ALL THE SPIRITS. Prostrate thyself, and thy

condemned clay,

Child of the Earth! or dread the worst.

On the bare ground, have I bow'd down my face, And strew'd my head with ashes; I have known The fulness of humiliation, for

I sunk before my vain despair, and knelt

To my own desolation.

FIFTH SPIRIT.

Dost thou dare

Refuse to Arimanes on his throne

What the whole earth accords, beholding not
Crouch! I say.

The terror of his Glory

MAN. Bid him bow down to that which is above

Who made him not for worship — let him kneel,

And we will kneel together.

THE SPIRITS.

Crush the worm!

Hence! Avaunt! he's mine.

Tear him in pieces! —

FIRST DES.

Prince of the Powers invisible! This man

鎏

Is of no common order, as his port
And presence here denote; his sufferings
Have been of an immortal nature, like

Our own; his knowledge and his powers and will,
As far as is compatible with clay,

Which clogs the etherial essence, have been such
As clay hath seldom bornę; his aspirations
Have been beyond the dwellers of the earth,
And they have only taught him what we know -
That knowledge is not happiness, and science

But an exchange of ignorance for that

Which is another kind of ignorance.

This is not all

the passions, aftributes

Of earth and heaven, from which no power, nor being, Nor breath from the worm upwards is exempt, Have pierced his heart; and in their consequence Made him a thing, which I, who pity not,

Yet pardon those who pity. He is mine,

And thine, it may be

No other Spirit in this region hath

A soul like his

be it so, or not,

or power upon his soul.

Let him answer that.

NEM. Whath doth he here then?

FIRST DES.

MAN. Ye know what I have known; and without

power

I could not be amongst ye: but there are

Powers deeper still beyond I come in quest

Of such, to answer unto what I seek

NEM. What wouldst thou?

MAN.

Call up the dead

Thou canst not reply to me.

- my question is for them.

NEM, Great Arimanes, doth thy will avouch The wishes of this mortal?

NEMES1 S.

Shadow! or Spirit!

Whatever thou art,

Which still doth inherit

The whole or a part
Of the form of thy birth;

Of the mould of thy clay,
Which returned to the earth,
Re-appear to the day!

Bear what thou borest,

The heart and the form,
And the aspect thou worest

Redeem from the worm.

Appear!

Appear!

Appear!

Who sent thee there requires thee here! (The Phantom of ASTARTE rises and stands in the midst.)

MAR. Can this be death? there's bloom upon her cheek;

But now I see it is no living hue,

But a strange hectic like the unnatural red
Which Autumn plants upon the perish'd leaf.
It is the same! Oh, God! that I should dread

By the power which hath broken
The grave which enthrall'd thee,
Speak to him who hath spoken,
Or those who have call'd thee!

MAN.

She is silent,

And in that silence I am more than answered.

NEм. My power extends no further. Prince of air! It rests with thee alone command her voice.

ARI. Spirit -obey this sceptre!

NEM.

Silent still!

She is not of our order, but belongs

To the other powers. Mortal! thy quest is vain, And we are baffled also.

Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more
Than I am changed for thec. Thou lovedst me
Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made
To torture thus each other, though it were
The deadliest sin to love as we have loved.
Say that thou loath'st me not —

This punishment for both

that I do bear

that thou wilt be

One of the blessed and that I shall die;
For hitherto all hateful things conspire
To bind me in existence in a life
Which makes me shrink from immortality
A future like the past. I cannot rest.

I know not what I ask, nor what I seek:
I feel but what thou art and what I am;

And I would hear yet once before I perish
The voice which was my music

Speak to me! For I have call'd on thee in the still night,

Startled the slumbering birds from the hush'd

boughs,