The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies

Stocks and Stones

[The Chief Topaiwari replieth to Sir Walter Raleigh who upbraideth him for idol worship]

My gods, you say, are idols dumb,

Which men have wrought from wood or clay,

Carven with chisel, shaped with thumb,

A morning's task, an evening's play.

You bid me turn my face on high

Where the blue heaven the sun enthrones,

And serve a viewless deity,

Nor make my bow to stocks and stones.

My lord, I am not skilled in wit

Nor wise in priestcraft, but I know

That fear to man is spur and bit

To jog and curb his fancies' flow.

He fears and loves, for love and awe

In mortal souls may well unite

To fashion forth the perfect law

Where Duty takes to wife Delight.

But on each man one Fear awaits

And chills his marrow like the dead.--

He cannot worship what he hates

Or make a god of naked Dread.

The homeless winds that twist and race,

The heights of cloud that veer and roll,

The unplumb'd Abyss, the drift of Space--

These are the fears that drain the soul.

Ye dauntless ones from out the sea

Fear nought. Perchance your gods are strong

To rule the air where grim things be,

And quell the deeps with all their throng.

For me, I dread not fire nor steel,

Nor aught that walks in open light,

But fend me from the endless Wheel,

The voids of Space, the gulfs of Night.

Wherefore my brittle gods I make

Of friendly clay and kindly stone,--

Wrought with my hands, to serve or break,

From crown to toe my work, my own.

My eyes can see, my nose can smell,

My fingers touch their painted face,

They weave their little homely spell

To warm me from the cold of Space.

My gods are wrought of common stuff

For human joys and mortal tears;

Weakly, perchance, yet staunch enough

To build a barrier 'gainst my fears,

Where, lowly but secure, I wait

And hear without the strange winds blow.--

I cannot worship what I hate,

Or serve a god I dare not know.