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Page 1 of 81906 · PDF PAGE 239
…m, Advaitism, and Dvaitism. Taking the ordinary hypothesis of the universe, that of its infinity, or at any rate that of the infinity of God, or of the infinity of some substance or idea actually existing, we first come to the question of the possi- bility of the co-existence of God and man. The Christians, in the category of the ex- istent, enumerate among other things, whose consideration we may discard for the pur- poses of this argument, God, .an_ infinite being; man; Satan and his angels; man certainly, Satan presumably, finite beings. The…
1906 · PDF PAGE 166
…(Nibbana! Ah! Thou shoreless Sea !) Man, man alone, is doomed to fear, To suffer the eternal woe, 630 Or else, to meet man’s subtle foe, God—and oh! infamy of terror! Be like him—like him! And for ever! At least I make not such an error: My soul must utterly dissever — 635 Its very silliest thought, belief, From such a God as possible, Its vilest from his worship. Never! Avaunt, abominable chief Of Hate’s grim legions ; let me well 640 Gird up my loins and make endeavour, And seek a refuge from my grief, O never in Heaven—but in Hell! Death-bed…
1906 · PDF PAGE 164
158 THE SWORD OF SONG Will Satan be saved? Who pardons Judas ? God's fore- knowledge of Satan's fall and eternal misery makes him re- sponsible for it. It he and Judas are finally re- deemed, we might perhaps look over the matter this once. Poet books his seat. Creator in (Granting him Godhead) merciless To all the anguish and distress About him—save to him it clung And prayed. Give me omnipotence? I am no fool that I should fence That power, demanding every tongue To call me God—I would exert That power to heal creation’s hurt ; Not to divide …
1906 · PDF PAGE 150
…el! * and church, tion of poet. Temple and hall and meeting-room, Venus’ Bower and Osiris’ Tomb,? And left the devil in the lurch, While God ? got lost in the crowd of gods,! And soul went down ® in the turbid tide Of the metaphysical lotus-eyed,® And I was-—anyhow, what’s the odds? or What isTruth? The life tolive? The thought to think? Shall I take refuge sald jesting In a tower like once Childe Roland {7 found, blind, deaf, huge, 10 ilate: but . Crowley waits Or in that forest of two hundred thousand for an answer.t Trees,® fit alike to shel…
1906 · PDF PAGE 240
… on earth, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line that shall be absolutely straight.” The definition of God as infinite therefore denies man implicitly; while if he be finite, there is an end of the usual Christian reasons for worship, though I daresay I could myself discover some reasonably good ones. [I hardly expect to be asked, somehow.] The resulting equilibrium of God and man, destructive of worship, is of course absurd. We must reject it, unless we want to fall into Positivism, Materialism, or something o…
1906 · PDF PAGE 30
…hing the groves: single the foaming amber floods, And O! most lone The melancholy mountain shrine and throne, While far above all things God sits, the ultimate alone ! Ill. I sate upon the mossy promontory Where the cascade cleft not his mother rock, But swept in whirlwind lightning foam and glory, Vast circling with unwearying luminous shock To lure and lock Marvellous eddies in its wild caress ; And there the solemn echoes caught the stress, The strain of that impassive tide, Shook. it and flung it high and wide, Till all the air took fire fr…
1906 · PDF PAGE 184
…is ? So to the laws all bards obey I bend, and seek in my own way By false things to expound the real. But never think I shall appeal To Gods. What folly can compare With such stupidity as prayer? Some years ago I thought to try Prayer ®!—test its efficacity. I fished by a Norwegian lake. ‘ O God,” I prayed, “‘ for Jesus’ sake Grant thy poor servant all his wish ! For every prayer produce a fish !” Nine times the prayer went up the spout, And eight times--what a thumping trout ! (This is the only true fish-story I ever heard—give God the glory …
