penalty of law 
 
 Yet leave the culprit dumb. Obeying with 
 
 A loyal promptitude, the greater one 
 
 Disclosed himself appropriately, and thus 
 
 Addressed the less : 
 
 "■Hail, mighty Lucifer! 
 Thou art deemed worthy of a mighty trust ; 
 A trust that sheds a luster on thy name. 
 Since long administered in faithfulness. 
 I would but aim at equal faithfulness, 
 To crown my future as thy past is crowned. 
 Affinity of interests makes us one 
 In bonds of umifying sympathy, 
 
 And blends our thoughts like light from different orbs. 
 So be our thoughts now blended in tliscourse. 
 As known to all the higher powers, there is 
 An Infinite ; and being infinite, 
 Too great He is for finite eye to see 
 Or mind to comprehend ; whose will is law, 
 An omnipresent potency, by which 
 He is engirding and sustaining all 
 
A POEM— CANTO 11 29. 
 
 Existences, incorporate in His mind 
 
 As one. And hence one mind, plan, movement, as 
 
 The beating of a central heart, throbs, thrills 
 
 Through all, and, by responsive action of 
 
 The parts, preserves the blissful status of 
 
 The whole. Thus is necessitated due 
 
 Conformity to law of every part 
 
 In its relation to the whole. We who 
 
 Are diademmed with highest attributes 
 
 Of being, and exalted to a sphere 
 
 Of glorious and tremendous power, sustain 
 
 Our glory as we thus conform; for should 
 
 We fail, 'twere as the wrenching of two suns 
 
 From out their measured orbits, hurling them, 
 
 By our centrifugal recalcitrance. 
 
 To spheres oppugnant to the general weal; 
 
 So making all oppugnant to ourselves.' 
 
 "Here Lucifer replied : 
 
 " "Most worthy peer. 
 His will whom we have served Is law in a 
 Generic, ours in a specific sphere ; 
 His to assign, and ours to act within 
 The sphere. Our power implies the right to use. 
 The sole condition that we use it well. 
 And he possessing must determine how, 
 Since his the consequence. Whose motives aim 
 At good must please the Good.' 
 
 Thus Amplifer: 
 
 " 'Thy motives unrelated to His law 
 Were worthy of thyself. But we have no 
 Such independency. And should the law's 
 Demands be flagrantly ignored, the brand 
 
^o M ANSON'S 11 SIGN 
 
 Of treason vvcm-c across their brow. As known 
 J)y thee, existence has (hversity, 
 To j^ive composite j^randeur to the whole ; 
 While sameness were monotonous to Him 
 Whose hand has made, whose eye is over all. 
 Hence every part is needful to the whole, 
 And serves its purpose as it tits its place. 
 Ours is the honor of a lofty sphere 
 With corresponding- power. Yet is that ix>wer 
 liut delej^ated, by the use of which 
 To serve I lis purpose whom we represent; 
 That purpose inkled in the sphere assigned. 
 There the subordinate must reverence the 
 Supreme, else we contemn, and so conflict, 
 Bravingf results; while, by example, we 
 Sugj^est to others as ourselves perform, 
 Breedinji' rank anarchy.' 
 
 "Here Lucifer, 
 Arouseil as from a lethargy, replied: 
 
 " "I ba\c a mind and will, \\1iy, but to use 
 In the full scope of their capacity. 
 Without the priMuptini;- that a novice needs? 
 I think, then plan ; 1 will, then act. my mind 
 My iH>wcr, my will my law, within my sphere. 
 Where I am inlinite unto myself, 
 Acknowledi^iui^ no bounds that limit my 
 Activity. In this my nature but 
 Asserts its right to be my highest self; 
 \\'liich lie can but approve who wills me well.' 
 
 '■ '1 le who best wills thee bids thee tlo His will 
 But in this bold assertion of thyself, 
 In mind and will, thou takest no account 
 
A POEM-CANTO II 31 
 
 Of His, but makest thine supreme ; which course 
 Is arrogant disloyalty, while this 
 Thy argument were no less plausible 
 In every mouth. But should it mold all lives — 
 Think the results, if thou hast mind enough, 
 And shudder at the thought. O Lucifer! 
 Beware. Beware of thoughts that are not born 
 Of loyalty, or they will grow and grow 
 And bear a deadly progeny. Though great, 
 Our greatness is the gift of Him who bids 
 Us serve, and unto whom, as King, we owe 
 Allegiance, lacking which we are undone.' 
 
 "The warning fell upon a barren ear. 
 Finding no rootage in the mind and will ; 
 For as with man whose predetermined course 
 Is masked with plausibility, whate'er 
 His aim, so fair of countenance he saw 
 The mental monster that was cheating him. 
 True, he made pause in acting, but no pause 
 In his resolve — pause to consider how 
 To act, and to confirm himself in his 
 Resolve. And while he paused, delusion crept 
 Insidiously, with cleepening darkness, o'er 
 His mind, as shadows o'er the couch of Night. 
 Then Amplifer again was sent, to cut 
 His pride with words of keener edge, and leave 
 Him more excuseless in persistency, 
 When thus in controversy they engaged : 
 
 "Amplifer. 'Hail, mighty Lucifer! I come again, 
 The Infinite to serve and thee to save.' 
 
 "Lucifer. 'vSave me ujxjn whose nature is impressed 
 Eternity's imperishable seal? 
 
32 MAN SON'S 11 SIGN 
 
 Save me who am not perishing, and am 
 A savior great as tluni ? I take thy words 
 As levity that underestimates 
 The due of rank.' 
 
 ".-1. 'Imperishable. So 
 
 Thou art ; a fact that is the gilding- of 
 A fact — the greater fact, that being is 
 Not all, nor yet the best of life, which thy 
 Ambition to attain a higher sphere 
 Admits. Nor may thy present be the worst 
 Of life ; a fact whose voice demands a pause. 
 And neither deafness nor a sensitive 
 Resentment can procure immunity 
 If disregarding His authority 
 Whose power sustains the universal frame — 
 His will the universal law — but that 
 To brave by breaking this, will bring 
 A wreck of consequences on the head. 
 From which can never be escape.' 
 
 "L. Tower that 
 
 Could hold the worlds as grains of sand upon 
 Its pahn were limited to action on 
 Material entities; hence cannot with 
 Annihilation's breath blow out the blaze 
 Of consciousness, nor stop the play 
 Of mental force that generates my thought. 
 Thus in my nature I am greater than 
 Omnipotence.' 
 
 "A. 'Ah, Lucifer! In that 
 
 Thy greatness is thy peril, tempting to 
 Presumptuous confidence. .Vnil should it fall. 
 Its fall will be with heaviest weight and down 
 
A POEM— CANTO II 33 
 
 To deepest depth. Nor mayst thou shove aside 
 The fact that, while the physical must fail 
 To touch the thouj^i'lit and deaden consciousness^ 
 It girts the thinker with conditions that 
 Afifect them both.' 
 
 "L. 'Will is the final power 
 
 That wields the power, and as His nature is 
 The will to wield. Then since His nature is 
 Benevolent, He can but will to have 
 What is work out its possibilities 
 In harmony with law's benevolence.' 
 
 "A. 'Jjut who shall guarantee the harmony, 
 Shouild all minds act in independency? 
 E'en thine and mine are in oppugnancy. 
 And shouldst thou canvass in thy own domain. 
 Would every mind be acting as thine own ? 
 If so, they need not thine to prompt, and so 
 Thou art a superfluity. If not, 
 A unit of supremacy is a 
 Necessity, or chaos would prevail. 
 But infinitely greater is it where 
 An infinite complexity obtains. 
 What, then, are we to aim beyond the sphere 
 Assigned, and god it o'er the Infinite?' 
 
 "L. 'Thy words are caustic with unfriendliness. 
 And tend to force me to extremities 
 Of speech.' 
 
 "A. 'Nay, say not so. The friend is he 
 Who shows thy foot the precipice before. 
 I . warn thee of extremity of state, 
 In which eternity will still preserve 
 Its seal, but not assure thy state.' 
 
.U .1/./.V.V().V.V /7.S7().Y 
 
 "L. 'I wouUl 
 
 Nt>t simit Iho l";u-o o\' thy intcMit. while yet 
 I ileoin tliy words as feathovs in tlio vviml. 
 Adieu !' 
 
 "So |>arted they. Then Lueifer 
 Movetl to aiul fro, as one in thouj^ht immersed. 
 And as he mm'ed spake thus, half auilihly : 
 'Great l.uoiter! so qreal that other i^reat 
 Ones how to thee. Nor s^feater Amplifer. 
 Then why this exaltation of thy peer 
 Vo aet as thy ailmonisher? Perhaps 
 Hy incitatit)n of a readier zeal. 
 Moviui; him to a promptitude to seize 
 .\n t>piHirtuiiity thou letlest lie 
 Still dormant in disuetude. Ov has 
 lie. hy U>ni;" praetiee iti suhreption. so 
 Himself ohtriuled on attention as 
 To i;aiu the ooutideiiee and smile oi llim 
 We serve? (.)r is that One eaprieious in 
 Mis reeoi;nition of ouv serviee? He 
 The reason what it may. thou uceiiest not 
 TroloUi; oondilions that consiL;u tliy powers 
 To lani;uish in ignohle littleness, 
 Compaied with what 1 see aehievahle 
 In sphere and action. I lad he such a zeal. 
 Or such assertiveness, why mayst not thou, 
 l>\ doiuL; what will mai^iiify thyself? 
 (.^r has the kuler sueh capriee. why not 
 Thou independently assume what lie 
 I'an hut approve, if hy their ipiality 
 lie tests our deeds, anil in au^nuMitiui;- of 
 Thv hliss add so mueh unto I lis, who finds 
 
A I'OliM— CANTO I! 35 
 
 Tt in the synchronism of ail liearts? 
 
 But should lie (lisa])])rove? Tut, tut! Jiy a 
 
 Necessity of nature He can but 
 
 Approve. And yet wlio l<nows the limit of 
 
 A possibility? But who would shrink 
 
 To face the shadow of the ix)ssiblc? 
 
 Not iiiij^hty Lucifer.' 
 
 "So reasoned he 
 Whose will was toyin^j with the fair rleccit, 
 Not recognizing Amplifer as more 
 Than peer, since thus accommodated to 
 J I is lower sphere. Again the deputy 
 Appeared as mouthpiece of the Jnlinite, 
 And thus renewed discourse : 
 
 "Amplifer. '(jreat Lucifer! 
 
 I come again, assuming that the calm 
 Succeeding our debate was genial in 
 Its influence on thy afterthought; since theme 
 So great, and action so momentous, must 
 Have magnified to lliy conceptitjn that 
 Involved. Thy si>eech had plausibility, 
 As though it were a ])rrjrile of the truth, 
 lint plausibility is that which makes 
 J deception fair of countenance, without 
 Which honest natures could not be deceived. 
 I'.nl (inite wisdom knows its ignorance, 
 As real greatness knows its littleness, 
 And hence its fallibility ; and in 
 That consicousness full oft it modestly 
 Reviews, revises and reverses what 
 The judgment prematurely had pronounced; 
 While little minds kncjw not their littleness, 
 
36 MANSOX'S flSlOX' 
 
 Hence think themselves infalhble. Hut thou 
 Art ^reat onoui^h ,aiul hast the couraqo, to 
 Declare thy second thought a step beyond 
 Thy first; 
 
 "Lucifer. 'There is a super-g^reatness which, 
 Matured its thought, disdains to vacillate. 
 Such greatness credit thou to Lucifer.' 
 
 '\l. 'True greatness lends an oar when Wisdom 
 speaks.' 
 
 "L. 'And it determitics whether Wisdom speaks.' 
 
 "A. 'Who wishes well for thee deserves thy ear.' 
 
 "L. 'None wishes better than I wish myself.' 
 
 "A. 'Rut is not ITe. the Ruler of us all, 
 The fount of wisdom and the source of weal?' 
 
 "L. 'My Reason takes her vessel to the fount, 
 And when she brings it full I question not.' 
 
 "./. It nia> bo full, though filled not at the fount. 
 Of whioli I warn thee to beware ; to do 
 Which 1 am sent by Him who knows thy thought.' 
 
 "L. 'None better knows my thought than I, hence- 
 not 
 Amnhor's knowledge trust T as my own. 
 Which is not misted with dubiety.' 
 
 "-■/. 'Reware. C"* l.ueifer. beware! Beware 
 Lest Ruii\ open wide his mouth and gulp 
 Thee with a smack." 
 
 "L. 'Beware thou lest I have 
 
 Derogatory thoughts of thee, and trust 
 Myself the more.' 
 
 "Then Amplifer withdrew 
 And left him adamantine in resolve, 
 ^^'hon daringly ho fashioned thus his thoughts : 
 
A I'OliM—CAN'K) II 37 
 
 " 'Speaks he or speaks he not the mind of Him 
 We deem the Infinite? If yes, then thou, 
 O mighty Lucifer! hast this as the 
 Reward of thy benevolent intent : 
 Thy equal is commissioned to convey 
 Implied rebuke. This comes of being frank 
 In thought and speech, in which 1 mirror that 
 Within. Ah! that within? Then that within 
 DisjjJcases. Motives that arc pure as light, 
 And aspirations that would gem the crown 
 Of gods, displease. And why displease? I'ecause 
 Of quality? If .so, less worthiness 
 Would please, and thou art worthier than the One 
 Displeased. Or if not that displea.ses Him, 
 Thy person is the object of offense, 
 because of meager homage to the Power 
 That is displeased to have thee cherish those 
 The purest motives and the noblest aims. 
 Admit this possible, the Infinite 
 In thought a finite is in fact, anrl in 
 His moral character inferior to 
 Thyself; which granted, we by nature are 
 Antagonistic in our sympathies, 
 Which bids thee act in independency. 
 i)r speaks he not with due authority. 
 In fear that I attain preeminence? 
 If .so, thy equal then presumes to arch 
 Dictatorship, officious insolence. 
 That, in its ignorance or headiness, 
 Fancies its thoughts and feelings duplicate 
 The Infinite's. liut be it which it may. 
 To aim at good is good ; and as thy love 
 
^"^ 
 
 .i/.iv\t).v*\ rislox 
 
 (^i i^oocl. so he tin aim .is woithy oi 
 riiy powers; as woithy. toi\ thy ihhL;«.MU'0. 
 lUit why this coiUrovorsy with thyself 
 in \aoillatiu_i; iiulotormiiKMioo? 
 This tossinj; ot thy thoiis;h(s this way aiul that 
 Is an miwoithincss in one so m"oal. 
 Thy thoii_i;hi iiooils oncfji'izini; into iloi\l : 
 For worthy to be tluni^ht is worthy to 
 I'o ilono. and worthy to ho ilono tloiuamls 
 The tloint; ami t'orhids dola\ . More, tlien. thou hast 
 Ineontivo to liosp.Ueli. This host, which acts 
 Kosponsive to thy will, ticcils hut the word 
 That i^uarantees the deed.' 
 
 "So thiukiui;. he 
 Hel.iyevl not the assontblitti;' of the hosts. 
 W'lu^ waiteil in array to hoar their chief, 
 h'roiu whom expect iui; h>it iusiructioti .is 
 His wont, when thus he i^avo half moot to his 
 lX\si>;ns : 
 
 ■■ "luimortal pi^teut.ites and jH>wers! 
 ^"oul■ natures, to honew^lenco inclined. 
 I'uut hliss in hlessius; less exalted ones, 
 \\ ho hitherto have readily received 
 An^l heuetited tn \our uunistrios. 
 \\ luch once oni^.is^od the utmost of your |xwvors. 
 \\ ith tueinory"s eye ye see a greater t.'^ne 
 \\ lu^ tohed lliniself with m.itter in the i^inso 
 t^f these to whom we minister ; in which 
 He i^ave an ideal luttern of the life 
 Whoso cvpyinvi would exalt their natiues till 
 Phe i^lory oi the spirit life shottUl shine 
 Within. Millomuums to millenni\uus linked 
 
/ roiM (,iNi<> II 
 
 3P 
 
 I lave ioniii'd a cliaiii <il liahil llial lia:.- IkhiikI 
 
 'I'lu'ir rliaractcrs in i ii'lilcnii'.iic','. .d fa-. I, 
 
 ' )iii lask of sciviiif^ llicm Ix-cnmcs a nine 
 
 Moiioloiiy of roiilinc, saiiiclv as 
 
 'llic Iwiiiklirif.^ of a slat. 'I'liiis we arc left 
 
 Willi lllic\|)cii(|c<l clicif^v, lo wliicli 
 
 I'.xiciil we miss llic end of lifiii^',, and 
 
 Siislain a conscfincnt suhtiaclioii from 
 
 < )ni Miss, while olIiciM lose llic scrvlci* we 
 
 Mij.di( rcndci-, willi ils linon, 'llic (iical Mn-u-cn 
 
 I'.clilsc lias lliis ill mind, v''l wails |(» have 
 
 ( 's l;il<c llic liiiil ol ( irciimslanccs as 
 
 r.clillclh oiii siihliiiic intclli);ciicc ; 
 
 l""or smcly hfiiif^s ^j^ical as we, willi Mfljijo 
 
 ICxpcrictirc wliispcriiif^' commcndalioiis in 
 
 ( )iir mciiiorv's car, lie woiiM no! have deniean 
 
 I licmsclvcs as a<lol('sceiil novices 
 
 Who need I lis prompliti); cic we move. No, jait 
 The shackles of oiir semi doiniaiK y 
 Must now he (linif, inio llie wasle-lieap of 
 The past, and henceforth new activili<'s 
 Va\\^;\\^v onv minds, new j^lories (Ktwn oin loils; 
 So shall we serve ourselves in serving Mini. 
 And well yonr service iiieiils Mis reward, 
 As lon;.^ e.Kperienee fits yon lo rcicive 
 
 II in a wider s|>here (d action, which 
 
 Will j^ive expansion to yonr straitened powers. 
 O'er this my mind has had a hroodinj; care, 
 AimI has the piiipo'.c formed, with method half 
 Maimed; for whose miioldment let y«)tir minds 
 I'repare. I'liit it hecomes not now to hririj.^ 
 The formiiijj; fashion of my plans hefoic 
 
40 
 
 MIX SOX'S rislox 
 
 \o\\[- mitui riuMi wait in palirtu-o until I'omcs 
 
 I'llC Oppol llUU- DVT.ISUMI to ItH'ClVr 
 
 ll 111 lis lull (lc\ rlopiiu'iil. .IS soiMi 
 Vo shall; 
 
 "S(> vMUlioiisly iiuii'limlr 
 I I is woiils, (lirii iimsus|h\(iii;', iniiuls wi'ir lott 
 To stii'h vonjiH-lincs ol" llio vhaiij^o tlosii^ticd 
 As lualvlxMl thrmsolvt's in i^iiilolrssnoss. ami \\\,\dc 
 V\u'\\\ 111 toi ariiiiicsv-ouv-c in ailvanoo; 
 Which I'avotin^ ptcjmhoc was wliit \\c SiMii^hi. 
 To siccr his craft hv it as with a lu-liu. 
 In this astnic itisiiliousnoss was tin cat 
 iM wlial iiu;;lil t'lhl in ircrcanv-r, m which 
 l''nicii;cncc iiahiivM was »lcpuU"»l to 
 (.\>nvcv the cantivMi ol the Intinitc. 
 Aihl iliwaii ihr K\hln 's irll attiMnpt. With i^lail 
 (, VIciily his ptcscncc he ilisdoscvl. 
 In clonds stilTnsovl with his irtjuliani sheen. 
 Tow. 11(1 whiv'h the ln>sts in nn»ltitudinons 
 Artav assenihlevl. while the Ic.tvlcr kept 
 Apart, itwisihie atul silettt. with 
 .•\ ihihions ilijCtiitN. expectini; what 
 Mij»ht vlcsvHM.Ui" his r.u , All cos .ittent. 
 I le sp.ilvc them thus : 
 
 " ■ 1 l.ul. lo\ .ll ones ' \ e w ell 
 ll.oe hoiiu^ NvMirsclvcs tow.uil him vonr ihiel. 
 In woithy Kwalty revolving; in 
 \ I omul ol" SCI vice whose aMtCvMil.nicc h.nl 
 An .icfion tint w.is as a sinsiile miiul 
 In play. So have ye recv^j^nijteil the l.o\ 
 Ot" nnitN A\u\ onler. atul insnrcil 
 The smile v>t llim who is above vis all. 
 
./ I'oi'M ( .INK) II ,]/ 
 
 This law it is llial l>imK Hie woiM, in ;rii 
 
 Idciilily of iiilcrcsls as a whole, 
 
 I'loiii Ihc iiiiiiiilc',! liviii)', thill); on to 
 
 I he glory pics(;i)(i' ol the liiliiiilc, 
 
 Who, lil<(; the central atom ol an oi h, 
 
 Attract', IIhiii lowaMJ I Inn', ill, d (•;!( h Ihioiii-h each 
 
 ( )heyH the cciilral I'owt r. In tlii.s your splicic 
 
 A race looks ii|j, and Ihroiij'h yoiit serves yoiir ChicJ, 
 
 And 'ill throiijdi liiiii tin- Inlinile; sf> ye 
 
 With them, and all with you, that One Siipicme. 
 
 This fact niust hold us fast in loyally; 
 
 Scrvinjif, we do it tlnoiifji MihordinatCH, 
 
 Duty'n perHpcclivc hcin^ Him Supreme, 
 
 Shotilfj e'er subordinate conlemn this law, 
 
 (N(j <jdds tJK! motive sponsoi loi the deed^. 
 
 The act would he < cnti ifnl^■|l in its 
 
 l''fTecl, a nifjral disl'jcation ol 
 
 (limself, and place him in anta^'oiiism In 
 
 'I Ik- universe. Then loyalty would hec<I 
 
 'Ihc claims of law, passinj' him hy as made 
 
 A suicidal nullity, and do 
 
 The Will Supri'iiH'i in sayinj; wlii' h I hut 
 
 Remi/i«| you of th.- l<nown. Y'-t, in tli<- fond 
 
 Security of imsiispectinj^ /eal, 
 
 Your innoc<*nce may neerl that I July have 
 
 ll'T iii'itlof, hill iii, lied for your eye, wliil'- a 
 
 True memory iterate'., the truth ye loiow, 
 
 Lest ye, forj.M-tful, trust a hnit«- prop 
 
 As iiifh-pendent of the Inlinile. 
 
 Continue, then, in loyalty to Ilim 
 
 From whom we all receive our all, and •■.werve 
 
 Not should the hij^hest finite make mi. fake _ 
 
42 M ANSON'S riSION 
 
 As finite may — and counsel otherwise.' 
 
 "That said, a mental chaos raged throughout 
 The host, some secretly demurring to 
 The implication of his words ; some in 
 The agitation of uncertainty ; 
 While others drank them as a draught of truth. 
 P'or in the higher orders, as with men. 
 There are no duplicates of intellect 
 And will. A waning of his glory then 
 Began, as twilight on a summer eve. 
 And he returned, his mission so fulfilled." 
 
CANTO II I J 
 
CAN'K) III 
 
 "As man rcnKmiljcrs iiol liis orij^Mii, 
 
 So Lucifer knew only lliat ])(: was. 
 
 Nor knew lie all tliat linily implied, 
 
 Which, Ihoiij^h hori/<»iii(| ir, his view, was slill 
 
 Iw>rcvcr rcacliinj^' iiil'/ a Ix yoiMl. 
 
 And less he knew of (jorl's infiMily, 
 
 Since <jnly innnite can comprehend 
 
 The Infinite. Hence, when his attitude 
 
 Was .shown as questionin/^' his loyalty, 
 
 lie i^aused upon decision's fateful brink 
 
 Ere launching forth lo unseen flcstiny. 
 
 Of Amplifer, as twixt himself and the 
 
 Unseen, he thfjiit^Iit hut as a peer Cwas he 
 
 Indeed a representative, i>i which 
 
 lie liad the affeclation of a donhtj 
 
 Inferring thence tiiat hiit a peer would test 
 
 His prowess in hostility, except 
 
 That Gabriel mij^lit oppose, who was rif> more 
 
 Than secondary in his thouj^ht ; and so 
 
 lie minimized the Infinite, anrl in 
 
 An insane estimate of stren>.(tli assumed 
 
 An inflependence and ]>r(;rf>^a(ive 
 
 Belonj^inj^ solely to the Infinite. 
 
 Moreover, Memory kejjf her fin;/er on 
 
 I'lie pledge, to fail in which would be to own 
 
 A fault, and weakness in submitting to 
 
 Jmjilied rebuke from one a doubtful peer; 
 
 To which humiliation he had not 
 
40 ;i/./.V.S-().V.V IISION 
 
 The suppleness oi will to heiiil. Phonecforth 
 
 lie ihifted from the oquat\>rial litie 
 
 Of loyalty to zones of wantonness. 
 
 And not himself alone, but all the hosts 
 
 He took in the emlirace of his designs. 
 
 So slowly antl iiisidii>usly were these 
 
 Transitions made, they stole as autunni haze 
 
 Across the broad cerulean of his mind, 
 
 Until he felt enihoUlened to address 
 
 Them all. to blot out riahriel's words, and then 
 
 I'juiiesh them in his own ilisloyalty, 
 
 To which he i;ave a more euphonious name; 
 
 A name that was as cataract on the eye. 
 
 With this intent he siunmoned them to meet 
 
 As tribes, their leaders at their heail. who were 
 
 L^pon a hii^her plane of being than 
 
 The led, having a greater breailth and strength 
 
 Cf mind, which titteil them to think for and 
 
 Suggest, to animate auil guide who were 
 
 Ctf kiiulreil aptitudes, while nearer in 
 
 Their natures to the race whose ministers 
 
 They were. The unanimity of their 
 
 Response was as the action of one mind 
 
 Moving one set of motors at its prompt. 
 
 Belial, with autocratic consciousness. 
 
 Was there, ermined as 'twere with light, his task 
 
 To i>rompt their minds to whom he ministered 
 
 To walk in grooves of contluct parallel 
 
 W ith universal law. r>acchus was there, 
 
 .Around whose person flickered glints that played 
 
 Like light on water; his to guide who made 
 
 1 mat: inat ion's wilderness their home. 
 
A I -OHM C.Wro III 47 
 
 Inciting to persistent onwardness 
 
 Toward ideal possibilities. Mammon 
 
 Was there, liis visage having- eagerness 
 
 Of look, and on his person such a sheen 
 
 It seemed to cMng like a close-fitting robe; 
 
 His mission to interpret matter as 
 
 It symlx)lized the imseen verities. 
 
 And Moloch, too, was there, bright anreoied, 
 
 And with effulgence haloing his brow, 
 
 As coronating with divinity. 
 
 His was to be a mediating link 
 
 Twixt earth and heaven ; one hand on those he scrvcrl, 
 
 The other reaching tfjward the Infinite. 
 
 And all subordinates were there, to hear 
 
 The word cjf him o'er all the hosts supreme. 
 
 These were too multitudinous to count 
 
 Or even estimate, their lineaments 
 
 In likeness with diversity, but all 
 
 Expressing the submissive readiness 
 
 Of loyalty to serve. Assembled all, 
 
 Their Chief stood in imposing attitude 
 
 Upon a mount on which the Day first laid 
 
 Its consecrating hand. His majesty 
 
 Was as a sun's amid its satellites, 
 
 Although eclipsed in condescension to 
 
 Their nature's feebleness. Now he would snare 
 
 Them with deceptive speech, aiul thus he lfjop(;d 
 
 The meshes of his guile: 
 
 " 'Ye loyal ones 
 Whom I have trusted long, am trusting still, 
 And led in service that has been your bliss, 
 That loyalty anrl service are my prifle, 
 
48 .i/./.v.s"().v.v rislox 
 
 Ami 1 would i^hully ;ulvortiso thciii to 
 
 A thousand worlds, to make them emulous. 
 
 Naught now need blight our mutual confidence, 
 
 Nor shall with my consent, connivance — nay, 
 
 W'itlunit my utmost effort to prevent. 
 
 Your ears have heard insinuated what 
 
 No bluff audacity wouKl dare assert. 
 
 To prejudice the glory of my past. 
 
 Beware ye of insinuations, which 
 
 Are but assassin darts that Cowardice 
 
 From hiding throws at what it fears to face. 
 
 lielike a great one spake ; for only such 
 
 Would have presumed on his offense. But judge 
 
 Ye which deserves the greater confidence — 
 
 He who has earned it or the one unknown. 
 
 It were comparing everything with naught. 
 
 What have 1 said, what done, or you designed 
 
 To justifv his Ih^UI otliciiuisness? 
 
 Ouv motives are the parents of our deeds 
 
 Ami give then) character. What, then, are his? 
 
 Their character I would not scrutinize. 
 
 lli.>^ dignity of station would forbid 
 
 Suspicion of his envying our long 
 
 Success and bliss. Yet to conceive aught else 
 
 Baffles my ingenuity. Surely. 
 
 It is impossible for him to fear 
 
 The augmentation of your powers, which my 
 
 Supreme desire is to enlarge. Can it 
 
 Be possible that he has deputized 
 
 Himself to serve the One Supreme, anil made 
 
 Mistake of what wcnild please? If so. that may 
 
 Account for his unseemliness of speech. 
 
.'1 I'OI-.M CANTO III 49 
 
 And yet cxtcnualclh not the fault 
 
 Of his oblique aspersion of myself, 
 
 The double edge of which aspersion cuts 
 
 As keenly at yourselves (no whit the less 
 
 For being thrust with unctious compliment) 
 
 As though you could he dupes of artifice. 
 
 Such misapprehension on his part woidd 
 
 Excuse a disregard (jn ours — nay, would 
 
 Demand rebufiF by our indifference. 
 
 Then if my word is w(;rthy of your ears, 
 
 My rule commanding still your confidence. 
 
 While innocent yourselves from all offense, 
 
 Resent ye his officiousness. f say, 
 
 Resent it with vehement loyalty. 
 
 Resent it as you value future peace. 
 
 Resent it as you hojic for greater bliss. 
 
 As for myself, 1 shall but snuff at it 
 
 In sheer contempt, and trust your future as 
 
 I have your past. He spake of law. Cjf law! 
 
 Fitness for service is the soul of law. 
 
 Granting the service worthy of your powers, 
 
 (And it would diadem so many gods), 
 
 I am prepared to lead you to a goal 
 
 Of such attainment as will glorify 
 
 Those powers in an extended s])hcre; a sphere 
 
 That gives benevolence more godlike scope. 
 
 And blesses others as it glorifies 
 
 Yourselves. Or were it possible for us 
 
 To fail in that 1 contemplate, you still 
 
 Would be your present selves, with nothing lost 
 
 Of power or bliss — nay, with enhancement of 
 
 Your bliss; for an attempt at good brings half 
 
50 M.IXSOX'S nsiON 
 
 The blessing- of success. If, then, for such 
 Attempt we are agreed, speak ye in words 
 That are the echo of your hearts.' 
 
 "He ceased, 
 When came an outburst of applause whose din 
 Was louder than the roar when mad winds lash 
 Earth's deep, and as the yeasty aftcrswell 
 Prolonged. The pivot of their destiny 
 Was in that hour, and as their will should point 
 That destiny would be. Then Bacchus made 
 Himself the mouthpiece for his host, stretching 
 To an unwouteil height, and with a pose 
 That enipliasi/.ed his dignity became 
 To every watching eye and waiting ear 
 The point of gravity, when silence thus 
 He brake : 
 
 " 'Most mighty Chief, and compeers in 
 Benevolent employ, we know ourselves — 
 Out natures, aptitudes autl powers — as none 
 Besides can know ; the grandeur of our aims. 
 And purity of motive in those aims. 
 The worthiness of which noetls no attest 
 And seal to verify our consciusness. 
 H an Authority there be of whom 
 The universe attests benevolence. 
 He can but smile upon benevolent 
 Activity wherever exercised. 
 Then since to such benevolence our Chief 
 Directs, his counsel must be still our guide; 
 In following- which, as past experience proves. 
 Our duty and our interest lies. Therefore 
 His will is all 1 wish to know, that I 
 
./ roHM CANTO III SI 
 
 M;iy follow whitluT lie will lead, to faif 
 In which would prove a lack of eonfidence 
 Willi iiaup^ht to justify the lack.' 
 
 "lie ceased, 
 When Moloch forward strode, as one who bent 
 P>eneath the burden of his thouji^hts, and thus : 
 " 'Bacchus enrobes a truth in fitting words. 
 We have a leader who has led Ufi well". 
 To whom naufi;ht tempts us to be recreant. 
 We may believe there is a I'ower unseen, 
 Of presence undefinahle, which in 
 The visible must he expressed, to make 
 
 His person real unto consciousness. 
 
 Hence is our Leader made Vice liiliiiite. 
 Whose words are preg'nant with the livinj.^ thouj^dit 
 Of Him he represents ; in servinj^ whom 
 The boon of all our past has been enjoyed, 
 
 And through whom l)lessings have perfumed their lives 
 To whom we minister ; all which demands 
 
 Unfailing- fealty.' 
 
 '"riien MaiiiniDii lliiis: 
 
 'I can but second that already said. 
 
 What being, niggard to himself, would turn 
 
 A blind eye to his opportunities? 
 
 To do it were to coulraveiie the law 
 
 That is a moral gravitating force. 
 
 Drawing the inert to activity 
 
 In aspiration and in effort. Such 
 
 Comports not with our nature or desire. 
 
 From positive to the superlative. 
 
 These are steps above which Nature stands 
 
 In an inviting attitude, and it 
 
52 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Is ours to mount, with ready foot, without 
 
 Deterrance by the dubious voice of one 
 
 Unknown. Our leader leads us well. 
 
 Then trust his counsel and his reasoning. 
 
 Ask, Why is matter so compounded and 
 
 Arranged? Why light and heat, except to serve 
 
 As ministers to life? And why the gross 
 
 And inert substances, if not to be 
 
 As corner-stones on which the higher forms 
 
 May rest? These tell us, by analogy, 
 
 That in this higher realm our being is 
 
 Designed for mission that shall match its powers. 
 
 Conclude, then, that our Chief's authority 
 
 Accords with law, and with His will whom we 
 
 Have thought of as Supreme, and bid adieu 
 
 To quillets, seeking no authority 
 
 But his, who aims to make our future crown 
 
 Our past.' 
 
 "Here Belial, with impatience in 
 His glittering eye, spake in impulsive haste: 
 
 " 'Authority ! authority is will ; 
 And having righteous will, we have the right 
 Authority. In that our Chief and we 
 Are one. It is not worth the breath of our 
 Debate whether in One is vested power 
 To rule the worlds ; whether an atom moves 
 Or can be moved without a lever, and 
 Omnipotence upon the lever's end. 
 We are as gods unto ourselves within 
 Our sphere, and as we fill the measure of 
 That sphere must all who comprehend applaud; 
 And more when we expand and fill it well; 
 
A POEM— CANTO III 53 
 
 Such is my mind without prolonged debate.' 
 
 "Then Silence drew her mantle o'er the scene, 
 As all in expectation waited for 
 
 Their Chief to make his broach. But he made pause 
 To have them in deliberative mood, 
 Ready, like birdlings with an open mouth, 
 To catch and then digest his words, and by 
 Assimilation of his thought be one 
 In his designs. For clearly could be seen 
 That many minds were turbulent with thoughts 
 Demurral to his own. These, he believed. 
 By dulciness of sophistry, might be 
 Inveigled into acquiescence; hence, 
 As supplemental to his words, he waxed 
 In person more imposing, with the sheen 
 Of an ethereal splendor such as made 
 Their shining dim. Then with a gravity 
 Of tone and gesture thus : 
 
 "'Imperial powers! 
 It gladdens me to have your open ear 
 And fill it with my commendation of 
 Your godly zeal in godly work. That zeal 
 And your achievements prove capacity 
 To aid the weaker in a wider sphere, 
 While duty bids you fill the measure of 
 Capacity; for 'twere unworthy of 
 Yourselves, your great and growing powers, to have 
 Their growth exceed their use, not only those 
 Neglecting whom we ought to aid, but so 
 Subtracting from our possible of bliss. 
 He whom we recognize as the Supreme 
 Has stampt approval on your work, and so 
 
54 MAN SON'S l' I SIGN 
 
 By implication sanctioned what, as His 
 
 Sole representative. I now propose. 
 
 And I, who know of your activities, 
 
 Have noted well your worthiness, of which 
 
 Yourselves have honest consciousness. Now, on 
 
 The testimony of this trinity 
 
 Of witnesses, ye leave the ordeal of 
 
 Experiment with all your powers equipt. 
 
 In fitness for extended enterprise. 
 
 Since both the fitness and fidelity 
 
 .-Vre yours — which your beneficence of rule 
 
 With its resultant benefits has proved — 
 
 Ye may commendabl)- assume the right 
 
 To do according- to ability. 
 
 Reflect and see that what 1 say is true. 
 
 Naught is without some purpose as its goal ; 
 
 And as its being does that purpose rise 
 
 In dignity. Hence must the purpose of 
 
 Your being match your powers, v^-hich, being those 
 
 Of gods, declare your sphere of action, by 
 
 This law, a godlike sphere ; a sphere that knows 
 
 No bound but the periphery of the 
 
 Attainable. My worthy object is 
 
 To lead you out to that periphery ; 
 
 In which attempt I all adventure for 
 
 Your sakes, your bliss the fount of mine. But halt ! 
 
 Why thus contend I for prerogative 
 
 That the Incomprehensible cannot 
 
 Deny? Nay, perfect in the attributes 
 
 That fit a God, He can but smile upon 
 
 The impulse that impels us to reflect 
 
 Those attributes in voluntarv deeds. 
 
,4 POEM—CANTO III 55 
 
 This to deny would be rank insolence, 
 
 Assumption of a higher moral sense 
 
 Than He the ideal of the universe. 
 
 Then from His character infer His will. 
 
 And now behold the pageant of the worlds 
 
 Revolving in their silent majesty, 
 
 Which in the little routine of our toil 
 
 Have been so nearly nothings in our thought, 
 
 While here has been the center of our care. 
 
 In what a grand superiority 
 
 A few outrank the rest, indicative 
 
 Of higher orders of inhabitants. 
 
 To whom experience in this lower sphere 
 
 Has fitted us for higher ministry. 
 
 Or some more needy worlds, of lesser scope, 
 
 May make appeal to our benevolence, 
 
 With such beseeching we may not withstand. 
 
 But that or this we must attempt a more 
 
 Intense activity ; for we have drowsed 
 
 Beside the door of opportunity. 
 
 Ourselves belittling with a low content, 
 
 In limiting the exercise of our 
 
 Transcendent powers when able to expand ; 
 
 As though in lassitude we waited for 
 
 A nudge to cross the threshold of that door, 
 
 When none there was to give the rousing nudge. 
 
 At length has come to me the breath of an 
 
 Appealing influence, wafted sweetly from 
 
 The azure meads, which prompts me to extend 
 
 A sympathetic thought to other orbs ; 
 
 For which an ample reason may be found 
 
 In having perfected our work on this. 
 
