Classic Poem

For a space he paused, and gazing
Proudly upward to the heavens,
Where the countless constellations
Clustered close as if to listen,

Lost he seem'd in contemplation
Of the shining lights above him,
While the soft celestial splendour
On his woe-worn face was raining.

‘Heir,’ he said, ‘of all Earth's sorrow,
Brother of those lonely spirits
Who on yonder stars and planets
Still perform their tasks allotted,

‘I, the outcast Prince of Pity,
Have at last to Man unfolded
All the story of Creation,
Birth and Death, and Evolution.

‘I have taught him how to measure
Yonder spheres and their processions,—
Seizing for his apprehension
God's abstractions, Space and Time!

‘What Galileo dreamed, what Bruno
Guess'd from sleepless inspiration,
I at last have demonstrated
Thro' the mouths of mighty thinkers.

‘Open lies the Book of Heaven!
Children even may read its pages,—
Stranger far than any fable
Is the record of Creation!

‘Nay, the mind of Man may follow
God into the depths of darkness—
From the wonders Seen divining
Those Unseen, and yet not hidden!

‘By my symbols algebraic
I have counted lands and waters,
With my chemics cabalistic
I have solved the Elemental!

‘Further, to the sight of mortals,
I the womb of Earth have open'd—
Showing how, through endless ages,
Man's strange embryos were fashion'd!

‘Nay, and to their wondering vision
I have map'd the life within them—
Clear as yonder starry Heaven
Lies the microcosm, Man!

‘Wondrous as the Light lifegiving
Thro' the Universe pulsating,
Floweth Light in Man, the Unit,
From the heart, its central Sun.

‘As the cell that builds the planet
Is the cell that builds the mortal—
As the greater is the lesser,
As the lesser is the greater.

‘Thro' my love and benediction
Man has plumb'd the abyss of Being—
By the law that never endeth
Life and Death revolve for ever.

‘All the arts by God forbidden,
All the knowledge hid in darkness,
I reveal, while the Creator
Rests in impotence of Godhead.

‘Nay, I show that God is fetter'd
By the chains of His own making—
Blind and bound He broods, while Nature
Moveth on in calm progression.

‘Thro' my love and benediction
Man hath learn'd the gifts of Healing—
Now for every Church that falleth
Hospitals arise to Heaven;

‘Strong, beneficent, and gentle,
Christs of surgery and leechcraft
Work their wonders, far more holy
Than the marvels of Messiahs.

‘Wheresoever Death is busy
Fly my ministers of blessing,
Snatching ever from his talons
Creatures beautiful and fair.

‘Cast thy look along the ages!
Read the record of the Churches!
Pestilence, Disease, and Famine
Fill the footprints of the Christ!

‘Thro' the very Fruit Forbidden,
Thro' the laws of Light and Knowledge,
I have fought with Death and Evil,
Conquering, in despite of God—

‘Curst, and yet the source of blessing,
Outcast, yet supreme 'mong Angels,
I, the only true Redeemer,
Work my miracles for men!’