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These
wanderings of the suns, these stars at play
In
the due measure that they chose of old,
Nor
only these, but all the immense array
Of
objects that long Time, far Space can hold,
Are divine moments. They are thoughts that
form,
They
are vision in the Self of things august
And
therefore grandly real. Rule and norm
Are
processes that they themselves adjust.
The
Self of things is not their outward view,
A
Force within decides. That Force is He;
His
movement is the shape of things we knew,
Movement
of Thought is Space and Time. A free
And
sovereign master of His world within,
He
is not bound by what He does or makes,
He
is not bound by virtue or by sin,
Awake
who sleeps and when He sleeps awakes.
He is not bound by waking or by sleep;
He
is not bound by anything at all.
Laws
are that He may conquer them. To creep
Or
soar is at His will, to rise or fall.
One
from of old possessed Himself above
Who
was not anyone nor had a form,
Nor
yet was formless. Neither hate nor love
Could
limit His perfection, peace nor storm.
He
is, we cannot say; for Nothing too
Is
His conception of Himself unguessed.
He
dawns upon us and we would pursue,
But
who has found Him or what arms possessed?
He
is not anything, yet all is He;
He
is not all but far exceeds that scope.
Both
Time and Timelessness sink in that sea:
Time
is a wave and Space a wandering drop.
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Within
Himself He shadowed Being forth,
Which
is a younger birth, a veil He chose
To
half-conceal Him, Knowledge, nothing worth
Save
to have glimpses of its mighty cause,
And
high Delight, a spirit infinite,
That
is the fountain of this glorious world,
Delight
that labours in its opposite,
Faints
in the rose and on the rack is curled.
This
was the triune playground that He made
And
One there sports awhile. He plucks His flowers
And
by His bees is stung; He is dismayed,
Flees
from Himself or has His sullen hours.
The
Almighty One knew labour, failure, strife;
Knowledge
forgot divined itself again:
He
made an eager death and called it life,
He
stung Himself with bliss and called it pain.
God
Thou
who pervadest all the worlds below,
Yet
sitst above,
Master
of all who work and rule and know,
Servant
of Love!
Thou
who disdainest not the worm to be
Nor
even the clod,
Therefore
we know by that humility
That
thou art God.
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