Even at the moment when they should array
Themselves in pensive order.

Аввот.

Enter the ABBOT.

My good Lord!

I crave a second grace for this approach;
But yet let not my humble zeal offend
By its abruptness all it hath of ill

Recoils on me; its good in the effect

May light upon your head could I say heart Could I touch that, with words or prayers, I should Recall a noble spirit which bath wandered;

But is not yet all lost.

MAN.)

Thou know'st me not;

My days are numbered, and my deeds recorded:

Retire, or 'twill be dangerous

Away!

ABBOT. Thou dost not mean to menace me?

ΜΑΝ.

Not I;

I simply tell thee peril is at hand,

And would preserve thee.

but

That which should shake me,

Аввот.

I fear it not

I see a dusk and awful figure rise,

Like an infernal god, from out the earth;
His face wrapt in a mantle, and his form
Robed as with angry clouds; he stands between
Thyself and me but I do fear him not.

MAN.

Ilis sight may shock thine old limbs into palsy.

I did not send for him, he is unbidden.

ABBOT. Alas! lost mortal! what with guests

like these

Hast thou to do? I tremble for thy sake;
Why doth he gaze on thee, and thou on him?
Ah! he unveils his aspect; on his brow

The thunder-scars are graven; from his eye
Glares forth the immortality of hell

what is thy mission?

Come!

ABBOT. What art thou, unknown being? ans

wer! speak!

SPIRIT. The genius of this mortal.- Come! 'tis time.

MAN. I am prepared for all things, but deny The power which summons me. Who sent thee here? SPIRIT. Thou'lt know anon Come! come! MAN. I have commanded Things of an essence greater far than thine, And striven with thy masters. Get thee hence! SPIRIT. Mortal! thine hour is come

- I say.

Away!

MAN. I knew, and know my hour is come, but not To render up my soul to such as thee:

Away! I'll die as I have lived alone.

Rise!

SPIRIT. Then I must summon up my brethren,[Other Spirits rise up. ABBOT. Avaunt! ye evil ones! Avaunt! I say, Ye have no power where piety hath power, And I do charge ye in the name

SPIRIT.

Old man!

We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order; Waste not thy holy words on idle uses,

It were in vain, this man is forfeited.

Once more I summon him Away! away!

though I feel my soul

MAN. I do defy ye,
Is ebbing from me, yet I do defy ye;

Nor will I hence, while I have earthly breath To breathe my scorn upon ye-earthly strength To wrestle, though with spirits; what ye take Shall be ta’en limb by limb.

SPIRIT.

Reluctant mortal!

Is this the Magian who would so pervade
The world invisible, and make himself
Almost our equal? — Can it be that thou
Art thus in love with life? the very life
Winch made thee wretched!

MAN.

Thou false fiend, thou liest! My life is in its last hour, — that I know, Nor would redeem a moment of that hour; I do not combat against death, but thee And thy surrounding angels; my past power Was purchased by no compact with thy crew, But by superior science penance — daring And length of watching-strength of mind-and skill In knowledge of our fathers - when the earth Saw men and spirits walking side by side,

ΜΑΝ.

What are they to such as thee?

Must crimes be punish'd but by other crimes,

Thou hast no power upon me, that I feel;
Thou never shalt possess me, that I know:
What I have done is done; I bear within
A torture which could nothing gain from thine:
The mind which is immortal makes itself
Requital for its good or evil thoughts

Is its own origin of ill and end

And its own place and time its innate sense,
When stripp'd of this mortality, derives
No colour from the fleeting things without;
But is absorb'd in sufferance or in joy,

Born from the knowledge of its own desert.

Thou didst not tempt me, and thou couldst not

tempt me;

I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey
But was my own destroyer; and will be

My own hereafter.

Back, ye baffled fiends! The hand of death is on me - but not yours!

[The Demons disappear.

ABBOT. Alas! how pale thou art thy lips are white

And thy breast heaves and in thy gasping throat