Like a diamond which shines
On the dark wealth of mines,

A spell is treasur'd but for thee alone.
Down, down!

We have bound thee, we guide thee;
Down, down!

With the bright form beside thee,
Resist not the weakness,

Such strength is in meekness
That the Eternal, the Immortal,

Must unloose through life's portal

[throne

The snake-like Doom coiled underneath his
By that alone.

-00

SCENE IV

The Cave of DEMOGORGON. ASIA and PANTHEA,

Pan. What veiled form sits on that ebon throne
Asia. The veil has fallen.

Pan. I see a mighty darkness

Filling the seat of power, and rays of gloom
Dart round, as light from the meridian sun,
Ungazed upon and shapeless; neither limb,
Nor form, nor outline; yet we feel it is
A living Spirit.

Dem. Ask what thou wouldst know.
Asia. What canst thou tell?

Dem. All things thou dar'st demand.
Asia. Who made the living world?
Dem. God.

Asia. Who made all

That it contains? thought, passion, reason, will,

Imagination?

Dem. God: Almighty God.

[spring

Asia. Who made that sense which, when the winds of

In rarest visitation, or the voice

Of one beloved heard in youth alone,

Fills the faint eyes with falling tears which dim
The radiant looks of unbewailing flowers,

And leaves this peopled earth a solitude

When it returns no more?

Dem. Merciful God.

Asia. And who made terror, madness, crime, remors Which, from the links of the great chain of things To every thought within the mind of man, Sway and drag heavily, and each one reels Under the load towards the pit of death; Abandoned hope, and love that turns to hate; And self-contempt, bitterer to drink than blood; Pain, whose unheeded and familiar speech Is howling, and keen shrieks, day after day; And Hell, or the sharp fear of Hell?

Dem. He reigns.

Asia. Utter his name: a world pining in pain

Asks but his name: curses shall drag him down.

Dem. He reigns.

Asia I feel, I know it: who?

Dem. He reigns.

[at first,

Asia. Who reigns? There was the Heaven and Earth And Light and Love; then Saturn, from whose throne Time fell, an envious shadow: such the state

Of the earth's primal spirits beneath his sway,
As the calm joy of flowers and living leave
Before the wind or sun has withered them
And Semivital worms; but he refused

The birthright of their being, knowledge, power,
The skill which wields the elements, the thought
Which pierces this dim universe like light,
Self-empire, and the majesty of love,

For thirst of which they fainted. Then Prometheus
Gave wisdom, which is strength, to Jupiter,
And with this law alone, Let man be free,'
Clothed him with the dominion of wide Heaven.
To know nor faith, nor love, nor law; to be
Omnipotent but friendless, is to reign;
And Jove now reigned; for on the race of man
First famine, and then toil, and then disease.
Strife, wounds, and ghastly death unseen before

Fell; and the unseasonable seasons drove,
With alternating shafts of frost and fire,
Their shelterless pale tribes to mountain caves:
And in their desert hearts fierce wants he sent,
And mad disquietudes, and shadows idle
Of unreal good, which levied mutual war,
Sɔ ruining the lair wherein they raged.
Prometheus saw, and waked the legioned hopes
Which sleep within folded Elysian flowers,
Nepenthe, Moly, Amaranth, fadeless blooma,
That they might hide with thin and rainbow wings
The shape of Death; and Love he sent to bind
The disunited tendrils of that vine

Which bears the wine of life, the human heart;
And he tamed fire, which, like some beast of prey,
Most terrible, but lovely, played beneath
The frown of man; and tortured to his will
Iron and gold, the slaves and signs of power,
And gems and poisons, and all subtlest forms
Hidden beneath the mountains and the waves.
He gave man speech, and speecn created thought,
Which is the measure of the universe;

And Science struck the thrones of earth and heaven,
Which shook, but fell not: and the harmonious min
Poured itself forth in all-prophetic song;

And music lifted up the listening spirit
Until it walked, exempt from mortal care,
Godlike, o'er the clear billows of sweet sound

