b ii K K fc L E y 
 
 LIBR 
 
 UNfVESS'TY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
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THE SERPENT 
 ROUND THE SOUL: 
 
 A POEM. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN W. WOOD. 
 
 EDINBURGH : JOHN" MENZIES & Co. 
 CITPAR : A. WESTWOOD. 
 
 18 70. 
 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
 PRINTED AT A. WESTWOOD S STEAM PRESS, CROSS, CUPAR, 
 
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 ROUND 
 
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 Up from the waves the Sun rose red, 
 
 To gild the Sabbath day ; 
 The Winds came o'er old Ocean's bed, 
 
 Low wailing on their way ; 
 The Silvery Groves rang sweet and clear, 
 With notes that angels well might hear. 
 
 Yet lonely o'er the hills I trod, 
 
 Long ere the chapel-bell, 
 With fervent spirit to my God, 
 
 The ills of Life to tell- 
 When, as if God had leaned to hear. 
 The gentle breeze wiped off the tear. 
 
THE SERPENT 
 
 Witliin that year my sailor-child 
 
 Was lost, where icebergs roll ; 
 Upon my ear his cries rose wild, 
 
 That pierced my shattered soul ; 
 While Memory would his form restore, 
 To leave me sadder than before. 
 
 To cheer the morn a stalwart swain. 
 Came pressing through the broom — 
 
 With beaming face that well might gain, 
 Dark mourners from the tomb — 
 
 And praised the Summer scene that lay, 
 
 So sweetly round our rural way. 
 
 Then come, he said, and spend the hours, 
 
 Beside the tinkling rills ; 
 Or list the music of the bowers ; 
 
 Or walk the heath-clad hills ; 
 For Man may woo fair Nature there. 
 And find a balm for every care. 
 
 This heart was grieved, and pained this head, 
 
 Within my native halls, 
 B}'' a strange grief that dail}^ spread, 
 
 Like briers o'er fruit-tree walls — 
 I heard me of your Highland-side, 
 Where Libertv and Health reside. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Aud left the World's deceitful fanes, 
 Where whining Priests may bow, 
 
 For Life now dances in my veins, 
 Peace mantles on my brow — 
 
 Aud why should creatures of a da}'. 
 
 Not revel in yon glorious ray 1 
 
 Z^c crijnsttan. 
 
 Nay, nay, I dare not spend the hours, 
 
 A holy God has given, 
 In plucking Earth's poor fading flowers. 
 
 Upon the way to Heaven — 
 And soon yon Sun so round and bright. 
 Will set in everlasting night ! 
 
 (Thus checked in sin, a flash of scorn 
 
 Lit up his piercing eje, 
 As lightning, from the black cloud borne. 
 
 Darts o'er the troubled sky ; 
 While mutterings presaged the storm, 
 That raged within the trembling form.) 
 
THE SERPENT 
 
 2rfjc Strangrr. 
 A God ! away no one knows where, 
 
 Watchful, and sad, and lone, 
 High-seated, in the realms of air, 
 
 Upon a golden Throne, — 
 Go call thy wandering thoughts again, 
 From wildest fancy of the brain. 
 
 Than Nature ! there is none beside,— 
 
 In vain you bow the knee, — 
 No Adam fell, — no Saviour died, 
 
 For Sinners such as thee ! 
 And where's the use your Christ should die ? 
 And why God's mercy-price so high ? 
 
 For if a Being good and wise, 
 Would raise your fallen race, — 
 
 He had not claimed such sacrifice, 
 The channel of His grace, — 
 
 Nor ever made you trembling slaves. 
 
 Hemmed in by gloomy loathsome graves. 
 
 Besides, it were too deep a bend, 
 
 For such a lofty God, — 
 Too far remote, — too vile the end, 
 
 Seen from a God's abode,- - 
 Degrading for One throned so high. 
 So erranded to leave the sky. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 But ah ! the Mind of wily Man, 
 
 Tn search of Fame and Place, 
 Framed and enthroned with wondrous plan, 
 
 A Godhead o'er the race, — 
 A Being with entire control. 
 Who moulds a World or breathes a Soul. 
 
 When, as they could not shew their God, 
 
 They placed Him far away, 
 In realms where mortal never trod, 
 
 Or Nature found her way, — 
 Conceived the spheres of Fire and Grace, 
 And ours a fallen rebellious race. 
 
 The one wrapped in eternal night, 
 
 Where tortured spirits roll, — 
 And one wdiere unsurpassed delight. 
 
 Surrounds the ravished soul, — 
 One yawning with wide hideous jaws. 
 The other closed with strino;ent laws. 
 
 'o^ 
 
 Set o'er the Earth a monstrous Chief, 
 Wily in vice and strong, — 
 
 To bring Mankind to direst grief, 
 To drive fair Nature wrong, — 
 
 His only study that of fraud ; 
 
 His only joy, at war with God. 
 
THE SERPENT 
 
 At war upon the heights of Heaven, 
 Where squadrons charged and fell — 
 
 Now, since the fiendish host was driven, 
 Downwards to Earth and Hell, 
 
 Within the hearts of men, and there 
 
 The old black banner beats the air ! 
 
 Yet all the way from Heaven to save, 
 Brought down God's only Son, 
 
 Who bled and died and found a grave. 
 To raise you every one, 
 
 Up from the blazing mouth of Hell, 
 
 All of their slaves that don't rebel. 
 
 Those frauds in glowing imagery. 
 By cunning scoundrels dress'd. 
 
 Were hung before the simple eye. 
 Aroused the gentle breast, — 
 
 While Parents with a trembling tongue. 
 
 Enlarged and pressed them on the Young. 
 
 And still they tell them o'er and o'er. 
 
 With sanctimonious drone, 
 While many light their foreign shore. 
 
 By painting black The Known, — 
 When, as the people stay to stare, 
 It shews what piety may bear 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Efje CJjristian. 
 (The Voice, that from my infaut-day, 
 
 Inspired my walk in life, 
 That through the desert leads my way, 
 
 That shuns the haunts of strife, — 
 My " rest in God," my stay, my all, 
 Shall ye before this mortal fall !) 
 
 Cease reckless Man ! your fiendish glee, 
 
 And tell me if you can, 
 Who bade our World go rolling free 1 
 
 Whence sprang the race of Man ] 
 What mighty Power 1 what God-like Eye 1 
 Held watch beside the pregnant Sky. 
 
 Cf)c stranger. 
 Yet add, a few more questions here ! 
 
 Whence came your glorious God *? 
 Where is the Day-eternal sphere ? 
 
 Who waved the magic rod 
 To call them forth,— for you but dream 
 About a sourceless endless stream. 
 
THE SERPENT 
 
 Who smote the rock with thunder-blast 1 
 
 Who bade the stream arise, 
 Among the Life-hills of the Past, 
 
 Across the gleaming skies 1 
 And how may such god-waves roll free, 
 Beyond Life's universal Sea 1 
 
 Z\)t €f)rist(an* 
 
 Nay, Stranger, nay ! keep 'neaih the skies ! 
 
 How came the Parent-pair ? 
 Clods could not say, " let us arise," 
 
 To Manhood wise and fair, — 
 'Twere well to know of Mind and Matter, 
 Ere we would grasp The Great Creator ! 
 
 And ere you prove to anxious minds, 
 
 The orphanage of heaven, 
 Go pour your venom on the v;inds. 
 
 That round the hills are driven, — 
 When, if ye find Man high o'er all. 
 Across your god-ship draw the pall ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 E\)t .Stranger. 
 All right, my Friend, those Suns that loom, 
 
 Have ever rolled through space, 
 For out of that no waiting room, 
 
 Might hold them ere the race, — 
 From whose fierce wombs, like giory-rain. 
 Fly worlds that circle back again. 
 
 Creatures of fire, and of the wave, 
 
 And of the stubborn clay, 
 Come in their time, and joy or rave 
 - Away their measured day, — 
 From the Life-caves, clan pressing clan. 
 From Salamander on to Man. 
 
 Millions of Beings crowd the air, 
 
 Each sea, and hill, and plain. 
 Which go away in pale despair. 
 
 But aye come back again, — 
 For all that hails from Life's bright shore, 
 Has lived ten million times before. 
 
 Lived in the unremembered Past, 
 
 Within the early Seas, 
 The monsters slimy, dull, and vast. 
 
 With undivided ease, — 
 Or as the vile unshapely host. 
 That crawled along the rock-bound coast. 
 
10 THE SERPENT 
 
 Or by the streams and marshy plains, 
 
 And in the tangled brake, 
 The terror of those bleak domains, 
 
 Lay coiled the spotted snake, — 
 And who shall doubt each lying tongue 
 Is from such reptiles meanly sprung ! 
 
 Or scampered o'er the burning sands, 
 
 Or shook the desert air, 
 Or hunted in the fierce wolf-bands, 
 
 Or growled within the lair, — 
 And Paul, the lecturer of men, 
 May once have graced the lion's den. 
 
 Or on the strong wing, rose away. 
 As they had pierced the blue, 
 
 By silent night and solemn day, 
 To distant regions flew, — 
 
 So much inclined to rise and roam. 
 
 That Earth might scarcely be their home. 
 
 Or when the vocal forest rang. 
 Tuned by the wandering breeze ; 
 
 Among the branches hopped and sang. 
 In concert with the trees, — 
 
 The Notes of Nature sweet and clear. 
 
 As if a downcast World to cheer. 
 
KOUND THE SOUL. 11 
 
 Thus Change is ever on the wing, 
 
 In the eternal strife, 
 Of Mind and Matter ; Chance the king, 
 
 "Who calls the twain to life, — 
 While Death is nought but to unbind 
 The subtle fragments of the Mind. 
 
 Ever from Nature's myriad-gates, 
 
 By wave or rushy lair ; 
 But no kind welcome ever waits 
 
 The common creatures there ; — 
 They friendless come and spend their day. 
 And at night cheerless pass away. 
 
 But when Man, from the labouring ground, 
 
 Gazed out upon the sky. 
 Surveyed the scenes that lay around. 
 
 With wonder-stricken eye, — 
 The beaming Sun retiring, smiled. 
 As father o'er a darlino: child. 
 
 'O 
 
 With a strange calmness on each face, 
 The tribe of Man went forth, — 
 
 The first-spring of the noblest race. 
 That ever graced the Earth, — 
 
 And clustering in a Summer dell, 
 
 The fruits and streamlets bade them dwell. 
 
12 THE SERPENT 
 
 But the woods were not always green, 
 And laden with good cheer ; 
 
 Nor always through the sylvan scene, 
 Ean streamlets smooth and clear, — 
 
 The howling Winter rushed amain, 
 
 And gloom sat throned on hill and plain. 
 
 Chilled in the scanty forest beds, 
 When Winter's breath might blow, 
 
 They twined the wattles o'er their heads, 
 To screen the drifting snow, 
 
 The northern winds, the sweeping clouds, 
 
 That drenched them in their leafy shrouds. 
 
 Yet pressed by wants, or urged by fame, 
 They shaped their glorious way, — 
 
 The Sun of Eeason upwards came. 
 With Morning's genial ray. 
 
 Rose mantling o'er their stretching sky, 
 
 And lighted up each savage eye ! 
 
 Gave names to beasts and all they saw, 
 By which they should be known, 
 
 Until they framed, by pristine law, 
 A language all their own, — 
 
 And mark, in that far night-seen ra}'-, 
 
 The Sun that lights our mental day. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 13 
 
 The children wandered down the vale, 
 
 To spend the Summer hours, 
 The sweets of Nature to inhale, 
 
 Among the fragrant flowers, 
 The leaf-arched streams to wade and trace, 
 With beauty mantling on each face. 
 
 And one day at their merry games, 
 
 With wood-resounding glee, 
 They played at " swing " till out sprang flames, 
 
 Where crossed the balanced tree, — 
 When flocked the old ones to admire. 
 And in deep wonder fed the fire. 
 
 One grasped the dancing nymph-like flame. 
 
 To hold it from the sky, — 
 But curse soon thundered on the game, 
 
 And anger filled his eye, — 
 Yet they its value came to know. 
 When Winter wrapped their Land in snow. 
 
 For when the Winter, in its ire. 
 Came screaming tlirough the door, 
 
 They circled round a blazing fire, 
 That graced the wigwam floor, — 
 
 And when the blasts howled loud and long, 
 
 Their blessings flowed in mirth and song. 
 
14 THE SERPENT 
 
 But coziness within the beild, 
 
 Gave keenness to the blast, 
 So that they could not roam the field, 
 
 While sullen Winter passed, 
 Till they had set the wily snare, 
 And trapped and skinned the monstrous Bear. 
 
 Then wrapped within tlie furry hide, 
 
 Adorned with shining shells, 
 They climbed the mountain's icy side. 
 
