Elias Part 11

Disorder reigned, and satire laughed to scorn Grotesque, invidious inconsistency: Talent on t.i.tle waiting, brain on birth!

Genius at oars, and dullards at the helm!

The prancing war-steed fastened to the plow, The a.s.s unto the chariot--oft with rein, Curbing the mettled courser's n.o.ble rage, 2500 Or goading him with needless cruelty!

Matter was monarch; Spirit stood apart, Unknown, unseen, or spurned and thrust aside By thronging myriads, bending supple knee, And basking in the proud usurper's smile.

Men bowed not down to sun and moon and stars, To bird, nor beast, nor reptile, as of yore; But wors.h.i.+pt still at other creature shrines, Ignoring the Creator's primal claim.

Pride sneered at poverty--if poor of purse, 2510 But gave its hand to beggared intellect, To bankrupt soul, and greeted them as peers.

Learning, if lowly pillowing its head, A pauper deemed, and pitied or condemned.

And many, stung by adder glance of scorn, Shunning a life of n.o.ble toil and care, To Mammon, e'en in marriage, sold themselves, Offering a lawless fire at pa.s.sion's shrine, Or staining hands and heart with sabler sins.

Shameful the serfdom of the earth-bound soul, 2520 Base pa.s.sion's basest slave and prisoner; Charmed by no music but the clink of coin; Cankered and crusted o'er with avarice; Dupe, dreaming shadow real, and substance show.

Where party more than principle was prized, Where private gain was labeled "public good,"

And "patriotism" masked hypocrisy, Science, when sordid, or subservient To worldly ends, to aims material, Stood pedestaled and robed in honors rare: 2530 While art fell fainting at the patron's door, Or starved and froze in cheerless attic den.

For aye the flesh must first be comforted, And e'en the body's luxuries abound, Ere mind of man may clothe its nakedness, Or hungering heart and spirit have their own.

Music, the drama, all art, still divine, Though oft to ends ign.o.ble basely bent, In atmospheres miasmic, fever-fraught, To folly pandering and to lechery; 2540 Or using gifts G.o.d-lent for good of all, Gain's maw to glut, fame's l.u.s.t to gratify.

Forgot the Giver, and adored the gift, As in the pagan days of olden time.

And thou, where thou, O sage philosophy, Heir to a hundred shadows of thy name!

Where thy spent waves on speculation's strand?

Still striving, finite for the infinite, Man groping for the mystery of G.o.d, A river that would fain engulf the sea! 2550

Religion dead, and poesy so deemed, Because unwedded to a carnal age, Unprost.i.tuted to its paltry aims, Or hid beneath vast verbal rubbish heaps, The dust and debris of the former fires.

Religion dead, but bigotry alive, And ne'er more active upon earth than now, When sect 'gainst sect in battle order stood, And schisms and dissensions multiplied.

Some wors.h.i.+pt nothing, naming it a G.o.d; 2560 Some deemed the mortal dust a thing divine; Religious, irreligious, bigotry, Each counted victims by the hecatomb.

What wonder, when truth's meanings tortured were, The living G.o.d dethroned, and in His stead, A monster crouching on the Mercy Seat, Whose mere caprice, naught else, did save or d.a.m.n?

Wafting the blood-stained criminal to bliss, If he but gasped, half hung, the holy Name?

Thrusting the spotless infant into h.e.l.l, 2570 If un-elect, or unbaptized for sin!

To endless woe or weal forefating all.

What wonder justice, reason, stood aghast, While faith, revolting, rushed to doubt's extreme?

Critics, high-soaring, sought to clip the wings Of arrogance in all creeds save their own.

Half-fledged conclusion, findings premature, Grounded on tale of rock or ruin old, More credence had, more reverence, from men, Than sacred lore of heaven-lit centuries. 2580 All miracle was myth, nor aught worth while, Save, leaded down with learned theories, It crawled, an earth-worm, wanting will to climb Above the level of the commonplace.

Fanatics in the state as in the church, Their prejudices palmed for principle, Vain vagaries and dreams for doctrine sound; And woe to him who lisped of liberty, Or thought aloud one thought unthought before!

Freedom to think and breathe--G.o.d-granted boons, 2590 Alike, to savage, serf, and citizen-- Was all that freedom signified to some, Who, as they doled a gift already given, Boasted themselves magnanimous and wise.

Freedom to speak and act as conscience bade, As G.o.d commanded, crushed or captive bound, E'en where men vaunted most of liberty.

And peace was yet a dream unrealized, For war still sowed and reaped his harvests red; And Christian guns were mightiest and slew most. 2600

Nor yet stood toil 'gainst capital arrayed, The starving ma.s.ses 'gainst the Midases, As erst arose, 'gainst moss-grown old regimes, The trampled Terror[15], scrawling with fierce hand On history's flaming scroll his red revenge, With that blood-reeking pen, the guillotine; Nor yet faced frowning ma.s.s contemning cla.s.s[16], Jeering, oblivious of the lurking doom, The glooming clouds where groaned the gathering storm.