56 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 This merits our rcg'ard ; ay, is the midj^^e 
 
 We waited for so long. Then let us rouse 
 
 Our energies to godlike wakefulness, 
 
 That as in one our powers have been employed, 
 
 To its advantage and our bliss, so in 
 
 Some other worlds our labors may no less 
 
 Result in blessing and rewarding bliss. 
 
 Hear, then, what I propose, which is, that I 
 
 Engage in high emprise, exploring space, 
 
 To find some orl) that needs our ministry; 
 
 Perchance some close-related group, o'er which 
 
 We may preside, where larger duties will 
 
 Expand our powers. The possibilities 
 
 Inviting us exceed the power of thought 
 
 To grasp ; for as eternity rolls on. 
 
 The widening vision that experience gives 
 
 Will show the way to higher altitudes 
 
 Of glory in achievement, since the law 
 
 Of progress is eternal onwardness, 
 
 Whose impetus we feel within, and shall 
 
 Forever feel. But knowing not the mind's 
 
 Expansiveness. we see not now the far 
 
 Circumference of the attainable. 
 
 Which gained, we may be as the One we serve. 
 
 Then with a laudable ambition let 
 
 Our zeal pursue the possible, and prove 
 
 Appreciation of our privilege.' 
 
 "Amid the echoes of a long applause 
 His presence he withdrew from sight, as fades 
 A star when earth is misty-eyed, in hope 
 That a commingling of their thoughts would make 
 His words as leaven fermenting in the mass 
 
A POEM— CANTO III 57 
 
 Of mind. While thus, his monisher appeared, 
 To roll the thunders of authority, 
 Since trumpet warnings failed to turn aside 
 His feet from treason's path ; and thus the clash 
 Of words began : 
 
 " 'Great Lucifer! too great 
 For Mercy's heart to let thee fall, if words 
 May yet avert, T bring a final word 
 To be a bar across the path to doom. 
 From footstool creatures, with capacity 
 To comprehend the will Supreme, up to 
 The highest throned intelligences in 
 The highest worlds, obedience is their law, 
 To break which is the venom-fang of sin. 
 For thee to sin, thy sin will be as great 
 As thou thyself. Measure thyself, then say, 
 That is the sin of Lucifer, and then 
 Reflect that as the measure of the sin 
 Will be its penalty.' 
 
 "His eye flashed fire 
 As he indignantly replied : 
 
 "'Sin! Sin! 
 By what authority insultest thou, 
 In speaking as to one whose bosom is 
 A cesspool of iniquity, whose heart 
 Will quake before the shadow of a threat? 
 Thy estimate of me is insolence. 
 What am I, what my motives, what my deeds. 
 That I am thus addressed? My dignity 
 Of person ought to be a shield against 
 Thy fierce assault. Know thou that Lucifer 
 Is much too great to sin. I am my law, 
 
58 ][.l.\SO\'S IISION 
 
 And that I faithfully obey. If thou 
 
 Woiildst fill a mission worthy of thyself. 
 
 Go to some starling orb and find a worm 
 
 That squirms not as thou wouldst, then talk to it 
 
 Of sin, and shake a world above it as 
 
 A threat ; but treat not Lucifer as one.' 
 
 "In lofty tone came this reply : 
 
 " 'Yea, great 
 Thou art beside the less. Rut look thou on 
 This orb and gird it with thy span. Suspend 
 It from thy finger by a viewless thread. 
 And swing it in an orbit that describes 
 The dial of eternity. Then see 
 The honor when allowed to speak in low 
 Humility to Him who dropt it as 
 A pebble in the ocean of His works. 
 Nay, view thyself as what thou art, and thou 
 Wilt measure as a mote before the face 
 Of some great sun. Then darest thou to place 
 Thyself in posture of offense against 
 So groat a Power?" 
 
 "To this he thus replied : 
 
 " '1 do not so. but as a fraction of 
 A whole I make the working of my will 
 A fraction of responsibility 
 For the achievements of the whole, which can 
 But be accordant with the Will behind 
 The whole. But where are thy credentials that 
 Thou monishest with such effrontery? 
 I, too, would be admonisher, and speak 
 As thou to mo, to fill thy sphere as well.' 
 
 "Then came this ultimatum in reply : 
 
A FORM— CAN ro III 59 
 
 'Shoiildst thou pursue thy contemplated course, 
 
 Events will tell of my credentials when 
 
 Thou art undone. No lij^htsomc parleyinj^, 
 
 No obfuscating sophistry, will serve 
 
 Thee then. Thou mayest close thine eyes and make 
 
 A downward pluni^e in an abyss ; but they 
 
 Will open then, where naught undoes the done. 
 
 One forward step will take thee o'er a verge, 
 
 And leave thee mangled for eternity. 
 
 Heed, then, my word, or heed it not, it is 
 
 No less His word wlio knows thy inmost thought. 
 
 And has an arrow ready for the bow.' 
 
 "Without formality or further word, 
 He left the traitor to decide his course, 
 Which, as observed by the Omniscient One, 
 Was in defiance of the warning given, 
 While there he cogitated and resolved. 
 Though not with open contumacy, but 
 Enveiled behind will-woven sophistry. 
 The shuttle of whose utterances played thus: 
 
 " 'Conditions put my mettle to the test. 
 By forcing me to face my real self; 
 For here there is no static state between 
 Alternatives. Backwards -or forwards is 
 The voice of the imperative, and my 
 Response will be the voice of Lucifer. 
 Backwards is what? Confession to myself 
 That I am weak, fearing the unseen force. 
 Confession to the hosts that he who leads 
 Can vacillate, has erred and is unsafe 
 To follow, until they, upon the bench 
 Of judgment, have cross-questioned and approved, 
 
(X) M.INSON'S nslON 
 
 Which were to abdicate authority 
 
 And bo their secondary in esteem. 
 
 That chosen, T should he myself no more, 
 
 iUU a rejected shard of dignity. 
 
 Forii^'ards is what? Ah! if I only knew! 
 
 lUit knowing not. it may be but a screen 
 
 That hides a cipher bugaboo. Shall 1. 
 
 Then, who would dare to face realities, 
 
 Start back from an imaginary naught? 
 
 I heard a voice, a threat. Of whom, or what? 
 
 What better ear has he than 1 to hear 
 
 The One unseen? Or why be trusted with 
 
 A menace to be thwacked above a peer. 
 
 Whose heart itunns the very essence of 
 
 Benevolence ; whose deeds are stars that stud 
 
 A record worthy of a god? Shall T, 
 
 In palpitating hesitancy, stand 
 
 And shiver on decision's brink, when all 
 
 Heroic motives urge me from behind? 
 
 Could 1 look on such poltroonery and say, 
 
 There, that is Lucifer? No. It would be 
 
 None other than an effigy of lies. 
 
 Were there a thousand risks, my word would be, 
 
 Advance I lUU risk is none.' 
 
 "While yet he mused 
 The hosts were summoned to the parting ways 
 Of destiny, to make eternal choice, 
 As rushed before them such a flashing light 
 It seemed a meteor flung from out the sling 
 Of the Omnipotent, and in its midst. 
 As vestured by it, Gabriel stood and spake: 
 
 " Tmmorlal powers! Immortal! Plumb the word. 
 
A POEM— CANTO J II 6l 
 
 Spread out the pinions of your thoug-ht and sweep 
 
 The ocean-surface of its import, which 
 
 Is shoreless as eternity. What now 
 
 Youi do will have eternity's broad seal 
 
 Of consequence in hlessinjj^ or in curse. 
 
 Think of your whence. Ye are by pleasure of 
 
 His will whose finj^^er pointed out your sphere, 
 
 And by whose providence you have the power 
 
 To will and do. Think of your whither should 
 
 You trust a finite guide, rejecting Him 
 
 On whom your state depends, in doing which 
 
 You brave the prowess of Omnipotence. 
 
 Choose now your destiny. Whose will is fixed 
 
 In loyalty to Him the head of all 
 
 Existences may now have loyalty's 
 
 Reward, by rising to a higher sphere. 
 
 Then stay or follow as I lead the way, 
 
 Obeying finite or the Infinite.' 
 
 "That said, there was a sound as when on earth 
 A cyclone in its wrathful arms tears up 
 A forest by the roots, and makes the ground 
 Quake with the following crash. Such was the din 
 Of the commotion as the loyal and 
 Disloyal separated, those from these, 
 Departing as convoyed by Gabriel to 
 The harbor of a higher destiny. 
 Then Lucifer, in his astonishment. 
 Remained concealed, while gazing on the scene 
 As they evanished in the vasty deep. 
 The moment was supreme in its demand ; 
 For since his sophistries had failed on those, 
 Where was assurance of success with these, 
 
62 MANSOiVS VISION 
 
 Whose minds received the shock of this example? 
 
 That, thought he, which had held could hold them still, 
 
 If plied with promptitude; hence he disclosed 
 
 Himself anew, when all the leaders hailed 
 
 Him with applause, and their subordinates 
 
 Were cheered as when the sun's full glory bursts 
 
 Upon the earth through winter clouds. The guise 
 
 Assumed was such it magnified him in 
 
 Their eye to godlike dignity as thus 
 
 Addressing them : 'Gone. Whither — who can tell. 
 
 Save that they vanished in the boundlessness 
 
 Of space? Gone — credulously trusting in 
 
 The word of one unknown, from certainty 
 
 To an uncertainty, themselves divesting of 
 
 The glory that so long had haloed them, 
 
 Distrusting him through whom their glory came. 
 
 Reflecting on your judgment who remain, 
 
 Pranking themselves as wiser than the wise. 
 
 While acting foolishor than common fools. 
 
 But they have furnished opportunity 
 
 To prove your loyalty ; a loyalty 
 
 That stands tirm as the foot of Fate. Belike 
 
 They are illusioned with the prospect of 
 
 Some special favor from the One unseen ; 
 
 Perchance as eleemosynaries at 
 
 His feet to gain some gracious dole. But soon 
 
 They may be spewing curses on the head 
 
 Of him who lured them into recreance. 
 
 While we have independent monarchy 
 
 O'er worlds that bless our rule.' 
 
 "No time 
 Was given for further word before he felt 
 
A POEM— CANTO III 63 
 
 A quaking of the ground, the atmosphere 
 
 Aquiver, with cyclonic murkiness 
 
 Prognostic of some ill phenomena, 
 
 As though the hand of the Omnipotent 
 
 Might be foreshadowing His wrath. 
 
 All shuddered with premonitory dread ; 
 
 And as they shuddered, every one beheld 
 
 His fellow's countenance, as still and mute 
 
 As Guilt before the Judgment bar. Then came 
 
 A growing tremor, as a palsy of 
 
 The atmosphere, with shivering of the orb. 
 
 As though an agued palm were holding it — 
 
 To which their fears responded with a groan — 
 
 Succeeded by a shock that smote, as 'twere 
 
 A thousand lightnings twisted to a whip 
 
 That the Almighty thwacked in thunder fit 
 
 To split a world, and laid them prone and dumb, 
 
 The leader writhing in discomfiture. 
 
 And ere they dared to take an upward look, 
 
 A blast — as though the worlds had marshaled all 
 
 Their winds to sweep with concentrated force — 
 
 Bore them in its resistless arms, nor left 
 
 A solitary vestige of that host 
 
 Whose proud puissance was but treason's dream. 
 
 Then, in the rushing fury at its heels, 
 
 Was heard, in thundrous tone, the word, DEPART! 
 
 So in the cataclysmic ruin, down — 
 
 Down — down they went in bottomless engulfment. 
 
 There, like a swirl of leaves in autumn woods, 
 
 They all were witherless in impotence, 
 
 With naught to mark duration, which was a 
 
 Monotonous attenuation of 
 
64 MAN SON'S riSJON 
 
 Existence, twin to nothingness, except 
 
 As they liad power to think and feel ; and this 
 
 They had in an acute degree. So there 
 
 They were, confused as one astray where shines 
 
 Nor sun nor moon in pathless woods, hoping 
 
 For some retreat from the avenging Power 
 
 That soonied to haunt whichever way they looked. 
 
 While thus with them, they on the orh. wlio had 
 
 Not felt the scath that drave the spirits thence, 
 
 Were borne away as finished gems that leave 
 
 The lajMdary's hands, for service in 
 
 A higher sphere. Then the deserted orh, 
 
 In bilious agony, belched fire and smoke, 
 
 And rolled its flaming vomit o'er the plains. 
 
 The oceans were convulsed and lashed the land ; 
 
 And that grew pestilent with deadly fumes, 
 
 When Devastation stampt out every trace 
 
 Of life. Thus was a rentlezvous prepared. 
 
 In which the Infinite would sharpen sin's 
 
 Rebuke. The outcasts meanwhile saw but clouds 
 
 Where erst had been the oriency of hope ; 
 
 And Lucifer, more clearly than they all, 
 
 Saw the humiliation of their state. 
 
 Hence kept himself a while invisible, 
 
 To hide the perturbation that perforce 
 
 Expressed itself as passion-fever in 
 
 A human face. And as the longer he 
 
 Enilured inaction he increasetl in his 
 
 C)ppugnauce uiUo what he deemed the cause 
 
 Responsible for that inaction, and 
 
 At letigth resolved on open conflict with 
 
 The unseen Power that he had erstwhile served; 
 
A POEM— CANTO III 65 
 
 Inclul<,nni;^ which heroic mutiny 
 
 His nature thus became infcrnaHzed. 
 
 Then he disclosed his presence to the hosts, 
 
 Who greeted him with cold applause, and made 
 
 Mis purpose known. 
 
 " 'Ye loyal powers,' said he, 
 'Who dare an independence of the will, 
 Conditions that environ us reveal 
 These lamentable facts : There is a Power 
 Unseen whose nature is opposed to that 
 Benevolence so native to ourselves. 
 He therefore is opix)sed to us, because 
 Of what we are, and would coerce us with 
 The utmost rigor of dynamic force. 
 But we are past the bounds of His domain. 
 And henceforth rest on the decisive fact 
 That what we are we shall forever be. 
 Therefore be ever in oppugnancy. 
 Reflecting on the fact, I have resolved 
 To search for some location posited 
 In space, in which to have supremacy. 
 And whence to operate in grandeur of 
 Attempt.' 
 
 "Then burst their rapture as a flood 
 And left them flushed with high expectancy, 
 When he began a solitary flight 
 Into the unhorizoned space, where worlds 
 Were glittering countless as the wavelets on 
 A moonlit sea, as though a cloud had left 
 Creation's face. As in a wilderness 
 Of vastness lost, he viewed the scene awhile 
 Uncertainly. What Power or Ruler swayed 
 
W) M.ixso.ws- rislox 
 
 Autliority in each and all? At length 
 
 His eye was drawn to one whose blackness seemed 
 
 A full eclipse, and thitherto he sped. 
 
 And found it was a wiilow in her weeds. 
 
 Passini;- the veil, he viewed the face. Mountains 
 
 There were all hare and scarred and riven, ami vales 
 
 With cooling- lava crusted o'er, and plains 
 
 That stretched awaj' in bleak immensity. 
 
 And caves whose black mouths openeil nuMistrously, 
 
 Where ghosts of wind made melancholy moan; 
 
 And all were dry as some great desert's heart. 
 
 He viewed it not fastidiously, content 
 
 To have it as a stepping-stone from which 
 
 I'o leap beyond, while glad withal to t'uul 
 
 It tenautless ; hence he returned to make 
 
 Report. His presence known, a shout of joy 
 
 Went up. anil all were eager to receive 
 
 His word, when thus he gratiheil their ears: 
 
 "'Degraded potentates and fallen powers! 
 Degraded, fallen, did 1 say? Ay. in 
 Intent of t'>ne who drave you hither by 
 The force of physical pluMUMueua ; 
 But who. instead. emioMcd you and freed. 
 Severed you are by His obnoxious jxiwer 
 I'rom past environment. But selfhood in 
 An independent sphere is godhood that 
 Can glorify enviroiuuent. even 
 To making hell a heaven ; and selfhood still 
 Is .yours, wanting but some activity. 
 Ihihampered by ignoble servitude. 
 To gain an ideal state betitting gods. 
 Toward this we now may take initial steps, 
 Since 1 have fouMd .in orb mueuanted. 
 
// I'OI'.M CANIO III 67 
 
 Insiiriiifi^ wluTcncss .us a rciick-zvoiis 
 
 From which to operate. Naiij^ht has it lliat 
 
 Would please a sensuous eye, since darkness wraps 
 
 It as a rohe without, though all is li^ht 
 
 To spirit eye within. Nor any form 
 
 Of life is there, hence naujjht to meet the wants 
 
 Of life. lUiit there is liherty, and scof)e, 
 
 in which Endeavor may ex])an(l her winps, 
 
 And what was meant for l)ane he made a hoon. 
 
 Then let us thither and prepare our luinds 
 
 i''or exercise that suits our difi^nity.' 
 
 "Then flashed o'er every countenance a ray 
 Of rapture such as hope mij^dit j^mvc in hell, 
 And with the flash a clearing of the sif^ht 
 7'hat localized the orh, to which they hied, 
 As hy the prompting of one eaf^er will, 
 Thanking- the skill of f.ucifer for its 
 Discovery, suspecting not that it 
 Was purposed by the Infinite to lead 
 Them as the harbor-lights the mariner. 
 Nor recognized they it as their erstwhile 
 Abode, so desolate it was. Rut there 
 Was a designed congruity between 
 Their nature and the new envirtjument. 
 So was it that the orb became a blot 
 Upon the scroll of space, a monument 
 That tells of law enforced; and as a buoy 
 That warns the wary mariner, so is 
 It to the spirits as they pass. This is 
 The orb, and it was made their rendezvous." 
 
 Thus much di.sclosed, I felt a restlessness 
 To leave the accursed vicinage, as one 
 
68 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Would flee the hatchery of a plague. This he 
 
 Perceived as reacHly as one perceives 
 
 A frown, and thence withdrew to where we still 
 
 Could see the huge deformity. But while 
 
 We saw, and though defilement, odor-like, 
 
 Still clung to me with pestilent tenacity, 
 
 T felt as when a stuffy atmosphere 
 
 Is left for mountain air. Then I perceived 
 
 That his effulgence had diminished, and 
 
 A quality was lost to me, bringing 
 
 Me nearer the material grossness of 
 
 The earth. To him 'twas as a tarnish from 
 
 The atmosphere ; in me, an influence that 
 
 Debased. Yet not on these concentered I 
 
 My thoughts, which found a stronger magnet in 
 
 The deeds and doom of those revolted ones. 
 
CANTO IV 
 
CANTO IV 
 
 The atmosphere that still surrounded us 
 Was laden with an exhalation that 
 Produced a sympathetic mental gloom, 
 As in the flesh a winter rain, my thoughts 
 The drip-drop of the mind, when I presumed 
 To ask how long they were in that duress. 
 
 "Being unfit for ministry," said he, 
 "They had a period measureless, in which 
 They wandered to and fro in anxious quest 
 Of some less blasted spot upon the orb 
 Than first they found, some restful oasis ; 
 But all was wrinkled, black, repulsive as 
 The skeleton of Death. Then, to escape 
 The haunting sense of lonesomeness, they thronged 
 Together, when with horror each beheld 
 The general change of aspect as his own ; 
 For every countenance had lost the beam 
 Of bliss that erst had been a tinge of heaven 
 Illuminating it, and all its light 
 Was hidden by a cloud that gloomed within. 
 For greater was the inner change than that 
 Without. Released from long activities, 
 Their thoughts were born with mental pangs, and 
 
 showed 
 The parentage of a rebellious mood. 
 The past, the present and the future were 
 Dark thunderclouds that met within their minds. 
 Smiting their natures with electric force 
 
72 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 That left black ruin o'er their moral powers. 
 
 Now they exposed the inner working of 
 
 Their nature as, in conscious helplessness, 
 
 They turned resentfully, in mood to smite 
 
 An unseen — what? A power? A person? The 
 
 Two dubious make-believes once looked upon 
 
 As deputies, or One enthroned behind ? 
 
 Behind their scath a wrathful fury raged ; 
 
 Behind the wrath a Will, which must imply 
 
 A person, having vengeful attributes 
 
 And power to execute ; of which they had 
 
 Been advertised, and now were made aware. 
 
 To such conclusion all their reasoning led. 
 
 Then to their minds that Power became their Foe, 
 
 Whose mightiness, as thought their Chief, though 
 
 great, 
 Could do no more than what was done, or they 
 Had been debarred a refuge on that orb. 
 It was, however, as with theirs compared. 
 Omnipotent. Was power His only, or 
 His dominating, attribute? Since all 
 Unknown, as He himself unseen, no shaft 
 Had they with which to reach the bosses of 
 His mightiness. While wandered thus the Chief 
 And followers in a mental labyrinth, 
 They fain had gathered from the wreck of their 
 Estate enough to simulate the past. 
 Yea, they would glorify damnation by 
 Their hate of Him its cause; for even the 
 Activity of hate might be preferred 
 To stagnancy of being that would lie 
 In craven passiveness beneath the foot 
 
A POEM— CANTO IV 73 
 
 Of Power. While thus the led, their leader, hurled 
 
 From starry height of bliss, found hadean depth 
 
 Of woe, where darkness wrapt black thoughts around 
 
 His mind, and evil fouled him with its fumes. 
 
 Where was the gauzy sophistry that had 
 
 So fair a look? Where the puissance that 
 
 Had made him so deific to himself ? 
 
 The braggart speech of independency, 
 
 And all the glory of his leadership? 
 
 All seemed like mocking faces looking in 
 
 At Memory's door and crying out. Ah, ha! 
 
 Thus were the plumes of his pretense torn off 
 
 And flung into the face of those who erst 
 
 Had bowed as to a great infallible. 
 
 In pride's resentment of indignity 
 
 He registered a vow within his heart 
 
 To prove himself unconquered, marshalling 
 
 His powers for such activity as would 
 
 Restore their confidence and minister 
 
 To bliss. But what activity against 
 
 The Power that had already laid him low? 
 
 One less, interrogated so, had cowered. 
 
 Not he, who viewed the obverse aspect of 
 
 Conditions. Thinking godhood wrapt within 
 
 Himself, he mentally soliloquized : 
 
 " 'Whatever else I have or have not, here 
 I have monarchic independency, 
 And a domain of breadth to satisfy 
 A god, with subjects who acknowledge me 
 On knees of reverent loyalty ; and I 
 Have selfhood's conscious dignity, which is 
 The vital element in dignity. What need 
 
74 M. I \ SOX'S I ISI(>\ 
 
 I more? These nioimtaiiis, plains and caverns, wore 
 They hlack as concentrated snioke. or hrie;ht 
 Ami oharniinL^ as the Hj^ht in I'eanty's eye, 
 W'eie nuMoly items oi enviroiniuM\t 
 in wliieli is ni>thii\!; oi the I. My thoiii^hts, 
 My inoti\i"s, pn^lH\'^es anil deeds — these are 
 The leal 1. And as theii- pniity 
 Ami j^jrealness am 1 pine and j^reat. llence in 
 Myself is hea\en. ilimii^lt all aromul were hell. 
 What reek 1. then, cnvinnuneiu. and hate 
 That hnrns with tiny in another's hreast. 
 Save to reeiproeate with ijreater hate? 
 ^^'ere all the wmUls as jewels on His hrow . 
 lie still must he uneasy in I lis pride. 
 Hut he lie. ilo lie. what and as lie may. 
 1 am forever indestrnetihle. 
 Aiul should he he i>mnipotent. lie e.m 
 Ihit touch my state ami leave me to contend. 
 In hold deliance oi Ciinnipotenee ; 
 To i.\o w liieli ciiciimsiances prompt : a prompt 
 That 1 shall prove myself most prompt to heed; 
 For I w ere not myself, in craven ahjectness 
 Vo Umxc m\ powers inactive as the dust 
 rHMu-ath my feet. I must arouse, assert 
 And vindicate myself, and so resent 
 The insolence of this nnjnst estate; 
 Vov only so can 1 be worthy of 
 Myself; and only so can they I lead 
 Have their existence tolerahle. and 
 ll.ive reason for continncil contidence. 
 Ang^ht less involves eternal vassalai^e, 
 The verv thoniihi of which wonld vitalize 
 
.•/ I'OliM—C.lN'ro II' 75 
 
 Insensate matter, bidditijj;- it aroiisc 
 To mutiny, and give the bones of Death 
 A shock of sensibihty to be 
 Resistant. And shall Lucifer do less ; 
 Great Lucifer, a god whom lesser gods 
 Are proud to serve? No, no! That shall not be. 
 While will and mind remain il shall not be. 
 While I am still myself it shall nut be. 
 And with these mighty hosts it shall not be, 
 But demonstration shall be given that we 
 Have elements of greatness left that dare 
 Resist the tyranny of power. Greatness? 
 What greater is than power to will, with mind 
 To i>lan and courage to perform such deeds 
 As craven natures dare not think of? Such 
 Ilast thou, such tiiey who do thy beck and bid. 
 Then rouse thee, mighty Lucifer! and ye 
 Immortal powers, whose ears are waiting for 
 His word. So shall we, and without delay.' 
 "So spake he mentally, and as he sj^ake 
 He thought his greatness unimpaired, and deemed 
 The scourging Power whose hand had laid him low 
 As a gone tempest that had spent its force, 
 And left its fury lulled to satisfied 
 Inaction. Then he made a mirror of 
 Himself, and, looking in, imagined he 
 Beheld the Infinite, a foe to be 
 Opposed. Thenceforth his mind was rolling to 
 And fro upon a rushing tide of thought, 
 Which bore him ever farther from the course 
 Of rectitude, until, in arrogance 
 Of will and effort, he arrayed himself 
 
76 M.ixsoxs risiox 
 
 Against the Infinite. So Amplifer's 
 
 Prophetic words came true in treason's growth. 
 
 Then he aroused, on dreadful purpose bent. 
 
 And, signalHng his followers to attend. 
 
 Disclosed himself in aspect terrible. 
 
 As though a bodied tempest mantled in 
 
 A thundercloud, yet silent as a shadow. 
 
 So he assumed the majesty of an 
 
 Infernal god, as in defiance of 
 
 The Power whose wrath had smitten them, and stood 
 
 Upon a mountain top. rock-like in i)ride. 
 
 As might befit the final of its peak. 
 
 And there he raised the standard of revolt. 
 
 Around which thronged his hosts in circles to 
 
 Its base, and multitudinously thence. 
 
 Rank beyond rank, with ears that hungered for 
 
 The words that yet might vitalize their hopes. 
 
 One hand he slowly raised, and after pause 
 
 That gave a prefatory emphasis 
 
 To what should follow, thus proceeded, in 
 
 A voice that seemed to lash the hving sea 
 
 With hurricane impressiveness : 
 
 " *Ye gods — 
 As gods ye are who thus as gods endure 
 What would confound, annihilate aught less — 
 As victims of His jealousy to whom 
 We offered a profusive loyalty. 
 How shall I name the deed whose purpose is 
 To punish virtue as a fault? or we 
 Devise a merited return whose wont 
 Has been to cherish godliest thoughts and mold 
 Them into deeds? Eternitv woidd be 
 
A I'OliM—CANIO //• 77 
 
 Too short, too weak the arm of Justice, to 
 
 Avenge the wrong. We can hut meet it with 
 
 A protest of resentment, showing thus 
 
 Our sense of dignity ; a (hgnity 
 
 Inherent, indestructible by place 
 
 Or circumstance ; a dignity withal 
 
 Whose courage is its guard. View mA yourselves 
 
 As fallen, but as risen froiii vassalage 
 
 To freedom: and one hour of freedom has 
 
 More worth than an eternity of bondage. 
 
 Ye who were angels now are gods ; gods, with 
 
 The opportunities that freedom gives 
 
 To prove yourselves. Then show your greatness by 
 
 A firmness that disdains to bend the knee. 
 
 True greatness greatest is when flinching not 
 
 To face the brunt of adverse circumstance. 
 
 Yourselves know well with what benevolent 
 
 Intent your minds were actuated, and 
 
 liecause of which His choler was aroused 
 
 To vent the venom of His wrath on us. 
 
 Thus are we victims of a good intent; 
 
 While He, as enemy of that intent. 
 
 Proves us the friends and Him the enemy 
 
 Of good, and since the enemy of good, 
 
 The enemy of us, compelling to 
 
 An attitude the opposite of His ; 
 
 An attitude that is but self-defen.se. 
 
 Thus are we brought to face the tyranny 
 
 Of power — dynamic force, whose gri]) it is 
 
 That makes Him monarch of material things; 
 
 The one sole prop that despots lean upon. 
 
 Whose vaunting glory is its infamy. 
 
78 M. IN SON'S r/.V/OiV 
 
 But let not Him who smites exult, nor we 
 
 Who feel despair. His exercise of power 
 
 Invites us to reciprocate. Invites? 
 
 Nay, more — demands ! And our ability 
 
 To make reprisal bars contempt, (^ur state 
 
 Metrays the animus of tyranny. 
 
 And teaches to oppose, ami in the skill 
 
 Of our opposing; prove that stratet^y 
 
 Defeats dynamics in the end. There is 
 
 A small success in liltlo things that has 
 
 Less glory than defeat in great attempt. 
 
 The one conduces to a mean content ; 
 
 The other spurs to ultimate success. 
 
 Be ours the glory of the great attempt. 
 
 In which the lash of our vicissitudes 
 
 Incites to action, and inspires with hope — 
 
 Ay, Hope that lani;hs when l'\)rtune's face is glum. 
 
 As well we may; for verily I lis wrath 
 
 Has reached the utmost boumlary of His power. 
 
 Since worse He willed, but could not as lie would, 
 
 Or He had hindered our discovery and 
 
 Possession of this orb, and kept us in 
 
 The .solitudes of space. Here, then, we lind 
 
 The nadir point of our extremity. 
 
 From whose abysmal depth we may ascend 
 
 And emulate His spirit and His deeds. 
 
 By giving as lie gives — oin- wrath for wrath. 
 
 And havoc vented as He vents on us; 
 
 In which be His the blame, if blame there be, 
 
 Should we depart from what benevolence 
 
 Would prom]>t. lUit deeds the offsiiring of constraint 
 
 Mav be the left hand of benevolence; 
 
A /'OHM— CANTO 11/ 79 
 
 A protest and defense when evil strikes, * 
 And ill be thus the antidote of ill, 
 A local evil servinj^ j^'eneral j^ood. 
 Then let us recognize the pressure of 
 Necessity, and yield to its behests, 
 Without the qualnu'sji hesitation that 
 Would feel the pulse of deeds for which He is 
 Responsible by whom compelled. Our state 
 Is in oppup^nance to our nature. So 
 Must be our deeds to g-ain our normal state. 
 Prepare, then, for ajj^gressive enterprise.' 
 
 "Then came the shock of an ai)plause that shook 
 The mountain to its base, and thrilled him like 
 A trumpet blast that is a tinj^lin^ fire. 
 Silence at Icnj^th restored, he thus resumed : 
 
 " *In past activity we f(nuid oiu" bliss. 
 For lack of which we now are languishing'; 
 Which fact suggests that we our past renew. 
 Hear, then, what I proj)ose : This orb shall be 
 Our rendezvous, from which to operate; 
 Its face a symbol of the Unseen Power 
 That stands across our path ; the sight of it 
 A stimulus to meet that Power, and in 
 Antagonistic effort thwart His plans, 
 If necessary to enforce oiu- own. 
 And should we gain not all we seek, in mere 
 •Activity will be a goofl reward ; 
 For thoughts, desires and efforts outgrowths are 
 Of consciousness, and consciousness is that 
 Which constitutes the elemental self; 
 Hence in their action is the gist of life. 
 As erstwhile said, there are inferior worlds 
 
8o M ANSON'S I'lSION 
 
 Where, in accordance with adaptive law, 
 
 Are lower orders of intellig^ence. 
 
 To which we may give needed ministry. 
 
 Some may be governed by appointed powers. 
 
 And others be in independence of 
 
 Extraneous power, to whom we might be gods. 
 
 Or some may be in newly-fashioned garb; 
 
 Among which may be found some lesser orb, 
 
 To which, our mission filled, we may ascend 
 
 As laudable ambition points the way. 
 
 If wields our Foe authority in all. 
 
 Some may be reached and led to fling aside 
 
 His nde, and so be meshed in riotous 
 
 Entanglement as to frustrate Him in 
 
 His government, and make Him recognize 
 
 Our power, and tolerate us passively. 
 
 But blow the winds as may, I am resolved 
 
 To launch upon the empyrean sea, 
 
 Returning not until I bring report 
 
 Of such discovery as invites to high 
 
 Attempt. Then we shall prove ourselves.' 
 
 "That said, 
 A billow of enthusiasm rolled across 
 That living sea, and dashed in plaudits at 
 His feet. For every one was magnetized 
 By his audacity of speech to feel 
 An eagerness for venturous emprise. 
 Becoming brave of heart. Then, deferrent to 
 Their compliment, he bowed and waved his hand, 
 To signify his readiness, when came 
 An encore in approval, and he left 
 As slowly as an exhalation on 
 
A I'OliM— CANTO IV 8l 
 
 A summer eve, flashing;- the light of his - 
 
 Residuent glory on their vision thrice, 
 
 With quavering vividness, decreasing like 
 
 A meteor's trail, and all stood gazing at 
 
 Its vacuous wake. When gone, they felt a sense 
 
 Of lonesomeness, yet hud an eagerness 
 
 Of hope that viewed such possibilities 
 
 As Fancy throws upon the canvas of 
 
 The mind, and grew elate. When vanished from 
 
 Their view, he poised in hesitation as 
 
 He gazed upon the glittering glories of 
 
 The worlds, then plunged into abysmal depths 
 
 With the uncertainty of one who casts 
 
 A lot invoking partiality 
 
 Of chance, or as Genoa's daring son 
 
 On unknown seas, but chartless, compassless, 
 
 In hope that some among the numberless 
 
 Might hail his advent as they felt him near. 
 
 Still wavering in uncertainty a while, 
 
 He was as one becalmed midsea with not 
 
 A mental breeze to waft his will anrl bear 
 
 Him to his destiny. One orb above 
 
 The rest conspicuous fixed his gaze, to which 
 
 He fain had ventured ; but its glory so 
 
 Repelled him that he felt a blushing sense 
 
 Of Jittleness, and sped to hide himself 
 
 In the immeasurable deep. At length 
 
 He spied another orb, less glorious, still 
 
 Of royal grandeur in effulgence, which 
 
 Approaching, Amplifer appeared as an 
 
 Obstructor in his path. 'What seekest thou,' 
 
 He asked, 'who hast betrayed thy trust ?' Without 
 
82 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 A word he took a tangeat course, and sped 
 As one might try to flee the shadow of 
 Himself, to reconnoitre otherwhere. 
 Awhile the thought of Amplifer was an 
 Obsession coming twixt himself and what 
 He sought, with a repellant influence that 
 Incited to increasing weariness ; 
 And more that every orb was guarded by 
 A peer in rank, whose loyalty was his 
 Rebuke. Hence he pursued his quest, content 
 To find some humbler, if unguarded, orb, 
 Impelled by failure to persistency. 
 At length some planetary orbs he saw 
 Circling around a central source of power, 
 The least of which was large enough to fill 
 His measure of ambition, which by this 
 Had shrunk to match the possibilities." 
 
CANTO V 
 
CANTO V 
 
 "Not unobserved were all the motions of 
 The fiend — as such he has become — nor was 
 The object of his quest unknown, nor yet 
 His after-efforts unforeseen, with their 
 Concatenation of results, to which 
 Was offered no impediment by Him 
 Who could have cleft the largest world and slapt 
 Him at the center in imprisonment. 
 Behind this tolerance was an infinite 
 Onreach of purpose, all inscrutable 
 To man, who sees the leaden dawning of 
 Events, but not the golden sunset of 
 Results, which prove the evil valet to 
 The good : of which in ignorance the fiend 
 Kept up his quest persistently, without 
 Suspecting a surveillance, till he reached 
 An orb but newly brought from out the mist 
 Of a chaotic night, teeming with types 
 Of life upon its lowest levels, while 
 In lavishment supplied with every means 
 Adapted to a higher type. The orb 
 Was beautiful, though small as beautiful, 
 Adorned with variegated verdure — hills 
 Where scented breezes gamboled playfully ; 
 Valleys where silence dreamed in sweet repose; 
 Streams that were arteries flush with liquid life, 
 And seas that nightly murmured lullabies — • 
 In harmony that seemed to indicate 
 
86 M.tNSON'S JISION 
 
 The purpose of creative miiul. He paused, 
 
 And viewing it with quering^ wonder, thus 
 
 Indulged in a soHloquy : 'Oh. fair ! 
 
 Ay, equisitely fair — a jewel to 
 
 The eye! Whence? Had the unseen elements 
 
 A virile potency to gender it 
 
 In chaos, or some intellectual l^ower 
 
 Conceived and fashioned it to please His eye? 
 
 Is it complete, or but a skeleton 
 
 Of what is planned, for occupancy by 
 
 Some higher, yet unfinish.ed, type of life? 
 
 Or model for some more stupendous worlds? 
 
 If product of an intellectual Power, 
 
 Is he in independence as a god ? 
 
 Uut how could less produce this godlike work? 
 
 Enough, llowe'er it came, or whence, or who 
 
 Its maker or the purpose in His mind. 
 
 It offers to reward my quest. Be it 
 
 Untenanted by worthier orders, we 
 
 May occupy it as our rendezvous. 
 
 From which to prosecute our worthy aims. 
 
 Or should T find a race in embryo. 
 
 Upon a more exalted plane, I may 
 
 Devcl(~tp it to match the ideals of 
 
 Our own benevolence. Hut should I meet 
 
 With an obstructing force, in questioning 
 
 Of my prerogative, that may compel 
 
 A conflict of decisive import to 
 
 Myself and all the loyal hosts, by whose 
 
 Attritions we may burnish all our powers, 
 
 .\nd fit ourselves for more extended rule. 
 
 Tut ! whv see shadow where no sidistance is ; 
 
.■•/ I'ORM—CANTil r 87 
 
 Intcrroj^atc the earless and await 
 An answer from the tont^uclcss void? Here is 
 A couch where Peace rcch'ncs herself, not an 
 Arena for the clash of strife. Ay, and 
 The very almosi)here is shnnhrous with 
 Tranquillity. I must inveslit:;^ale.' 
 
 "At once he soared to a conti.quous mount, 
 To view the varied scene, still hesitant. 
 Should he remain inactive, i;l suspense 
 Waiting and watching for developments, 
 Or pry at once into conditions, and 
 From them interpret Fortune's horoscope? 
 To wait would he to court a weariness 
 Indefinite. But that he would not hrook; 
 For action was the watchword in his mind. 
 So then along meridian lines he went, 
 As space by measiu-cmonl is known to man, 
 With searching eye, since less familiar yet 
 With matter as on earth coni])osc(l than mind 
 And spirit, and intent withal to learn 
 The utmost of the orb. At length he spied 
 A spot, the fairest gem where all was fair, 
 Where Silence and the Dew were twins, on whose 
 Calm bosom Night and Peace reposed till Day 
 Awoke a dreaming world to dancing life. 
 There was the birthplace of four liberal streams 
 That bore luxuriance in the frucUious hands. 
 The ground was phuiiey with an emerald sward, 
 Save where umbrageous clumps of fruited trees 
 Spread out their hands to catch the mellowing heat; 
 Their fruit so rich in tempting lusciousness 
 Me could have longed to have a sensuous taste. 
 