 And braved the wintry swells, — 
 Or o'er the hills on Summer morn. 
 Pressed all regardless of the thorn. 
 
 While farther on, the Beaver Crew, 
 
 Afloat with bushy tail, 
 Gave them to shape the rude canoe, 
 
 And raise the driving sail, — 
 When, bravely, 'mid the dashing spray, 
 They bore to foreign coasts away. 
 
 Again, beside the desert stream, 
 
 Nestled the little Bands, 
 Weaving, as in a happy dream, 
 
 The pliant willow wands, 
 Ere round the caves, or hung to trees, 
 Fish-baskets dangled in the breeze. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 15 
 
 Again, they stripped the bark of Pine. 
 
 For fibres tough and long, — 
 And soon upon the baited line, 
 
 Ran fishes large and strong, — 
 And later, cunning hands with ease, 
 Made nets to sack their lliver-seas. 
 
 Then, when the clear sun-jewelled sky, 
 
 Bent down and kissed the wave, 
 The crews, with spirits wild and high, 
 
 Streamed from their rugged cave ; 
 And soon they brought with flashing oar. 
 The treasures of the deep to shore. 
 
 Again, he bent the deadly bow. 
 
 And showered the arrow-rain. 
 Till Man became the common foe, 
 
 O'er mountain, wild, and plain, — 
 Leagued with the blood-hound ; from his view, 
 The tameless beasts in dread withdrew. 
 
 Then did the early Fathers join 
 
 As one, the wide world o'er, — 
 One common range— their cake and wine, 
 
 Piled in one common store, — 
 O'er them a simple Chief who drew 
 His laws from Nature— drew them true. 
 
16 THE SERPENT 
 
 While Chieftian's Sons to Manhood grown, 
 
 Set out with chosen Bands, 
 Earth's sullen solitudes to own, 
 
 And change to living Lands, — 
 And thus they spread them far away. 
 Till wilder waters murmured '' Nay." 
 
 In time far-stretching tribes were they. 
 
 And happy homes of men ; 
 Smiled to the passing god of day. 
 
 From fertile slope and glen, — 
 Yet to disperse those kindly Bands, 
 Gaunt Famine stalked among the Lands. 
 
 When with a Sense o'er all the beasts, 
 
 As Matter yields to Mind, 
 To drag along their joyous feasts, 
 
 They yoked the lower kind. 
 And o'er the desert roving Man, 
 Urged the romantic caravan. 
 
 Then with the Arts, fair cities rose, 
 
 With all the pomp of Life ; 
 While foes at home, and foreign foes, 
 
 Rose with the rising strife. 
 That pressed each toiling downcast clan. 
 Who urged in blood the Rights of Man. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Then men began to think of power ; 
 
 Around each Native Throne 
 The brave youths flocked in danger's hour,- 
 
 The battle-blasts were blown ; 
 And o'er once gay and peaceful Lands, 
 Kose Courts of Law, and Soldier-bands. 
 
 And when the shock of battle came, 
 Those who had played high part. 
 
 Led brainless troops, by sword and flame, 
 Up through some city's heart ; 
 
 Or passed among the hills by night, 
 
 To put a clan to death and flight. 
 
 Broad acres passed into their hands, 
 
 As warriors of " the right," — 
 The fair fields of the rebel Bands, 
 
 As trophies of the fight ; 
 Then good things tumbling went one side ; 
 Then rose on wrecks our gems of pride. 
 
 Yet laurelled wretches, red with stains. 
 
 Look back their ancient line ! 
 Boast Royal blood is in their veins, 
 
 And as young gods would shine, — 
 As if they did not plainly see, 
 Man as the fruit of one great tree. 
 
 17 
 
18 THE SERPENT 
 
 And that those Lands and Titles high, 
 
 Might be defended well, 
 Castles rose bristling to the sky ; 
 
 Priests blazed anew their Hell, 
 For men, who recklessly would dare 
 Death's fateful volley, crouch to prayer. 
 
 Thus, stage by stage, through length of years, 
 Came Man's transcendent state ; 
 
 A god among the gleaming spheres, 
 A child of heartless fate ; 
 
 Thus, from a world's mysterious womb, 
 
 The tribes do in succession come ! 
 
 €\)t (ZTfjrtstian. 
 
 No, dreamer, no ! there was a time 
 
 Of universal gloom, 
 When stars, and all of every clime, 
 
 Slept in the upper room. 
 Safe folded up in God's embrace, 
 Ere the time came to furnish space. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 19 
 
 With keen imagination go 
 Back to that solemn Past ! 
 
 See floods of heavy vapour flow- 
 On each careering blast ! 
 
 Hear God's voice ring through unrealmed space ! 
 
 See infant-worlds begin their race ! 
 
 See wild confusion in the skies, 
 
 While Ages roll, away, 
 See Systems form by mighty ties, 
 
 See Suns burst forth in day ! 
 Till Worlds, all systematic driven, 
 Proclaim a mighty God in Heaven. 
 
 Say if the hand of Chance could roll, 
 
 Those bright and ponderous spheres. 
 Keep all the Seasons in control. 
 
 But for a few brief years 1 
 Could regulate and hold on high. 
 The wondrous clock-work of the sky ? 
 
 Could Chance have slipped them all away. 
 
 With laws they must pursue. 
 Have poised them on their whirling way, 
 
 To time and distance true 1 
 For one short instant fast or slow. 
 Had launched the sparkling host in woe. 
 
20 THE SERPENT , 
 
 And sa}r if other than a God, 
 
 Could, from chaotic space, 
 Have called those worlds that flash abroad 1 
 
 And bade them rim their race,- — 
 Or could with grand obedience given, 
 Have balanced all the Suns of heaven 1 
 
 See how Earth swings its way through space, 
 
 With Seas that rave and reel, 
 While Masses move from place to place. 
 
 Yet to the centre feel ! 
 Then say who gives that inward force, 
 And that which rolls its circling course ! 
 
 Look to the Earth's soft robe of air 
 
 God flung, as round a wight. 
 To screen us from the Sim's fierce glare, 
 
 Yet hold us warm by night. 
 Else all of life had stared in death, 
 With chilling midnight's icy breath. 
 
 Go mark the fierce volcano pour 
 
 Its red destructive stream ; 
 See how its wide jaws gape and roar ; 
 
 See volleyed smoke and gleam 
 From the great heart of Fire that cheers 
 The Giant's pathway 'mong the spheres. 
 
01 
 
 ROUND THE SOUL. ''^ 
 
 See Vapours from our Seas arise, 
 
 To roll to Seas again ; 
 Hear Winds burst wildly through the Skies, 
 
 To press Earth's bridle-rein ; 
 Know Earth would from her pathway glide, 
 If other than a God were Guide. 
 
 Then search the forest, mount, and plain, 
 Each stream, and lake, and sea ; 
 
 Mark how the tenants there maintain, 
 Their kinds, by fixed decree ; 
 
 And say if Chance walks to and fro, 
 
 To bid those living streamlets flow. 
 
 Could Chance go god-like to a throne, 
 
 To guide the surging throng? 
 Collect and build the measured bone, 
 
 Secured with muscle strong, 
 Erect the flesh-walls firm and fast, 
 A fabric that may brave the blast % 
 
 Contrive the heart— the lungs-the veins— 
 And bid the red stream roll, — 
 
 Fit up the head, and place the brains 
 As lodgement for a soul. 
 
 Post the sense-sentinels around, 
 To guard the consecrated ground 1 
 
22 THE SERPENT 
 
 Strange SentineLs that catch the tale 
 
 Of love, or wrath, or woe, 
 That comes upon the idle gale, 
 
 Or 'tween the fond hearts flow ; 
 And mark the working of that eye. 
 That bids the soul embrace or fly. 
 
 And who may tell how they convey 
 
 The tidings to the soul 1 
 Or how the willing limbs obey 
 
 The Spirit's high control 1 
 Nor think that clods may take in hand, 
 With schemes Man cannot understand. 
 
 Were all the life our isle contains. 
 Nipped by a deadly breeze ; 
 
 Would e'er again from hills and plains, 
 From rivers and from seas. 
 
 Spring up such forms they boast to-day 1 
 
 And Cometh genius from the clay 1 
 
 Of olden times the fiercer beasts, 
 That shook the echoing glen, 
 
 Have passed away in joyous feasts. 
 To savage hunting-men ; 
 
 But praised be hill, and glen, and plain, 
 
 They never raised such breeds again ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 23 
 
 Nor would it more bedim ray sight, 
 
 To see our monster hills, 
 Rise up on legs and speed their flight 
 
 From Nature's numerous ills ; 
 Or see those worlds strong-winged arise, 
 And cleave their way through unknown skies. 
 
 While in the streams that streak the lands, 
 
 Above the cascades high. 
 Save where borne' up by sportive hands. 
 
 No fishes charm the eye ; 
 Which proves, that water has no skill, 
 That all the Mould was God's great will. 
 
 But search with Fancy through the seas. 
 
 For that god of your dreams ; 
 (The search how vain !) who gives with ease. 
 
 Through all his unthought schemes. 
 The adaptation of those swarms. 
 To live in peace amid the storms. 
 
 Or if such power in Matter be, 
 
 That it can Life descry. 
 The creatures of the land and sea, 
 
 Ought nevermore to die. 
 Save, when they please ; else some great Power, 
 Away ! above ! must mark the hour. 
 
24 THE SERPENT 
 
 And ah ! the Shakspeares of our world, 
 
 Like echoes die away ! 
 The canvas-mind be rudely furled, 
 
 And whelmed in yon fierce ray ] 
 Our musings by the Summer streams, 
 And all our fonder ties but dreams 1 
 
 No, no, though from the fields of dead, 
 
 New tribes of Earth arise, 
 The Spirits are for ever fled, 
 
 To God, beyond the skies. 
 Working with Him for evermore. 
 New wonders on Heaven's blissful shore ! 
 
 ^{;c Stranger. 
 
 But Sir ! the tale is more than queer, 
 
 For any spirit-god 
 To will the Star-host to appear. 
 
 And Life from lifeless clod ; 
 Strange that dull earth should hear His voice, 
 And in the shape of Man rejoice ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 But wing your Mind for ever back, 
 And watch the forming spheres, 
 
 And all the Beings on the track, 
 To where lone God appears ! 
 
 And say, must not He, if at all, 
 
 Have sprung with Nature's common call 1 
 
 Or in the awful solitude 
 
 Of the uncheered expanse, 
 Have felt as in abandoned mood, 
 
 Or dozed as in a trance, — 
 Spurned at a throne amid such gloom. 
 Ere Nature bade her flower-fields bloom 1 
 
 He fills, you say, the boundless space ! 
 
 Distant yet ever near ! 
 Has not His throne upon the face 
 
 Of some material sphere, 
 That angel-messengers might tell 
 Where The Great Father deigns to dwell. 
 
 But search the heavens all up and down. 
 
 And no one meets the eye ; 
 No God sits there, with starry crown, 
 
 O'er all immensity ; 
 No one is there to mark my prayers. 
 To pay my debts, or break my cares ! 
 
 25 
 
26 THE SERPENT 
 
 Brain is the only source of thought, 
 Shape proves existence clear, 
 
 Limbs tell that action may be sought. 
 Life moves 'twixt smile and tear ; 
 
 God hath not these, yet men will dare 
 
 To say He walks the lambent air ! 
 
 And what the Being trod this earth, 
 
 Or any other spot ^ 
 Time kindly gazed upon his birth, 
 
 And sighed " I know ye not," — 
 And jeering Change will, day by day, 
 See gods and all things pass away. 
 
 Like thoughtless babe, you gather flowers, 
 
 Upon Death's sunless hill ; 
 Your words imply still greater powers 
 
 Than God more ancient still ! 
 Gone back to Death, some great first cause ; 
 Blind gods endowing God with laws. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 'Tis strange that He, The Great Unseen, 
 
 Whom angels cannot know. 
 As God o'er all has ever been ; — 
 
 Yet strange, and doubly so, 
 To come from Nothing's blackest shade, 
 Made up by Chance — from Nothing made. 
 
 But go a son of Adam scan, 
 
 Your noblest powers unbind, 
 Pierce through the framework of the man. 
 
 And paint the wondrous mind ! 
 You fail ! then trifling mite of Time, 
 Sneer not at Z ion's heights sublime. 
 
 While He, of Light, the Source and King, 
 That fiU'st the realms of space. 
 
 That flash est on the angel's wing, 
 That beamest on man's face, 
 
 Walked forth, in heaven's full-glorious ray, 
 
 Ere worlds proclaimed our passing day ! 
 
 Far in the spirit-world He reigns. 
 
 Away from breezy hills, 
 Away from singing flowery plains, 
 
 Away from gushing rills ; 
 For 'mong the stars, the proudest gem 
 May never touch His garment's hem. 
 
