The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 178

Who, prototype of human misrule, sits _105 High in Heaven's realm, upon a golden throne, Even like an earthly king; and whose dread work, h.e.l.l, gapes for ever for the unhappy slaves Of fate, whom He created, in his sport, To triumph in their torments when they fell! _110 Earth heard the name; Earth trembled, as the smoke Of His revenge ascended up to Heaven, Blotting the constellations; and the cries Of millions, butchered in sweet confidence And unsuspecting peace, even when the bonds _115 Of safety were confirmed by wordy oaths Sworn in His dreadful name, rung through the land; Whilst innocent babes writhed on thy stubborn spear, And thou didst laugh to hear the mother's shriek Of maniac gladness, as the sacred steel _120 Felt cold in her torn entrails!

'Religion! thou wert then in manhood's prime: But age crept on: one G.o.d would not suffice For senile puerility; thou framedst A tale to suit thy dotage, and to glut _125 Thy misery-thirsting soul, that the mad fiend Thy wickedness had pictured might afford A plea for sating the unnatural thirst For murder, rapine, violence, and crime, That still consumed thy being, even when _130 Thou heardst the step of Fate;--that flames might light Thy funeral scene, and the shrill horrent shrieks Of parents dying on the pile that burned To light their children to thy paths, the roar Of the encircling flames, the exulting cries _135 Of thine apostles, loud commingling there, Might sate thine hungry ear Even on the bed of death!

'But now contempt is mocking thy gray hairs; Thou art descending to the darksome grave, _140 Unhonoured and unpitied, but by those Whose pride is pa.s.sing by like thine, and sheds, Like thine, a glare that fades before the sun Of truth, and shines but in the dreadful night That long has lowered above the ruined world. _145

'Throughout these infinite orbs of mingling light, Of which yon earth is one, is wide diffused A Spirit of activity and life, That knows no term, cessation, or decay; That fades not when the lamp of earthly life, _150 Extinguished in the dampness of the grave, Awhile there slumbers, more than when the babe In the dim newness of its being feels The impulses of sublunary things, And all is wonder to unpractised sense: _155 But, active, steadfast, and eternal, still Guides the fierce whirlwind, in the tempest roars, Cheers in the day, breathes in the balmy groves, Strengthens in health, and poisons in disease; And in the storm of change, that ceaselessly _160 Rolls round the eternal universe, and shakes Its undecaying battlement, presides, Apportioning with irresistible law The place each spring of its machine shall fill; So that when waves on waves tumultuous heap _165 Confusion to the clouds, and fiercely driven Heaven's lightnings scorch the uprooted ocean-fords, Whilst, to the eye of shipwrecked mariner, Lone sitting on the bare and shuddering rock, All seems unlinked contingency and chance: _170 No atom of this turbulence fulfils A vague and unnecessitated task, Or acts but as it must and ought to act.

Even the minutest molecule of light, That in an April sunbeam's fleeting glow _175 Fulfils its destined, though invisible work, The universal Spirit guides; nor less, When merciless ambition, or mad zeal, Has led two hosts of dupes to battlefield, That, blind, they there may dig each other's graves, _180 And call the sad work glory, does it rule All pa.s.sions: not a thought, a will, an act, No working of the tyrant's moody mind, Nor one misgiving of the slaves who boast Their servitude, to hide the shame they feel, _185 Nor the events enchaining every will, That from the depths of unrecorded time Have drawn all-influencing virtue, pa.s.s Unrecognized, or unforeseen by thee, Soul of the Universe! eternal spring _190 Of life and death, of happiness and woe, Of all that chequers the phantasmal scene That floats before our eyes in wavering light, Which gleams but on the darkness of our prison, Whose chains and ma.s.sy walls _195 We feel, but cannot see.

'Spirit of Nature! all-sufficing Power, Necessity! thou mother of the world!

Unlike the G.o.d of human error, thou Requir'st no prayers or praises; the caprice _200 Of man's weak will belongs no more to thee Than do the changeful pa.s.sions of his breast To thy unvarying harmony: the slave, Whose horrible l.u.s.ts spread misery o'er the world, And the good man, who lifts, with virtuous pride, _205 His being, in the sight of happiness, That springs from his own works; the poison-tree Beneath whose shade all life is withered up, And the fair oak, whose leafy dome affords A temple where the vows of happy love _210 Are registered, are equal in thy sight: No love, no hate thou cherishest; revenge And favouritism, and worst desire of fame Thou know'st not: all that the wide world contains Are but thy pa.s.sive instruments, and thou _215 Regard'st them all with an impartial eye, Whose joy or pain thy nature cannot feel, Because thou hast not human sense, Because thou art not human mind.

