54
Finished, and now, is it true? to be taken out whole to New Zealand!
Well, go forth to thy field, to thy barley, with Ruth, O Boaz,
Ruth, who for thee hath deserted her people, her gods, her mountains,
Quitted her Moab-Lochaber for thee, thou Naomi-Boaz.
Go, as in Ephrath of old, in the gate of Bethlehem said they,
Go, be the wife in thy house both Rachel and Leah unto thee!
Be thy wedding of silver, albeit of iron thy bedstead!
Yea, to the full golden fifty be lengthened while fair memoranda
Duly fill-up the fly-leaves duly left in the Family Bible.
Live, be happy, and look too to keep a whole skin on thy sirloin.
Live, and when Hobbes is forgotten, may'st thou, an unroasted Grandsire,
See thy children's children, and Democracy upon New Zealand!
This was the letter of Hobbes, and this the Postscript after.
Wit in the letter will prate, but wisdom speaks in a postcript;
Listen to wisdom—Which things—you perhaps didn't know, my dear fellow,
I have reflected; Which things are an allegory, Philip.
For this Rachel-and-Leah is marriage; which, I have seen it,
Lo, and have known it, is always, and must be, bigamy only,
Even in noblest kind a duality, compound and complex,
One part heavenly-ideal, the other vulgar and earthy:
For this Rachel-and-Leah is marriage, and Laban their father
Circumstance, chance, the world, our uncle and hard taskmaster.
Rachel we found as we fled from the daughters of Heth by the desert;
Rachel we met at the well; we came, we saw, we kissed her;
Rachel we serve-for, long years,—that seem a few days only,
E'en for the love we have to her,—and win her at last of Laban.
Is it not Rachel we take in our joy from the hand of her father?
Is it not Rachel we lead in the mystical veil from the altar!
Rachel we dream-of at night: in the morning, behold, it is Leah.
"Nay, it is custom," saith Laban, and Leah indeed is the elder.
Happy and wise who consents to redouble his service to Laban,
So, fulfilling her week, he may add to the elder the younger,
Not repudiates Leah, but wins him the Rachel unto her!
Neither hate thou thy Leah, my Philip, she also is worthy;
So—many days shall thy Rachel have joy, and survive her sister:
Yea and her children—Which things are an allegory, Philip,
Aye, and by Origen's head with a vengeance too, a long one!
This was a note from the Tutor, the grave man nicknamed Adam.
I shall see you of course, my Philip, before your departure;
Joy be with you, my boy, with you and your beautiful Elspie.