 27 
 
28 THE SERPENT 
 
 Yet on the lone sea's swelling tide, 
 
 Or 'neath the forest's frown, 
 Or by the loch and mountain side. 
 
 When night is coming down, 
 The wanderer in humble prayer, 
 May meet his Heavenly Father there. 
 
 And if His mighty works be dim, 
 If truth with strangeness blend, 
 
 Mark how your own will moves each limb. 
 And plans each higher end ; 
 
 Where you may see, as best you can, 
 
 A little god within the man. 
 
 Yet gaze upon the glorious sun. 
 
 Yon angel-eye so bright, 
 Round which obedient worlds do run, 
 
 For Seasons, Life, and Light, 
 And bid your great immortal soul, 
 Around a " God of Mercy," roll. 
 
 Or when our earth has moved around, 
 
 Gaze to the midnight sky. 
 All sparkling to the utmost bound, 
 
 That artful tube may spy. 
 And think that He who formed those spheres, 
 The poor man's prayer in mercy hears. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Watch the vast comet flamhig through 
 
 The yielding crackUng air, 
 To wondering worlds a striking view 
 
 Of some rebellious heir ; 
 And say who guides its vagrant path, 
 And still withholds its awful wrath. 
 
 And think that up that endless sky 
 
 Still worlds on worlds appear, 
 Bright flashing on the soaring eye, 
 
 All glorious tier on tier, 
 Which round the dazzling rings are driven, 
 And light the countless plains of heaven. 
 
 Now all those worlds that pour forth day, 
 
 Across each gleaming sky. 
 And worlds that roll their God-made way. 
 
 With life-like harmony. 
 Shew plan, and build, and powers of light, 
 That speak of God's creative might ! 
 
 Nor think that Man's poor boasted skill, 
 
 The deeper ties may prove, 
 While all may see that some strong will 
 
 Must make those worlds to move ; 
 The Spirit that first bade them roll, 
 Commanding still the glorious whole. 
 
 29 
 
30 THE SERPENT 
 
 And were that mighty Will to stay, 
 The countless throng were hurled, 
 
 Through waning realms with weird-like day, 
 Fierce charging world on world, 
 
 Till vast Creation's restless frame 
 
 Rushed, dwindled, and dissolved in flame. 
 
 Give Fancy now a reinless sway. 
 
 To chase those fragments on ; 
 Let countless ages roll away. 
 
 Let untold space be gone ; 
 Grasp the case then, with whirhng brain, 
 And learn, for Man to judge, how vain ! 
 
 Reason's the insect of a day. 
 
 When night is drawing nigh. 
 The sun is iveakening in his ray^ 
 
 And Nature soon must die ! 
 So are they blind, who walk abroad 
 To trace the footprints of our God. 
 
 Then mark the Seasons how they roll ! 
 
 And hail the coming Spring, 
 Its laughing suns, from pole to pole, 
 
 Will make all Nature sing. 
 Mild airs come forth our earth around, 
 And flowers peep through the bursting ground. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 31 
 
 Our horny-handed husbandmen 
 
 See gentle Spring has come, 
 That Winter's wild blasts have again 
 
 Gone to their icy home, 
 And in the providential plan 
 They haste to do the part of Man. 
 
 With joyful stir, the stables ring, 
 
 At early dawn of day ; 
 Out to the fields they blithely sing 
 
 Their sleek-skinned brutes away, 
 With their chains clanking as they go 
 To drag the ploughshare deep and slow. 
 
 And soon the straight-laid furrows gleam 
 
 O'er all the fertile plains ; 
 From man and cattle floats the steam, 
 
 That tells of faith and pains ; 
 The round-faced sun pours down his rays, 
 While birds o'er-head ring out their praise. 
 
 Follows the sower o'er the land, 
 
 His well-filled wallet bound, 
 With step precise, and measured hand. 
 
 Casting the seeds around, 
 Which soon must die, like sons of men. 
 To rise and bloom in life again. 
 
32 THE SERPENT 
 
 Then comes the harrow rattling o'er, 
 Closing the faithful scene; 
 
 Bat puny man can do no more, 
 Than wait with trustful mien ; 
 
 And, wicked man ! dare you to found, 
 
 Your ardent hopes in that dead ground 1 
 
 Up from the heated seas arise. 
 Those clouds on airy wings, 
 
 That float along the stretching skies, 
 Like armies led by kings. 
 
 Drop here and there the genial shower, 
 
 Till seems renewed fair Eden's bower. 
 
 The sun shoots down his warmest rays, 
 
 With life to all below ; 
 Around the earth the dew-shower plays. 
 
 And healthful breezes blow ; 
 Till man and beast rejoice again. 
 O'er waving fields of golden grain. 
 
 Not in the ground, nor in the seas, 
 
 Nor in the beaming suns. 
 Not in the rain, nor in the breeze. 
 
 Nor in air's thundering guns. 
 Is Power inherent ; — but those cry 
 *'0 God but for Thee all must die!" 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 33 
 
 tZTfje Strangtr. 
 My Friend ! you very wisely said, 
 
 Man may not read the stars ; 
 We see them rolHng overhead, 
 
 A host of flaming cars, 
 But more we do not know, and never, 
 Though Man should gaze, and gaze for ever. 
 
 And as to fruits, blind Nature grows 
 
 More weeds than golden grain ; 
 Heather, and thorn, and tangled rose, 
 
 On mountain brow and plain. 
 And, did Man say his toils were o'er. 
 Earth were a wilderness once more. 
 
 So far we see that Man must look 
 
 To brawny arms alone. 
 To turn the leaves of Nature's Book, 
 
 Her fruitage all his own ; 
 And down to flesh should humbly bow, 
 Till spirits come to hold the plough. 
 
 You say that God makes all to grow. 
 
 And therefore He is kind ; 
 But men of deeper mind say " no !" 
 
 For sach one must be blind. 
 And worthy of our meek disdain, 
 Who sends us weeds instead of grain ; 
 
34 THE SERPENT 
 
 Who sees the toil-worn wight prepare 
 
 The dull reluctant earth, 
 Bowed down with toil, and old with care, 
 
 A common slave by birth, 
 Starv'd while he toils, and toil he must. 
 Till Death demands him to the dust. 
 
 Zi)t fi:f|r{stian. 
 
 This earth. Sir, when it teeming came 
 
 From God's creative hand, 
 Was fair, as only God might frame 
 
 A pure and weedless land ; 
 Whose God-obedient bosom bore, 
 Unhelped by Man, its ripened store. 
 
 A Paradise was hedged around. 
 
 And in that sacred place, 
 God raised up from the silent ground. 
 
 The Father of our race ; 
 O'er whom a deep sleep kindly came, 
 While God of one flesh formed the Dame ; 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 35 
 
 Gave them dominion o'er the brutes 
 
 Of earth, and air, and sea. 
 Over the trees, to eat their fruits, 
 
 Save sin's pernicious tree ! 
 When this threat rang from bower to sky, 
 " To eat that fruit dooms man to die!" 
 
 Then roamed the pair by hill and grove, 
 
 Or mused by lake or river. 
 From every breeze drew heavenly love, 
 
 Lords o'er the earth for ever, 
 Walking with God, until their hand 
 Has stretch'd to break His stern command. 
 
 God-formed flower plots pleased their eyes, 
 
 Fruits luscious round them grew, 
 Their ears bent ravished to the skies, 
 
 Up heaven's long avenue ; 
 Then did the Senses sweetly roll 
 Their golden streams across the soul. 
 
 ! third of all the happy states. 
 
 Lords of a world all fair, 
 In sight of heaven's star-spangled gates. 
 
 Beyond the reach of care ; 
 Who, battling the Satanic fires, 
 Had waked all heaven's admiring lyi*es. 
 
36 . THE SERPENT 
 
 But Satan serpent-guised drew near, 
 
 Where Eve reclining lay, 
 And whispered in her drowsy ear, 
 
 To cast restraint away. 
 Fly to the fruit, and Death defy, 
 For gods were never known to die ! 
 
 To her pure breast he poured in pride, 
 
 Her frail mind to elate, 
 Shewed her a throne, God's Throne beside. 
 
 High o'er man's servile state, 
 Till all her feelings warmed to own 
 As gods, an independent throne. 
 
 Won o'er, she stretched her erring hand, 
 
 The mystic apple ate, 
 Crushed with her heel God's first command, 
 
 And lost man's happy state. 
 Came under power of fearful Death, 
 Whose nostrils held eternal breath. 
 
 Yet who may tell, if their canoe 
 
 Had capsized on the river, 
 How wave-washed caves had pleased the crew, 
 
 Till they got out, if ever. 
 How they had held unbroken dream 
 In the cold bosom of the stream. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 37 
 
 But when they fell, they felt the shame 
 
 Of nakedness and stains, 
 And dressed with leaves the lustful frame, 
 
 A shame that still remains ! 
 And ere you boast yourself a brute, 
 Cast off your man-adopted suit. 
 
 Pass through the crowds of staring men. 
 
 Naked as ye were born, 
 Fling to each fellow back again. 
 
 The burning look of scorn. 
 Dash from your soul the rising shame, 
 Ere brutedom may your body claim. 
 
 Then God drove out the fallen pair. 
 
 And all their race ordained 
 To battle with a world of care. 
 
 By sweating brows sustained, 
 Then all the laws united ran 
 To wildernize both Earth and Man. 
 
 Such labour not in anger sent, 
 
 For through the deepest gloom. 
 When Vice would whisper ill intent, 
 
 Or Grief would paint the tomb. 
 It leads the poor soul from the clod 
 To walk along the heavens with God. 
 
38 THE SERPENT 
 
 While Sloth had oped the soul's front door, 
 
 And waved wild passions in, 
 To caper madly on the floor, 
 
 And raise the song of Sin, 
 Till Death should round the mansion creep, 
 And bid the soul for ever sleep. 
 
 Sin having forced the outer posts 
 
 Of young Humanity, 
 The black Chief with his myriad hosts 
 
 In Hell's black panoply, 
 Pressed onwards to each bristling mound, 
 Smashing Man's bulwarks to the ground. 
 
 All Hell was roused — the damned race 
 
 Wore a terrific grin. 
 Close-watching Hope spread o'er each face, 
 
 And lit the walls of Sin, 
 And raised her bastard feeble cry, 
 "The throne or may we doubly die!" 
 
 Envy, and Hate, and Murder came, 
 
 As Man left Eden's gate. 
 With sullen eye, and knife, and flame, 
 
 To crush his crumbling state, 
 And soon, were almost madly driven, 
 The holy spirits back to Heaven. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 39 
 
 Unbelief placed false gods on high, 
 
 As Races rose around, 
 Who pealed mad anthems to the sky, 
 
 Yet down to earth were bound, 
 While Satan, proud to see each Race, 
 Leaned from his throne with beamino: face. 
 
 '& 
 
 Hypocrisy bade fiendish souls 
 Stand up and rant and pray, 
 
 To hold aloft the holy scrolls 
 That thread Life's tangled way, 
 
 For gold to shew the way to God, 
 
 Whereon their black feet never trod. 
 
 Vanity raised her luring shows, 
 And Man from Nature drew ; 
 
 Around the thousand stinging woes, 
 Her gaudy mantle threw ; 
 
 Drew "pious" Priests to tend the great, 
 
 And pass poor Lazarus at the gate. 
 
 Death oped with gruff unfriendly mien 
 
 Eternity's grim gates, 
 Whereat old angels stern and keen 
 
 Came forth to seal the fates, 
 And through the long dark Pass anon 
 A silent train is moving on. 
 
4:0 THE SERPENT 
 
 High Pride, with strange unearthly airs, 
 
 Led overbearing men 
 Out from their morning easy-chairs. 
 
 Where both would be again ! 
 To bid farewell to earth and sky, 
 For, with foul weapon, one must die. 
 
 Revenge secured the glancing steel, 
 
 And bade assasins go 
 Close-muffled on the victim's heel, 
 
 To strike the dastard blow ; 
 As if the malice of a heart 
 On streams of blood may best depart. 
 
 Robbery nursed her vile waylays, 
 
 And scared the silent lanes ; 
 From cattled hills, and dreary ways, 
 
 Drove forth the midnight gains ; 
 And told her lazy scowling bands 
 To live though blood may stain their hands. 
 
 Lust crept o'er Virtue's sacred wall, 
 To scan the blooming bowers, 
 
 And with Love's mask thrown over all. 
 Bears off the sweetest flowers ; 
 
 While parents hang their heads and rave, 
 
 To hide their grief within the grave. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Tyranny poured her fierce-eyed bands, 
 Forth from each pampered throne, 
 
 Who, with their blood-red dripping hands, 
 Reaped where they had not sown ; 
 
 And with the sword would point the way 
 
 To God's unending peaceful day. 
 
