University of Virginia Library

I. The Incarnate

‘Man! where wast thou when Ages I decreed,
And laid for Space foundations? Knowest thou
Of the Beginning; when the Heavens, the Earths,
His filial words, were of the Eternals born?
To thee all void, and formless, and a deep
Of darkness, till thereon the Spirit brood,
And the voiced Light distinction introduce
In Hades, else confusion; and divide
The light from darkness, making day, and night.
Light immaterial first; till, self-evolved,
It shine, and glow, and burn, within, and on,
The earth; and, with the watery element,
Act in construction, previous to the sun.
Where dwelt it, then?—now, dwells?—the Darkness, where?
—Hast thou commanded, since thy days, the Morn;
And caused the Day-spring gild the purple air?
The treasures of the Snow hast thou perceived,
Or those of Hail, for time of wrath reserved;
Of these yet inexperienced? Canst thou tell
Who, for the overflow of Waters, cleaved
Its channel; and divided the fit way
For Lightning of the thunder; that the Rain,
Whereof thou knowest not, may fall from heaven;
In Judgement, and then Blessing; and oft time,
On desart wild, untenanted of man,
To quicken desolation into bloom?
Hence, when to heath, and waste, and far-off isle,
Not habitable, or mountain too sublime
For human feet to tread, the traveller come,
Exploring, and shall see, distant or near;
There, he shall own a God; and laud the hand
Benevolent, the barren bleakest soil
That leaves not, mid frost, snow, and ice, undecked
With vegetation, but prepares a shew
Of Beauty to delight the Wanderer's eye.
—From seas, and rivers; lakes, and rivulets;
With the moist earth; the Clouds, in vapours, rise
To elevate expanse. Hast thou explored
Their secret treasures; searched Life's fountains out?
Hast thou the Centre reached, or have the gates
Of Death to thee been opened? Hast thou seen
The dreamy portals of his shadowy halls?
Or, hast thou soared on high to other orbs,
And taken knowledge of their secret years?
The greater Light, and less; with the bright stars;
Morning, and evening? or their number learned?
Canst thou unrein the Comet, or upbind?
Or travel to Orion? or exchange
Impulse that gives them motion, or the checks
By which the attracting Spirit reins them in?
Canst thou command the Sea, and Earth obey
United influence both of Sun, and Moon?
The Vapours draw from waters, floods from clouds,
Replenishing the earth with great increase
Of flowers, and fruits? or teach the forms of things
The power to separate the beams, and rays,
Whence glow with various hues the works of God?
Settedst thou in the Old Obscure the Plants, and Seeds;
Then gavest to them the Sun, whose beams should call
Their beauty, and their produce, into life?
Madest thou for light the Temple of the Sun?
Or multiplied it sevenfold; and shrined
In floral emblems, vegetable life,
His loving gifts, in grass, and herb, and tree;
Each teeming to the birth, with germs, and seeds
Productive, with progressive growth endued,
With blood, and bone, and brain, and nerve, and skin,
According to their kinds; the types of thine,
As they of thee, in birth, and life, and death;
As thou, in all things, image art of God—
Who wisdom in the human bosom put,
And understanding in the human heart?
—The cunning of thy frame, it is not thine.
The heart itself is his; and unto him
Belongs thy spirit, as thy being doth:
And whatsoe'er, in other creatures, shews
Thyself to thee, a shadow shews of God,
Of higher Wisdom vouches, greater Power;
Both what the seas produce, where great Whales swim,
And what in air soars far above the earth,
Fowl in the heaven's open firmament.
—Behold the Hawk; he by thy wisdom flies—
Whither the summer travels, and due south
Stretches his wings, to men ill seasons leaving—
Or, lo, the Eagle; sure, at thy command,
She hath upmounted, and her nest on high
Made, where she dwells abiding on the rock,
And in the crag her palace fortifies,
Whence with a glance she dooms her far-off prey.
Fed are her young with blood; and where the field
Craves for the slain in battle, there is she.
—Remark the diligent, and frolic Fish:
Play all their work, their labour only sport;
Them moves, not thy volition, but their own;
Their proper mind inspires them, guides, and guards;
To swim—to fly—to leap—to climb—to crawl,
According to their needs; in sea, or air,
Up cataract, or palm tree, or on shore.
