Ranolf and Amohia A dream of two lives. By Alfred Domett. New edition, revised |
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 | Ranolf and Amohia |  |
VIII.
“Thus more rational ever it seems that the vague transcendentalist's cloud
Of the ‘Absolute’ must, to be real, as with orient hues, be endowed
With the qualities (since without any 'twere quite inconceivable still)
Of Intelligence Infinite ever—no less than Omnipotent Will,
Whose manifold manifest tokens the visible Universe fill!
The identical ‘Mind’ then 'twould be, whose Idea Divine like a gleam
From itself, could for Plato illumine his shadowy groves Academe;
And anew,—by the sandy hot glare where those time-eaten monoliths brown
On the solemn inscrutable Sphinx, as the sunshine eternal, look down,
Or the date-palms of Nile, ruddy-golden, its cacao-dark overflow crown,—
Vary-starred the Mosaics of Philo,—in Christian Theosophy soared
Of Tertullians and Plato-fed Clements, who welcomed it, loved and adored
(Since their Infinite must be defined!) as their ‘Reason’—their ‘Logos,’ their Lord,
Self-existent ere all things began—ere it spoke itself forth as their ‘Word’!—
Of the ‘Absolute’ must, to be real, as with orient hues, be endowed
With the qualities (since without any 'twere quite inconceivable still)
Of Intelligence Infinite ever—no less than Omnipotent Will,
Whose manifold manifest tokens the visible Universe fill!
315
From itself, could for Plato illumine his shadowy groves Academe;
And anew,—by the sandy hot glare where those time-eaten monoliths brown
On the solemn inscrutable Sphinx, as the sunshine eternal, look down,
Or the date-palms of Nile, ruddy-golden, its cacao-dark overflow crown,—
Vary-starred the Mosaics of Philo,—in Christian Theosophy soared
Of Tertullians and Plato-fed Clements, who welcomed it, loved and adored
(Since their Infinite must be defined!) as their ‘Reason’—their ‘Logos,’ their Lord,
Self-existent ere all things began—ere it spoke itself forth as their ‘Word’!—
How these lofty Ideas—so essential to Man—ever shoot up and shine
O'er the dim Sea of Ages unchanged—like the spouts of the Whale o'er the brine
Far apart, yet, as true as from shots ricochetting, unswerved from one line!
Lo, the Mind over-ruling Platonic—the Logos Patristic—itself
Long before more than crudely conceived in the creed of that mystical Elf—
Hoary-headed and sixty years old at his birth—the ‘Old Boy’—Lao-tse!—
Philosophical rattle the reverend Babe in oracular play
O'er his senior-juniors shook, as he lisped them in long-tailed Cathay
Of the ‘Absolute’ all he could guess—as the ‘Taou’—the ‘Method’—the ‘Way’
Of the Mystery when from its lake of primordial stillness it steals
Down the Universe-River serene, and its intimate presence reveals
As a simple ‘Becoming,’—spontaneous—effortless—void of all aim,—
Yet attaining—evolving—resulting in harmonized Nature the same!—
O'er the dim Sea of Ages unchanged—like the spouts of the Whale o'er the brine
Far apart, yet, as true as from shots ricochetting, unswerved from one line!
Lo, the Mind over-ruling Platonic—the Logos Patristic—itself
Long before more than crudely conceived in the creed of that mystical Elf—
Hoary-headed and sixty years old at his birth—the ‘Old Boy’—Lao-tse!—
316
O'er his senior-juniors shook, as he lisped them in long-tailed Cathay
Of the ‘Absolute’ all he could guess—as the ‘Taou’—the ‘Method’—the ‘Way’
Of the Mystery when from its lake of primordial stillness it steals
Down the Universe-River serene, and its intimate presence reveals
As a simple ‘Becoming,’—spontaneous—effortless—void of all aim,—
Yet attaining—evolving—resulting in harmonized Nature the same!—
Once again, lo! that “Method’—‘Mind’—‘Logos’;—thinly masked by a scholarly name,—
From the subtle mild East meditative—the fervid fanatical South—
Irrepressible notion! upsprings in the Northern cold sceptical drouth;—
Reappears like a vanished revolving Sea-Light slow-reviving aflame,—
As your ‘Immanent Reason’!—for this too, a Will all-püissant must claim
Like the rest; since though leaving the Good, while the Ages the issue await,
Through the Cosmos we ken of to wrestle with Evil and ravin and hate,
'Tis invested with might to o'errule the mystic and multiform fray—
Can coerce the two foes internecine—the duel æonian sway
Till the higher as Victor come forth in some new indescribable Day!
From the subtle mild East meditative—the fervid fanatical South—
Irrepressible notion! upsprings in the Northern cold sceptical drouth;—
Reappears like a vanished revolving Sea-Light slow-reviving aflame,—
As your ‘Immanent Reason’!—for this too, a Will all-püissant must claim
Like the rest; since though leaving the Good, while the Ages the issue await,
Through the Cosmos we ken of to wrestle with Evil and ravin and hate,
'Tis invested with might to o'errule the mystic and multiform fray—
Can coerce the two foes internecine—the duel æonian sway
317
But the Day! what should it be and when?—when the ‘Absolute’, might we not say—
Shall flood the new skies with pure gold—shall its perfect predominance prove
In the triumph of Light without limit—the reign of unlimited Love!—
What if this were the high ‘reconciling Idea’ which all others transcends;
‘And to realize, organize which the whole Universe struggles and tends’—
If this ‘Absolute’ were but the Love which with Reason eternally blends!—
Then Philosophy were—an ally—in Religion's best colours attired;
Then the Unity Hegel the Thinker less clearly conceived than desired,
Were the ‘Notion’ the Nazarene taught, by his heart's simple grandeur inspired!
Shall flood the new skies with pure gold—shall its perfect predominance prove
In the triumph of Light without limit—the reign of unlimited Love!—
What if this were the high ‘reconciling Idea’ which all others transcends;
‘And to realize, organize which the whole Universe struggles and tends’—
If this ‘Absolute’ were but the Love which with Reason eternally blends!—
Then Philosophy were—an ally—in Religion's best colours attired;
Then the Unity Hegel the Thinker less clearly conceived than desired,
Were the ‘Notion’ the Nazarene taught, by his heart's simple grandeur inspired!
| Ranolf and Amohia | |