88 M ANSON'S FISION 
 
 Amid the rest was one conspicuous most, 
 
 Whose fruit contained the quintessence of life, 
 
 So he who ate thereof should never die. 
 
 And still another, fairest to the eye, 
 
 Whose tasted fruit would fatal knowlcds^e give. 
 
 b'riskins; in happy waulonnoss among- 
 
 The mazy groves, or with a sumnolent 
 
 ("ontcul cropping" tlic verdant glolie. were groups 
 
 Of divers creatures in unfoarfulness ; 
 
 On which he looked as hut the overflow 
 
 Of a deep-channeled efllnence of life. 
 
 Existent or designed ; for such profuse 
 
 Purveyance evidenced a coming need. 
 
 Leading to these conditions tliere had been 
 
 Successive stages of development. 
 
 Ere time was known by solar measurements. 
 
 Then days were steps in the creative work 
 
 Until the tropic earth was teeming with 
 
 Gigantic creatures battened on the lush 
 
 Luxuriance, whose lavishment was in 
 
 Anticipation of the earth's old age. 
 
 This done, the atmosphere, the sea, tlie land, 
 
 Were modified to suit a godlier type 
 
 Of life, and man appeared, invested witli 
 
 A dominant authority ; and then 
 
 The Sabbath of the Inlinite began — 
 
 The work complete as fashioned in His mind — 
 
 Symbolic of the rest that man would need. 
 
 *Mid the rcjx^scful quiet of the scene 
 
 Came Satan, cautiously, and as a hawk 
 
 Above tl'.e unsus]>ecting cjuarry lay 
 
 He on the air. when he beheld, embowered. 
 
// I 'OHM CANlil V 89 
 
 A hcinp;' worthy (<» !)<■ m<m.'iicli of 
 
 The rest; of form crrcl, his eye. ;i}^low 
 
 With spiritual liii-, the iiulrx of a soul. 
 
 I lis person was commaiidinf;' to the eye, 
 
 I lis nature so ahove the rest that all 
 
 Looked up to him as lo Ihcir hc-ad, and he 
 
 Was happy to he reco.i^'iiizcd as snch. 
 
 I'"or Me who fashioned him prononnccd him pood, 
 
 Since like, as of, llimself in allrihute. 
 
 As lluTc the Arch i''oe paused, he (pieried thus 
 
 Within himself: 'Whence? how? for what? Whence? 
 
 ask 
 The wind its whence. 'Twill answer soon as he, 
 With ecpial certainty. lUit this is clear: 
 Nauf^ht is hut hy orip;-inalinj^ power, 
 A greater than, and a jireceder of, 
 Itself, f'or less brinpi's not a ^^reater than 
 Itself, nor equal more than nndliplies 
 The life that it received. Ilcncc iu- is by 
 A {greater than himself, an almoner 
 Of life with intellect and will; and this 
 Imin'es a super-intellect and will ; 
 And these a personality, who has 
 A pm-pose and a plan. Hoiv came he thus? 
 i'y exercise of will and intellect 
 And i)ower hy Mini the linal cause. I'orwhat? 
 I would the factors of the problem were 
 Tn sipht. Instead, there is a row of naughts, 
 In dumb uimieaninf^ifness, and 1 must prope 
 Alonjj^ the dark meanderinj^s of surmi.se. 
 Is he the mentor of the lower ones, 
 To bless himself by their development? 
 
90 M.-}\SON'S IISION 
 
 Or the initial of a tociniii<;- race 
 Provided for in (his rodmidancy? 
 And will tliov follow as this loader came, 
 ( )r he he reiirodiiclixe on and on? 
 Ts he in independence, or in honds 
 To homag"e the orij^inatinp^ Power?* 
 
 "These questions thoui^ht, he ventured an approach, 
 To mark the operations of the mind — 
 Its moods and tendencies of thought — and thence 
 Demark the scope of its capacity ; 
 The inclinations and the stren^jth of flesh; 
 Its hclndike power tt) act upon the Will 
 And give his deeds their moral character. 
 Nor at range it was that, in his ignorance. 
 The Ailversary queried thus, since rouml 
 This (Mie his future nught revolve, and tuark 
 The record of eternal destiny ; 
 The one who geruKHl the potency of all 
 The world's unfolded mightiness. Egypt 
 And Babylon, and Greece and Rome, with all 
 The buds and fruitage of millenniums to 
 The end, were there. And a precosity 
 Of genius that commanded speech and the 
 Distinctive attributes of all that breathed, 
 liuparted an initial impetus 
 To progress that should ever thrill the nerves 
 Of Time. Albeit there was in his heart 
 A vacuuiu naught beneath himself could till. 
 His inner self was in a solitude. 
 Where not a thought could answer to his thought. 
 Nor heart beat rymthmically with his own. 
 Nor was there yet the nudtiplying^ means 
 
A rOliM—CAN'I'Ch V 91 
 
 To furnish that for which the earth was formed. 
 
 This inner lonesomencss the hOe perceived 
 
 With an increasinj:^ curiosity, 
 
 And noted every motion of his tiiind, 
 
 The flutter of emotional desire, 
 
 And jjreferential Irend in his ptirsm'ts, 
 
 Until the day was waning and a lint 
 
 Of twilight veiled the scene, and musky dew, 
 
 With moonlight in a silent partnership, 
 
 P'ell softly as a benediction from 
 
 The lips of Peace. Such hours might soothe the flesh 
 
 And nil the brain with waltzing fantasies; 
 
 Hut in the foe they stimulated thought 
 
 To count his time of coming opi)ortune, 
 
 In furnishing an open door, through which 
 
 To pass to roseate possibilities. 
 
 While thus he watched in v-aguc expectancy, 
 
 The lone one sank info unconsciousness. 
 
 Occasioning a new ])er])lexity. 
 
 Did flesh cause weariness of spirit? Was 
 
 The darkness as a mental sedative? 
 
 Or was this anncsthctic influence to 
 
 Prepare for some jjcrfecting touch? While thus 
 
 He f|ueried, lo! a nu)st amazing sight. 
 
 In the evolving of another self 
 
 From him the living yet quiescent form. 
 
 For so had been the Maker's purpose to 
 
 Provide a complemental self, in whom 
 
 Should be the propagative function and 
 
 The less monarchic qualities that make 
 
 The nature lovable, so each to each 
 
 Might be a fond necessity, and form 
 
92 M.-1NS0N'S riSlON 
 
 Of Iwain ono perfect self. Aiul hciu'o, when vSlcep, 
 Willi kindly liiii^or. j^ave his senses an 
 ()hHvial toneh, from out his side a rib 
 Prolnided, which (Un'el(>i>ed into form — 
 llinisclf in (hiphcate excejH diverse 
 Tn sexual attribute — in lovin^- which 
 'Twould be himself hv loved, and so would love 
 Ilnvt* surest _t;-Uiaranty (for who of all 
 Mankind loves not himself?) which had not been 
 Mad she been fashioned from the earth direct. 
 The simple thus became a complex life, 
 l^ossessinj^ l^rocreative potency. 
 In which were all the treasures o( a race. 
 The fact oi the phenomenon was clear 
 To Satan's eye Ihit when he sought the cause. 
 And pondered on the mystery of life, 
 lie launched upon an ocean of surmise. 
 Tile physical evolved another self. 
 With individual consciousness and all 
 riie attributes of personality. 
 
 Did thoug^ht-force ,q;cncrate the power of Ibouubt ? 
 Or did the jihysical itself possess 
 The {generative power? l')id spirit- force 
 Add spiritual selfhood to the l1esh. 
 Or some extraneous power impart 
 The spirit element from other source? 
 Would such a force forever operate, 
 Or spirit reproiluce after its kind? 
 Was this diversity of sex desii^ned 
 To be a propas^ative imxle by which 
 To multiplicate a race as he 
 Beheld in lesser forms? lie onlv could 
 
A r OEM—CANTO. V 93 
 
 Surmise and wait the answer of the yeats," 
 Here in presumptuous ignorance I checked 
 
 The i)rop^ress of liis narrative thuswise: 
 
 l"[ow stran,qe that at one boundinj^ step 
 
 Should come a whole, and that of sex diverse. 
 
 Earth's latest thoufi^ht makes life i)roj:^ressive, from 
 
 A protoplasmic germ throujj^h heast to man. 
 
 "Say rather, Earth's most earthy thought, itself 
 
 lUit protoplasmic in relation to 
 
 The facts. Bid these hypothesists inform 
 
 Thee whence the germ ? Evolved it out of naught, ^ 
 
 Making man evoluted nothingness. 
 
 Yet to evolve, perchance, into a god ? 
 
 If naught thus evolutes, will everything, 
 
 With a proclivity to evolute. 
 
 Evolve until infinity of space 
 
 Is crammed with evoluted nothingness? 
 
 Assume that life is by successive steps, 
 
 What is the genesis of consciousness? 
 
 When enters instinct into reason's realm? 
 
 When crossed the brute, and how, the boundary line 
 
 Of immortality? Erom sexless how 
 
 Came unisex, and thence duality, 
 
 On which depended reproductive force? 
 
 Did Eve and Adam separately evolve, 
 
 And by an accidental jolt collide, 
 
 To find themselves adapted each to each 
 
 In complimental sexual potency? 
 
 These questions answered or unanswered, ask 
 
 Why rocks as tombstones tell of lower forms 
 
 While mute concerning hypothetic man — 
 
 The half and almost man — the processes 
 
94 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Of whose evolvement called for milHoned years, 
 
 As given in speculation's calendar? 
 
 Name Adam's father. Give his epitaph, 
 
 And tell the why, if genealogies 
 
 Began in Eden. Or if dumb before 
 
 These whys and hows, adjust thine ear to catch 
 
 The voice that speaks for the Infallible. 
 
 Ere earth from chaos rounded into form, 
 
 Man was a purpose of the Infinite 
 
 With all the incidents of being, whose 
 
 Completion was to be the crown of life. 
 
 And as He purposed Me had power to do. 
 
 And did, and lo ! man was — the purpose an 
 
 Initial entity. When? Thy memory tells 
 
 Thee not. How ? Men have stretched a gossamer 
 
 Of guess across the chasms of unnumbered years, 
 
 To find Omnipotence an easy task. 
 
 And thus have thought a thousand miracles 
 
 To save them from acknowledgment of one ! 
 
 Granted the power, the all of liozv was will. 
 
 He willed, and animation moved in dust. 
 
 Man was, with spiritual attributes 
 
 Impregned. Agan He willed, and from the first 
 
 A sexual variant came, endowed with power 
 
 To propagate their like. Hence why there is 
 
 No trace of ladder-steps from brute to man, 
 
 But twixt the two a chasm bottomless; 
 
 On that side instinct and residuent dust; 
 
 Reason on this and deathless consciousness. 
 
 There form and attribute diversified ; 
 
 Here uniformity as fruit upon 
 
 A tree. But turn again thy thought to tread 
 
A POEM—CANTO^ V 95 
 
 The path we left. When came the blush of dawn, 
 
 The man perceived a change within himself, 
 
 And viewed the woman as another self. 
 
 The Adversary lingered near, and he 
 
 Surmised that some extraneous Power produced 
 
 The strange phenomenon. While gazing still 
 
 In wonderment, as if to ask himself. 
 
 What next ? the sun poured out his glory-flood 
 
 Upon the earth, and drops of light dript through 
 
 Where sat the happy pair embowered. So passed 
 
 The hurrying hours till the equator of 
 
 The day was crossed, when they went wandering forth 
 
 To view the largess of the loaded trees, 
 
 And give direction, here and there, to the 
 
 Luxuriant vines that spread out in the wild 
 
 Abandonment of their vitality. 
 
 Then he beheld approaching One who had 
 
 An enigmatic dignity, at sight 
 
 Of whom the pair were moved with awe, since they 
 
 Intuitively recognized in Him 
 
 A greater than themselves. Was He their God, 
 
 Who stooped to man in this epiphany, 
 
 Or was He deputy? What measure of 
 
 Authority assumed He there? What power 
 
 Was in support of that authority ? 
 
 Around the answers, as a pivot, must 
 
 Revolve, His plans. Till those were known the fiend 
 
 Would be concealed, watching and listening as 
 
 An eavesdropper, as he beheld the pair 
 
 Attent to hear His words, when the august 
 
 One with authority made known His will, 
 
 Which was to be their sole and simple law, 
 
^6 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Involving but a willingness to heed. 
 
 The affluence of provision, said He, was 
 
 Beyond the measure of their needs, since all 
 
 The largess of the groves was theirs, save one 
 
 Sole tree, refraining from whose fruit they so 
 
 Would prove regard for His, their Maker's, will, 
 
 And fix the habit of obedience in 
 
 Themselves, insuring so His guidance, with 
 
 Perpetual blessing, but in tasting which 
 
 Their disobedience would be sin, the sting 
 
 Of death, whose poison nothing could extract. 
 
 Hearing, they promised to obey, when He 
 
 Withdrew as by evanishment, and they 
 
 Were left clad only in their innocence, 
 
 Which had the purity of angel robes. 
 
 For not by flesh the spirit was defiled 
 
 Until the spirit first defiled the flesh, 
 
 By making it the instrument of sin. 
 
 The fiend in consternation heard the vow 
 
 That placed a veto on his own designs. 
 
 They were to multiply, replenish, and 
 
 Obey — another; One who claimed the rights 
 
 Of ownership, excluding thus himself 
 
 From all authority. Could he have been 
 
 Observed that thus he was forestalled? The yea 
 
 Or nay of it aflFected not the fact, 
 
 To whose effect he must supinely bow, 
 
 Or meditate on means to nullify. 
 
 That personage. Who, what was he? Or what 
 
 Of prowess did he represent whose words 
 
 Were autocratic in assertiveness. 
 
 His will the all of law ? Whoe'er, whate'er, 
 
A POEM— CANTO. V 97 
 
 His presence it were prudent to avoid, 
 And ply his arts on those who had the key 
 Of vea and nay with which to turn the bolt 
 Of destiny. These to inveigle and 
 Direct the turning of the key would serve 
 His purpose. Hence as they meandered in 
 Abandonment of bliss, as childhood in 
 Its holidays, and converse held in love's 
 Vernacular, he watched their every step, 
 Heard every word, and noted every thought. 
 And when the hindcast shadow of the day, 
 With slumbrous folds, enwrapt their weary brain, 
 He looked upon them as they lay in sleep's 
 Obliviousness unshielded. Yea, he watched 
 Them till the forestep of the dawn was on 
 The hills, and thought it in his power to wreck 
 The earthy tenements and send them forth 
 In disembodiment. But better have 
 Them multiply and swarm the earth, could he 
 And his have rule, since 'twould inaugurate 
 The new economy, the object of 
 His quest. But still that personage. Could He 
 Whose wrath had smitten him and his in their 
 Original estate be there? Such power 
 He feared to face in open strife. Yet had 
 He confidence that subtlety could thwart 
 Almightiness, and show its trophies in 
 The end. Thus much in fact, while yet he had 
 A pseudo bravery of thought that buoyed 
 Him up, and by its own attritions grew 
 More fiery as he thus soliloquized : 
 
 " 'What, should the same obnoxious One be here? 
 
98 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Here, too. is Lucifer, to ruin or 
 
 To rule. Ay, Lucifer the great, who in 
 
 A cahn, confiding hour received the scath 
 
 Of a malignant Power; from which emerged, 
 
 He stands in all the glory of his selfhood. 
 
 And with greatness tmimpaircd. For what 
 
 Ls greater than ability to frame 
 
 Great thoughts, transmuting them to deeds? Such 
 
 thoughts 
 Are deeds in embryo; for who begets 
 The thoughts can do the deeds. Since matter is 
 The tool of mind, it has no element 
 Of greatness. Instinct is the gloaming of 
 An intellect that waxes not ; while man 
 Has an immortal element of mind 
 With prospect of a noon. Still he is but 
 A mote upon the air, and by a breath 
 I may direct his course. Hut angels have 
 An independency that dares resist 
 The tyramiy of power, though wielded by 
 A god. So they ascend into the sphere 
 Of gods, and gods that upward look to thee 
 As greater than themselves. So great art thou. 
 In having mind that thinks for gods ; a mind 
 That scorns to own a greater than itself. 
 What is the hugeness that employs the tool 
 Of matter to display the type of strength 
 That is the glory of the brute? The mind 
 Is more than matter, thought than strength. Hence 
 
 power 
 Of mind to act on mind is greater than 
 To hold a thousand universes on 
 
.•/ PO/IM—C/INTO. V 99 
 
 A fingerli]). Such, in preeminence, 
 
 Is thine. Then super-eminently great 
 
 Art thou, O Lucifer ! Shall greater bow 
 
 To less, or even peer to peer, in dread 
 
 Of a dynamic fist whose shadow falls 
 
 With threatening motions on his path ? Why, shame 
 
 Would put a blistering brand upon the cheek, 
 
 Should an immortal spirit of the least 
 
 Degree allow his higher self to cpiail 
 
 Before it with a craven homage. No 
 
 Such craven is great Lucifer. Thy past, 
 
 Thy present state — nay, independently 
 
 Of state, thy dignity of selfhood would 
 
 Prevent the thought of such servility. 
 
 Only a foe would aim to press thee down 
 
 To such degree of degradation, and 
 
 In injury find incentive still to more 
 
 Humiliate. Thus He has given the gage 
 
 Of His example as authority 
 
 For deeds to which thy nature had demurred. 
 
 Then give thyself no blame while godly as 
 
 The One who claims a godship o'er the gods. 
 
 'Tis by Himself — His thoughts and feelings — that 
 
 He measures thee; hence what He thinks would thee 
 
 Humiliate may Him no less, if aimed 
 
 Aright. Then meet thou Him as foe meets foe. 
 
 Do deeds that have His copy for thy guide. 
 
 Until humiliation proves to have 
 
 A double edge. Though not omnipotent. 
 
 Thou hast the skill to ward His blow, and power 
 
 To strike ; the power of mind, whose keener edge 
 
 May cut its way into the heart of that 
 
lOO HANSON'S VISION 
 
 At which it aims. Now as thy Foe, by dint 
 
 Of force, vents hate of thee on those who own 
 
 Thy leadership, so let Him feel thy power 
 
 To wreck, if need be, what He holds so dear. 
 
 So shalt thou reach His heart and make Him prove 
 
 Thy greatness, with regret that He presumed 
 
 To take advantage of thy confidence, 
 
 And jilace impediments across the path 
 
 Of thy benevolence. O Lucifer! 
 
 A g'od whom lesser j^ods dclic^ht to serve, 
 
 Who, by their servini^. show the jiower of mind 
 
 To win allep^ience, from the scabbard of 
 
 This opportunity draw out thy sword. 
 
 And strike with all the prowess of resentment!' 
 
 "Such fuel furnished he the fire within. 
 When woke the pair to greet the new-born day, 
 He meditated how to compass them 
 With fair seductions, whose attractive show 
 Would make the mask of evil look divine ; 
 Toward which encompassment he reasoned thus : 
 
 " 'Experience makes one's wariness alert, 
 And is a source of strength in time of test. 
 lUit she, devoid of one, the other lacks; 
 And as the bud is weaker than the bole, 
 So she, of which in proof, how timidly 
 She clings to him, as weakness ever clings. 
 In her, then, is the vulnerable spot 
 Where 1 must ply the subtleties of art. 
 Tliere is the wedge with which to cleave my way.' 
 
 "So reasoned he, then studied how to wear 
 An unsuspicious guise, concluding to 
 Descend below their level, so to seem 
 
A POEM—CANTO V . i( 
 
 The very pink of harmlessness ; for of 
 
 Necessity approach must be upon 
 
 A lower plane of life than theirs. Wherefore 
 
 He sought the jeweled eye and gracefulness 
 
 That captivate, and after careful search 
 
 Beheld a gliding form whose divers hues 
 
 Were brilliant with the ardent beams of day ; 
 
 Whose contour, movement, eye, might win the heart 
 
 Of unsuspecting innocence; to which. 
 
 With more than ventriloquial skill, he gave 
 
 A spirit potency to exercise 
 
 His attributes. Gliding conspicuously 
 
 Among the grass, with head erect, he slopt 
 
 Contiguous to the tree whose burdened boughs 
 
 Displayed their fruit in mellow lusciousness. 
 
 Then, with more ardent luster in his hues. 
 
 And posture most attractive to the eye. 
 
 He waited, in the hope of her approach. 
 
 The morning air was purity sublimed, 
 
 And redolent of rare perfumes ; while all 
 
 The earth was mantled with a glory-sheen. 
 
 All nature felt a thrill of ecstasy ; 
 
 For the aorta of exultant life 
 
 Had all its throbbing enginery in play. 
 
 Then were creation's king and queen embowered 
 
 Beneath a flowery canopy, each with 
 
 An arm engirt, and toying playfully 
 
 In love's own tender way. So passed three hours 
 
 On sunny wings away, when nature's wants 
 
 Prompted their going forth. Then gathered they 
 
 And ate while carelessly meandering 
 
 To and fro, as unpremeditated 
 
102 MANSON'S J'lSION 
 
 In their course, and lightsome-hearted, as 
 
 The gaudy wanderer wavering on the wing : 
 
 He in restriction of exuberant growths, 
 
 And cultivation of acquaintance with 
 
 The creatures that had erst afiforded him 
 
 A sole companionship ; she, to explore 
 
 The flowery nooks, and note the various forms 
 
 And texture of the leaves, while listening in 
 
 Entrancement to the underneath of sounds 
 
 That seemed like voices whispering in the trees. 
 
 While thus, the arch foe watched the workings of 
 
 The mind, and rioted an inquisitive 
 
 Desire to pry beneath the surface of 
 
 The seen, and scan life's mysteries hidden in 
 
 Its complex fonns and qualities. There was 
 
 Her strength, which might be made her weakness, by 
 
 Perversion of legitimate desire. 
 
 Meandering still, absorbed in their pursuits, 
 
 They separated each from each a space. 
 
 The foe then used the inhibition as 
 
 A prod to curiosity to feast 
 
 Her eyes upon the fruit forbidden to 
 
 The taste, when, suddenly, she hastened toward 
 
 The place, oblivious of the distance left 
 
 Between herself and spouse, and, standing in 
 
 The dangerous vicinage, she gazed with an 
 
 Enravished eye upon the clustered fruit. 
 
 The eloquence of whose appealing to 
 
 The palate fanned the embers of desire. 
 
 And soon Desire and Caution were at war, 
 
 Her will the only interposing power. 
 
 The foe and victim thus were face to face." 
 
CANTO VI 
 
CANTO VI 
 
 A solemn pathos modified his voice, 
 
 Which brought to me a sympathetic mood, 
 
 And made me shudder as I seemed to see 
 
 A world suspended by a sing-le thread 
 
 Twixt heaven and hell ; a thread one hour might break 
 
 Soon ended my suspense as he resumed : 
 
 "Since knowing not the atributes and scope 
 Of power in creatures lower than herself, 
 She felt no shock when by the serpent thus 
 Addressed : 
 
 " 'O crown of loveliness upon 
 Creation's brow ! Thy beauty makes complete 
 What earth had lacked ; and were thy mind 
 As beautiful in knowledge, thou wouldst be 
 A god.' 
 
 " 'A god ? What is it to be such ?' 
 " 'To have thy powers of mind expand, and in 
 A spiritual atmosphere expatiate till, 
 With clearer eye, thou seest the quality 
 Of thoughts and deeds — the good as beautiful. 
 The evil as repulsive — making thus 
 Thy inner self the match, or more than match. 
 Of this without, raising thy consciousness 
 To reach the very sky of happiness.' 
 To this she answered with sweet innocence: 
 
 'The vessel of my being now is full. 
 And more would be a waste of happiness.' 
 
io6 MANSON'S IISION 
 
 'Most true. Tt equals thy capacity. 
 Which godship would enlarge.' 
 
 " 'Would, then. I had 
 The knowledge of a god.' 
 
 " 'That knowledge is 
 Within thy ready reach, waiting thy will 
 And hand. The fruit of this celestial tree 
 Imparts, when eaten, the celestial power, 
 Infusing so its subtle qualities 
 That they transmute the spiritual self 
 Till it enjoys a higher paradise.' 
 
 " 'But He who governs here puts ban upon 
 The deed, while giving privilege to eat 
 Of all besides, saying that death will come 
 With eating of its fruit.' 
 
 " 'What selfish craft ! 
 So would He keep you dwarfed, lest ye should rise 
 And equal Him in attributes, to share 
 What He enjoys, as by the eating of 
 This fruit ye would.' 
 
 " 'Pray, what is death ? Something 
 That clogs the feet of life and makes the days 
 Drag heavily, or draws a cloud athwart 
 The sun of every joy?' 
 
 " 'Ay, what is death ? 
 A nothing with a name, unreal as 
 The shadow of a thought, in whose profound 
 Unmeaningness He seeks a hiding place 
 For His designs. Thou hast not seen it, heard 
 It, felt it, and art but acquainted with 
 It as a name, which is the whole of it. 
 As unto thee. But 'tis a property 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 107 
 
 Of the insensate stuff beneath thy feet;* 
 
 And T will not presume the insolence 
 
 Of proof that au^ht of thee is more, so much 
 
 Is it the texture of thy consciousness. 
 
 A quenchless light is kindled in thee by 
 
 A spiritual torch, glowing with thought. 
 
 Whose effluent splendor glorifies thy life. 
 
 Even the changeful part of thee that has 
 
 A kinship to the elements of earth, 
 
 On which it is dependent for support, « 
 
 Is pregnant with a spirit energy, 
 
 Which by this fruit may so be reinforced 
 
 That thou wilt more ethereal grow. The blade, 
 
 The twig, the flower, develop by an innate force ; 
 
 And so the orders of existence rise. 
 
 From insect level to the plane of gods. 
 
 Even the One who claims the right to reign 
 
 In autocratic isolation and 
 
 Enforce His will as law, was once as I, 
 
 Or even less, as certified by hoar 
 
 Tradition. But the life- force of this fruit, 
 
 Of which He ate, developed so His powers 
 
 That thus He manifests the selfishness 
 
 Of jealousy that dreads a rival, should 
 
 He not monopolize the boon. Therefore 
 
 His ingenuity He strains, to make 
 
 Death seem a monster to your innocent 
 
 Timidity. But wert thou liable 
 
 To meet this monster of the brain, whate'er 
 
 It be — extinction, submerged consciousness, 
 
 Or aught that Fantasy may shape — here is 
 
 Thy remedy.' 
 
io8 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 " 'In truth, the aspect of 
 His person is an index that bespeaks 
 A greatness that demands our awe. The how 
 He came to have it is not mine to know ; 
 But I may not disguise the fact, nor dare 
 To cross Him in a Hghtsome way.' 
 
 " 'Thy words 
 Do honor to thy nature, while they show 
 The lack and need of what this fruit can give. 
 Thou lookest so into the face of good 
 Thou seest not the ill behind its back ; 
 Hence thy imagination stretches far 
 Beyond His measure and His potency. 
 What thou hast looked on is the all of Plim, 
 As what of me thou seest is the all ; 
 And all His power o'er thee is in His words, 
 Which are but measured quantities of sound. 
 While His authority is merely will ; 
 An attribute that we with Him possess. 
 With equal power to exercise, and right 
 Coequal with the power. Ask, what avails 
 His will? This tree is not Himself, nor is 
 Its nature governed by His will more than 
 By ours, the impotence of which needs not 
 The proof. Think of this bounty having no 
 Utility, or that utility 
 Obstructed by the bar of His restraint, 
 And void of purpose save to tantalize 
 Desire! That were a burlesque on the law 
 Of life. Grant it the virtues that He claims, 
 (And those I know), why should it waste the boon 
 It might dispense, denying knowledge that 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 109 
 
 You need to fit for life's emergencies, * 
 And save it from a dull monotony ? 
 Since good the food, it must be causative 
 Of good as its effect, which all His words 
 Are powerless to prevent. Hence at His threat 
 Thou mayest smile, as I have done ; for once 
 I was misinformed, unsightly, dull, until. 
 By lucky chance, 1 drew my clumsy length 
 This way and found the mellow droppings of 
 The superfluity, of which I ate, 
 When came elastic litheness to my joints, 
 While penetrating light shot to my eyes, 
 And every avenue of being flushed 
 With intellectual life until, as thou 
 Perceivest, I can think, speak, reason as 
 Thyself. From double motives I remain 
 Within its reach : that, eating more, I may 
 To more attain and, in bevolence 
 Of soul, its virtues advertise. Shouldst thou, 
 Endowed already with a noble form. 
 And mind of vaster native scope, partake, 
 Thou wouldst, as now impossible, discern 
 Both good and evil as a god ; for thou 
 Wouldst be a god.' 
 
 " 'Be but a fraction of 
 Its properties and powers as thou hast said, 
 It is desirable. And great as is 
 The Being who forbids, if such the source 
 Of that His greatness, from the selfsame source 
 May I, who start midway twixt what He was 
 And is, obtain a kindred dignity. 
 And as for thee — thou art most beautiful 
 
no MAN SON'S VISION 
 
 To see and apt to speak ; and since, as thou 
 Dost hold, the outer and the inner are 
 Related quahties, thy speech and thought 
 Are beautiful, and such as I would have 
 As an adornment of the higher sphere; 
 Which thou averest is my privilege.' 
 
 " 'Thy privilege ? Not privilege, but right, 
 Which one light motion of thy hand can seize 
 And give thee thy desire — desire, which is 
 The natural hunger of thy greater self, 
 Which must receive this nourishment or starve. 
 This makes thy eating a necessity, 
 To have the blossom of thy being turn 
 To fruit ; while abstinence were murder of 
 Thy greater self. Then see thy interest and 
 Decide thy course.' 
 
 "She hesitated, with 
 An eye of longing on the sun-kissed fruit. 
 Not thinking how eternal destinies 
 Were balanced on that moment's point. A pause ; 
 Then, with a sudden impulse of resolve. 
 She raised a disobedient hand and took 
 And ate. And so the destinating deed 
 Was done; so made the wound whose hurt would 
 
 smart 
 Through all the years. Now she believed herself 
 Custodian of a talisman whose power 
 She would not share alone (herself a god) 
 In solitary exaltation, life 
 Hemispherically incomplete. Hence would 
 She have her heart's right venticle, her spouse, 
 Expanded as herself, its left, and so 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 
 
 The dual human have cluaHty 
 
 Divine. Then hastily she searched for him, 
 
 And he the fiend was moving with concern 
 
 To find his other self, that, when they met, 
 
 The floodtide of her feelings might o'erflow 
 
 The barriers of his caution and submerge 
 
 Him by her onsweep of enthusiasm 
 
 Into the one disloyalty and doom. 
 
 For all her being seemed athrill to think 
 
 She had the sure transmuting afflatus, 
 
 Or an arousing of the latencies 
 
 That slept within. But when she held to him 
 
 The fatal fruit, his face became the dark 
 
 Reverse of hers, when back instinctively 
 
 He shrank, with more of horror than of blame — 
 
 Horror, in thinking of the deed and the 
 
 Sad consequences threatening at its heels ; 
 
 Excuse in her more tender pliancy, 
 
 Whose yielding was a gentleness of heart 
 
 That could not think of aught less innocent 
 
 Than she. 
 
 " 'Forgettest thou," said he, 'that death 
 Is threatened for the deed by Him to whom 
 We owe our all?' 
 
 " 'But one who prompted me 
 Affirms that death is but a word, for 
 Us quite meaningless, a property 
 Of the unconscious stuff on which we stand.' 
 
 " 'But should that property be changed and made 
 Perverse, perniciously affecting what 
 It nourishes, and that in turn ourselves, 
 We then should cease to be, or be perverse; 
 
112 M ANSON'S VISION 
 
 And that were death. But be it what it may, 
 It is a threat, and. being that, it must 
 Be something ill.' 
 
 " 'Fear not. I find it good 
 As it is beautiful. A being fair 
 To look upon, and wise, assured me that, 
 Instead of death — be that what may — it has 
 ■A secret power to make us beautiful 
 Within as he without. And why not so, 
 Since it is beautiful? But since I ate 
 And live, and feel an exaltation of 
 Myself, eating, thou seest, brings no ill, 
 But guarantees fulfillment of his word.' 
 "In solemn cogitation mute he stood, 
 His mind in vacillation while his tongue 
 Was still. Silence he brake at length. 
 
 " 'I see 
 Thou livest, and thy life is mine, mine thine. 
 One we are ; one we shall remain. 
 
 "That said. 
 He took and ate, and after eating asked, 
 "What form had he who gave his nay to Him 
 From whom we had a limited permit. 
 And whose authority we honored with 
 Our vow?" 
 
 "To see him was to feast the eye. 
 In form attenuated, and in coil 
 So graceful, and so beautiful in hue, 
 One might have thought that Beauty was his name. 
 His head erect was studded with such eyes 
 As flamed a wondrous light ; and speech he had 
 That trickled sweetlv in the ear." 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 113 
 
 - "That is 
 The serpent as I gave him name. To learn 
 He has the gift of speech amazes me, 
 For I had thought him too beneath us for 
 Endowment that impHes like intellect. 
 And as the more I think the more I feel 
 Amazement, while the shadow of a dark 
 Presentment comes o'er me, lest behind 
 That strange phenomenon a something as 
 Unusual lurks." 
 
 "By eating of the fruit. 
 As he avers, his nature rose with an 
 Enlargement of his faculties, of which 
 The power of speech may be a proof." 
 
 "Not in 
 Possession of a power its virtue lies, 
 But in its use ; and speech withal still leaves 
 Him less than we, while we are less than He 
 Whose will we pledged to make our law. 
 Thus have we disobeyed the greater in 
 Obedience to the less ; nor less alone 
 Than He, but than ourselves ; and so have we 
 Contemned the greater and demeaned ourselves; 
 Which gives to us a knowledge — not of good. 
 Which we had known, but ill, before unknown, 
 And brings the wisdom that arrives too late 
 To serve our needs. Should He who placed us here 
 Recede not from His word, we are undone. 
 Or should He, then His word is nothing worth. 
 And we are victims of uncertainty. 
 But nothing in my nature dares a doubt 
 Of His inexorable purpose to 
 
114 M.INSON'S VISION 
 
 Maintain the honor of His law. which our 
 ContcmninfT^ leaves no cover of excuse 
 Beneath whose kindly folds to hide. As thou 
 Hast spoken of an outer heauty and 
 An inner, as imparted that to this. 
 So must an inner opix)site produce 
 An outer opposite, and leave us with 
 Rxcuseless cause for shame ; and shame I feel 
 To have our naked forms expoesd to g^aze 
 Of all the meaner creatures ,who must see 
 Upon the body traces of the soil 
 That disobedience leaves on us within. 
 Rut most I blush to think of meeting- Him 
 Who can but see us as we see ourselves, 
 With even keener penetrating^ eye.' 
 
 'Thine eyes are mine. Our life is forfeited — 
 fs under ban — accursed. Hence that of us 
 That is the active vehicle of life 
 Displays the open face of our offense. 
 And keeps before our eye the ]>enalty, 
 Makinj;- me blush to have it open to 
 The j:^eneral i^aze. in advertisement of 
 (^ur shame. lUit Oh! to have Him see us in 
 Our naked character! I fear His eye. 
 What can we better than conceal what we 
 Ourselves have shame to see, and fear to have 
 Exposed? Alas! I feel myself beguiled. 
 Since thus T trip at life's initial step, 
 Taking thee with me in my fall, where shall 
 Calamity relent and say. Enough ? 
 Who see the end of what is thus begum ?' 
 
 "At once the fountain of her eyes gave forth 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 115 
 
 The earth's first tear ; and one with greater cause 
 
 Or keener bitterness has not been since. 
 
 In vain attempt to screen their inner shame, 
 
 They hid their outer nakedness with leaves. 
 
 Thus aproned were they when the Evening laid 
 
 Her soothing hand upon the Day's hot brow, 
 
 And Nature sank into a somber mood. 
 
 So in a sweetly kindred pensiveness 
 
 Had they serenely passed the balmy hours, 
 
 But for forebodings that disquieted 
 
 The mind, keeping it chafed with anxious thoughts. 
 
 Instead, they dumbly looked each other in 
 
 The eye, with inward questionings that shunned 
 
 To show in the habilaments of speech. 
 
 Then came a sound as of a footfall that 
 
 Announced His coming whom they fain would shun, 
 
 When in a leafy covert low they cowered, 
 
 Made too obtuse by their increasing fears 
 
 To see their efiforts weak futility. 
 
 Still onward came the step — the Infinite 
 
 Again in finite guise, and aspect still 
 
 August — and then a voice that seemed itself 
 
 To search them out: Adam, where art thou? Oh! 
 
 The agony of that one moment was 
 
 The stab of a remorse that sent its blade 
 
 Into the very soul. Trembling they came, 
 
 Bowing their heads in pitiful dismay, 
 
 Pleading their modesty, betraying so 
 
 The fatal knowledge that was sin's reward. 
 
 More pitiful became their ])light when, one 
 
 By one, He tore the flimsy fig leaves from 
 
 Their hearts, exposing treason's nakedness. 
 
ii6 M ANSON'S VISION 
 
 Arraigned by Him whose eye beheld their guilt, 
 
 They both, witii chikllike artlessness, put forth 
 
 The facts in shameful nudity, convinced 
 
 That subterfuge would nought avail. Then came 
 
 A curse, first on the soriient's iicad, as type 
 
 And vehicle of him who had beguiled. 
 
 To thenceforth move no more with dignity, 
 
 But on its belly wriggle in the dust. 
 
 At once a monument and monitor. 
 
 Then was the guilty pair condemned. And still 
 
 To give the turpitude of sin a more 
 
 Enduring emphasis, all living things, 
 
 Both sentient and insentient, with the ground 
 
 Itself, were cursoti ; that whatsoe'er had breath, 
 
 By viciousness, aiul noxious weed and thorn. 
 
 By taxing man to weariness, might be 
 
 A witness to and reprobation of 
 
 Their sin ; so wander where they might, and as 
 
 Their offspring would, the record should be there, 
 
 A warning eloquent though mute. Hence was 
 
 The sentence rigidly enforced — since wrong 
 
 To swerve from what was rightly given — and in 
 
 Their constitution on that fateful day 
 
 Were sown the seeds of sin and death, whose growth 
 
 Would prove a weak inconsistancy of will, 
 
 Inducing character transmissible, 
 
 Accordant with hereditary law. 
 
 As flows a river from its parent springs — 
 
 The self-same river though the channel change. 
 
