Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE ALCHEMIST One bitter fight with nature and myself To find Him out, turn, terrible, to-night [Cry wethout. To see myself—myself—myself. [Cry wethout. Hush! Hark! Methought I heard a cry. The seamew wails Tess humanly than that—I will go down And seek the stranger. [Alaking as to leave room. F’en this rocky isle Shall prove a friend A Voice. Stand still. Philosopher. Again! The warning of a mind o’er-strained? [Afowrng towards door. Voice. Stand still And see salvation in Jehovah’s hands. fh, Is this the end of life? Voice. Thy Life begins. Is this Lh. Strange Voice, I hear thee, and obey. Perchance I have not lived so far. Perchance to-day, Like a spring-flower that slowly opens out Its willing petals to the tender dawn, My soul may open to the knowledge of iA dawn of new thought that may lead Votce. To God. Ph, Wope hardly dared to name it! Enter Messenger. Afess. My lord, the king’s command ! Ph. I heed it not. See thou disturb not my high meditation. Away! Voice. With meditations centred in thyself. Mess. Who spoke? Lh. Speak thou. I obey the king. Tess. My lord, Ile lids thee to his court, to hold the reins Tight on the fretful horses of the state Whose weary burden makes them slip—-nay, fall On the stern hill of war. Thou art appointed, 1 This voice is again heard, using the identi- cal words, at the last great crisis of his life. VOL. I. Being the wisest man in all the realm, (So spake the king) the second to him- self. Ph. Thy vessel waits? Aless, For dawn. Ph. Then hasten thee To tell them Iam ready. The meanwhile I will devote to prayer. Afess. At dawn, my lord. [Avee Messenger. Lh. [Turns to window.) O Maker and O Ruler of all worlds, Illimitable power, immortal God, Vague, vast, unknown, dim-looking, scarcely spied Through doubtful crannies of the Universe, Unseen, intangible, eluding sense And poor conception, halting for a phrase Of weak mind-language, O Eternity, Hear thou the feeble word, desire, The dubious crying of the pinioned dove, The wordless eloquent emotion That speaks within a man, despite his mind ! Ifear, who can pray for naught, unknowing aught Whereof, for what to pray. thou ! Ilear me, thou God, who fettered the bleak winds Of North and East, and held in silken rein The golden steeds of West and South, who bade The tireless sea respect its narrow bounds, And fixed the mountains, that eternal ice Might be thy chiefest witness, and who wove The myriad atoms of Infinitude Into the solid tapestry of night, And gave the sun his heat, and bade him kiss The lips of Death upon the moon’s. dark face, So that her silver lustre might rejoice The fiery lover, the sharp nightingale, And these pale mortals whom the day be- holds Asleep, because the many bid them slave C the lame But hear me,