"His mouth he could not ope,But there flew out a trope."
Magical lyrics—oh, if I only had written them down! Pell-mell they came down the sequestered avenues of my mind, this merry throng. With bacchanal song and shout they came, and eyehath not since beheld confusion worse confounded.
Shut your eyes, and see them come—the knights and ladies of my revel. Plumed and turbaned they come, clad in mail and silken broideries, gentle maids in Quaker gray, gay princes in scarlet cloaks, coquettes with roses in their hair, monks in cowls that might have covered the tall Minster Tower, demure little girls hugging paper dolls, and rollicking school-boys with ruddy morning faces, an absent-minded professor carrying his shoes under his arms and looking wise, followed by cronies, fairies, goblins, and all the troops just loosed from Noah's storm-tossed ark. They walked, they strutted, they soared, they swam, and some came in through fire. One sprite climbed up to the moon on aladder made of leaves and frozen dew-drops. A peacock with a great hooked bill flew in and out among the branches of a pomegranate-tree pecking the rosy fruit. He screamed so loud that Apollo turned in his chariot of flame and from his burnished bow shot golden arrows at him. This did not disturb the peacock in the least; for he spread his gem-like wings and flourished his wonderful, fire-tipped tail in the very face of the sun-god! Then came Venus—an exact copy of my own plaster cast—serene, calm-eyed, dancing "high and disposedly" like Queen Elizabeth, surrounded by a troop of lovely Cupids mounted on rose-tinted clouds, blown hither and thither by sweet winds, while all around danced flowers and streams and queer little Japanese cherry-trees in pots!They were followed by jovial Pan with green hair and jewelled sandals, and by his side—I could scarcely believe my eyes!—walked a modest nun counting her beads. At a little distance were seen three dancers arm-in-arm, a lean, starved platitude, a rosy, dimpled joke, and a steel-ribbed sermon on predestination. Close upon them came a whole string of Nights with wind-blown hair and Days with faggots on their backs. All at once I saw the ample figure of Life rise above the whirling mass holding a naked child in one hand and in the other a gleaming sword. A bear crouched at her feet, and all about her swirled and glowed a multitudinous host of tiny atoms which sang all together, "We are the will of God." Atom wedded atom, and chemical married chemical,and the cosmic dance went on in changing, changeless measure, until my head sang like a buzz-saw.
Just as I was thinking I would leave this scene of phantoms and take a stroll in the quiet groves of Slumber I noticed a commotion near one of the entrances to my enchanted palace. It was evident from the whispering and buzzing that went round that more celebrities had arrived. The first personage I saw was Homer, blind no more, leading by a golden chain the white-beaked ships of the Achaians bobbing their heads and squawking like so many white swans. Plato and Mother Goose with the numerous children of the shoe came next. Simple Simon, Jill, and Jack who had had his head mended, and the cat that fell into the cream—all these danced ina giddy reel, while Plato solemnly discoursed on the laws of Topsyturvy Land. Then followed grim-visaged Calvin and "violet-crowned, sweet-smiling Sappho" who danced a Schottische. Aristophanes and Molière joined for a measure, both talking at once, Molière in Greek and Aristophanes in German. I thought this odd, because it occurred to me that German was a dead language before Aristophanes was born. Bright-eyed Shelley brought in a fluttering lark which burst into the song of Chaucer's chanticleer. Henry Esmond gave his hand in a stately minuet to Diana of the Crossways. He evidently did not understand her nineteenth century wit; for he did not laugh. Perhaps he had lost his taste for clever women. Anon Dante and Swedenborg came togetherconversing earnestly about things remote and mystical. Swedenborg said it was very warm. Dante replied that it might rain in the night.