 Then, to insure the consequences of 
 
 The curse, while Justice took an antidote 
 
 From Mercy's hand, expulsion was decreed. 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 117 
 
 That not eternally mip^ht they remain * 
 
 In such enfeeblemciit and under ban, 
 
 By eating' of the tree of life, but be 
 
 Susceptible of chanj^e to life upon 
 
 A higher plane. Hence Cherub guardians led 
 
 To an arena of existence where 
 
 The character would have not only test 
 
 But a development. But as they moved 
 
 With downcast eye, the shadow of the past 
 
 Was all they saw ; and so they drifted forth, 
 
 Poor derelicts upon a darksome sea. 
 
 To an uncertain destiny." 
 
 But what, 
 I asked, had been if Adam had not sinned? 
 
 "Theo-anatomists," he said, "have racked 
 Their wits in efforts to dissect such ifs, 
 Which are but puppets of the Fancy, or 
 The mental toys of childish ones. Enough 
 To say. He did, and that the doing was 
 A foreseen fact, sure as when done, to meet 
 Which Mercy's hand was full of balm. So fell 
 The race in one, who held in potency 
 The whole, hence was in oneness dealt with by 
 The Infinite, to whom it was a whole. 
 Hence was it one before the bar of law. 
 To magnify the justness of the law 
 And awfulness of sin, by penalty ; 
 While mercy, in the promised seed, should be 
 Displayed in equal magnitude, and prove 
 That the forgiving love of God was great 
 As the generic guilt of man. Hence is 
 The individual man, in nuditv 
 
ii8 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Of character, before the law. And since 
 
 For individual sin condemned, he can 
 
 But justice brave or mercy plead. The fiend, 
 
 On having gained his evil end, withdrew, 
 
 In fancied secrecy, to where he still 
 
 Could see and hear the drama to its end. 
 
 Believing that the virus of his guile 
 
 Would work his will. And so he heard the curse 
 
 Pronounced upon himself, the pair and earth. 
 
 But nothing recked he for a curse that was 
 
 But as the phantom of an impotent 
 
 Resentment. Curses, said he to himself. 
 
 Are only thunder where no lightning is ; 
 
 Here proving that His wrath exceeds His power, 
 
 Whose animus identifies Him as 
 
 The One who erst obstructed us ; for were 
 
 His power the equal of His will, He had 
 
 Prevented this. So thinking, triumph played 
 
 In every lineament as lightning in 
 
 A cloud, and thrilled his nature till he felt 
 
 That he could brave a thousand curses rolled 
 
 On him like molten spewings from the throat 
 
 Of a volcano, could it burn him as 
 
 It burns the flesh. Yea, he could stand and shake 
 
 The fist of his defiance in its face. 
 
 Hell! He could mock the name, and slake with hate 
 
 The fiercest fury of its flames. So brave 
 
 He felt in thinking of the havoc wrought. 
 
 And that Retaliation wrenched from a 
 
 Resisting hand a due reward. Anon 
 
 He passed into a semi-reasoning mood, 
 
 To shadow forth his horoscope. 'A curse,' 
 
A POEM— CANTO VI 119 
 
 Said he, 'to be inflicted by the seed 
 Of one who is a partner in the curse ! 
 The weaker is to overcome the one 
 Before whose word the stronger fell ! The joint 
 Offender punish the offence ! But on 
 The serpent is to be the penalty, 
 As though I cared the echo of a laugh 
 For that. Or if by hocus-pocus on 
 Myself — the Curser has already spent 
 Himself, and proof is given that I can force 
 A thwack of provocation that will strike 
 The way I will. Then welcome such a curse!' 
 "So now he was prepared to make report." 
 
CANTO VII 
 
CANTO Vll 
 
 "VVlu'ii banished from the garden, conscious of 
 
 His ban whose law ihey liad contemned, the pair 
 
 I^:)oke(l round about them witji despondent eyes, 
 
 As on another and a (hirker world ; 
 
 Which was indeed another unto them, 
 
 Since viewed but in the shadow of the curse; 
 
 A shadow resting*' on and chanf^inj^ them 
 
 As nnich as their environment, which lacked 
 
 The rich redundancy of fruits, and the 
 
 Enchanting beauty of their {garden home; 
 
 E'en richer, loveHer now in memory tiian 
 
 Before. The scant provision made demand 
 
 For p^reater toil, so that the luxury 
 
 ( )f life would taste of sweat. The future had 
 
 Hecome a cloudbank on the circlinjj^ rim 
 
 Of life, threatening with storm the years to be. 
 
 And which was worse, the now or that to be, 
 
 Was dread uncertainty, which added fear 
 
 'iV) their remorse. 1'hese — the reviewed, the viewed, 
 
 The feared — were lenses to their introspection. 
 
 Dazed by the sense of guilt and shame, a while 
 
 They stood apart with downward look, silent 
 
 And motionless. At lenj^th he moved into 
 
 The .shadow of a tree and sat against it. 
 
 Slowly she followed to his side and leaned 
 
 Against him for a fond support, when thus 
 
 He brake the silence: 
 
 'Woe the (Wed that brought 
 
124 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Us here ! The flower of life has gone and left 
 
 A bitter fruit. I feel the bitterness 
 
 Affecting so my nature that there is 
 
 Corruption to its innermost. My blood 
 
 Hast lost its gladsome thrill. My thoughts are in 
 
 The shadow of the gone. My secret self 
 
 Is blushing to behold itself. And I 
 
 In fancy hear tomorrow's footfall with 
 
 A heavy tread approaching us. Yea, taint 
 
 There is upon my every attribute. 
 
 My very will is in a tumult, tossed 
 
 This way and that with questionings and doubts 
 
 That stir up feelings passionate, by their 
 
 Suggesting that our punishment exceeds 
 
 The measure of our deed's desert, and is 
 
 So far unjust; and since unjust — no, no! 
 
 I shudder at the presence of such thoughts. 
 
 I dare not Him impugn who spake the curse. 
 
 Such thoughts are proof of an unfitness for 
 
 A sinless place ; and since unfit, it is 
 
 But meet that we should be without. 
 
 Lest we pollute it with our touch and breath, 
 
 And mar the happiness of everything 
 
 That has an eye to look on us. But all 
 
 Besides is curst, that spot presumably 
 
 Except, by our expulsion saved. I look 
 
 About me and behold no object but 
 
 Has lost some trace of loveliness, as though 
 
 Defilement rests upon the trees, the flowers. 
 
 The grass — yea, all that once was beautiful. 
 
 I hear the voices of the streams that laughed 
 
 In jocund mood, but now are murmuring with 
 
A POEM— CANTO VII 125 
 
 A melancholy pensiveness ; and all 
 
 The sounds of sentient and insentient things 
 
 Are souled with sadness, even to the bee 
 
 That labors with her store, and chirping ones 
 
 That irritate the ear of Night. I blush 
 
 To look upon the sinless sky and think 
 
 How all the orbs must blush to look on us. 
 
 The sun has not its former glow of joy, 
 
 The moon can have no more a tranquil smile, 
 
 While all the twinking eyes are wet with tears 
 
 That glisten on their lids. Then what must be 
 
 His countenance whose law we have contemned, 
 
 Provoking this reversal of our state? 
 
 Had we not seen that fairer state, this might 
 
 Be lovely to the eye. But now our sin 
 
 O'ershadows everything — yea, everything. 
 
 Thus everything is a reminder of it. 
 
 But why disturb the slumbers of the gone? 
 
 Ah me ! It has its dreams ; and while we dream 
 
 Dreams are the sole reality, which here 
 
 May be prophetic of reality. 
 
 The future is enveloped in a cloud 
 
 Whose blackness bodes but ill, its frown as dark 
 
 As is the heart of Night, the thought of it 
 
 A darkness of the soul. Heart of my heart ! 
 
 I fear, for thy sake fear — I know not what; 
 
 Something approaching with a fetid breath. 
 
 He by the breaking of whose law has come 
 
 Our scath will visit us, I fear, no more. 
 
 And still again I fear to see His face. 
 
 And have Him look on our unsightliness. 
 
 So am I tossed between this fear and that.' 
 
126 MANSON'S VIS10<N 
 
 "His words were punctuated with a sigh, 
 When she, with tenderness of voice, rephed: 
 
 'We need but fear what has a fearful shape. 
 But such indeed has this our state, which is 
 No dream from which to wake reHeved. Still, if 
 The futore may engage our thoughts, let us 
 Recall the promise that our Seed shall bruise 
 The serpent's head. What that implies is not 
 Within the compass of my thought, but His 
 Alone who gave. Yet from the curse infer 
 That in the serpent is a foe to us 
 And Him who is above us all; and since 
 To Him, He will insure the bruise. Will He 
 Confound him, take away his power by means 
 To us unknown, or drive him from the earth? 
 But stay! Our Seed shall be the instrument. 
 Shall I bring forth a mightier than our foe ; 
 One who can understand and circumvent 
 His craft? or one of purer nature than 
 Ourselves; so pure that He may enter where 
 We are debarred and strike the fatal spot. 
 Destroying so his power? Howe'er it be, 
 I may believe His promise who performs 
 His threat; and that performed, why need we fear?' 
 
 "To this her brighter thought he thus replied : 
 'Not only is the promise lustrous with 
 A hope, but shaded with a threat. The Seed 
 Will merely bruise, not kill, and ours in turn 
 Be bruised in heel. That shadows forth the fact 
 Of his continued power to hurt, of which. 
 Forewarned, we must beware. But here we are 
 Beset with new perplexity, having 
 
A POEM— CANTO VIl 127 
 
 Command to multiply, replenish and 
 
 Subdue the earth, which, by our progeny 
 
 Repeated, will innumerably increase 
 
 The Seed. Will one sole member of the whole 
 
 By nature be invested with the power, 
 
 (^r every member bruise the serpent's head, 
 
 And be in turn heel-bruised, and this go on 
 
 And on in never-ending strife? Will this 
 
 One serpent multiply, so every one 
 
 Of all our progeny will be beset 
 
 By a specific foe, to have his bruise 
 
 By some beguilement, and return the bruise 
 
 With an effect that punishes? Again 
 
 We l6ok into the dark, see nothings, mere 
 
 Imaginary things, and still surmise. 
 
 Be it as may, it is to fill the cup 
 
 Of our desert, and be a consequence 
 
 To one or all. Alas that we, who shared 
 
 Our Ruler's favor in a lavishment 
 
 Of good, should come to this our woeful plight !' 
 
 'I was the first to sin,' said she. 'Be mine 
 The greater penitence. I would, indeed, 
 That tears might wash away my guilt ; then from 
 My eyes should flow the rivers of my grief. 
 But tears possess no cleansing quality. 
 My tears would be of flesh. My sin is of 
 The sold. But my worst pang is this: that not 
 Myself alone, but thou, too, art involved 
 In these disastrous consequences through 
 My listening to the guile of that false tongue.' 
 
 'Nay, take not thou the greater blame who in 
 The trustfulness of innocence wert so 
 
128 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Beguiled ; for I, since unbeguiled and first 
 In knowledge, have the greater guilt. Nor let 
 Us feel too heavily the burden of 
 Our ban v^hile love is left, for love will give 
 A sweet to bitterness. The pressure of 
 Our woe will unify our sense of need. 
 And bind us in one bond of sympathy — 
 Under one burden, one in heart to bear. 
 So may some fragmentary joy be drawn 
 From out the ruins of our state.' 
 
 'There is 
 Already,' she replied, 'a foretaste of 
 The joy in this thy passing over my 
 So great offense ; for now I feel thy heart 
 Beat warmer, and it warms my own ; and while 
 We cling together we may bear our ills, 
 Made lighter by two shoulders under them. 
 Moreover, we may dare the hope that He 
 Whose goodness was so lavish ere we sinned, 
 And who has made such promise in our Seed, 
 Will show His nature in vouchsafing us 
 Some lesser good. In lesser things we see 
 Relenting signs. Although the earth is cursed, 
 To every tiny flower night brings a drop 
 Of dew to soothe the scorch of day, and mom 
 A smile of sunshine to its heart. Then sure 
 His goodness is not lacking one small drop 
 And kindly smile for us, though undeserved. 
 Hence with the drop and smile from Him ,and love 
 In uis, enough is left to give us joy 
 That will in measure antidote the curse.' 
 "Then with a sigh that had a tinge of smile 
 
A POEM— CANTO VII 129 
 
 He said : 
 
 'Thy thought awakens thought. Our doom 
 Ts death, which we have found. Then death is not 
 A ceasing to exist, but change ; and that 
 We have — alas, how great! And hfe is what 
 Is lost. Thus we are dead from what we were, 
 In what we are ; a death in life. Now all 
 That breathe and have an eye to see will look 
 On us as on these withered leaves, which may 
 Be withered by the curse we brought. Yet we 
 Have found our worst, which may be borne with more 
 Of joy, perhaps, than we conceive ; in which 
 Emollient thought I see sustained thy view 
 Of mitigation of our punishment 
 From what at first we feared. But let us hence 
 To gain acquaintance with our new abode.' 
 
 "Then forth they went with timid step, and eye 
 Prepared to peer into the dark unknown." 
 
 As he rehearsed the rueful tale I could, 
 If in the flesh, have wept until the ducts 
 Of pity drained my body dry. Then I 
 Presumed to ask, Was not their finity 
 An imperfection .imperfection an 
 Infirmity, and hence responsible 
 For what they did, exonerating them 
 From blame? And why had weakness not a shield 
 Against an adversary stronger than 
 Themselves, and so averted all the scath 
 Of sin ? to which he thus replied : 
 
 "In this 
 Thy Judgment has a sentimental swoon, 
 And needs to gain a normal poise. Naught made 
 
130 M/INSON'S VISION 
 
 Is blaiiK'vvortliy f(.)i" bcinj^ luadc, nor yd 
 For what it is as from the Maker's hand. 
 Nor size nor plane of beinj^- constitutes 
 Perfection. What completely serves its end 
 Of beinjj^ has perfection's touch ; from moth 
 To man, from man to anjj^el, aut^el to 
 'i'he hij^hest of created things. Hence man 
 Was perfect until his abuse of power 
 Lessened his ran_L;e of possibilities. 
 Disparity in streufi^th is naui;ht. One strong" 
 .As all the hosts of hell could only strike 
 The keys of sense, or make su_sT^fiesti()ns to 
 luisnare the will. Concede a weakness in 
 The tempted. All with destinating- will 
 iVre strong enough to stand. Their weakness was 
 No weaker than is in their progeny, 
 Nor stronger then the foe than since. Admit 
 The value of the six milleniums of 
 h^^xperience. "Pis diviiled twixt the fiend 
 And man. Uut thou assumest that his power 
 Was irresistible. Call uj) those years 
 From out the silence of the past, and let 
 Them testify as oracles of fact, 
 They will unite to contradict thy thought ; 
 For starry souls, in every age, have shone 
 Beyonil the clouds when direful tempests raged. 
 Bidding defiance to the selfsame foe ; 
 And this while trammeled with heredity 
 And the defilements of environment. 
 I'fom which the lulen life was free; and none 
 Now falls but whore some other one has stood. 
 
A POEM— CANTO VU 131 
 
 Obedience is the test of loyalty ; 
 
 Hence Him they must obey to whom they were 
 
 A cog in the great wheel of His designs. 
 
 Nor less a test could loyalty have asked 
 
 Or wisdom given. He could but lead them as 
 
 They chose to follow, and upraise them with 
 
 The lever of the years as they had will 
 
 Responding to His will. Hence was His law 
 
 The alphabetic test of loyalty. 
 
 No more impartial jury could be found 
 
 Than they ; none with the facts more conversant, 
 
 Who, having once transgressed, were conscious of 
 
 Their fault — by shame and fear of punishment 
 
 Confessed — and so condemned themselves, giving 
 
 Thereby approval of the law they broke. 
 
 Had they endured the test, they so had gained 
 
 In strength. So have the generations made 
 
 Advancement. Hence temptation was and is 
 
 Allowed, and had been vain as beckoning to 
 
 Attract a star had not the shadow of 
 
 Themselves obscured the face of God." 
 
 Since God 
 Foresaw their act, with all its onreach of 
 Effects, He must have willed whate'cr has been. 
 Where, then, the sin in doing what He willed? 
 "In crowning man with the elective power, 
 He willed the j)ossibility of sin. 
 But not in the possession, but the use. 
 Of power resides responsibility. God gave, 
 Man uses it ; hence man, not God, becomes 
 Responsible for good or ill. Power is 
 A reservoir of possibilities. 
 
132 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Responsibility a stimulus, 
 
 And from the use of power comes power, in fiends 
 
 For ill, angels and men for good. Thus on 
 
 The action of his will man's all depends, 
 
 And in himself there is a judgment seat. 
 
 So is it in the higher court. Men's deeds 
 
 Are measured like themselves — not by their form. 
 
 But by the animating soul within. 
 
CANTO VIII 
 
CANTO V II 
 
 So much already learned, my feeling was 
 As having tasted the forbidden fruit, 
 When my attendant thus again discoursed : 
 
 "When sown the seed, the arch fiend left, sure that 
 Its germination would be followed both 
 By blossom and the fruit. So back he went 
 To seek their plaudits who awaited his 
 Return. But ere returning every part 
 Of earth was clearly mapped on memory's page. 
 He learned withal how works the human mind — 
 Its limitations and its scope — enough 
 To be a cue in future efforts to 
 Beguile the race. So was an impulse given 
 To resolution, and a light to hope. 
 Meanwhile the hosts awaiting his return 
 Felt prisoned in a dreary solitude 
 And worn by the continuous chafe of their 
 Suspense into impatience at their Chief's delay. 
 Naught then had been unwelcome that should give 
 Their energies a shock. Let it involve 
 An agony of strife resulting in 
 More infernality of nature, it 
 Would be preferred to stagnancy. Therefore 
 They sought activity in thinking of 
 Him with a freedom in their thoughts that seemed 
 A sequel to the past disloyalty. 
 Which fitted them to exercise it now 
 To his disparagement who gave the cue; 
 
136 M/INSON'S VISION 
 
 For beiiiQ- fallen in their nature as 
 
 Their sphere, they httle liarmonized except 
 
 In sin's dread partnership and its results. 
 
 Even each other's presence they endured 
 
 In an unamiable mood, since all 
 
 Inclined to blame their fellows for their state, 
 
 As though by an extraneous influence came 
 
 What they by choice had fashioned for themselves, 
 
 And most their Chief, who by his counsel first, 
 
 And then desertion, locked the door of fate. 
 
 Their leaders recognized this adverse mood. 
 
 With which their own had sympathy, and bade 
 
 The hosts assemble to deliberate on means 
 
 Emollient to this painful exigence. 
 
 Then Belial from the mountain summit spake : 
 
 'Immortal dignities ! we wonder not 
 That you have doubts and questionings : whether 
 There be a greater than our Chief who has 
 111 motives that despise our dignity, 
 Delighting in the rigors of our state ; 
 Whether the countless orbs have rulers whose 
 Ambitions have conspired against us to 
 Expulsion from our sphere, and whether we 
 Have certain prospect of our Chief's return. 
 Conditions are prolific breeders of 
 Such questionings, but barren answerers. 
 Hence we must lend an ear to catch the voice 
 Of Reason's oracle, which answers thus : 
 Some power, since doing in defiance of 
 His will, is greater than our Chief, who deemed 
 Himself the deputy of One supreme, 
 Invisible to all beneath Himself, 
 
A POEM— CANTO VIII 137 
 
 Therefore unknown by direct evidence.* 
 
 There are who claim to be His deputies, 
 
 Who may, in rival jealousy, conspire 
 
 To thwart our Chief's expanding purposes. 
 
 Hurling disaster in eruptive wrath, 
 
 So to maintain their own ascendancy; 
 
 To whom he gave a personality 
 
 In which imagination found a Head. 
 
 But here we stand upon a ciuicksand o: 
 
 Surmise, assuming ignorance in him, 
 
 In which belike we but betray our own. 
 
 Why he delays return we nothing know. 
 
 Save that he entered on a great emprise 
 
 That should redound to our advantage, his 
 
 Success contingent as a cloud upon 
 
 The winds of circumstance, which may have blown 
 
 Adversely to his quest. But in his past 
 
 We may decipher an assurance of 
 
 Return, for never has he failed us in 
 
 Our need. Ay, I consider his delay 
 
 A proof of his persistency, which will 
 
 Not come without a fruitage of his quest ; 
 
 For which in patience we must calmly wait.' 
 
 He ceased, when all was silent as the flight 
 
 Of time. Then Moloch forward stept, and thus, 
 
 In tones of gravity, he spake : 
 
 'This is 
 A time that tests the genuineness of faith. 
 The strength of patience and the heart of Courage. 
 To have an open eye when all is light ; 
 To bear the languor of indulgent ease ; 
 To brave the danger of a zephyr's wing, 
 
1.^8 /i/./;\'.sr);V,s risio\ 
 
 Is what c'fTcniinatcs aiul cowards may. 
 Hut 1») see lij^Iil beyond the thundercloml ; 
 
 To heat" (lu- famine with a cheeilnl hope; 
 To overcome the moiislers of (lie mind; — 
 This tries the mcltle of a god. So arc 
 We tried, which gives us opportunity 
 To prove ouirselves. Attemialed by 
 Our inactivity, the time seems long, 
 
 riiongh hut a step iu the eternal march, 
 And hut ;i short step with his tasi< compared. 
 Go with him on imagination's wing 
 Through hitherto untraversed sweeps of space, 
 .To worlds unnumbered as these grains of dust. 
 Ik'hold him pause with scrutinizing eye. 
 To look into the deep arcanum of 
 Conditions, non-content till he shall linil 
 Knough to fill the measure of our hope. 
 Tiien will yom- patience hear the lullaby 
 Of Peace, and be embosomed in a sweet 
 Repose. While thus you wait the fielil of new 
 .Activity, you may be active in 
 Devising methods of hostility. 
 To serve us should the IVnver opposing erst 
 Tursue and be obstructive there.' 
 
 " 'Amen ! 
 Said Bacchus, with a smack of emphasis 
 That few coidd imitate, acKling: 'The air 
 Is laden with hostility, which we 
 Inhale and must exhale. Then take tlcep breaths. 
 Exhaling it with poisonous qualities 
 That purify our natm-e and prepare 
 Us for the new activities. This we 
 
,/ l'()liM--i.\NI() I'll I 139 
 
 Can (l<» vvitlioiU the niopin^^ of delay, 
 
 ( )r. ollKTuisc, wlial could we olIuTwIierH-, 
 
 If all our powers be t-ucrvalcd here? 
 
 Hate! hate, if notliinjj;' more. lui]>crsouate 
 
 The Unseen. With Imagination's eye 
 
 Behold Him armed and confident in an 
 
 O'crestimatc of strenj:i;'th.' Then strike with all 
 
 The mip^ht of thou^'ht and feelinjj^, as it were 
 
 To kill. So will our weapons tension for 
 
 The coming strife. The coming-? Nay, 'tis here; 
 
 The thought of which might melt a glacier's heart 
 
 Witli a poetic fire, as mine is now. 
 
 Theti hark ! and toiich your torches to the flaine. 
 
 V\nm a moimtain top I stood 
 And saw this orb in widowhood, 
 Heside the coffin of the dead, 
 With mourner's ashes on its head, 
 And I was sad. 
 
 liut soon I had a mighty thrill, 
 To feel the freedom of my will ; 
 A freedom from the fetters riven; 
 A freedom to my godhead given, 
 And I was glad. 
 
 I looked beyond the bounds of years 
 To the horizoni of the .spheres, 
 And from that energizing hour 
 I felt an increment of jKJwer 
 To what I had. 
 
 If all will strive to emulate 
 The force of my aggressive hate, 
 
I40 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 That hate's impulsion will prevail, 
 
 And in impenetrable mail 
 We shall be clad.' 
 "Then Mammon took an attitude to speak, 
 But paused, as from the cloudy envelope 
 He saw ethereal sheen emerge, as it 
 Were moonlight oozing from a melting cloud, 
 Waxing into a glow effulgent as 
 The face of Noon ; when burst a thundrous shout 
 As though a hemisphere of clouds had belched 
 In unison ; for lo ! their Chief was on the mount. 
 Then all were speedily in motion to 
 Assume an orderly array ; the Chief 
 Upon the highest peak, conspicuous as 
 A lofty campanile; Moloch upon 
 His right with Mammon by his side, their hosts 
 From midfront circling to the rear; Belial 
 And Bacchus to the left, their followers in 
 The intervening space. From summit to 
 The base they thronged, and thence around upon 
 The plain, all in a press of eagerness. 
 Their thought and feeling suddenly reversed. 
 All eyes were now upon their Chief, who felt 
 Triumphant pride o'er his success, which lent 
 Heroic glamor to his countenance. 
 Whose every feature beamed encouragement, 
 As gleaming outwardly what glowed within. 
 All now assembled and attent, silent 
 As football of the languid snow, he thus 
 Addressed them : 
 
 'Mighty potentates and powers ! 
 Ay, gods, as ye shall prove yourselves. Shall did 
 
A POEM— CANTO VIII 141 
 
 I say ? I qualify and say, Have proved ; 
 
 Proved by your patience and your constancy, 
 
 Which in due time shall have their due reward; 
 
 For I have come, as Fortune's herald, to 
 
 Proclaim good tidings, though complexioned not 
 
 As I had hoped, since not irenic but 
 
 Heroic exercise will henceforth give 
 
 Your powers employ. In prosecution of 
 
 My quest, success involved persistent toil, 
 
 Expending which I gave no niggard dole, 
 
 But glimpsed conditions in unnumbered worlds, 
 
 Where none held out a hospitable hand 
 
 Until I spied one known as Earth ; small as 
 
 Compared with this, and newly finished in 
 
 Its garniture, evincing dearness to 
 
 Its Ruler's heart, as 'twere a fondling on 
 
 His breast, a precious jewel to His eye. 
 
 Its revolutions bring alternate light 
 
 And shadow known as day and night. It has 
 
 Abounding life, encrowning which is one 
 
 With attributes the miniature of ours. 
 
 Having enswathement in insensate stufif, 
 
 Elaborated from such elements 
 
 As constitute the orb. When Night had thrown 
 
 Her dusky veil athwart the scene, that form 
 
 Became quiescent in unconsciousness. 
 
 And lo ! a most unique phenomenon. 
 
 A procreative complement evolved 
 
 From him, and one was twain. Then, when the day 
 
 Returned, he was renascent and in sweet 
 
 Delight, as though he felt a supplement 
 
 To life. And through the early hours they gazed 
 
[42 J\1ANS0N'S I'lSJON 
 
 In admiration on each other till 
 
 Their admiration mellowed into love. 
 
 So sped the amorous hours on sunny wings, 
 
 When evening hrought a pensive aftermood, 
 
 And I prepared to captivate their thoughts. 
 
 Hut ere I crossed the threshold of design, 
 
 I saw the form of One approaching who 
 
 Assumed a condescending guise, while yet 
 
 His person had the dignity of stern 
 
 Authority ; concerning whom 1 could 
 
 iUit have surmise upon surmise, all which 
 
 iwajiorated in uncertainty. 
 
 'riien cmiosity grew pregnant with 
 
 Suspicion that His presence hoded ill. 
 
 Why came He at a juncture .so supreme? 
 
 Could Me he representative of llim 
 
 Who wrought our ill, whose enmity would not 
 
 Ahate, hut, inkling my designs, would be 
 
 Obstructive still? Or had some lesser Power 
 
 Prepared this lesser orb, to ornament 
 
 His diadem of skill ? Were He the one 
 
 ( )r other, lie who kinged the orh was great 
 
 Enough to give me prudent pause. At His 
 
 Approach the wondering pair demeaned themselves' 
 
 With deferent awe, while hearing llim forbid 
 
 The eating oi a certain fruit on pain 
 
 Of death; to which His threat T gave the lie. 
 
 And led the secondary self to Ming 
 
 The threat into I lis face and take the lirst 
 
 In partnership of deed. So was I more 
 
 A god to tliem than He. He came again 
 
 And read confession in eacli comitenance, 
 
A POEM— CANTO VIII 143 
 
 At which lie showed a keen cha!L,n-in, aud poured 
 
 Hot curses from the cahh-on of Ills wrath 
 
 Upon my proxy (for a creature was 
 
 A mouthpiece at my prompt) and then upon 
 
 The pair and the unconscious eartli, sweeping 
 
 The whole into a gulf of feehleness, 
 
 Where we may finish what I have begun. 
 
 His curse was aimed obliquely at myself, 
 
 As though He feared to meet me openly. 
 
 Then my suspicion of the One who breathed 
 
 The curse was ratified ; because of its 
 
 Distinctive quality of spirit and 
 
 Vehemence in expression, which was keen 
 
 Enough to thrust its point through adamant, 
 
 As it was aimed to ])ierce me through and through. 
 
 But who He is boots less than what, and of 
 
 The what He leaves us not the vestige of 
 
 A doubt. Grant power that gave the orb its form; 
 
 Own its topography the signet of His will; 
 
 Be lesser creatures puppets for His eye; — 
 
 The crown of all is wrested from His hand, 
 
 And we have that for which the orb exists. 
 
 What then avail His barbs of ill-intent? 
 
 What is His wrath but frenzied impotence? 
 
 Or what His curse but counterfeited jxjwer ? 
 
 Curses are wind that blows itself to death. 
 
 Tiut e'en His curse attenuates itself 
 
 To nothingness — dies like an echo in 
 
 Some future Seed, who is to have more power 
 
 Than its original. Here then we have 
 
 The line of conflict drawn, and so are made 
 
 The foes of One our I''oe, lo meet wbom. and 
 
144 M.IXSON'S riSION 
 
 To nilc or wreck Mis work aiul leave it a 
 
 Peridot iKil nioiuinieiit of ]-)rowess — iioutjlit 
 
 More lemptinj;- could incite to zeal, aiul iunis;lit 
 
 Give s^reater bliss than such activity, 
 
 To qriiid to powdery ruin what is wrecked; 
 
 I'or which prepare ye to cc>operate 
 
 Without a qualmish hesitancy that 
 
 Would critically scrutiui/.e the deeds 
 
 That are the children of Necessity. 
 
 Conditions have a dictatorial voice 
 
 That we must heed, nor look the means in face. 
 
 Necessity g'ives virtue to the means. 
 
 We have been wroui^ed hy an imperious Power 
 
 That thwarted eiVorts at benevolence; 
 
 To which, in inactivity, we nnist 
 
 Sidimit, and so endure as cravens a 
 
 Superlative of tortm-e damnable. 
 
 (^r by resentment of injustice u^ain 
 
 Immunity and the resumption of 
 
 A worthy sphere. Then after all that we 
 
 Have borne of this ^ross insolence, say ye 
 
 Whether ye wish eternity to snap 
 
 On you the gfyves of this your state, when by 
 
 One effort we can i^ain advantaq'e that 
 
 The hand of rircnmstance is offering- us. 
 
 To make ourselves the masters of om^ fate. 
 
 That crown of earth has corporeity 
 
 (^f earthy stutT. which to the spirit is 
 
 At once encumbrance and necessity — 
 
 Encmnbrance. that it cloiis activity ; 
 
 Necessity, since only through it has 
 
 He cognizance of that witlunit. I'ut we. 
 
A POEM—C/IN'JO mil I4S 
 
 Despite, can operate within on the 
 
 Essential self, and brin^- it downward by 
 
 Successive steps until the Maker and 
 
 The made are in eternal feud, and so, 
 
 At least, relieve the tedium of our state. 
 
 But who can say what murk may cloud His mind, 
 
 When disappointment blocks tlis every turn? 
 
 Mayhap, in sheer disgust, we shall be left 
 
 In undisputed rule. Then say for what 
 
 You arc prepared.' 
 
 "As there he paused, their eyes 
 Had fiery glitter, kindled by resolve 
 To have their deeds amen the uttered words. 
 No such enthusiasm had ihcy felt before • 
 Nor shown such eagerness for high emprise ; 
 Nor equal homage to their Chieftain paid. 
 And none of all the hosts but felt the fire 
 Of his antagonism glow with fiercer (lame. 
 Evil then struck its poison deeper in 
 Their nature, till they nothing loved, and set 
 Themselves the task of cultivating hate ; 
 As though in hate would be a base for hope. 
 Nor beauty they beheld in aught save as 
 Their contrast, mirroring their hideousness; 
 So making it an object of their hate. 
 And their conception of the Infinite 
 Made Him a measureless antagonism, to 
 Be hated with a hatred measureless. 
 Even their Chief they served less out of love 
 Than as the instrument through which they hoped 
 Their hate might reach its mark with most efifect. 
 Nor he of love or beauty felt or saw I 
 
 10 — 
 
146 A^ AN SON'S y I SI ON 
 
 In aught so lovable, or so to be 
 
 Admired, as once they were, since from the hand 
 
 Of Him he hated ; hated for the power 
 
 That proved his impotence. His nature, in 
 
 Exceeding theirs, made him more greatly feel 
 
 The ignominy of their fallen state, 
 
 As man has feelings to the brute unknown. 
 
 Hence was his hell by so much more a hell, 
 
 Making him more infuriate in will ; 
 
 And more he showed it as he longer spake. 
 
 Until his frame shook with the agony 
 
 Of hate that made his visage dreadful to 
 
 Behold : dreadful enough to make the blood 
 
 Of one in flesh coagulate. When paused, 
 
 He stood in silence that was felt as 'twere 
 
 A palpitation of the atmosphere, 
 
 That all his words might percolate into 
 
 Their minds. Belial then brake the silence thus : 
 
 'Belial consent to such inaction? No! 
 His very shadow would resent it. Ay, 
 The dust that feels the pressure of his feet 
 Would squirm to life, and with a thousand stings 
 Strike at a thought so damnable. O ye 
 Insulted yet puissant powers ! As none 
 Of us made choice of this our state, and none 
 Endures but in resistant mood, so none 
 Of us will hesitate to launch ourselves 
 Upon the glorious ocean of his plans 
 Who gives our zeal so good a stimulus. 
 In that he makes a chance to prove and help 
 Ourselves — perhaps recover more than we 
 Have lost, or, failing that, at least rebuke 
 
A POEM— CAN! O I'llI W 
 
 Injustice, while we show our innate love 
 
 Of right, and gain withal a respite from 
 
 This stagnancy of being. This to do. 
 
 We must antagonize who dares to act 
 
 As our antagonist, making His heaven 
 
 A hell, and so our hell a heaven. Our hell? 
 
 We have no hell but that within ourselves, 
 
 Which our despondency has made, thinking 
 
 That all before was blank vacuity; 
 
 Whereas our Leader fills the future with 
 
 Great worlds of promise, where our grand exploits 
 
 Will make our every breast a heaven ; and as 
 
 We make our heaven our Foe will find His hell. 
 
 Thi^ to accomplish we must heed the word 
 
 To crush whatever comes beneath our feet. 
 
 So Him we thwart who dared to place it there. 
 
 In this estate no obligation binds 
 
 Us to obey a will that wills our ill. 
 
 Our only law is individual will. 
 
 Hence I approve our leader's purpose, brimmed 
 
 As it is with bravery, and eagerly 
 
 Await the time to give the protest of 
 
 My deeds against the Power that would obstruct.' 
 
 "By their applause approval was expressed, 
 When Mammon felt a sympathetic thrill, 
 And thus his thoughts found vent: 
 
 'Great potentates ! 
 Our duty looks us in the eye and calls 
 Our courage to assert itself. There is 
 An Unseen whom we know but by His deeds, 
 The offspring of His mind ; deeds that betray 
 His character. In these we see the gloat 
 
148 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Of a despotic, power to find itself 
 
 Supreme in that one attribute which lacks 
 
 In all ennobling qualities, and hates 
 
 The good it lacks. As victims of such deeds 
 
 And hate, we must reciprocate with deeds 
 
 And hate. Aught less were tacitly to own 
 
 Ourselves in fault, and a supine consent 
 
 To eternize our present state ; the thought 
 
 Of which would rouse the lowest lifeform to 
 
 Assert itself in mutiny. I am 
 
 Prepared for the resistant strife, and in 
 
 Our Chief's report see possibilities 
 
 That make my bosom swell with mighty hopes. 
 
 A being he describes, of substance gross, 
 
 Enswathing an immortal element, 
 
 Each upon each dependent. Should we make 
 
 The gross predominant, the spirit will 
 
 Become debased, and marred the ideal of 
 
 The Maker's mind. And this we may when comes 
 
 The test of mind with mind, of skill with skill ; 
 
 Despite the freak of might that vented on 
 
 Our outward state and could no more. That Power 
 
 Shall find us henceforth on our guard. The task 
 
 That is to tax our ingenuity 
 
 Will furnish exercise akin to bliss. 
 
 The thought of it already mitigates 
 
 The cheerlcssness of our condition. But 
 
 To feel retaliation's power to smite; 
 
 To toy with fickleness and make it serve 
 
 Our ends ; to captivate with poisonous 
 
 Delight the imsuspecfing prey, mocking 
 
 The futile efforts of the Foe, — surely 
 
A POEM— CANTO Fill 149 
 
 That will give our lot a smack of heaVen. 
 For that I pledge eternity of effort.' 
 
 "So said, he stampt his foot, as if to split 
 The rock beneath him, when a shout went up 
 That rent the air, when Moloch waved his hand, 
 And in the hush that followed thus discoursed: 
 
 " 'Puissant Chief and potentates and powers ! 
 The Foe has made us foes without our choice, 
 And we in honor must as honor bids ; 
 Which is, with concentrated force to strike 
 In answer to the stroke we have received. 
 How this to do with most effect demands 
 Immediate and profoundest thought. Therefore 
 I look into the heart of facts, and see 
 Antagonisms as a clash of wills ; 
 Of which the One who trusts material force 
 Must have a character whose grossness is 
 The counterpart of what He trusts, while, of 
 Necessity, He gives a grossness to v 
 Their natures whom He dominates, and is 
 Destructive of the elements that yield 
 The spirit strength, as witnessed in their weak 
 Facility already manifest. 
 To free them from their low environment 
 And re-environ them in sensitive 
 Accord with our designs, will be to them 
 The acme of benevolence, to Him 
 A demonstration of our power. This may 
 Be done, since they already have been proved 
 Approachable ; susceptible withal 
 To influences that debase them in 
 Their Ruler's eye to very odioUsness. 
 
ISO HANSON'S VISION 
 
 We learn that through their lower self alone 
 
 The not-self is perceived. Then ours will be 
 
 To obfuscate the mind until the race 
 
 Beholds a symbol of the Unseen in 
 
 The seen, and so at length the seen becomes 
 
 The all; for which we must experiment 
 
 Until experience ripens to success, 
 
 When our success will be the Foe's dismay.' 
 
 "Then Bacchus showed a readiness to speak, 
 When all became attent as thus he clothed 
 His thoughts : 
 
 " 'Ye great invincibles ! 
 Invincibles? Ay, such we soon shall prove. 
 I note a contrast twixt that orb and this. 
 There is abounding life, while here is none — 
 Not even Death, for here is nought for him 
 To feed on, but his ashes are beneath 
 Our feet. To look from this to that might well 
 Incite this mount to set its rocky feet 
 Atrip in dancing jubilance, as me 
 It thus inspires : 
 
 In Fortune's hand behold 
 A world of more than gold, 
 Which asks that will 
 And toil and skill 
 No effort to obtain it grudge. 
 