'Yes! when the sweeping storm of time _220 Has sung its death-dirge o'er the ruined fanes And broken altars of the almighty Fiend Whose name usurps thy honours, and the blood Through centuries clotted there, has floated down The tainted flood of ages, shalt thou live _225 Unchangeable! A shrine is raised to thee, Which, nor the tempest-breath of time, Nor the interminable flood, Over earth's slight pageant rolling, Availeth to destroy,--. _230 The sensitive extension of the world.

That wondrous and eternal fane, Where pain and pleasure, good and evil join, To do the will of strong necessity, And life, in mult.i.tudinous shapes, _235 Still pressing forward where no term can be, Like hungry and unresting flame Curls round the eternal columns of its strength.'

7.

SPIRIT: 'I was an infant when my mother went To see an atheist burned. She took me there: The dark-robed priests were met around the pile; The mult.i.tude was gazing silently; And as the culprit pa.s.sed with dauntless mien, _5 Tempered disdain in his unaltering eye, Mixed with a quiet smile, shone calmly forth: The thirsty fire crept round his manly limbs; His resolute eyes were scorched to blindness soon; His death-pang rent my heart! the insensate mob _10 Uttered a cry of triumph, and I wept.

"Weep not, child!" cried my mother, "for that man Has said, There is no G.o.d."'

FAIRY: 'There is no G.o.d!

Nature confirms the faith his death-groan sealed: Let heaven and earth, let man's revolving race, _15 His ceaseless generations tell their tale; Let every part depending on the chain That links it to the whole, point to the hand That grasps its term! let every seed that falls In silent eloquence unfold its store _20 Of argument; infinity within, Infinity without, belie creation; The exterminable spirit it contains Is nature's only G.o.d; but human pride Is skilful to invent most serious names _25 To hide its ignorance.

The name of G.o.d Has fenced about all crime with holiness, Himself the creature of His worshippers, Whose names and attributes and pa.s.sions change, Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, G.o.d, or Lord, _30 Even with the human dupes who build His shrines, Still serving o'er the war-polluted world For desolation's watchword; whether hosts Stain His death-blushing chariot-wheels, as on Triumphantly they roll, whilst Brahmins raise _35 A sacred hymn to mingle with the groans; Or countless partners of His power divide His tyranny to weakness; or the smoke Of burning towns, the cries of female helplessness, Unarmed old age, and youth, and infancy, _40 Horribly ma.s.sacred, ascend to Heaven In honour of His name; or, last and worst, Earth groans beneath religion's iron age, And priests dare babble of a G.o.d of peace, Even whilst their hands are red with guiltless blood, _45 Murdering the while, uprooting every germ Of truth, exterminating, spoiling all, Making the earth a slaughter-house!

'O Spirit! through the sense By which thy inner nature was apprised _50 Of outward shows, vague dreams have rolled, And varied reminiscences have waked Tablets that never fade; All things have been imprinted there, The stars, the sea, the earth, the sky, _55 Even the unshapeliest lineaments Of wild and fleeting visions Have left a record there To testify of earth.

'These are my empire, for to me is given _60 The wonders of the human world to keep, And Fancy's thin creations to endow With manner, being, and reality; Therefore a wondrous phantom, from the dreams Of human error's dense and purblind faith, _65 I will evoke, to meet thy questioning.

Ahasuerus, rise!'

A strange and woe-worn wight Arose beside the battlement, And stood unmoving there. _70 His inessential figure cast no shade Upon the golden floor; His port and mien bore mark of many years, And chronicles of untold ancientness Were legible within his beamless eye: _75 Yet his cheek bore the mark of youth; Freshness and vigour knit his manly frame; The wisdom of old age was mingled there With youth's primaeval dauntlessness; And inexpressible woe, _80 Chastened by fearless resignation, gave An awful grace to his all-speaking brow.

SPIRIT: 'Is there a G.o.d?'

AHASUERUS: 'Is there a G.o.d!--ay, an almighty G.o.d, And vengeful as almighty! Once His voice _85 Was heard on earth: earth shuddered at the sound; The fiery-visaged firmament expressed Abhorrence, and the grave of Nature yawned To swallow all the dauntless and the good That dared to hurl defiance at His throne, _90 Girt as it was with power. None but slaves Survived,--cold-blooded slaves, who did the work Of tyrannous omnipotence; whose souls No honest indignation ever urged To elevated daring, to one deed _95 Which gross and sensual self did not pollute.

These slaves built temples for the omnipotent Fiend, Gorgeous and vast: the costly altars smoked With human blood, and hideous paeans rung Through all the long-drawn aisles. A murderer heard _100 His voice in Egypt, one whose gifts and arts Had raised him to his eminence in power, Accomplice of omnipotence in crime, And confidant of the all-knowing one.

