I

How then shall man so order life that when his tale of years is told,
Like sated guests he wend his way; how shall his even tenour hold?

II

Despite the Writ that stores the skull; despite the Table and the Pen;1Emblems of Kismet, or Destiny.
Maugre the Fate that plays us down, her board the world, her pieces men?

III

How when the light and glow of life wax dim in thickly gath’ering gloom,
Shall mortal scoff at sting of Death, shall scorn the victory of the Tomb?

IV

One way, two paths, one end the grave.  This runs athwart the flow’ery plain,
That breasts the bush, the steep, the crag, in sun and wind and snow and rain:

V

Who treads the first must look adown, must deem his life an all in all;
Must see no heights where man may rise, must sight no depths where man may fall.

VI

Allah in Adam form must view; adore the Maker in the made,
Content to bask in Mâyâ’s smile,2Illusion. in joys of pain, in lights of shade.

VII

He breaks the Law, he burns the Book, he sends the Moolah back to school;
Laughs at the beards of Saintly men; and dubs the prophet dolt and fool,

VIII

Embraces Cypress’ taper-waist; cools feet on wavy breast of rill;
Smiles in the Nargis’ love-lorn eyes, and ’joys the dance of Daffodil;

IX

Melts in the saffron light of Dawn to hear the moaning of the Dove;
Delights in Sundown’s purpling hues when Bulbul woos the Rose’s love.

X

Finds mirth and joy in Jamshid-bowl; toys with the Daughter of the vine;
And bids the beauteous cup-boy say, “Master I bring thee ruby wine!”3That all the senses, even the ear, may enjoy.

XI

Sips from the maiden’s lips the dew; brushes the bloom from virgin brow:–
Such is his fleshly bliss that strives the Maker through the Made to know.

XII

I’ve tried them all, I find them all so same and tame, so drear, so dry;
My gorge ariseth at the thought; I commune with myself and cry:–

XIII

Better the myriad toils and pains that make the man to manhood true,
This be the rule that guideth life; these be the laws for me and you:

XIV

With Ignor’ance wage eternal war, to know thy self forever strain,
Thine ignorance of thine ignorance is thy fiercest foe, thy deadliest bane;

XV

That blunts thy sense, and dulls thy taste; that deafs thine ears, and blinds thine eyes;
Creates the thing that never was, the Thing that ever is defies.

XVI

The finite Atom infinite that forms thy circle’s centre-dot,
So full-sufficient for itself, for other selves existing not,

XVII

Finds the world mighty as ’tis small; yet must be fought the unequal fray;
A myriad giants here; and there a pinch of dust, a clod of clay.

XVIII

Yes! maugre all thy dreams of peace still must the fight unfair be fought;
Where thou mayst learn the noblest lore, to know that all we know is nought.

XIX

True to thy Nature, to Thy self, Fame and Disfame nor hope nor fear:
Enough to thee the small still voice aye thund’ering in thine inner ear.

XX

From self-approval seek applause: What ken not men thou kennest, thou!
Spurn ev’ry idol others raise: Before thine own Ideal bow:

XXI

Be thine own Deus: Make self free, liberal as the circling air:
Thy Thought to thee an Empire be; break every prison’ing lock and bar:

XXII

Do thou the Ought to self aye owed; here all the duties meet and blend,
In widest sense, withouten care of what began, for what shall end.

XXIII

Thus, as thou view the Phantom-forms which in the misty Past were thine,
To be again the thing thou wast with honest pride thou may’st decline;

XXIV

And, glancing down the range of years, fear not thy future self to see;
Resign’d to life, to death resign’d, as though the choice were nought to thee.

XXV

On Thought itself feed not thy thought; nor turn from Sun and Light to gaze
At darkling cloisters paved with tombs, where rot the bones of bygone days:

XXVI

“Eat not thy heart,” the Sages said; “nor mourn the Past, the buried Past”;
Do what thou dost, be strong, be brave; and, like the Star, nor rest nor haste.

XXVII

Pluck the old woman from thy breast: Be stout in woe, be stark in weal;
Do good, for Good is good to do: Spurn bribe of Heav’en and threat of Hell.

XXVIII

To seek the True, to glad the heart, such is of life the HIGHER LAW,
Whose differ’ence is the Man’s degree, the Man of gold, the Man of straw.

XXIX

See not that something in Mankind that rouses hate or scorn or strife,
Better the worm of Izrâil4The Angel of Death. than Death that walks in form of life.

XXX

Survey thy kind as One whose wants in the great Human Whole unite;5The “Great Man” of the Enochites and the Mormons.
The Homo rising high from earth to seek the Heav’ens of Life-in-Light;

XXXI

And hold Humanity one man, whose universal agony
Still strains and strives to gain the goal, where agonies shall cease to be.

XXXII

Believe in all things; none believe; judge not nor warp by “Facts” the thought;
See clear, hear clear, tho’ life may seem Mâyâ and Mirage, Dream and Nought.

XXXIII

Abjure the Why and seek the How: the God and gods enthroned on high
Are silent all, are silent still; nor hear thy voice, nor deign reply.

XXXIV

The Now, that indivis’ible point which studs the length of inf’inite line
Whose ends are nowhere, is thine all, the puny all thou callest thine.

XXXV

Perchance the law some Giver hath: Let be! let be! what canst thou know?
A myriad races came and went; this Sphinx hath seen them come and go.

XXXVI

Haply the Law that rules the world allows to man the widest range;
And haply Fate’s a Theist-word, subject to human chance and change.

XXXVII

This “I” may find a future Life, a nobler copy of our own,
Where every riddle shall be ree’d, where every knowledge shall be known;

XXXVIII

Where ’twill be man’s to see the whole of what on Earth he sees in part;
Where change shall ne’er surcharge the thought; nor hope defer’d shall hurt the heart.

XXXIX

But! – faded flow’er and fallen leaf no more shall deck the parent tree;
And man once dropt by Tree of Life what hope of other life has he?

XL

The shatter’d bowl shall know repair; the riven lute shall sound once more;
But who shall mend the clay of man, the stolen breath to man restore?

XLI

The shiver’d clock again shall strike; the broken reed shall pipe again:
But we, we die, and Death is one, the doom of brutes, the doom of men.

XLII

Then, if Nirwâna6Comparative annihilation. round our life with nothingness, ’tis haply best;
Thy toils and troubles, want and woe at length have won their guerdon – Rest.

XLIII

Cease, Abdû, cease!  Thy song is sung, nor think the gain the singer’s prize;
Till men hold Ignor’ance deadly sin, till man deserves his title “Wise”:7“Homo sapiens.”

XLIV

In Days to come, Days slow to dawn, when Wisdom deigns to dwell with men,
These echoes of a voice long stilled haply shall wake responsive strain:

XLV

Wend now thy way with brow serene, fear not thy humble tale to tell:–
The whispers of the Desert-wind; the tinkling of the camel’s bell.

שלם

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1 Emblems of Kismet, or Destiny.

2 Illusion.

3 That all the senses, even the ear, may enjoy.

4 The Angel of Death.

5 The “Great Man” of the Enochites and the Mormons.

6 Comparative annihilation.

7 “Homo sapiens.”