Suddenly there was a great clamour, and I found that "The Battle of the Books" had begun raging anew. Two figures entered in lively dispute. One was dressed in plain homespun and the other wore a scholar's gown over a suit of motley. I gathered from their conversation that they were Cotton Mather and William Shakspere. Mather insisted that the witches in "Macbeth" should be caught and hanged. Shakspere replied that the witches had already suffered enough at the hands of commentators. They were pushed aside by the twelve knights of the Round Table, who marched in bearing ona salver the goose that laid golden eggs. "The Pope's Mule" and "The Golden Bull" had a combat of history and fiction such as I had read of in books, but never before witnessed. These little animals were put to rout by a huge elephant which lumbered in with Rudyard Kipling riding high on its trunk. The elephant changed suddenly to "a rakish craft." (I do not know what a rakish craft is; but this was very rakish and very crafty.) It must have been abandoned long ago by wild pirates of the southern seas; for clinging to the rigging, and jovially cheering as the ship went down, I made out a man with blazing eyes, clad in a velveteen jacket. As the ship disappeared from sight, Falstaff rushed to the rescue of the lonely navigator—and stole his purse!But Miranda persuaded him to give it back. Stevenson said, "Who steals my purse steals trash." Falstaff laughed and called this a good joke, as good as any he had heard in his day.
This was the signal for a rushing swarm of quotations. They surged to and fro, an inchoate throng of half finished phrases, mutilated sentences, parodied sentiments, and brilliant metaphors. I could not distinguish any phrases or ideas of my own making. I saw a poor, ragged, shrunken sentence that might have been mine own catch the wings of a fair idea with the light of genius shining like a halo about its head.
Ever and anon the dancers changed partners without invitation or permission. Thoughts fell in love at sight, married in a measure, and joined handswithout previous courtship. An incongruity is the wedding of two thoughts which have had no reasonable courtship, and marriages without wooing are apt to lead to domestic discord, even to the breaking up of an ancient, time-honoured family. Among the wedded couples were certain similes hitherto inviolable in their bachelorhood and spinsterhood, and held in great respect. Their extraordinary proceedings nearly broke up the dance. But the fatuity of their union was evident to them, and they parted. Othersimilesseemed to have the habit of living in discord. They had been many times married and divorced. They belonged to the notorious society of Mixed Metaphors.
A company of phantoms floated in and out wearing tantalizing garmentsof oblivion. They seemed about to dance, then vanished. They reappeared half a dozen times, but never unveiled their faces. The imp Curiosity pulled Memory by the sleeve and said, "Why do they run away? 'Tis strange knavery!" Out ran Memory to capture them. After a great deal of racing and puffing and collision it apprehended some of the fugitives and brought them in. But when it tore off their masks, lo! some were disappointingly commonplace, and others were gipsy quotations trying to conceal the punctuation marks that belonged to them. Memory was much chagrined to have had such a hard chase only to catch this sorry lot of graceless rogues.
Into the rabble strode four stately giants who called themselves History,Philosophy, Law, and Medicine. They seemed too solemn and imposing to join in a masque. But even as I gazed at these formidable guests, they all split into fragments which went whirling, dancing in divisions, subdivisions, re-subdivisions of scientific nonsense! History split into philology, ethnology, anthropology, and mythology, and these again split finer than the splitting of hairs. Each speciality hugged its bit of knowledge and waltzed it round and round. The rest of the company began to nod, and I felt drowsy myself. To put an end to the solemn gyrations, a troop of fairies mercifully waved poppies over us all, the masque faded, my head fell, and I started. Sleep had wakened me. At my elbow I found my old friend Bottom.
"Bottom," I said, "I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Methought I was—there is no man can tell what. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, his hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was."
"My wings are folded o'er mine ears,My wings are crossèd o'er mine eyes,Yet through their silver shade appears,And through their lulling plumes arise,A Shape, a throng of sounds."
Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound."