These were Jehovah's words:-- _105

'From an eternity of idleness I, G.o.d, awoke; in seven days' toil made earth From nothing; rested, and created man: I placed him in a Paradise, and there Planted the tree of evil, so that he _110 Might eat and perish, and My soul procure Wherewith to sate its malice, and to turn, Even like a heartless conqueror of the earth, All misery to My fame. The race of men Chosen to My honour, with impunity _115 May sate the l.u.s.ts I planted in their heart.

Here I command thee hence to lead them on, Until, with hardened feet, their conquering troops Wade on the promised soil through woman's blood, And make My name be dreaded through the land. _120 Yet ever-burning flame and ceaseless woe Shall be the doom of their eternal souls, With every soul on this ungrateful earth, Virtuous or vicious, weak or strong,--even all Shall perish, to fulfil the blind revenge _125 (Which you, to men, call justice) of their G.o.d.'

The murderer's brow Quivered with horror.

'G.o.d omnipotent, Is there no mercy? must our punishment Be endless? will long ages roll away, _130 And see no term? Oh! wherefore hast Thou made In mockery and wrath this evil earth?

Mercy becomes the powerful--be but just: O G.o.d! repent and save.'

'One way remains: I will beget a Son, and He shall bear _135 The sins of all the world; He shall arise In an unnoticed corner of the earth, And there shall die upon a cross, and purge The universal crime; so that the few On whom My grace descends, those who are marked _140 As vessels to the honour of their G.o.d, May credit this strange sacrifice, and save Their souls alive: millions shall live and die, Who ne'er shall call upon their Saviour's name, But, unredeemed, go to the gaping grave. _145 Thousands shall deem it an old woman's tale, Such as the nurses frighten babes withal: These in a gulf of anguish and of flame Shall curse their reprobation endlessly, Yet tenfold pangs shall force them to avow, _150 Even on their beds of torment, where they howl, My honour, and the justice of their doom.

What then avail their virtuous deeds, their thoughts Of purity, with radiant genius bright, Or lit with human reason's earthly ray? _155 Many are called, but few will I elect.

Do thou My bidding, Moses!'

Even the murderer's cheek Was blanched with horror, and his quivering lips Scarce faintly uttered--'O almighty One, I tremble and obey!' _160

'O Spirit! centuries have set their seal On this heart of many wounds, and loaded brain, Since the Incarnate came: humbly He came, Veiling His horrible G.o.dhead in the shape Of man, scorned by the world, His name unheard, _165 Save by the rabble of His native town, Even as a parish demagogue. He led The crowd; He taught them justice, truth, and peace, In semblance; but He lit within their souls The quenchless flames of zeal, and blessed the sword _170 He brought on earth to satiate with the blood Of truth and freedom His malignant soul.

At length His mortal frame was led to death.

I stood beside Him: on the torturing cross No pain a.s.sailed His unterrestrial sense; _175 And yet He groaned. Indignantly I summed The ma.s.sacres and miseries which His name Had sanctioned in my country, and I cried, "Go! Go!" in mockery.

A smile of G.o.dlike malice reillumed _180 His fading lineaments.--"I go," He cried, "But thou shalt wander o'er the unquiet earth Eternally."--The dampness of the grave Bathed my imperishable front. I fell, And long lay tranced upon the charmed soil. _185 When I awoke h.e.l.l burned within my brain, Which staggered on its seat; for all around The mouldering relics of my kindred lay, Even as the Almighty's ire arrested them, And in their various att.i.tudes of death _190 My murdered children's mute and eyeless skulls Glared ghastily upon me.

But my soul, From sight and sense of the polluting woe Of tyranny, had long learned to prefer h.e.l.l's freedom to the servitude of Heaven. _195 Therefore I rose, and dauntlessly began My lonely and unending pilgrimage, Resolved to wage unweariable war With my almighty Tyrant, and to hurl Defiance at His impotence to harm _200 Beyond the curse I bore. The very hand That barred my pa.s.sage to the peaceful grave Has crushed the earth to misery, and given Its empire to the chosen of His slaves.

These have I seen, even from the earliest dawn _205 Of weak, unstable and precarious power, Then preaching peace, as now they practise war; So, when they turned but from the ma.s.sacre Of unoffending infidels, to quench Their thirst for ruin in the very blood _210 That flowed in their own veins, and pitiless zeal Froze every human feeling, as the wife Sheathed in her husband's heart the sacred steel, Even whilst its hopes were dreaming of her love; And friends to friends, brothers to brothers stood _215 Opposed in bloodiest battle-field, and war, Scarce satiable by fate's last death-draught, waged, Drunk from the winepress of the Almighty's wrath; Whilst the red cross, in mockery of peace, Pointed to victory! When the fray was done, _220 No remnant of the exterminated faith Survived to tell its ruin, but the flesh, With putrid smoke poisoning the atmosphere, That rotted on the half-extinguished pile.

