Chapter XLI

Pure thought-creations of the mind,
Within the circle of the soul,--
The emanations that control
Life to its God-predestined goal,--
Are spirit shapes no flesh can bind:
Within the soul desire ordains
Achievements which the will constrains;
And far above us, on before,
Our thoughts--a beautiful people--soar,
To wait us on celestial plains.

So Nature pours her thoughts in forms--
Realities we move among--
Of fragrance, color, and of song;
Sense emanations which belong,
Invisible, to spiritual charms;
The sensuous substance of her thought
From immaterial matter wrought--
Matter, which death can not annul,
That constitutes the Beautiful,
And, dead, repeats itself from naught.