 War urged her hot-breath'd legions o'er 
 To fierce and. dauntless fields, 
 
 Mounding the earth w4th men and gore, 
 Weapons and broken shields ; 
 
 Blighting the gifts to Mankind given. 
 
 And all that makes Man kin to Heaven. 
 
 Yet, far upon the heights of Fame, 
 
 Men find a safe retreat. 
 Exulting in a warrior's name. 
 
 While blood-streams lave their feet ; 
 But they who fired the warlike train. 
 May cling around God's knees in vain. 
 
 Suicide, with sham sympathy, 
 Drove brain-bewildered men. 
 
 To fling back to the Deity, 
 His gift of life again ; 
 
 But who shall say they ring the bell. 
 
 And by the side-door pass to Hell 1 
 
 41 
 
42 THE SERPENT 
 
 Old Age and Sorrow led men on 
 
 With childhood's step again ; 
 Disease, with wasting frame and groan, 
 
 Hurried her wrestling train ; 
 And forms, that now with beauty bloom, 
 Must sink again within the tomb. 
 
 Then Satan's loud artillery 
 
 Confused the balmy air, 
 Rent the kind earth, and roused the sea. 
 
 Till good men staid to stare. 
 And wonder why God gave him power 
 To change one floweret in His bower. 
 
 And then he brewed a spirit-flood. 
 
 And filled his reeking bowls. 
 To nerve and keep in fiendish mood, 
 
 The wild abandoned souls, 
 Who have renounced The Home on High, 
 And yet will curse their God and die. 
 
 Mercy, who whispered in the ear. 
 
 Of Eden's parting twain, 
 To trembling saints drew fondly near. 
 
 With words of love again, 
 That though " The Tree of Life " was riven. 
 There was a side-path up to Heaven. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 43 
 
 Their souls revived, and sinking Hope 
 
 Rose from her bended knees, 
 Seized Faith, as seamen seize a rope 
 
 When Death is on the breeze, 
 And cried unto The Great I Am, 
 Who bade their beating: hearts be calm. 
 
 QTfjE Stranger. 
 
 My pious Friend ! and were you there 
 To see those Scenes gone through 1 
 
 Scenes, such as dreamers watch in air, 
 To make priestcraft look true, — 
 
 You slept, Sir ! as Time hastened by. 
 
 And know full well how men do lie ! 
 
 And the same voice that calls them true. 
 
 Should instantly inquire, 
 How God of Mercy stood to view 
 
 The foul fiend, in his ire, 
 Wiling an inexperienced pair 
 To blast High Heaven's protective care. 
 
44 THE SERPENT 
 
 How that He viewed on broad gangway, 
 
 Up from the mouth of Hell, 
 The vile host press in dread array 
 
 To crush what looked so well, 
 To plunge the coming race in crime, 
 To trace in blood the course of Time. 
 
 If such were damned — and damning all — 
 'Twere meet they had been hurled, 
 
 So as to shun Man's dreadful Fall, 
 Off to a distant world, 
 
 And that your Higher Powers of air, 
 
 Had kept them safely stationed there. 
 
 That Mercy, with love-swellmg frame. 
 Should drive such fiends again. 
 
 Back to the black sphere whence they came, 
 No other worlds to stain, 
 
 Or all their stains should purify, 
 
 Or give them blissful leave to die ! 
 
 To change the spears to pruning-hooks. 
 
 To change the erring heart. 
 To cheer the bitter wayward crooks 
 
 That mark Man's common chart, 
 To wipe the scenes of blood away. 
 The tears and strifes of sinful day. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 45 
 
 To break the tyrant-chains that bind 
 
 The humble o'er-toiled race, 
 To still the wild waves of the Mind 
 
 That pale each honest face, 
 And crush all peace-destroying powers — 
 Were holy work for leisure hours ! 
 
 And still inquire whence sprang that power. 
 
 And whence such hate to Man, 
 That wings black Desolation's shower, 
 
 And mars God's ancient plan. 
 When God made all things — made them free 
 From one touch of impurity ! 
 
 Then hear each Sect attune the Psalm, 
 
 And pour the peaceful Word, 
 Then turn and each the other damn. 
 
 To glorify the Lord, 
 And mark how they in every age 
 Have stained the long historic page. 
 
 And one avers the world stood still. 
 
 To let their fight be done ; 
 That God Himself was there to kill 
 
 Who ever dared to run ; 
 And "held the candle" o'er the fight; 
 He stood so much up for the right. 
 
46 THE SERPENT 
 
 Whose banner-bearers must not pause, 
 Till o'er each land unfurled, 
 
 The glorious flag, that tells of laws, 
 That ought to guide the world ; 
 
 Enough to make good men disown 
 
 The path that points them to a Throne. 
 
 But it shall never be Man's lot 
 
 To live in love and peace, 
 Till he embraces fair Free-Thought, 
 
 And superstitions cease, 
 When the unfettered mind shall roam 
 O'er earth as o'er a happy home. 
 
 The great Mahomet widely taught 
 
 Laws straight from Heaven sent down, 
 
 And promised, that men might be caught, 
 Each votary a crown. 
 
 To decorate their lovely heads 
 
 Beyond earth's everlasting beds ! 
 
 When bands of blinded men came forth. 
 
 With sanctimonious stare. 
 Believing that he had from earth 
 
 A passage through the air, 
 Could mount his chariot, grasp the reins, 
 And roll along through God's domains. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. * 47 
 
 Now that great chief you won't believe 
 
 To be "God's only Son;" 
 And where doubt is, babes may receive, 
 
 While wise men will have none ; 
 For if a God would guide our way, 
 His star had blazed undoubted ray. 
 
 A voice as of a man had cried. 
 
 And round the world would cry, 
 In words that could not be denied, 
 
 From out the dark blue sky. 
 Unfolding Heaven's most holy will, 
 Pure as a streamlet from the hill. 
 
 But all the Mahomets and Popes, 
 
 With all the wooden gods. 
 Hold out to trembling men fond hopes. 
 
 To lead their future roads, 
 To where the sun for ever beams. 
 Fairer than Man can paint his dreams. 
 
 Who shall upon the latter-day 
 
 High in these heavens appear. 
 While angels with their trumpet-bray 
 
 Shall pierce earth's silent air. 
 And clear away the duller clods. 
 And wake mankind to meet the gods. 
 
48 THE SERPENT 
 
 To meet the gods — ay meet the fiends, 
 
 And ever with them stay, 
 For Mercy must remind her friends 
 
 Of endless agony, 
 But what god ever could look well 
 Above the gleaming flames of Hell ! 
 
 Now though the sweetest spot of earth 
 
 For ever were your own, 
 Could you maintain the soul of mirth. 
 
 Bid sympathy be gone, 
 If, from your lawn a stamped dog's cry, 
 Disturbed the sweet eternity. 
 
 Could One enthroned in majesty 
 
 Look to the depths below. 
 Hark to the groans of agony 
 
 That ring your place of woe. 
 Nor have His heart gush bounding free 
 To give the wretches liberty. 
 
 But how shall our long race arise. 
 
 On *' Resurrection day," 
 When we, ere that time, to the skies, 
 
 Have gone in gas away. 
 Have blazed and thundered through the air, 
 The elements nor will nor care. 
 
BOUND THE SOUL. 49 
 
 Nor think the spirits of the dead 
 
 Skim through the yielding air, 
 And, as young angels, ever shed 
 
 On Man their utmost care, 
 For whither would such spectres fly 
 When howling storms disturb the sky 1 
 
 Z^t Cljnsttan» 
 True, true, my very being lay 
 
 In Nature's cold embrace, 
 And all those actors passed away 
 
 Ere that I joined my race ; 
 But God's Will, to each soul is given, 
 Cut on the granite slabs of Heaven. 
 
 Our parents were not mere machines 
 Moved by the Higher Will ; 
 
 Reason had they to grasp the scenes, 
 To weigh the good and ill, 
 
 And teach Self-Love with gentle voice, 
 
 Within her' boundaries to rejoice. 
 
50 THE SERPENT 
 
 But " Fruits to be desired " were seen 
 
 Far in the higher states ; 
 Ambition stretched her wings serene, 
 
 Unmindful of the fates j 
 And Reason fled her sacred post, 
 Else Paradise had ne'er been lost. 
 
 He, who has marked the lightning's way, 
 
 And lulls it o'er to rest, 
 Or taught the linnet on the spray 
 
 To build her cozy nest, 
 Placed Man, where angels might have trod. 
 With all the freedom of a god. 
 
 He fell — and Memory's moaning stream 
 
 Pours its polluted wave, 
 Wherein thy deeds, as in a dream, 
 
 Do haunt thee to the grave ; 
 And say, for all your griefs and shame. 
 Was other than yourself to blame 1 
 
 Our metaphors bring np from woe 
 
 Fiends to attack our race ; 
 Hurry them o'er earth to and fro, 
 
 Like lions in the chase ; 
 But lost to Peace, they never roam ; 
 Fiends have enough to do at home ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 51 
 
 And if the millions of our race 
 
 Would spurn the Arts of War, 
 Would hurl down from each lofty place, 
 
 And banish Pride afar — 
 Ten thousand sheaf-clad plains would rise 
 To wipe the tear from Hunger's eyes. 
 
 If they by Nature would abide — 
 
 Their ball-ro«m on the hills. 
 Their food as Nature would provide, 
 
 Their liquor from the rills — 
 Health on the cheek of Man would bloom, 
 And check the eag^r gaping tomb. 
 
 After The Fall, our growing race. 
 
 Fled from the Courts of Heaven, 
 Called God all names and spurned His grace 
 
 And would not be forgiven, 
 Till Order marked the mad display, 
 And vowed to sweep them all away. 
 
 As oxen freed from Winter-chains, 
 
 Out to the Summer air. 
 With glaring eyes, and rising veins. 
 
 Run madly here and there, 
 Man leaped each fence with fiendlike grin. 
 And revelled o'er the vales of Sin. 
 
52 THE SERPENT 
 
 Yet there was one voice shrill and clear, 
 Rang through the startled air, 
 
 With words of love that reached the ear, 
 But strangely lingered there. 
 
 Old Noah to The Faith stood true, 
 
 Till God from Earth and Man withdrew. 
 
 To build an Ark, God moved his mind, 
 
 His Family to save, 
 With numbers of the lower kind, 
 
 Beyond the watery grave. 
 That would enwrap the wicked world. 
 Which had to Heaven defiance hurled. 
 
 Then — plank o'er plank — the Ark arose, 
 
 Arose the scoffer's jeer. 
 Was he in dread of unseen foes, 
 
 Or mad with pious fear 1 
 And when the ship was built — in glee 
 They chafed him for his want of sea ! 
 
 All safe^ stowed, and all shut in, 
 The floods of heaven came down, 
 
 And seas gushed o'er the land of sin, 
 The wicked bands to drown, 
 
 Up to the hill-peaks frightened crowds 
 
 Ran to evade their watery shrouds. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 53 
 
 Then sounds of wild dismay came o'er ; 
 
 Then amis were stretched in vain ; 
 While the huge Ark, Avith Life's small store, 
 
 Kode o'er the raging main ; 
 Till the hills sank beneath the flow, 
 And wicked men slept sound below. 
 
 The dread work done — gone back the floods. 
 
 From Ararat flocked down 
 The little brotherhood of bloods, 
 
 The sin-rid world to own, 
 And bid earth bear her corn and wine, 
 And ring with birds and lowing kine. 
 
 Then Noah and his little band, 
 
 Devoutly knelt to pray, 
 To Him who waves His unseen Hand, 
 
 And winds and waves obey. 
 To Him who steered them o'er the wave. 
 That wrapped their kinsmen in a grave. 
 
 Then in the cloud God named the bow. 
 
 To trembling Man a sign. 
 That angry waves would ne'er o'erflow 
 
 A wicked world again ; 
 And that which once was but a span. 
 Now beams with mercy-rays to Man. 
 
54 THE SERPENT 
 
 Nor do those thrilling Scripture strains 
 
 Come to the test alone ; 
 Tradition cries from earth's far plains, 
 
 From tribes till late unknown, 
 Whose rude prints shew a shoreless sea, 
 With Noah's great ship plunging free. 
 
 They tell, and tremble at the tale, 
 That The Great Spirit flew 
 
 With water-floods, o'er hill and vale, 
 And only saved that crew. 
 
 Of all the world-traversing throng, 
 
 As they had done some awful wrong. 
 
 Thus as from earth's bleak rugged hills. 
 Shut out from kindly sun, 
 
 A thousand strong and tameless rills, 
 In jarring accents run. 
 
 Meet in the vale, and join one course. 
 
 With friendly, calm, majestic force. 
 
 But Satan's never-winking eye 
 
 Watched Heaven's high-favoured few. 
 