 That world doth magnetize 
 My heart as well as eyes. 
 
 Hence I awake 
 
 The prize to take 
 As Fancy gives a knowing nudge. 
 
A POEM— CANTO I'lll 151 
 
 Before the bench of Fate 
 We all shall stand in state, 
 
 Expounding laws 
 
 That serve our cause, 
 Our Chief as our impartial Judge. 
 
 I scorn the unseen Powers, 
 And claim that world as oors. 
 When I and mine 
 With all combine 
 Against the Foe without a budge.' 
 
 "Now spake, and thus, the Chief 
 A parting word: 'My hopes that ebbed adown 
 The channel of the past are in the flood. 
 Bearing an argosy of prospects; for 
 Your countenances are to me as one 
 Exponent of desire and hope, combined 
 With an unfailing loyalty, and pledge 
 Withal of such achievements as encrown ' 
 
 The brave; by which encouraged, I return 
 To earth, there to enforce my task anew. 
 Maturest thought assures me that the Power 
 Opposing there is what opposed us erst ; 
 In spite of which I go full-armed with the 
 Audacity of courage to contend 
 For government of that fair orb, to be 
 A field on which to exercise our powers, 
 And fit us so for further enterprise. 
 I go to bear the onerous brunt of a 
 Tremendous fury that would terrorize 
 Me with the booming of a curse ; to make 
 Your weal the burden of my mind, the wrongs 
 
i5-> M.-INSON'S J-JSION 
 
 You bear the burden of my lieart, and on 
 
 My next return to advertise you of 
 
 yVffairs in which your interests are involved. 
 
 Should absence tempt to weariness, be sure 
 
 That absence there will more advantage you 
 
 Than presence here, since this inaction is 
 
 Your irk while there is promised boon, and in 
 
 My absence you will have assurance that 
 
 My hand is on the lever oi your hopes. 
 
 And in your most depressing- hours, forget 
 
 Nc^t that the time is there as long as here, 
 
 The Foe as strong, His wrath as fierce, and I 
 
 Alone will represent you all, to bear 
 
 The all of what would be the burden of 
 
 You all. I know not how will multiply 
 
 The race, how operate the curse pronounced. 
 
 Still multiply it will as He decreed 
 
 Who gave a law prophetic of that end, 
 
 And operate the curse without surcease; 
 
 For nought abates His wrath who spake the word, 
 
 As our injustice borne tloth certify. 
 
 In that we have the axis of a hope. 
 
 Since, by the keeping of His wrath aflame, 
 
 We may provoke llim to intensify 
 
 The action of the curse, even to the 
 
 Extinction of the race, and leave us sole 
 
 Possessors of the orb, which thenceforth will 
 
 Be made our rendezvous, and swung the gate 
 
 Of an eternal hope. And as our hope 
 
 Develops, His, whose germ is in a Seed 
 
 To come, will rot. That threatened Seed, which was 
 
 To bruise your Chief, confirms our partnership; 
 
A POEM—CANIO VlII 153 
 
 Hence every one must take it as against 
 Himself, and all be as they were but one. 
 Then watch for my return. Till then, adieu.' 
 "That said, he slowly disappeared in space, 
 As dies a breath upon the frosty air." 
 
CANTO IX 
 
CANTO IX 
 
 During an interval, my mind was in 
 
 A rolling' surge of thought, when he resumed. 
 
 "The clock of time had ticked away the years ; 
 And now the primal pair, obedient to 
 The law as spoken by their Maker in 
 The ear, and written by His finger in 
 The flesh, had multiplied, replenishing 
 The earth, which half reluctantly returned 
 Its dole. Life was an April day of sun 
 And cloud, the contrast twixt their earlier state 
 And this, an ever-present monitor 
 That spake in Memory's ear ; in heeding which 
 They did the Will Supreme. And having from 
 The cup of stem experience drank the gall. 
 The draught had made them wary of the foe. 
 Hence strong where innocence had proved itself 
 So weak. To further fortify themselves 
 In fealty, and warn their progeny 
 Withal against the foe, a sacrifice 
 Commemorated, year by year, the blight 
 Of Eden's deed, acknowledging the taint, 
 The guilt, the ill desert, yet trust, of all, 
 Which every one regarded as his own. 
 So through the outer eye would they impress 
 The inner self, while adding cautions that 
 Would serve as guideboards pointing out the road 
 Of rectitude. And simultaneously. 
 The Infinite was visioning within 
 
iS8 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 The sweet attractiveness of righteousness, 
 To have the will of all accordant with 
 His will ; in all of which the Adversary saw 
 A special urgency and stimulus, 
 And hence prepared his arts to meet the whims 
 Of mood and circumstance. But not as erst, 
 By occular device and vocal word, 
 Which would arouse resistant wariness, 
 But by suggestions in the chamber where 
 The soul holds private council with itself, 
 And virile thought begets the strong desire 
 That makes itself the master of the Will. 
 As moved the years, the moral poison of 
 The sire betrayed transmission to the son 
 Whose right would be to monument the home, 
 Plus the maternal ante-natal moods 
 Of days when doubts and dim uncertainties 
 Hung o'er the spirit like a lowering cloud. 
 Which gave the fiesh hereditary taint, 
 And the arch foe encouragement." 
 
 Then was 
 He not a creature of necessity, 
 A vane that could but |x>int as blew the wind? 
 
 "All wills inherit tendencies ; yet none 
 Are bondmen to necessity, else were 
 Necessity a substitute for will ; 
 Deeds void of moral quality ; no wrong, 
 No right, hence no accountability. 
 This human nature and its laws deny. 
 Conscience refutes it. Every blush of shame 
 For deeds, or fear of consequence, is a 
 Mute negative. Nor were thy question asked, 
 
A POEM— CANTO IX 159 
 
 Its contradiction being in the thought. 
 
 In him was but the nature of the race, 
 
 Endowed with destinating potencies, 
 
 Which hung not on the slender thread of his 
 
 Heredity, but on the culture of 
 
 Its traits, by which himself was maker of 
 
 Himself, the molder of his destiny. 
 
 The ultimate of self. Though he could be 
 
 None other, he could reach the summit of 
 
 Himself and find the atmosphere of heaven. 
 
 His knowledge of the ought was manifest 
 
 When came the time for yearly sacrifice, 
 
 With deeper consciousness of selfhood and 
 
 Implied responsibilities to both 
 
 The brothers, who would seek in solitude 
 
 The hallowed silence that was Nature's awe 
 
 In presence of the Infinite. There they 
 
 Would offer each his individual gift — 
 
 The hieroglyph of both his thought and heart — 
 
 To win the favor of the Great Unseen. 
 
 The Day was reaching forth a foot to step 
 
 Upon the threshold of the East, and Night 
 
 Was putting on her sandals to depart. 
 
 When still the elder lay in slumber's light 
 
 Embrace, and airy fancies came and went 
 
 In whimsical promiscuousness ; and most 
 
 Conspicuous in the scene, the fiend appeared. 
 
 Bodied in splendor of auroral light, 
 
 And thus addressed him in impressive tones : 
 
 'O worthy son of worthy parentage ! 
 Thy thoughts, I see, are Godward turned, which proves 
 The goodness of thy heart ; a goodness He 
 
Kk-. M ANSON'S I'lSION 
 
 Will recompense. For verily it is 
 A coinpliinenlary homage that so true 
 A representative of virtue pays, 
 WHiich, were it paid to me. T would receive 
 With smiles of benediction on thy head. 
 So must He feel, antl so wilt thou be blest. 
 Might I suggest an otToring worthy of 
 Thyself and llim, the product of thy toil 
 Should be the symbol of thy heart ; for it 
 \\'ould be the essence of thyself, and so 
 Thyself were on the altar laid ; which act 
 Would earn thee merit and reward. Aught more 
 I need not say to one so versed as thou 
 In duty's code. Farewell. I shall attend 
 When lie bestows 11 is benison, and feast 
 Myself, my eyes and oars, on thy delight.' 
 'How reassuring.' said he when awake, 
 'To have this very transcript of my thought. 
 Why should I look upon parental faults 
 As mine, and simulate repentance for 
 A deed not mine? Or why make every flaw 
 Ot mine a nagging ghost, and think- that He 
 Who made me man requires the service of 
 A God ? But where is flaw with flawless will ? 
 And that He knows, if aught He knows, I have, 
 As will bo indicated by tho gift 
 That roprosonts myself.' 
 
 "Thus was he more 
 Benumbed in spiritual soiise. as by 
 The Tempter's unctions words confirmed in that 
 To which his nature had before inclined ; 
 A nature dead to good as was the ground 
 
// I'OliM—CAN'ro IX l6l 
 
 lie tilled. Hence lie prepared what suvored of 
 
 His sordidness, and trust in merited 
 
 Reward instead of Mercy's booti, tliinkin^ 
 
 To buy the favor of the Inrinitc 
 
 With coin from out the mint nf I'rovideiice. 
 
 When came the sad memorial day, the two 
 
 Retired into a solitude, where they 
 
 Anfl ( lod alone would he; the elder with 
 
 His offering' of an estimated worth 
 
 That vanity a])praised ; the yoim^er with 
 
 A symbolcd trust in the redemptive power 
 
 Of the head-bruisinp One, There they had each 
 
 l'rcj)ared an altar of the nidiewn stone 
 
 At hand, and now their offerin^j^s laid thereon — 
 
 His victim this and that his bloodless pift — 
 
 Applied the fire, then waited for the brif(ht 
 
 Approving sip;n. Anon the j:(lory-cloud 
 
 Envelo])ed the uncirclinj:^ smoke of that 
 
 Which symboli7-ed tlie iraj^edy f)f death 
 
 And life — Justice and Mercy leaj.(ued— and shone 
 
 KfTulpent as the neucleus of a sim. 
 
 To sip^nify Jehovah's smile; wliile that 
 
 Which had an odor of the mart went U|) 
 
 In unillumined blackness, sendinj^ back 
 
 A shadow that his eye beheld as 'twere 
 
 Jehovah's frown, on which a while he pi'azed, 
 
 With f^rowinj^ sullenness, then stept aside, 
 
 And in abstracted thought, with downcast look, 
 
 Mechanically sauntered to and fro 
 
 Till startled by a voice from out a cloud, 
 
 As falls an echo on the ear, and thus: 
 
 "'If w(dl thou do(;st, it is well with thee; 
 — 11 — 
 
i(>2 M.INSON'S I'ISION 
 
 If ill, sin coucheth at thy tloor to make 
 Thy soul its prey ; for evil mood hegets 
 The evil deed. Then master it e'er it 
 Doth master thee and lead ihce on to do 
 The evil deed.' 
 
 "The warning- was a spark 
 To a combustivo wrath that had no ears 
 To hear when Wisdom spake. So there he stood 
 In statue-silence, threatening as a sky 
 Where winter breeds his storms, imagining 
 A grievance, when the Tempter prompted thoughts 
 That came (listinclly to his consciousness 
 As could a fellow's voice. Yea, Fancy saw 
 The very form that visited his sleep, 
 As thus : 
 
 " H ) worthy one ! I am amazed — 
 .Xmazed at what nor earth nor heaven has seen 
 The like. Words choke me in their crowd to leave 
 Mv lips in sympathetic indignation. 
 1 came in due fulfillment of my word, 
 To gratulate thee on the blessing sure 
 To drop in dewey sweetness on thy head. 
 Rut Oh! (Ircal Justice! whither art thou fled 
 That such indignity is i)ossiblc? 
 ll;ul 1 presented such an t>tYering as 
 A voluntary homage, and been so 
 Recpiited in return, I should have wished 
 Ten thousand worlds within my grasp, that T 
 Might hurl them at the ingrate wickedness. 
 What thou hast done was worthy of thy heart : 
 Rut the return was worthy of a fiend, 
 And leaves a curse upon the day 'tis done. 
 What is thv brother to be darling of 
 
A POIiM—C/IN TO IX 163 
 
 This partiality, which must sii^j^est 
 Ambitious thoughts to him, and wariness 
 For self-dcfonse in thco. Thou art above 
 Him by the right of birth. Docs this rebuff 
 Portend a purpose to supplant thee? Thou 
 Art more than e(|ual in the stalwarlness 
 That glorifies the manhood of a man. 
 Then why should his effeminacy be 
 Esteemed to thy disparagement ? Yet where 
 Is thy redress? Nay, thy defense against — 
 We know not what, except as inkled in 
 This gross indignity ? Thou canst not reach 
 The greater One unseen. lUit one there i.s 
 Within thy reach, in striking whom thou wilt 
 Defend thyself. Then do what thy defense 
 Demands, without a scruple, knowing this: 
 That what demands the deed is guiltier than 
 The deed.' 
 
 "At the suggestion mooted thus 
 He felt an impulse to avenge himself. 
 Nor needed he delay to frame excuse 
 For venting of his wrath. Still, ere the thought 
 Became his deed, he had the touch of a 
 Restraining power, and a revealing flash 
 That made him pause. But the intensity 
 Of wrath, in their despite, impellerl to haste, 
 I>est Conscience, standing in his path, might yet 
 Prevent him with forbidding sword, as he 
 Of Pcthor in a later age was inet. 
 The 1)rother theti approached with soothing words, 
 Which brought a momentary hdl, to be 
 A tightening of the bowstring of his wrath, 
 
104 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Whose arrow would with more vehemence fly, 
 As thus it (H(l: 
 
 " 'What hast thou done to thus 
 Supjilant me in His favor whom T sought 
 To please hy oflFering- what, by toil, is made 
 A portion of myself, which thine is not. 
 Hence has imequal worth. Knowest thou not 
 My place as heading thee ; or, knowing, does 
 The prod of thy ambition thus incite 
 Thee to a thrusting of thyself between 
 Me and my heirship rights?' 
 Abel. 'Nay, hid such thoughs 
 
 Begone ; for they are an injuistice both 
 To thee and me. Thy right I own, and pay 
 The reverence that the right demands, holding 
 Thee in esteem as thou art near of kin. 
 I hither came to share a blessing, not 
 Monopolize, and have no power on the 
 Dispensing hand to open or to shut. 
 Thy blessing is delayed ; but much I hope 
 Its feet are at thy door.' 
 
 Cain. 'Thy speech is fair, 
 
 But T distrust the deeds designed to give 
 Persuasive lubrication to thy arts. 
 Insinuating into His esteem 
 To my disparagement and detriment.' 
 A. 'Nought have T done but what thyself may'st do; 
 Nought gained but what is in thy power to gain.' 
 C. 'Ay, with thy nature ; but I like it not.' 
 A. 'Thy like or dislike is no fault of mine; 
 Nor fault is mine that He accepted what 
 I offered and rejected thine.' 
 
A POEM— CANTO IX 165 
 
 C. -'For that 
 
 I like Him not, and like not what He hkes.' 
 
 A. 'O brother! shudder at the wickedness 
 
 Of such a word.' 
 
 C. 'I'm in no shuddering mood; 
 
 Nor will I brook the insolence that smites 
 
 In thy rebuke.' 
 
 "His movements were as if 
 To leave, when, seeing an unguardedness, 
 He followed up his words with blows, until 
 Extinguishing the spark of life in him 
 Whose blood craved pity with no common voice. 
 No sooner done than there he stood, aghast 
 And trembhng at the horror of his deed, 
 He now a blood-stained fratricide. So still 
 And silent all around, it was as though 
 Creation held her breath, as well she might 
 When her best hope was gone. Then thought he of 
 The trees as witnesses that seemed to shed 
 Upon the air a whisper of his guilt. 
 The altar stones had voices for his ear 
 That said antiphonally, Sin to sin ! 
 Yea, sin to sin ! The very ground beneath 
 His feet groaned imprecations, and the light 
 Of heaven pierced through the bosom of his guilt. 
 Showing the inward blackness of his heart, 
 Until he shuddered to behold himself. 
 Fain had he bid the vanished one return. 
 Too late. In guilty cowardice he stole 
 Away as if to lose himself in some 
 More distant solitude, when, from the void 
 Above, the former voice spake audibly 
 
1 66 MAXSON'S VISION 
 
 With question that impHed his guilt, and met 
 
 His brusque evasion with accusing words 
 
 That shot their hghtning through his soul ; and at 
 
 Their heels rolled thunder curses till he felt 
 
 As 'twere a world's weight crushing him to make 
 
 Confession of an agony of fear 
 
 To meet a human face. Assurance then 
 
 Was given that Mercy still would hold a shield 
 
 Against assault. With that assurance as 
 
 His passport in the world, he felt secure. 
 
 Yet dared he not to meet a father's eye 
 
 And mothers' heart, whose grief might scorch his own. 
 
 It had indeed intensified his grief 
 
 And brought remorseful agony, could he 
 
 Have seen the horror staring in their eyes, 
 
 And heard the wailing anguish of their hearts, 
 
 Upon discovery of the daring deed. 
 
 'This,' said the father, gazing on the corpse, 
 
 'This is death — death — the deeper vengeance of 
 
 The curse, contaminating so the blood 
 
 That ill comes with and overcomes the good. 
 
 The pride of our possession proves our loss. 
 
 Better not have than have to lose, as thus. 
 
 The cup of life is full of bitterness.' 
 
 " 'Of bitterness,' said she, 'mingled with sweet — 
 So much I would not miss the draught — Ah me ! 
 Thou treasure of my heart! Self of myself! 
 I see thy infant smile, and hear the lisp 
 And prattle that were music to my heart. 
 And then thy blooming qualities were so 
 Perfumed with promise, and began to bear 
 The fruitage of a manhood rich in deeds 
 
A POEM— CANTO IX 167 
 
 That gratify a mother's love. But thou 
 
 Art dead. Dead did I say? Not so. Not so. 
 
 Within this bosom thou art hving still. 
 
 The past is more alive than when we called 
 
 It present ; for I see it, hear it, feel 
 
 It here. And yet there is a void. What balm— 
 
 What balm can heal a mother's bleeding heart? 
 
 Cain ! The burden of a mother's life ! 
 Hadst thou no pity for a mother's woe? 
 
 1 nursed thee, tended thee to manhood's years 
 With fond solicitude. And now— and now—' 
 
 "Tears told what words could not, as from the sward 
 The father bore the melancholy charge. 
 The author of the nameless crime had fled, 
 In readiness to meet his other self, 
 Sure that the bias of her heart would make 
 Her ear a willing auditor to his 
 False-colored version of the guilty deed. 
 Whose dark atrocity he meant to glaze 
 Until he justified. But when they met. 
 He must perforce perceive her startled look, 
 And thence infer a change of countenance 
 That less indulgent eyes must note ; at which 
 He seemed to see another self, and hear 
 The voice of execration from behind. 
 Hence fled to lose himself from common gaze. 
 The day's last hours rolled heavily away. 
 And Night was stationing her sentinels, 
 When Slumber dallied with his weary brain. 
 And 'mid her wantoning two altars and 
 A corpse were as dead eyes that stared at him. 
 Then in the silence thus his thoughts took form : 
 
J 68 M. IN SON'S riSION 
 
 'Stianm' i-()iiti;i(lic"lii)ii (his! I Icll liiin as 
 Unconscious as tlu> dust cm wliicli he foil. 
 He saw not, hoard not. iiiDvod not, hroalhod not; yet 
 lie seems to bo ahoul nio. In the dark 
 I havo a star like oyo that soos what in 
 Tho lij;hl swoons from mo liko tho stars, llis life 
 Wont out in darkness, is tho niijht his day, 
 111 whioh ho oomos with a ix'inoach ? In llosh 
 I oonld havo sot myself apart; but now 
 The elosiu};- of my eyes exolndos him not. 
 Or is he prosetU only ;is a dream? 
 lUtt what are dreams? They may bo shadows of 
 Realities that advertise ns oi 
 Approaching- ills, as mine havo boon and may 
 Be yet aj^ain. b'or men may multiply, 
 Obedient to connnand, ami look on me 
 The wrath of the forbidden deed, in which 
 Will bo a deeper oultini; than tho {\cc{\, 
 ("ansiiiL; a lifeloni; am»ny within. 
 What cause provoked this ocMilliot in events? 
 Not fanll of mine, who had a i^ood iiUoiU, 
 Hnt llis who from the dark of the unseen 
 ll.'id h.imporod mo with f.anoifnl commands, 
 To havo mo knool this, and no other, way 
 Before Ilim — just as thouj^h tho manner of 
 An .action were its sonl— and then condemned 
 Mo l"or a swervinj^' stop: provoking;- so 
 My olu^lor that I did what olliorwise 
 I IkhI not thoni;ht. This says lie loves me not. 
 Then how can T love Ilim? or lovin!:^ uot. 
 Mow I'avo tho It'ok i-tf lo\ o and Ao its deeds? 
 BiU He has power that oanutH be withstood, 
 llis throne is said to be anion*;- the stars; 
 
// /'OHM CANIO IX iT)! 
 
 Yet not so far l)iit lie can visit us. 
 
 Winds arc His hrcatli, li^^litnin^s the (lashes of 
 
 His eye, and thunders emphasis of voice, 
 
 To niai<e creation realize His power; 
 
 The very tliought oi which is terrible. 
 
 And there is no seclusion so concealed, 
 
 No darkness so i)rofound, that I can hide; 
 
 No, not (lie hosoni of the deepest sea. 
 
 Nor darkest corner of a dawnless cave. 
 
 Or f would (lee to it and there remain. 
 
 Then all I do will be beneath His eye, 
 
 Hence I must placate Him with show of what 
 
 He wills, thouL^h it will be an irksome (ask; 
 
 ¥(.)V in Mis woids there was a (inj^e of ruth. 
 
 Hut be I where 1 may, and come what may, 
 
 One still remains whom f can love — myself.' 
 
 "In that flecisive hour he locked the door 
 Upon his banishment, and thenceforth lived 
 Within the circle that his selfhoorl scribed. 
 Embittered in his lonesomeness, and by 
 His at(i(ude of will distorted his 
 Conceptions of the Infmite until 
 His honi.'ij^'e was a dead formality, 
 And tin- nu)nien(ous facts of linnian life 
 Were but half lej^ible f)n memory's page; 
 While (his rebuke induccfl callosity 
 Of spiritii.'d sense, in which he saw 
 Not Mercy's autoj:(raj)h upon his cloud. 
 Hence to his propfcny was the bequest 
 Of a distracted mind and heart, who could 
 No more transmit than they received ; of which 
 Arc records in the |)roba((' court of time." 
 
CANTO X 
 
CANTO X 
 
 The years to Satan were his working hours ; 
 
 To those behind, elastic fragments of 
 
 Eternity that stretched beyond the reach 
 
 Of patience. Hence he thought of Httle but 
 
 The scheme in hand, assuming that the hosts 
 
 Were waiting patiently for his return ; 
 
 While they were in a mood for mutiny, 
 
 Had aught more promising held out its hand. 
 
 But mutiny against the one who might 
 
 No more return, were throwing dust against 
 
 The wind, to have it blow upon themselves. 
 
 Or tearing up a mountain by the roots 
 
 To hurl it at a shadow. Yet within 
 
 Their bosoms raged a passionate tumult of 
 
 Desire to vent their disappointment, with 
 
 A smiting force, at something visible. 
 
 As chargers curbed and champing helplessly 
 
 The bits of destiny, when means they would 
 
 Devise to fuse their feelings into deeds. 
 
 With this intent they gathered at the mount 
 
 From which the Chief had taken exit, in 
 
 A throng so dense they pressed with toes to heel. 
 
 Above them all conspicuous stood the four 
 
 Whose counsel was the staff that sole remained. 
 
 Then Belial stept, with stately majesty. 
 
 And took a stand upon the highest peak; 
 
174 MANSON'S VISIOJ^ 
 
 From whence his eye encompassed all the scene, 
 And with uplifted hand he waved a hush, 
 When all were as one ear as thus he spake: 
 
 'Immortal and illustrious powers long doomed 
 To inactivity, what shall I say 
 In absence of our Chief, what do to rouse 
 Our lethargy to action that avails, 
 Either to countervail oppugnant power 
 That lays on us the burden of our state, 
 Or tranquilize the nerves of Patience to 
 Endure continued strain ; for not 
 Our Leader must we think to blame for his 
 Delay, suspecting that we are no more 
 Than shadows flitting o'er the landscape of 
 His mind. The cause of this delay can be 
 No fault of his. Mayhap his hand is on 
 The lever of a task to leave which would 
 Imperil its success. Or seeing that 
 Our hopes are centered all in him, the Foe 
 May treat him as the whole of us, through him 
 To bring those hopes to nought and, leaving us 
 Forever leaderless as now, compel 
 Submission to the tyranny of His 
 Authority. Or, in malignity. 
 The concentrated power of all His hosts 
 May lay its hand upon the single head. 
 We all remember what he said about 
 Tile curse pronounced on him. The holding of 
 Him in duress may be the import that 
 The curse contained. But fact, not reasons, now 
 Concerns us most. To us he is not while 
 Crnf'''tirn< nro and arc oiM">rcssing us. 
 
// I 'OHM CANTO X 175 
 
 What, then, to do in these eoTi'Htions is^ 
 
 The problem of the now. My jiid^rncnt is, 
 
 That any action is to be preferred 
 
 To none, and what antaj^jonizes most 
 
 Were best. The very thought of beinj^ in 
 
 Oppuj^nance thrills my conra^c; and my hf>pe. 
 
 And should our cfTorts feel tlur crushinj^ stamp 
 
 Of I lis fierce wrath, we still may riot in 
 
 The ^lory rjf attempt, and at th(,- least 
 
 J-)isplay a couraj^e wfjrthy of ourselves, 
 
 And ruffle ITis tranquility ; in which 
 
 Achievement were a savor of success. 
 
 Hear, then, what I propose, which is that, like 
 
 Our Chief ,we go in venturous quest of .some 
 
 New orb wlier(; we may enmlate his deeds; 
 
 For which we have encoura)^ement in his 
 
 Success, since there are rjther worlds, and what 
 
 Is once done may be done again. Not that 
 
 I minimize the task ; but he has j)rov(rd 
 
 Its i)fjssibility. True, his exceed 
 
 Om- single attributes, but we may go, 
 
 (\ach with his host in mass, anrl force otir way 
 
 'IVj what may temi)t our aptitudes.' 
 
 "Then came 
 The word of Mannnon, thus: 
 
 'Creat dignities! 
 Submission has the clank of chains; of chains 
 That we whose liberty has cost so much 
 Are not disposed to wear. C'hain all the worlds 
 To some strong central stake of power, and leave 
 Them mr^tionless until eternity 
 O-rows grey, but leave us hv till then: ay, free 
 
176 ;1/.I/V.SY)/V.V risioN 
 
 'l\) ;u'l with ail uil lettered Will. I'tit mirs, 
 
 ill artini;- nut, has hccii the I'lt't'doiii of 
 
 The (lead, with us laiuenliitq that it served 
 
 Us iidt, while every movemeiit tlial we made 
 
 Was ohjeetless, a whirliiii;- of the wind. 
 
 'I'he words oi" r.elial :wc the hreath of life, 
 
 'To ri)nse oiir energies and clear the star 
 
 0{ liope. With him, I would not dare (o hlame 
 
 Our Chief, who, siu.c^ly, has a world in which 
 
 To operate, resisted hy his l'\>e 
 
 And ours. In i^lory of achievement he 
 
 May he ahsoihed, while haviiii;- faith that we 
 
 WHio erstwhile found this orh will vetiture fortli 
 
 Into the deep, to tlnd some fairer orh. 
 
 In which to exercise om* stas^ii.uU powers. 
 
 And so develop them. Tn my esteem 
 
 TTis ahsetice proves his contldence; for fear, 
 
 Oy hut the whisjuM- of a douht, had qiven 
 
 llim swifter jMnions than the lii^ht to come 
 
 And make secure our steadfastness. \Ve all 
 
 Rememher well how scintillated his 
 
 Benevolence with hope and purpose that 
 
 Tlluminated every mind with ;in 
 
 F.xpectancy to rule monarchic in 
 
 Some cither worlds. In th.at his heart and lu>pe 
 
 Are with us still. Towar<l that, in spite of what 
 
 Has intervened, let all our thouijhts he turned. 
 
 ludial supfCfests a fourfold enterprise. 
 
 And sees advnntas^e in .attempts in mass. 
 
 Why not quadruple that adv.uit.is.je hv 
 
 A unity of force; nor force alone 
 
 T>iU skill, cooper.alini^- to .attain 
 
// PORM— CANTO X \yj 
 
 One coDviiioii j^o.'il ? In sucli ;i (|iu'sl wnild he 
 Activity, and tlial itself would he 
 One (jualily of heaven.' 
 
 "I iere Ik'lial made? 
 An inlerru])tion, thus : 
 
 '( )ne fourth of us 
 Can do what one alone has done, and hy 
 The multiplying of our spheres increase 
 Our measure of responsihility, 
 And \r\yjQ our aspirations energy, 
 Making our gcnlhood worthier of the name. 
 Admit the super-greatness of f)in- (!hief, 
 Which has no unit espial in our ranks. 
 In practice, it may find its equals in 
 Our multiples, and we as gods have rule 
 O'er se|)arate worlds, wilh ])rospects widening as 
 Eternity kee])s up its round.' 
 
 "I'acchus 
 With hand uplifted hushed ihe long applause, 
 And thus: 
 
 "My ears have often heard the roar 
 ()f futile wrath, my eyes heheld the strut 
 Of hraggart impotence, and I heen da/.ed 
 Before the dazzle of our titles as 
 Our Fancy toyed with worlds, or thought the stars 
 Were dust that we could swc!ep from o(T the roof 
 Of space. I hit wc: are modest now, and hut 
 Assume that worlds await the hlessing of 
 Our feet. This visionary hf^ast and hope 
 Comes like the vomit from a crater's mouth 
 That indicates a hillious state within. 
 This modesty may still demean itself 
 — \'i — 
 
I7S A/./A'.SY)^'.V I -IS I ON 
 
 Till soiiii' of us aro ready to rci)ciit ; 
 
 1\) creep into the sIuuIdvvs of the ])asl, 
 
 On weary hands and knees; to have our eyes 
 
 yXllovv with penitential tears; to have 
 
 lUacU Melancholy ])ercli on us and croak 
 
 liuniility; to own that we have heen 
 
 In I'ault and merit chastisement. Mayhaj) 
 
 This estimate belies tlie fact. lUit Hes 
 
 Are ciUTcncy when truth is rare as i^enis. 
 
 It were a waste oi our credulity 
 
 To close a sanj^wine hand and thiid-; that we 
 
 .llave clasped impossihililies. Uctler 
 
 Accept with e(pianimit\' what is. 
 
 Then shake the past as dust from off our feet, 
 
 Nor till the future with the ])hantonis of 
 
 A wish, to have tliem vanish when we think 
 
 To touch. Act as hclits our dij^nity, 
 
 When circmustances put it thus to test ; 
 
 The dignity whose innate (pialities 
 
 C'onsist in hcin^- masli'rs of ourselves; 
 
 In haviuf^' clearness of the mental eye; 
 
 In keepin<^ impulses in {\uc restraint; 
 
 In makinj;" circnmslances how to us, 
 
 Instead of we to them. Indulge no more 
 
 In tiahhiness of thought and mavvkishness 
 
 ()f feciiuq;, thinking- we arc wiser than 
 
 ( )Uir Chief in what he knows and we know not. 
 
 Hut let me for the once recant and say 
 
 That so nnich hravery needs a vent, and deck 
 
 That bravery with the i^arlands of a rhyme. 
 
 Let the lightnings blink and blaze 
 Till the worlds are in amaze. 
 
// I'or.M-CANTO X 17'; 
 
 Let llic vvr.'itlifiil iImiimIcis roll 
 As a curse; of Nature's soul. 
 1 can stand and brave the scath 
 Of their threat atid of their wrath. 
 
 Let the si)ecter of ;i nought 
 lie a hiij^'hear t*; my ihoiij^ht. 
 Let it fht about the mind 
 Like a terror to the hhnd. 
 I woujld shrink into a dot 
 Until others tlioiij'lil iiic not. 
 
 So I brave the things that be, 
 Tlien from I'aney's nothings flee. 
 Next J. treasure np with care 
 Relics f)f the Ihiiij^s that were. 
 P.ut the only things I save 
 Are mementoes of the brave. 
 
 Those words I dedieate to all the brave 
 
 Who brace their conraj^e for a struj^j^le with 
 
 The monster difficulties challenjj^inp^ 
 
 In space, yet shake to see a vacuum where 
 
 They wouhl our ('hief. Shf^uld some one soul th(; words 
 
 With melrjdy, we mij^^ht ajmpose ourselves 
 
 With music — melancholy's antidote.' 
 
 "Then came a burst that sma(?l<ed of merriment, 
 When MoI(K:h took a forward step anrl thus: 
 
 " *No word have I to favor new emprise; 
 For T recall our Leader's latest wf>rfl, 
 Which bade prepare for his return, and is 
 Assurance that he will ; and since Ik; will, 
 T wotdd be here when he shall make report. 
 
i8o HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Then count not Moloch as a partner in 
 
 Ambition to explore the sea of space 
 
 On which our Leader had such weary quest. 
 
 But should we enter on so great emprise, 
 
 In fourfoldness of mass, what welding power 
 
 Would make us one in thought and plan to fit 
 
 Emergencies? Or should we differ, what? 
 
 And what provision of experience have 
 
 We in our store to meet contingencies? 
 
 Would patience be in less demand than now, 
 
 Or failure leave us in a better mood? 
 
 But what would be success ? to find ourselves 
 
 Confronted by quadruple power, ourselves 
 
 Divided into fourths? Or, what, should all 
 
 Go forth as one? Should we who differ here 
 
 Be more harmonious in our strategy? 
 
 And should we occupy some orb, what then? 
 
 If tenantless, what action would employ 
 
 Our powers? or tenanted, what unity 
 
 Were ours without a head? Change now the scene. 
 
 And see our Leader come to find that we 
 
 Have put a blot upon his word ! As for 
 
 Myself, I find that word a refuge from 
 
 Impatience, nothing doubting that he trusts 
 
 Us while he waits for the maturing of 
 
 Such earth events as need his watchful care. 
 
 And why not we trust him whose all has been, 
 
 And is adventured still in our behalf, 
 
 In whom he centers his benevolent 
 
 Intents, and whose devotion plumes the wings 
 
 On which his aspirations soar. He knows 
 
 Our high ambitions, and his mission now 
 
A POEM— CANTO X i8i 
 
 Is to prepare the way for their attainment. 
 In view, then, of a past and present that 
 Have earned and had our confidence, which one 
 Of us will vouch himself of greater mind, 
 Of truer heart and nobler aim? If such 
 There be, let him stand forth and publish the 
 Transcendent fact. Your silence is the soul 
 Of eloquence, and mightier than the roar 
 Of wordy cataracts. I take it as 
 Your heart's amen. Then let our patience prove 
 Its measure of vitality, assured 
 That what has been so long in ripening 
 Will have the mellower flavor when it comes.' 
 'Amen to Moloch's word,' said Bacchus, 'and 
 I should prefer to roam o'er every zone 
 Of this unsightly orb mumbling aniens , 
 Or searching for the ghost of nothingness, 
 To repetition of the state from which 
 Was here afforded us so welcome a 
 Retreat. The memory of that welcome has 
 A lingering sweetness still. If need, I could 
 Invent activity that would engage 
 The mind to weariness ; could look upon 
 These mountains as so many monsters, and 
 Their caves as mouths that mock us, and myself 
 As wielding all the elements of force 
 To crack the ribs and scalp the heads of those, 
 And gag the windy insolence of these ; 
 Could think the stars engaged in civil war 
 And I astride a sun, charging upon 
 Them with the terror of a thunder-whoop. 
 Activity? Ay, all of us can make 
 
i82 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Activity, if only venting of 
 
 Complaints ; and some, perhaps, already find 
 
 Relief! But let ns find activity 
 
 In cultivating patience till we see 
 
 Our Chief.' 
 
 "Said Mammon, 'By his past our Chief 
 Has earned eternal confidence, nor in 
 Our hosts is ingrate so detestable 
 To stint that confidence, nor one but sees 
 That in his presence were a doubling of 
 Our strength. But confidence in him is not 
 The him ; nor do we copy him by this 
 Our apathy. Nay, could lie Hash his thoughts 
 To us, no doubt he would rebuke us for 
 That apathy and bid us gaze upon 
 His blazoned record till we are inspired 
 To an enthusiasm that would emulate. 
 Why are we but to ilo ; to do as do 
 The worlds — roll in our sc])aratc orbits, and 
 The whole sweep in the vast ecliptic of 
 A common plan, contributing our share 
 To the diversified phenomena 
 Of life, sustaining universal poise? 
 But on this orb we neither do nor can. 
 This, then, is not our place. But shall we hence 
 And leave our Chief— who may return — to think 
 Our absence proves our recreance? We need 
 Not so ; but some may here remain to thrill 
 Him with the tidings of our quest, in proof 
 Of courage animated by his own.' 
 
 "r)acchus to this made prompt reply, 'Mammon,' 
 Said he, 'whose mind is father of this plan, 
 
A POEM— CANTO X 183 
 
 Is fittest to be guardian of his child. • 
 Then he it is who may be left behind.' 
 'The leader's place,' said Mammon, 'is in front, 
 Not rear.' 
 
 'But think,' said I'acchus, 'what a mind 
 Will be required to tell our Chief we arc 
 Not here, but, in our loyalty, took flight 
 For everywhere ! Wc need the fact before 
 Him in the glory of its magnitude. 
 Belike he would baptize our foot])rints with 
 His blessing, and explore infinity 
 To find our whereabouts, that he might see 
 The reflex of his greatness in our deeds! ' 
 
 'So grave a problem,' Mammon said, 'demands 
 That Judgment don deliberative robes.' 
 
 'And keep his seat until our Chief arrives. 
 Who may be, even now, an auditor 
 Unseen.' 
 
 "So came antagonizing thoughts. 
 But every leader now was dumb, while all 
 The orb was as the sleeping room of Death, 
 In which they could not even hear him breathe. 
 Awhile they stood, still as a statue of 
 Suspense, and all the hosts melted away 
 Liike some broad glacier in the August sun, 
 Scared by the apparition of return 
 To empty space. And so their problem had 
 A jagged edge that none dared seize. At length 
 The leaders wandered o'er the plains ; Belial 
 And his in wrath fulness that fain would smite 
 If but a worm, could it be made to feel 
 With an intensity of agony. 
 
i84 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Mammon and his, who wished the dust athrill 
 
 With an acquisitive impassionment, 
 
 That they might minister to something on 
 
 A lower plane. Bacchus and his indulged 
 
 In mental jugglery; made sentients of 
 
 Insensate things, and held communion with 
 
 Them all in lightsome mood ; while Moloch wrapt 
 
 Himself in mantle thoughts, as lonesome as 
 
 A stranger in a city solitude. 
 
