Their work, and in the dust from whence He paused; and ere he could resume, I cried : they rose Sink, and corruption veils them as they "First, who art thou?" lie, And past in these performs what in those. memory, -"Before thy "I feared, loved, hated, suffered, did and died, Struck to the heart by this sad page. And if the spark with which Heaven lit my spirit antry, Half to myself I said—And what is Had been with purer nutriment supplied, this? Taught them not this, to know themselves; their might Could not repress the mystery within, And for the morn of truth they feigned, deep night "Caught them ere evening.' is he with chin "Who Upon his breast, and hands crost on his chain?" "The child of a fierce hour; he sought to win "The world, and lost all that it did contain Of greatness, in its hope destroyed; and more Of fame and peace than virtue's self can gain "Without the opportunity which bore Him on its eagle pinions to the peak "As the old faded."-"Figures ever new From which a thousand climbers have Rise on the bubble, paint them as you come "The other long outlived both woes and wars, By my own heart alone, which neither Throned in the thoughts of men, and age, "Nor tears, nor infamy, nor now the tomb Could temper to its object."-"Let them pass," I cried, "the world and its mysterious doom "Is not so much more glorious than it was, That I desire to worship those who drew New figures on its false and fragile glass still had kept The jealous key of truth's eternal doors, "If Bacon's eagle spirit had not leapt Like lightning out of darkness-he compelled The Proteus shape of Nature as it slept "To wake, and lead him to the caves that held The treasure of the secrets of its reign. See the great bards of elder time, who quelled "The passions which they sung, as by "And how and by what paths I have been brought their strain May well be known: their living melody | To this dread pass, methinks even thou Tempers its own contagion to the vein "Of those who are infected with it-I Have suffered what I wrote, or viler pain! And so my words have seeds of misery "Even as the deeds of others, not as theirs." And then he pointed to a company, 'Midst whom I quickly recognised the heirs Of Caesar's crime, from him to Constantine; The anarch chiefs, whose force and murderous snares Had founded many a sceptre-bearing line, And spread the plague of gold and blood abroad: And Gregory and John, and men divine, Who rose like shadows between man mayst guess ;— "When the sun lingered o'er his ocean floor, To gild his rival's new prosperity. Thou wouldst forget thus vainly to deplore 66 Ills, which if ills can find no cure from thee, The thought of which no other sleep will quell, Nor other music blot from memory, "So sweet and deep is the oblivious spell; And whether life had been before that sleep The heaven which I imagine, or a hell "Like this harsh world in which I wake to weep, I know not. I arose, and for a space The scene of woods and waters seemed to keep, Though it was now broad day, a gentle trace Of light diviner than the common sun Sheds on the common earth, and all the place "A Shape all light, which with one hand did fling Dew on the earth, as if she were the dawn, And the invisible rain did ever sing "A silver music on the mossy lawn; And still before me on the dusky grass, Iris her many-coloured scarf had drawn: "In her right hand she bore a crystal glass, Mantling with bright Nepenthe; the fierce splendour Fell from her as she moved under the mass "Of the deep cavern, and with palms so tender, Their tread broke not the mirror of its billow, Glided along the river, and did bend her "Head under the dark boughs, till like a willow, Her fair hair swept the bosom of the stream Was filled with magic sounds woven That whispered with delight to be its into one Oblivious melody, confusing sense dun; pillow. Amid the gliding waves and shadows"As one enamoured is upborne in dream O'er lily-paven lakes 'mid silver mist, ‘And, as I looked, the bright omni- To wondrous music, so this shape might 46 presence Of morning through the orient cavern flowed, And the sun's image radiantly intense "Burned on the waters of the well that glowed Like gold, and threaded all the forest's maze With winding paths of emerald fire; there stood "Amid the sun, as he amid the blaze Of his own glory, on the vibrating Floor of the fountain, paved with flash ing rays, |