{"id":3393,"date":"2013-07-13T01:48:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3393"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:48:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:48:04","slug":"17-book-2-canto-10-the-kingdoms-and-godheads-of-the-little-mind-vol-01-savitri-1950","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/01-savitri\/01-savitri-1950\/17-book-2-canto-10-the-kingdoms-and-godheads-of-the-little-mind-vol-01-savitri-1950","title":{"rendered":"-17_ Book 2 Canto 10 The Kingdoms and Godheads of The Little Mind.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n

<\/p>\n

CANTO TEN<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nTHE KINGDOMS
\nAND GODHEADS OF THE <\/b><\/span><\/font>
\nLITTLE MIND<\/b><\/font> <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n\n

\n
\nTHIS too must now be overpassed and left, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAs all must be until the Highest is gained<\/P><\/p>\n

In whom
\nthe world and self grow true and one: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nTill that is reached our journeying cannot cease. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAlways a nameless goal beckons beyond, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAlways ascends the zigzag of the gods <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd upward points the spirit's climbing Fire. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis breath of hundred-hued felicity <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd its pure heightened figure of Time's joy, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTossed upon waves of flawless happiness, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHammered into single beats of ecstasy, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis fraction of the spirit's integer <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nCaught into a passionate greatness of extremes, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis limited being lifted to zenith bliss, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHappy to enjoy one touch of things supreme, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPacked into its sealed small infinity, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIts endless time-made world outfacing Time, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA little output of God's vast delight. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe moments stretched towards the eternal Now, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe hours discovered immortality, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nBut, satisfied with their sublime contents, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOn peaks they ceased whose tops half-way to heaven <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPointed to an apex they could never mount, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTo a grandeur in whose air they could not live. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nInviting to their high and exquisite sphere, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTo their secure and fine extremities <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis creature who hugs his limits to feel safe, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThese heights declined a greater adventure's call. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA glory and sweetness of satisfied desire <\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 217<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nTied up the spirit to golden posts of bliss.<\/P><\/p>\n

It could
\nnot house the wideness of a soul<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Which
\nneeded all infinity for its home.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A memory
\nsoft as grass and faint as sleep,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nbeauty and call receding sank behind<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Like a
\nsweet song heard fading far away<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Upon the
\nlong high road to Timelessness.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Above
\nwas an ardent white tranquillity.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A musing
\nspirit looked out on the worlds<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And like
\na brilliant clambering of skies<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Passing
\nthrough clarity to an unseen Light<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Large
\nlucent realms of Mind from stillness shone.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

But
\nfirst he met a silver-grey expanse<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Where
\nDay and Night had wedded and were one: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt was a tract of dim and shifting rays <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nParting Life's sentient flow from Thought's self-poise. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA coalition of uncertainties <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThere exercised uneasy government <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOn a ground reserved for doubt and reasoned guess, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA rendezvous of Knowledge with Ignorance. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAt its low extremity held difficult sway <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA mind that hardly saw and slowly found; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIts nature to our earthly nature close<\/P><\/p>\n

And kin
\nto our precarious mortal thought<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

That
\nlooks from soil to sky and sky to soil<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

But
\nknows not the below nor the .beyond,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It only
\nsensed itself and outward things.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

This was
\nthe first means of our slow ascent<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

From the
\nhalf-conscience of the animal soul<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Living
\nin a crowded press of shape-events<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In a
\nrealm it cannot understand nor change: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOnly it sees and acts in a given scene<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nfeels and joys and sorrows for a while.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nideas that drive the obscure embodied spirit<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Along
\nthe roads of suffering and desire<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In a
\nworld that struggles to discover Truth,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Found
\nhere their power to be and Nature-Force.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Here are
\ndevised the forms of an ignorant life<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

That
\nsees the empiric fact as settled law,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Labours
\nfor the hour and not for eternity<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 218<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAnd trades its gains to meet the moment's call: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe slow process of a material mind<\/P><\/p>\n

Which
\nserves the body it should rule and use<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nneeds to lean upon an erring sense,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Was born
\nin that luminous obscurity.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAdvancing tardily from a limping start,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nCrutching hypothesis upon argument,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Throning
\nits theories as certitudes,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\nreasons from the half-known to the unknown,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Ever
\nconstructing its frail house of thought,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Ever
\nundoing the web that it has spun.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\ntwilight sage whose shadow seems to him Self,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Moving
\nfrom minute to brief minute lives; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA king dependent on his satellites<\/P><\/p>\n

. Signs
\nthe decrees of ignorant ministers,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A judge
\nin half-possession of his proofs,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A voice
\nclamant of uncertainty's postulates,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\narchitect of knowledge, not its source.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

