University of Virginia Library

II. THE HOST OF HEAVEN.

Uriel.

CHORUS OF STARS.

Satan.
Hosting, ye come, ye Armies of Heaven!
What are now the Planets Seven?
What are the fables that were forged in thy brain,
Thou Son of old Adam? or art thou a Cain,
Or art thou an Abel, the vain of the vain?
Seven days had a week, seven steps had the throne
Of the wisest of kings, seven Spirits made One:
Seven was the chance, Seven the main,
When shall man look on such Seven again?

Uriel.
Who sits in Scorner's Chair, ne'er he
Shall utter Truth, or know, or be—
But let this even be gravely said,
The unarmed eye is limited.
If all it seeth All it deemeth,
'Tis Sign of That whereof it dreameth;
But when as Reason bares the sky
To the far-reaching scient eye,
Bursts...spreads, on intellectual sight,
What Image of the Infinite!

Satan.
Much owe the Students of the Stars
To him, once doomed to dungeon bars,
The Tuscan Artist, who would see
The Moon from top of Fesolé.
Nor less owes Man to him whose glass
Shows myriad worlds in tiniest mass:
Dwarfed, with his Earth, by other Orbs,
Specks which the vast of space absorbs;
He gains again gigantick height,
And she partakes of Infinite;
Above—beyond—the atom races,
Worlds couched in worms, life's dwelling-places.

Uriel.
Of worlds innumerable in the presence,
Man it behoves an humble mind to bear;
In contemplation of the Eternal Essence,
Let him feel pride he can, in his dim sphere.
Little is he compared with Power divine,
Great that God's Image in his heart may shine.
There, in his moral being, lies the source
Of intellectual life and mental force;
All Speculation on his Will depends,
And “Know Thyself” all Wisdom comprehends—
But, though man's Will be as the central sun,
Round which the Universe, since it begun,
Hath rolled in choral orbed sisterhood,
Wheel within wheel, if spiritually understood,
Let him acknowledge that the all-homaged Sun
Owns the same Centre as each starry one,
And yield (then freest) his Will submiss to thine,
Thou centreless all-central Will Divine;
And while he learns to know himself, like me,
Know then himself best known, when known in Thee!

CHORUS OF STARS.

Uriel.
Wisdom presides above yon Crescent still—

Satan.
Death sits within her shadow—

Uriel.
And her head
Is star-crowned, she sun-clad—

Satan.
Yet has she been
Chased from her state into the Wilderness—

Uriel.
But then the Angel of the Heaven stooped down,
And from the Angel of the Earth received
The Man-Child she had borne from Dragon-power.

Satan.
Hosting they come! Not only now they be
Earth, Venus, Vesta, Juno, Jupiter,
Mars, Ceres, Saturn, Pallas, Mercury,
And Ouranus, but all the Names that e'er
Bore God or Demigod, Hero or Sage;
So numerous the populous worlds appear
To common vision in a scient age—
Look—hath a Comet filled them with affright
Dashing amongst them in his fiery rage?
'Tis the Death-Demon on his Steed of White!

CHORUS OF STARS.
Wo! wo! wo!
What art thou, Centaur-Wraith?

Death.
Ask Him who saith,
And it is so!

Uriel.
Death is among the Planets on his steed
Of paly hue, a Warrior in his pride,
Trampling the children, while the parents bleed
With unseen ichor, the unnoticed tide
Which the soul sweats, the spirit's living rain.
Before him, and behind, and on each side,
Father and Mother agonize—in vain!

Satan.
Why, Death's a Hero, and each Hero must
Have his Aceldama, though Grief and Pain
Lie writhing on the field, and feed on dust!
—But let me quit this measure,...theme sublime
Is best discussed in right-heroick rhime.
Nature and Spirit have a double sense:
Death, in the days of old intelligence,
Was as Apollo named, because both might
Destroy or heal, and Pæan each was hight.
They chanted pæans, when from plague relieved.
Battle began, or victory was achieved;
And when Apollo with the Python strove,
The Delphick Virgins' Io Pæans clove
Through the wild noise of conflict, and, undrowned,
Loud and harmonious rose above the sound.

CHORUS OF STARS.
Hence—gaunt King! dread Death—begone!

Death.
Song and Dance with you alone
Bide not. I am the Merry One!

Chorus.
Terrible! the Terrible!
Hence from Heaven! hie back to Hell!

Death.
Nay, my way has been as well
On the bosom of the Earth,
And the Sea that is her girth—
And my song has murmured near
Bower and hall, and field and meer,
Bed and billow, passing sweet,
And to Dance attuned the feet.
Shall my work not be complete?

Chorus.
What then hast thou now to do?

Death.
To tread all the Planets through,
Clean way making for worlds new—
New heavens, new earths—Ye must vanish,
I remain, whom ye would banish.