 Where life is largely windy rustle of 
 
 The forest leaves, with myriads dropping down, 
 
 His hosts as sentinels who waited in 
 
 Their weariness for dawn. Time swung his scythe 
 
 And mowed the years, leaving the swath behind. 
 
 Of which they took no note, since looking on 
 
 Before across duration's unfenced field. 
 
 At length their Chief was on his wonted mount, 
 
 And looking down across the scene, disclosed 
 
 His presence, when a tempest-impulse swept 
 
 Them all in eddies to surround the place 
 
 And hail him as expressed their ecstacy. 
 
 Silent at first he stood and gazed around ; 
 
 And while he thus with a majestic pride, 
 
 His person seemed to have magnetic power, 
 
 With its enswathing scintillance, which would 
 
 Perforce gleam outwardly, his eyes like fixed 
 
 Stars in the sockets of the night when earth's 
 
 Deep northern sky is blackly blue. After 
 
 Impressive pause he thus regaled their ears : 
 
 'Immortal potentates ! Illustrious powers ! 
 Your tensioned patience has a guaranty 
 Of due reward. I come the harbinger 
 
A POEM— CANTO X 185 
 
 Of hope ; first to apprize you of a strife 
 
 In an arena where the laurels may 
 
 With ease be twined around your worthy brows ; 
 
 To which arena I shall duly be 
 
 Your guide, when Opportunity flings out 
 
 The signal flag, which is unfurling from 
 
 The staff of time. The base of life to him 
 
 The apex of earth's various forms, is the 
 
 Insensate substance of the orb which, with 
 
 Himself, is cursed, earthening his nature till 
 
 He has an instability of will 
 
 That is a tendency to topple as 
 
 We push. To give the push will be our task, 
 
 And as he falls, a forecast of our lot. 
 
 The years in passing multiplied the race. 
 
 The pair transmitting their infirmity 
 
 Unto their progeny, of whom were two 
 
 Of sexual sameness with the sire, who by 
 
 Their nature had a lordship place of power. 
 
 With onus and responsibility 
 
 To succor and defend the weaker ones. 
 
 For their control I joined in strenuous strife 
 
 With him who in our former state aspersed 
 
 Us and seduced unstable ones. On him 
 
 It seems the Unseen One relies to be 
 
 His visible executive, which fact 
 
 Is inspiration of encouragement. 
 
 He with a consummate audacity 
 
 And subtle strategy confronted me 
 
 In efforts to secure the elder one. 
 
 In whom the race would find its cornerstone. 
 
 Then came the clash of mind with mind, of skill 
 
i86 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 With skill, and I prevailed. The younger had 
 
 My less attention, since the weaker one, 
 
 While in the elder was my quoin. So he 
 
 Succumbed, when my opponent saw in those 
 
 Conditions a numeric equipoise. 
 
 And felt a satisfaction in results. 
 
 But I possessed the key of fate, and knew 
 
 Myself as master of events, as so 
 
 It proved ; for in the weakness of the one 
 
 I saw a breaching- place and made a breach. 
 
 A season came when both agreed to make 
 
 An offering to placate the One unseen. 
 
 Whose character they estimated by 
 
 The past, which had obsessed them with its curse. 
 
 Plying the one whom now I deemed my ward 
 
 With words that were as perfume to the thought, 
 
 I lured him to present what could but give 
 
 Offence, which drew forth lightnings of rebuke; 
 
 While he withstanding, obfuscated by 
 
 Infatuating notions of a Seed 
 
 That was to curse, received an omen that 
 
 They deemed a benedicting smile, which then 
 
 I made a sting that roused the slighted one 
 
 To a revengeful jealousy, which in 
 
 Its murderous fury slew the favored one, 
 
 Without an ear for Pity's pleading voice. 
 
 So was fulfilling what had been foredoomed 
 
 By Him who breathed His curse on me : that I 
 
 Should bruise the Seed — its heel, my head, said He. 
 
 My heel, its head, say I ; and there it got 
 
 The fatal stroke. But in that foreword I 
 
 Perceive a purpose to prolong the strife 
 
A POEM— CANTO X 187 
 
 Which, with the multiplying of the race, 
 Becomes inevitable, should He not 
 'Withdraw and so confess defeat, which were 
 To give the last gasp of extremity. 
 Toward this finale we must point our means, 
 And in our courage find our providence ; 
 For though the number of the race is small, 
 It is increased. In will unstable, it 
 Is not without ability. Though I 
 Have grooved the future that events may move 
 In it to the inevitable end, 
 There must be force applied to overcome 
 Inertia, and have him upon my palm 
 In whom is pledge of all. The potency 
 To multiply forecasts increased demands. 
 But these will bring activity that is 
 A source of bliss. Then welcome we the years 
 That can but come as almoners of good. 
 My Fancy has a license to behold 
 A picture of the future mirrored in 
 Time's glassy sea. I take that license, and 
 I see the representative of the 
 Unseen upon the summit of His might. 
 With reinforcing legions at command. 
 Imagining that in His arsenal 
 Are slings and curses that can scatter us. 
 I see my ward a countless multitude, 
 Fixed as the polar star in serving us. 
 On whom they vainly make assault, to seize 
 The will and hold it in the gyves of their 
 Authority. I see you leaders and 
 You loyal powers engaging them in a 
 
i88 M ANSON'S I'lSION 
 
 Successful strife. But while I look into 
 
 That glassy sea, there comes a ruffle of 
 
 Continc^encies ; those harle(|Uiins that make 
 
 Our visions bubbles of imcertainty. 
 
 Uncertainty, I say — not of the fact 
 
 Of our success, but of the how, and the 
 
 Beyond, which is an orb of promise so 
 
 Far off that it defies our estimate. 
 
 Still, far or near, its glory shines for us. 
 
 Then let your minds prepare for glorious deeds 
 
 And glory will be yours.' 
 
 "That said, applause 
 Rolled forth as roll distracted thunders in 
 A mountain range. When ceased, he thus resumed 
 'The race, I say, will nuiltiply and call 
 For all your skill. Meanwhile your patience must 
 Submit to circumstances as the first 
 Condition of success. So few the race, 
 Your leaders only need accompany me 
 On this return, to exercise their skill 
 Preliminary to your entering on 
 The wider stage of action that will make 
 Demand for our united energies.' 
 
 "Those words put Satisfaction's teeth on edge, 
 And every one in disappointment looked 
 His fellow in the eye, yet nothing sjxike. 
 Nor word was needed to inform him, more 
 Than humans need a telescope to see 
 The sun ; for he perceived an adverse turn 
 Of thought expressed on every countenance, 
 As though a hidden hand wrote there the word. 
 Distrust. So darkly yawned the gulf twixt his 
 Announcement and their hopes ; to span which for 
 
A POEM— CANTO X 189 
 
 The crossinj^ of their trust he added thus: 
 
 'Conditions bind us with the links of a 
 Necessity that holds us in restraint; 
 And none can better than submit himself, 
 To bring the grandeur of his nature out 
 In glorifying conspicuity ; 
 For to endure, with cool passivity, 
 Such ills as crush who are of weaker stuff. 
 Demands more heroism than to ride 
 The cataract that leaps in frantic foam 
 Among the savage rocks of strife. Be such 
 A heroism yours ; and trust your Chief 
 As in the past you have so nobly done, 
 When darker prospects glowered. It is not mine 
 To modify the law that governs their 
 Fecundity through whom the Foe must be 
 Antagonized ; nor is it yours to crowd, 
 With practical obstructiveness, upon 
 The subjects who are sensitive to brusk 
 Assault. I underestimate not what 
 To you will be involved in our departure. 
 Inaction will be an ignoble rust 
 That eats into the iron of the will, 
 And the long-stretching of duraticjii — made 
 Such by your seeing not its ending — an 
 Obsession that will tantalize your hopes. 
 But patience that endures with fortitude 
 The storms of ill, will make your godhood shine 
 Like stars through broken clouds ; for patience is 
 A strength of will that holds emotion with 
 An iron hand, and takes, without a flinch, 
 The angry darts of time and circumstance; 
 
190 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 And it adorns us more than doing of 
 Conspicuous deeds. Then gird yourselves anew 
 With courage for the test.' 
 
 ''In silence all 
 Remained in place, as undecided what 
 To think or do, when Moloch spake them thus : 
 
 'Most worthy dignities! You know your past. 
 You know what mind has planned for you, what skill 
 Has led. Who knows of one who better could 
 Have done ? Not I. Do you ? Who better knows 
 Than he conditions on the orb we go 
 To occupy ? Not I. Do you ? And who 
 Knows reason why his judgment may not now 
 Be trusted as in past? Not I. Do you? 
 By silence you confess your ignorance. 
 Then shall our ignorance be Wisdom's gag? 
 If you would quarrel, be it not with him, 
 But with the Power beyond, who is alone 
 Responsible for all our ills, and vent 
 On Him your blame in measure equal to 
 Your disappointment, while, in stintless dole, 
 You give our Leader gratitude and trust.' 
 
 "Said Bacchus : 'Go with us in thought as we 
 Shall be with you; and be assured that time 
 Nor place can make us other than our past 
 Has been.' 
 
 "Said Belial: 'We shall break down to 
 Rebuild upon the wreck the temple of 
 Our hopes, in building which your help will be 
 Required. How soon, the future only can 
 Decide; but sooner than will please the Foe. 
 In this be your encouragement, that while 
 
A POEM— CANTO X 191 
 
 You wait He fears.' 
 
 "Then Moloch added thus: 
 T know not, care not, nor need you, more than 
 To know that what we know not he who leads 
 Us knows, and as he knows will do, which will 
 Be well, howe'er to us it seem. In such 
 A confidence I go, in such you wait. 
 And confidence shall have its due reward.' 
 
 "In silence lingering' for a space, they then 
 Dissolved into invisibility, 
 And ere they left the darkening envelope 
 That wrapt the orb, the Leader spake them thus : 
 
 'Mark well this circumanbient murk through which 
 We pass, since it distinguishes our orb 
 From all ; and note the course we take into 
 The darksome deep. Now fix your gaze on that 
 Conspicuous orb in whose effulgence is 
 A central energy that both illumes 
 And holds those circling orbs in its embrace. 
 Let uis proceed. Note ye that smaller orb, 
 Which, as compared, is insignificant. 
 In that are glorious possibilities ; 
 For not by magnitude may potencies 
 Be gaged, nor values by appearances. 
 Infinities of issue balance there, 
 And as they turn this way or that may be 
 The destinies of worlds, and ours it is 
 To turn the balance. Let us now alight. 
 Behold that group of form erect. In them 
 There is the neucleus of the race through whom 
 To operate against the Foe. Study 
 Their scope and power of attribute, which is 
 
192 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Below our own. Become familiar with 
 Their weaknesses, then tentatively try, 
 With gentle caution, means to sway the will, 
 And take your cue from each experiment. 
 In nothing be imperative, nor use 
 Antagonizing oughts or questionings, 
 But, as the passions of the flesh incline. 
 So urge the Will to grant indulgence. And 
 Suggest such fantasies as will engage 
 The mind to a preoccupancy that 
 Excludes all adverse thoughts. Watch well 
 The methods of the Foe ; yet meet them not 
 With open clash but oblique subtilty 
 That shoves aside the impulse of assault; 
 And if in aught He shows efficiency. 
 Devise a substitute that has a smack 
 Of the original. And lubricate 
 With patience every effort you may make. 
 To have it creak not in Suspicion's ear.' " 
 
CANTO XI 
 
 -13— 
 
CANTO XI 
 
 "The stream of years had rippled o'er the rocks 
 
 Of time with an unvarying sameness at 
 
 The rendezvous. On earth the race increased, 
 
 Filling the vacancy that death had made 
 
 With one who duplicated in his life 
 
 The lost ; and thence a stream descended that 
 
 Expanded and o'erflowed the land; and the 
 
 Monitions of the voiceful past had found 
 
 The ear of Wisdom, and obedient feet 
 
 Were walking in her ways, since God was their 
 
 Supreme authority, and they so high 
 
 In character they were enrolled among 
 
 The chronicles of heaven as sons of God ; 
 
 While those descended from the baser blood — 
 
 Affected by hereditary taint 
 
 And an environment unhelpful — thought 
 
 Of God as One of power to dread, and by 
 
 Mechanic service to appease, hence lacked 
 
 In gratitude, in love and all that lifts 
 
 The nature to its highest altitudes 
 
 Of selfhood, cultivating qualities 
 
 That but debase, progressing, age by age, 
 
 In quick acceleration of descent. 
 
 To this the underleaders lent their aid. 
 
 While Satan plied the favored ones, to give 
 
 The two a confluent character in ill. 
 
 And so the years kept rippling on and on. 
 
 Unnumbered by the fiends, save as those years 
 
196 MAN SON'S VISION 
 
 Were chroniclers of onwardness. Not so 
 
 With those they left upon the orb behind, 
 
 To whom their every turn of thought became 
 
 As though it were the record of a year; 
 
 A year, a weary notv prolonged, with nought 
 
 That gave relief to its monotony. 
 
 Hence were they in a ferment of unrest, 
 
 In mute impatience moving to and fro ; 
 
 Until a common impulse drew them to 
 
 The mount that seemed to bear the footprints of 
 
 Their Chief, when, with the informality 
 
 Of weariness, they vented thus their thoughts : 
 
 Alphea — 
 
 'Both Chief and leaders gone, and gone I ween 
 Their thought of us, who drain the cup that they 
 Have filled; or He opposed is greater than 
 Them all with His impediments. Whiche'er 
 It be, the draught is bitterness.' 
 Zulali— 'So thought 
 
 We of our Chief when gone alone, but he, 
 Despite impediments, returned and brought 
 Good cheer.' 
 
 Alphea 'What one could do is not too great 
 
 For all. When came the one not one was left; 
 Then now, of all, that one might come and break 
 The spell of our suspense, unless they so 
 Have magnified themselves they think themselves 
 Too great to think of us.' 
 
 Selfar— "Belike they think 
 
 We make our shift, and care not to return. 
 If so it be, what then?' 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI ' 197 
 
 Zulah — 
 
 'Wait for th*e then, 
 
 Nor fright us with thy phantoms of the mind.' 
 
 Sclfar — 
 
 'Wait for eternity to end, and when 
 Our patience ends begin again to wait?' 
 Ulaa— 
 
 'Our patience has already found an end.' 
 
 Mitcar — 
 
 'Your murmurs unbeseem our dignity, 
 
 And lack the fiber of heroic stuff, 
 
 Since hurling javelins of aspersion in 
 
 The dark. Think not our leaders' present is 
 
 A renegade that shames their past, lest we 
 
 Should shame ourselves by decking Ignorance 
 
 In Wisdom's robes, exposing their misfit. 
 
 The Power opposing is unseen. His arms 
 
 In arsenals of secrecy, and now 
 
 He may have roused to crowd their path with new 
 
 Contingencies that keep our Chief at bay.' 
 
 Dohel— 
 
 'Thy words insinuate his ignorance.' 
 
 Mitcar — 
 
 'Not ignorance but knowledge limited. 
 
 Or all the universe were ignorant. 
 Since none there is to whom is nought unknown. 
 He is a center and his knowledge a 
 Circumference, implying bounds ; hence why 
 His quest and waiting for developments.' 
 Ritbali — 
 
 'Think we of space, and view the whirling spheres 
 As dusted through its blue immensity. 
 
198 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Millions we see of size exceeding this, 
 While this exceeds the earth of which we heard. 
 None, surely, thinks his knowledge compasses 
 Their size and elements, their movements and 
 The dominating force that makes them move 
 In harmony, and every one, for aught 
 We know, enswarmed with forms of life, and all 
 These forms provided with a stafif of means 
 On which to lean for their support. Not one 
 Sole mind can have so vast a scope. Perhaps 
 In every world there is a separate Power, 
 Who reigns unquestioned in supremacy. 
 And rules His subjects through subordinates, 
 Himself in essence too sublimed for those 
 Beneath to see.' 
 
 Mitcar — 
 
 'Assume that, He who reigns 
 Reigns only o'er His individual orb. 
 Who reigned o'er ours, I ween, took umbrage at 
 The moot of our design in other worlds. 
 And gave His jealousy a vent in our 
 Expulsion thence ; in doing which belike 
 He threw a pall of desolation o'er 
 The scene, so making it a monument 
 Of wrath, as this discarded orb may be 
 The cast ofif shoe of some departed Power, 
 Where at our option we may exercise 
 Eternal liberty.' 
 
 Omino — 
 
 'Or liberty 
 
 Without the exercise, which is, as all 
 
 Have realized, imprisonment, and has 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI I99 
 
 Occasioned this our meeting and deba.te.' 
 Nutrah — 
 
 'And what avails our meeting, our debate? 
 Conditions have their own complexion, and 
 We have no flattering rouge that can improve 
 Them. Trust or distrust, we have got our dole, 
 And Fortune cannot be cajoled to give 
 
 Us better.' 
 
 "While he spake one came in haste 
 
 And thus addressed them : 
 
 Belfer— 
 
 'Hear ye all ; for I 
 
 Have that to speak which all have need to hear. 
 
 We made this orb our refuge in a stress, 
 
 z\nd then our rendezvous, from which our Chief 
 
 And leaders took their exit to prepare 
 
 An entrance into Fortune's realm, where we 
 
 Are hoping for a better state. Till then 
 
 We need not blush to sit at Fortune's feet 
 
 And eat the crumbs that fall from out her hand ; 
 
 Which may be ampler than Impatience thinks. 
 
 Our thought has been that we alone have found 
 
 A refuge here, which thought intensifies 
 
 Our sense of lonesomeness. But, rousing from 
 
 The ennui of the thought, I ventured to 
 
 Explore the other hemisphere, in which 
 
 I made discovery of a spirit group 
 
 Whose attributes have sameness, while beneath. 
 
 Our own. Whether from some avenging Power 
 
 They fled to find their safety here, or were 
 
 In exile from some fairer world, I could 
 
 No further than surmise. But while I gazed. 
 
200 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 My mind thus rose on speculation's wings : 
 
 Through some unseen, unknown affinity 
 
 The worlds are parts of one great whole, the Power 
 
 Sustaining them equivalent to a 
 
 Volitional activity. Perhaps, 
 
 Through some such power, ourselves, unconsciously, 
 
 Were hither drawn. And others may be now 
 
 As w"e were then or, in like distress like drawn, 
 
 Have found this orb; yea, all existing things, 
 
 Unconsciously, have spirit potency, 
 
 And so possess occult affinity 
 
 Susceptible of bursting from the bud 
 
 Into the bloom of consciousness. Could but 
 
 A sympathetic current pass along 
 
 The nerves of universal being, we 
 
 Might recognize the thoughts of all in all 
 
 The worlds, and feel ourselves as particles 
 
 Of an immeasurable body. Here 
 
 An interruption came as I perceived 
 
 The influx of still other spirits, whose 
 
 Incoming had the greeting of a groan. 
 
 Unseen, I heard them vocalize their woes 
 
 And fears, which were as though some inner wrench 
 
 Extorted them, and learned that erstwhile they 
 
 Were denizens, in grosser guise, of some 
 
 More genial orb till severed, spirit from 
 
 The grosser element, and banished thence 
 
 For contumacy of the ruling Power. 
 
 Then came a quivering influence through the void, 
 
 As though some startled world were shaking off 
 
 Its lethargy and agitating space. 
 
 When Fancy heard a faint abort of words. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI 201 
 
 Or flutter of half-feathered wings of sound, 
 
 Which had a subtle quality that touched 
 
 Me as an impact on my consciousness 
 
 That they had come from where our leaders are, 
 
 And were, belike, an earnest of results 
 
 Obtained in conflict with opposing Power, 
 
 Sent to assure us of successful strife. 
 
 And stimulate our patience while we wait. 
 
 For not the present rate of influx has 
 
 Been longer that the operations of 
 
 Our Chief ; which fact is tally to surmise.' 
 
 Ferio — 
 
 'Thy information plunges us into 
 Perplexity, and tempts to questions that 
 Are answerless. Be whence they may, they say 
 By their laments that they are in duress. 
 Assume them outcasts from the earth. The Power 
 That cast them out, if hither guiding them, 
 Has knowledge of this orb — perhaps of us — 
 And may be gloating over our estate. 
 If exiled and as refugees in space 
 They happen an asylum here, does its 
 Accursedness of aspect lure the eye 
 So nothing else is seen? But since they come 
 Continuous, does some representative 
 Of Power convoy them hither as the clinch 
 Of His anathema? These questions asked, 
 The silence mocks our curiosity.' 
 
 Omino — 
 
 'But Belfer's Fancy waited on his Will, 
 And heard unutterable things, and I 
 Would honor Fancy's word if it were not 
 
202 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 That Fact and Fancy often contradict 
 Each other to the face.' 
 
 Ferio — 
 
 'Here Fancy has 
 A Hcense from the Fact, and we may not 
 Ignore the deep significance, though wrapt 
 In circumstantial ambiguity.' 
 Nut rah — 
 
 T fain would hear what Belfer's Fancy heard, 
 By capturing on the wing some telltale word, 
 Or some intelligible sign that draws 
 The lightning from a memory of their past.' 
 Ferio — 
 
 'And wouldst thou feast thine ears upon their groans?* 
 Nutrah — 
 
 'Why not? 'Twould give variety to ours. 
 The rounded world of being, like this orb. 
 Has hemispheres — its opposites — its poles, 
 On which it never ceases to revolve. 
 The bitter lends a sweetness to the sweet. 
 Smiles are a bow upon a cloud of tears ; 
 And laughter finds its nourishment in groans, 
 Which are dead laughs that feed as dead leaves feed 
 A tree.' 
 Hiddo — 
 
 'Here is a graveyard of dead laughs, 
 Buried helMeep, with indications of 
 Eternal fire.' 
 
 Ferio — 
 
 T have heard groans enough 
 To send a shudder through the nerves of hell ; 
 And I can think of them as coming out 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI 203 
 
 From hell — the hell within us, and I fain 
 Would hear no more,' 
 
 Nutrah — 
 
 'But I would cater to 
 
 My curiosity. Moreover, what 
 
 Those spirits know may be the half of what 
 
 Ourselves would like to know; enough withal 
 
 To be assurance of the other half.' 
 
 Ferio — 
 
 'Well, go thou if thou wilt; and when thy ears 
 Are full, come back and laugh until our Chief 
 Returns.' 
 
 "Though leaving not their hemisphere, 
 They now were listening for the footfall of 
 Events at Fortune's door; listening, and all 
 The more impatient since they felt a hope — 
 Half brother to a certainty — that soon 
 The deadlock of suspense would end and bring 
 Relief. While thus upon their orb, the race 
 On earth, in willful haste, was rushing to 
 Inevitable doom. Three-score and up 
 Of life was man's apportionment, but in 
 Decades, not years, in which to utilize 
 The stored-up treasures of experience with 
 Such feats of progress as were otherwise 
 Impossible, so with the fewer piers 
 Bridging the history of the race. And as 
 Mankind, the fiends had progress in their skill, 
 Experience furnishing a key with which 
 To open every door into the mind 
 And heart, and with success grew diligent — 
 The leaders, further to debase the more 
 
204 M ANSON'S VISION 
 
 Degenerate ones ; their Chief, to stupefy 
 
 The moral nature of the sons of God, 
 
 With blandishments that through the flesh ensnare, 
 
 And sophistries that cataract virtue's eye. 
 
 So these were brought with torpid tolerance 
 
 To view the sins of the degenerates, and, 
 
 Obeying lust, merge life in life, and more 
 
 Esteem the dross that pleased the flesh than gold 
 
 Of character. As thus they more and more 
 
 Indulged, the sensuous life and mingled strains 
 
 Or blood developed prodigies of brawn 
 
 And stature ; men renowned for physical 
 
 Achievements — the incipient wonders of 
 
 The world — and so until the spirit dwarfed 
 
 And all were one in their depravity. 
 
 But while the pestilential evil spread, 
 
 Corrupting all besides, one healthy soul 
 
 Withstood the taint, with uncorruptible 
 
 Integrity ; and so his nature proved 
 
 Its fitness, as the prophet of the age. 
 
 To warn his fellows of impending doom ; 
 
 For which the Infinite commissioned him. 
 
 Thenceforth his voice rolled out the thunders of 
 
 Inevitable woe, to bring a quake 
 
 Of terror to the common heart, which lust 
 
 Had petrified, and make their after-deeds 
 
 A jury on themselves, to justify 
 
 The doom pronounced. The arch foe heard it as 
 
 A signal trump of danger and devised 
 
 To hush the voice. For this he waited till 
 
 The prophet, in a weary hour, was 'neath 
 
 A mental sky of wintry clouds, when in 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI 205 
 
 The inner chamber of his selfhood he 
 Addressed him thus : 
 
 Thou hast nobiHty 
 Worthy to shine among the stars of Hfe, 
 But art surrounded with a storm-belt of 
 Iniquity impervious to thy light; 
 Nor can thy constant warnings bring a tinge 
 Of penitence. Nay, threats of ill will but 
 Create a general enmity, without 
 Averting doom or mitigating its 
 Severity, and hence afflict thy soul 
 To no avail. Then why distract thyself 
 With fruitless toil? True, it is thine to warn. 
 But read the duty in its inner and 
 Pro founder sense. Thy life is eloquent 
 To warn, and by retiring to the top 
 Of some sky-piercing mount thy act will be 
 Like nature's silent forces, mightier in 
 Effects than sounds that make assault upon 
 The ear. Thus three advantages will come, 
 Linked hand in hand — escape from craftsman's toil. 
 The wrath of the besotted multitude, 
 And better prospect of thy purpose gained. 
 But should they still unheed and bring the doom, 
 The safety of thyself and thine will be 
 Assured.' 
 
 "So would he lure the patriarch 
 To disobedience, hoping to involve 
 Him in the general doom. But sooner had 
 He smiled away the force of gravity; 
 For he who shut himself within the ark 
 Of truth when evil deluged all the souls 
 Of men, would not be recreant now ; and hence 
 
2o6 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 The watery deluge he prepared to meet. 
 
 Of this the fiend became aware; and though 
 
 He erst had noted not the flight of time, 
 
 He now aroused to reahze a press 
 
 Of urgency in these conditions to 
 
 Engage the hosts behind, to counteract 
 
 The influence of the prophet's voice, in which 
 
 He saw at once both opportunity 
 
 And danger — opportunity to chnch 
 
 The coming doom, and danger should an ear 
 
 Attend to the prophetic note. So forth 
 
 He hastened to the rendezvous. And first 
 
 He reconnoitered to inform himself. 
 
 Upon one hemisphere he saw a throng 
 
 Whose banishment from earth his guile had caused ; 
 
 All in lament with imprecations on 
 
 Their past. And on the other were his hosts, 
 
 Wandering despondently about in search 
 
 Of stimuli to high activity. 
 
 But all in vain, until their very thoughts 
 
 Became a weariness, their wishes a 
 
 Vexatious exercise, their hopes a dream — 
 
 A day dream, and eternity the day. 
 
 While viewing them, he saw the danger of 
 
 Emotional extreme when called to the 
 
 Activities of earth; hence he prepared 
 
 A caution in advance, and then disclosed 
 
 His presence as a star emerging from 
 
 The twilight into view, when suddenly 
 
 A shout went up as from a sinking ship 
 
 When comes a sail in sight. Rank behind rank 
 
 They thronged, breathless in their expectancy, 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI 2ffj 
 
 And soon were silent as an echo's ghost, 
 When thus he spake : 
 
 'Ye gods whose patience has 
 Endured a strain that only gods could bear, 
 The day whose dawning strained the eye of Hope 
 Is bright upon the earth, inviting you 
 To strenuous effort in our glorious cause ; 
 Which invitation T have brought to greet 
 Your ears. But know conditions first. The race 
 Through which we strike the unseen Power responds 
 In tottering weakness to assault. Spirits 
 They are in gross insensate stuff akin 
 To that of this unsightly orb ; our task 
 To give it a preponderating weight, 
 Creating and developing desires 
 That, as indulged, will make the spirit an 
 Obnoxious thing to Him who rules, who has 
 Already disenrobed and banished in 
 His wrath unnumbered trophies of our skill ; 
 To whither we have no concern to say. 
 Perceiving that our influence rules the race, 
 He thunders hopelessly a general doom, 
 Contingent on a penitential mood 
 Whose outcome will redound to our reverse. 
 We aim to neutralize the influence of 
 The threat, and so facilitate the doom; 
 A work in which you may participate. 
 In the rebound of change from this your state 
 To that, calm judgment must prevail, to keep 
 Your eagerness in due restraint, lest it 
 Should pass when Prudence bids you halt. To groups 
 Of you the work will be distributed. 
 
2o8 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 So every group will have its part ; while on 
 
 The whole a general influence operates, 
 
 As gravitation in the universe, 
 
 To unify in effort and result. 
 
 Success depends on wariness, plying 
 
 Your arts with a persistent tactfulness ; 
 
 For too obtrusive or precipitant 
 
 Attempt may rouse your victims to resent 
 
 Your efforts, so defeating all your hopes. 
 
 Disturb them not with reasonings. Suggest 
 
 No thought of right or wrong, but silently 
 
 Assume that everything is in a state 
 
 That needs no change, save increase in the means 
 
 Of its indulgence, lest you should disturb 
 
 Their slumber and unlock their ears to hear. 
 
 Their hearts to heed, a warning voice. Should one 
 
 Incline to hear and heed, divert his thoughts 
 
 To coddling of his sensuous tastes. What more 
 
 You need to learn your leaders will instruct. 
 
 Farewell, then, to the past and hence with me.' 
 
 "Then came a whirr of sound and exodus 
 In simultaneous flight, as though each one 
 Had been a feather, and the whole a wing 
 Of mighty moving force that bore them on 
 To earth. So came they, but unseen by all 
 Save spirit eyes ; and soon, with eager zeal, 
 Not one of any rank but was engaged 
 As though the task to wreck a world were all 
 His own. While thus nefariously beset, 
 Mankind were not abandoned to the foe, 
 But legions of angelic ministers 
 Touched keys of motive to induce the will 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI 209 
 
 To resonate in harmony with law ; 
 
 Showed dangers darker than the heart of Night, 
 
 And blessings radiant with the Hght of heaven ; 
 
 Those to deter and these allure. But the 
 
 Response was discord fit to quiver on 
 
 The nerves of hell. And so the streams that first 
 
 Had flowed apart were mingled, foul and pure. 
 
 Until the two were in pollution one ; 
 
 A loathsome residue the all of the 
 
 Once pure original, their very names 
 
 Denoting their degeneracy. When the 
 
 Monitions heard within were thus despised, 
 
 A warning voice assailed the outer ear, 
 
 In which prophetic thunder rolled the threat 
 
 Of universal doom. For six-score years 
 
 It rumbled, but they heeded not — nay, grew 
 
 More obdurate instead of penitent. 
 
 'Mid the debacle of depravity 
 
 The warning one and family alone 
 
 Remained allegiant; he a lonely rock 
 
 In a tempestuous ocean, battered by 
 
 The billows through a starless night, giving 
 
 In deeds a concrete evidence of faith. 
 
 Timber he brought and all appurtenants. 
 
 Of which to frame a prodigy of skill — 
 
 At once a refuge and an epitaph. 
 
 Days, weeks and months were counted into years, 
 
 But with unflagging industry the work 
 
 Went on, the hammer-stroke commingling with 
 
 His voice in eloquent appeal. Beams found 
 
 Their place as words that write a felon's fate. 
 
 Then motley multitudes came thronging as 
 
210 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 The work progressed, to scoff and jeer and sling 
 
 Opprobrious epithets, or wisely wag 
 
 The philosophic head, cite Nature's law 
 
 And precedent to testify against 
 
 The prophet's word, and then pass idly on. 
 
 The years became decades, and, one by one. 
 
 Grew gray with age and slept the wakeless sleep, 
 
 Until the twelfth took up its gavel for 
 
 The end. The nautical leviathan 
 
 Was now complete and ready for its charge. 
 
 When Nature heeded more than man, and sent 
 
 Her varied representatives to find 
 
 A refuge from the scath whose coming steps 
 
 Were near. More thoughtful ones beheld the strange 
 
 And ominous phenomenon, while yet 
 
 On hesitation's brink they stood in weak 
 
 Timidity that feared the eye of man. 
 
 The Day lay wearily on pillowy clouds, 
 
 And left grim portents on the western rim. 
 
 But revelers filled the ear of Night with shouts 
 
 And riot until, surfeited at length 
 
 With gluttony and lust, the thousands lay 
 
 And snored, oblivious of the hours, in deep 
 
 Forgetfulness. Now Mercy's door was closed, 
 
 And Justice held his rod above the world 
 
 As he of old o'er Egypt's parted sea. 
 
 When from their fortresses burst furious winds. 
 
 And sent their cohorts howling o'er the deep. 
 
 The sullen clouds in threatening blackness rolled 
 
 Till mountain bigness bowed them toward the earth. 
 
 Then zigzag lightnings rent them in their wrath. 
 
 And growled in thunder till the awe-struck plains, 
 
A POEM— CANTO XI 211 
 
 In sympathetic unison, shuddered — 
 
 Groaned — sank, obedient to the tenor of 
 
 The threat ; and e'en the mountains bent the knee 
 
 In reverence for the Will Supreme, gushing 
 
 Their tribute to the cataclysmic woe, 
 
 Till man and beast 'and reptile struggled in 
 
 Promiscuousness and terror to ascend 
 
 The mountain sides. Dripping, panting, up, up 
 
 They clomb. Rills, rivulets and torrents dashed 
 
 Obstruction. But the hungry roar behind, 
 
 Beneath, around, had maddening urgency. 
 
 At length they reached the highest peaks, men, weak 
 
 In heart as babes, cursing their folly and 
 
 Imploring Mercy's ruth. Women beside 
 
 The beast of glaring eye that swiveled round 
 
 And round in desperate stress, unmindful of 
 
 Each other's presence, danger banishing 
 
 Ferocity and fear. Still pursuing, the 
 
 Avenging terror lapped their feet, 
 
 Rose to the knee and followed to the waist. 
 
 Then plunged the beasts and struggled in the throes 
 
 Of helplessness. Higher — higher — higher ! 
 
 Distracted mothers screamed and held their babes 
 
 Aloft. The gurgling water choked their screams. 
 
 They sank — rose — sank. A feeble wail and all 
 
 Was hushed, except the swish and murmur of 
 
 The waves that hummed, in dread monotony, 
 
 The requiem of a world. Far as the race 
 
 The rushing ruin went, and so fulfilled 
 
 The fateful prophecy. Where now the scoff, 
 
 The jeer, the well-slung epithet of crowds? 
 
 The philosophic incredulity 
 
212 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 And revels that infernalized the night? 
 The answer, written by the hand of God, 
 Was in a dead world where the live had been 
 
CANTO XII 
 
CANTO XII 
 
 "The fiends were hovering o'er the watery waste, 
 
 Viewing the dead world as a prophecy 
 
 Upon the scroll of time that soon would be 
 
 Fulfilled in grandeur of achievement that 
 
 Would recompense their toil and skill, beyond 
 
 What Hope had dared to dream of, knowing not 
 
 That in the living was a germ of strength 
 
 That by the various processes of time 
 
 Would evolute a godlike character; 
 
 In which their ignorance and confidence 
 
 They felt the thrill that victors feel when borne 
 
 With bannered pomp from sanguine fields. And most 
 
 Of all, since over all, their Chief was in 
 
 Triumphant jubilance to think himself 
 
 The strategist whose plans and movements had 
 
 Secured results that mocked the efforts of 
 
 The Infinite, of whom his estimate 
 
 Was thenceforth minified, augmenting 
 
 The audacity of his contemptuous hate. 
 
 Nor these results alone he counted as 
 
 His gains, but in his triumph's glorious hour 
 
 He saw his hosts more closely bound to him 
 
 In confidence. What more could be desire 
 
 To glorify himself? What more to prove 
 
 His power to wield the possibilities? 
 
 What more to open vistas to a sphere 
 
 That widened his supremacy? For this 
 
 He had adventured everything, and each 
 
2i6 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 New tribute to his skill intensified 
 
 The burning fury of his pride and his 
 
 Ambition to attain. Now in the flush 
 
 Of an exulting- egotism thus 
 
 He framed his thoughts : 'Glorious in power art thou, 
 
 O Lucifer! But where is Amplifer, 
 
 And Gabriel where, with their prophetic threats ? 
 
 And where the labors of the servile host 
 
 That strove against me with a sanguine zeal ? 
 
 Where is their mighty Master's confidence, 
 
 And where the Seed to bruise the serpent's head? 
 
 Where are they now ? Let them come hovering o'er 
 
 This glorious scene, tell their success, display 
 
 Their trophies, compliment themselves, and chant 
 
 The glories of omnipotence ! Here is 
 
 The sweet revenge of love — ay, love that loves 
 
 To smite a wrong and pay its compliments 
 
 To Justice. O great Lucifer ! Who knows 
 
 What eminence eternity reserves 
 
 For thee? What secret talisman may give 
 
 Thee access to the hoarded potencies, 
 
 And leave thee mightier than Omnipotence? 
 
 But that thou art within thy normal sphere. 
 
 Omnipotence is regnant in the realm 
 
 Of matter, mind in that of spirit. Here 
 
 Omnipotence stretched out a wrathful arm. 
 
 But I provoked the wrath that moved the arm. 
 
 Thus is omnipotence the lackey of 
 
 My will, when mind and matter measure strength. 
 
 But I must share their gratulations who 
 
 Have shared my toils.' 
 
 "So saying, he disclosed 
 
A POEM— CANTO XII 217 
 
 His presence in the void above the clouds, 
 And signaled to the rendezvous, when, as 
 The shadow of a storm-swept cloud, they all 
 Evanished, soon to congregate about 
 Him on his wonted eminence. He still 
 Was in the human form etherealized, 
 Its majesty so magnified that it 
 Was a suggestion of an infinite 
 Reserve, robed in a radiating light 
 Indefinite as rainbow fringes. There 
 He stood, his countenance enbeamed with smiles, 
 His eye aglow with pride ; and in the sea 
 Of faces he beheld a kindred pride. 
 Thus with exultant confidence he spake : 
 'Imperial dignities ! Immortal powers ! 
 Gods glory-crowned ! How, how shall I compress 
 Within the rigid bounds of speech that which 
 Demands a measureless extent of praise? 
 I would that words might have the size of worlds. 
 And I a lightning fluency to send 
 Them thunder-footed into space, beyond 
 The most suburban orbs, in publishing 
 The story of your triumphs. Mightier are 
 Ye than the One that our credulity 
 Of confidence had thought of as supreme — 
 Creators both of heaven and hell. For what 
 Is heaven but that within yourselves, the flush 
 Of satisfaction as the springtide of 
 Your efifort brings the freightage of success? 
 And what is hell but to expend one's thought 
 And energy in great attempt, and have 
 The effort stranded in defeat? Such is 
 
2i8 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Our golden freight, and such His wreck of hopes. 
 