This
\npowerful bondslave of his instruments<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Thinks
\nhis low station Nature's highest top,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nOblivious of his share in all things made<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nhaughtily humble in his own conceit<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Believes
\nhimself a spawn of Matter's mud<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\ntakes his own creations for his cause.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To
\neternal light and knowledge meant to rise,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Up from
\nman's bare beginning is our climb; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOut of earth's heavy smallness we must break,<\/P><\/p>\n

We must
\nsearch our nature with spiritual fire: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAn insect crawl preludes our glorious flight; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOur human state cradles the future god,<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nmortal frailty an immortal force.\n<\/p>\n

<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n     At the glow-worm top of these pale glimmer-realms<\/P><\/p>\n

Where
\ndawn-sheen gambolled with the native dusk<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nhelped the Day to grow and Night to fail,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Escaping
\nover a wide and shimmering bridge,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

He came
\ninto a realm of early Light<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And the
\nregency of a half-risen sun.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Out of
\nits rays our mind's full orb was born.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAppointed by the Spirit of the Worlds<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To
\nmediate with the unknowing depths, <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nPage 219<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA prototypal deft Intelligence <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHalf-poised on equal wings of thought and doubt <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nToiled ceaselessly twixt being's hidden ends. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA Secrecy breathed in life's moving act, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA covert nurse of Nature's miracles, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt shaped life's wonders out of Matter's mud: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt cut the pattern of the shapes of things,<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\npitched mind's tent in the vague ignorant Vast.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A master
\nMagician of measure and device<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Has made
\nan eternity from recurring forms<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And to
\nthe wandering spectator thought<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Assigned
\na seat on the inconscient stage.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

On earth
\nby the will of this Arch-Intelligence<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nbodiless energy put on Matter's robe; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nProton and photon served the imager Eye<\/P><\/p>\n

To
\nchange things subtle into a physical world<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And the
\ninvisible appeared as shape<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And the
\nimpalpable was felt as mass: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nMagic of percept joined with concept's art<\/P><\/p>\n

And lent
\nto each object an interpreting name: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIdea was disguised in a body's artistry,<\/P><\/p>\n

And by a
\nstrange atomic law's mystique<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A frame
\nwas made in which the sense would put<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nsymbol picture of the universe.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Even a
\ngreater miracle was done.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nmediating light linked body's power,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nsleep and dreaming of the tree and plant,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

. The
\nanimal's vibrant sense, the thought in man,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To the
\neffulgence of a Ray above.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nskill endorsing Matter's right to think<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Cut
\nsentient passages for the mind of flesh<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nfound a means for Nescience to know.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Offering
\nits little squares and cubes of word<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

As
\nfigured substitutes for reality,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nmummified mnemonic alphabet,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\nhelped the unseeing force to read her works.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A buried
\nconsciousness arose in her<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And now
\nshe dreams herself human and awake.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

But all
\nwas still a mobile Ignorance; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nStill Knowledge could not come and firmly grasp <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 220<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThis huge invention seen as a universe.<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nspecialist of logic's hard machine<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Imposed
\nits rigid artifice on the soul; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAn aide of the inventor intellect, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt cut Truth into manageable bits <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThat each might have his ration of thought-food, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThen new-built Truth's slain body by its art: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA robot exact and serviceable and false<\/P><\/p>\n

\nDisplaced the spirit's finer view of things: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA polished engine did the work of a god. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nNone the true body found, its soul seemed dead: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nNone had the inner look which sees Truth's whole; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAll glorified the glittering substitute. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThen from the secret heights a wave swept down, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA brilliant chaos of rebel light arose; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt looked above and saw the dazzling peaks,<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\nlooked within and woke the sleeping god.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nImagination called her shining squads<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

That
\nventure into undiscovered scenes<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Where
\nall the marvels lurk none yet has known: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nLifting her beautiful and miraculous head,<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nconspired with inspiration's sister brood<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To fill
\nthought's skies with glimmering nebulae.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A bright
\nError fringed the mystery-altar's frieze; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nDarkness grew nurse to wisdom's occult sun,<\/P><\/p>\n

Myth
\nsuckled knowledge with her lustrous milk; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe infant passed from dim to radiant breasts.<\/P><\/p>\n

Thus
\nworked the Power upon the growing world; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIts subtle craft withheld the full-orbed blaze, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nCherished the soul's childhood and on fictions fed <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nFar richer in their sweet and nectarous sap <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nNourishing its immature divinity <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThan the staple or dry straw of Reason's tilth, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIts heaped fodder of innumerable facts, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPlebian fare on which today we thrive. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThus streamed down from the realm of early Light, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nEthereal thinkings into Matter's world; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIts gold-horned herds trooped into earth's cave-heart.<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nmorning rays illume our twilight's eyes,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nyoung formations move the mind of earth\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 221<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nTo labour and to dream and new-create,<\/P><\/p>\n

