Many a day has now been given.
But I cannot therefore yield,
Must not own myself outwitted:--
No; a studious toil so great
Should not end in aught so little.
O'er this book my whole life long
Shall I brood until the riddle
Is made plain, or till some sage
Simplifies what here is written.
For which end I 'll read once more
Its beginning. How my instinct
Uses the same word with which
Even the book itself beginneth!--
"In the beginning was the Word" . .[4]
If in language plain and simple
Word means speech, how then was it
In the beginning? Since a whisper
Presupposes power to breathe it,
Proves an earlier existence,
And to that anterior Power
Here the book doth not bear witness.
Then this follows: "And the Word
Was with God"--nay more, 't is written,
"And the Word was God: was with Him
In the beginning, and by HIM then
All created things were made
And without Him naught was finshed":--
Oh! what mysteries, what wonders,
In this tangled labyrinthine
Maze lie hid! which I so many