History, theology, politics, paganism, sweet and
melancholy elegies, flashes of fiery indignation, all men and all
generations, meet in his majestic epic. Yet the closest unity is
preserved through this astonishing range of subjects; one sublime idea
broods over its every line,--the idea of a God of perfect justice--of
undying love!
We cite, in corroboration, the following lines from this noble poet,
though a prose translation can do but little justice to the glowing
original:
'God is One in substance; Power, Wisdom, and Love assume in Him a
triple Personality, so that in all tongues singular and plural are
alike applicable to Him. He is spirit; he is the circle which
circumscribes everything and which nothing ever circumscribes;
immense, eternal, immutable, He is the Primal out of which all is
darkness. Unlimited by time, without laws save in His own will, in
the bosom of eternity, He, who is three in One, acts;--Power
executes what Wisdom proposes, and Infinite Love is forever germing
into ever new loves. Like a triple arrow from a single bow, from
the depths of the Productive thought, spring, whether single or
united, matter, form, with the living heart of all finite
beings--their own governing laws. Created things are but the
splendor of the immutable ideas which the Father engenders, and
which He loves unceasingly. Ideas--thoughts--sacred words! Light,
which, without being detached from Him who wills it into being,
shines from creature to creature, from cause to effect,
on--on--until it produces only contingent and transitory phenomena;
Light which, repeated and reflected from mirror to mirror, pales as
its distance increases from its Holy Source.
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