Among the many immortals with whom ancient myth peopled the spiritual
sphere of humanity are some figures which draw to themselves a more
profound tenderness than the rest. Not Aphrodite rising in beauty from
the faery foam of the first seas, not Apollo with sweetest singing,
laughter, and youth, not the wielder of the lightning, could exact the
reverence accorded to the lonely Titan chained on the mountain, or to
that bowed figure heavy with the burden of the sins of the world; for
the brighter divinities had no part in the labour of man, no such
intimate relation with the wherefore of his own existence so full of
struggle. The more radiant figures are prophecies to him of his
destiny, but the Titan and the Christ are a revelation of his more
immediate state; their giant sorrows companion his own, and in
contemplating them he awakens what is noblest in his own nature; or, in
other words, in understanding their divine heroism he understands
himself. For this in truth it seems to me to mean: all knowledge is a
revelation of the self to the self, and our deepest comprehension of
the seemingly apart divine is also our furthest inroad to
self-knowledge; Prometheus, Christ, are in every heart; the story of
one is the story of all; the Titan and the Crucified are humanity.
If, then, we consider them as representing the human spirit and
disentangle from the myths their meaning, we shall find that whatever
reverence is due to that heroic love which descended from heaven for
the redeeming of a lower nature, must be paid to every human being.
Christ is incarnate in all humanity. Prometheus is bound for ever
within us. They are the same. They are a host, and the divine
incarnation was not spoken of one, but of all those who descending into
the lower world tried to change it into the divine image and to wrest
out of chaos a kingdom for the empire of light. The angels saw below
them in chaos a senseless rout blind with elemental passion for ever
warring with discordant cries which broke in upon the world of divine
beauty; and that the pain might depart, they grew rebellious in the
Master's peace, and descending to earth the angelic lights were
crucified in men; leaving so radiant worlds, such a light of beauty,
for earth's grey twilight filled with tears, that through this
elemental life might breathe the starry music brought from Him. If the
"Foreseer" be a true name for the Titan, it follows that in the host
which he represents was a light which well foreknew all the dark paths
of its journey; foreseeing the bitter struggle with a hostile nature,
but foreseeing perhaps a gain, a distant glory o'er the hills of
sorrow, and that chaos, divine and transformed, with only gentle
breathing, lit up by the Christ-soul of the universe. There is a
transforming power in the thought itself: we can no longer condemn the
fallen, they who laid aside their thrones of ancient power, their
spirit ecstasy and beauty, on such a mission. Perhaps those who sank
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