The Lord of the Sea by M. P. Shiel
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M. P. Shiel >> The Lord of the Sea
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Here was not merely progress, but progress at increasing speed--
acceleration--finally resembling flight, as of eagle or phoenix, eye
fixed on the sun: Tyre by the fiftieth year having grown into the
biggest of ports, her quays unloading 6,700,000 tons a year, mart of
tangled masts, felucca, galiot, junk, cargoes of Tarshish and the
Isles, Levantine stuffs, spice from the Southern Sea; while
Jerusalem had grown into the recognized school of the wealthier
youth of Europe, Asia and America.
For it says: "The Kings of the earth shall bring their honour and
glory unto her"; and again: "She shall reign gloriously".
And not Israel alone reaped the fruits of his own fine weather, but
his dews fell wide. For it says: "They shall be as dew from the
Lord"; and again: "They shall fill the face of the earth with
fruit"; and again: "All nations shall call them blessed".
And so it was: for the example of Israel, his suasive charm, proved
compelling as sunshine to shoots, so that that heart of Spinoza
lived to see the spectacle of a whole world deserting the gory path
of Rome to go up into those uplands of mildness and gleefulness
whither invites the smile of that lily Galilean.
The mission of "unbelieving" Israel was to convert Christendom to
Christianity: and this he did.
We watch the Judge coming down the Mount of Olives in the midst of a
jubilant throng all involved in a noise of timbrels and instruments
of music: for his life was simple and one with the life of his
people. It is evening, all the west yonder a bewitched Kingdom
charm-embathed, wherein a barge of Venus bethronged with loves and
roses voyages on a sea of dalliance en route for the last Beatific--
the last, the seventh, Heaven--whitherward gads all a pilgrim-swarm
of enraptured spirits, all, all thitherward, Paul caught up with
clothes aflaunt, and soaring eagle, Enoch transfigured, green
hippogriff, hop of squatted frog; and thitherward trots with
blinkings, bleating, the Ram of the Golden Fleece, the flagrant
flamingos flap and go.
The Judge, hoary-headed now, in a robe of cloth-of-silver which
rippled, had but now got home from a Pilgrimage; and the time was
Simcath Torah, the Rejoicing of the Law, and the carrying of
Candles, in the month. Tishri: silver his robe and silver his hair
that hung round a brown and puckered skin, but silvery, too, his
every tooth still, and his vigour good; and, as down the Mount of
Olives he stepped, he saw Mount Sion and that Temple that he had
piled, across whose roughened frontispiece of gold glowed in a bow,
bold like the rainbow's, in characters of blazing sapphire and
chrysoprase, that inscription:
"Y'HOVAH B'KOKMAR YSAD ARETS, CONEN SHAMAIM B'THBUNAH"
and, as he saw it, lo, buoyancy caught the old man's feet: for the
cymballing and music had grown very fiercely hot, so that all the
congregation reeled in dance; and as the lasso drops round the
astonished prairie-horse and draws asprawl, so dancing caught and
drew his foot, and he danced.
And his wife Rebecca, mother of many sons, prying from a window-
lattice, writhed odd the eyebrows of the cynic, one beyond the
other: for not with foot alone he danced, but his wrung belly
laboured in that travail of Orient dancing; and she turned and
smiled to Margaret Loveday a turned-down smile, implying shrug,
implying girding, her eyelids lowered, yet indulgent of his nature's
rage.
And not with foot and abdomen alone he danced, but his two balancing
palms danced to the beat of the heat of the music's heart; and with
heel and toe he danced. And as he danced, he sang, all apant,
filling up with nonsense-sounds when the rhythm's imperative tramp
outran his improvisation; and singing he danced, and dancing sang:
with abdomen and arms he danced, and with toe and heel he danced.
And dancing he sang:
My hands,
be dancing to God,
your Guide,
And peal my pipes,
and riot my feet,
and writhe to His Heat,
my tripes.
So fair!
With Rum-te-te-Tum
te Tum,
And Rum and Tum,
and Rum-te-te-Tum,
and Rum-te-te-Tum,
te Tum.
So fair!
This freehold for seraphs free!
That flame! those skies!
and Blest is Her Name,
and blest are my eyes,
that see.
I'll dance,
I'll dance like a ram,
for fun,
I'll smack the sun,
I'll dance at the breeze
I'll dance till I breed
a son.
For Thou!
Thou bringest Thine ends
to pass:
This hump so high,
this lump and her sigh,
Thou lead'st through the Nee-
dle's Eye.
'Tis well
the saurians sprawled,
and roared!
'Tis well Thou art!
and well that Thou wast,
and well when at last
they soared!
And well,
O well that Thou art
to be
When seraph hearts
will laugh by this brook,
and break for the love
of Thee.
Thy years
shall still by increase
te Tum,
And dance and dance,
With Rum-te-te-Tum....
so, singing, he danced, and, dancing, sang; and their sounds grew
faint; and they entered into the City of Glory, and their sounds
failed....
They took him for the Sent of Heaven, nor did the results of his
glorious reign gainsay such a notion: the good Loveday, indeed, had
the agreeable fancy that our greatest are really One, who eternally
runs the circle of incarnation after incarnation from hoary old ages
till now--the Ancient of Days, his hair white like wool, quietly
turning up anew when the time yearns, and men are near to yield to
the enemy: Proteus his name, and ever the shape he takes is strange,
unexpected, yet ever sharing the same three traits of vision, rage
and generousness--the Slayer of the Giant--Arthur come back--the
Messenger of the Covenant--the genius of our species--Jesus the Oft-
Born.
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