III. THE CELESTIAL LOVE
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ut God said,'I will have a purer gift;There is smoke in the flame;New flowerets bring, new prayers uplift,And love without a name.Fond children, ye desireTo please each other well;Another round, a higher,Ye shall climb on the heavenly stair,And selfish preference forbear;And in right deserving,And without a swervingEach from your proper state,Weave roses for your mate. 'Deep, deep are loving eyes,Flowed with naphtha fiery sweet;And the point is paradise,Where their glances meet:Their reach shall yet be more profound,And a vision without bound:The axis of those eyes sun-clearBe the axis of the sphere:So shall the lights ye pour amainGo, without check or intervals,Through from the empyrean wallsUnto the same again.' Higher far into the pure realm,Over sun and star,Over the flickering Daemon film,Thou must mount for love;Into vision where all formIn one only form dissolves;In a region where the wheelOn which all beings rideVisibly revolves;Where the starred, eternal wormGirds the world with bound and term;Where unlike things are like;Where good and ill,And joy and moan,Melt into one. There Past, Present, Future, shootTriple blossoms from one root;Substances at base divided,In their summits are united;There the holy essence rolls,One through separated souls;And the sunny Aeon sleepsFolding Nature in its deeps,And every fair and every good,Known in part, or known impure,To men below,In their archetypes endure.The race of gods,Or those we erring own,Are shadows flitting up and downIn the still abodes.The circles of that sea are lawsWhich publish and which hide the cause. Pray for a beamOut of that sphere,Thee to guide and to redeem.O, what a loadOf care and toil,By lying use bestowed,From his shoulders falls who seesThe true astronomy,The period of peace.Counsel which the ages keptShall the well-born soul accept.As the overhanging treesFill the lake with images,--As garment draws the garment's hem,Men their fortunes bring with them.By right or wrong,Lands and goods go to the strong.Property will brutely drawStill to the proprietor;Silver to silver creep and wind,And kind to kind. Nor less the eternal polesOf tendency distribute souls.There need no vows to bindWhom not each other seek, but find.They give and take no pledge or oath,--Nature is the bond of both:No prayer persuades, no flattery fawns,--Their noble meanings are their pawns.Plain and cold is their address,Power have they for tenderness;And, so thoroughly is knownEach other's counsel by his own,They can parley without meeting;Need is none of forms of greeting;They can well communicateIn their innermost estate;When each the other shall avoid,Shall each by each be most enjoyed. Not with scarfs or perfumed glovesDo these celebrate their loves:Not by jewels, feasts and savors,Not by ribbons or by favors,But by the sun-spark on the sea,And the cloud-shadow on the lea,The soothing lapse of morn to mirk,And the cheerful round of work.Their cords of love so public are,They intertwine the farthest star:The throbbing sea, the quaking earth,Yield sympathy and signs of mirth;Is none so high, so mean is none,But feels and seals this union;Even the fell Furies are appeased,The good applaud, the lost are eased. Love's hearts are faithful, but not fond,Bound for the just, but not beyond;Not glad, as the low-loving herd,Of self in other still preferred,But they have heartily designedThe benefit of broad mankind.And they serve men austerely,After their own genius, clearly,Without a false humility;For this is Love's nobility,--Not to scatter bread and gold,Goods and raiment bought and sold;But to hold fast his simple sense,And speak the speech of innocence,And with hand and body and blood,To make his bosom-counsel good.He that feeds men serveth few;He serves all who dares be true.
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