To feel
\nbeauty's touch and know the world and self: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe Golden Child began to think and see. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n     In those bright realms are Mind's first forward steps.<\/P><\/p>\n

Ignorant
\nof all but eager to know all,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\ncurious slow enquiry there begins; <\/span><\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nEver searching it grasps at shapes around,<\/P><\/p>\n

Ever it
\nhopes to find out greater things.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Ardent
\nand golden gleamed with sunrise fires,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Alert it
\nlives upon invention's verge.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Yet all
\nit does is on an infant's scale,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

As if
\nthe cosmos were a nursery game,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Mind,
\nlife the playthings of a Titan's babe.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

As one
\nit works who builds a mimic fort<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nMiraculously stable for a while,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Made of
\nthe sands upon a bank of Time<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Mid an
\noccult eternity's shoreless sea.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A small
\nkeen instrument the great Puissance chose,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\narduous pastime passionately pursues; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nTo teach the Ignorance is her difficult charge,<\/P><\/p>\n

Her
\nthought starts from an original nescient Void<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And what
\nshe teaches she herself must learn<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Arousing
\nknowledge-from its sleepy lair.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

For
\nknowledge comes not to us as a guest<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Called
\ninto our chamber from the outer world,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A friend
\nand inmate of our secret self,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It hid
\nbehind our minds and fell asleep<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nslowly wakes beneath the glows of life; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe mighty daemon lies unshaked within,<\/P><\/p>\n

To
\nevoke, to give it form is Nature's task.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

All was
\na chaos of the true and false,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Mind
\nsought amid deep mists of Nescience; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt looked within itself but saw not God. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA material interim diplomacy <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nDenied the truth that transient truths might live <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd hid the deity in creed and guess <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThat the World-Ignorance might grow slowly wise. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis was the imbroglio made by sovereign Mind <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLooking from a gleam-ridge into the Night <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 222<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIn its first tamperings with Inconscience: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIts alien dusk baffles her luminous eyes; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer rapid hands must learn a cautious zeal,<\/P><\/p>\n

Only a
\nslow advance the earth can bear.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Yet was
\nher strength unlike the unseeing earth's<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nCompelled to handle makeshift instruments<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Invented
\nby the life-force and the flesh.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Earth
\nall perceives through doubtful images,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

All she
\nconceives in hazardous jets of sight,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Small
\nlights kindled by touches of groping thought.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nIncapable of the soul's direct in look<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She sees
\nby spasms and solders knowledge-scrap,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Makes
\nTruth the slave-girl of her indigence,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nExpelling Nature's mystic unity<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Cuts
\ninto quantum and mass the moving All; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nShe takes for measuring-rod her ignorance.<\/P><\/p>\n

In her
\nown domain a pontiff and a seer,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

That
\ngreater Power with her half-risen sun<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Wrought
\nwithin limits but possessed her field; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nShe knew by a privilege of thinking force <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd claimed an infant sovereignty of sight. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIn her eyes however darkly fringed was lit <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Archangel's gaze who knows inspired his acts <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd shapes a world in its far-seeing flame. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIn her own realm she stumbles not nor fails, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nBut moves in boundaries of subtle power <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAcross which mind can step towards the sun. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA candidate for a higher suzerainty, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA passage she cut through from Night to Light, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd searched for an ungrasped Omniscience. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n      A dwarf three-bodied trinity was her serf.<\/P><\/p>\n

First,
\nsmallest of the three, but strong of limb,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nlow-brow with a square and heavy jowl,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A pigmy
\nThought needing to live in bounds<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

