WAGES-THE HIGHER PANTHEISM. WAGES. GLORY of warrior, glory of orator, glory of song, Paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless seaGlory of Virtue, to fight, to struggle, to right the wrong Nay, but she aim'd not at glory, no lover of glory she: Give her the glory of going on, and still to be. The wages of sin is death if the wages of Virtue be dust, Would she have heart to endure for the life of the worm and the fly? She desires no isles of the blest, no quiet seats of the just, THE HIGHER PANTHEISM. THE sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills and the plains- Is not the Vision He? tho' He be not that which He seems ? Earth, these solid stars, this weight of body and limb, Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why; For is He not all but thou, that hast power to feel 'I am I?' Glory about thee, without thee; and thou fulfillest thy doom Speak to Him thou for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet- God is law, say the wise; O Soul, and let us rejoice, Law is God, say some: no God at all, says the fool; For all we have power to see is a straight staff bent in a pool ; And the ear of man cannot hear, and the eye of man cannot see 277 EXPERIMENTS. BOÄDICEA. WHILE about the shore of Mona those Neronian legionaries 'They that scorn the tribes and call us Britain's barbarous populaces, 'Hear it, Gods! the Gods have heard it, O Icenian, O Coritarian ! Doubt not ye the Gods have answer'd, Catieuchlanian, Trinobant. These have told us all their anger in miraculous utterances, Thunder, a flying fire in heaven, a murmur heard aërially, Phantom sound of blows descending, moan of an enemy massacred, Phantom wail of women and children, multitudinous agonies. Bloodily flow'd the Tamesa rolling phantom bodies of horses and men ; Then a phantom colony smoulder'd on the refluent estuary; Lastly yonder yester-even, suddenly giddily tottering There was one who watch'd and told me-down their statue of Victory fell. Lo their precious Roman bantling, lo the colony Cámulodúne, Shall we teach it a Roman lesson? shall we care to be pitiful? There I heard them in the darkness, at the mystical ceremony, Tho' the Roman eagle shadow thee, tho' the gathering enemy narrow thee, Thine the lands of lasting summer, many-blossoming Paradises, Thine the North and thine the South and thine the battle-thunder of God," So they chanted: how shall Britain light upon auguries happier? So they chanted in the darkness, and there cometh a victory now. 'Hear Icenian, Catieuchlanian, hear Coritanian, Trinobant! Me the wife of rich Prasútagus, me the lover of liberty, Me they seized and me they tortured, me they lash'd and humiliated, Lo the palaces and the temple, lo the colony Cámulodúne ! There they ruled, and thence they wasted all the flourishing territory, Like the leaf in a roaring whirlwind, like the smoke in a hurricane whirl'd. Lo the colony, there they rioted in the city of Cúnobelíne ! There they drank in cups of emerald, there at tables of ebony lay, There they dwelt and there they rioted; there-there-they dwell no more. So the Queen Boädicéa, standing loftily charioted, Till her people all around the royal chariot agitated, Madly dash'd the darts together, writhing barbarous lineäments, |