But murderous craft and oath-bound anarchy, 2610 With secret deeds of darkness, had begun To sap the life of human government, And plot against the safety of mankind; While greeds and l.u.s.ts and pa.s.sions manifold, Preying on frailty and on innocence, Ran riot 'mid the fairest, brightest, best.

Where, promise, thy fulfillment, pledged of yore?

'Twas time--full time--the far-seen ensign waved, Hailing the morn on heights of holiness, Proclaiming peace and freedom to the world. 2620 'Twas time disorder fled, time justice reigned, And rightfully were held dominion's keys; Time pure religion's sceptre should return, By poesy extolled, by art adorned, With science and with reason reconciled; Time feeble earth her panacea found, Time health gave life its old longevity, Time pride should bend, time l.u.s.t to love should yield, And self confess the joy of sacrifice.

'Twas time an Enoch came[17], a Zion rose. 2630

Sound, trump of G.o.d! as when old Jordan's wave Shook with the thunder-tread of Joshua's host, Shook with the shouting and the trumpet blasts, Heard the loud roar of crumbling Jericho, And in mad haste ran shuddering to the sea!

Speak now the doom foreshadowed by that fall-- The mightier doom of Modern Babylon:

Bow down thy head, proud mistress of the world!

Humble thy haughty crest, degenerate queen!

Lift but thine eyes to where G.o.d's finger glows 2640 In fiery warning on thy festal wall, Drowning in dread the voice of revelry, Thy saturnalia's ribald shout and song.

Ended thine empire, Weighed-and-Wanting-Found!

Down to the dust in all thy worldliness, Thou thing of bra.s.s, of iron, and of clay!

Sound, trumpet, sound! The looked-for signal looms!

The fateful stone upon the image rolls!

"On you, my fellow servants, I confer The priestly power of Aaron, with the keys 2650 Of angel ministries, of penitence, Of water-birth that washes free from sin.

And greater things than these shall yet be given-- The holier powers of high Melchizedek, Which Mightier by three shall minister."

And on each head was laid a holy hand[18]; Time making good the promise plighted there, Welding another link in wonder's chain, Writing new chapters of a story strange, Confounding human learning, fools and wise. 2660

So came once more the panoply of power[19].

So rose the ensign o'er a waiting world.

Armed thus with knowledge and authority, Armed and equipt, with staff, and stone in sling, Fares forth a champion for Israel, To grapple with Philistia and prevail.

Guide unto G.o.d, repointer of the path, Untrodden through a thousand years nigh twained, The while men roamed, as once o'er trackless wild, The savage, by the untaught trapper trained; 2670 Blind leading blind through thick and th.o.r.n.y wold.

Light 'mid the darkness, beam from heaven's full blaze, Driving the mists, that comprehended not His brightness nor their own obscurity; Holding him blind who saw as few have seen.

He, blind, forsooth, who more than all beheld!

Sinking deep shafts to mines of mystery, Shallow and empty to the worldly wise; Soaring to heights by human lore undreamt, Yet deemed an earth-mole, groping, groveling. 2680

Aloft, alone, an exile among men, A wanderer in a solitary way, Pariah of prejudice and unbelief, Whose lowering features fiercely on him frowned.

Thought's prisoner and truth's, that maketh free The spirit, though the body pine in chains, Albeit the tongue, the pen, in durance be, Consigned to silence, captive unto light, And crucified betwixt ideal and real.

But who art thou that lookest forth sublime, 2690 A soul upsoaring as from sepulture, Body and spirit pure and free from stain, As gold and silver tried by seven-timed fire?

Speak! Art not thou the Woman Wonderful[20], Summoned from out the silent wilderness, Arisen from the grave of centuries, No more to be despoiled or trodden down?

A symbol of exalted sanct.i.ty, The consecration of the contrite heart; Of ancient types the modern complement, 2700 Chief splendor of time's sparkling firmament, Whose silver stars bespoke this sun of gold.

But when did darkness comprehend the day?

When welcomed pleasure thorn-crowned sacrifice, Whose higher, holier joys than sin can know, As dust and ashes to the sensual soul?

Jewels to swine, that, turning, rent the hand, And fain 'neath foot had torn and trampled all.

Such was Truth's fate, alas! in modern time, 'Mid Christian men;--but not her final fate. 2710

For who can stay the sun-like march of Truth?

Who dim with b.l.o.o.d.y hand her beam divine?

First shall he halt the progress of the stars, The bright procession of the infinite; Blot out the day-beam, dull the scythe of time, Shear morning's wings, roll back eternal night, Or shake the moveless throne of destiny.

Lifted an ensign never to be furled, Unsheathed a falchion evermore to flame, Till earth-born realms, in one wide empire rolled, 2720 Hail conquering Christ as life and light of all.