FOREWORD In this strong and curiously beautiful poem, quotBill
Boram, quot with its rush of tidal waters and its welter of
elemental human passions, Mr. Norwood, it seems to my mind, has
sought to epitomize the evolution of the spiritual universe, much
as the writers of Holy Writ epitomize the evolution of the physical
universe in that glorious choric outburst which we call the first
chapter of the Book of Genesis. What matters it if the stage of the
latter conflict, in place of embracing as does the former, the
round world, the overhanging stars, all visible creation, is
confined to the adventure in development of a single human soul
Dare we, indeed, employ the term quotcon finedquot to that which no
man yet has ever found con- finable or is there aught to do with
quotgreatquot or quotsmallquot in the realm of that which can
neither be seen nor handled quotThat was not first which is
spiritual but that which is natural and afterwards that which is
spiritualquot ... all things, no matter how gross their seeming,
tend at the last to results.quot The quotspiritual poet has
warranty for his philosophy not in Scripture alone but in the
conclusions of the choicest and the vii most chosen of the race.
For not only is it asked by the prophets what that is which man
shall give quotin exchangequot for the soul, but it is demanded of
man how and in what manner he shall weigh or measure that which
when put into the balances with the quotwhole worldquot shows the
world, by comparison, to be as light as a moulted feather. The
physical universe with all its modifications from star-dust to
organic life, we assume, had its birth amid convulsions of titanic
forces poetically termed quotChaos and oldNight, quot and that at a
period of time so re mote the contemplation of it staggers the
intellect. That universe would now seem to be perfected, in cer
tain details decadent though with regard to both sup positions the
wisest of our scientists consent to hold but a tentative opinion.
The spiritual universe so far at least as it apper tains to this
planet, we believe to have had its incep tion at that stupendous
moment when physical man first achieved an quotinward eye, quot
became conscious not alone of th earth as an environmental fact but
of himself as a thinking and an aspiring entity, an en tity curious
and critical in regard to himself as also to the source and origin
of himself ., . God, This spiritual beginning, we argue, took place
at a period comparatively modern this side a million years while
its perfectability presupposes the throes of an infinity. Is it too
much, then, logically to reason that just as the physical universe
rose amid a struggle of colossal material forces, so the spiritual
universe, in viii the dawn of whose day we now dwell, is coming
into being amid quotgroanings that cannot be utteredquot Our vision
of the conflict in which humanity is immersed is myopic, we suffer
a false perspective, we see men as trees walking and call their
intentions and actions by uncouth and unphilosophic names. Thus
that which we term quotsin, quot it is possible, may be but
physical instinct raised to the plane where, by right, spiritual
understanding should prevail. The two great instincts of the animal
kingdom, it will be allowed, are the instincts of stomach hunger
and of generative hunger...
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