POEMS AND LYRICS. THE SHADOW AND THE LIGHT. "AND I sought whence is Evil: I set before the eye of my spirit the whole creation; whatsoever we see therein-sea, earth, air, stars, trees, moral creatures,-yea, whatsoever there is we do not see angels and spiritual powers. Where is evil, and whence comes it, since God the Good hath created all things? Why made Hé anything at all of evil, and not rather by His Allmightiness cause it not to be? These thoughts I turned in my miserable heart, overcharged with most gnawing cares." "And, admonished to return to myself, I entered even into my inmost soul, Thou being my guide, and beheld even beyond my soul and mind the Light unchangeable. He who knows the Truth knows what that Light is, and he that knows it knows Eternity! O Truth, who art Eternity! Love, who art Truth! Eternity, who art Love! And I beheld that Thou madest all things good, and to Thee is nothing whatsoever evil. From the angel to the worm, from the first motion to the last, Thou settest each in its place, and everything is good in its kind. Woe is me!-how high art Thou in the highest, how deep in the deepest! and Thou never departest from us and we scarcely return to Thee."—Augustine's Soliloquies, Book vii. THE fourteen centuries fall away No outward sign to us is given,- No victory comes of all our strife,-- In paths unknown we hear the feet Of fear before, and guilt behind: We pluck the wayside fruit, and eat Ashes and dust beneath its golden rind. From age to age descends unchecked The sad bequest of sire to son, The body's taint, the mind's defectThrough every web of life the dark threads run. Oh! why and whither?-God knows all: Or here or there, must be the best that could. Between the dreadful cherubim A Father's face I still discern, For he is merciful as just: And so, by faith correcting sight, And dare to hope that he will make The rugged smooth, the doubtful plain; That suffering is not his revenge Upon his creatures weak and frail, Sent on a pathway new and strange With feet that wander and with eyes that fail, That, o'er the crucible of pain, Watches the tender eye of Love The slow transmuting of the chain Whose links are iron below to gold above! THE SHADOW AND THE LIGHT. Ah, me! we doubt the shining skies Seen through our shadows of offence, And drown with our poor childish cries The cradle-hymn of kindly Providence. And still we love the evil cause, And of the just effect complain; We tread upon life's broken laws, And murmur at our self-inflicted pain ; We turn us from the light, and find Our spectral shapes before us thrown, And scarce by will or strength of ours 347 Weak, wavering, blind, the Eternal Powers Alone can turn us from ourselves away. Our weakness is the strength of sin, A Voice grows with the growing years; Oh, Love Divine !-whose constant beam Shines on the eyes that will not see, And waits to bless us, while we dream Thou leavest us because we turn from thee! All souls that struggle and aspire, All hearts of prayer by thee are lit; And, dim or clear, thy tongues of fire On dusky tribes and twilight centuries sit. Nor bounds, nor clime, nor creed thou know'st, Oh, Beauty, old yet ever new! 27 Eternal Voice, and Inward Word, Truth which the sage and prophet saw, Shine on us with the light which glowed Shine, light of God!—make broad thy scope And better than we dare to hope With Heaven's compassion make our longings poor THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS. TRITEMIUS OF HERBIPOLIS, one day, A sound which seemed of all sad things to tell, Thereat the Abbot paused; the chain whereby ! THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS. And, looking from the casement, saw below 349 She cried, "For the dear love of Him who gave "Woman!" Tritemius answered, “from our door None go unfed; hence are we always poor: A single soldo is our only store. Thou hast our prayers;-what can we give theo more?" "Give me,” she said, "the silver candlesticks God well may spare them on his errands sped, Then spake Tritemius, "Even as thy word, Take what thou askest, and redeem thy child." But his hand trembled as the holy alms |