Was it because of Death, Life"s complement,--or Pain, That thou didst loose thy pride to question of My will?
SATAN
Nay, Lord, Thou knowest the truth. These evils are not ill.
They do but prove Thy wisdom. All that lives must perish, Else were the life at charge, the bodily fires they cherish, Acc.u.mulating ills. The creatures thou didst make Sink when their day is done. They slough time like the snake How many hundred sunsets? Yet night comes for rest, And they awake no more,--and sleep,--and it is best.
What, Lord, would I not give to shift my cares and lie Enfolded in Time"s arms, stone-dead, eternally?
No. "Twas not Death, nor Pain; Pain the true salt of pleasure, The condiment that stings and teaches each his measure, The limit of his strength, joy"s value in his hand.
It was not these we feared. We bowed to Thy command, Even to that stern decree which bade the lion spring Upon the weakling steer, the falcon bend her wing To reive the laggard fowl, the monster of the deep Devour and be devoured. He who hath sown shall reap.
And we beheld the Earth by that mute law controlled, Grow ever young and new, Time"s necklace of pure gold Set on Creation"s neck. We gazed, and we applauded The splendour of Thy might, Thy incarnated G.o.dhead.
And yet--Lord G.o.d, forgive--Nay, hear me. Thou wert not Content with this fair world in its first glorious thought.
Thou needs must make thee Man. Ah, there Thy wisdom strayed.
Thou wantedst one to know Thee, no mere servile jade, But a brave upright form to walk the Earth and be Thy lieutenant with all and teach integrity, One to aspire, adorn, to stand the roof and crown Of thy Creation"s house in full dominion, The fairest, n.o.blest, best of Thy created things-- One thou shouldst call Thy rose of all Time"s blossomings.
And thou evolvedst Man!--There were a thousand forms, All glorious, all sublime, the riders of Thy storms, The battlers of Thy seas, the four-foot Lords of Earth, From which to choose Thy stem and get Thee a new birth.
There were forms painted, proud, bright birds with plumes of heaven And songs more sweet than angels" heard on the hills at even, Frail flashing b.u.t.terflies, free fishes of such hue As rainbows hardly have, sleek serpents which renew Their glittering coats like gems, grave brindled-hided kine, Large-hearted elephants, the horse how near divine, The whale, the mastodon, the mighty Behemoth, Leviathan"s self awake and glorious in his wrath.
All these thou hadst for choice, compet.i.tors with Thee For Thy new gift and prize, Thy co-divinity.
Yet didst Thou choose, Lord G.o.d, the one comedian shape In Thy Creation"s range, the lewd bare-b.u.t.tocked ape, And calledst him, in scorn of all that brave parade, King of Thy living things, in Thine own likeness made!
Where, Lord, was then Thy wisdom? We, who watched Thee, saw More than Thyself didst see. We recognised the flaw, The certainty of fault, and I in zeal spake plain.
THE LORD G.o.d
Thou didst, rebellious Spirit, and thy zeal was vain.
Thou spakest in thy blindness. Was it hard for G.o.d, Thinkest thou, to choose His graft, to wring from the worst clod His n.o.blest fruiting? Nay. Man"s baseness was the test, The text of His all-power, its proof made manifest.
There was nought hard for G.o.d.
SATAN
Except to win Man"s heart.
Lord, hear me to the end. Thy Will found counterpart Only in Man"s un-Will. Thy Truth in his un-Truth, Thy Beauty in his Baseness, Ruth in his un-Ruth, Order in his dis-Order. See, Lord, what hath been To Thy fair Earth through him, the fount and origin Of all its temporal woes. How was it ere he came In his high arrogance, sad creature without shame?
Thou dost remember, Lord, the glorious World it was, The beauty, the abundance, the unbroken face Of undulent forest spread without or rent or seam From mountain foot to mountain, one embroidered hem Fringing the mighty plains through which Thy rivers strayed, Thy lakes, Thy floods, Thy marshes, tameless, unbetrayed, All virgin of the spoiler, all inviolate, In beauty undeflowered, where fear was not nor hate.