For ever
\nstooped to hammer fact and form.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Absorbed
\nand cabined in external sight,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It takes
\nits stand on Nature's solid base.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\ntechnician admirable, a thinker crude,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nriveter of Life to habit's grooves, <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 223<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nObedient to gross Matter's tyranny, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA prisoner of the moulds in which it works, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt binds itself by what itself creates. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA slave of a fixed mass of absolute rules, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt sees as Law the habits of the world, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt sees as Truth the habits of the mind. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIn its realm of concrete images and events <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTurning in a worn circle of ideas <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd ever repeating old familiar acts, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt lives content with the common and the known. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt loves the old ground that was its dwelling-place: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAbhorring change as an audacious sin, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nDistrustful of each new discovery <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOnly it advances step by careful step <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd fears as if a deadly abyss the unknown. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA prudent treasurer of its ignorance, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt shrinks from adventure, blinks at glorious hope, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPreferring a safe foothold upon things <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTo the dangerous joy of wideness and of height. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe world's slow impressions on its labouring mind, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTardy imprints almost indelible, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIncrease their value by their poverty; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe old sure memories are its capital stock: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOnly what sense can grasp seems absolute: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nExternal fact it figures as sole truth, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nWisdom identifies with the earthward look, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd things long known and actions always done <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAre to its clinging hold a balustrade <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOf safety on the perilous stair of Time. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHeaven's trust to it are the established ancient ways, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nImmutable laws man has no right to change, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA sacred legacy from the great dead past <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOr the one road that God has made for life, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA firm shape of Nature never to be changed, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPart of the huge routine of the universe. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA smile from the Preserver of the Worlds <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nSent down of old this guardian Mind to earth <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThat all might stand in their fixed changeless type <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd from their secular posture never move. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOne sees it circling faithful to its task, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 224<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nTireless in an assigned tradition's round; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIn decayed and crumbling offices of Time<\/P><\/p>\n

It keeps
\nclose guard in front of custom's wall,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Or in an
\nancient Night's dim environs<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It dozes
\non a little "courtyard's stones<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nbarks at every unfamiliar light<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

As at a
\nfoe who would break up its home,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nwatch-dog of the spirit's sense-railed house<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Against
\nintruders from the Invisible,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nNourished on scraps of life and Matter's bones<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In its
\nkennel of objective certitude.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And yet
\nbehind it stands a cosmic might: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA measured Greatness keeps its vaster plan,<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nfathomless sameness rhythms the tread of life,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nstars' changeless orbits furrow inert Space,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nmillion' species follow one mute Law.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A huge
\ninertness is the world's defence,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Even in
\nchange is treasured changelessness; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nInto inertia revolution sinks,<\/P><\/p>\n

In a new
\ndress the old resumes its role;
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe Energy acts, the stable is its seal: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOn Shiva's breast is stayed the enormous dance. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n     A fiery spirit came, next of the three.<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nhunchback rider of the red Wild-Ass,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A rash
\nIntelligence leaped down lion-maned<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

From the
\ngreat mystic Flame that rings the worlds<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And with
\nits dire edge eats at being's heart.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Thence
\nsprang the burning vision of Desire.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nthousand shapes it wore, took numberless names: <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA need of multitude and uncertainty <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPricks it for ever to pursue the One <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOn countless roads across the vasts of Time <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThrough circuits of unending difference. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt burns all breasts with an ambiguous fire. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA radiance gleaming on a murky stream, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt flamed towards heaven, then sank, engulfed towards hell; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt climbed to drag down Truth into the mire<\/P><\/p>\n

And used
\nfor muddy ends its brilliant Force.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A huge
\nchameleon gold and blue and red<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Turning
\nto black and grey and lurid brown, <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 225<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nHungry it stared from a mottled bough of life<\/P><\/p>\n

To snap
\nup insect joys, its favourite food,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\ndingy sustenance of a sumptuous frame<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Nursing
\nthe splendid passion of its hues.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A snake
\nof flame with a dark cloud for tail,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Followed
\nby a dream-brood of glittering thoughts,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A lifted
\nhead with many-tinged flickering crests,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\nlicked at knowledge with a smoky tongue.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nwhirlpool sucking in an empty air,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It based
\non vacancy stupendous claims,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In
\nNothingness born to Nothingness returned,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Yet all
\nthe time unwittingly it drove<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Towards
\nthe hidden Something that is All.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Ardent
\nto find, incapable to retain,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nbrilliant instability was its mark,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To err
\nits inborn trend, its native cue.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

At once
\nto an unreflecting credence prone,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\nthought all true that flattered its own hopes; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt cherished golden nothings born of wish,<\/P><\/p>\n

It
\nsnatched at the unreal for provender,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In
\ndarkness it discovered luminous shapes; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nPeering into a shadow-hung half-light <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt saw hued images scrawled on Fancy's cave; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOr it swept in circles through conjecture's night <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd caught in imagination's camera <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nBright scenes of promise held by transient flares, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nFixed in life's air the feet of hurrying dreams, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nKept prints of passing Forms and hooded Powers <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd flash-images of half-seen verities. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAn eager spring to seize and to possess <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nUnguided by reason or the seeing soul <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nWas its first natural motion and its last, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt squandered life's force to achieve the impossible: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt scorned the straight road and ran on wandering curves<\/P><\/p>\n

And left
\nwhat it had won for untried things; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt saw unrealised aims as instant fate<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nchose the precipice for its leap to heaven.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAdventure its system m the gamble of life,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It took
\nfortuitous gains as safe results; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nError discouraged not its confident view <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 226<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIgnorant of the deep law of being's ways<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nfailure could not slow its fiery clutch; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOne chance made true warranted all the rest.<\/P><\/p>\n