 And ere the flood-lands could be dry. 
 His fatal arrow flew, — 
 
 For Noah cropped the good old vine, 
 
 And like old sailors took to wine. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 55 
 
 He drank and laughed the hours away 
 
 Without becoming care, 
 Till roguish Ham, one merry day, 
 
 Came on him drunk and bare, — 
 And though I may not stain my page, 
 He earned the Great Shipmaster's rage. 
 
 For God loved Noah, and could feel 
 
 How wildly he was tossed, 
 Knew that for long his steps would reel 
 
 Upon the strange sea-coast, — 
 Till the ship's motion passed away. 
 He must have soothing grog each day. 
 
 When for his base unmanly acts, 
 
 Accursed was his line ; 
 And on far Afric's scorching tracts, 
 
 In slavery they pine, 
 A listless, helpless, Godless host, 
 In sin and degradation lost. 
 
 ^o' 
 
 Nor to the first crime do we gaze, 
 
 As the unaided cause. 
 Of the dark Afric's darker ways. 
 
 For Heaven hath no such laws, — 
 But else, that bad examples pour 
 Rebellion to earth's farthest shore. 
 
66 THE SERPENT 
 
 Now one had thought that favoured crew, 
 
 (And generations more) 
 Whom God had watched the tempest through, 
 
 Had clung to God ashore ; 
 But through the growing race there ran 
 The crimes that seem as parts of Man. 
 
 While He, for whom all sacrifice, 
 
 Was meant to typify, 
 Was hidden from their carnal eyes, 
 
 In Heaven's unclouded sky ! 
 While scorn and curse were heaped on those 
 Who saw the star-tints ere He rose. 
 
 God's name was scarce the world within — 
 
 Yet in the dust they lay, 
 To move stone-gods for leave to sin, 
 
 And sweep remorse away ; 
 For, like all men who disown God, 
 They worshipped Man's most humble fraud. 
 
 But God's eye saw them, and His Will 
 
 Went forth with God-like ire, 
 When down from the angry heavens fell 
 
 Red streams of liquid fire. 
 Blazing Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 Filling Siddim's vale with sorrow. 
 
BOUND THE SOUL. 57 
 
 And to this time the Dead Sea tells 
 
 Of that terrific day, 
 Shewing that God can pour out hells, 
 
 If Man can disobey ! 
 Fit wafning to each waif of Sin, 
 Fit foretaste of the hell within. 
 
 Still Satan saw a chance to reign, 
 
 And smoothed their fears away. 
 Puffed up the wise (?) to make it plain 
 
 That Nature's foot may stray ! 
 And while the \'ale all hells outshone, 
 Men from afar sought God in stone. 
 
 While that the gods might still retain 
 
 For Man a kindly mood. 
 Hordes of poor wretches oft were slain, 
 
 As if they lived on blood, 
 With other honours meant to shew 
 Religious spirit down below. 
 
 Yet men from heaven barefooted came 
 
 To those benighted bands, 
 Urged on their souls a nobler aim 
 
 Than idols of their hands, 
 Shewed those gods had in times of ire 
 A bad chance with the fiends of fire. 
 
58 THE SERPENT 
 
 That in High Heaven Jehovah reigns, 
 
 The all-creating God ; 
 Laid down His laws — rewards and pains — 
 
 And urged the righteous road, 
 As that which leads to peace alone. 
 Where strife and sorrow are unknown. 
 
 Laws which demand our endless praise. 
 
 Praise half the age of God ! 
 Which lead Mankind through Virtue's ways 
 
 To God's divine abode ; 
 Dispel the gloomy grave-side fears 
 By glimpses of the far-off spheres. 
 
 Laws which the Wicked would not frame. 
 
 And never would obey, 
 And given under that great name, 
 
 The Good revere alway. 
 And dare not use in vain — shew clear 
 They were not, had not God been here. 
 
 Told Man to watch the unseen foe. 
 
 Or dark would be his fate, 
 That Sin the Sinner would lay low. 
 
 Outside Heaven's bannered gate. 
 That Sin would scatter nations far, 
 Upon the crimson surge of war. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 And those great prophets told as well, 
 
 A Saviour would be given, 
 Whose miracles alone might tell 
 
 That He had come from Heaven, 
 Who in His own mysterious way 
 Would lead the tribes that were astray. 
 
 That though He came to grasp a world 
 
 From out Hell's gaping jaws, 
 Would, while He Heaven's white flag unfurled, 
 
 Receive no kind applause, 
 Would have to creep into a grave, 
 Within that world He came to save. 
 
 The Ages that must intervene. 
 
 Had joined Eternity, 
 When the heraldic star was seen 
 
 Slow floating o'er the sky, • 
 Which led the wise men on the way, 
 To where the Infant-Saviour lay. 
 
 And men who watched their fleecy care, 
 
 On Bethlehem's lovely hills, 
 Walked with strange messengers of air — 
 
 And sat beside the rills, 
 In prayer to Him, who crossed and driven, 
 Would bring His Father's flocks to Heaven. 
 
 5d 
 
60 THE SERPENT 
 
 The Magi come to Herod's gates, 
 Told they had seen from far, 
 
 As told by those who knew the fates, 
 The bright heraldic star, 
 
 Of Him, The King of Kings to be. 
 
 For whom they searched to bend the knee. 
 
 Then Herod trembled for the throne, 
 
 His foreign spears had won. 
 Called all his priests to make it known, 
 
 Where lay the Princely One, 
 For he to bend the knee was fain. 
 To Him who would o'er Jadah reign. 
 
 But not to priests, nor men of might. 
 
 Did God His love declare ; 
 None but the wise men saw the light 
 
 That slowly cleaved the air ; 
 And on they traced the bright star-track, 
 To find and fetch the glad news back. 
 
 But fast a-down the wondering sky 
 From Heaven an angel sped. 
 
 And shewed them Herod's hellish lie ; 
 The knife o'er Jesus' head ; 
 
 And urged the parents fast to flee 
 
 To Egypt, from the dread decree. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 61 
 
 The dread decree through fear and rage, 
 
 Which Herod rashly made, 
 To slay the babes of Christ-like age, 
 
 Because those men delayed, — 
 Because his throne must firmly stand, 
 Though blood and hot tears drench the land. 
 
 When as if Heaven had found new foes, 
 
 Which foresight scarce might tell, 
 A pack of fiercer fiends arose, 
 
 Than ever peopled Hell, 
 Who killed the helpless smiling " Dears," 
 And spurned the mothers' cries and tears. 
 
 Yet He who wings the surly blast. 
 
 That snaps the stately pine. 
 Over the thrones of Mankind passed. 
 
 To shape His great design, — 
 And Herod's arm that rose to slay 
 Was checked and changed to lifeless clay. 
 
 Then when the time-appointed came, 
 
 Forth came the Saviour-God, 
 Preceded not by sword and flame, 
 
 Bearing no "sainted" rod — 
 Came to unbar the gates of Grace, 
 As Heaven would yet receive our race. 
 
62 THE SERPENT 
 
 Came as a sunbeam from the God 
 Who flung the stars through space, 
 
 On to this bleak sepulchral sod, 
 And mingled with our race, 
 
 To chase the glooms of Death away, 
 
 To cheer the souls with glorious day. 
 
 But such a King should not be theirs, 
 
 And Hell within them burned. 
 And seemed to breathe within their prayers, 
 
 While they that Saviour spurned, 
 Their trust was in a warlike train, 
 To hurl Rome's cohorts back again. 
 
 A King who would through War's red flood, 
 
 Pursue earth's endless jars, 
 One who would pour the nation's blood, 
 
 And ope the foe men's scars, — 
 And on they looked, and look in vain. 
 For one of earth to rise and reign. 
 
 Yet though they spurned Him from their sight, 
 
 Or jeered His words of Life, 
 The same pale Preacher in His might. 
 
 Gave kindness back for strife. 
 Spake, as ne'er man spake, pulling down 
 The gods of lust, of wood, of stone. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 63 
 
 Told of a bright eternal Home, 
 
 AVhere death and dust were never, 
 Where spirits in sweet converse roam, 
 
 And feast on thought for ever, — 
 A Home whereof this hut of clay 
 May only catch the dust-dimmed ray. 
 
 Grasped not at earth's poor passing power, ^ 
 
 Bowed not to high estate, 
 Made no laws that the poor might cower 
 
 Beneath a tyrant's hate. 
 Walked on the gilt things that the age 
 Had flung around the wily Sage. 
 
 Made deaf men hear, the blind to see, 
 
 To sing for joy the dumb. 
 The lame to leap and dance with glee, 
 
 Men from their graves to come. 
 Turning the rusted locks of clay. 
 As only God Almighty may ! 
 
 Was followed by a faithful few, 
 
 Whom kindness wrenched from woe ; 
 
 Embraced and kissed by one He knew 
 Would sell Him to the foe ; 
 
 Was ever fiend of Hell so base 
 
 As try to cheat God to His face ! 
 
64 THE SERPENT 
 
 Whom had He waved His hand on high, 
 
 With cahii God-hke desire, 
 Legions had rushed a-down the sky, 
 
 To sweep the world with fire, — 
 But nay, He chose with Man to wail. 
 And place His lamp in Death's dark vale. 
 
 While had He been but Joseph's sou, 
 
 The gilded pomp of kings 
 Had made Him rush for Judah's throne. 
 
 To taste earth's kindly things,— 
 March with tyrannic step through laws. 
 And list a Faction's loud applause. 
 
 Nor had He, face to face, with Death 
 
 Maintained an aimless lie ; 
 Nor had each follower's latest breath 
 
 Proclaimed Him Deity ; 
 For who would fill a martyr's grave, 
 An up-start god to guard and save ? 
 
 Yet see Him led to Calvary 
 
 To join with bloody Death, 
 And hear Him answer woman's cry, 
 
 And with His measured breath. 
 Tell them to weep — but not for Him — 
 For Mankind and Jerusalem ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 65 
 
 Yet see Him on the Cross of Pain, 
 
 With slowly gathering tear ; 
 Mock-crowned with thorns in mad disdain ; 
 
 Pierced with a coward's spear ; 
 And list to Nature's melting sigh, 
 While light flies hiding down the sky. 
 
 When as they raise their jeering shout 
 
 Around the sinking form, 
 The flame divinest dazzles out 
 
 Through Hell's collected storm — 
 " Father forgive these erring men 
 Who send Thy message back again !" 
 
 Ah ! Christ was of the spiritTsphere, 
 
 Wrapped in our earthly form, 
 Through which the rays of Heaven shone clear, 
 
 And fringed Afliction's storm, — 
 Passed through the tomb, and cleared the way, 
 For Mankind to eternal Day. 
 
 When as He sank beneath the sting, 
 
 The Hosts in ecstasy, 
 Made Heaven's far-stretching arches ring. 
 
 With sweetest hymns of joy, 
 For all of Heaven soon came to know. 
 That Christ had foiled Heaven's direst foe. 
 
 E 
 
66 THE SERPENT 
 
 9 
 
 Again He rose above all men ; 
 
 Took rank as from the skies ; 
 When, to the crowds who jeered Him then, 
 
 And scorned His earthly cries, 
 He caused His first kind words be given, 
 To meet Him on the shores of Heaven. 
 
 Then the great scene that dimly sailed, 
 
 Before prophetic eyes, 
 Shone through the breaking clouds that veiled, 
 
 The pregnant future skies, 
 A painting true, of love and fraud, 
 To decorate the walls of God ! 
 
 Well might angelic hosts, in awe 
 
 And wonder, downward lean ; 
 Well Nature might suspend a law 
 
 To hide the awful scene ; 
 Well did the Father from His Throne 
 Bend down and Christ the Saviour own. 
 
 Yet Satan and his host, three days. 
 
 Usurped the earthly throne ; 
 Stopped was the tongue of prayer and praise. 
 
 The world seemed all their own ; 
 But as the stars traverse the gloom, 
 He smiled and left the wondering tomb. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Came as " the risen Lord '' to men, 
 
 And rolled their fears away ; 
 In by the gates of Life again, 
 
 In by the private way ; 
 WTien multitudes bowed down the knee, 
 Unto the God of Calvary. 
 
 Passed as a God the Roman guard, 
 That paced the sacred ground, 
 
 When sights were seen, and voices heard, 
 That all the watchmen bound, 
 
 Whom the vile Scribes had bribed to say, 
 
 They slept while Christ was stolen away. 
 
 Now mark ! He told them He would rise 
 In three days from the tomb j 
 
 The guard knew that for faithless eyes. 
 Death was the standing doom ! 
 
 With eager rage proud pomp looked on. 
 
 Yet with the third day Christ was gone. 
 
 When had He proved a wreck of clay, 
 
 'Twere madness to suppose, 
 His followers would bear away, 
 
 The cause of all their woes. 
 For had Death kept Him in his thrall, 
 All had been buried — Faith and all ! 
 