I DARE not ask why we are reft of light,Banished to our solitary isles amid the unmeasured seas,Or how our sight was nurtured to glorious vision,To fade and vanish and leave us in the dark alone.The secret of God is upon our tabernacle;Into His mystery I dare not pry. Only this I know:With Him is strength, with Him is wisdom,And His wisdom hath set darkness in our paths.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.O Dark! thou awful, sweet, and holy Dark!In thy solemn spaces, beyond the human eye,God fashioned His universe; laid the foundations of the earth,Laid the measure thereof, and stretched the line upon it;Shut up the sea with doors, and made the gloryOf the clouds a covering for it;Commanded His morning, and, behold! chaos fledBefore the uplifted face of the sun;Divided a water-course for the overflowing of waters;Sent rain upon the earth—Upon the wilderness wherein there was no man,Upon the desert where grew no tender herb,And, lo! there was greenness upon the plains,And the hills were clothed with beauty!Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.O Dark! thou secret and inscrutable Dark!In thy silent depths, the springs whereof man hath not fathomed,God wrought the soul of man.O Dark! compassionate, all-knowing Dark!Tenderly, as shadows to the evening, comes thy message to man.Softly thou layest thy hand on his tired eyelids,And his soul, weary and homesick, returnsUnto thy soothing embrace.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.O Dark! wise, vital, thought-quickening Dark!In thy mystery thou hidest the lightThat is the soul's life.Upon thy solitary shores I walk unafraid;I dread no evil; though I walk in the valley of the shadow,I shall not know the ecstasy of fearWhen gentle Death leads me through life's open door,When the bands of night are sundered,And the day outpours its light.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.The timid soul, fear-driven, shuns the dark;But upon the cheeks of him who must abide in shadowBreathes the wind of rushing angel-wings,And round him falls a light from unseen fires.Magical beams glow athwart the darkness;Paths of beauty wind through his black worldTo another world of light,Where no veil of sense shuts him out from Paradise.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.O Dark! thou blessèd, quiet Dark!To the lone exile who must dwell with theeThou art benign and friendly;From the harsh world thou dost shut him in;To him thou whisperest the secrets of the wondrous night;Upon him thou bestowest regions wide and boundless as his spirit;Thou givest a glory to all humble things;With thy hovering pinions thou coverest all unlovely objects;Under thy brooding wings there is peace.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.
I DARE not ask why we are reft of light,Banished to our solitary isles amid the unmeasured seas,Or how our sight was nurtured to glorious vision,To fade and vanish and leave us in the dark alone.The secret of God is upon our tabernacle;Into His mystery I dare not pry. Only this I know:With Him is strength, with Him is wisdom,And His wisdom hath set darkness in our paths.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.
Oncein regions void of light I wandered;In blank darkness I stumbled,And fear led me by the hand;My feet pressed earthward,Afraid of pitfalls.By many shapeless terrors of the night affrighted,To the wakeful dayI held out beseeching arms.Then came Love, bearing in her handThe torch that is the light unto my feet,And softly spoke Love: "Hast thouEntered into the treasures of darkness?Hast thou entered into the treasures of the night?Search out thy blindness. It holdethRiches past computing."The words of Love set my spirit aflame.My eager fingers searched out the mysteries,The splendours, the inmost sacredness, of things,And in the vacancies discernedWith spiritual sense the fullness of life;And the gates of Day stood wide.I am shaken with gladness;My limbs tremble with joy;My heart and the earthTremble with happiness;The ecstasy of lifeIs abroad in the world.Knowledge hath uncurtained heaven;On the uttermost shores of darkness there is light;Midnight hath sent forth a beam!The blind that stumbled in darkness without lightBehold a new day!In the obscurity gleams the star of Thought;Imagination hath a luminous eye,And the mind hath a glorious vision.