1906 · PDF PAGE 138
132 THE GOD-EATER CRIOSDA. Ay, to-night! [A spasm overcomes him and he falls prone, Maurya. Criosda! You are ill, ill! Help! . [He zs stlent; she umnclasps the leopard’s skin, and busies herself in trying to restore him. Angus! Angus! [ Under her breath. Angus is the man—he saved poor Kenneth ! [ Aloud. No help comes Janet ! Angus! Oh, miserable! here. Criosda ! wake ! wake !— Oh, I must take him out—no man may enter here !—It is ill luck. Old Andrew found the passage ! and the next day he was dead —murdered, murdered ! Oh, how horrible! —what …
1906 · PDF PAGE 162
156 THE SWORD OF - SONG Mysticism does not need Christ. Krishna will serve, or the Carpenter. The Sacred Walrus. God, some Vestments, and Lady Wim- borne. Fearful aspect of John ili, 16. Universalism. Will God get the bara* slam? Eternal life. Divergent views of its desirability. Buddhist idea. Dogma of Belief. - But if you drink your mystic fill * Great slam-—a term of Bridge-Whist. + John iii, 18, ‘‘ He that believeth not is condemned already.”’ Under the good tree Igdrasil © Where is at all your use for Christ? Hath Krishna not at all suffic…
1906 · PDF PAGE 21
…sniffs loud and holds aloof. (O Holy Spirit, pity her !) The Angel has not come again. (Bring gold and frankincense and myrrh !) Why did God deal her out such pain? (O Holy Spirit, pity her !) Her love-hours held the Holy Ghost. (Bring gold and frankincense and myrrh: !) Where is he now she needs him most? (O Holy Spirit, pity her !) Joseph drinks deep outside the inn. (Bring gold and frankincense and myrrh !) She is half hated by her kin. (O Holy Spirit, pity her !) The agony increases fast. (Bring gold and frankincense and myrrh !) Each spasm…
1906 · PDF PAGE 40
… alone the man. O silvern shape and span Of moonlight, reaching over the grey, large Breast of the surf-bound strand, Life of the earth, God’s child, Man’s bride, the light of the sweet land ! Are emeralds ever a spark of this clear green, Or sapphires hints of this diviner blue, Or rubies shadows of this rosy hue, Or light itself elsewhere so clear and clean? For all the sparkling dews of heaven fallen far Crystalline, fixed, forgotten (as a star Forgets its nebulous virginity) Are set in all the sky and earth and sea. Shining with solar fire,…
1906 · PDF PAGE 18
…t ; Deeper than ocean, higher than the sky, Vaster than petty loves that dream and die, Insatiate, angry, terrible for lust, Who shrivel God to adamantine dust By our fierce gaze upon him, who would strive Under our wrath, to flee away, to dive Into the deep recesses of his heaven. But we, one joy, one love, one shame for leaven, Quit hope and life, quit fear and death and love, Implacable as God, desired above All loves of hell or heaven, supremely wed, Knit in one soul in one delicious bed More hot than hell, more wicked than all things, Vast…
1906 · PDF PAGE 91
AFTER 85 We sobbed, and stretched our arms out, and despaired, And—parted. Out the brute-side of truth flared ; ‘¢Thank God I’ve finished with that foolishness | ”’ II. AH! there’ be two sides to all shapes of truth ! I might indeed go back to bitter toil, Prune the mind’s vine, and gather in the spoil Rough-conquered from fields, without ruth Pillaging Nature, pawning youth For some strange guerdon (or its counter- foil) Gainless or not-to-be-gained, priestly or royal, Profane, canaille—I know not, in good sooth ! books, men, strength and I mi…
1906 · PDF PAGE 196