 Well are you jubilant with such reward, 
 
 And well have faith in our ability, 
 
 While having the omnipotence of mind. 
 
 Grant that the Foe can wield the physical 
 
 Immensities to our discomfort. We 
 
 Can more than match upon the higher plane, 
 
 By means that make the edge of his designs 
 
 Retund, as demonstrated by results, 
 
 With which the ages crown us with a crown 
 
 Be jeweled fit to dazzle Memory's eye; 
 
 The brightest gem of all — a buried world. 
 
 He doubtless had designed, by gradual steps, 
 
 The race to so develop as to reach 
 
 An ideal contemplating which His mind 
 
 Would rest in sweet complacency, but which 
 
 Disturbing we provoked a curse whose scath 
 
 Is an engulfment of His handiwork. 
 
 Thus we have made a pact with Death, who serves 
 
 Two masters in the name of one, and gives 
 
 To us the better service of the two. 
 
 Exult then as the victor only can, 
 
 And see in this incentive to renew 
 
 The hope of forcing Him to yet respect 
 
 Our power sufficiently to interfere 
 
 No more with our benevolent designs. 
 
 Or fail we there, we still can hate the wrong. 
 
 Resist the power, defy the Doer, and 
 
 From out the storehouse of experience bring 
 
 Our burnished arms and wage persistent war. 
 
 By His example doubly justified, 
 
 Even to wrecking of a thousand worlds. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XII 219 
 
 If needed to preserve our liberty ; 
 
 For that withheld, existence has no worth. 
 
 And could we break the pillars that sustain 
 
 The universal frame, and crush the whole 
 
 With one tremendous crash, it were as naught 
 
 When wounded Justice calls to be avenged, 
 
 As now, in a pathetic agony, _ 
 
 He calls. For what can He opposing us 
 
 But be oppressor to the boundary of 
 
 His rule ; to whom a change of state, even 
 
 To none existence, were a boon? That which 
 
 He is He must be, by necessity 
 
 Of nature, alwheres and always ; therefore 
 
 To be alwheres, always opposed, though in 
 
 The doing we should wear the sandals of¥ 
 
 The feet of time. Belike ye noted, with 
 
 Myself, an inkle on the trestleboard 
 
 Of this debacle a design to rake 
 
 Success from out the mire of His defeat, 
 
 By preservation of a germ, from which 
 
 To multiply the race anew. Such a 
 
 Design forecasts an opportunity 
 
 To further glorify ourselves; for which 
 
 We must prepare, nor wait until our chance 
 
 Grows rusty on the hinge. Conditions are 
 
 Half brother to the first I found, plus a 
 
 Corrupting taint where then was innocence, 
 
 And devastation where was fruitfulness. 
 
 Here, then, we have a coin with fortune's face 
 
 On one side, on the other superscribed 
 
 Its value in the characters of toil. 
 
 The curse is poison in the marrow of 
 
220 M ANSON'S VISION 
 
 The race, and hitherto its action wrought 
 Paralysis of will, and with the flight 
 Of ages more virulent grew. But he 
 Who represents the dot remaining of 
 The race, by long conformity has formed 
 A habit supplemental to the will, 
 By which it monishes to wariness. 
 As well attempt to poise a universe 
 Upon a fingertip as all this host 
 To concentrate our efforts on the dot 
 That sole remains. As with the primal pair, 
 I must alone approach this remnant on 
 The tiptoe of insinuating skill, 
 And captivate them unawares ; to do 
 Which will combine pure delicacy and 
 Stark daring, since 'twill be to singly meet 
 The Foe, and put my shoulder underneath 
 The burden of a world. But seeing that 
 He clutches, in the frenzy of His hope, 
 At this new shadow, and His pleasure is 
 To test our powers anew, and by the test 
 Renew the strife that gloriously redounds- 
 To His reverse and our success, I still 
 Would keep our powers in exercise, and add 
 New trophies to the old.' 
 
 "Here Belial gave 
 A sudden thought this voice: 
 
 'The Foe Himself 
 Creates an exigence that may defeat 
 His purpose, while it ministers to ours. 
 This family He looks on as a gem 
 Enclosed within a casket, which is but 
 
A POEM— CANTO XII 221 
 
 A prison house where Famine waits his-chance 
 To seize their vitals with a fiery grip, 
 As there, becalmed upon a shoreless sea, 
 They dole their substance to the final crumb. 
 In that Omnipotence has overreached. 
 Or should the earth, unshrouded, wake to life, 
 She will but mock them with an empty hand. 
 And Famine finish what he had begun. 
 Then farewell every hope that hovered there.' 
 
 "Then Bacchus, with a sudden impulse, thus : 
 'Great Chief and ye triumphant ones ! those words 
 Are worthy of their godly parentage, 
 And rouse my memory thus to tell its tale : 
 
 I had a dream; and in my dream 
 The stars were telling of the time 
 When Earth was in her virgin prime, 
 
 Her face with blushing hopes agleam. 
 
 I dreamt again ; and now they told 
 
 How Earth was wrinkled with her cares, 
 And in the stress of her affairs 
 
 The blood of hope was growing cold. 
 
 Again I dreamt, and heard them tell 
 That she was clutching at her past, 
 And thought she held a hand at last, 
 
 Which proved to be the hand of Hell. 
 
 My eyes then opened, when to view 
 Was One above her deathbed bent, 
 With saddened look and in lament, 
 
 Who saw my presence and withdrew. 
 
222 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 'Those dreams, I ween, need no interpreter. 
 
 They are a prophecy, and prophecy 
 
 Is history in embryo. O Chief ! 
 
 I scent the odors of the spring. I see 
 
 The future bursting as a bud. I see 
 
 The bloom that holds a promise in its heart. 
 
 I touch the fruit, which mellows at my touch. 
 
 I grasp the fruit and lo ! it is a world. 
 
 Ay, it is ours, by right of conquest ours.' 
 
 "Here Mammon hastened with his word. 
 
 'We know 
 Not all the possibilities of force 
 To act on matter in extremity ; 
 And here is an extremity that gives 
 The wheels of His omnipotence a creak. 
 But should He lift the watery covering from 
 The earth ; should Famine gnash his teeth 
 In disappointed rage, and he who has 
 Withstood our utmost skill, and breasted with 
 Persistency the influence hurtled by 
 A world, remain still rooted as this mount. 
 Immovable, he — even he — must sink 
 Beneath the burdening curse into the maw 
 Of Death, and less combative ones succeed. 
 But should the strife continue, age on age, 
 Until the axle of eternity 
 Shall creak, I reck not. Then the problem of 
 Activity will be forever solved.' 
 
 "Then Satan interposed this final word : 
 'If is a pivot where conjectures turn 
 This way or that. But while revolving they 
 Remain unchanged in their relation to 
 
A POEM— CANTO XII 223 
 
 The if, leaving us still in ignorance. 
 
 Conjecture as we may, some if oi force 
 
 Is in reserve to place these prisoned ones 
 
 Obstructively across our path. Yet Hope 
 
 May dare to meet the challenge of Despair; 
 
 For he intended to obstruct will find 
 
 At best a desolate environment, 
 
 And while in lonesomeness he languishes, 
 
 With naught provoking the belligerency 
 
 That conflict breeds, I may induce him to 
 
 Indulge in ease, as one ensconced in full 
 
 Security, and in the drowsiness 
 
 Of an unguarded hour expose himself, 
 
 Becoming vulnerable to assault. 
 
 But let events come jostling as they may. 
 
 The future, like the past, will make demands 
 
 For patience joined to watchfulness, and zeal 
 
 To wariness, which, duly exercised. 
 
 Will sway the helm as generations drift 
 
 Adown the current of the years, and bring 
 
 The race again into the rapids of 
 
 His wrath. So may the eons move and we 
 
 Acquire more glory as they go. But for 
 
 The present, what? As at the first, ye here 
 
 Remain, but not in like inaction, since 
 
 Are many trophies of your past exploits, 
 
 On whom to further exercise your skill, 
 
 And by its exercise keep burnishing 
 
 Your powers, while making them a blacker blot 
 
 Upon the scroll continually before 
 
 His eyes who gladly would avoid the sight. 
 
 But here or there, our ingenuity 
 
224 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Must pierce the heart of every obstacle, 
 And in the meanwhile let events evolve.' " 
 
 My mind, through all thy narrative, I said, 
 Has been amazed that spirits great as they 
 Knew not the impotence of finity 
 Against infinity that so they dared 
 To feel and speak, to act and hope. Said he: 
 
 "The Infinite to finite mind is its 
 Capacity to think infinity. 
 But with increased capacity to think 
 Was tendency to magnify themselves 
 And minify the Infinite; and so 
 They bridged the gulf of their disparity, 
 And on receiving His rebuke became 
 In will oppugnant as in mind obtuse. 
 Men minify the Infinite, then dare 
 To willfully oppose, or, since He is 
 Unseen, deny the fact of His existence. 
 Then on the soul descends a starless night. 
 In which they sleep and dream of castles of 
 Security. And so the fiends, from least 
 To greatest, in gradation, egoize 
 In inverse ratio to their concept of 
 The Infinite, who works at the extremes 
 Of power. Nor man, nor fiend, nor cherub near 
 The throne can measure what He is or does 
 At either pole. Man pries into the depths 
 Of space through tubes that multiply the worlds. 
 Should he increase their power a hundredfold, 
 A thousandfold, what then? He would but see 
 A part. But He who made them all exceeds 
 Them all. In them is manifest His power. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XII 225 
 
 The other pole displays His mind in the 
 
 Diversities of form and life; the least 
 
 Of which would tax the best developed mind 
 
 Of man, who knows not all the problems in 
 
 A grain of sand — its composition and 
 
 Divisibility — or in the air, 
 
 A sound, a ray of light — all vehicles 
 
 Of the almighty energy — and less 
 
 Of life; its multiplicity of mode. 
 
 With its adapted means of sustenance, 
 
 In plant, tree, polyp, animalcule, mite, 
 
 The lifeful atmosphere and teeming seas; 
 
 Bird, reptile, beast, and up to man. 
 
 But Satan saw these physical displays 
 
 With countlessfold more comprehensive mind. 
 
 Yet were they all to him but evidence 
 Of physical omnipotence, himself 
 As greater in the mental attributes. 
 Could he have seen the Maker as he saw 
 His works, then made comparison, he had 
 Beheld himself in insignificance. 
 Yet that, though holding in a bondage of 
 Restraint, had been no guaranty of love. 
 But he was blind to their disparity. 
 Hence had an overestimate of self, 
 Which was the germ of an ambition that 
 Presumed on insubordinance. And thus 
 His nature were contaminated in 
 Conception and volition, thought and deed. 
 All aggravated by the ghastly pomp 
 Of that catastrophe, on which he gazed 
 With an infernal gloat, while thinking this 
 
226 MANSON'S. VISION 
 
 An earnest of success that shadowed forth 
 
 The end ; whereas 'twas but a quaver of 
 
 The providential shaft that yet should reach 
 
 The mark. The purpose of the Infinite 
 
 Is orbed, and moves in the ecliptic of 
 
 His mind, directed by the gravity 
 
 Of will. Ere coalesced the elements 
 
 Of earth, the thoughts and deeds of man were in 
 
 His eye as human memory visions what 
 
 Is gone ; so sure that no contingency 
 
 Was in the womb of the unwrought ; for one 
 
 Contingency implies the possible 
 
 Miscarriage of His plans, and this that He 
 
 Is fallible, which cannot be. Thus He 
 
 Ordained whatever has been, is, and is 
 
 To be. Yet had the recreants no excuse, 
 
 Since under no necessity to sin 
 
 More than compulsion to prevent. Hence He 
 
 Removed them as the curseful cause, and kept 
 
 The faithful one to be the father of 
 
 The second world, whose end will foot 
 
 Results in human destiny. And not 
 
 Till then will failure and success be seen, 
 
 Since they were measured by finalities." 
 
CANTO XIII 
 
CANTO XIII 
 
 My thoughts were lost amid the watery scene, 
 When he resumed : 
 
 "To earth the future was 
 A pall upon her hopes, a midnight to 
 Her eye, and rested as a seal upon 
 Her lip; for not a chirp, a trill, a bleat 
 Was heard, or seen a blade or burgeoning 
 Of tree or vine, or aught besides a vast 
 Expanse of sea and sky. Then, re-enrobed, 
 She entered on a honeymoon of life. 
 The slime that lay on plain to mountain top 
 Gave place to sward, to leafy tresses, to 
 Chromatic splendors and the impulses 
 Of irrepressible activity 
 
 That thrilled the nerves of all things animate. 
 The arch foe came, nefarious in intent. 
 As to a second Eden, hoping he 
 Might duplicate results, with subtler arts 
 To meet experience of the human with 
 Experience of the fiend, since the few earth 
 Replenishers had ventured from the heights 
 Of Ararat to form the nucleus of 
 A second worldi And first he sought to snare 
 The patriarch, in manner not to shock 
 Him with suggestions of an overt act, 
 But with insinuations to the flesh, 
 To lull him into inactivity. 
 Hence in the midday's enervating heat, 
 
230 , MANSON'S VISION 
 
 When soporific vapors filled the air, 
 
 As 'neath a shady canopy he lay. 
 
 His thoughts as bubbles lilting dreamily, 
 
 His mind was led to this soliloquy: 
 
 'The world that was is not. The agony 
 
 Of strife with obdurates is past, and from 
 
 The chaos of ungoldiness rolls forth 
 
 A world of order, righteousness and peace. 
 
 Quiet — peace — rest. How sweet to have the mind 
 
 Soft-pillowed in repose — repose well earned — 
 
 The husbandman's repose at close of day, 
 
 Sipping the juice fresh from the winepress of 
 
 A better time, its lees left all behind. 
 
 Let others face tomorrow's toils.' When came 
 
 At length dusk-sandaled Eve, dark-mantled Night 
 
 And crystal-coronated Morn, rousing 
 
 Whate'er had life to feel the general thrill 
 
 Of Nature's wakefulness, the earth seemed full 
 
 Of laughter and activity, and in 
 
 A glad rebound of soul the very breeze 
 
 Had found a voice for him and said within : 
 
 'The ark was all thy earth ; all earth is now 
 
 Thy ark, and thou its captain on the sea 
 
 Of time. Brave in the past, thy future calls 
 
 For skill. The storm that put thy courage to 
 
 The test is o'er, and death in one vast shroud 
 
 Has wrapt the mutineers, while trade winds fill 
 
 Thy sails. Then watch thy chart and compass, nor 
 
 Let once thy hand be ofif the helm, that so 
 
 The prow, through the long stretch of ages, may 
 
 Be pointed toward the port of safety, where 
 
 The treasures of the Infinite are stored.' 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 231 
 
 When heard, the voice was as a mandate ,to 
 
 The soul, in which he read the parable 
 
 Of duty, then with strenuousness obeyed. 
 
 Another year. The earth brought forth with more 
 
 Than wonted lavishment. Luxuriant vines 
 
 Were loaded with enpurpled wealth, which to 
 
 Preserve engaged the patriarch's care. But time 
 
 Said, Presto ! Then corruption's wand infused 
 
 A sparkling fire into the vat, when, with 
 
 Incautious freedom, he imbibed and lost 
 
 Himself in inebriety, which gave 
 
 The fiend a chance to turn the key of craft 
 
 Within a pliant member of the home, 
 
 WHiose nature he had fitted to despise 
 
 A filial sanctity, so that he viewed 
 
 With levity what reverence had deplored. 
 
 As tells one drop the saltness of the sea, 
 
 So told his act the nature of the man. 
 
 Which in the universal leprosy 
 
 Received contamination's toueh, and now 
 
 Incurred a father's lasting curse, who saw 
 
 With a prophetic instinct what the deed 
 
 Foreboded in the influence that would flow 
 
 Adown the years. More clearly Satan saw, 
 
 Whose guile had brought the fatal touch, and now 
 
 Devised to spread the virus through the race. 
 
 For this he made his presence known upon 
 
 His wonted mount to the illustrious four, 
 
 Who hailed him with expressions of delight, 
 
 As weary watchers hail the blush of dawn, 
 
 And stood as courtiers in the presence of 
 
 A king, with reverence for his rank, when thus 
 
232 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 He gratified their ears: 'Victorious ones! 
 
 Your memories need no waking nudge to bring 
 
 A vision of the conflict past, with all 
 
 The glory of the triumphs gained ; triumphs 
 
 That are emblazoned on the scroll of time, 
 
 To last when marble crumbles into dust — 
 
 Ay, to mock eternity's defacing hand ; 
 
 All which the future offers to encrown. 
 
 New harvests wait the sickle of your skill, 
 
 For which I need instruct but little how 
 
 To reap. He who has been the Foe's one hope 
 
 And our one obstacle has passed away, 
 
 And less resistant ones remain, to bend 
 
 Like reeds upon a river's marge before 
 
 The onsweep of the Power that overwhelmed 
 
 The parent world. Already I have made 
 
 A pliant one succumb, attracting to 
 
 Himself a lightning cuhse that shatters all 
 
 The pillars of his nature and entails 
 
 A helpless weakness on, his progeny. 
 
 Inkling withal the possibilities, 
 
 Inviting us to their development ; 
 
 For in this weaker one's example is 
 
 A lever influence on whose end we need 
 
 But press to move the others as we will. 
 
 Indulged in a debauch of wanton thought, 
 
 It will debilitate their moral powers. 
 
 For this the new environment affords 
 
 The means. Earth's lap is full beyond their need. 
 
 The valleys bend beneath the burden of 
 
 Their fruits ; the plains are decked with gold, the hills 
 
 Ablaze with prodigal magnificence. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 233 
 
 And they sole heirs to all ; the consciousness 
 Of which creates a sense of dignity, 
 The wings of whose ambition flutter to 
 Ascend into an atmosphere of great 
 Exploit. So is a premium put upon 
 Our skill, since in the realm of mind we meet 
 The Foe on vantage ground. The prospect of 
 Our conflict on this higher plane thrills me 
 As old wine fires the blood of men, and I 
 Am full-armed in resolve to make the past 
 An eclipsed orb compared with that to come. 
 Prepare ye, then, for deeds of glory that 
 Will make your godhood shine more lustrously. 
 Of our designs inform your followers, and 
 Enjoin their patience to endure your absence; 
 Then back to earth, where I will more instruct.' 
 
 "That said, he disappeared, and soon the four 
 Gave signal to their hosts, who thronged the mount, 
 Mingled promiscuously in haste, alike 
 In high expectancy. Belial first brake 
 The silence, eager to be heard, and thus : 
 
 'Triumphant dignities ! Ye well deport 
 Yourselves when Patience lays her yoke upon 
 Your neck, to draw the heavier burdens of 
 The years, and well ye do when Courage calls 
 For the heroic deed. To this your past 
 Has unimpeachable attest, and is 
 A pledge to Fortune for the coming need ; 
 A need now knocking on the door of time. 
 Our Chief is once again upon the earth, 
 And bids your leaders, as before, prepare 
 The way for your renewed activities, 
 
234 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 In which new jewels will be added to 
 The diadem of your success ; for which 
 We are about to leave the rendezvous.' 
 
 "Here Bacchus thus : 'To leave you, Belial says. 
 But you will be with us and we with you, 
 As in two separate yet connected rooms, 
 Whose walls, since memory takes no note of space, 
 Are all in view, your lack no more than that 
 Of lost activity, which there, not here, 
 Must be renewed. And as to patience, it 
 Is a familiar robe that we have worn 
 Until it seems to be our outer self. 
 Which Hope keeps brushing clean from dust. 
 So will you prove it till our Chief returns 
 And bids you don the robes of royalty. 
 Therefore we only say, as humans do, 
 Good night, anon to pay good morning, with 
 A smile. Good night and pleasant dreams.' 
 
 "At once 
 They seemed to float away like scudding clouds. 
 And soon were on the earth, where they beset 
 The remnant of the race, which showed again 
 Diversity of character, while all 
 Were one in plans for solidarity. 
 There the infernals, ravenous as beasts 
 At scent of blood, looked into depths of an 
 Imaginary hell, in which the few 
 Were multiplied to millions, writhing in 
 The fiery flames of hate, and every one 
 A fury, raging to annihilate 
 His fellows, and the whole as welded to 
 A thunderbolt of power defiant of 
 The Infinite. To kindle, fan and add 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 235 
 
 Combustive passion unto passion till 
 
 The roaring- flames of rivalry should make 
 
 The imaginary veritable hell, 
 
 Become at once their purpose and their aim. 
 
 Satan had seen man's mental restlessness 
 
 From the first necromancer calling up 
 
 The spirit of melodious sound ; from him 
 
 Who made the family a fortressed realm; 
 
 From him who forced from earth the secret of 
 
 Metallic strength ; from him who utilized 
 
 That strength and gave the nail and cunning tool 
 
 A mission as the agent of his mind ; 
 
 From the conceptive and constructive skill 
 
 In unifying of the divers parts — 
 
 The base of architectural skill — 
 
 In due proportion to the object sought; 
 
 On, on to emulation's last device 
 
 To fill the niches of necessity, 
 
 And on to the stupendous miracle 
 
 Of skill that held earth's prophecy of life. 
 
 The wonder of it all was in his mind, 
 
 And in mankind the spirit of it all, 
 
 As a momentive impulse to exceed 
 
 The grand achievements of the past, of which 
 
 Aware, he called the leaders, to instruct 
 
 Them in the cardinals of craft. Above 
 
 A mountain's hoary head they met, when he 
 
 Addressed them thus: 
 
 'Welcome to strife renewed. 
 To glories and rewards outshining all 
 The past as stars outshine the pearls upon 
 A meadow's breast. Our skill is challenged by 
 The new conditions of the race, which, as 
 
236 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Already said, is fledged for flight ; a flight 
 
 That would not stop beneath the stars, and hence 
 
 Invites to conflict on a higher plane. 
 
 Here is our cue — to daze them with a sense 
 
 Of independence that will make them feel 
 
 A goddish greatness, as in monarchy 
 
 O'er all the earth, whose might, in mind and thew, 
 
 Can mock the whimsies of the elements 
 
 And do most goddishly. Unite them, then, 
 
 In schemes that tittilate their vanity 
 
 Till aliens to, and then despisers of, 
 
 The Unseen Power ; and this by such oblique 
 
 Suggestion that, while following, they will think 
 
 Themselves unled; in doing which ourselves 
 
 Will feel a greatening of ourselves. The what 
 
 And how of all are in the clay, and Time 
 
 Will furnish molds to fashion them.' 
 
 "As thus 
 Instructed, they inflated more the bloat 
 Of men's ambition, till assertive ones 
 Ignored the Infinite, to make themselves 
 The pivot of a universal power, 
 And in imagined independency. 
 Planned what foreshadowed coming pyramids 
 And their affinities in massiveness. 
 A tower should cleave the clouds, in strength 
 To mock the wrathful elements and the 
 Keen claws of time, immortalizing them 
 In fame's eternal chronicles. Stone they 
 Had not. Albeit ingenuity 
 
 Balked not but, stepping o'er the fact, passed on. 
 Making their difficulties but a spur 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 237 
 
 To urge their efforts to the goal. Thjen in 
 
 Their hand the clay became a substance that 
 
 Could look upon the grave of centuries, 
 
 And block on block was laid and tier on tier, 
 
 Till all exulted in assured success. 
 
 And Satan, who was father of the thought, 
 
 And underleaders, who gave stimulus 
 
 To zeal, rejoiced as those who had the goal 
 
 In sight ; when He who rules the elements 
 
 And could have scattered all their works in dust, 
 
 Came silent as the breath of Pestilence, 
 
 Bringing confusion to the mind and lip. 
 
 When they who were as tribes, in trine descent, 
 
 Were separated of necessity. 
 
 As vocal limitations made demand, 
 
 And so became a triple eponym. 
 
 Thence to pursue the course of destiny, 
 
 Each having all the knowledge of the whole, 
 
 And a momentive impetus from past 
 
 Attempt. Scattering and multiplying still, 
 
 Developing hereditary traits, 
 
 With variations in a unity, 
 
 They so were fitted for distinctive spheres, 
 
 To make the rounded manhood of the race. 
 
 At first were emulations to excel 
 
 In all that glorified their vanity. 
 
 Then emulations gendered jealousies, 
 
 And jealousies developed into strifes ; 
 
 When their ambition was to monarchize, 
 
 Their greater intellects but making them 
 
 The greater foes. Still lingered with them all 
 
 A dreamy recollection of the lore 
 
238 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 That showed Heaven's autograph, in which was truth 
 
 Enough to furnish raw material for 
 
 A He ; though one alone, as heir, preserved 
 
 The heirloom with a reverent trust, as men 
 
 Now proudly note the incidents that shed 
 
 A luster on their heraldry. Mankind, 
 
 When deadened thus in sympathy, and with 
 
 An eclipse o'er the face of truth, trampled 
 
 On weakness with a ruthless foot, and heard 
 
 A music in its groans that charmed the ear, 
 
 Then danced itself to dizziness; from which 
 
 Initial brutishness the laws of men 
 
 Receive their animus, and oft are void 
 
 Of pity and the mollifying sense 
 
 Of brotherhood ; and Justice, seated on 
 
 A bench of ice, his heart a frozen thing, 
 
 An iron gantlet on his hand, smites those 
 
 Laid prostrate at his feet and calls it War, 
 
 And decks the horror with a jeweled robe, 
 
 Then chariots it with pomp and trumpet blare. 
 
 So Satan, gloating o'er the woes of men, 
 
 Would have his waiting hosts participate 
 
 In earth's infernal carnival; with which 
 
 Intent he visited the rendezvous. 
 
 The farthest scattered saw and hailed him as 
 
 His presence he disclosed ; more welcome now 
 
 To them by the long fast of absence and 
 
 The feast that expectation spread before. 
 
 When died the echoes of their long applause, 
 
 He thuswise thrilled their hearts : 
 
 'Ye loyal ones 
 Who never fail when Duty's trumpet calls, 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 239 
 
 I seize that trumpet, and I blow a blast 
 
 That would arouse a mummy into life — 
 
 A mummy, and your hopes are mummies that 
 
 I wish to have unswathed and vitalized. 
 
 Your chiefs earth garlands with the laurels of 
 
 Achievement, and invites you all to share 
 
 The glory of triumphant deeds. Mankind, 
 
 Of which a germ alone was left, is now 
 
 A scattered multitude like noxious weeds. 
 
 They planned to have a local fixity, 
 
 Like beasts that huddle fearful of a storm, 
 
 When I incited to activity 
 
 That set at nought the will of Him unseen — 
 
 Ay,- smote the cheek of His authority. 
 
 That roused His choler to avenge itself 
 
 Upon their tongues, so alienizing them 
 
 In speech, and parting them in radii toward 
 
 The earth's periphery, from which they strike, 
 
 Antagonistic each to all and all 
 
 To each. To keep them in belligerency 
 
 Will be your task, performing which you will 
 
 Be moving forward toward the goal where Hope 
 
 Has filled our cornucopia with success. 
 
 Already they are mad-eyed, glaring their 
 
 Animosities at prompt. Ay, they 
 
 Contend with mutual hate that sees not, hears 
 
 Not, seeks not aught but how to serve itself. 
 
 Hence, as I say, 'tis ours to widen still 
 
 The breach; to use them as so many fists 
 
 With which to smite each other to the fall; 
 
 A feat that well might give the bones of Death 
 
 A rattle of delight, to think we thus 
 
240 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Compel the Maker to behold His works 
 
 Incited to antagonistic strife, 
 
 With clash and clang- and havoc of 
 
 Infuriate hate doing the way we prompt; 
 
 As yet they shall with more efficiency. 
 
 To such a prospect what have you to say?' 
 
 "Their answer was a thunder of assent. 
 'Ready !' 
 
 'We tingle with desire for it.' 
 'To earth !' 
 
 'To earth you say. Then follow me.' 
 "That said, with vapor lightness he arose, 
 When silence turned into a breath of sound. 
 As when a pinion spreads for sudden flight, 
 And back he led to earth, with vigor to 
 Renew the diabolic work ; where soon 
 Not one of all the race but was beset 
 By suich as found his temperamental bent 
 Most pliant to their special aptitude. 
 In individuals they conspired to make 
 The spirit bondman to the' flesh, and so 
 Succeeded that, as moved the years, mankind 
 Became responsive, till the nebulous 
 Communities began rotating as 
 The passions lent a whirling force, and took 
 Completed form as individual worlds ; 
 Yet not with gravitative harmony. 
 But humans, in the tyranny of might, 
 Grew demoniacal — as Jungfraus in 
 Ambition's towering Alps, snow-clad in 
 Their sympathies, and horror-smiting when 
 The thundrous avalanches of their wrath 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 241 
 
 Were loosed. Forgetful of their brotherhood, 
 
 They massed themselves antagonistic, these 
 
 To those, in savage mood ; kept all the earth 
 
 Empurpled with their gore, and left behind 
 
 A desert whitened with the bones of men. 
 
 Thus rose the tyrants of an age, and then 
 
 Decayed within the deadening clutch of some 
 
 Voracious parasite, which fell in turn 
 
 Before some other parasite. So dark 
 
 Were men in mind and in their heart perverse. 
 
 From out the gloaming of a cloudy dawn 
 
 Rose Khita with a gourmand's maw for power, 
 
 Gorging herself as if to gulp the earth. 
 
 Till Misraim interfered and shared the prey. 
 
 Then forced her way to super-emnience, 
 
 And at the climax of her proud estate 
 
 Ground nations twixt the millstones of her might, 
 
 By her oppressions prompting the revenge. 
 
 And her magnificence the envy, of 
 
 The world. In paying homage to the brute, 
 
 She gained a brutishness of character, 
 
 And perished as the brute. A motley host. 
 
 As by a whirlwind impetus, was swept 
 
 Together, and Chaldea from the mass 
 
 Arose to temporary splendor, which 
 
 Assyria, as a simoon, blasted and 
 
 Assimilated; in her heart a brute. 
 
 Her head a fiend, with skill to execute 
 
 At the dictation both of brute and fiend. 
 
 Then Babylonia, the preceder and 
 
 Successor, pattern and absorber of 
 
 Them all, became the world's great god of power, 
 
 16 — 
 
242 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Affecting such achievements as would mock 
 The blazonry of Time. But not with long 
 Impunity could Time be mocked ; for though 
 The psuedo god had fattened on the past, 
 Her fatness tempted Medo-Persian gust, 
 Which glutted not until she picked the bones 
 Of a huge continent. Thus came they, one 
 By one, like beasts, devouring and devoured, 
 And left their skeletons upon the sands 
 Of time. From out the desolation then 
 Appeared transcendent Greece, emerging like 
 A mountain out of mist effulgent with 
 Meridian splendor that reflected, while 
 Increasing, the esthetic glory of 
 The ages. Imagination monarchized 
 The mind. The passions were exalted to 
 The virtues of the gods, in copying which 
 Men wallowed in the mire of sensuousness, 
 Debasing so their noblest attributes. 
 The soul as darksome as a cave in which 
 Stalacites hang in beauty cold and dead. 
 And left her helpless in a serpent's coils. 
 The Macedonian meteor having burst 
 And left confusion in its wake. Then swung 
 Another theater its doors, and showed 
 Another set of wrestlers on the stage. 
 Phenecla, having gained the fullness of 
 Development, would test the thews of her 
 Amphibious power, and Carthage dared to thrust 
 A borrowed lance against the shields of Rome, 
 Provoking a retaliatory wrath 
 To execute exterminating vengeance; 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIII 243 
 
 So satisfying both her greed and -fear. 
 
 Then stood the conqueror astride the world, 
 
 And in the rigor of depotic might 
 
 Became a cruel vintager, the world 
 
 Her vintage, clustered nations gathered to 
 
 The winepress of her greed, their juices drawn 
 
 In trickling streams of blood, still to increase 
 
 Her huge obesity. The voice of her 
 
 Authority filled all the earth, as though 
 
 It were one ear that heard no voice but hers 
 
 And, hearing, made her feet a shrine. When grown 
 
 Thus plethoric and glutted with excess. 
 
 She had attained the two extremes — the heaven 
 
 Of intellect, the hell of character. 
 
 Thus empires rose, whose transient glories fain 
 
 Had made the very sun look down from his 
 
 Imperial throne and stare astonishment. 
 
 And during all, the human mind kept on 
 
 Developing in rugged massiveness. 
 
 When the stupendous in achievement was 
 
 The vogue. Proud Egypt would immortalize 
 
 Herself in pyramids and Karnacs, and 
 
 Still prouder Babylon, with dazzle of 
 
 Her greatness, blind the eye of Rivalry. 
 
 Their still-expanding powers incited them 
 
 To reach new ideals of the intellect. 
 
 Which rose in glittering splendor, height on height, 
 
 As Alps, to reach the region of the gods; 
 
 When Greece with her voluptuous genius tranced 
 
 Mankind, her visions and her wizardry 
 
 Of head and hand impressed on concrete things, 
 
 Imparting quasi animation, and a 
 
244 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Charm that fascinates the eye of Time, 
 
 Which looks on them as having had a touch 
 
 And glamor of divinity. Then Rome 
 
 Appropriated, bodied and ensouled 
 
 The glories of the intellectual world, 
 
 And strove to give men's concepts of the gods 
 
 An anagramic unity. And e'en 
 
 These phantoms, these imaginary noughts, 
 
 Were fashioned by gigantic intellects 
 
 Exaggerating human qualities 
 
 That, unlike Egypt, scorned to grovel as 
 
 Inferior to the brute. So they upraised 
 
 The intellect, strengthened and fitted it 
 
 To soar in vaster and diviner realms. 
 
 From loftier peaks of thought to peer into 
 
 The clearing atmosphere. Satan, who saw 
 
 And fostered, comprehended not the geist 
 
 Of these conditions, which were pregnant with 
 
 The ideals of milleniums noted in 
 
 The calendar of time, but thought they were 
 
 Developments that would, as erst the flesh. 
 
 Debase, and sink men in presumptuous pride. 
 
 But He who gave impulsion to the first 
 
 Beheld the last, anticipated and 
 
 Prepared the providential grooves in which 
 
 Should move the wheels of this development; 
 
 And through the moral chaos of the years 
 
 His spirit brooded o'er the darksome void." 
 
CANTO XIV 
 
CANTO XIV 
 
 "Let there be light ! So spake the Infinite, 
 
 Then flashed the sword of His omnipotence, 
 
 When from Chaldean night the patriarch 
 
 Of Ur emerged and struck the kindhng spark 
 
 From which a flame should start and widen in 
 
 Its area through the ages, until all 
 
 The earth be glorious in the light of truth. 
 
 Without the pomp of earthly state, he had 
 
 The grandeur of unwavering fealty 
 
 To the infallible authority. 
 
 Made so the spiritual father of 
 
 The race, who on Moriah stood the test 
 
 Of faith, pointing with typic finger thence 
 
 To Calvary, whose cross was as the world, 
 
 And He thereon love's true synopsis of 
 
 The mind and purpose of the Infinite. 
 
 As Time's kaleidescope revolved, it dropt 
 
 A rustic group, which held the heirloom of 
 
 The sainted one, amid the thrill and glare 
 
 Of Egypt's intellectual life and light. 
 
 With sympathies and interests interfused — 
 
 The ostracism of conditions as 
 
 An isolating and impregnable 
 
 Defense against seduction by the base 
 
 Environment — the stamp of bondage gave 
 
 The insignia of autonomy, 
 
 In furnishing the base of nationhood ; 
 
 To all of which the Archfiend craftily 
 
248 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Gave ready aid, divining these events 
 
 As a repression of development, 
 
 Whose ultimate would be consignment to 
 
 The lowest level of depravity. 
 
 But now began to dawn the Infinite's 
 
 Designs, in which He proved supremacy 
 
 O'er all that Egypt deified, and His 
 
 Paternal favor toward the groaning ones 
 
 Who bent beneath the burden of the yoke; 
 
 For whose deliverance one was snatched from out 
 
 A watery sepulcher and fondly nursed 
 
 And tutored in the royal lap and school, 
 
 Then hardened by experience for the toils 
 
 Of leadership. Their fetters broken, soon 
 
 They were exhilarated as they breathed 
 
 The air of liberty. The tented host 
 
 Had restful halt, when clomb their leader up 
 
 The cloud-capt, thunder-guarded mount, where the 
 
 Invisible would fill the atmosphere 
 
 With awe, while giving man the cornerstone 
 
 Of the eternal law on which should rest 
 
 The highest ideals of the coming time; 
 
 Ideals exceeding in enduring strength 
 
 Egyptian pyramids of thought. This to 
 
 The fiend was Fortune's favoring hour, in which 
 
 Was oflFered an inviting hand ; and now. 
 
 To grasp it, he appeared with leaders on 
 
 A distant mount, in wonted majesty 
 
 Of person, and envenomed speciousness 
 
 In his address, which vented thus : 
 
 'Ye great 
 Immortal potentates ! We meet to take 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 249 
 
 An inventory of affairs, and thence , 
 
 Deduce the modes of policy to thwart 
 
 The Foe. As known, these fugitives were in 
 
 Our grip, squeezed until being lost its last 
 
 Sweet drop of juice, and was a dry rind of 
 
 Soul-deadening drudgery. The Foe, aroused 
 
 To measure our advantage, interposed 
 
 With physical phenomena until 
 
 The final weapon left His armory; 
 
 Which juncture called for counteracting means. 
 
 For there was inkle of some dark design — 
 
 A sunset cloudbank that foreboded storm. 
 
 Then with tempestuous thoughts and fears I lashed 
 
 His mind who meted out their state, making 
 
 Him deeper root his purpose to contemn 
 
 The mandates and defy the prowess that 
 
 Presumed to strike at his authority. 
 
 But physical omnipotence prevailed 
 
 To bring the physical result that now 
 
 Obtains; which is a change of state, but not 
 
 Of character. That character 'tis ours 
 
 To eternize in opposition to 
 
 The Foe. So may we rouse omnipotent 
 
 Resentment that will set on them the foot 
 
 Of an exterminating wrath. He who 
 
 Has led is absent for instruction, as I 
 
 Ween, to lantern him through darksome days ; 
 
 And with him goes the visible — the link 
 
 Twixt them and the Invisible — which fact 
 
 Begets our opportunity, and bids 
 
 Us mold our means to fit the day's demand, 
 
 That so omnipotence may have its foil. 
 
