Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 3).djvu/47



It shall, I say, and that as sure As that I came to earth to cure The sapping fester of its soul.

[Shaking his head.]

Ere yet the radiant torchlight blazes, Throw not the taper to the ground! Nor blot the antiquated phrases Before the great new words be found!

Nothing that's new do I demand; For Everlasting Right I stand. It is not for a Church I cry, It is not dogmas I defend; Day dawn'd on both, and, possibly, Day may on both of them descend. What's made has "finis" for its brand; Of moth and worm it feels the flaw, And then, by nature and by law, Is for an embryo thrust aside. But there is one that shall abide;— The Spirit, that was never born, That in the world's fresh gladsome Morn Was rescued when it seem'd forlorn, That built with valiant faith a road Whereby from Flesh it climb'd to God. Now but in shreds and scraps is dealt The Spirit we have faintly felt; But from these scraps and from these shreds, These headless hands and handless heads, These torso-stumps of soul and thought, A Man complete and whole shall grow,