Satan Absolved Part 3

THE LORD G.o.d

Thou? Here?

SATAN

A suppliant for Thy pardon, and in love, not fear, One who Thou knowest doth love Thee, ay, and more than these.

THE LORD G.o.d

That word was Peter's once.

SATAN

I speak no flatteries; Nor shall I Thee deny for this man nor that maid, Nor for the c.o.c.k that crew.

THE LORD G.o.d

Thou shalt not be gainsaid.

I grant thee audience. Speak.

SATAN

Alone?

THE LORD G.o.d

'Twere best alone.

Angels, ye are dismissed. (_The angels depart._) Good Satan, now say on.

SATAN (_alone with_ THE LORD G.o.d)

Omnipotent Lord G.o.d! Thou knowest all. I speak Only as Thy poor echo, faltering with words weak, A far-off broken sound, yet haply not unheard.

Thou knowest the Worlds Thou madest, and Thine own high word Declaring they were good. Good were they in all sooth The mighty Globes Thou mouldedst in the World's fair youth, Launched silent through the void, evolving force and light.

Thou gatheredst in Thy hand's grasp shards of the Infinite And churnedst them to Matter; s.p.a.ce concentrated, Great, glorious, everlasting. The Stars leaped and fled, As hounds, in their young strength. Yet might they not withdraw From Thy hand's leash and bond. Thou chainedst them with law.

They did not sin, those Stars, change face, wax proud, rebel.

Nay, they were slaves to Thee, things incorruptible.

I might not tempt them from Thee.

THE LORD G.o.d

And the reason?

SATAN

Hear.

Thou gavest them no mind, no sensual atmosphere, Who wert Thyself their soul. Though thou should drowse for aye, They should not swerve, nor flout Thee, nor abjure Thy way, Not by a hair's breadth, Lord.

THE LORD G.o.d

Thou witnessest for good.

SATAN

I testify for truth. In all that solitude Of spheres involved with spheres, of prodigal force set free, There hath been no voice untrue, no tongue to disagree, No traitor thought to wound with less than perfect word.

Such was Thy first Creation. I am Thy witness, Lord.

'Twas worthy of Thyself.

THE LORD G.o.d

And of the second?

SATAN

Stop.

How shall I speak of it unless Thou give me hope; I who its child once was, though daring to rebel; I who Thine outcast am, the banished thief of h.e.l.l, Thy too long reprobate? Thou didst create to Thee A world of happy Spirits for Thy company, For Thy delight and solace, as being too weary grown Of Thy sole loneliness--'twas ill to be alone.

And Thou didst make us pure, as Thou Thyself art pure.

Yet was there seed of ill--What Spirit may endure The friction of the Spirit? Where two are, Strife is.

Thou gavest us mind, thought, will; all snares to happiness.

THE LORD G.o.d

Unhappy blinded one. How sinnedst thou? Reveal.

SATAN

Lord, through my too great love, through my excess of zeal.

Listen. Thy third Creation....

THE LORD G.o.d

Ha! The Earth! Speak plain.

Now will I half forgive thee. What of the Earth, of men?

Was that not then the best, the n.o.blest of the three?

SATAN

Ah, glorious Lord G.o.d! Thou hadst Infinity From which to choose Thy plan. This plan, no less than those, Was n.o.ble in conception, when its vision rose Before Thee in Thy dreams. Thou deemedst to endow Time with a great new wonder, wonderful as Thou, Matter made sensitive, informed with Life, with Soul.

It grieved Thee the Stars knew not. Thou couldst not cajole Their music into tears, their beauty to full praise.

Thou askedst one made conscious of Thy works and ways, One dowered with sense and pa.s.sion, which should feel and move And weep with Thee and laugh, one that alas, should love.

Thus didst thou mould the Earth. We Spirits, wondering, eyed Thy new-born fleshly things, Thy Matter deified.

We saw the sea take life, its myriad forms all fair.

We saw the creeping things, the dragons of the air, The birds, the four-foot beasts, all beautiful, all strong, All br.i.m.m.i.n.g o'er with joyaunce, new green woods among, Twice glorious in their lives. And we, who were but spirit, Envied their l.u.s.ty lot, their duplicated merit, Their feet, their eyes, their wings, their physical desires, The anger of their voices, the fierce s.e.xual fires Which lit their sentient limbs and joined them heart to heart, Their power to act, to feel, all that corporeal part Which is the truth of love and giveth the breathing thing The wonder of its beauty incarnate in Spring.

What was there, Lord, in Heaven comparable with this, The mother beast with her young? Not even Thy happiness, Lord of the Universe! What beautiful, what bold, What pa.s.sionate as she? She doth not chide nor scold When at her dugs he mumbleth. Nay, the milk she giveth Is as a Sacrament, the power by which he liveth A double life with hers. And they two in a day Know more of perfect joy than we, poor Spirits, may In our eternity of sober loneliness.

This was the thing we saw, and praised Thee and did bless.

THE LORD G.o.d

Where then did the fault lie? Thou witnessest again.