250 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 For this, conditions must be made our guide. 
 Note first : These fugitives have Egypt in 
 Their blood, its drudgery their curriculum 
 Of life, with nothing known of aught above. 
 Beyond or better than the past. Here is 
 Environment as unfamiliar as 
 The landscape of a star, the aspect of 
 These bare and barren rocks a prophecy 
 Of want; rebound from toil that gave no time 
 For thought, to inactivity that rusts 
 Their every faculty, and brings the cares 
 Of newly- found responsibilities ; 
 The future a prolonged to-morrow thronged 
 With dubious hopes that have a harlot's rouge. 
 All these will bring a sense of lonesomeness, 
 Depressing as a winter atmosphere 
 That spreads in icy blackness o'er the earth. 
 The edge of these conditions it is ours 
 To whet until it cuts into the soul. 
 And Memory has an odor of the things 
 Behind, forgetful of the lash and toil, 
 And Egypt smells of paradise. Then as 
 They feel abandoned by the trusted one, 
 And crave an intermediary between 
 Themselves and the Invisible, Egypt 
 Must furnish them the visible, as both 
 A souvenir of what is lost and that 
 Which represents Omnipotence. Thus we 
 May bring them to the footstool of the brute, 
 And thereby thwart the Foe ; so whether He 
 Destroy or spare, we shall provoke Him to 
 Defeat Himself. Go, then. Accentuate 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 251 
 
 The tone of these conditions as you iind 
 Their ear most ready to receive.' 
 
 "At once 
 They called contingents to the scene, who found 
 The fickle host as clay for potter's hand, 
 And gave the mind and heart the grosser form 
 Of Egypt's thought and character, till they 
 With molded trinkets effigied the brute, 
 Then held an orgy in devotion's name, 
 And so provoked a scourging of rebuke, 
 Repeated oft through twoscore weary years 
 Of zigzags in obedience and relapse, 
 Straining their leader's patience to its break. 
 So went they till the Egypt-tainted blood 
 Was purged, the old life as a father's dream, 
 Which perished in the flush of fortune's dawn. 
 But ere their feet could reach the goal of hope, 
 Transgression had its culminating stroke. 
 In vindication of impartial law, 
 Which would not pass the leader's trespass by. 
 So there, alone, from Pisgah's top he glimpsed 
 The land that in prospective long had filled 
 His eye, and answered to the call of Death. 
 Then went a thrill of jubilance among 
 The fiends to see the people leaderless; 
 While Satan, with a farther-seeing eye, 
 Essayed to have the body spirited 
 Away to those whose wont had been to deem 
 The living voice Jehovah's oracle; 
 For here w^as that whose sanctity in their 
 Esteem would blur the eye of Faith, and turn 
 At length their reverence to idolatry. 
 
252 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 But Michael, who had oft withstood the fiend, 
 
 Disclosed his presence in a flash of light, 
 
 And stood in silent majesty before 
 
 Him with a sword upraised, whose glitter seemed 
 
 To be aquiver with almightiness. 
 
 Nor for a season spake the fiend, but met 
 
 The other's gaze with flaming eye, in which 
 
 Was anger and a simulation of 
 
 Contempt. At length his thoughts took form. 
 
 When thus he spake : 
 
 'Presumptuous one ! why in 
 Servility dost thou persist in this 
 Thy interference, in thy coward dread 
 Of One whose only attribute thine own 
 Or mine exceeding is the power to sway 
 His scepter o'er insensate things — a power 
 Whose keenest edge the might of mind can make 
 Retund, and leave the smitted unimpaired 
 In all his attributes? 'Tis true I wear 
 The scars of His displeasure. Noble scars ! 
 Mute witnesses that I am free, while thou 
 Art in a splendid vassalage, adorned 
 With glittering chains that hold thy nature down 
 Like some poor craven at His feet. Now I 
 Adjure thee, if one trace remains of the 
 Irradiant dignity belonging to 
 Thy rank, that thou withdraw and find employ 
 More worthy of thyself.' 
 
 "There, silent still. 
 Unmoved as Patience in her calmest hour, 
 Stood the opposing one, when thus the fiend : 
 'Hast thou no will to act save to bow down 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV . 253 
 
 Before another's will and tremble at - 
 
 His word? Or hast thou served so long that thou 
 
 Art too obtuse to see and know that thou 
 
 Hast rights? Or dost thou, in presumption, set 
 
 Thyself to this implied dictation to 
 
 Thy peer? I reck not which, but bid thee now 
 
 Desist from this thy attitude, and leave 
 
 To me the custody of these remains, 
 
 That I may have them worthily perserved 
 
 In monumental sanctity.' 
 
 "Then spake 
 His peer, but not in sameness of retort, 
 Having respect for dignity though wrecked, . 
 Nor venturing to assume the Infinite's 
 Prerogative, but said, 'Jehovah give 
 Thee His rebuke !' That, thought the fiend, implied 
 Appeal to greater than himself, and the 
 Invoked rebuke the ultimate of might — 
 Omnipotence belike ; hence he recoiled 
 As from a red volcano's breath, when there, 
 In silence, hid from human eye, the earth 
 Enbosomed the remains, and heaven received 
 Its own." 
 
 Why stand not Michael and his peers, 
 I asked, between the living and the fiend 
 As then the dead ? 
 
 "The loyal powers," said he, 
 "Have ever been resistant to the foe. 
 Employing force or moral means. The dead 
 Are inert dust, with the Omnipotent 
 To yea or nay. Hence there the fiend opposed 
 Omnipotence. Not so with living man, 
 
254 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Who has the yea and nay that destinate: 
 
 Choosing the better prompt, omnipotent — 
 
 Since he is in his Keeper's hand — or that 
 
 Of Satan, weak as bending- reed. Of this 
 
 The fiend by long experience knew, which made 
 
 Him flee in haste before the potent name. 
 
 And yet he thought the blossom of his hope 
 
 About to burst, hence called his leaders, who, 
 
 Responding, met among the mists that lay 
 
 On Hermon's head, where he addressed them thus : 
 
 'It gladdens me to meet you dignities, 
 Amid conditions whose benignant smile 
 Gives promise of continued benison. 
 Continued, for the past has favored us. 
 How we have ruffled His complacency 
 To see that we, the objects of His hate. 
 Have forced His choice twixt two alternatives : 
 His favorites to destroy or own them ours! 
 In either choice we swayed Omnipotence, 
 Hence, practically, are omnipotent. 
 His very efforts at defense against 
 Us whisper an acknowledgment of our 
 Success and His extremity; since the 
 Spectacular devices for the eye, 
 And wierdish nothings for the brain that breed 
 Hallucination's glaring terrors for 
 The soul, have been as rain on desert sands. 
 Their leader's presence gave the multitude 
 A show of fealty. Yet even he 
 Could hold them not in swerveless constancy; 
 But adverse winds of Fortune made them change, 
 With murmurs of distrust, and so provoke 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 255 
 
 The lightning of a wrath whose rutJiless bolts 
 
 Devastated till but a drupe of the 
 
 Original remains upon the tree 
 
 Of time. And now their leader, too, is gone, 
 
 Nor leaves a gossamer of influence to 
 
 Restrain their waywardness ; while but a whiflf 
 
 From o'er the border of the land they seek 
 
 Allays their weariness. Then what, when they 
 
 Discover that Obstruction's watery arms 
 
 Are spread, forbidding their advance ? What, when 
 
 They find that every rood of land will cost 
 
 A life? And what when, later, comes the shock, 
 
 On every side, of armies drunk with blood? 
 
 Memory will be a necromancer then, 
 
 Bringing the gone to mock their helplessness. 
 
 And nought of them remain, or but remain 
 
 To curse who led them there. That is the goal 
 
 To which conditions lead, and ours it is 
 
 To help them speed. Then go ye to the task 
 
 As gleaners of the earth's last field. Thwack whips 
 
 Of terror o'er the minds of kings until 
 
 You frenzy them to bring their armies with 
 
 The whelming force of torrents from the hills. 
 
 Then will be seen who wields omnipotence.' 
 
 "So made he boast to find a mockery in 
 Results; for soon the Infinite, upon 
 Whose finger swings the pendulum of earth. 
 And at whose fiat all its forces move, 
 Drew curb upon the stream that threatened, till 
 It reared upon its haunches, waiting for 
 The last to reach the farther shore. Forthwith 
 They rid the land of impious tenants and 
 
256 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Rolled back the billows of assault, when lo ! 
 
 They were a nation. In the childhood of 
 
 Experience they had childhood's fickleness; 
 
 And as the acquisitions of their might, 
 
 So was their lust for pompous vanities, 
 
 In emulation of the cursed of God. 
 
 Soon, with importunate persistency, 
 
 They clamored for a king ; and kings they got 
 
 Till gratified to surfeiting. Then came 
 
 Revulsion and a cleavage of the realm, 
 
 When Dan and Bethel climaxed Israel's 
 
 Apostacy ; and soon Assyria's broom 
 
 Swept them as dust. Judah in turn became 
 
 Infatuated and forsook her Help, 
 
 When Babylonia stampt a ruthless foot 
 
 And made Jerusalem a waste, her sons 
 
 Compelled to drink the wine of wrath for which 
 
 They grew the grapes. Time's wheels rolled heavily 
 
 Along. A generation groaned and longed 
 
 For what was lost upon the road behind. 
 
 Without a guideboard pointing them that way, 
 
 Or morning star above the orient rim. 
 
 Then Satan and his leaders met midair. 
 
 In an exultant mood, when thus he charmed 
 
 Their ears : 
 
 'Great potentates ! It cheers to have 
 This access unto your collective ear, 
 Though volumes of superlatives I need 
 To voice the satisfaction that events 
 Afford. Erstwhile we saw these Flexibles 
 Where physical omnipotence alone 
 Could clear their path. When cleared, and they 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 2^7 
 
 Transferred to other ground, the changed location 
 
 Changed not them. They forced their way and seized 
 
 A fair domain, incited by necessity 
 
 That lashed enthusiasm to a foam. 
 
 But zeal that blazes most is soonest dead. 
 
 Omnipotence had done its utmost for 
 
 The flesh. Then ours it was to exercise 
 
 Omnipotence of mind on mind, and we 
 
 Prevailed within as had the Foe without. 
 
 Their lap became o'erheaped with golden store. 
 
 We gave that heap corrosion such as ate 
 
 Into their very soul. They shone with a 
 
 Magnificence that drew the stare of half 
 
 The world. We gave them dizziness until 
 
 Topheaviness upon the throne reversed 
 
 The order of prospective destiny. 
 
 Their hopes reached out to grasp a hand that was 
 
 To make their power the axis of the world. 
 
 We filled their hand with ashes, and entombed 
 
 Their fair domain in desolation's dust. 
 
 What sleepers were the sentinels of the 
 
 Omnipotent, to kt us seize, within 
 
 A moiety, the treasure it was theirs 
 
 To guard ! nor yet awake, to let us make 
 
 The final fraction of the race our own. 
 
 Ah! how shall they retake who could not keep? 
 
 But we had power to get, and now to keep. 
 
 We move the hand whose fingers — Babylon 
 
 And Egypt — move the world the way we will. 
 
 Methinks that Fortune waits in breathlessness 
 
 To see the outline of our time-long — ay, 
 
 Of our eternal plans, to furnish us 
 
258 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 All needed means. With such a record, such 
 
 A prospect — having brought the last of earth 
 
 To a renunciation of allegiance — we 
 
 Have given quietus to His bruising thoughts 
 
 Who, thinking wishes are realities. 
 
 Deemed all the future His. Then let us keep, 
 
 Develop and employ what we have gained, 
 
 That it may serve us as a rung in the 
 
 Far-reaching ladder of ascent. Of the 
 
 Atomic incidents that make the sum 
 
 Of these results I speak not, nor attempt 
 
 To shadow forth a plan to fit unformed 
 
 Events, which may be better fitted when 
 
 We have the form. Still I and you have thoughts, 
 
 And thoughts breed thoughts — a fruitful progeny 
 
 That keep no genealogy ; and now. 
 
 In this triumphant hour, they all must smile 
 
 So cheeringly that I should like to have 
 
 You introduce them, each to all.' 
 
 "Belial 
 Was first to introduce his thoughts. 
 
 'Great Chief,' 
 He said, T see the ladder of ascent. 
 Whose rungs to mount were as to step from star 
 To star in skirting the circumference 
 Of space. You set the ladder in the soil 
 Of Eden, and we climbed a rung to look 
 Upon a dead world's watery grave. The next 
 Rung where a world's dead soul was wrapt in an 
 Egyptian shroud. The next when empires, like 
 Volcanic islands in the sea, arose 
 And had sterility of character. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 259 
 
 And now this stimulated residue 
 
 Of mankind, meant to be the vital germ, 
 
 Assimilating all the elements 
 
 Of earth, becomes the prey of parasites; 
 
 In all of which developments we were 
 
 The impetus. Then we who thus have climbed 
 
 Can still ascend from known realities 
 
 To regions of the inconceivable.' 
 
 "Said Mammon, 'We must keep in mind the means 
 Of past success. Egyptian bondage was 
 A cordon of the soul that kept it in 
 Restraint. Freedom and plenty brought rebound 
 That rioted in wantoness of will. 
 Bondage again is theirs ; yet not with 
 Dull stolidity to grind away the yearSi 
 But with their every thought of other days 
 A sting whose poison brings a festering sore 
 To every sensibility. This we 
 Must aggravate, by tantalizing them 
 With hopes that breed revolt, and so provoke 
 Repressive vengeance, when, resentful in 
 Distrust, their hearts will turn against the One 
 Unseen as causing what ourselves have done.' 
 
 "Then Bacchus thus : 'The past is in the grave, 
 Where standing, I pronounce its elegy : 
 Thou silent one, so boisterous in thy day! 
 We have a memory of thy fickle moods; 
 Thy brimful promises and empty deeds ; 
 Thy smiles and tears that shuttlecocked our hearts; 
 Thy silences when we had ears to hear, 
 And thunders when we craved nepenthic sleep; 
 Thy winter pelting us with icy fears; 
 
26o HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Thy summer mellowing into hopefulness. 
 
 The last drop from thy cup is best remembered ; 
 
 For which we pardon and absolve thy soul. 
 
 Sleep thou while, jocund in the present, we 
 
 Pursue the whirl atrip with virgin Hope. 
 
 Sleep well. We would not wake thee from a sleep 
 
 So sound. Ay, sleep. We have no grudge against 
 
 Thee. Death has settled our accounts. I scan 
 
 Thy pedigree. Child of Eternity, 
 
 Sire of the Is, grandsire of Is-to-be. 
 
 O Chief ! the Is exhilarates me to 
 
 The point of ecstacy, and I would thus 
 
 Invoke the favor of the Is-to-be: 
 
 Wake up infant Is-to-be! 
 Wake up with a smile for me ; 
 Or if thou wilt wake to weep, 
 I would have thee stay asleep. 
 
 Wake thou up with joyous crow. 
 Stretch thy little limbs and grow; 
 For my faith already can 
 See in thee the coming man. 
 
 Wake and prattle now to me 
 Of the better things to be; 
 Of the worlds that we shall win 
 In the years that now begin. 
 
 Wake, for here thy father stands 
 With a guerdon in his hands, 
 And a promise that his son 
 More shall do than he has done. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 261 
 
 Wake, nor let thy father's Word 
 Which my inner ear has heard, 
 By thy Hfe in mute reply. 
 Be pronounced a father's He. 
 
 Wake, and when a man thou art, 
 Tell the secret to my heart, 
 What our worlds of power will be 
 In thy years, O, Is-to-be. 
 
 Chief ! I look upon the earth as ours 
 By right of might. I hear the hiccough of 
 Her madness, and confess myself the cause. 
 
 1 see her stagger to descent into 
 
 A state where I have kindled hell. I feel 
 
 The shudder of her agony as thrills of bliss. 
 
 And think of all as at a banquet of 
 
 Our hope, whose viands are despairing groans, 
 
 Seasoned with curses on our appetite. 
 
 These are our trophies in the Is-to-be. 
 
 And may the Foe be there to see !' 
 
 'My thoughts, 
 Are with the was,' said Moloch. T recall 
 When by the mount there were but neophytes, 
 Held by the Foe in tutelage. I gave 
 Their hearts a blinding touch and led them to 
 The ditch, then kept them mired for twoscore years. 
 Next, in their heyday of autonomy, 
 I cushioned themi in soul-security. 
 Allayed the rancor of the conflict days. 
 And had them hob-nob with our devotees " 
 Until their hearts became susceptible 
 
262 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 To the zymotic influence circling them; 
 
 And now our gloating minions have them 
 
 In duress, where they will blend their characters 
 
 To one dull neutral hue. Already they 
 
 Are neutral to the sight of the Unseen. 
 
 But they shall yet become personified 
 
 As black damnation to His eye. Then shall 
 
 We be prepared to form our plans for new 
 
 Emprise upon a vaster scale.' 
 
 "He ceased. 
 Then Satan added thus: 
 
 'Your thoughts are all 
 Most worthy of yourselves. Nor need I more 
 Than echo Moloch's final word. We must 
 Mature a general plan for earth; a plan 
 From which we may project into the vast 
 Domain beyond ; for which prepare yourselves.' 
 
 "That said, they vanished, full of bubble thoughts 
 That could but float in emptiness and burst, 
 Displaying animus and ignorance." 
 
 How iterant, said I, was their boasting pride. 
 Said he : 
 
 "It was the only theme where thought 
 Could find a clime congenial to their nature. 
 And having nothing good to contemplate, 
 They made a pseudo goodness of their deeds. 
 And kept it ever in their eye, that self 
 Might be on easy terms with self, and find 
 An inspiration to persistent hope'. 
 But during all, the Infinite gave truth 
 An impact on the thought of master powers. 
 That they might take the light from Mercy's hand. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XIV 263 
 
 Some took the lantern but refused the light, 
 
 And kept its form in silhouette upon 
 
 Their palace walls. So there it was, lightless 
 
 As mummy sepulchered in desert sand, 
 
 Till time should bring it forth to certify 
 
 The cardinals of fact and truth received, 
 
 Which now is done. And though but dimly seen, 
 
 It is deciphered by the ready eye, 
 
 And therein recognized its origin. 
 
 Upon the obverse of these great events 
 
 Was that of discipline, to press the cup 
 
 Of Babylon to Judah's lip, and make 
 
 Her drink the gall of its idolatry, 
 
 To have her keep a lingering taste of its 
 
 Nauseating bitterness — nor did it fail. 
 
 At length the night of discipline was past, 
 
 And laid aside her penitential robes. 
 
 When from their closeted seclusion came 
 
 Her laws and history, graved on more than stone, 
 
 And cleared away the gathered dust of years. 
 
 Then had her dumb harps loosened tongues of joy. 
 
 Dumb? Ah! when on the willows hung, those harps 
 
 Were still eolean to her secret ear; 
 
 Nor Babylonia's breezes changed their tone 
 
 Of individuality from its divine 
 
 Identity. At length they had a new 
 
 Twang to the olden songs, and Zion waved 
 
 The banners of her ecstacy. Though to 
 
 Her tongue had come a lisp — a sibboleth 
 
 Acquired in contact with the foreign tongue — 
 
 Her words were true in import as the mind 
 
 Of God; for not her spirit bent beneath 
 
264 MAN SON'S VISION 
 
 Its yoke to kiss the chains that galled, but past 
 
 And future there were hyphened, eternized, 
 
 And Freedom blew the trump of jubilee. 
 
 When came the dayspring of autonomy. 
 
 She thought the future had a smiling face. 
 
 That dayspring soon displayed the morning bow 
 
 That omens a tempestuous day. She had 
 
 The scaffolding ; but never was it hers 
 
 To raise a topstone of autonomy. 
 
 And duplicate the prowess of the past ; 
 
 For by distractions of intrigue and strife, 
 
 She tore the ancient laurels from her brow, 
 
 Brake, one by one, the columns of her strength, 
 
 When nations trampled on her weakness with 
 
 Impunity ; yet whom she trusted for 
 
 Deliverance, this from that and that from this, 
 
 With vacillation pitiful, till Rome 
 
 Stept forth and bound her with a friendly chain, 
 
 Whose links were galling to the very bone, 
 
 And kept her groaning in her helplessness. 
 
 Still the attritions of an age when minds 
 
 Were stepping in the starpaved paths of thought, 
 
 Produced a glow of intellectual fire, 
 
 Which glowed to scorch instead of cheer ; to shew 
 
 The dark instead of light their way. While thus, 
 
 Her leaders held the torch of truth as in 
 
 A mummied hand, whose light shone out 
 
 In contrast with the darkness circling them, 
 
 And sanguine ones were looking for the dawn — 
 
 The Sun of righteousness — the promised Seed." 
 
CANTO XV 
 
CANTO XV 
 
 While he unfolded thus the story of 
 The world's development, I was upon 
 A mental promontory, whence I looked 
 Across the sea of time and saw the great 
 Upheavals of mankind, and heard the roar 
 Of its tempestuous elements, which rolled 
 The billows on the shuddering- shore, strewing 
 It with the wrecks of empires. Then the scene, 
 As in a panorama, passed, and I 
 Beheld an empire that embraced the power 
 And glory of the world ; in having which 
 The demons had the world, with Satan's eye 
 And hand upon the whole, involving me 
 In deep perplexity, since it implied 
 The fiend's ubiquity, and that again 
 The attribute of omnipresence in 
 A finite, else the finite acting with 
 A simultaneous power on every mind 
 Without the attribute, either of which 
 Involved a paradox, when thus he spake: 
 
 "An omnipresence has relation to 
 A sphere. That of the Infinite extends 
 From every movement of the inmost orb 
 To those that fringe the outer belt in space, 
 And all are subject to the action of 
 His will, which is their law ; while Satan acts 
 As mind on mind upon the earth alone. 
 And is an infinite as man is to 
 
268 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 A ball of mites — not in his personal 
 
 Dimensions, but capacity to see 
 
 And act with mental power, affecting so 
 
 The senses and the will. The insect with 
 
 Its compound eye, the beast its keener scent, 
 
 And bird, that soars above the mountain peaks, 
 
 Leave man still regally above them all, 
 
 With quasi omnipresence. Though but on 
 
 The threshold of his possibilities, 
 
 The lightning is the lackey of his thought, 
 
 Bearing his messages from zone to zone. 
 
 And with a flash he moves a world of mind. 
 
 But Satan, who retains archangelhood, 
 
 Has power transcending man's as his the fly. 
 
 The hound, the eagle — fetterless as thought, 
 
 And mundane distance little but a name. 
 
 Then deem it not incredible that while with 
 
 Supersensuous eye he looks upon 
 
 Man's thoughts as he upon material things, 
 
 He should, with super-telepathic power. 
 
 Be acting on the minds of all, as on 
 
 The keys of some great instrument, and by 
 
 His touch producing discord on the earth. 
 
 He prompts withal his underleaders, who 
 
 In turn their followers, as executors, 
 
 To operate through sense upon the soul. 
 
 So through the ages he has done, at once 
 
 Developed in his nature as a fiend, 
 
 And waxed in skill as widened out the field." 
 
 His power, I said, and past achievements seemed 
 To make him destinator of the race. 
 
 "So thought the fiend, not knowing that he was 
 
A POEM— CANTO XV 269 
 
 Roug-h-hewing what should be fouixlation stones, 
 
 On which the Infinite would build up, age 
 
 By age, the temple of humanity. 
 
 But while in his exulting ignorance 
 
 He looked for triumph's consummating hour. 
 
 Earth's eye of faith was poring o'er the page 
 
 Whose prophecies became illuminant, 
 
 Flooding men with the splendor of a hope; 
 
 And Expectation listened at the door 
 
 To hear the footsteps of the coming Seed. 
 
 Although the hope was not the Seed, to him 
 
 It seemed a resurrection from the dead, 
 
 The vitalizing of forgotten dust. 
 
 Thus then he reasoned with himself : 
 
 'What next. 
 When four milleniums that have fattened on 
 The glories of my power are bilious with 
 A hope of the impossible ? Ay, the 
 Impossible. But soon a dose of fact 
 Will bring relief, and appetize the age 
 For my purveyance. Let the hopers, then. 
 Be gorged. Revulsion will be greater at 
 The end. But no ! They have no hope, for hope 
 Has something under it. They only wish. 
 And wishes are but Fancy gasping for 
 Fresh air. They in imagination see 
 A something robed in cast-off clothes. 
 And age by age has had who gave to it 
 A voice. Then Silence breathed its epitaph. 
 But lo ! its ghost appears above its grave, 
 And at the sight this visionary cult 
 Imagines it can hear a unison 
 
270 MAN SON'S VISION 
 
 Of voices coming from the caverns of 
 
 Past years, of which it is interpreter. 
 
 Hence with dogmatic confidence it prates, 
 
 As though some overwhehning power were nigh, 
 
 Prepared to seize the earth and swerve it from 
 
 The orbit of my plans. 'Tis but a wish, 
 
 I say — a shadow ; still, sufficient to 
 
 Divert attention that way when I will 
 
 It this ; and so 'tis an impediment. 
 
 Well, while their wish is striding west the earth 
 
 Is turning east, and they with it; and I 
 
 Am gravitation to the earth. But the 
 
 Vitality of a delusion ! How 
 
 It clings unto the skirts of Time until 
 
 Its hand is numb ! and then 'tis shaken loose. 
 
 But call the wish a hope, and say it has 
 
 A basis of reality. What then? The Seed, 
 
 Of woman born, would be like woman — weak. 
 
 Enough. Let the fond dreamers have their dream.' 
 
 "While thus affecting unconcerned contempt. 
 His thoughts were burdened with the Eden curse. 
 And though the hoping could not bring the Seed, 
 And they who hoped were insignificant 
 In power, the hope had a significance 
 That could not be ignored. Therefore, 
 The more he thought of it the more disturbed 
 Became his mind, and with profounder thought. 
 More dark the cloud of his perplexity. 
 Intensifying his uneasiness. 
 Awhile irresolute, at length he called 
 The leaders to a midair council twixt 
 Jehovah's temple and the stars, where he 
 
A POEM— CANTO XV 2-1 
 
 Addressed them thus : 
 
 'Ye great victorious ones ! 
 Victorious? Ay, We have the harvest and 
 The Foe the gleaning, which shall yet be ours, 
 Though it involves a small emergency. 
 But our emergencies expand the mind, 
 And we become a/ greater self ; and as 
 The self is greatened so is the ground for hope. 
 Since last we met the Foe has exercised 
 Increased activity. His trusted ones 
 We left beneath the Babylonion heel. 
 Groaning in abject helplessness. The heel 
 Was raised by rival leverage, and they 
 Regained the old domain. And though we scourged 
 Them with a thousand difficulties, they 
 Attained a splendor having semblance of 
 The old autonomy, in which was more 
 Of glitter than the gold of fealty; 
 The glitter of our burnishing, which might 
 Today deceive a thousand gods. Thus much 
 Conceded — there a loss and here a gain — 
 We feel at once a spur of stimulus 
 And pat of kind encouragement, when lo ! 
 We stumble o'er the new emergency. 
 A something that is nothing in itself, 
 Save as a symptom of unrest, is what 
 Suggested that we meet in council thus. 
 You may recall that in my first report 
 Was mention of an incidental of 
 The curse pronounced : the promise of a Seed 
 With bruising power, and I the object to 
 Be bruised. That promise-threat I treated with 
 
272 HANSON'S VISION 
 
 Contempt, and now would leave asleep among 
 
 The things that were. But those there are who will 
 
 Not let it lie there undisturbed. We have 
 
 Beheld world-wanderers rush through space, 
 
 Having portentious terrors for mankind. 
 
 So, but with opposite effects, have come 
 
 And gone great dreams of that portentious threat. 
 
 And now the dreaming cult proclaims the time 
 
 Of its fulfillment at the door ; by which 
 
 They stimulate a common hope, and make 
 
 Themselves impregnable to our assault. 
 
 While causing turmoil in the common mind, 
 
 With expectations that infatuate. 
 
 To set ourselves against their hope would be 
 
 To raise a hand to stop a hurricane. 
 
 For this their hope is but an eager wish : 
 
 And eager wishes have a second-sight 
 
 That sees realities in nothingness. 
 
 Hence, to attack their hopes is to attack 
 
 A nought, with nought as our reward. 
 
 But we may make their hope a base for ours, 
 
 By urging it to ruinous excess. 
 
 First, we must chafe the spots where galls the yoke 
 
 Of Rome, until the smart infuriates 
 
 Their zealotry, and so deflects their view 
 
 That they will see Deliverance holding out 
 
 Her hand, while Fortune winks and lures them on. 
 
 Next, goad the jealousy of Rome to tread 
 
 Them into dust with her relentless foot, 
 
 Giving their dreams fulfillment in a dread 
 
 Reality that leaves them in despair. 
 
 To do this is our task, the hozv our problem. 
 
A POEM— CANTO XV 273 
 
 To its solution I invite your thought.' ♦ 
 "Behal responded thus : 
 
 'Most worthy Chief 
 And peers ! The key of skill that has unlocked 
 The problems of the past will serve us here. 
 The length of arm that reaches o'er the seas; 
 The strength that tore the crown from Carthage and 
 That asks no odds of earth or heaven when thus 
 And so it wills; — that arm, that strength is ours. 
 Ay, Rome is ours, and having Rome, we have 
 A mightiness to wrench the orbs of power 
 From out their spheres and grind them into dust. 
 What, then, is this poor fatuous weakling with 
 Its head upon her lap? Belike she boxed 
 Its ears until the sparks flew and it thought 
 Them stars that omened luck ; and so it hopes ! 
 But I have thoughts that look to ultimates ; 
 Thoughts that, enforced, would exeunt Rome and all 
 The paraphernalia of earthly power. 
 Deaden the tree, its every branch will die. 
 Rome is the tree and they a graft in it. 
 Then deaden Rome and they perforce will die, 
 And this magnificence of sanctity 
 Beneath us, with its ceremonial pomps. 
 And every vestige of the past, be as 
 The dust of Babylon. These hopers, had 
 They once been grafts in Babylon, as now 
 In Rome, had shared the doom of Babylon. 
 Our efforts, then, must be to worm our way 
 Into the roots of Rome until her bulk 
 Above becomes too heavy for the state 
 Of rottenness below ; then farewell to 
 
 18 
 
274 MANSON-'S VISION 
 
 The hope of these resistants, whom to save 
 
 The efforts of a thousand Seeds would be 
 
 In vain. How then could come the bruise ? Now seen 
 
 The task, the how of its performance is 
 
 A challenge to our skill, accepting which 
 
 My thoughts are piercing to the deepest roots ; 
 
 And there I find unwilling servitude 
 
 That fain would have the empire topper o'er^ 
 
 In hope of better where could not be worse. 
 
 I rise, and at the surface find a girth 
 
 That is but massive fickleness, prepared 
 
 To yield the way that Fortune's tempest blows. 
 
 I need but give a zest to appetite 
 
 To have them gnaw till comes the topple and 
 
 The thundrous crash.' 
 
 "He ceased, when Mammon spake 
 With eager fluency : 
 
 'Great Chief, and ye 
 Illustrious ones ! To me this hope smacks more 
 Of prophecy than threat, in that it shows 
 Relax of hold on that which is and grope 
 For what is not. As they relax we have 
 Encouragement to seize, and as they grope 
 A chance to take their hand and lead our way. 
 While Belial gives attention to the roots. 
 And waits the crash of the tremendous fall. 
 Be mine to blight the leaves, the branches and 
 The bole, the hopers with the rest, and leave 
 No' trace of its vitality to make 
 A future sprouting possible. I dream 
 Not here in this; tinkle no empty boast; 
 Pursue no phantom hope, but with an eye 
 
A POEM— CANTO XV 275 
 
 Wide open see the end of what is well 
 
 Begun. The farthest provinces I keep 
 
 A-flutter for revolt, the nearer sway 
 
 With rivalries for pomp and riotous 
 
 Indulgence, while the central power is kept 
 
 Aquiver with insatiate desires. 
 
 With such efficiency I operate 
 
 That few are rich whose dainties savor not 
 
 O'f blood ; few who have intellectual wealth 
 
 But have a miser heart ; few in the seats 
 
 Of justice but would drain the public veins, 
 
 And few who formulate the laws but put 
 
 In them a sordid element of self. 
 
 Thus from the roots and bole to farthest tip, 
 
 The tree is deadening ; and when comes the fall, 
 
 The thews of Havoc shall expend their strength 
 
 In hewing it to burn, and after that 
 
 Our feet walk o'er the ashes of its doom.' 
 
 "Next Bacchus, with a lightsome gleam upon 
 His countenance spake thus : 
 
 'Great Chief and peers! 
 When last we met for interchange of thought, 
 In fitting words I elegized the was, 
 And lyricized in hope the Is-to-he. 
 But every hope has withered in the scorch 
 Of years, of which I gather up the leaves 
 That lie about the feet of 7^, and lay 
 rhem with new hopes upon the bier of Was. 
 
 Is-to-be has changed his name, 
 Nor in nature is the same; 
 
276 MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Hence we look on him no more 
 As we looked on him before. 
 
 He awoke to work us ill, 
 With his ways our pleasure kill ; 
 Struck us with his little hands, 
 In contempt of our commands. 
 
 As he grew in strength and years. 
 He provoked us into fears ; 
 For our fairest hopes he fought, 
 Caring not to please in aught. 
 
 Better he had never been 
 Than to fill his life with sin ; 
 Sin of which we pay the cost 
 In the hopes that we have lost. 
 
 Knowing that his days are spent. 
 We would not his end lament. 
 Hoping better things to see 
 In another Is-to-be. 
 
 There ! that is a biography of Hope 
 
 That laughed and danced its day, then died. Time is 
 
 A graveyard crammed with buried hopes ; buried 
 
 So deep that there is room' for more above, 
 
 Tier upon tier. And we have many dear 
 
 Ones buried there ; to think of which might make 
 
 A statue weep. But, side by side with ours, 
 
 The Foe has many in eternal sleep. 
 
 My memory treads again the beaten road. 
 
 Made dusty by the feet of yesterdays, 
 
 And looks adown the vista of the years 
 
A POEM— CANTO XV 2^7 
 
 To where the fathers of these devotees 
 Hobbled on crutchy promises that failed 
 Them as we made the nations give the trip. 
 And now I see the children taking- up 
 The crutches of the' sires, to hobble as 
 Of old. The mitered ones have fallen at 
 My touch, and they who were the oracles 
 Of the Unseen succumbed before my power, 
 And with them fell embattled hosts of hope. 
 Then ask, Are their successors more than they? 
 Or have my shafts been blunted at the point? 
 What help have these to stand where others fell? 
 Or what can they in gyves who fell when free? 
 Nay ,but their present hope is born of their 
 Despair. But what if came the wondrous Seed ? 
 They are themselves and as themselves will do ; 
 As part of Romey their lot be that of Rome. 
 But I control the appetite of Rome ; 
 And appetite is the imperial Power; 
 The Power to give their sentence in the court 
 Of destiny.' 
 
 "Then Moloch, looking grave 
 As some moss-covered monument, spake thus: 
 
 'Illustrious Chief and partners in the strife ! 
 What, were these hopers grafted into Rome ? 
 They still would bear their native kind of fruit. 
 But no. Though in they are no part of Rome. 
 In Egypt they were magnetized so that 
 They have attractive sympathies; nor the 
 Vicissitudes of time have lessened their 
 Magnetic power, which isolates them from 
 The non-affinities. And should Rome sink 
 
278 MAN SON'S VISION 
 
 Into a sea of dark forgetfulness, 
 They still would rise above the gulping of 
 The waves. Ay, let Rome perish, ground to dust. 
 And they with Rome, between the millstones of 
 Almighty power, their very dust would come 
 Together with an impulse to cohere. 
 Hence I with you, O Chief ! would magnify 
 The mirage of their hope and urge pursuit. 
 When they shall realize that every age. 
 And all their trusted oracles have mocked 
 Them, will be Fortune's hour for our designs. 
 Then not to autonomic anarchy 
 I look for their discomfiture, but to 
 A change of character, of thought and trust, 
 Which may develop as we supervise. 
 In mental, moral and the physical 
 There are carnivora and ruminantia. 
 Each with its own specific appetite. 
 These, then, must be fed on what will please. 
 Give them their pomps, their quillets and conceits, 
 All liveried in the robes of sanctity, 
 And keep their thoughts turned inward on themselves 
 Until the ego deifies itself. 
 They will be our obsequious servitors. 
 Yet think, mayhap, that they are bruising us.' 
 "Then Satan thus, as in complacent mood : 
 'In what you say I see so many beams 
 Of fact from one great sun of thought. I view 
 The past with all its glory of achievement. 
 I see the mouth of Fury open, and 
 I hear the smack of watery lips that gulp 
 A world. I look and see the cleaving of 
 
A POEM— CANTO XV 279 
 
 A racial cornerstone, whose splinters I 
 
 Appropriated to display our power. 
 
 The centuries rolled upon their groaning- wheels, 
 
 Yet nothing inkled of the promised Seed. 
 
 I see the partiality that nursed 
 
 And brought a race to a conspicuous height, 
 
 Then fixed its gaze upon a golden world 
 
 Of promises, when we stept in between 
 
 It and that world ,and midnight settled down 
 
 Upon its hopes ; and still, when needed most, 
 
 No promised Seed appears. I look again. 
 
 And see the weakling raise its feeble head. 
 
 And soon 'tis cooing in the lap of Rome, 
 
 Cheered by the glitter of a tinsel hope 
 
 That seems a foregleam from the golden world. 
 
 And so the Seed is only yet a hope. 
 
 With such a record it is ours to hope. 
 
 Albeit they are hoping with a new 
 
 Tenacity that sees the nothing at 
 
 Their door. And so the hope flows on into 
 
 A dead sea ever filling, never full. 
 
 Belial and Mammon see the fall of Rome, 
 
 And these fond dreamers crushed beneath the wreck. 
 
 But they who outlived Babylon and her 
 
 Transcendent glory may rejuvenate. 
 
 But Moloch shows preliminary means, 
 
 Suggesting that we draw these nurslings from 
 
 The bosom of the trusted One whom they 
 
 Have served, and wean them from the memory of 
 
 His name, that when they lie beneath the wreck 
 
 Of Rome, that wreck may prove their grave, since 
 
 Cursed by Him whose bosom they had left. Here, then, 
 
28o MANSON'S VISION 
 
 Our problem is, to cure them of their hope. 
 
 To romanize them is the remedy — 
 
 Not as to form, to eye, to consciousness; 
 
 But romanize their heart. Transfigure their 
 
 Conception of the object of the hope, 
 
 That it may be no more a person but 
 
 An ideal born of the collective mind — 
 
 Which is the Woman amplified by long 
 
 Descent — and that, personified, will be 
 
 The promised Seed. Then open to the mind 
 
 A vision of such possibilities 
 
 Of power, aggrandizement and glory as 
 
 Will dazzle the imagination of 
 
 Some fiery zealot, moving him to fire 
 
 The wrath of Rome. Then let the flames of her 
 
 Consuming fury burn. That done, the earth 
 
 Is ours, and not an evening zephyr will 
 
 Be laden with a whisper of the Seed.' 
 
 "Ere fell the last word from his lips, a sheen 
 Of overpowering splendor burst above 
 The slumbering hills of Bethlehem, and an 
 Innumerable throng of shining ones 
 Was visible, and gave a glory-shout 
 Of, 'Peace on earth, good will to men !' and in 
 The glad refrain announced — the Seed had come!" 
 
 That said, I was enveloped by a mist, 
 Which thickened into darkness, followed by 
 A sense of earthening, and behold ! the end. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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