15
(Past services to Rama tendered pleading
With Vishnu) ’twas through rolling seas upbore me
To where the star of destiny shone o’er me;
Now mine uncurtained gaze the truth descrieth,
And opened wide before me, like a scroll,
The book of apish fates and human lieth,
I read each secret sign and judge the whole.
Ape, of creation diadem and pride,
Issued from hands divine, dowered in full measure,
And multiplied, his seats expanding wide;
But one part of that mighty brotherhood
In unprogressive state stagnated, having
Its dwelling in the trees—their fruits for food,
The gift of nature—without labour craving,
Neglecting its rare talents’ cultivation,
So that some atrophied, some wholly perished,
And evermore approaching the base station
Of those brute beasts, whose comradeship it cherished.
Not so the other part; this higher still
Its gifts developed accent with each fresh endeavour,
Earth, beings’ empire, subjected to its will,
Keeping along the road of progress ever.
Of countless ages thus he reaped the promise
So far excelled, his reason schooled so soundly,
In grace of life and outward polish from his
Arboreal brethren differed so profoundly,
That now, if face and body’s conformations
Had not announced it, hard ’twere to believe in
The common origin of those two nations:
But our poor language fails to paint, O! Heaven!
My raptures when I think of thee, Europa;
Thou loveliest land of full-formed apedom proper!
