The Vital Spark: an Inner Voice
BEWILDERED by Life’s Gordian Knot long o’er me
Despair had flung her adamantine chain,
When thro’ the abyss of my spirit “Glory!”
A deep voice cried, and “Glory!” then this strain:—
“A spark eternal from the co-eternal
And inner source of light ere time began,
The soul built from the dust its home external,
And so became what we now know as man.
”The outer temple built, an inner, finer
From this and like to this was next ordained,
In which might be attained a life diviner
Than could within the outer be attained.
“Thus in the image, in man’s form reflected,
From out the universal soul the soul
Its individuality projected,
And so became a whole within the whole.
”From root and knot, from knot and leaf to blossom,
Upsprang by slow degrees the oak to view;
So by degrees as slow from out God’s bosom,
The vital spark to man immortal grew.
“As by degrees he thus obtained his being,
So by degrees his mental prime’s obtained
When grown from man the blind to man the seeing,
The chains are rent in twain by which he’s chained.
”Then from the chaos of the days primeval,
Into the future far his ken extends—
Then to his ken what error seemed and evil
Appear but instruments to noble ends.
“The shadow’s self thus seen becomes a splendour
The mystic maze pervaded by a plan;
And laws sublime to intersect and render
Harmonic what but discord seemed to man.
”In matter’s seen the means to vanquish matter,
In many a dismal ban a blessing bright;
In states chaotic what their gloom might scatter,
And their domains enshrine in living light.
“The darkest woe the brightest joy enclaspeth,
In what seems false is seen the true, a power
Which grasped by man as rich a mace he graspeth,
As ever graced the mythic gods of yore.
”A thinker clear nor less a doer; even
A more than soul Titanic he, who still
Can make the very death-forged bolts of heaven
To dance attendance on his potent will.
The very lightning that the vision dazzles,
The very tempest that the forest rends,
Are vassals bound unto his will, and vassals
That help to realize the highest ends.
“Even as he wills empires arise—inventions
Are seen uniting foreign land to land;
And where but winds and waves held dire contentions,
By sweetest intercourse the deeps are spann’d.
”A victor o’er the elements, a victor
E’en over self he moves till lo, appears
Upon the earth he treads the very picture
Of what can be in the seraphic spheres.
“From higher than the seraph state descended,
Up to the goal from whence he came he climbs;
And when the days of mortal life are ended,
Still upward scales he thro’ long future times.
”Just as the bee with honey laden flieth,
To hive the guerdon earned by toil and pang;
So by experience enriched, he hieth
With power to gift the Power from whom he sprang.
“Yea, ever moves he glory-ward, and ever
Does glory to the Love Eterne accord!”
Thus rang that voice within my soul, and never
Shall I forget how sweet the voice thus heard.
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