'The world was darkened beneath either pinion
Of him whom from the flock of conquerors
Fame singled out for her thunder-bearing minion;

"The other long outlived both woes and wars, Throned in the thoughts of men, and 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 their strain
May well be known: their living melody
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!"

[There is a chasm here in the MS. which it is impossible to fill up. It appears from the context, that other shapes pass, and that Rousseau still stood beside the dreamer, as]

he pointed to a company,

'Midst whom I quickly recognised the heirs Of Cæsar'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 and God;
Till that eclipse, still hanging over heaven,

Was worshipped by the world o'er which they strode,

For the true sun it quenched- -"Their power was given
But to destroy," replied the leader :-"I
Am one of those who have created, even

If it be but a world of agony."

"Whence comest thou? and whither goest thou? How did thy course begin?" I said, “and why?

"Mine eyes are sick of this perpetual flow
Of people, and my heart sick of one sad thought—
Speak! Whence I am, I partly seem to know,

66

"And how and by what paths I have been brought To this dread pass, methinks even thou may'st guess ;Why this should be, my mind can compass not;

"Whither the conqueror hurries me, still less ;-
But follow thou, and from spectator turn
Actor or victim in this wretchedness,

"And what thou wouldst be taught I then may learn From thee. Now listen :-In the April prime, When all the forest tips began to burn

"With kindling green, touched by the azure clime
Of the young year's dawn, I was laid asleep
Under a mountain, which from unknown time

"Had yawned into a cavern, high and deep; And from it came a gentle rivulet,

Whose water, like clear air, in its calm sweep

"Bent the soft grass, and kept for ever wet

The stems of the sweet flowers, and filled the grove With sounds, which whoso hears must needs forget

66

'All pleasure and all pain, all hate and love, Which they had known before that hour of rest; A sleeping mother then would dream not of

“Her only child who died upon her breast
At eventide a king would mourn no more
The crown of which his brows were dispossest

"When the sun lingered o'er his ocean floor, To gild his rival's new prosperity.

Thou wouldst forget thus vainly to deplore

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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 seem to keep,

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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

"Was filled with magic sounds woven into one Oblivious melody, confusing sense

Amid the gliding waves and shadows dun;

"And, as I looked, the bright omnipresence Of morning through the orient cavern flowed, And the sun's image radiantly intense

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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

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'Amid the sun,- -as he amid the blaze

Of his own glory, on the vibrating

Floor of the fountain paved with flashing rays,

"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

66

'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

"Out of the deep cavern, with palms so tender, Their tread broke not the mirror of its billow; She 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
That whispered with delight to be its pillow.

"As one enamoured is upborne in dream
O'er lily-paven lakes 'mid silver mist,
To wondrous music, so this shape might seem

"Partly to tread the waves with feet which kissed
The dancing foam; partly to glide along
The air which roughened the moist amethyst,

"Or the faint morning beams that fell among The trees, or the soft shadows of the trees; And her feet, ever to the ceaseless song

"Of leaves, and winds, and waves, and birds, and bees, And falling drops moved to a measure new, Yet sweet, as on the summer evening breeze,

“Up from the lake a shape of golden dew Between two rocks, athwart the rising moon, Dances i' the wind, where never eagle flew;

"And still her feet, no less than the sweet tune To which they moved, seemed as they moved to blot The thoughts of him who gazed on them; and soon

"All that was, seemed as if it had been not;
And all the gazer's mind was strewn beneath
Her feet like embers; and she, thought by thought,

"Trampled its sparks into the dust of death,
As day upon the threshold of the east
Treads out the lamps of night, until the breath

"Of darkness re-illumine even the least
Of heaven's living eyes!-like day she came,
Making the night a dream; and ere she ceased

"To move, as one between desire and shame
Suspended, I said-If, as it doth seem,
Thou comest from the realm without a name,