THE

EXPOSITION

OF

THE LILY AND THE BEE.

WHEN Spenser first published his immortal Faery Queen, he felt it necessary to prefix to it a clue to 'the continued allegory, or dark conceit,' of which it consisted, in the form of a Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, which he said 'expounded his general intention and meaning; as well for avoiding of jealous opinions and misconstructions, as for' Sir Walter's' better light in reading thereof: from which he might gather the whole intention of the conceit; and, as in a handful, gripe all the discourse, which otherwise might seem tedious and confused.' He owned that 'the beginning of the whole work seemed abrupt;' but asserted his right, as a Poet, 'to thrust into the midst, even where it most concerned him and there recoursing to the things forepast, and divining of things to come, make a pleasing analysis of all.'1

Walking in the light of this precedent, though at an immeasurable distance from the illustrious One that set it, the author of The Lily and the Bee here offers some account of a performance more deeply considered than it has been given credit for, by some who have written and spoken about it with confident contempt.

Though the main object of the Book is by no means to be sought in a commemoration of the Crystal Palace of 1851, its pages seek to reflect, however faintly, some of the splendours of that magnificent and majestic spectacle, which will ever remain peerless, and alone, in its moral glory, however great may be the merits and attractiveness of its successors, here or elsewhere. That is, however, altogether a subordinate purpose of the author; who sought to seize an occasion for setting forth great Truths affecting the eternal welfare of mankind: for he thought that those Truths, of a high and holy import, spoke 1 The letter is dated the 23d January 1589, and is prefixed to the first edition, that of 1590.

loudly and gloriously in the ear of a devout, humble, and watchful beholder and listener.

Concerning the Structure, and Title, of the work, the author, before proceeding to the SUBJECT of it, would premise,—

First, that The Lily and the Bee is, in the nature of a Lyrical Soliloquy, supposed to be the meditative utterance of a devout Poet-Philosopher, musing under the guidance of an attendant Spirit, first by day, and then by night, in the Crystal Palace of 1851. Poetry depends essentially upon Thought; which should be trusted for the selection of such forms of expression as it may deem suitable, in order to reach an attuned imagination. Even Pindar's contemporaries deemed his style and manner frequently harsh, abrupt and obscure; a penalty which must needs be incurred by any one, who ventures to depart from the common standards of his time. The Lily and the Bee is written chiefly in rhythmical prose (of which it is by no means the only specimen in our literature),1 and which the author is certain fitted itself, spontaneously, to the tone of his thoughts and imaginings. The Poem draws largely on the reader's fancy; and seeks, instead of bewildering him in multitudinousness of detail, to open, in all directions, vistas of reflection, to a well-stored mind, by sudden and faint suggestions and associations, every one derived from some object in the Crystal Palace. Apparent orderliness of method was designedly discarded. Guided by the impression which so stupendous a spectacle was calculated to produce on a susceptible imagination, the author sought to excite in that of the reader, a sense of lustrous confusion, slowly subsiding into distinctness, and then developing grand proportion, harmony, and system. This result, however, as in the physical prototype, is intended to be gained, not all at once, but after yielding for awhile to a thrilling sense of bewilderment; and only after some effort to discover and adjust relations, at first lost in a dim vastness, between the myriad Parts, and the mighty Whole.

Secondly, concerning the Title. It was deemed that a LILY, and a BEE, were fitting exponents of thoughts and feelings called forth by a deep contemplation of the moral aspects and bearings of the Crystal Palace: that the Lily had her grand and tender lesson, the Bee his hum of mystery and wonder, far beyond the contrast suggested between Animal and Human Industry, between Art and Nature. Both Flower and Insect may point to profound relations between Man, and his new and gorgeous spectacle.

There were Bees in the Crystal Palace, as all may have seen; and there was also a Lily, observed by but one or two; but of its presence there, the author was unaware, till after the publication of the Poem. He was then, for the first time, informed that a common field Lily had been one day noticed by a lady, struggling modestly into existence, between the small stones forming the embankment round some of its brilliant and favoured sisterhood, the exotics in the Transept. The Bee was a wonderful exhibitor, though he never had a medal awarded him, of skilled industry: a perfect Geometer, Architect, and Manufacturer; and, moreover, a citizen of a well-compacted State; his springs of action hidden in dense mystery; baffling the most piercing scrutiny of the human intellect, but disclosing sufficient to startle and humble the presumption and pride of MAN.

