Mu and Epsilon stand for my own name. I said, "If one should wet his lips with wine, "Into the water-vessel, lay it right, "And cool his forehead just above the eyes, Kept watch, and made pretence to graze a goat "Here is wine," answered Xanthus,-dropped a drop; I stooped and placed the lap of cloth aright, If any dear one call him, touch his face- Through these dull members, done with long ago. "Yet I myself remain; I feel myself: "And there is nothing lost. Let be, awhile!" [This is the doctrine he was wont to teach, Seated therein, which works, and is what Does, By the next soul, which, seated in the brain, And feeleth, thinketh, willeth,-is what Knows: What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man. I give the glossa of Theotypas.] And then, "A stick, once fire from end to end: "Now, ashes save the tip that holds a spark! "Yet, blow the spark, it runs back, spreads itself "A little where the fire was: thus I urge "The soul that served me, till it task once more "What ashes of my brain have kept their shape, "And these make effort on the last o' the flesh, "Trying to taste again the truth of things-" (He smiled)" their very superficial truth; "As that ye are my sons, that it is long "Since James and Peter had release by death, "And I am only he, your brother John, "Who saw and heard, and could remember all. "Remember all! It is not much to say. "What if the truth broke on me from above "As once and oft-times? Such might hap again: 'Doubtlessly He might stand in presence here, "With head wool-white, eyes flame, and feet like brass, "The sword and the seven stars, as I have seen"I who now shudder only and surmise "How did your brother bear that sight and live?' "If I live yet, it is for good, more love "Through me to men: be nought but ashes here "That keep awhile my semblance, who was John,— "Still, when they scatter, there is left on earth "No one alive who knew (consider this!) "-Saw with his eyes and handled with his hands "That which was from the first, the Word of Life. "How will it be when none more saith, 'I saw'? "Such ever was love's way: to rise, it stoops. "Since I, whom Christ's mouth taught, was bidden teach, "I went, for many years, about the world, Saying, 'It was so; so I heard and saw,' Speaking as the case asked: and men believed. "Afterward came the message to myself "In Patmos isle; I was not bidden teach, "But simply listen, take a book and write, "Nor set down other than the given word, "With nothing left to my arbitrament "To choose or change: I wrote, and men believed. "Then, for my time grew brief, no message more. "No call to write again, I found a way, And, reasoning from my knowledge, merely taught "Men should, for love's sake, in love's strength believe; "Or I would pen a letter to a friend "And urge the same as friend, nor less nor more: "Friends said I reasoned rightly, and believed. But at the last, why, I seemed left alive "Like a sea-jelly weak on Patmos strand, "To tell dry sea-beach gazers how I fared "When there was mid-sea, and the mighty things: "Left to repeat, 'I saw, I heard, I knew,' "And go all over the old ground again, "With Antichrist already in the world, "And many Antichrists, who answered prompt "Am I not Jasper as thyself art John? 666 666 Nay, young, whereas through age thou mayest forget: Wherefore, explain, or how shall we believe?' "I never thought to call down fire on such, "Or, as in wonderful and early days, "Pick up the scorpion, tread the serpent dumb; "But patient stated much of the Lord's life Forgotten or misdelivered, and let it work: Since much that at the first, in deed and word, "Lay simply and sufficiently exposed, "Had grown (or else my soul was grown to match, "Fed through such years, familiar with such light, "Guarded and guided still to see and speak) "Of new significance and fresh result; "What first were guessed as points, I now knew stars, And named them in the Gospel I have writ. "For men said, 'It is getting long ago: "Where is the promise of His coming?'-asked "These young ones in their strength, as loth to wait, "Of me who, when their sires were born, was old. "I, for I loved them, answered, joyfully, "Since I was there, and helpful in my age; And, in the main, I think such men believed. Ye brought me here, and I supposed the end, "And went to sleep with one thought that, at least, "Though the whole earth should lie in wickedness, "We had the truth, might leave the rest to God. "Yet now I wake in such decrepitude |