The In-Gathering Cimon and Pero: A Chain of Sonnets: Sebastopol etc. By John A. Heraud |
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THE ONE AND THE MANY.
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| I. |
| II. |
| III. |
| IV. |
 | The In-Gathering |  |
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THE ONE AND THE MANY.
(IN RHYTHMICAL PROSE.)
I.
O Mystery! the Self-Intelligent, before all ages,The Self-Intelligible, in which all are present,
In one Intelligence subsisting, nothing above or beyond it;
The Subject which is its own Object, the Identity making the Triad;
The Sublime beholding the Beautiful, the Infinite and the Eternal.
What lives in the Object thou sëest? The One and the Many projected,
The Earth and the Heavens—both summed in the Universe cosmic .
But still the Idea is unspoken; a Word has yet to be uttered,
An Oath to be sworn, a Covenant yet to be written,
Not in the articulate air, nor yet on marmoreal tables,
But in a Personal Being, an Object which is a Subject.
—The Earth is uncultured, unpeopled; the Deeps are covered with Darkness.
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Now, moveth the Breath that shall break it; 'tis stirring, it gathers in volume;
About the waters it murmurs, and grows to a wind loud and louder;
On their faces it hovers, and travails, in pain and with labour,
To speak the loud Fiat, the Word, the Idea, and the Oath,
The Covenant made from the first alike with the One and the Many.
Hark, it thunders—the Voice for which the abysses are listening—
“Light, be;” Light is, revealing at once and for ever
The Intelligence creant, Eternal and Infinite Being.
II.
What said we—the Idea was unspoken, the Word not yet uttered,The Oath, and the Covenant, yet to be sworn, to be written?
O, but in the order of thought these rational falsehoods were ventured,
The thought that holdeth of time, and of human speech maketh leasing;
For the Word and the Oath are eternal, so also the Idea and the Covenant,
One with Intelligence alway; and so be the One and the Many.
Nor is the Voice silent, nor has been, nor will be hereafter—
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The sempiternal Intelligence, which pours like a river on objects,
And, in the living subject, lights a fountain still flowing and bounteous,
Begetting more objects, and more, never ending, and never beginning;
A procreant Love, eternal and infinite; productive in ceaseless progression.
III.
All in Light liveth He who is All, and giveth the Light to His Offspring—In Him is no Darkness whatever; and His Word is the Light that He gives
To all who are born of the Truth, to Man who is made in His image.
Note.—“The heavens,” “the faces of the deeps,” and “the faces of the waters,” are all in the plural, in the Hebrew original, though not in the English translation, and mean the same things;—“Earth” is in the singular. For the true interpretation of the passage, it is needful to note this distinction.
| The In-Gathering | |