The idea of the Lily, with her rich train of heavenly associations, fell into 1 Witness the magnificent choruses in the Samson Agonistes.

the author's mind, while indulging in a reverie in the Crystal Palace, concerning the Bee: and these divine words sounded in his ear as if whispered by an Angel,

Consider the Lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 1

It may, moreover, be recollected, that in ancient pictures, the Angel of the Annunciation is generally represented as bearing a Lily in his hand, while telling his hallowed tidings to the Virgin.2

Thus, then, it was that the ideas of the Lily and the Bee came together; and their combined influence seemed thenceforth to invest the Crystal Palace, and all it contained, with spiritual significance.

The Subject of the Poem, is MAN, in his threefold relations to the Earth, to his fellow-man, and to God. It is, however, Man, the Son of Adam-the Man of the Bible, with whom the poem deals. The beholder sees in the Palace, the Inspired Volume, in all the languages of the earth; and from this radiant source derives a clue to the origin and present condition of Man, his Doings, and his Destiny. The eye is first directed to the sculptured figures of Adam, and Eve, in their hour of grief and shame, as just driven out of Eden: he gazes, awhile awed into silence, 'a son, come through six thousand years,' to look on his First Parents, presently recounting to them the doings of their descendants, partakers of their fallen nature. He murmurs the inquiry, whether they feel the full significance of the scene, on which their own deeds have had so portentous an influence! The next object is their blood-stained first-born, CAIN, 'the crimson first-fruits of their Fall, blooming ever deadly since,' in hate, violence, outrage, war, massacre, and murder. The reluctant eyes of Adam and Eve are pointed to the gleaming array of weapons of destruction, tempered exquisitely, polished, and gemmed as though objects of pride and satisfaction! They are told of dungeons, chains, and racks: of the gallows and the guillotine which his children dare not exhibit: — that there are arrayed around, evidences of the idolatry of their descendants; that they display, as objects of admiration and pride, their gorgeous apparel! forgetful of its original that their offspring, brothers and sisters! buy, sell, and torture one another!

That they are still toiling, and spinning, and tilling the earth, eating their bread in the sweat of their brow: waiting the fearful and sudden End of all things. They are asked if they have seen the sick, the maimed, the halt, the blind, the broken-hearted, of their Sons and Daughters who have wandered past them; and whether they perceived, through the disguises with which they concealed it from one another, their corrupt condition,—their lust, ambition, malice, pride, selfishness, covetousness, falsehood, and hypocrisy! They are told that their descendants now spend their days like a tale that is told; that they are but as grass of the field, flourishing in the morning, and withering in the evening; returning unto the dust, cursed for their first parents' sake! That they are still tempted by the Tempter of Eve." They are asked what, but for their 1 Matt, vi. 28–30. 2 Post. p. 52. 3 P. 2. 4 P. 48. 5 Pp. 43, 44. 6 P. 45. 7 Pp. 45, 46.

1

disobedience, would have been the condition of their progeny? Whether they communicated to their Sons and Daughters the dread mystery done in Eden? But at this depth of sorrow and humiliation into which the beholder sinks, on seeing the first Adam, hope springs up: the heavy shadow on his brow is seen to move,1 and his sorrow-laden eye suddenly beams with light, telling of a Second Adam.2

Adam and Eve have thus become twin founts of woe and joy, of despair and hope, of death and life, through Him who overcame death, and brought Life and Immortality to light: and in this solemn spirit is addressed the Sovereign3 who has gazed on these images of her first parents; partaking, equally with those over whom she rules, their fallen nature, their death, and resurrection; and with whom she must stand before the judgment-seat, in the Last Day.

Contemplated from this point of view, it is MAN, as infinitely beyond, yet seen through, HIS WORKS, whom the Crystal Palace is said to have really exhibited. This was the Lesson written all around it, in letters shining into the awakened Soul; the lesson of True Wisdom, to be learnt from the sight of his own multifarious handiwork. By this inner-light, the devout observer beholds MAN as he was, as he is, and as he shall be, after all the chances and changes of this mortal life; indued with awful powers and responsibilities, strictly proportioned and adjusted to his means and opportunities. It is thus that he finds his true position, in the creation and economy of God: his relation to his Maker, and his fellow-creatures: and subsidiarily, to the ordained scene of their action and probation with its checkered, its myriad incidents.