Thou knowest, Lord of all, how that sanct solitude Was crowded with brave life, a thousand forms of good Enjoying Thy sweet air, some strong, some weak, yet none Oppressor of the rest more than Thy writ might run.
Armed were they, yet restrained. Not even the lion slew His prey in wantonness, nor claimed beyond his due.
He thinned their ranks,--yet, lo, the Spring brought back their joy.
Short was his anger, Lord. He raged not to destroy.
Oh, n.o.ble was the World, its balance held by Thee, Timely its fruits for all, "neath Thy sole sovereignty.
But he! he, the unclean! The fault, Lord G.o.d, was Thine.
Behold him in Thy place, a presence saturnine, In stealth among the rest, equipped as none of these With Thy mind"s attributes, low crouched beneath the trees, Betraying all and each. The wit Thou gavest him He useth to undo, to bend them to his whim.
His bodily strength is little, slow of foot is he, Of stature base, unclad in mail or panoply.
His heart hath a poor courage. He hath beauty none.
Bare to the b.u.t.tocks he of all that might atone.
Without Thy favour, Lord, what power had he for ill?
Without thy prompting voice his violence had scant skill.
The snare, the sling, the lime, who taught him these but Thou?
The World was lost through Thee who fashioned him his bow.
And Thou hast clean forgot the fair great beasts of yore, The mammoth, aurochs, elk, sea-lion, cave-bear, boar, Which fell before his hand, each one of them than he n.o.bler and mightier far, undone by treachery.
He spared them not, old, young, calf, cow. With pitfall hid In their mid path they fell, by his guile harvested, And with them the World"s truth. Henceforth all walked in fear, Knowing that one there was turned traitor, haply near.
This was the wild man"s crime.
THE LORD G.o.d
He erred in ignorance.
As yet he was not Man. Naught but his form was Man"s.
SATAN
Well had he so remained. Lord G.o.d, thou thoughtest then To perfect him by grace, among the sons of men To choose a worthiest man. "If he should know," saidst Thou "The evil from the good, the thing We do allow "From that We do forbid! If We should give him shame, "The consciousness of wrong, the red blush under blame!
"If he should walk in light beholding truth as We!"
Thou gavest him Conscience, Creed, Responsibility, The power to worship Thee. Thou showedst him Thy way.
Thou didst reveal Thyself. Thou spakest, as one should say Conversing mouth to mouth. Old Adam and his Eve Thou didst array in ap.r.o.ns Thy own hands did weave.
Enoch was taken up. To Noah Thou didst send Salvation in Thine ark. Lord Abraham was Thy friend.
These are the facts recorded, facts--say fables--yet Impressed with the large truth of a new value set Upon Man"s race and kind by Thy too favouring will.
Man had become a "Soul," informed for good and ill With Thy best attributes, Earth"s moral arbiter, Tyrant and priest and judge. Woe and alas for her!
Think of the deeds of Man! the sins! No wilding now, But set in cities proud, yet marked upon his brow With label of all crime.
THE LORD G.o.d
The men before the Flood?
We did destroy them all.
SATAN
Save Noah and his brood.
In what were these more worthy? Did they love Thee more, The men of the new lineage? Was their sin less sore, Their service of more zeal? Nay. Earth was hardly dry Ere their corruption stank and their sin sulphurously Rose as a smoke to heaven, Ur, Babel, Nineveh, The Cities of the Plain. Bethink Thee, Lord, to-day What their debas.e.m.e.nt was, who did defile Thy face And flout Thee in derision, dogs in shamelessness!
THE LORD G.o.d
Nay, but there loved me one.
SATAN
The son of Terah?
THE LORD G.o.d
He.
SATAN
I give Thee Thy one friend. Nay, more, I give Thee three-- Moses, Melchisedec.
THE LORD G.o.d
And Job.
SATAN
Ay, Job. He stands In light of the new Gospel, Captain of Thy bands, And prince of all that served Thee, fearing not to find Thy justice even in wrong with no new life behind, Thy justice even in death. In all, four men of good Of the whole race of Shem, Heaven"s stars in mult.i.tude.
I speak of the old time and the one chosen Nation To whom Thou gavest the law.
THE LORD G.o.d