Attempt,
\nnot victory, was the charm of life.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\nuncertain winner of uncertain stakes,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Instinct
\nits dam and the life-mind its sire,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It ran
\nits race and came in first or last.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Yet were
\nits works nor small and vain nor null; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt nursed a portion of infinity's strength<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\ncould create the high things its fancy willed; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIts passion caught what calm intelligence missed.<\/P><\/p>\n

Insight
\nof impulse laid its leaping grasp<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

On
\nheavens high Thought had hidden in dazzling mist,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Caught
\nglimmers that revealed a lurking sun: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt probed the void and found a treasure there.<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nhalf-intuition purpled in its sense; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt threw the lightning's fork and hit the unseen.<\/P><\/p>\n

It saw
\nin the dark and vaguely blinked in the light,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nIgnorance was its field, the unknown its prize.\n<\/p>\n

<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n     Of all these Powers the greatest was the last.<\/P><\/p>\n

Arriving
\nlate from a far plane of thought<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Into a
\npacked irrational world of Chance<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Where
\nall was grossly felt and blindly done,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Yet the
\nhaphazard seemed the inevitable,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Came
\nReason, the squat godhead artisan,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To her
\nnarrow house upon a ridge in Time.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Adept of
\nclear contrivance and design,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\npensive face and close and peering eyes,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She took
\nher firm and irremovable seat,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nstrongest, wisest of the troll-like Three.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Armed
\nwith her lens and measuring-rod and probe,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nlooked upon an object universe<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And the
\nmultitudes that in it live and die<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And the
\nbody of Space and the fleeing soul of Time,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And took
\nthe earth and stars into her hands<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To try
\nwhat she could make of these strange things.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In her
\nstrong purposeful laborious mind,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nInventing her scheme-lines of reality<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And the
\ngeometric curves of her time-plan,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nmultiplied her slow half-cuts at Truth:<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 227<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nImpatient of enigma and the unknown,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nIntolerant of the lawless and unique,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Imposing
\nreflection on the march of Force,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Imposing
\nclarity on the unfathomable,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nstrove to reduce to rules the mystic world.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Nothing
\nshe knew but all things hoped to know.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In dark
\ninconscient realms once void of thought,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nMissioned by a supreme Intelligence<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To throw
\nits ray upon the obscure Vast,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\nimperfect light leading an erring mass<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

By the
\npower of sense and the idea and word,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nferrets out Nature's process, substance, cause.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

All life
\nto harmonise by thought's control<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She with
\nthe huge imbroglio struggles still; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIgnorant of all but her own seeking mind<\/P><\/p>\n

To save
\nthe world from Ignorance she came.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nsovereign worker through the centuries,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nObserving and re-moulding alt that is,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nConfident she took up her stupendous charge.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

There
\nthe low bent and mighty figure sits<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Bowed
\nunder the arc-lamps other factory-home<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Amid the
\nclatter and ringing of her tools.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nrigorous stare in her creative eyes<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Coercing
\nthe plastic stuff of cosmic Mind,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She sets
\nthe hard inventions of her brain<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In a
\npattern of eternal fixity: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIndifferent to the cosmic dumb demand, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nUnconscious of too close realities, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOf the unspoken thought, the voiceless heart, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe leans to forge her credos and iron codes <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd metal structures to imprison life <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd mechanic models of all things that are. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nFor the world seen she weaves a world conceived: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe spins in stiff but unsubstantial lines <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer gossamer word-webs of abstract thought, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer segment systems of the Infinite, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer theodicies and cosmogonic charts <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd myths by which she explains the inexplicable. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAt will she spaces in thin air of mind <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLike maps in the school-house of intellect hung,<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 228<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nForcing wide Truth into a narrow scheme, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer numberless warring strict philosophies, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOut of Nature's body of phenomenon <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe carves with Thought's keen edge in rigid lines <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLike rails for the World-Magician's power to run, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer sciences precise and absolute. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOn the huge bare walls of human nescience <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nWritten round Nature's deep dumb hieroglyphs <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe pens in clear demotic characters <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe vast encyclopaedia of her thoughts; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAn algebra of her mathematics' signs,<\/P><\/p>\n

Her
\nnumbers and unerring formulas<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nbuilds to clinch her summary of things.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

On all
\nsides runs as if in a cosmic mosque<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Tracing
\nthe scriptural verses of her laws<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\ndaedal of her patterned arabesques,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Art of
\nher wisdom, artifice of her lore.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

