The Ascent of Man. Mathilde Blind

      Struck out of dim fluctuant forces and shock of electrical vapour,

      Repelled and attracted the atoms flashed mingling in union primeval,

      And over the face of the waters far heaving in limitless twilight

      Auroral pulsations thrilled faintly, and, striking the blank heaving surface,

      The measureless speed of their motion now leaped into light on the waters.

      And lo, from the womb of the waters, upheaved in volcanic convulsion,

      Ribbed and ravaged and rent there rose bald peaks and the rocky

      Heights of confederate mountains compelling the fugitive vapours

      To take a form as they passed them and float as clouds through the azure.

      Mountains, the broad-bosomed mothers of torrents and rivers perennial,

      Feeding the rivers and plains with patient persistence, till slowly,

      In the swift passage of æons recorded in stone by Time's graver,

      There germ grey films of the lichen and mosses and palm-ferns gigantic,

      And jungle of tropical forest fantastical branches entwining,

      And limitless deserts of sand and wildernesses primeval.

      Lo, moving o'er chaotic waters,

      Love dawned upon the seething waste,

      Transformed in ever new avatars

      It moved without or pause or haste:

      Like sap that moulds the leaves of May

      It wrought within the ductile clay.

      And vaguely in the pregnant deep,

      Clasped by the glowing arms of light

      From an eternity of sleep

      Within unfathomed gulfs of night

      A pulse stirred in the plastic slime

      Responsive to the rhythm of Time.

      Enkindled in the mystic dark

      Life built herself a myriad forms,

      And, flashing its electric spark

      Through films and cells and pulps and worms,

      Flew shuttlewise above, beneath,

      Weaving the web of life and death.

      And multiplying in the ocean,

      Amorphous, rude, colossal things

      Lolled on the ooze in lazy motion,

      Armed with grim jaws or uncouth wings;

      Helpless to lift their cumbering bulk

      They lurch like some dismasted hulk.

      And virgin forest, verdant plain,

      The briny sea, the balmy air,

      Each blade of grass and globe of rain,

      And glimmering cave and gloomy lair

      Began to swarm with beasts and birds,

      With floating fish and fleet-foot herds.

      The lust of life's delirious fires

      Burned like a fever in their blood,

      Now pricked them on with fierce desires,

      Now drove them famishing for food,

      To seize coy females in the fray,

      Or hotly hunted hunt for prey.

      And amorously urged them on

      In wood or wild to court their mate,

      Proudly displaying in the sun

      With antics strange and looks elate,

      The vigour of their mighty thews

      Or charm of million-coloured hues.

      There crouching 'mid the scarlet bloom,

      Voluptuously the leopard lies,

      And through the tropic forest gloom

      The flaming of his feline eyes

      Stirs with intoxicating stress

      The pulses of the leopardess.

      Or two swart bulls of self-same age

      Meet furiously with thunderous roar,

      And lash together, blind with rage,

      And clanging horns that fain would gore

      Their rival, and so win the prize

      Of those impassive female eyes.

      Or in the nuptial days of spring,

      When April kindles bush and brier,

      Like rainbows that have taken wing,

      Or palpitating gems of fire,

      Bright butterflies in one brief day

      Live but to love and pass away.

      And herds of horses scour the plains,

      The thickets scream with bird and beast

      The love of life burns in their veins,

      And from the mightiest to the least

      Each preys upon the other's life

      In inextinguishable strife.

      War rages on the teeming earth;

      The hot and sanguinary fight

      Begins with each new creature's birth:

      A