The Two
Voices

That type of Perfect in his minded Us Ha
In Nature can he nowhere find.ods and
He sows himself on every wind. mawu nokt

He seems to hear a Heavenly Friend,
And thro' thick veils to apprehend
A labour working to an end. Tou

The end and the beginning vex hayot (1
His reason many things perplex,
With motions, checks, and counterchecks.

< He knows a baseness in his blood mech
At such strange war with something good,
He may not do the thing he would. Sono

Heaven opens inward, chasms yawn,
Vast images in glimmering dawn,
Half shown, are broken and withdrawn.

Ah! sure within him and without,
Could his dark wisdom find it out, one
There must be answer to his doubt.

But thou canst answer not again.
With thine own weapon art thou slain,
Or thou wilt answer but in vain.

The doubt would rest, I dare not solve.
In the same circle we revolve.
Assurance only breeds resolve.' hymnis noki

As when a billow, blown against, je svetla
Falls back, the voice with which I fenced
A little ceased, but recommenced.cumpl

Voices

• Where wert thou when thy father play'd The Two In his free field, and pastime made, merry boy in sun and shade?

A

'A merry boy they call'd him then,
He sat upon the knees of men
In days that never come again.

'Before the little ducts began

To feed thy bones with lime, and ran
Their course, till thou wert also man :

'Who took a wife, who rear'd his race, Whose wrinkles gather'd on his face, Whose troubles number with his days: ult

'A life of nothings, nothing-worth, From that first nothing ere his birth. To that last nothing under earth! '

These words,' I said, 'are like the rest: No certain clearness, but at best

A vague suspicion of the breast:

'But if I grant, thou mightst defend The thesis which thy words intendThat to begin implies to end;

'Yet how should I for certain hold,
Because my memory is so cold,
That I first was in human mould?

'I cannot make this matter plain, bas
But I would shoot, howe'er in vain,
A random arrow from the brain.

The Two
Voices

• It

may

be that no life is found,

Which only to one engine bound

Falls off, but cycles always round. Wade da

'As old mythologies relate,

Some draught of Lethe might await
The slipping thro' from state to state.

'As here we find in trances, men
Forget the dream that happens then,
Until they fall in trance again. UNS

'So might we, if our state were such
As one before, remember much,

For those two likes might meet and touch.

'Some vague emotion of delight
In gazing up an Alpine height,
Some yearning toward the lamps of night:

'Or if thro' lower lives I came
Tho' all experience past became
Consolidate in mind and frame

'I might forget my weaker lot;
For is not our first year forgot?
The haunts of memory echo not.

• And men, whose reason long was blind,
From cells of madness unconfined,
Oft lose whole
years of darker mind.

'Much more, if first I floated free,

As naked essence, must I be

Incompetent of memory:

For memory dealing but with time, hak
And he with matter, could she climb
Beyond her own material prime?

'Moreover, something is or seems, on edid
That touches me with mystic gleams,
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams-T

• Of something felt, like something here;
Of something done, I know not where ;
Such as no language may declare.'

The still voice laugh'd.
'Not with thy dreams.
Thy pain is a reality.' ne

I talk,' said he,
Suffice it thee
bna wôn hnẻ

'But thou,' said I, hast missed thy mark, Who sought'st to wreck my mortal ark, By making all the horizon dark.

'Why not set forth, if I should do đi baA
This rashness, that which might ensue ad
With this old soul in organs new?

Whatever crazy sorrow saith,dit
No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly long'd for death.

'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant, Oh life, not death, for which we pant; More life, and fuller, that I want.

N

The Two
Voices

The Two
Voices

I ceased, and sat as one forlorn.om dooM ›
Then said the voice, in quiet scorn,dan A
'Behold, it is the Sabbath morn.doqmicond

And I arose, and I released momem so? ?
The casement, and the light increased brA
With freshness in the dawning east.bnopol

Like soften'd airs that blowing steal, noM
When meres begin to uncongeal, ouot mi!T
The sweet church bells began to peal.sk

On to God's house the people prest
Passing the place where each must rest,
Each enter'd like a welcome guest.as flow?

One walk'd between his wife and child,
With measured footfall firm and mild,
And now and then he gravely smiled. T

The prudent partner of his bloodgods an¶
Lean'd on him, faithful, gentle, good,od V
Wearing the rose of womanhood.nidem yö

And in their double love secure, son yd W
The little maiden walk'd demure,deen aldT
Pacing with downward eyelids pure.

These three made unity so sweet, hvid Wa
My frozen heart began to beat, sort will of
Remembering its ancient heat. 1979 ef

I blest them, and they wander'd on: T
I spoke, but answer came there none: 40
The dull and bitter voice was gone.

M