This
\nart, this artifice are her only stock.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In her
\nhigh works of pure intelligence,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In her
\nwithdrawal from the senses' trap,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

There
\ncomes no breaking of the walls of mind,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

There
\nleaps no rending flash of absolute power,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

There
\ndawns no light of heavenly certitude.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nmillion faces wears her knowledge here .<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nevery face is turbaned with a doubt.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

All now
\nis questioned, all reduced to nought.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Once
\nmonumental in their massive craft<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Her old
\ngreat mythic writings disappear<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And into
\ntheir place start strict ephemeral signs; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThis constant change spells progress to her eyes: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHer thought is an endless march without a goal.<\/P><\/p>\n

There is
\nno summit on which she can stand<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And see
\nin a single glance the Infinite's whole.\n<\/p>\n

<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n      An inconclusive play is Reason's toil.<\/P><\/p>\n

Each
\nstrong idea can use her as its tool; <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAccepting every brief she pleads her case.<\/P><\/p>\n

Open to
\nevery thought, she cannot know.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\neternal Advocate seated as judge<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Armours
\nin logic's invulnerable mail<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nthousand combatants for Truth's veiled throne\n<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 229<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAnd sets on a high horseback of argument<\/P><\/p>\n

To tilt
\nfor ever with a wordy lance<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In a
\nmock tournament where none can win.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Assaying
\nthought's values with her rigid tests<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Balanced
\nshe sits on wide and empty air,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Aloof
\nand pure in her impartial poise.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Absolute
\nher judgments seem but none is sure,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Time
\ncancels all her verdicts in appeal.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Although
\nlike sunbeams to our glow-worm mind<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Her
\nknowledge feigns to fall from a clear heaven,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its rays
\nare a lantern's lustres in the Night; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nShe throws a glittering robe on Ignorance.<\/P><\/p>\n

But now
\nis lost her ancient sovereign claim<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To rule
\nmind's high realm in her absolute right,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Bind
\nthought with logic's forged infallible chain<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Or see
\ntruth nude in a bright abstract haze.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A master
\nand slave of stark phenomenon,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\ntravels on the roads of erring sight<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Or looks
\nupon a set mechanical world<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nConstructed for her by her instruments.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nbullock yoked in the cart of proven fact,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\ndrags huge knowledge-bales through Matter's dust<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To reach
\nutility's immense bazaar.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nApprentice she has grown to her old drudge; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAn aided sense is her seeking's arbiter.<\/P><\/p>\n

This now
\nshe uses as the assayer's stone.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

As if
\nshe knew not facts are husks of truth,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nhusks she keeps, the kernel throws aside.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\nancient wisdom fades into the past,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nages' faith becomes an idle tale,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

God
\npasses out of the awakened thought,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An old
\ndiscarded dream needed no more: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOnly she seeks mechanic nature's keys.<\/P><\/p>\n

\nInterpreting stone-laws inevitable<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She digs
\ninto Matter's hard concealing soil,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To
\nunearth the processes of all things done.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A loaded
\nhuge self-worked machine appears<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To her
\neye's eager arid admiring stare,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\nintricate and meaningless enginery<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Of
\nordered fateful and unfailing chance: <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 230<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIngenious and meticulous and minute,<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nbrute unconscious accurate device<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Unrolls
\nan unerring march, maps a sure road; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt plans without thinking, acts without a will,<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nmillion purposes serves with purpose none<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nbuilds a rational world without a mind.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

It has
\nno mover, no maker, no idea: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIts vast self-action toils without a cause; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA lifeless Energy irresistibly driven,<\/P><\/p>\n

Death's
\nhead on the body of Necessity,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nEngenders life and fathers consciousness,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Then
\nwonders why all was and whence it came.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nthoughts are parts of the immense machine,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nponderings but a freak of Matter's law,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nmystic's lore was a fancy or a blind; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOf soul or spirit we have now no need: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nMatter is the admirable Reality, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe patent unescapable miracle, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe hard truth of things, simple, eternal, sole. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA suicidal rash expenditure <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nCreating the world by a mystery of self-loss <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHas poured its scattered works on empty space; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLate shall the self-disintegrating Force <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nContract the immense expansion it has made: . <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThen ends this mighty and unmeaning toil, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Void is left bare, vacant as before. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThus vindicated, crowned, the grand new Thought <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nExplained the world and mastered all its laws, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTouched the dumb roots, woke veiled tremendous powers; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt bound to service the unconscious djinns <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThat sleep unused in Matter's ignorant trance. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAll was precise, rigid, indubitable. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nBut when on Matter's rock of ages based <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA whole stood up firm and clear-cut and safe, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAll staggered back into a sea of doubt; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis solid scheme melted in endless flux: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe had met the formless Power inventor of forms; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nSuddenly she stumbled upon things unseen: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA lightning from the undiscovered Truth<\/P><\/p>\n

