CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

126 PARACELSUS
The Inferior natures; and all lead up higher,
All shape out dimly the superior race,
The heir of hopes too fair to turn out false,
And Man appears at last : so far the seal
Is put on life; one stage of being complete,
One scheme wound up; and from the grand result
A supplementary reflux of light,
Illustrates all the inferior grades, explains
Each back step in the circle. Not alone
For their possessor dawn those qualities,
But the new glory mixes with the heaven
And earth: Man, once descried, imprints for ever
His presence on all lifeless things; the winds
Are henceforth voices, in a wail or shout,
A querulous mutter, or a quick gay laugh­
Never a senseless gust now man is born I
The herded pines commune, and have deep thoughts,
A secret they assemble to discuss,
When the sun drops behind their trunks which glare
Like grates of hell : the peerless cup afloat
Of the lake-lily is an urn, some nymph
Swims bearing high above her head : no bird
Whistles unseen, but through the gaps above
That let light in upon the gloomy woods,
A shape peeps from the breezy forest-top,
Arch with small puckered mouth and mocking eye:
The morn has enterprise,-deep quiet droops
With evening; triumph takes the sun-set hour,
Voluptuous transport ripens ",ith the corn
Beneath a warm moon like a happy face :
-And this to fill us with regard for man,
'Vith apprehension for his passing ';vorth,
Desire to work his proper nature out,
And ascertain his rank and final place;
For these things tend still upward-progress is
The law of life-man's self is not yet Man I
Nor shall I deem his object served, his end
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,
While only here and there a star dispels
The darkness, here and there a towering mind
O'erlooks its prostrate fellows : when the host
Is out at onee to the despair of night,
When all mankind alike is perfected,
Equal in fUll-blown powers-then, not till then.
I say, begins man's general infancy I
For wherefore make account of feverish starts
Of restless members of a dormant whole­
Impatient nerves which quiver while the body
Slumbers as in a grave? 0, long ago
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