The Agnostic

A -GIRL, who dared not say the Christian creed,
The' rich in kindly heart and valorous deed,
Sang me a simple hymn with reverent tone.
Later, before Beethoven's cloudy throne
Symphonic, I stood, rapt and marvelling ;
And there a vision loomed on shadowy wing.

The Maiden fair in spirit I beheld.
Her eyes pure shrines of loftiest intent,
Indomitable endeavour, never quelled
By violent misfortune, nor repelled
By dull resistance of indifferent
Vicissitude, but ever buoyant ; her
On a frail arch of slow dissolving ice,
I saw 'mid mountains robed in snowy fur,
All inaccessible, a precipice
At either end inexorably steep,
Banning approach ; around her slender form
Unfathomable abysses of the deep,
O'er her involved embroilment of the storm,
Thundering cloud ; methought she stooped anon
With cordial of her glance to yield support
Unto some faltering or fallen one
Upon life's painful perilous pass, full fraught
With fear, convoying from nowhere to nowhither ;
So teach the later sages, and her mind,
Swayed by the mastering Magia breathing thither
From the Time- Spirit, so believes ; or blind,
Or eagle-orbed. He rules the answering helm
Of man's opinion ; but the mellow tones
Of her sweet anthem fill the frozen realm
With human longing ; the unhearing stones
Prolong the strains within their hollow hearts
Unknowing ; 'tis a hymn of piteous prayer
For help from Him Who of His Life imparts.
Some hold, to mortals ; but the maiden there
So deems not ; wherefore I feel wonderment.
Whether she sang, because the melody
Held soothing for her soul, or if she bent
Her loftier flight, sustaining some who fiy
On lowlier pinion faint and falteringly
With infant cradlesong they love to hear,
I know not, but her mellow-toned appeal
Wanders an orphan through a world of fear,
Where none regards, nor can regard, nor feel
With mortal man, emitting a faint ray
Of conscious hope within the soulless gloom,
That feebly quavers but a little way.
For a brief while in the eternal tomb.
That is the fathomless and infinite
Mother of all. And still serene she smiles !

But how sustains her the eternal Night ?
With what poor toys, with what illusive wiles?
There were some flowers in the ice-crevices,
Some tiny flowers of dear seraphic blue.
And rifts in tempest ; but are those, or these,
Sisters to them in deep cerulean hue,
Evanishing when born, howe'er they please,
Sustainers of her very light of life ?
Or is she strong for her unequal strife
Through yonder gleams of gold upon the rock?
Nay, they are elf-gleams glimmering to mock !

But she adores twin visionary Stars,
That in the abysmal hollows wax and wane.
Strange progeny of elemental wars.
Ravening in chasms of the unsouled Inane !
Duty, and Love, fair sister, and bold brother,
To spring in very deed from such a Mother !
Vea, spiritual tides of boundless being
Are billowing in the soul, a moment fleeing
From naught to naught unfathomably still :
Ghost from the gloom the miracle of Will !

A lovely child played on the crystal bridge,
And she played with him, they loved one another ;
Alas ! he faded from the icy ridge.
Like some soft flower, his delicate fleeting brother ;
He swooned into the unholy void, he perished !
While she with anguish wept the flower she cherished.

And yet methought that in the shrouding storm
I could distinguish some ethereal form.
As of a fair child often hovering nigh.
Albeit no vision met the maiden's eye.
Yet on the appealing waves of her sweet hymn
Toward her some breathing cohort seemed to swim.
Till unaware an ominous sharp sound
Foreboded wreck and ruin of the arc ;
Startled she gazed into the dusk profound,
Then calmly-grave appeared to mark
Annihilation's face confronting her,
While in a moment with still overthrow
Vanished the fair arch, and his eager stir
Of life for ever — Nay ! behold the glow
Of some divine celestial surprise
Dawns in the dewy darkness of her eyes,
While unsustained she falls ; for lo ! the cold
Unfathomable hollow-hearted gloom
Grew warm hearts throbbing with a love untold ;
The iron crags, built round her like a tomb,
Arms wound to ward with full-assured embrace !
Confused cloud-chaos, vasty vans that brood
Expansive o'er the darkness, with a grace
Of hallowing benediction for the rude
Sullen death-realm, unfounded and unformed.
Rousing a life within the grey womb, warmed
From their abounding ! O grand countenance
Of guardian angels ! once a drear expanse,
High snows aloof, indifferent ! ye stars.
Luminous eyes, who gaze through pearly bars
Unslumbering ! . . . A childish form floats hither.
The same who seemed before her eyes to wither ;
She only lost him for a little while ;
They greet again with still celestial smile.
For righteous Love, tho' visionless she be,
Buoys high the soul o'er death's catastrophe.
Bears her triumphant on the central tide
Of universal Life, the immortal Bride.