Festus

sides.
Upwards to God: and now they are all gone⁠—
Gone, in a moment, to eternity.
But there is something near me. Spirit

It is I.

Festus

Go on! I follow, when it is my time.
There is no shadow on the face of life:
It is the noon of fate. Why may not I die?
Methinks I shall have yet to slay myself.
I am calm now. Can this be the same heart
Which, when it did sleep, slept from dizziness,
And pure rapidity of passion, like
The centre circlet of the whirlpool’s wheel?
The earth is breaking up; all things are thawing.
River and mountain melt into their atoms;
A little time, and atoms will be all.
The sea boils; and the mountains rise and sink
Like marble bubbles, bursting into death.
O thou hereafter! on whose shore I stand⁠—
Waiting each toppling moment to engulf me⁠—
What am I? Say, thou Present!⁠—say, thou Past!
Ye three wise children of Eternity!
A life?⁠—a death?⁠—and an immortal?⁠—all?
Is this the threefold mystery of man?
The lower, darker Trinity of earth?
It is vain to ask. Nought answers me⁠—not God.
The air grows thick and dark. The sky comes down.
The sun draws round him streaky clouds, like God
Gleaning up wrath. Hope hath leapt off my heart,
And overturned it. I am bound to die.
God, why wilt Thou not save? The great round world
Hath wasted to a column beneath my feet.
I will hurl me off it, then; and search the depth
Of space, in this one infinite plunge!⁠—Farewell,
To earth, and Heaven, and God! Doom! spread thy lap!
I come⁠—I come!

God

Forbear!

Festus

I am God’s!

God

Man, die!

XXXI

Scene⁠—The skies.

	God, Angels, Angel of Earth, Lucifer.
God	The age of matter consummates itself. All things that are shall end, save that is mine. As with one world, so shall it he with all; For all are human, fallible, and false⁠— As creature towards Creator must be aye. But for the whole prepare ye, not the less Grade upon grade of glory, sons of God! And Earth shall live again, and like her sons Have resurrection to a brighter being: And waken like a bride, or like a morning, With a long blush of love to a new life. Another race of souls shall rule in her, Creatures all loving, beautiful, and holy. Go, angel! guide her as before through Heaven.
Angel of Earth	On! on! my world again! Away we fly Through Heaven’s blue plain, Like thought through the eye. Ye angels keep your Heaven! I, Earth! For that with God I have striven, And have prevailed. I come once more, I come to thee, Earth! Like a ship to shore.
Lucifer	Have not I triumphed o’er the earth that was?
God	Prince of the powers of air! thy doom is nigh. The prison place of spirits is for thee⁠— As for all others thou hast wronged, for a time⁠— But those who by my favour die not. Him Conduct, ye angels, into Hades; there To wait my will while the world’s sabbath lasts.

XXXII

Scene⁠—The Millennial Earth.

	Saints and Angels conversing; Festus.
Angel	The Earth is all one Eden. Pity, sure, That it should ever end.
Saint	I say not so; Although I have a thousand plans in hand, Some interwoven with the farthest stars⁠— Each one of which might ask a year of years To perfect.
Angel	True; our Maker knoweth best What thought or deed may best belong to time Or to eternity.
Saint	All prophecy Hath said the earth shall cease, and that right soon.
Festus	’Tis like enough. Beauty’s akin to Death.
Angel	Behold, our sister Graces of the skies, Faith, Hope, and Love, descend! Methinks of late Ye chiefly dwell on earth.
Love	Where lives and reigns The Son of God, there are we ever seen, Successive, as the seasons to the sun.
Saints	Well are ye known and welcome in all worlds. Wherever lofty thought or godly deed Is lodged or compassed, there your blessings rest.
Hope	How sweet, how sacred now, this earth of man’s! The prelude of a yet sublimer bliss!⁠— I marked it from the first, while yet it lay Lightless and stirless; ere the forming fire Was kindled in its bosom, or the land Lift its Volcanic breastwork up from sea. The deluge and idolatries of men I viewed, though shuddering, and with faltering eye, E’en to the incarnation of Heaven’s Lord, And dawning of His faith; that faith which was An infant and anon a giant; was A star, and grew a Heaven-fulfilling sun; Which was an outcast, and became, ere long, A dweller in all palaces; which hid Its head in dens of deserts, and sat throned, After, in richest temples high as hills; Which was poured out in mortal blood, and rose Li an immortal spirit; as a slave Was sold for gold and prostrated to power;⁠— And now that lowly bondmaid is a Queen; And lo! she is beloved in earth and Heaven; And lieth in the bosom of her Lord, The Bride of the all-worshipped, one with God.
Love	We even of divinest origin In infinite progression view all worlds; And we are happy.
Faith	The dead sleep as yet; But their time cometh, and the bonds of death Already slacken round the living soul; The mortal sleep of ages, which began When Time sank down into his slumberous west, Thins even now o’er the reviving eyes Gathering their Heaven-lent light, no more to wane In woe or age; never be quenched in tears Like a star in the sea. ’Tis as I ever knew; My life is to receive and to believe The Word and words of God.
Love	I, who am Love And Grace and Charity, rejoice with you; Whither ye wend I with ye; whether here, Or on the utmost rim of Light’s broad reign⁠— The least and last of stars which even seems To tremble at its insignificance In presence of Infinity; where yet No angel’s wing hath waved, nor foot of fiend Left its hot imprint;⁠—still, in all do we Find fit delight and honour, as now here. Now earth and Heaven hold commune, day and night; There’s not a wind but bears upon its wing The messages of God; and not a star But knows the bliss of earth.
Festus	The earth hath God Remade, and all its elements refined, Fit for sublimer Being. Flesh hath passed Its fiery baptism, and come forth clear As crystal gold: all that of vile or