The Vital Spark: An Inner Voice

BEWILDERED by Life's Gordian Knot, long o'er me Despair had flung her adamantine chain, When thro' the abyss of my spirit 'Glory!' A deep voice cried, and 'Glory!' then this strain:— 'A spark eternal from the co-eternal, And inner source of light ere time began, The soul built from the dust its home external, And so became what we now know as man. 'The outer temple built, an inner, finer, From this and like to this was next ordained, In which might be attained a life diviner Than could within the outer be attained. 'Thus in the image in man's form reflected, From out the universal Soul, the soul Its individuality projected, And so became a whole within the whole. 'From root and knot, from knot and leaf to blossom, Upsprang by slow degrees the oak to view; So by degrees as slow from out God's bosom, The vital spark to man immortal grew. 'The swaddles, that enswathe the babe, those swaddles Are rent asunder as we stronger grow; And for the prate that pleased us in our cradles We're taught a higher, deeper lore to know. 'So by degrees man thus obtains his being, So by degrees his mental prime's obtained, When grown from Man the Blind to Man the Seeing, The chains are rent in twain by which he's chained. 'Then from the chaos of the days primeval, Into the future far his ken extends— Then to his ken what error seemed and evil Appear but instruments to noble ends. 'The shadow's self, thus seen, becomes a splendour, The mystic maze pervaded by a plan; And laws sublime are seen to rule and render Harmonic what but discord seemed to man. 'In matter's seen the means to vanquish matter, In many a dismal ban a blessing bright; In states chaotic, what their gloom might scatter, And their domains enshrine in living light. 'The darkest woe the brightest joy enclaspeth, In what seems false is seen the true, a power Which grasped by man as rich a mace he graspeth, As ever graced the mythic gods of yore. 'A thinker clear nor less a doer; even A more than soul Titanic he, who still Can make the very death-forged bolts of heaven To dance attendance on his potent will. 'The very lightning that the vision dazzles, The very tempest that the forest rends, Are vassals bound unto his will, and vassals That help to realize the highest ends. 'Even as he wills empires arise—inventions Are seen uniting foreign land to land; And where but winds and waves held dire contentions By sweetest intercourse the deeps are spann'd. 'A victor o'er the elements, a victor E'en over self he moves, till lo! appears Upon the earth he treads the very picture Of what can be in the seraphic spheres. 'From higher than the seraph state descended, Up to the goal from whence he came he climbs; And when the days of mortal life are ended, Still upward scales he thro' long future times. 'Just as the bee with honey laden flieth, To hive the guerdon earned by toil and pang; So by experience enriched, he hieth With power to gift the Power from whom he sprang. 'Yea, ever moves he glory-ward, and ever Does glory to the Love Eterne accord!' Thus rang that voice within my soul, and never Shall I forget how sweet the voice thus heard.