"Theman is blind. What is life to him?A closed book held up against a sightless face.Would that he could seeYon beauteous star, and knowFor one transcendent momentThe palpitating joy of sight!"All sight is of the soul.Behold it in the upward flightOf the unfettered spirit! Hast thou seenThought bloom in the blind child's face?Hast thou seen his mind grow,Like the running dawn, to graspThe vision of the Master?It was the miracle of inward sight.In the realms of wonderment where I dwellI explore life with my hands;I recognize, and am happy;My fingers are ever athirst for the earth,And drink up its wonders with delight,Draw out earth's dear delights;My feet are charged with the murmur,The throb, of all things that grow.This is touch, this quivering,This flame, this ether,This glad rush of blood,This daylight in my heart,This glow of sympathy in my palms!Thou blind, loving, all-prying touch,Thou openest the book of life to me.The noiseless little noises of the earthCome with softest rustle;The shy, sweet feet of life;The silky mutter of moth-wingsAgainst my restraining palm;The strident beat of insect-wings,The silvery trickle of water;Little breezes busy in the summer grass;The music of crisp, whisking, scurrying leaves,The swirling, wind-swept, frost-tinted leaves;The crystal splash of summer rain,Saturate with the odours of the sod.With alert fingers I listenTo the showers of soundThat the wind shakes from the forest.I bathe in the liquid shadeUnder the pines, where the air hangs coolAfter the shower is done.My saucy little friend the squirrelFlips my shoulder with his tail,Leaps from leafy billow to leafy billow,Returns to eat his breakfast from my hand.Between us there is glad sympathy;He gambols; my pulses dance;I am exultingly full of the joy of life!Have not my fingers split the sandOn the sun-flooded beach?Hath not my naked body felt the water singWhen the sea hath enveloped itWith rippling music?Have I not feltThe lilt of waves beneath my boat,The flap of sail,The strain of mast,The wild rushOf the lightning-charged winds?Have I not smelt the swift, keen flightOf winged odours before the tempest?Here is joy awake, aglow;Here is the tumult of the heart.My hands evoke sight and sound out of feeling,Intershifting the senses endlessly;Linking motion with sight, odour with soundThey give colour to the honeyed breeze,The measure and passion of a symphonyTo the beat and quiver of unseen wings.In the secrets of earth and sun and airMy fingers are wise;They snatch light out of darkness,They thrill to harmonies breathed in silence.I walked in the stillness of the night,And my soul uttered her gladness.O Night, still, odorous Night, I love thee!O wide, spacious Night, I love thee!O steadfast, glorious Night!I touch thee with my hands;I lean against thy strength;I am comforted.O fathomless, soothing Night!Thou art a balm to my restless spirit,I nestle gratefully in thy bosom,Dark, gracious mother!Like a dove, I rest in thy bosom.Out of the uncharted, unthinkable dark we came,And in a little time we shall return againInto the vast, unanswering dark.
PRINTED BYWILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.PLYMOUTH
FOOTNOTES:[A]The excellent proof-reader has put a query to my use of the word "see." If I had said "visit," he would have asked no questions, yet what does "visit" mean but "see" (visitare)? Later I will try to defend myself for using as much of the English language as I have succeeded in learning.[B]George Arnold.[C]I found that of the senses, the eye is the most superficial, the ear the most arrogant, smell the most voluptuous, taste the most superstitious and fickle, touch the most profound and the most philosophical.
[A]The excellent proof-reader has put a query to my use of the word "see." If I had said "visit," he would have asked no questions, yet what does "visit" mean but "see" (visitare)? Later I will try to defend myself for using as much of the English language as I have succeeded in learning.
[A]The excellent proof-reader has put a query to my use of the word "see." If I had said "visit," he would have asked no questions, yet what does "visit" mean but "see" (visitare)? Later I will try to defend myself for using as much of the English language as I have succeeded in learning.
[B]George Arnold.
[B]George Arnold.
[C]I found that of the senses, the eye is the most superficial, the ear the most arrogant, smell the most voluptuous, taste the most superstitious and fickle, touch the most profound and the most philosophical.
[C]I found that of the senses, the eye is the most superficial, the ear the most arrogant, smell the most voluptuous, taste the most superstitious and fickle, touch the most profound and the most philosophical.
Transcriber's Note: The one correction made is indicated by a dotted line under the word that was changed.