_by Charles Louis Sicard_.
_Illustration by H. B. Eddy._
Within the mystic caverns of our souls
There is a labyrinth unexplored;
Where dim aisles, winding far beyond the poles,
Have secrets of the ages stored.
Unheard far in the twilight mists of time,
Are weirdly haunting strains that sleep,
To be resounded through your soul or mine,
For those we summon from the deep.
Oft times I wandered in those ancient caves,
Seeking to pierce the crowded past;
’Midst endless hosts submerged ’neath lethal waves,
The all in one, sans first, sans last.
For Truth alone thus strangely did I grope,
Daring, despairing, yet in vain;
Until one wondrous hour, while stirred with hope,
My search revealed a slumb’ring strain.
One blast of barb’rous melody flung clear,
Swept back the veil, removed the ban,
And demon-ridden, and accursed with fear,
I stalked, once more primeval man.
Ah me, this thing, cast from the pit of night,
Knew naught but savagery and lust;
I searched in vain for truth, for love, for light,
Then bid him vanish back to dust.
[Illustration: “_Within the mystic caverns of our souls._”]
Undaunted through my soul again I sped,
A strain unheard, for cycles flown;
Adown the shadowed deeps this message fled,
Come ye, who first, love’s thrill hast known.
From distant ages dim, at last, I came,
With shining eyes of glim’ring dawn,
And throbbing heart aglow, destined to flame,
In love, through those as yet unborn.
I saw this self ancestral slowly fade,
To voiceless chambers of the gloom;
Where rest those throngs, who have so fully paid,
That Life’s dank weeds, might flowers bloom.
’Tis on the scroll, graved deep, that I now pay,
And Life must quaff the poison’d wine;
But Love and Hope, if star-strewn on the way,
Can purify the living vine.
O Soul, the tallied years of men count not,
For life eternal sweepeth back;
As life unending is predestined lot,
And I am I, from love, from rack!
This vibrant flame, entombed in human clay,
Divine spark from the æons blown,
Through loins of countless forbears to this day
Shall ever reap as all have sown.
[Illustration: _Drawn by Albert Sterner._]