| Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917. |
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| 115. From ‘The Mystic’ |
| By Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) |
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| GOD was, alone in unity. He willed | |
| The infinite creation; and it was. | |
| That the creation might exist, His Son, | |
| And that it might return to Him, the Spirit | |
| Disclosed themselves within Him; thus triune | 5 |
| But as the all-made must of necessity | |
| Inferior be to its creator, thus | |
| Arose the infinite imperfect, time, | |
| The spirit-host angelic, heavenly race, | |
| Brute life and vegetive, electric light, | 10 |
| Matter and fleshly form; to human souls | |
| Nine generations from aeternity. | |
| But God, who is Love, decreed it should return | |
| By pure regeneration unto God; | |
| Wherefore was need that He from whom came life | 15 |
| Should taste death, but in tasting swallow up; | |
| That commune with all creatures might be made, | |
| On this hand, and on that, with Deity. | |
| Thus death and evil expiate ends divine; | |
| The Spirit the imperfect hallowing, death | 20 |
| The Son; the soul regenerate hies to God; | |
| And as in radial union with the point | |
| Infinite, both in greatness, place, and power. | |
| Lives with the maker and the all-made in love. | |
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