68 THE SERPENT 
 
 But take the case that such had been, 
 While midnight veiled the skies, 
 
 That simple men had passed, unseen, 
 A guard and myriad spies, 
 
 Some secret nook or ruffled ground. 
 
 Had whispered where he might be found. 
 
 Then with one touch of Deity ! 
 
 Burst forth a gleaming Light, 
 To cheer the heathen world that lay 
 
 Without " a moon by night," — 
 Lighting the tribes that far might roam. 
 Back to their God — up to their Home ! 
 
 The great work done, He took His flight, 
 Far through the star-thronged sky. 
 
 Escorted by the sons of Light, 
 Up to His Home on High, — 
 
 Shook off the dust that earth might own. 
 
 Before He reached the Great White Throne. 
 
 Meanwhile the hosts in masses deep, 
 O'erjoyed stood circling round. 
 
 When up the far and glorious steep, 
 Their earnest gaze was bound ; 
 
 And Heaven with all the Godhead shone ! 
 
 And loud hosannas shook the Throne ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 69 
 
 But Calvary's lights shone forth in vain ; 
 
 The faithless tribe arose, 
 By force of arms to break the chain 
 
 That bound them to their woes, — 
 O'er earth's low skies there passed a frown, 
 And all the lamps went hiirling down. 
 
 While Titus with his warriors came, 
 
 In terrible airray, 
 A mighty host, with spear and flame, 
 
 To hold a fearful day, — 
 When war-whoops made the land to ring, 
 And Death rushed forth on fiery wing. 
 
 When swept Destruction's awful blast, 
 
 O'er earth's dark-fated land, 
 Dashing the grandeurs of the past 
 
 From their rebellious hand ; 
 For fast before those fiends of Hell, 
 Their blazing cities crashing fell ; 
 
 When from War's groaning writhing bed. 
 
 Arose the mother's prayer. 
 For mercy on the harmless head. 
 
 But ah ! no God was there ! 
 Nor infancy, nor bending age, 
 Could stem the wild unwonted rage. 
 
70 THE SERPENT 
 
 Fierce curses raged from every tongue ; 
 
 The massacres were dread ; 
 The heart-blood of the old and young, 
 
 The reeking streamlets fed ; 
 While cornered wretches fought and raved 
 To clutch the morsel Hunger craved. 
 
 But darkest 'mid those scenes of blood, 
 Where Hunger most oppressed, 
 
 The ravenous mother seized for food, 
 The suckling of her breast. 
 
 The babe that in her face would smile. 
 
 And in Death's jaws laughed up the while. 
 
 Full soon their cities, bathed in blood. 
 
 In smoking ashes lay ; 
 The fair land melted in a flood 
 
 That scared retiring day ; 
 While they " the chosen " of the Lord, 
 In remnants fled before the sword. 
 
 While other conquered nations lose 
 Their features and their line. 
 
 Within the glory of their foes. 
 Nor wear subjection's sign, 
 
 They walk alone the Course of Time — 
 
 And Jews are born in every clime. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 As prophets saw ! that from their " hand" 
 
 The sceptre would depart ; 
 That they would roam through every laud, 
 
 Charged with a trembling heart ; 
 Would walk as aliens rovmd the world, 
 When they the rebel flag unfurled. 
 
 That tho' they spread thro' all the lands. 
 
 Beneath the circling sun, 
 And mingled with earth's varied bands. 
 
 They would belong to none. 
 That all the world with easy view 
 Might mark the wayworn wandering Jew. 
 
 And yet they hold the prophecies — 
 
 Still for a Leader great. 
 They look with keen untiring eyes, 
 
 To raise their earthly state, 
 Though eighteen hundred years have fled 
 Since the Messiah came and bled. 
 
 With facts so stern, who will deny 
 The Scriptures are God's Word, 
 
 When wilds and ruined cities cry, 
 " We own Thee blessed Lord," 
 
 When Nature gives her joyous shout, 
 
 Shall Man alone gaze on in doubt 1 
 
 71 
 
72 THE SERPENT 
 
 But soon the doubting wretch must stand, 
 
 Before the judgment throne, 
 Dragged by a subtile unseen hand, 
 
 Where he our God must owu, — 
 Where he, bound down with Shame's black chain, 
 May plead his cause " for life " in vain. 
 
 And when the Sands of Time are run, 
 
 Christ and His dazzling train, 
 Eclipsing in their flight each sun. 
 
 Shall pass from Heaven's high plain, 
 To trembling earth with both the keys, 
 To bar the Two Eternities ! 
 
 Then shall the Great Almighty Power, 
 
 That formed at first our race, 
 Command the four Winds to restore 
 
 Each fragment to its place, — 
 The Power that feeds earth's greedy urn. 
 Can surely bid such forms return. 
 
 (Ah ! while the dead flowers o'er my tomb 
 
 Spring into life again, 
 Shall Sleep for ever be my doom. 
 
 Shall Death for ever reign, — 
 Shall Spring-time for a floweret roll. 
 And be denied a priceless soul 1 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 73 
 
 But you, the Phenix-risen one ! 
 
 Of independent mind, 
 Should give forth orders from your throne, 
 
 The pangs of Life to bind, 
 And force old ruthless Death to fly, 
 Because you have no wish to die !) 
 
 Then is the Summer of the Lord, 
 
 When joys for ever bloom, 
 For those who died by flame and sword, 
 
 By earth's tyrannic doom, 
 For all who kept the Faith on earth. 
 As their eternal only worth. 
 
 And then the AYinter of the soul. 
 
 With no returning Spring, 
 When, (as round Sinai") shall roll 
 
 The thunders of the King, — 
 When all the varied streams of Vice 
 Shall be locked up in chains of ice. 
 
 Then shall the Lost shed burning tears ; 
 
 Each soul to madness driven, 
 Shall faintly hear, or think it hears. 
 
 The Hymning Bands of Heaven ; 
 Shall gaze across the bleak domain, 
 Where Death, the living Death, shall reign ! 
 
74 THE SERPENT 
 
 Then shall they overwhelmed in sin, 
 Call on the earth to yawn, 
 
 And take them soul and body in ; 
 But when such hope shall dawn, 
 
 Earth and her hills with laughter rife, 
 
 Shall echo out the crimes of Life. 
 
 Each soul shall feel the awful frown, 
 Which only outcasts feel ; 
 
 Shall fancy that all Heaven looks down, 
 With strange satiric zeal ; 
 
 Yet blackest hearts shall ever dare 
 
 To wish their altered presence there. 
 
 Nor can we see that Justice veers 
 In stamping self-made fates, 
 
 While those who have so tender ears 
 Should mark the different states, 
 
 Brutes have not Reason for their guide, 
 
 Nor should be damned nor Deified. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. . 
 
 ^Ije stranger. 
 Men may, who closely watch the times, 
 
 Predict some startling things, 
 About the tribes of varied climes ; 
 
 The fall of states and kings ; 
 Or of a man, who would arise 
 To tell of homes, beyond the skies. 
 
 Which, when they so-far come to pass. 
 
 By twisting or by chance. 
 Men worship the prophetic glass, 
 
 While men-of-fancy dance ; 
 But Heaven or Hell ! no grief nor glee, 
 Till I be there shall draw from me ! 
 
 For no one ever told me where 
 
 Our spirits live again. 
 When all the worlds dissolve in air, 
 
 Where Heaven may find a plain ; 
 How spirits live when passions die, 
 How laugh with joy or tortured cry. 
 
 Yet some men burst the common bars. 
 
 And soar on Fancy's wing. 
 Far up among the silent stars. 
 
 And meet Creation's King ! 
 Walk through the halls not built of stone. 
 And count the gems that deck the Throne. 
 
 75 
 
76 THE SERPENT 
 
 With more of impudence than awe, 
 
 Hark at the senate door, 
 While mighty angels pass a law, 
 
 For forces to explore, 
 Ere they for dire assault late hurled. 
 Take vengeance on this lower world. 
 
 Then shout that Man is all but lost, 
 
 Upon some desert plains ; 
 That Hell has out a monster-host 
 
 To fill their dungeon-chains ; 
 When, as old warriors raised their clan, 
 A thousand beacons blaze for Man. 
 
 And in our day they venture well 
 
 To trace each vast empire, 
 As if they rolled through Heaven and Hell 
 
 In chariots of Fire, 
 Whose writings one day by the sword 
 May claim the sanction of the Lord. 
 
 They tell that saints in Heaven gaze down. 
 
 With much anxiety. 
 On city, and on country town. 
 
 And on the rolling sea. 
 Smiling o'er friends on Wisdom's way, 
 And grieving o'er those gone astray. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 77 
 
 That bands stand on the Heavenly shore, 
 
 Toward their native land, 
 To meet the laughing friends of yore, 
 
 With Welcome's kindly hand, 
 That all their heart-strings go full play, 
 "While talking o'er earth's chequered day. 
 
 And blasphemous ! place " Muirland Lairds " 
 
 Beside " the Great White Throne," 
 In loud praise of the vast "kailyairds " 
 
 They proudly called their own. 
 Or crews of seamen wondrous vain 
 Of warships that had shook the main. 
 
 That families pass up and down 
 
 The golden courts above. 
 White-robed and with a glorious crown. 
 
 Harping the Songs of Love, 
 That thus they ever ever spend 
 The Summer Day that ne'er shall end. 
 
 Now such wild thoughts should lead your mind 
 
 To doubt their happy Home ! 
 Fond mothers v/ho had left behind 
 
 Sons who would never come ! 
 Would dash their harps beyond their sight, 
 And join their sons in blackest night. 
 
78 THE SERPENT 
 
 And all in Heaven had left behind 
 
 Some friends of loving ties, 
 Whom startling scenes might so far bind 
 
 The torrent of their eyes ; 
 Strange sight ! as deep the pale hands fling, 
 Fond tears were dancing on each string. 
 
 Nay more, the saints deformed on earth, 
 
 High-backed or lank or lame, 
 Or walked the world stone-blind from birth, 
 
 Or wore the bull-like frame, 
 Shall all pass through the faultless mould, 
 As Paradise could boast of old. 
 
 If such were true, men could not know. 
 
 Though standing side by side. 
 Those who on earth were friend or foe. 
 
 Stranger or love-allied. 
 Soul does not look on soul you say, 
 And God has changed the house of clay. 
 
 And it were well — for Country ties 
 Would raise the vaunting cheer, 
 
 When host on host would keenly rise, 
 And though nor gun nor spear, 
 
 Heaven were a Hell from shore to shore. 
 
 And " Scots wha hae " were played once more. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 79 
 
 Now why not carry out the jest 
 
 By cunning heads begun ; 
 Flash o'er the Mind with lively zest, 
 
 A state of frisk and fun ; 
 When Reason from the great mass cries, 
 To learn the pleasures of the skies 1 
 
 Sound in the terror-stricken ears, 
 
 As from " the (G^od on High," 
 What would dispel the grave-side fears. 
 
 Make Mankind wish to die, 
 That Heaven will only shut out Sin, 
 That all the joys shall enter in ; 
 
 That rows of harpers thousand strong. 
 Shall raise heart-soothing strains, — 
 
 That dancers shall not think it long. 
 Nor be disturbed with pains, 
 
 But dance for ever, high and dry, 
 
 In airy halls beyond the sky ; 
 
 That sportsmen with bright flashing guns, 
 
 Aback the fleetest steeds, 
 Shall tear along most brilliant runs. 
 
 With hounds of purest breeds. 
 Up glens and o'er the heights of Heaven, 
 Through the long day that knows no evenj 
 
80 THE SERPENT 
 
 That glassy lakes shall stretch away- 
 Alive with pleasure boats, 
 
 That artists on the banks shall stray, 
 'Mong groves and charming notes, 
 
 Taking the scenes that glad the eye, 
 
 For Heaven's great picture gallery ; 
 
 That hearts shall glow with fervent love, 
 Without earth's crushing cares. 
 
 Enraptured o'er the realms above, 
 Shall pass in happy pairs, 
 
 And even say there might be given, 
 
 Old-Sarah-like fond births in Heaven ; 
 
 That cricket matches shall be played 
 Upon the glistening plains ; 
 
 That race-horse power shall be displayed 
 By steeds with flowing manes ; 
 
 That all the plains shall sounding be 
 
 With happy bands in playful glee. 
 
 Yet, as such dreamers have not been, 
 From earth and back again, 
 
 'Twere best to wait each coming scene. 
 Where God^where Sin might reign. 
 
 For at the best man cannot say, 
 
 AVhat pictures load the coming day. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 81 
 
 Nor can I see that any Power, 
 
 Could give a sure decree, 
 Could stretch into the future hour, 
 
 And grasp what has to be ; 
 To be, has yet to take its form. 
 And may be sunshine — may be storm. 
 
