The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell

ONE, who is not, we see; but one, whom we see not, is;

Surely this is not that; but that is assuredly this.

What, and wherefore, and whence? for under is over and under;

If thunder could be without lightning, lightning could be without thunder.

Doubt is faith in the main; but faith, on the whole, is doubt;

We cannot believe by proof; but could we believe without?

Why, and whither, and how? for barley and rye are not clover;

Neither are straight lines curves; yet over is under and over.

Two and two may be four; but four and four are not eight;

Fate and God may be twain; but God is the same as fate.

Ask a man what he thinks, and get from a man what he feels;

God, once caught in the fact, shows you a fair pair of heels.

Body and spirit are twins; God only knows which is which;

The soul squats down in the flesh, like a tinker drunk in a ditch.

More is the whole than a part; but half is more than the whole;

Clearly, the soul is the body; but is not the body the soul?

One and two are not one; but one and nothing is two;

Truth can hardly be false, if falsehood cannot be true.

Once the mastodon was; pterodactyls were common as cocks;

Then the mammoth was God; now is He a prize ox.

Parallels all things are; yet many of these are askew;

You are certainly I; but certainly I am not you.

Springs the rock from the plain, shoots the stream from the rock;

Cocks exist for the hen; but hens exist for the cock.

God, whom we see not, is; and God, who is not, we see;

Fiddle, we know, is diddle, and diddle, we take it, is dee.

Algernon Charles Swinburne