Startled
\nher eyes with its perplexing glare <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 231<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAnd dug a gulf between the Real and Known<\/P><\/p>\n

Till all
\nher knowledge seemed an ignorance.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Once
\nmore the world was made a wonder-web,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nmagic's process in a magical space,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

An
\nunintelligible miracle's depths<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Whose
\nsource is lost in the Ineffable.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Once
\nmore we face the blank Unknowable.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In a
\ncrash of values, in a huge doom-crack,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In the
\nsputter and scatter of her breaking work<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

She lost
\nher clear conserved constructed world.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\nquantum dance remained, a sprawl of chance<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In
\nEnergy's stupendous tripping whirl: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA ceaseless motion in the unbounded Void<\/P><\/p>\n

Invented
\nforms without a thought or aim: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nNecessity and Cause were shapeless ghosts; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nMatter was an incident in being's flow,<\/P><\/p>\n

Law but
\na clock-work habit of blind force.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Ideals,
\nethics, systems had no base<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And soon
\ncollapsed or without sanction lived,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

All grew
\na chaos, a heave and clash and strife.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Ideas
\nwarring and fierce leaped upon life; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA hard compression held down anarchy<\/P><\/p>\n

And
\nliberty was only a phantom's name: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nCreation and destruction, waltzed inarmed<\/P><\/p>\n

On the
\nbosom of a torn and quaking earth; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAll reeled into a world of Kali's dance. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThus tumbled, sinking, sprawling in the Void, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nClutching for props, a soil on which to stand, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe only saw a thin atomic Vast, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe rare-point sparse substratum Universe <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOn which floats a solid world's phenomenal face. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAlone a process of events was there <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd Nature's plastic and protean change <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd, strong by death to slay, or to create <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe riven invisible atom's omnipotent force. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOne chance remained that here might be a power <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTo liberate man from the old inadequate means <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd leave him sovereign of the earthly scene. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nFor Reason then might grasp the original Force <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTo drive her car upon the roads of Time. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 232<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAll then might serve the need of the thinking race, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAn absolute State found order's absolute, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nTo a standardised perfection cut all things, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIn society build a just exact machine. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThen science and reason careless of the soul <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nCould iron out a tranquil uniform world, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAeonic seekings glut with outward truths <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd a single patterned thinking force on mind, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nInflicting Matter's logic on Spirit's dreams <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA reasonable animal make of man <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd a symmetrical fabric of his life. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis would be Nature's peak on an obscure globe, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe grand result of the long ages' toil, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nEarth's evolution crowned, her mission done. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nSo might it be if the spirit fell asleep; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nMan then might rest content and live in peace,<\/P><\/p>\n

Master
\nof Nature who wants her bondslave worked,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nworld's disorder hardening into Law,<\/p>\n

If
\nLife's dire heart arose not in revolt,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

If God
\nwithin could find no greater plan.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

But
\nmany-visaged is the cosmic Soul; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA touch can alter the fixed front of Fate.<\/P><\/p>\n

A sudden
\nturn can come, a road appear,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\ngreater Mind may see a greater Truth,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Or we
\nmay find when all the rest has failed<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Hid in
\nourselves the key of perfect change.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nAscending from the soil where creep our days,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Earth's
\nconsciousness may marry with the Sun,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nmortal life ride on the spirit's wing,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nfinite thoughts commune with the Infinite. <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n     In the bright kingdoms of the rising Sun<\/P><\/p>\n

All is a
\nbirth into a power of light: <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAll here deformed guards there its happy shape,<\/P><\/p>\n

Here all
\nis mixed and marred, there pure and whole; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nYet each is a passing step, a moment's phase.<\/P><\/p>\n

Awake to
\na greater Truth beyond her acts,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nmediatrix sat and saw her works<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And felt
\nthe marvel in them and the force<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

But knew
\nthe power behind the face of Time: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nShe did the task, obeyed the knowledge, given, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\nPage 233<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nHer deep heart yearned towards great ideal things<\/P><\/p>\n

And from
\nthe light looked out to wider light: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nA brilliant hedge drawn round her narrowed her power,<\/P><\/p>\n

Faithful
\nto her limited sphere she toiled, but knew<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nhighest, widest seeing was a half-search,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\nmightiest acts a passage or a stage.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

For not
\nby Reason was creation made<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And not
\nby Reason can the Truth be seen<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Which
\nthrough the veils of thought, the screens of sense<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Hardly
\nthe spirit's vision can descry<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Dimmed
\nby the imperfection of its means: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nThe little Mind is tied to little things: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIts sense is but the spirit's outward touch<\/P><\/p>\n

