SIC ITUR.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 13

SIC ITUR.

♦- The patli to heaven is found in deep repose, Breathing and sovereign will active alone, One serves the flesh while irom the other's throne Tossed skyward the unhooded spirit goes Spiring aloft beyond the reach of sight: The gross and heavy body lies inert While the pure spirit, eager and alert. Spurning the lumbering clay, begins her flight. She to the great round world must turn her face. Wherein she's bound, a little captive soul, Visit all lands and seas from pole to pole. And thus far orient herself in space. Then to a lofty height she must ascend, Remote from humankind, aloof, afar. Whence like the rays of some majestic star Six several crystal corridor:; extend.

There she must lay aside her magic wings And patiently, with reverence, must pace Each corridor from end to end and trace Its record of the old forgotten thing-.

And in the first her private joy and pain' Recorded are. her own life, act and scene Complete for her to view, all that has been Lived through before she now lives through again.

And in the second, seen as in a glass. The story of her race from the dim

source. Through wars, migrations, conquests

and the course Of drowsy centuries that pause and pass.

And in the third the epic of mankind. His genesis, the spring from out the

ape. The pose erect, the cunning hands that

shape His clumsy tools of stone, the dawn of mind.

And in the fourth Ihe story of the earth, The stellar vortices, the stellar dust. The vapours thickening, the crumpling crust, The steamings and the heavings of her • birth. And in the ftftli a ridclJe is resolved The inwardness of atom, gene, and cell. The secrets that in ocean-oozes dwell, How life from matter, mind from life evolved. The sixth reflects the universe, the vast Nebula> and the chill immensities, The womb of worlds, the stars, the galaxies: The questing soul touches her go;il at last. Now effort ceases; now the sovereign will Foregoes his privilege and stands aside: The naked soul, disflcshed yet eagereyed. Hovers above abysses dark and still. Now she attains vibrant passivity. The perfect poise, the holy state achieves, And now, if ever in this life, perceives Truth beyond truth receding infinitely. Now shall be nothing seen, and nothing heard. Nor from the void is any message sent. With her own state the soul shall be content. The ultimate secret is not told by word. —A.W.