 Before the first globe had been planned, 
 
 (And it was planned you say) 
 And like a good ship fully manned, 
 
 Slipped on its glorious way ; 
 The fair sight, could it well be known, 
 By Him who sits on Nature's Throne 1 
 
 Nor can the working of my mind 
 
 By outward Powers be seen, 
 To every thought all gods are blind, 
 
 Save through a willing mien ! 
 And if they dwell in some far state, 
 How can they rule or know my fate 1 
 
 All is a secret, all a dream. 
 
 To which I would not bend, 
 Which e'en Religionists do seem 
 
 Too weak to comprehend ; 
 Yet shallow minds do venture far 
 To find God's uncreated star. 
 
82 THE SERPENT 
 
 I've heard an old wife meekly say, 
 
 That up bej'ond our sky, 
 God's Palace stretches far away. 
 
 And is three storeys high., 
 That Paul was there, but took a vow 
 To keep the grand scenes from us now. 
 
 She seemed to see the little King 
 Pass up the wmdiug stairs ; 
 
 To hear Heaven's joyous belfry ring, 
 That lulled his earthly cares ; 
 
 To see him stare, and hear him vow, 
 
 While perspiration damped his brow. 
 
 And all her hopes were pointing there. 
 
 And ever down she knelt. 
 For in the yet uncertain glare 
 
 Her kingly Saviour dwelt, 
 He who would stop the lion's roar, 
 And bid Peace reign from shore to shore. 
 
 Now Christ has come, yet quarrels rise, 
 And nations pour their blood ; 
 
 Men only call more to the skies, 
 To stem the crimson flood ; 
 
 But w:ho in all the heavens might hear. 
 
 And would not break the bloody spear 1 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 83 
 
 Who ** shrined in Mercy " could behold 
 
 The spite of Pride and Power, 
 Borne on by warriors fierce and bold, 
 
 Burst in an awful hour? 
 Or could traverse the bleeding plain. 
 And pass unmoved the heaps of slain? 
 
 Who but a wretch of crimes and wiles, 
 
 That " Hell " could scarce disclose, 
 Could loiter near the smouldering piles. 
 
 Where cities proudly rose, 
 And smile to see a ruined land. 
 And hold and nurse the blazing brand ? 
 
 Who with a heart whose love-strings thrill 
 
 For "grief that's not his own," 
 Could wander when the night is still, 
 
 Near wailing homes and lone. 
 See mothers for their slain sons sigh. 
 Nor spare a tear to moist his eye ? 
 
 Then mark the elements that rise 
 
 And sweep the world around, 
 No god seems floating in the skies. 
 
 Nor through the depths profound ; 
 With dead men's bones the seas are white, 
 And earth rolls howling through the fio-ht. 
 
84 THE SERPENT 
 
 Now when strong waves the barque o'erwhelm 
 
 On wild and lonely seas, 
 Why does not God's hand grasp the helm, 
 
 And give the sailor ease? 
 He who once calmed the stormy wave, 
 To save Himself, should others save. 
 
 Ah ! spurn, as should be spurned a foe. 
 
 Imagination's god ! 
 Fair Freedom's trumpet loudly blow 
 
 O'er all the world abroad ! 
 Give Sense and Passion fullest sway, 
 And raise to Man Life's happy day ! 
 
 Without a god, a priest, a king. 
 
 We had few other ills ; 
 Excursion bands would gladly sing 
 
 Among the Summer hills, 
 Kept by the piles of gold that go 
 To move the prayer and raise the foe ! 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 85 
 
 Z\)t Clljrtstian. 
 But mark, the ancient sacred page 
 
 Proclaimed a Saviour-God, 
 Where Truth stood wrestling with each age, 
 
 Till He earth's desert trod, 
 Who preached and died our state to raise— 
 A very God in all His ways ! 
 
 Unlike the Mahomets that rise, 
 
 Half-mad or with an aim, 
 Who seize the message froqi the skies, 
 
 Yet Lust and War proclaim, 
 As if Hell baffled would pluck down 
 The thorns she plaited for His Crown. 
 
 Nor did the heavens fall down to earth. 
 When God reached down His hand, 
 
 But rose as rises earth-born worth, 
 When one, who might command, 
 
 Tends the poor man who sickly lies, 
 
 Beneath the cold unfeeling skies. 
 
 But if you will shut up the doors, 
 
 And hold yourself apart, 
 The stream of Grace but idly pours 
 
 The balm that cheers the heart, 
 The soul that might have worn a crown, 
 Must to the brute sink coldly down. 
 
THE SERPENT 
 
 Nor shall the Scriptures fall or rise 
 
 By rash aspiring men, 
 Who push Conjecture up the skies, 
 
 Beyond dull mortal ken, 
 For there to humble Man is given. 
 In lowly phrase, the Will of Heaven. 
 
 Yet, as the larks, that singing soar, 
 
 In search of milder skies, 
 We love the souls who meekly pour 
 
 Their Heaven-fraught melodies, — 
 Who 'neath the cold clouds will not stay. 
 Who with the Morning soar away. 
 
 Who, to the highest bars, ascend. 
 
 By sweetest impulse driven. 
 From this suburban scene to bend 
 
 Toward the walls of Heaven, — 
 As captives gaze the blue sea o'er. 
 With fond thoughts of their native shore. 
 
 And spurn the sparrows of our race, 
 
 Birds of a wintry clime, 
 Who leave no soul-inspiring trace 
 
 Upon the sands of Time, 
 Who sit with closed and dwarfish wing. 
 Who will not soar, and will not sing. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 87 
 
 While lie who gives a willing ear, 
 
 A true confiding heart, 
 Thinks on his God with holy fear, 
 
 And steers by Heaven's great chart, 
 ("Writ on the everlasting soul) 
 Is happy tho' Life's billows roll. 
 
 But mark the man, the tribe mark well, 
 
 Who fling the chart aside, 
 Who own no God, and fear no Hell, 
 
 Who go forth in their pride — 
 Wild passions drag them roughly down, 
 Debasement marks them as her own. 
 
 Nor will Almighty God divide 
 
 Into a thousand forms, 
 To watch and wander far and wide, 
 
 To quell all rising storms, 
 To steer your boats, and sharp your ploughs, 
 To burst your guns, and break your bows. 
 
 For God would be a God no more 
 
 In such ignoble course ; 
 For Man's Estate were toppled o'er 
 
 If he were ruled by force ; 
 And for each stab, and for each groan, 
 Man is to blame, and Man alone ! 
 
88 THE SERPENT 
 
 God framed the worlds and set them laws, 
 
 Aud well those worlds obey ; 
 But little Man would know each cause 
 
 In all his Maker's way, 
 And where he may not see or feel, 
 The darino: wretch would set his seal. 
 
 While if he would his own frame view. 
 
 Its functions part by part, 
 And watch the spirit gazing through, 
 
 And hear it damn Chance- Art ; 
 That Conscience with a fiery tongue, 
 Might rise and cry " From Greatness sprung." 
 
 For oft as I would grasp and know 
 
 The inmate of my breast, 
 Down to the dust I bend me low. 
 
 With ignorance confessed ; 
 I am — yet I am all unknown, 
 While I " the God of Hosts " must own. 
 
 Now fancy how a man should be 
 
 Unto himself unknown, 
 Yet dare the Heavenly State to see. 
 
 And grasp God on His Throne 
 Because He fails him, flings aside, 
 God and the common truths beside. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 89 
 
 Without a God, earth were a blank, 
 
 A cloud hung- o'er each day, 
 The pretty flowers were dull and dank, 
 
 Yon sun of gladdening ray, 
 A tyrant marking out our doom, 
 A tyrant pointing to the tomb ! 
 
 Without a God, the secret paths. 
 
 To where poor sinners fly. 
 For refuge from the common wraths, 
 
 Communing up the sky, 
 Were but the gloomy lands of Death, 
 With rankest poison on each breath. 
 
 Without a God, this little life 
 
 Were but a passing gleam, 
 Gilding the deep dark clouds of strife, 
 
 To shew the horrid dream, 
 And darker paint the coming state, 
 Destined to swallow all of great. 
 
 to' 
 
 Without a God, earth were a hell — 
 
 For all Man's noblest powers. 
 Had occupied a narrow cell, 
 
 Within the passing hours ; 
 And Strife, and Hate, and Lust, and Blood, 
 Had raised a race-o'erwhelming flood. 
 
90 THE SERPENT 
 
 Without a God, our thoughtful race 
 
 Had wandered on in tears ; 
 No smile had ever cheered their face, 
 
 Nor music charmed their ears, 
 Nor sweet companionships had been, 
 To wile away the short-lived scene. 
 
 Without a God, when dangers rose. 
 
 Or stinging Sorrow pressed. 
 The man bowed down by crowding woes, 
 
 Which earth had ne'er redressed, 
 Had plunged through Time's partition wall. 
 To sleep in Death's oblivious hall. 
 
 Without a God, how cold and dread 
 The thought had crossed the mind — 
 
 Deep in this earth shall be my bed, 
 Each fond tie left behind, 
 
 My spirit and my frame- work gone 
 
 To dark and cold oblivion ! 
 
 Without a God, yon beaming sun 
 
 Had blazed himself away, 
 His friendly orbs had ceased to run, 
 
 Enamoured of his ray. 
 And straight through never-ending night, 
 He had pursued his cheerless flight. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 91 
 
 Without a God, the rolling sea 
 
 Had never yet been bound, 
 Its dark blue waves all bounding free, 
 
 Had wrapped the world around, 
 But ah ! without a God of might, 
 Space had been one eternal night. 
 
 And as the magnet ever turns 
 
 Towards its native bed ; 
 As heart to heart that fondly burns, 
 
 By unseen ties are wed ; 
 As guide-flowers on the prairie wastes, 
 Wheel with the sun as round he hastes. 
 
 So all our thoughts by day and night, 
 
 Electrical flow out ; 
 Earth's portrait on each ray of light ; 
 
 Each whisper as a shout. 
 And in clear waves glide smoothly forth 
 To God, as wheels the needle north. 
 
 Thus are the Records kept by Heaven, 
 
 Which ever roll away, 
 And though to men they are unseen 
 
 Upon the darting ray, 
 God's burning microscopic eye 
 Can read our actions in the sky. 
 
92 THE SERPENT 
 
 Which, if you doubt for want of sight, 
 Just change the present scene — 
 
 Descend Life's scale to starless night, 
 Where you perchance had been, 
 
 Where brutes in vain would spend their span 
 
 To grasp the mind of mortal Man. 
 
 Or search Wielieska's dark salt mines, 
 
 And find old natives there. 
 O'er whose long night the dull lamp shines, 
 
 Their onl}^ sun and fair ! 
 And learn if language can convey 
 The richer scenes of glorious day. 
 
 To that deaf man go forth again, 
 On whose ear sound ne'er fell. 
 
 And mimic Music's cheering strain — 
 Its grand majestic swell ; 
 
 Nor yet expect with all thy art, 
 
 To rouse the feelings of his heart. 
 
 So are the heavens above us all, 
 And he who would know more. 
 
 Shall drift within a dreadful squall. 
 Along a starless shore. 
 
 Where black rocks rise, and wild winds waft, 
 
 To sink the puny, daring, raft. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 93 
 
 Then bell chimes called to holy men, 
 
 From out the fitful breeze, 
 That scoured the hill, and swept the glen. 
 
 And sighed among the trees. 
 While solemn flocks released from care. 
 Poured iu to meet their God in prayer. 
 
 Round in the churchyard was the stand, 
 
 Where brave old worthies shone ; 
 And there he grasped each friendly hand. 
 
 Knew all, yet was not known ; 
 Passed o'er the tombs with sacred care. 
 For " dear old friends " were lying there. 
 
 Hinted they buried far too deep. 
 
 Who wished their friends to rise ; 
 That tho' they wakened from their sleep, 
 
 They could not reach the skies ; 
 And it were sad to wake to pain. 
 Remember life and die again. 
 
 The last peal like an angel stirred 
 
 The wanderer of night, 
 Who said he dared not meet my Lord, 
 
 Unless I spared his mite. 
 For now, he said, " the house of prayer 
 " Brouirht out ' the j^^olden calves ' to stare." 
 
94 THE SERPENT 
 
 When in we moved with solemn pace, 
 And chmbed the pulpit stair, • 
 
 For he would see Man face to face, 
 Each saint and sinner there — 
 
 Whom if he gave some saints their due, 
 
 They almost made him worship too. 
 
 Soon ill-bred eyes began to scan 
 That face they '" ought to know ;" 
 
 While thus their twitterings mostly ran, 
 ''Who's that with So-and-So ?" 
 
 But none in all the parish knew 
 
 Their dark complexioned friend in blue. 
 
