University of Virginia Library

THE WIZARD:

A Fragment.

The voice, like dying thunders rolled along—
An awful harmony—as sweet as strong.
“Bend but to me in vassalage thy knee,
And gifts unearthly shall be dealt to thee:
Thou shalt possess a Talisman of power,
To check the tempest in its triumph's hour,
To blunt the lightnings on their dazzling path,
To lull the ocean's stormy joy and wrath,
To hurl back the loud Lauwine in its fall,
To bind the elements in viewless thrall!—
Bend but in vassalage a lowly knee,
And awful gifts will I concede to thee:
Knowledge of dread, deep, and unfailing spells,
A clue to mystery's most secluded cells,
Proud mastery and dominion uncontrolled
Wherever wind hath rushed or wave hath rolled!
Thou shalt in freedom and in might career
From world to world—from glorious sphere to sphere.
Their mysteries and their marvels to extort
Shall be thy splendid toil, thy kingly sport;
Thou shalt unravel all their hidden schemes,
And laugh to scorn Philosophy's vain dreams.
Thine shall be more than even monarchic sway—
Full-blown Success shall pave thy glorying way;
Thou shalt cleave through the huge, the solid globe,
Its inmost depths—and central mines shalt probe;
Its caverned treasuries shall unlock, explore,
And rifle them of their refulgent store!
Thou shalt, ascending and descending, pierce
To far recesses of the universe;
All things shall own thy bidding and behest,
All things unveil to thy triumphant quest!
Thou shalt observe, and recognize, and share
All powers of earth, fire, water, sublest air—
Thou shalt detect, perceive, and apprehend
The harmony of things, their aim and end,
And with the soul of their existence blend!
And 'midst the labyrinths of all mysteries move,
Not to perceive alone, but to assay and prove.
Thou shalt become, all dreadless and elate,
A strong coadjutor of conscious fate.
Familiar shalt thou be with all th' unknown;
The abstruse, the occult, shall unto thee be shown,
Till thou, in thy brief span of life shalt be
Experienced in th' unveiled Eternity,
Through the stupendous gifts 't is mine to accord,
Wilt thou but hail me as thy chief and lord.
Through the high counsels, the efficient aid
Of mightiest spirits, in dread strength arrayed;
Through the deep converse, awful and intense,
With loftiest orders of Intelligence,
Which thou shalt hold, in midnight's haunted hours
When earth is visited by Viewless Powers,—
The intercommunicativeness sublime
Of thy raised thoughts with pierced and vanquished Time—
Through the prevailing power, and mastering might
Of vigil, spell, ordeal, and mystic rite—
Through the intertransubstantialization
Of all the elements of dread creation
With thine own essence—quickened and refined,
Darting through all, as darts the enfranchised mind
In chainless dreams—but they may lead astray—
Thou shalt not fear to miss thy certain way!—
Thou shalt in lightnings scour th' empyreal plains,
The lightnings shall run quivering through thy veins;
Thou shalt in sunbeams revel far and free,
Those sunbeams even shall grow a part of thee—
Familiar thus, even thus shalt thou become
With all the works of Nature, Chance and Doom;
And bared before thy free and filmless eyes
Thall be the unknown, the immense Infinities,
Through the surpassing gifts 't is mine to impart
To those who serve me with a loyal heart.
These gifts, this sovereign knowledge shall be thine
Wilt thou but now, before my throne incline—
This power, this high power, shall be dealt to thee,
So thou wilt serve me with true fealty.”
Then a voice rendered answer, calm and clear,
'T was something surely, more to feel than hear;
More to the heart addressed than to the ear:
—Those accents—spiritually musical,
Bound the 'rapt senses in their silvery thrall—
And woke the gladdened soul—divinely woke
To deeper life—and thus that calm voice spoke:
“There are more mighty gifts—knowledge there is,
More pure, more glorious, and more vast than this;
There is a loftier power—would I might show
These things to thee—oh! would I might bestow
On thee their uttermost pricelessness of worth,
Beyond all else to be desired on earth!
Rich gifts of Love, and Purity, and Truth,
Of Wisdom, Hope, Long Suffering, Meekness, Truth;
Knowledge of Mysteries boundless and intense,
Awful with spiritual magnificence.
Knowledge of Truths, stupendous and august,
Mighty to upraise the soul from earth's dim dust—
Power, through the external shell of things to see,
Through all to trace creative Deity!—
One universe of Deity to explore,
To hail, to extol, to avow, and to adore—
And with strong Faith's transpiercing eyes to mark
Things in themselves obscure and densely dark;
And still to feel, though veiled to outward sense,
The omnipresence of Omnipotence.”