Some, when the streams are dry in which they dwelt,
In search of water migrate o'er dry land,
Or in the night for food; oft time in shoals
Banded, with leaders marshalled rational.
With what nice judgement, they direct the blow
Against the insect: lo, from peril how
In mud they hide them; and, when storms approach,
Sink to the bottom, to the surface soar,
As wishing to avoid, or to enjoy,
The agitation of impending change.
Colours, and sounds distinguish they; and burn
With love of mate, of offspring, and of kind.
Some sleep in herds, appointing first their watch,
While on the rocks they sun themselves at ease—
A peaceful race—a happy social tribe;
Various of bulk, but still the huger size,
In consciousness of power, the more serene;
Fearless of death, in pleasure living still,
And dying in a moment, with least pain;
Heirs of an element, wherein but they
May none exist, and made for their delight,
In motion slow, or swift, free from the change,
And influence of seasons, creatures bright;
Bright, as if woven of beams; amber of hue,
Or golden—azure, and green—and of all tints—
Making the deep a marvel. Knowest thou,
How they were framed to balance, to adjust,
Their weight against the waters; to divide
Their way therein? to see—to hear—to breathe
The fluid pregnant with the air of life?
Or how they choose to wander, or prefer
Local abode? or from the sea saline,
Against descending currents persevere
To the selected stream; there to depose
Their eggs in fitting beds, by bank, or shore?
—Of them may man tranquillity of mind,
And abstinence of appetite, be taught;
Wise, if he learn. From God their wisdom is;
Who giveth will, and wisdom even to forms,
So brief, and so minute, the straining eye
Discerns not parts, nor motion. Beauty, also,
He grants, and Music to the higher kinds:
The Birds of plumage glorious, rich of song;
Whose home is in the air, and there their road,
Wherein they cross the ocean, visiting
East, west, north, south; the ends of heaven, and earth.
Learn wisdom, too, of them; for ne'er have they
Absurdly done, nor ever folly known—
Accomplished in their nature, to the bourn
Of their perfection come; while thou hast yet
To rise to thine by labour, and by death—
Needing redemption. Sinless are their ways,
Having affections, nor unapt to judge,
And act on thought, reflective, and enrapt;
And, with their numbers various, and how sweet,
Awaking meditation in thy mind,
And ecstasy of feeling in thy heart.
Yet fierce of these are some, on raven bent;
But most are gentle. So of Cattle too—
And all were thus, till Evil, made by man,
Was found in Nature; to correct in him
Fatal result, and mortal tendency.
—But in the coming age, when blessèd Life
Shall Death have conquered; then, will peace return
To all creation; both to man, and beast.
For unto thee hath God dominion given
Over the inferiour kinds. Wherefore he made
Thee in his image, that even thou shouldst rule
Over the fish of the capacious sea,
Over the fowl of the expanded air,
Over the cattle, and o'er all the earth,
And over every creeping thing thereon:
Blessed to be fruitful, and to multiply;
And to replenish, and subdue the earth.
—And Bird, and Beast to thee, O Ham, shall come;
From brake, and den; in desart, and in air;
In quiet majesty, and peaceful might;
Come, as of old to Adam, to be named
Of him in Eden; and as yet again,
They shall with Man abide, when He, who made,
Shall re-create the Heavens, and the Earth.
—Thine with their restoration reconciles;
Nature advanced to Spirit; when with all,
Even as with Shem, the Godhead shall abide.
Thrice blessèd be Jehovah, God of Shem;
By Ham, and Shem, and Japhet; for to them,
His incommunicable Name is given,
The knowledge of himself. On earth shall be
His Residence divine—his Mercy-Seat—
And spread his glory o'er the Cherubim.
Of human seed becomes, of human loins
His Incarnation grows—the Son of Shem,
Pacific Victor; Lord of Heaven, and Earth;
In whom the fulness of all lands convenes,
The consummation of the Age to come.’
Thus spake the Incarnate; and was borne away.
Now, when the Thunder, and the Voice had ceased,
Together with the noise of winds, and wings;
Up from the ground, where, prostrate, they adored,
Methuselah, with Noah, and his sons,
Rose; and lo, none was with them: save there lay,
His face on earth, the corse of Lamech dead.