\nHalf-waked in a world of dark Inconscience; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt feels out for its beings and its forms <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLike one left fumbling in the ignorant Night. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIn this small mould of infant mind and sense <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nDesire is a child-heart's cry crying for bliss, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOur reason only a toys' artificer, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA rule-maker in a strange stumbling game. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nBut she her dwarf aids knew whose confident sight <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA bounded prospect took for the far goal. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe world she has made is an interim report <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOf a traveller towards the half-found truth in things <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nMoving twixt nescience and nescience. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nFor nothing is known while aught remains concealed; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nThe Truth is known only when all is seen. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAttracted by the All that is the One, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe yearns towards a higher light than hers; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nHid by her cults and creeds she has glimpsed God's face: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe knows she has but found a form, a robe,<\/P><\/p>\n

But ever
\nshe hopes to see him in her heart<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And feel
\nthe body of his reality.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

As yet a
\nmask is there and not a brow,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Although
\nsometimes two hidden eyes appear: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nReason cannot tear off that glimmering mask,<\/P><\/p>\n

Her
\nefforts only make it glimmer more; <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIn packets she ties up the Indivisible; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nFinding her hands too small to hold vast Truth .<\/P><\/p>\n

She
\nbreaks up knowledge into alien parts <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\nPage 234<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nOr peers through cloud-rack for a vanished sun: <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nShe sees, not understanding what she has seen,<\/P><\/p>\n

Through
\nthe locked visages of finite things<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

The
\nmyriad aspects of infinity.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

One day
\nthe Face must burn out through the mask.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nignorance is Wisdom's chrysalis,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Our
\nerror weds new knowledge on its way,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its
\ndarkness is a blackened knot of light,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Thought
\ndances hand in hand with Nescience<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

On the
\ngrey road that winds towards the Sun.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Even
\nwhile her fingers fumble at the knots<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Which
\nbind them to their strange companionship,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Into the
\nmoments of their married strife<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nSometimes break flashes of the enlightening Fire.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Even now
\ngreat thoughts are here that walk alone: <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nArmed they have come with the infallible word<\/P><\/p>\n

In an
\ninvestiture of intuitive light<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

That is
\na sanction from the eyes of God; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAnnouncers of a distant Truth they flame<\/P><\/p>\n

Arriving
\nfrom the rim of eternity.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A fire
\nshall come out of the infinitudes,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\ngreater Gnosis shall regard the world<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Crossing
\nout of some far omniscience<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

On
\nlustrous seas from the still rapt Alone<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

To
\nillumine the deep heart of self and things..<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A
\ntimeless knowledge it shall bring to Mind,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Its aim
\nto life, to Ignorance its close.\n<\/p>\n

<\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n      Above in a high breathless stratosphere,<\/P><\/p>\n

\nOvershadowing the dwarfish trinity,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Lived,
\naspirants to a limitless Beyond,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Captives
\nof Space, walled by the limiting heavens,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

In the
\nunceasing circuit of the hours,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Yearning
\nfor the straight paths of eternity,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

And from
\ntheir high station looked down on this world<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Two
\nsun-gaze Daemons witnessing all that is.<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

A power
\nto uplift the laggard world,<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

\nImperious rode a huge high-winged Life-Thought<\/p>\n

<\/P><\/p>\n

Unwont
\nto tread the firm unchanging soil: <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nAccustomed to a blue infinity, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 235<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nIt planed in sunlit sky and starlit air; <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt saw afar the unreached Immortal's home <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd heard afar the voices of the gods. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIconoclast and shatterer of Time's forts, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nOverleaping limit and exceeding norm, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt lit the thoughts that glow through the centuries <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAnd moved to acts of superhuman force. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAs far as its self-winged airplanes could fly, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nVisiting the future in great brilliant raids <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt reconnoitred vistas of dream-fate. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nApt to conceive, unable to attain, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt drew its concept-maps and vision-plans <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nToo large for the architecture of mortal Space. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nBeyond in wideness where no footing is, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nAn imagist of bodiless Ideas, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nImpassive to the cry of life and sense, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nA pure Thought-Mind surveyed the cosmic act. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nArchangel of a white transcending realm, <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nIt saw the world from solitary heights <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n
\nLuminous in a remote and empty air. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\nEND OF CANTO TEN<\/font> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n

Page 236<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CANTO TEN   THE KINGDOMS AND GODHEADS OF THE LITTLE MIND     THIS too must now be overpassed and left, As all must be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-savitri-1950","wpcat-77-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}