Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/377

A STRANGE BOOK 36I Then walk up to the casket, Thy life is near the door, 'Twill open if you ask it, And o'er thee, spirit pour. Thou art not far from heaven, Thou art not far from love ; Thy dower is sevenfold seven, Thy hopes are fixed above. Yet earth does well to keep thee. For thy good deeds are needed : We only yet would steep thee In spirit-powers : unheeded. Thy husband oft is with thee, dear, And he has led thee on : One day thou shalt see all things clear, For home will then be won, And separation's day be done." "The Birth of Aconite," p. 77, is very powerful, both in conception and execution ; of a somewhat similar strain, though in blank verse, to Part iii. of Shelley's "Sensitive Plant." But how the doctor reconciles it with his science and theology I cannot understand. I presume he believes that God created the aconite no less than He created the olive, the palm, and the vine ; yet he writes as if it were created by the devil. This sort of loose undefined Maniche- ism, which Plato, by-the-bye, explicitly sets forth in the TinKzus, is very common among Christians, in spite of the great monotheistic text (Isa. xlv. 5-7): " I am the Lord ; and there is none else, there is no god beside Me. ... I form the light and create dark- ness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do