And human hands first mimicked and then mocked,
With moulded limbs more lovely than its own,
The human form, till marble grew divine;
And mothers, gazing, drank the love men see
Reflected in their race, behold, and perish.
We told the hidden power of herbs and springs,
And Disease drank and slept. Death grew like sleep
He taught the implicated orbits woven

Of the wide-wandering stars; and how the sun
Changes his lair, and by what secret spell

The pale moon is transformed, when her broad eye
Gazes not on the interlunar sea:

He taught to rule, as life directs the limbs

The tempest-winged chariots, of the Ocean,
And the Celt knew the Indian, Cities then

Were built, and through their snow-like columns flowed
The warm winds, and the azure æther shone,
And the blue sea and shadowy hills were seen.
Such, the alleviations of his state,

Prometheus gave to man, for which he hangs
Withering in destined pain; but who reigns down
Evil, the immedicable plague, which, while
Man looks on his creation like a God

And sees that it is glorious, drives him on

The wreck of his own will, the scorn of earth,

The outcast, the abandoned, the alone?

Not Jove while yet his frown shook heaven, aye when
His adversary from adamantine chains
Cursed him, he trembled like a slave.
Who is his master? Is he too a slave?

Declare

Dem. All spirits are enslaved which serve things evil: Thou knowest if Jupiter be such or no.

Asia. Whom call'dst thou God?

Dem.

I spoke but as ye speak,
For Jove is the supreme of living things.
Asia. Who is the master of the slave?
Dem.
If the abysm

Could vomit forth its secrets.

But a voice

Is wanting, the deep truth is imageless;

For what would it avail to bid thee gaze

On the revolving world? What to bid speak

Fate, Time, Occasion, Chance, and Change? To these All things are subject but eternal Love.

Asia. So much I asked before, and my heart gave
The response thou hast given; and of such truths
Each to itself must be the oracle.

One more demand; and do thou answer me
As my own soul would answer, did it know
That which I ask. Prometheus shall arise
Henceforth the sun of this rejoicing world:
When shall the destined hour arrive?

Dem,

Behold!

[nigh

Asia. The rocks are cloven, and through the purple I see cars drawn by rainbow-winged steeds

Which tramples the dim winds: in each there stands
A wild-eyed charioteer urging their flight

Some look behind, as fiends pursued them. there,
And yet I see no shapes but the keen stars:
Others, with burning eyes, lean forth, and drink
With eager lips the wind of their own speed,
As if the thing they loved fled on before,

And now, even now, they clasped it. Their bright locks Stream like a comet's flashing hair: they all

Sweep onward.

Dem.

These are the immortal Hours,

Of whom thou didst demand.

One waits for thee.

Asia. A spirit with a dreadful countenance

Checks its dark chariot by the craggy gulph.

Unlike thy brethren, ghastly charioteer,

Who art thou? Whither wouldst thou bear me? Speak Spirit. I am the shadow of a destiny

More dread than is my aspect: ere yon planet

Has set, the darkness which ascends with me

Shall wrap in lasting night heaven's kingless throne.

Asia.

Pan.

What meanest thou?

That terrible shadow floats

Up from its throne, as may the lurid smoke
Of earthquake-ruined cities o'er the sea.
Lo! it ascends the car; the coursers fly
Terrified watch its path among the stars,
Blackening the night!

Asia.

Thus I am answered: strange !
Pan. See, near the verge, another chariot stays;
An ivory shell inlaid with crimson fire,
Which comes and goes within its sculptured rim
Of delicate strange tracery; the young spirit
That guides it has the dove-like eyes of hope.
How its soft smiles attract the soul! as light
Lures winged insects thro' the lampless air.
Spirit. My coursers are fed with the lightning,

They drink with the whirlwind's stream,
And when the red morning is brightening
They bathe in the fresh sunbeam;

They have strength for their swiftness I deem
They ascend with me, daughter of Ocean.