University of Virginia Library

“But ever, this to hinder, be ye sure,
His power will cross us; and, so vast the odds
Betwixt us now, 'twere madness to oppose
Might against might; for, even if alone
Against his angels striving,—strength from Him
To them would be transmitted; and our power,
Great of itself as theirs, would thus be foiled.
Direct affront of strength avoiding then,—
Still, not the less, wise caution fending us,
Unceasing, unremitting be our war.
His schemes to counteract; our own work out;
His glory dimming thus, ours lighting up;
His power curtailing, aggrandizing ours,—
Such be our rule of action, day by day,
And age by age, throughout eternity;
Or till, the time arrived, on thrones as high
As His we sit; and through the realms of space
With might as potent rule.

“The one great blow
At His last, loved creation, man, we struck;
And deadly seemed the wound; though still lived on
The wretched race,—a mockery of His power;
A loathsomeness so hateful in his sight,
That, as ye know, by one great deluge-swoop,
All but annihilation absolute
He sent upon them. Hoped he, from the few
Whom he preserved, a loftier, purer race?
If so, the All-foreseeing, wrongly saw;
And ours the truer foresight,—from same tree
Predicting the same fruit; even though the axe
Close to the ground should hew it: for a brood
More vile and bestial never cumbered earth
In the old times of sin that brought the flood,
Than that which now, o'er nine parts of the globe,
Makes mockery of God's prescience. Yet one race,—
His own peculiar people, as they boast,—
For secret end, apart from all the rest
Long hath he kept; designing, it may be,
In way mysterious, through them to work out
Some good for general man. That end, once seen
Through the thick shade that still his purpose hides,—
To thwart, our everlasting aim must be;
Even though, all ignorant of the consequence,
In veriest night we toil: for this we know,
That, whatsoever his intent,—to us
Ill must it bring, successful; but great gain,
Being defeated; since power lost to him,
To us is power transferred. And, through the depth
Of the eternal ages striving thus,
And gaining still,—though but in such degree
As one small drop in twice a hundred years,
To drain earth's oceans taken,—yet, as that
Scant measure, through the cycles infinite
Pursued, would drain at length the final drop,
And leave the sea-bed but a sandy waste,—
So, atom after atom of his power
To us transferred, would bring us equal at length;
And, in the end, to such high state exalt,
That we, to him, should be as gods; to us,
He but a subject Spirit. Evermore
This, then, must be our aim,—seen, or not seen
The ultimate result,—his purposes,
Whate'er they be, to thwart.

“This old design,
Long known to us, through Israel to work out
Some good to all mankind, claims from us, then,
Action immediate; for the means at length,
Are set in motion; the beginning made
Of that which, haply, we, not he, may end,
If wise we prove, and diligent, and firm,
And strong in our persistence.

“For what cause,
This chosen people, during so long years,
In bondage miserable hath been left,—
As though of God the accurst, not favored most,—
Vain 'twere to guess: nor, for our purpose, aught
Importeth it: but now the time is come,
When from his thraldom, and from out the land
Of his oppressors, Israel shall go forth.
Such the design, at least,—by God's own voice
Announced: and tenfold, therefore, be our toil,
And subtlety, and never sleeping watch,
His word to render vain. A triumph that,
Greater than even the great original blow
Which struck down man; for, though God made him pure,
He promised not that he should never fall:
But now, in human words, as man to man,
Distinctly hath He promised, his own hand
To stretch o'er Egypt; working wonderments
And judgments on the people and their king;
Till he, and all, as with one voice, shall cry
On Israel to depart. This to prevent,
All diligence, all wisdom, and all power,—
Yet peaceably working still,—must we put forth.