These threefold relations are all pervaded by the idea of a UNITY: on which the eye settles most steadily, at the moment when otherwise it would be wandering, dazzled and bewildered by the endlessly varying splendours attracting it and as soon as the beholder has caught a glimpse of this Unity, and not till then, he sees the true and deep significance of the spectacle, speaking to the mind of Statesman, Philosopher, and Divine, in sublime accents; and he exclaims, 'O! rare unity in multiplicity! uniformity in endless variety.'7 His own personal relations to the scene are suddenly changed; he feels one -but one, still one, of that mighty and mysterious Unity, Man: and then sixty centuries are suddenly felt sweeping past him: the air is instinct with LIFE, the life of Man, his hopes, fears, agonies, delights, woes, and cares, ever since his first parent was placed on the earth: MIND is felt all around diffused: MAN rises up, everywhere Man! in his manifestations and fortunes, multiform; mysterious in his doings, and his destiny.

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The very Key-stone of the arch of this Unity, is REVELATION; a truth peremptorily insisted on throughout its reception constituting Light, and its rejection, Darkness, as to the origin and destiny of man, and the objects and conditions of his existence: without which all the Nations into which he is multiplied, may be regarded as but so many patches of poor Insects, crawling over a globe swarming with other Insects.

This Unity exists in respect of RELIGION: there being but one true religion, of which all others are corruptions; even as there is but one God and Father of us all towards whom, if it can be distinctly conceived, and may be reverently expressed, Man stands in the relation of one Unity, towards that

other ineffable Unity; all that ever descended from Adam, being but as one Man, before one God.1

2

5

A Unity as regards MANKIND: in respect of origin, character, doings, and destiny. For we are all the result of the one Almighty Fiat, recorded in Scripture, by which Adam was created and became a living soul, his blood running in every human being that is now, or has ever since been, on the earth. There is a plain unity of our essential physical, intellectual, and moral nature: a unity of Language, through all its variations since the day on which the one language, then spoken over the whole earth, was confounded at Shinar. A unity of Mental Action as evidenced by the objects to which the mind of man has addressed itself always, everywhere, and the manner of its doing so, however modified by circumstances: a unity of moral nature; of wants, wishes, hopes, fears, aversions, and the objects exciting them: a loudly-spoken unity and universality of Disease in our moral nature; and as loudly-spoken a unity and universality of Remedy-the Fall and Redemption of Man, as revealed by God in the One Inspired Volume. A unity in respect of Destiny: a life hereafter, the condition of which is dependent upon conduct here: and which will be righteously determined by the Judge of all the Earth, in that one Great Day in which the Doom of every descendant of Adam, will be pronounced irrevocably.

Thus a mournful splendour is thrown over the suddenly unrolled scroll of the doings of Man during his pilgrimage on the planet assigned to him for his temporary abode: Unity being a tie binding together into an organised Whole, both spectacle and spectators; linking into one, each imaging the other, Man's Past, Present, and Future. This may be regarded as constituting the Esoteric teaching of the Great, Spectacle: the Exoteric being those more obvious ones which regard its material aspects, forms, and characteristics the latter being the mere vehicle of the former. And in this spirit we approach the spectacle as 'a Mystic Mirror, brightly reflecting the past, darkly the future.'8

The first reflection from this Mirror, is of the Past—revealing two ancient Gatherings of the human family, recorded in Holy Writ, one of these the first since the Flood; both pregnant with warning and consolation, suggesting also resemblance, and contrast. The former of these Gatherings is that on the plain of Shinar, with which the Poem opens, when the impious audacity of Man was punished by that confusion of tongues which has ever since prevailed, and which was perceived in full action incessantly, in the Crystal Palace; the spectators of which came from every quarter of the Globe, to contribute their own handiwork, to scan and admire that of others. Then are indicated several points of the Unity which has been spoken of. The latter of

2 P. 4.

1 P. 47. He did not merely possess it, he became it, (Gen. ii. 7). It was his proper being: his truest self; the Man in The Man.'-COLERIDGE.

P. 1. The bricks at Susa are stamped with inscriptions in the primitive Babylonish character. It is found on those which compose the foundations of the primeval cities of Shinar: and if the Birsi Nimrúd be admitted to represent the tower of Babel-an identification supported not merely by the character of the monument, but the universal belief of the early Talmudists,-it must, in the substructure of that edifice, embody the vernacular dialect of Shinar, at the period when the earth was of one language and of one speech.'-COL. RAWLINSON, Jour. of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. x. Part I., Prel. Rem., p. 20, -cited in FORSTER'S One Primeval Language, vol. iii. p. 3. 7 P. 3. 8 P. 3. 9 P. 4.

5 P. 26.

6 P. 3.