…NOTES TO ASCENSION DAY 1. 1 fung outof chapel,\—Browning, Xmas five, III. last line. 3. Venus’ Bower and Osiris’ Crowley, Zannhduser, 5. God.3—Hebrew DYN, Gen. iii. s. 5. gods.4—Hebrew onde, Gen. iii. 5. The Revisers, seeing this most awkward juxtaposition, have gone yet one step lower and translated both words by ‘‘God.” In other passages, however, they have been com- pelled to disclose their own dishonesty and translate ods by ‘‘ gods.” For evidence of this the reader may look up such passages as Ex. xviii, 11; Deut. xxxli, 17; Ps. Ixxxii. [i…
1906 · PDF PAGE 128
…e thy head For his, thy life for his make mine, And for his folk thou hast spared, slay thine.” But surely I was just and wise! Mercy is God’s own attribute ! Mercy to noble enemies Marks man from baser mould of brute. To fight their swordsmen—who would shirk ¢ To slay a captive—coward’s work ! ‘¢T have loved mercy,” that He said ; Nor bade me slay the Syrian Chief. Yet my head answers for his head ; My people take his people’s grief. Sin, troth, to spare one harmless breath, Sith all my innocents earn death ! By timely mercy peace becomes, And…
1906 · PDF PAGE 151
…ally coffin, ease, Love being filth ? let us ask Aristophanes ! Or, heaven’s sun bake us, while Earth’s bugs and fleas kill us, Love the God’s scourge? I refer you to Aeschylus! (Nay! that’s a slip! Say we “ Earth’s grim device, cool loss !—” Better the old Greek orthography !—Aischulos ! 14) Or, love be God’s champagne’s foam; death in man’s trough, hock lees, - Pathos our port’s beeswing ? what answers Sophocles? Brief, with love’s medicine let’s draught, bolus, globule us! 40 45 60 55 60 65 Wise and succinct bids, I think, Aristobulus.! Whet…
1906 · PDF PAGE 62
…of the sea Than her waves deep-merging and striving and surging That deem they are free. In spirit I stand on the mountain, My soul into God’s withdrawn, And look to the East like a fountain That shoots up the spray of the dawn. And the life of the mountain swims through me (So the song of a thrush in me thrills) And the dawn speaks to me, of old for it knew ne The soul of the hills. I stand on the mountain in wonder As the splendour springs up in the East, As the cloud banks are rended asunder, And the wings of the Night are released. As in tr…
1906 · PDF PAGE 148
…you bid me purify the same, To such a process I discern noend.. . First cut the liquefaction, what comes last But Fichte’s clever cut at God himself? .. . I trust nor hand, nor eye, nor heart, nor brain To stop betimes: they all get drunk alike. The first step, I am master not to take.” This is surely the apotheosis of wilful ignorance! We may think, perhaps, that Browning is ‘‘ hedging” when, in the last paragraph, he says: ‘‘ For Blougram, he believed, say, half. he spoke,” * and hints at some deeper ground. It is useless to say, “This is Blo…
1906 · PDF PAGE 136
THE GOD-EATER* A TRAGEDY OF SATIRE 1903 [The idea of this obscure and fantastic play is as follows :— By a glorious act human misery is secured (History of Christianity). Hence, appreciation of the personality of Jesus is no excuse for being a Christian. Inversely, by a vile and irrational series of acts human happiness is secured (Story of the play) Hence, attacks on the Mystics of History need not cause us to condemn Mysticism. Also, the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a Tree whose fruit Man has not yet tasted: so that the Devil cheated Eve ind…
1906 · PDF PAGE 189
PENTECOST 183 755 760 765 “Tt ~T qo 780 785 790 Out ofa stlver Tube a Dart Shooting God's Spirit to her heart—*! This beats the orthodox Dove-Suitor ! What explanation could be cuter Than—Gabriel with a pea-shooter? In such a conflict I stand neuter. Degradation of But oh mistake not gold for pewter ! sential identity The plain fact is : materialise of all forms of What spiritual fact you choose, existence. And all such turn to folly—-lose The subtle splendour, and the wise Love and dear bliss of truth. Beware Lest your lewd laughter set a snar…