Festus

all-light thee, or the moon,
Embayed in clouds, mid starry island round,
With mighty beauty inundate the air;⁠—
Or when one star, like a great drop of light,
From her full flowing urn hangs tremulous⁠—
Yea, like a tear from her the eye of night,
Let fall o’er nature’s volume as she reads:⁠—
Or, when in radiant thousands, each star reigns
In imparticipable royalty,
Leaderless, uncontrasted with the light
Wherein their light is lost, the sons of fire,
Arch element of the Heavens;⁠—when storm and cloud
Debar the mortal vision of the eye
From wandering o’er thy threshold⁠—more and more
I love thee, thinking on the splendid calm
Which bounds the deadly fever of these days⁠—
The higher, holier, spiritual Heaven.
And when this world, within whose heartstrings now
I feel myself encoiled, shall be resolved,
Thee I shall be permitted still perchance,
To love and live in endlessly. Lucifer

All here
Thou seet hath holden fellowship with gods;
With eldest Time and primal matter, space,
And stars, and air, and all-inherent fire,
The watery deep and chaos, night, the all,
And the interior immortality,
And first-begotten Love. These rocks retain
Their caverned footsteps printed in pure fire.
Those were the times, the ancient youth of earth,
The elemental years, when earth and Heaven
Made one in holy bridals⁠—royal gods
Their bright immortal issue: when men’s minds
Were vast as continents, and not as now
Minute and indistinguishable plots,
With here and there acres of untilled brains; when lived
The great original, broad-eyed, sunken race,
Whose wisdom, like these sea-sustaining rocks,
Hath formed the base of the world’s fluctuous lore:⁠—
When too, by mountainous travail, human might
Sought to possess the everlasting Heavens,
And incommunicable, by the right
Of self-acquirement and high kindred with
Celestial virtues;⁠—when the mortal powers⁠—
Forecounsel, wisdom, and experience,
Teachers of all arts, founders of all good,
With Godhood strove, and gloriously failed⁠—
In failure half successful; as these scenes,
Fire-fountains, and volcano-utterances,
Earth-heavings, island vomitings, evince.

Festus

The world hath made such comet-like advance
Lately on science, we may almost hope,
Before we die of sheer decay, to learn
Something about our infancy. But me
This troubles not. Were all earth’s mountain chains
To utter fire at once, what a grand show
Of pyrotechny for our neighbor moon!
Let us ascend; but not through the charred throat
Of an extinct volcano.

Lucifer

This way⁠—down.
So shalt thou thread the world at once.

Festus

Haste, haste.

XI

Scene⁠—A ruined temple.

	Festus and Lucifer.
Festus	Here will I worship solely.
Lucifer	’Tis a fane Once sacred to the Sun.
Festus	It matters not What false god here hath falsely been adored, Or what life-hating rites these walls have viewed: The truly holy soul, which hath received The unattainable, can hallow hell. Now to the only true and Triune God These walls shall echo praise, if never yet. Bring me a morsel of the fire without; For I will make a sacred offering To God, as though the High Priest of the world. He lacks not consecration at best hands Whom Thou hast hallowed, Lord, by choice; and these, The elements I offer, Thou hast made Holy, by making them.
Lucifer	Lo! here is fire. I will await thee in the air.
Festus	Withdraw! Thine, Lord! are all the elements and worlds;⁠— The sun is Thy bright servant, and the moon Thy servant’s servant;⁠—the round rushing earth, The lifeful air, the thousand winged winds, The Heaven-kinned fire, the continental clouds, The sea broad breasted, and the tranced lake, Th rich arterial rivers, and the hills Which wave their woody tresses in the breeze, In grateful undulation, all are Thine;⁠— Thine are the snow-robed mountains circling earth As the white spirits God the Saviour’s throne;⁠— Thine the bright secrets, central in all orbs, And rudimental mysteries of life. The sun-starred night, the ever-maiden morn, The all-prevailing day, consummate eve, Confess them Thine through the perpetual world:⁠— All art hath wrought from earth, or science lured From truth, like flame out of the fire cloud, are Thine;⁠—Thine the glory, all belongs to Thee, Finite, indefinite and infinite, As mountains to a world, as worlds to Heaven. The high doomed city and the toilful town And early hamlet⁠—all that live or die, That flourish or decay, that change, or stand Before Thy face, unchanged, exist for Thee, Or are not at Thy bidding; Thine, all souls; Atom and world, the universe is Thine!⁠— Thou canst as easily turn Thy kindest eye From comprehending the bright Infinite, To this crushed temple, where the wild flower decks Its earthquake-rifted walls, and the birds build In corners of its columned capitals⁠— And to this crumbling heart I offer here, As trust Thine own Eternity. Behold! Accept, I pray Thee, Lord! this sacrifice; These elemental offerings simple, pure, Which in the name of man I make to Thee, Formless, save prostrate soul and kneeling heart⁠— In token of Thy perfect monarchy And all comprising mercy. These are they! A flowery turf, a branch, a burning coal, A cup of water and an empty bowl; This air-filled bowl is typic of the world Thou fillest with Thy spirit, and the soul, Receptive of Thy life-conferring truth;⁠— This the symbolic element wherefrom We are to be reborn, wherein made pure; Those whom Thou choosest are to be redeemed Out of the mighty multitudes of men; Yet all as of one nature be redeemed. This coal, torn flaming from the earth, proclaims Thy sin-consuming mercy as of earth; And may our souls ever aspire to Thee, As these pale flames unto the stars; this turf Is as the earthy nature and abode We would subject to Thee; and lieth here, The representative of every star And world-extended matter! Lord! this branch, Which waveth high o’er all, oh, let it sign Thine own Eternal Son’s humanity, Which was on earth, yet ever lives in Heaven, Redemptive of all Being. Golden Branch! Which, in the eld-time, seer’s and sybil’s words, Full of dark central thought and mystic truth, Foretold should overspread the spirit world, And with its fruit heal every wound of Death⁠— Tree of eternal life, Thee all adore. Accept this prayer, O Saviour! that if men Can nothing do but sin, Thou mayst forgive The creature crime, and bring back all to Thee. Thou art the one who made the universe; Yet didst Thou walk on earth; Thou brakest bread And drankest wine with men, betokening so Thine own complete, Divine Humanity. May all obey Thy words and do Thy will! We praise Thee God, our father; whoso would Be saved, let him believe in Thee Triune. Thou doest all things rightly; all are best, Sorrow, or joy, or power, or suffering. Providing, therefore, all things that must be And ought to be, as Thou dost and hast done, From the beginning even to the