  T THE Soul said to the Body, in the watches of the night: “I am the nobler part of thee, stronger and far more worth. God gave me of his life of life a tiny point of light; I show his glory to the world, but thou art of the earth.” The Body answered to the Soul: “Lower I am, and yet God made me in his image for angel eyes to see. Thou art but viewless essence, whom all men would forget Except for the abiding-place which thou hast found in me.” The Soul said to the Body: “I guide thee at my will. I am the wind within the sail, which else would lifeless swing; I am the mainspring of the watch, which else, inert and still, Would cumber all the universe, a dead and useless thing.” “I too have rule,” the Body cried. “I curb thy higher flights; I fetter all thy soarings, and I bind thee, and I grieve. I can sting thee into wakefulness through long, unresting nights; Can take the glory from thy noon, the splendor from thy eve.” “And well can I return such wrong,” replied the eager Soul. “How often hast thou laid thee down, to find thy sleep denied? While I quickened in thy brain, robbed thy heart-beats of control, And poured through every artery my warm, pulsating tide? “Thou shalt lie down to sleep one day, and long that sleep shall last, For I will shake thy shackles off and soar up to the skies; What power shall avail thee then to break thy slumber fast? What voice shall reach thy dreaming ear, to say to thee, ‘Arise’?” “Ah, Soul!” the Body humbly urged, “be merciful, I pray; Thou art the nobler part, but thou canst never let me go. I have my certain share of all, thy best, thy worst, alway: We are inextricably blent. God willed it should be so. “Thou wilt reach heaven before me, but I may follow too. There is a resurrection for the Body, as the Soul; Comrades to all eternity, we should be comrades true Who own one common fate and life, who seek the self-same goal. “Forbear, then, to reproach me, O brother given by Heaven! I wrong myself in wronging thee, dearest and closest friend! Let all our variance and strife be buried and forgiven, And let us work together in love unto the end.” Then the Soul smiled on the Body, and the Body drank the smile, As meadow pastures drink the flood of sunshine still and deep; And the two embraced each other, and in a little while, Close folded in the Body’s arms, the Soul had fallen asleep. |
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