Chorus.
Do not curse us as we go—

Death.
Io Pæan!

Chorus.
Wo! wo! wo!

Satan.
Yon dark half of the Crescent lingers—

Uriel.
Life
Not Death, is there—the Church invisible.

Satan.
Her side which looks on earth is oft times dark

Uriel.
What hither looks the Orb I rule enlightens,
As she moves eastward, earth with light she gladdens.

Satan.
Anon, earth rolls between thine Orb and hers,
And lo, her phase converted toward the earth,
Cheered by thy lineal rays, shines out in radiance,
And then what upward looks seems veiled in gloom.

Uriel.
O! what is dark to earth is brightest then
In heaven's eye, and what to earth is brightest,
Is black as night to the pure eye of God!

Satan.
But when right obvious to thy Glory, hers
Is perfect and complete—for what is it
But thine reflected? And these stars, that wait
On her majestick goings-forth, like her
Express thy Glory, and, haply though obscurely,
Memorial bear of thee. Hence Night is holy,
For it preserves remembrances of Holier.

Uriel.
And of the Holiest—Fountain of mine!
The Heavens declare the Glory of the Lord,
The Firmament doth show his handy work.

Satan.
Thou art their god; 'tis of thy light they mind,
In their relations each revealing it.
And shall yon Death their altars thus destroy,
Their temples raze? The Power of Death have I—
Look, he my eye acknowledges, obeys
The mandate of my frown.

Uriel.
God has to thee
Given power, whereto I yield, in patient faith.

Satan.
Lo! with his planetary train he comes,
In homage to my feet. Fall down and worship.

Uriel.
Thee?

Satan.
Thee! thou art the god of all these worlds;
Thou rulest, and Death lives—if not, Death dies.

Death.
Father! all hail!

Satan.
All hail! my Son beloved—
Loved for thy Mother's sake and for thy own.
Why art thou rampant?

Death.
For the worlds are doomed.

Satan.
And Uriel's too?

Death.
Yea.

Satan.
Hearst thou not?

Uriel.
But grudge not.

Satan.
Thy world shall yet be saved—

Death.
It may not be—

Satan.
It must be. Know, your destinies are twined.
The Consummation of the Filial Age
Must be delayed, or hideous wreck cling both—
“All things,” 'tis written, “need submit to Him;”
Light first to be shall be the last to cease,
Save Death.

Death.
And what of me?

Satan.
Then comes thy end.
For on the Tables it is prophesied,
“The last Foe that shall be destroyed is Death.”
Therefore to thee be Uriel as a god;
Lift not thine hand against him, but adore;
Live thou his votary, or die his victor.

Uriel.
Why rage ye? and imagine a vain thing?
And wherefore envy him who seeketh not
His own but the Paternal glory? Is not
Excepted HE who put all things beneath him?
And when all things to him shall be subdued,
Shall not the Son himself be subject to
Him who put all things under him, that God
Be all in all?

Satan.
Ay—so he saith. But who
Hath seen the Father?

Uriel.
I reject your worship!

Death.
Turn, oh, turn not in thy wrath,
Sun-god! from thy worshippers;
Prostrate in thy sacred path,
Heed my supplicating verse.
I to whom the race of man,
And all things since Time began,
Have been subject;—I to thee
Bow, benignant Deity.
By the Light which is thy Being;
By thine Eye which is all-seeing;
By thy far and fervid Throne;
By thy State aloft—alone—
By thy Sway from East to West;
By thy blessing Beams and blest;
By thine everlasting Rest;
And the Rising and the Setting
Of the earths of thy begetting;
By thy Rays whose echoes are
Such of planet and of star;
By the Life which thou dost give
Unto each and all that live;
By thy Strength and thy Rejoicing,
And the Plenty thou art voicing
With an ever potent Word,
Not unfelt, albeit unheard;
By the Hymns that are sung to thee,
By the Rites with which worlds woo thee,
By thy Merit, worthy more
Than all worship—I adore!
Save, oh, save—the gods aver,
Thou canst save thy worshipper!

Satan.
Ye myriads of bright Planets, who, unto
The peoples of each other's Orbs, appear
So beautiful, and fitting regions for
Beings far happier than abide in each;
Fair in the depths of Azure as ye sail,
So placidly and patiently, self-moved,
Self-ordered, by inherent power informed,
And with intelligence divine endued;—
Ye know the spirit whence your spirit is,
How generated, and to Uriel pay
High honour duly. So sublime ye are,
Ye seem immortal, yet but seem; for Death
Hath the commission that ye tremble at.
But ye know also where Salvation lies,
Having of our discourse been audient,
Therefore your choral supplication raise,
And with your worship move to pity him,
Whom such high worship well may deify.