And pierced anon with such a light as this;
Blindness worth more than every other sight,
Pains sweeter far than other pleasures are,
For to the fairest light
Thou art thyself a guide,
Show to the soul all lower things are null.
_The fifth with the Spanish drum sang_:
Showing the soul all lower things are null,
Seasoning with hope the high thought of the mind,
Was one who pushed us to the only path,
And so did show us plain,
The fairest work of God,
Thus does a fate benign present itself.[AI]
[AI] The lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are
never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless
desert of illusion and matter called Earth-life.--("The Secret
Doctrine.")
_The sixth with a lute sang_:
Thus does a fate benign present itself,
Who wills not that to good, good should succeed,
Or pain forerunner be of pain,
But turning round, the wheel,
Now rising, now depressed,
As day and night succeed alternately.
_The seventh with the Irish harp_:
As day and night succeed alternately;
While the great mantle of the lights of night,
Blanches the chariot of diurnal flames,
As He who governs all,
With everlasting laws,
Puts down the high and raises up the low.
_The eighth with the violin_:
Puts down the high and raises up the low,
He who the infinite machine sustains,
With swiftness, with the medium or with slow,
Apportioning the turning
Of this gigantic mass,
The hidden is unveiled and open stands.
_The ninth with the rebeck_:
The hidden is unveiled and open stands,
Therefore deny not, but admit the triumph,
Incomparable end of all the pains
Of field and mount,
Of pools and streams and seas,
Of cliffs and deeps, of thorns and snags and stones.
After each one in this way, singly, playing his instrument, had sung his
sistine, they danced altogether in a circle and sang together in praise
of the one Nymph with the softest accents a song which I am not sure
whether I can call to memory.
GIU. I pray you, my sister, do not fail to let me hear so much of it as
you can remember!
LAO.
74.
_Song of the Illuminati_:
"I envy not, oh Jove, the firmament,"
Said Father Ocean, with the haughty brow:
"For that I am content
With that which my own empire gives to me."
Then answered Jove, "What arrogance is thine.
What to thy riches have been added now,
Oh god of the mad waves,
To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?"
"Thou hast," said the sea-god, "in thy command,
The flaming sky, where is the burning zone,
In which the heavenly host
Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ]
"Of these, the world looks most upon the sun,
Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright,
As she who makes of me,
The god most glorious of the mighty whole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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