University of Virginia Library

II.

The traveller urges on again, refreshed,
Exalted, and yet humbled. Now at last
The heaven, his birthright, was revealed to him,
And in the dreams of his fond memory
That female form upon the Syrian ass
Seemed to have soothed him in his infancy.
But what obstruction meets him, and what pain;
For that redeeming advent brought no peace.
Yet travelled he with strenuous desire,
Kissing the broken-hearted, lifting up
The fallen; uttering thus his hopefulness:
“All now are brethren, and all sisters now!
Pan is not dead, but from the outer world,
Where he made worshipful the elements
And concourses of nature, to the heart
Of our humanity he hath come down:
Which beats now in clear harmony with heaven,
Harmony universal. Oh, good spirit!
Now childhood hath been glorified, henceforth
Respected as the perfect yet the helpless.
And manhood for the false shall strive no more,
But yield himself unto humility:
And womanhood shall walk with reverence
And honor, until this sweet hour unknown:
For sanctity existed but with fear
When man, the strong-armed, worshipped but himself.
And I rejoice that I have found at last
The treasure I have sought so blindly long,
The law of love divine, which reconciles
The world of careful pain with happy heaven.
Oft have I turned my face with weariness
From the proud passages of priests and kings,—
My ear from the discourses of the wise,
With arrogant eyes upraised as if they saw
Their own apotheosis in the clouds.—
Now the white lily at each gate shall grow,
And meekness as a handmaid wait within.
A revelation shall descend on all,
Answering prayer, and all the world rejoice.
Blessed are ye, my brethren, who are poor;
Blessed are the unlearnéd, unto whom
Our Father can more freely enter in:
Blessed the merciful, for they shall have
Mercy,—the earnest after righteousness,
For surely they shall find it. Free the slave
From villain bonds, and let the greatest serve!
Oft have I listened to the sage, who deemed
His logic reached unto the verge of things,
Out-through the terrene and the spiritual world,
Who yet saw nought, but his own eloquent arms
Waved in the dusk air; neither could he hear,
Save his own tongue responsive to blind dream.
He shall no more be reverenced by men.
The great apostles have gone forth to teach;
Love, Zeal. and Perseverance be the names
Of the three best belovéd by their Lord—
They have gone forth to teach, and unto death
Shall they fulfil their mission, and all lands
Resign the sword, the sceptre, and the chain.”
So with a radiant face, the faithful one
Who hath not tired nor ever hath despaired,
Rejoicéd he had known the blameless man,
Rejoicéd in the region of the moral!
And saw the cross from man to man sent on,
From woman to woman given with grateful tears
And kisses, saintly kisses. Ah, my God!
That it had ever been as it was then.
From Church to Church the sign transmitted spreads,
Till all the coasts of the mid-terrene sea
Sing praises to Messiah: through the ice
Of the Sarmatian winter—through the storms
And mists to Thule is the soft hymn heard.