 From pouch he pulled a parchment long, 
 And crossed his stately knee, 
 
 Which made me think he'd argued wrong, 
 My depths of Faith to see ; 
 
 Yet glad was I if he would scroll 
 
 God's living letters on his soul. 
 
 All in our seats — and silent all. 
 The grey haired pastor rose, — 
 
 To Heaven's gate went with humble call, 
 Then for a text he chose, 
 
 "Creation, and its boundless plan, 
 
 " And God's eternal love for Man." 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 95 
 
 Soon as the pregnant text was out, 
 
 Some leering faces met, 
 To shew they had some clever doubt, 
 
 And saw each way a net ; 
 Some of those grave men and profound, 
 Who crawl like moles beneath the ground. 
 
 And he began : — Small Mind is prone 
 
 To judge of God by Man ; 
 Of Heaven's as of an earthly throne, 
 
 And say His work began j 
 Creatures who once thought Earth a plain, 
 And feared of tumbling o'er the main. 
 
 Because that they themselves were born, 
 
 And hasten to their close, 
 They feel that on some far back morn, 
 
 Those worlds from Nothing rose. 
 That ere that time, or something more, 
 God never saw a world before. 
 
 But as the fountains gurgling rise 
 
 Among earth's myriad hills. 
 Rush to the seas, and climb the skies, 
 
 Whence water back distils — 
 So do the worlds dissolve and form. 
 In one eternal round of storm. 
 
96 THE SERPENT 
 
 And as they hiss and blaze along 
 Through Friction's fiery pass, 
 
 As from the gaseous state they throng 
 Up to the solid mass, 
 
 All Life must perish, and they rise 
 
 Like unmanned ships across the skies. 
 
 Here God Almighty must put forth 
 His strong creative power — 
 
 Fling germs across the maiden earth, 
 And term the sheen and shower, 
 
 And above all bid Man appear, 
 
 With all the laws that bind our sphere. 
 
 Here the first link of earthly things 
 
 (Oh ! blessed high belief) 
 Hangs on the holy King of Kings — 
 
 Creation's glorious Chief; 
 And he, who will not find it there, 
 Should tell his fellow mortals where. 
 
 Men quarrel with the Age of Man, 
 
 In tumults to and fro, 
 As if our parents lived more than 
 
 Six thousand years ago, 
 But who can, tho' it were unfurled, 
 Go read the dial-plate of a world. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 97 
 
 In Rock-formation there appears 
 
 Strange influence at play — 
 And that which takes a length of years, 
 
 Accomplished in a day, 
 Is in some famous Irish stream, 
 Upon the sunken forest beam. 
 
 Bat other than those lights that roll 
 
 Across those glowing skies, 
 Must fall upon the earth-born soul, 
 
 Ere it in triumph rise. 
 From doubts and terrors that assail. 
 And make the strong man shake and quail. 
 
 Kings of the earth have sought for Peace, 
 
 Within their vast domain. 
 But as the red sword gave increase, 
 
 They saw their wish was vain, — 
 For the grave frowned, and even kings, 
 Must vanish with the wreck of things. 
 
 Statesmen who framed their country's laws, 
 
 ]\y lives of toil and care, 
 Have walked amid the loud applause, 
 
 And fondly sought it there. 
 But when the sweet sounds died away. 
 The soul sank down upon the clay. 
 
96 THE SERPENT 
 
 The poet on his moss-grown seat, 
 
 Beside the waterfall, 
 Would fondly all his sorrows cheat, 
 
 And fain forget them all, 
 But with the falling of the leaf, 
 His lonely heart breaks forth in grief. 
 
 And ev'n the warrior would find 
 
 It 'mid the battle's roar, 
 Or on the after-puff of wind. 
 
 That bursts from shore to shore, 
 But each brave scene goes fading bye, 
 Like mist upon a wintry sky. 
 
 All classes of Mankind have striven 
 
 Upon their various way. 
 And all went groping far from Heaven, 
 
 To catch the peaceful ray, 
 But the Christian, and he alone ! 
 Finds Peace, with God's Word, at the Throne. 
 
 He sees a Home beyond the grave, 
 
 A Home beyond the sky ; 
 A strong Hand ever stretched to save. 
 
 When Nature's form shall die ; 
 While in the jaws of Death he hears 
 The peaceful streamlets of the spheres. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 99 
 
 Yet thouiihtless men would earn a crown. 
 
 ■> 
 
 By sending Peace away, 
 Would with remorseless hand pluck down 
 
 The Sun of Life from day, 
 And leave poor souls in piteous plight, 
 To lose their way in darkest night. 
 
 Again some men would raise the cry, 
 
 That God must be unjust. 
 Unless He leave the souls to lie 
 
 Within the dormant dust, — 
 Of which is Hell — and curse the hour 
 They fell into such monstrous power. 
 
 And grumble at the sti-ange foresight, 
 
 As if He sent to Heaven, 
 A band led there by Heavenly Light, 
 
 And others Light ungiven, 
 Away to hells of wrath and storm. 
 For sins He doomed them to perform. 
 
 Who cr}'' " we need not strive to gain 
 " Those pleasant heights of Heaven, 
 
 '* God doth the different states ordain, 
 " Wliatever is is given ; 
 
 " If Hell be ours, we there must pack, 
 
 " If Heaven, no sins will hold us back." 
 
100 THE SERPENT 
 
 As if they thought that God would vent 
 
 His wrath on petty man, 
 As if they grasped the full extent 
 
 Of His eternal plan, 
 As if they knew how Man could fall, 
 Or how there could be Hell at all. 
 
 While foreught doth not interfere, 
 To mould and cramp the will. 
 
 Till all the sons of men appear 
 Mere waifs of good or ill, — 
 
 For Reason points the living way. 
 
 And Free-Will may or not obey. 
 
 Thoughts of the basest acts might flash 
 
 Across a sinless mind. 
 But Reason, with an ample dash, 
 
 Leaves not a trace behind, 
 True as the sun, the beaming soul 
 Shoots up to Heaven though clouds may roll. 
 
 But no one ever scaled the skies, 
 When Chance prepared the wings, 
 
 Lost in the wilds of Sin lie flies, 
 Who spurns the King of Kings — 
 
 The Sun of Life might cease to glow. 
 
 If blind Fate marks for good or woe. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 101 
 
 Yet in God's Word is mystery, 
 
 A " tree of Knowledge " still, 
 And much we err, when we would pry. 
 
 With weak and fettered will, 
 Among the silent leaves that spread, 
 Around and cool the sainted head. 
 
 But there the stream of Heavenly Grace, 
 
 Through Time's vale calmly flows, 
 In whose waves all of Adam's race 
 
 May plunge from sins and woes, 
 Whiche'er'at times, or dull, or dry, 
 We trace its waters from the sky. 
 
 ! God look through Thy mask of stars. 
 
 On those who spurn Thy Grace, 
 Ere Death shall burst their mortal bars, 
 
 And wing their souls through space. 
 Draw them with bands of Love, to bow 
 Before Thy Throne of Mercy now. 
 
 And on he went in fervid strain. 
 
 And stamped his earnest feet ; 
 While yet my Friend's pen went again 
 
 Across his crowding sheet ; 
 When kindly feeling o'er me stole, 
 To know the notes that soothed his soul. 
 
102 THE SERPENT 
 
 With sidelong glance, and stretcKing out, 
 
 I read his graphic scrolls, 
 But horrors ! they were all about 
 
 Our poor rebellious souls, 
 As if oar secret thoughts h\y bare. 
 Each rebel to the Lord was there. 
 
 Those who would charm the Heavenly Throne, 
 Yet win their neighbour's praise, 
 
 Whose earthly pride unwinged the tone 
 They vainly thought to raise ; 
 
 For ev'n the music of the Fair, 
 
 Unhallowed may not enter there. 
 
 Those in ga}^ Fashion's robes arrayed, 
 
 Dressmakers and their friends. 
 Who, while the good old Pastor prayed, 
 
 Made many awkward bends, 
 To see what this and that one wore — 
 How sat the work of weeks before. 
 
 The envyiugs that crossed the mind. 
 The curl that marked each nose. 
 
 The spite that followed fost behind — 
 As if a little rose ! 
 
 Stuck neatly on a thoughtless head, 
 
 Should raise church-demons from the dead. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 103 
 
 Those men who walk the world as lords, 
 
 With grasp on earth and sky ; 
 Whose slaves must load their groaning boards, 
 
 Though slaves of hunger die ; 
 Whose door swings harshly in the face 
 Of the poor outcasts of their race ; 
 
 Whose Faith deep buried in their lands, 
 
 Sound as a dead god lies, 
 Who trust to Chance, and toiling hands. 
 
 To make the harvests rise — 
 Nor as they were but guardians high, 
 To deal the mercies of the sky. 
 
 The fireside, vast, heroic men, 
 
 Whose dreamy daring minds, 
 Call clansmen from each hill and glen, 
 
 And scatter to the winds 
 Our foes — with me to rule the force, 
 Deep-seated on the black war-horse. 
 
 The grasping half-starved miser kind, 
 
 Who brooded o'er their store 
 Of hidden trust — and vexed the mind 
 
 For more and ever more ! 
 Who give their best days to obtain 
 What they must one day lose again ! 
 
104 THE SERPENT 
 
 The reckless gamblers fired with wine, 
 Who, when the thoughtful train, 
 
 Had ventured o'er Time's hazy line, 
 And on to Heaven's clear plain, 
 
 Upon the consecrated swards. 
 
 Shook out their dice and spread their cards. 
 
 Those glowing, merry, bright-eyed youths, 
 
 Who for the eartiily loves, 
 When the priest told of Saving Truths, 
 
 Sped to the Summer groves ; 
 And when Affection bound the pair, 
 Sighed and saw all their heaven there. 
 
 The vain who boast of purer blood, 
 Shrink from each ill-starred brother. 
 
 As if they do not at the flood 
 All find a common mother. 
 
 As if there will to some be given 
 
 To have their cushioned seats in Heaven. 
 
 As if a little gold and lace 
 
 Should give a grand control. 
 In and around the spheres of Grace, 
 
 O'er each ungilded soul. 
 As if proud Fortune's passing blaze 
 The stature of the man displays. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 105 
 
 Those who were drunk the night before, 
 
 And cursed their zig-zag way, 
 Or dreamed they drove a coach-and-four, 
 
 While in the mire they hiy, 
 Who beat their wives, and frown, and swear, 
 Yet meet to call God " Father " there. 
 
 And on it went, and at the foot 
 
 Ran words of fiend-like note — • 
 " So far as I may now compute, 
 
 " Earth's crimes may sink my boat, 
 " But all's well if there runs no gale, 
 "And I in good day-light may sail." 
 
 One moment, and my troubled mind 
 
 Was overwhelmed in awe, 
 One moment, and upon the wind. 
 
 Old Satan's form I saw ! 
 The kirk and all went whirling round, 
 And in a swoon I clasped the ground. 
 
 Sudden arose a phantom sea, 
 
 And howled a dreadful gale. 
 And from a weird-like shore full free. 
 
 Bore on a ship full sail, 
 And my dark Friend stood at the helm, 
 Through seas that dared the ship to whelm. 
 
106 THE SERPENT ^ 
 
 Bloodshed and all the darker crimes, 
 Mingled with formal prayer, 
 
 Tyrants and murderers sailed to climes, 
 That God alone knew where, 
 
 And loud their howlings rent the sky. 
 
 Whene'er the ship went rolling high. 
 
 He had come round with seaman-glee 
 
 To find a crowded ship, 
 But only hundreds could I see 
 
 Among the waves to dip, 
 Of all Mankind ; yet blessed his pains. 
 While Judas lay aboard in chains. 
 
 Wilder and wilder rose the waves, 
 The farther from the shore, 
 
 And as they yawned like living graves, 
 The helmsman laughed the more. 
 
 And when the sick sang hymns for Grace, 
 
 Laughed till the red came in his face. 
 
 Some thought God had forgetful grown, 
 And deep they drank and swore, 
 
 Till Madness sought to hurl the throne 
 Down to the dismal shore — 
 
 When Satan through a fog so snell, 
 
 Told them the sea was rough to Hell. 
 
ROUND THE SOUL. 
 
 Whereon the wretch that stabbed our Lord, 
 
 Would put the ship about, 
 Came rushing with a naked sword, 
 
 And gave a rebel shout — 
 But Peace was soon again restored, 
 And th' Roman was flung overboard. 
 
 Then Satan waved a fond farewell, 
 
 For ever and for aye, 
 And I thought the parting quite as well 
 
 For I love him far away — 
 Yet may the same good feelings be 
 In Time and through Eternity ! 
 
 107 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 PRINTED AT A. WESTWOOD's STEAM VRESS, CROSS, CUPAR. 
 
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