O man, strange composite of heaven and earth![25] Majesty dwarfed to baseness! fragrant flower Running to poisonous seed! and seeming worth Cloking corruption! weakness mastering power! Who never art so near to crime and shame, As when thou hast achieved some deed of name;-- How should ethereal natures comprehend A thing made up of spirit and of clay, Were we not tasked to nurse it and to tend, 300 Linked one to one throughout its mortal day? More than the Seraph in his height of place, The Angel-guardian knows and loves the ransomed race. SOUL Now know I surely that I am at length Out of the body: had I part with earth, I never could have drunk those accents in, And not have worshipped as a god the voice That was so musical; but now I am So whole of heart, so calm, so self-possessed, With such a full content, and with a sense 310 So apprehensive and discriminant, As no temptation can intoxicate. Nor have I even terror at the thought That I am clasped by such a saintliness. ANGEL All praise to Him, at whose sublime decree The last are first, the first become the last; By whom the suppliant prisoner is set free, By whom proud first-borns from their thrones are cast, Who raises Mary to be Queen of heaven, While Lucifer is left, condemned and unforgiven. 320 ß3 SOUL I will address him. Mighty one, my Lord, My Guardian Spirit, all hail! ANGEL All hail, my child! My child and brother, hail! what wouldest thou? SOUL I would have nothing but to speak with thee For speaking's sake. I wish to hold with thee Conscious communion; though I fain would know A maze of things, were it but meet to ask, And not a curiousness. ANGEL You cannot now 330 Cherish a wish which ought not to be wished. SOUL Then I will speak. I ever had believed That on the moment when the struggling soul Quitted its mortal case, forthwith it fell Under the awful Presence of its God, There to be judged and sent to its own place. What lets me now from going to my Lord? ANGEL