But by far the finest poem in this collection is the “Ivory Carver.” In the prologue to this poem,
Three Spirits, more than angels, met By an Arabian well-side, set Far in the wilderness, a place Hallowed by legendary grace.
By this retired fountain the spirits enter into a discussion concerning the condition and prospects of their protégé man. Two of them are evidently croakers. To them the world seems, as to any moral progress, stationary, if not actually retrograding. They are almost indignant that the Lord does not consign the planet with its inhabitants at once to perdition. But the third spirit, a superior intelligence,
One, chief among the spirits three, Grander than either, more sedate, Wore yet a look of hope elate, With higher knowledge, larger trust In the long future; _and the rust_ _Of week-day toil with earthly things_ _Stained and yet glorified his wings_.
This superior angel maintains that man, though not capable of instantaneous acts or intuitive perceptions, equal to those of the higher orders of beings, is yet not the mere hopeless castaway the two other spirits would make him. Give him but time, and with pain and toil he will work out results worthy even of an angel’s regard. An angel, by direct intuition, may see at once in a shapeless lump of matter all the forms of beauty of which it is capable. Yet man, in process of time, slowly but surely, can bring forth those same wonderful forms. The illustration of this point in the celestial argument leads to the main story.
I, in thought, Have seen the capability Which lies within yon ivory: This rough, black husk, charred by long age, Unmarked by man since, in his rage, A warring mammoth shed it: Lo! Whiter than heaven-sifted snow Enclosed within its ugly mask Lies a world’s wonder: and the task Of slow development shall be Man’s labor and man’s glory. See! His foot-tip touched it; the rude bone Glowed through translucent, widely shone A morning lustre on the palm Which arched above it.
The angel then summons an attendant, and bids him bear this shapeless tusk to some mortal capable of bringing from it by slow pain and toil the glorious beauty which had shone forth instantaneously at the angelic touch.