XXV + 

Scene⁠—The Sun. + 

Festus + 

Soul of the world, divine Necessity, + 

Servant of God, and master of all things! + 

Here, in the Heaven of light’s eternal noon, + 

First see I all things clear: from end to end + 

The divine cycle of the soul of man; + 

How spirit, soul, mind, life, flesh, feeling, mix, + 

And how, withal they each reciprocate, + 

As ocean, earth, air, fire and wind; how flow + 

The streams of feeling, and the cataracts + 

Of passion; mine and mountain, this of pride, + 

And that of covetousness. Man I know; + 

The human universe and the divine + 

And central fate; know all must be fufilled + 

Of nature that there is; of sin and strife, + 

Peace, righteousness, change, self-delusion, self⁠— + 

Destruction, ere the earth can take new life, + 

Or man become the minister of God. + 

The world and man are just reciprocal, + 

Yet contrary. Spirit invadeth sense + 

And carries captive Nature. Be this true, + 

All good is Heaven, and all ill is Hell. + 

All things are means for greater good. Thou, Sun, + 

Art just a giant-slave, a god in bonds. + 

The summit-flower of all created life + 

Is its unition with Divinity, + 

In essence, yet existence separate. + 

High o’er my own existence, here then I + 

Look down upon the nature and the earth, + 

Yet mine, whose separate and combined ends + 

Have still to be evolved. How wide men miss, + 

While in the lower world of soul and sense, + 

In aiming even at life-ruling Truth⁠— + 

Formless as air, simple and one as Death. + 

If Heaven and all its stars depend on earth, + 

Then may eternity on time;⁠—not else. + 

But since now earth is as a crumb of Heaven, + 

And time an atom of eternity, + 

Neither depends upon the other, both + 

One essence being emanant from God, + 

Whose flowings forth are aye and infinite, + 

And radiant as the rivers of the skies. + 

One only truth hath consequence, God’s truth + 

Inspirited in man. Mere human truth + 

Or falsehood matters not. The world may act, + 

Believe, or bless, or curse, as best it lists. + 

Yet men expend life, solemnizing points + 

Uncertain as the site of Paradise + 

And area of Hades. Not the less, + 

There is no disappointment we endure + 

One half so great as that we are to ourselves. + 

We make our hearts the centres of all hopes, + 

All powers, all rewards, remembering not + 

That centres are imaginary points. + 

Imaginary circles only too + 

Are perfect; therefore, draw life as we may, + 

Bound as a world, or as an atom round, + 

And pure as virgin visionary’s dream, + 

Or perfect faith’s regenerative wave⁠— + 

It fails to match the true invisible + 

Whereof we labor. It is come to this. + 

One state of life with me hath passed away. + 

Aught henceforth that may matter be of doubt + 

To me is matter of indifference. I + 

Love only that is certain. Me no more + 

The spirits of the bright invisible + 

Shall throng round as the winds some mountaintop; + 

Nor watery lightfulness of ghostly eyes, + 

Belonging heavenly forms informed with light, + 

Impose their spell of record under pain. + 

The inspiration quits me⁠—it is gone⁠— + 

Like a retreating army from the land + 

Which it hath wasted⁠—the long gleaming mass, + 

Snakelike, at last hath wound itself away, + 

And left me weak and wretched. None again + 

Of all the starry tribes of shining mien⁠— + 

Swifter than undulations of the light, + 

A million in a moment, multiform + 

As atomies of air, shall visit me; + 

Their word of leave is taken back⁠—henceforth, + 

Restricted to perfection, earth they quit. + 

True, albeit, I loved them more than life; + 

I felt myself made sacred by their touch:⁠— + 

But they are gone, and there is nought on earth + 

Left acceptable. Fiery shadows, hence! + 

I have outbraved ye once. It matters not. + 

I have left all for one; Truth’s countless rays + 

For Truth itself; the mean for the supreme, + 

The dubitable for the throned power. + 

Yet thus I cannot rest. The mightiest sphere + 

Is not for man. The elements of mind + 

And matter are proportioned in all worlds; + 

The father they and mother of all things. + 

And earth hath favour over crowds of stars. + 

I must reseek earth. Still what boots it now, + 

To plunge in pleasure or to passion bow, + 

The very lion-honey of the heart + 

Which dwelleth in corruption? Yet, perchance, + 

’Twere wisdom to extract it while we may. + 

The oak, as lily, feels the lightest breeze. + 

The ineradicable seed is sown + 

Of love in life, and tide-like ’twill have way + 

O’er the impalaced prisoner of the breast. + 

The thirst for power and knowledge still exist, + 

And meet with dizzy mixture in the brain. + 

If suffering could expiate offence, + 

They who have most enjoyed have most atoned, + 

It may be, humanly;⁠—but it cannot. + 

Earth-like, the heart must undergo all change + 

Ere the superior life be formed therein, + 

The chastity of heart which loves but God. + 

Life’s sensuous warmth, the spirit’s holy chill, + 

Time’s week-day work, have yet to be gone through. + 

The hortus siccus of a Paradise + 

Is all earth now can boast. To God belongs + 

The autumn of all nature. But, alas! + 

Not yet can we o’ercome our nature here, + 

Would we. If therefore passion strike the heart, + 

Let it have length of line and plenteous play. + 

The safety of superior principles + 

Lies in exhaustion of the lower ones, + 

However vast or violent. Men and angels + 

Obey the order of existence. Fate! + 

Who seeks thee everywhere, will find thee there. + 