The Sword of Song

THE SWORD OF SONG 14 But if you drink your mystic fill Under the good tree Igdrasil64 Where is at all your use for Christ? Hath Krishna not at all sufficed? I hereby guarantee to pull A faith as quaint and beautiful As much attractive to an ass, And setting reason at defiance, As Zionism, Christian Science, Or Ladies’ Leage,65 “Keep off the Grass !” From “Alice through the Looking-Glass.” Hence I account no promise worse, Fail to conceive a fiercer curse Than John’s third chapter (sixteenth verse). But now (you say) broad-minded folk Think that those words the Master spoke Should save all men at last. But mind ! The text says nothing of the kind ! Read the next verses !† Then—one third Of all humanity are steady In a belief in Buddha’s word, Possess eternal life already, And shun delights, laborious days Of labour living (Milton’s phrase) In strenuous purpose to—? to cease ! “A fig for God’s eternal peace ! True peace is to annihilate The chain of causes men call Fate, So that no Sattva66 may renew Once death has run life’s shuttle through.” (Their dages put it somewhat thus) What’s fun to them is death to us ! That’s clear at least. B ut never mind! Call them idolaters and blind! We’ll talk of Christ. As Shelley sang, “Shall an eternal issue hang * Great slam—a term of Bridge-Whist. Bara is Hindustani for great. † John iii. 18, “He that believeth not is condemned already.” Mysticism does not need Christ. Krishna will serve, or the Carpenter. The Sacred Walrus. God, some Vestments, and Lady Wim- borne. Fearful aspect of John iii. 16. Universalism. Will God get the bara* slam ? Eternal life. Divergent views of its desirability. Buddhist idea. Dogma of Belief. 460 465 470 475 480 485 490 495