| |
| UP a rough peak, that toward the stormy sky | |
| From Sinai’s sandy ridges rose aloft, | |
| Osarsiph, priest of Hieropolis, | |
| Now Moses named, ascended reverently | |
| To meet and hear the bidding of the Lord. | 5 |
| But, though he knew that all his ancient lore | |
| Traditionary from the birth of Time, | |
| And all that power which waited on his hand, | |
| Even from the day his just instinctive wrath | |
| Had smote the Egyptian ravisher, and all | 10 |
| The wisdom of his calm and ordered mind | |
| Were nothing in the presence of his God, | |
| Yet was there left a certain seed of pride, | |
| Vague consciousness of some self-centred strength, | |
| That made him cry, “Why, Lord, com’st thou to me, | 15 |
| Only a voice, a motion of the air, | |
| A thing invisible, impalpable, | |
| Leaving a void, an unreality, | |
| Within my heart? I would, with every sense, | |
| Know thou wert there,—I would be all in thee! | 20 |
| Let me at least behold thee as thou art; | |
| Disperse this corporal darkness by thy light; | |
| Hallow my vision by thy glorious form, | |
| So that my sense be blest forevermore!” | |
| Thus spoke the Prophet, and the Voice replied, | 25 |
| As in low thunders over distant seas: | |
| “Beneath the height to which thy feet have striven, | |
| A hollow trench divides the cliffs of sand, | |
| Widened by rains and deepened every year. | |
| Gaze straight across it, for there opposite | 30 |
| To where thou standest I will place myself, | |
| And then, if such remain thy fixed desire, | |
| I will descend to side by side with thee.” | |
| So Moses gazed across the rocky vale; | |
| And the air darkened, and a lordly bird | 35 |
| Poised in the midst of its long-journeying flight, | |
| And touched his feet with limp and fluttering wings, | |
| And all the air around, above, below, | |
| Was metamorphosed into sound,—such sound | |
| That separate tones were undistinguishable, | 40 |
| And Moses fell upon his face, as dead. | |
| Yet life and consciousness of life returned; | |
| And, when he raised his head, he saw no more | |
| The deep ravine and mountain opposite, | |
| But one large level of distracted rocks, | 45 |
| With the wide desert quaking all around. | |
| Then Moses fell upon his face again, | |
| And prayed,—“O, pardon the presumptuous thought, | |
| That I could look upon thy face and live: | |
| Wonder of wonders! that mine ear has heard | 50 |
| Thy voice unpalsied, and let such great grace | |
| Excuse the audacious blindness that o’erleaps | |
| Nature’s just bounds and thy discerning will!” | |
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