The Sin of the Atom

God was lonely—silent space Was his sole abiding place— On the lips of darkness yet Kiss of love had not been set;

Then by darkness, Power’s bride This poor dust was vivified, And the first-born daughter, Light, Spun the planets from the night;

With her distaff sat to spin Cords of force to hold them in; Cords remotest cycles feel In the whirling of her wheel—

So, forever, toiling thus, Light has tarried virtuous; But the atom scornful stood In his new, free hardihood,

And before thy life began On this planet, conscious man, By the atom disobeyed Was the law envenomed made.

In the Eden of our race So was wrought the first disgrace; Niw the atom’s guilty stains Course, death-laden, through our veins:—

There our long and bitter plaint; There the leper’s fearful taint; There the sudden poison pang Of the cruel cobra’s fang;

There the atom’s shameless sin Let the rabies’ virus in, And his rebel hardihood Poisoned nature’s perfect blood.

Mortal! so some prouder race Yet may mourn for thy disgrace, In some cycle vast and great That thou canst not estimate

Man! what knowest thou of man? What of God’s divinest plan? Fool! thou dost not, canst not know How life’s pulses throbbing go,—

Canst not tell how far thou art From the beat of nature’s heart; Nor what nobler veins thy sin Lets the death-drop virus in.

Yet, in spite of all thou dost, Light is true, and God is just; Though temptation may not plead, Nor thy sorrows intercede,

Though the sting my vision saw Was of death that poisoned law, And the horror sin has done Through the deathless cycles run,

In some subtle, perfect way Out of darkness comes the day; In some vast alembic, filled With the false is truth distilled.