'Yes! I have seen G.o.d's worshippers unsheathe _225 The sword of His revenge, when grace descended, Confirming all unnatural impulses, To sanctify their desolating deeds; And frantic priests waved the ill-omened cross O'er the unhappy earth: then shone the sun _230 On showers of gore from the upflashing steel Of safe a.s.sa.s.sination, and all crime Made stingless by the Spirits of the Lord, And blood-red rainbows canopied the land.

'Spirit, no year of my eventful being _235 Has pa.s.sed unstained by crime and misery, Which flows from G.o.d's own faith. I've marked His slaves With tongues whose lies are venomous, beguile The insensate mob, and, whilst one hand was red With murder, feign to stretch the other out _240 For brotherhood and peace; and that they now Babble of love and mercy, whilst their deeds Are marked with all the narrowness and crime That Freedom's young arm dare not yet chastise, Reason may claim our grat.i.tude, who now _245 Establishing the imperishable throne Of truth, and stubborn virtue, maketh vain The unprevailing malice of my Foe, Whose bootless rage heaps torments for the brave, Adds impotent eternities to pain, _250 Whilst keenest disappointment racks His breast To see the smiles of peace around them play, To frustrate or to sanctify their doom.

'Thus have I stood,--through a wild waste of years Struggling with whirlwinds of mad agony, _255 Yet peaceful, and serene, and self-enshrined, Mocking my powerless Tyrant's horrible curse With stubborn and unalterable will, Even as a giant oak, which Heaven's fierce flame Had scathed in the wilderness, to stand _260 A monument of fadeless ruin there; Yet peacefully and movelessly it braves The midnight conflict of the wintry storm, As in the sunlight's calm it spreads Its worn and withered arms on high _265 To meet the quiet of a summer's noon.'

The Fairy waved her wand: Ahasuerus fled Fast as the shapes of mingled shade and mist, That lurk in the glens of a twilight grove, _270 Flee from the morning beam: The matter of which dreams are made Not more endowed with actual life Than this phantasmal portraiture Of wandering human thought. _275

NOTE: _180 reillumined edition 1813.

8.

THE FAIRY: 'The Present and the Past thou hast beheld: It was a desolate sight. Now, Spirit, learn The secrets of the Future.--Time!

Unfold the brooding pinion of thy gloom, Render thou up thy half-devoured babes, _5 And from the cradles of eternity, Where millions lie lulled to their portioned sleep By the deep murmuring stream of pa.s.sing things, Tear thou that gloomy shroud.--Spirit, behold Thy glorious destiny!' _10

Joy to the Spirit came.

Through the wide rent in Time's eternal veil, Hope was seen beaming through the mists of fear: Earth was no longer h.e.l.l; Love, freedom, health, had given _15 Their ripeness to the manhood of its prime, And all its pulses beat Symphonious to the planetary spheres: Then dulcet music swelled Concordant with the life-strings of the soul; _20 It throbbed in sweet and languid beatings there, Catching new life from transitory death,-- Like the vague sighings of a wind at even, That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering sea And dies on the creation of its breath, _25 And sinks and rises, fails and swells by fits: Was the pure stream of feeling That sprung from these sweet notes, And o'er the Spirit's human sympathies With mild and gentle motion calmly flowed. _30

Joy to the Spirit came,-- Such joy as when a lover sees The chosen of his soul in happiness, And witnesses her peace Whose woe to him were bitterer than death, _35 Sees her unfaded cheek Glow mantling in first luxury of health, Thrills with her lovely eyes, Which like two stars amid the heaving main Sparkle through liquid bliss. _40

Then in her triumph spoke the Fairy Queen: 'I will not call the ghost of ages gone To unfold the frightful secrets of its lore; The present now is past, And those events that desolate the earth _45 Have faded from the memory of Time, Who dares not give reality to that Whose being I annul. To me is given The wonders of the human world to keep, s.p.a.ce, matter, time, and mind. Futurity _50 Exposes now its treasure; let the sight Renew and strengthen all thy failing hope.

O human Spirit! spur thee to the goal Where virtue fixes universal peace, And midst the ebb and flow of human things, _55 Show somewhat stable, somewhat certain still, A lighthouse o'er the wild of dreary waves.

'The habitable earth is full of bliss; Those wastes of frozen billows that were hurled By everlasting snowstorms round the poles, _60 Where matter dared not vegetate or live, But ceaseless frost round the vast solitude Bound its broad zone of stillness, are unloosed; And fragrant zephyrs there from spicy isles Ruffle the placid ocean-deep, that rolls _65 Its broad, bright surges to the sloping sand, Whose roar is wakened into echoings sweet To murmur through the Heaven-breathing groves And melodize with man's blest nature there.

'Those deserts of immeasurable sand, _70 Whose age-collected fervours scarce allowed A bird to live, a blade of gra.s.s to spring, Where the shrill chirp of the green lizard's love Broke on the sultry silentness alone, Now teem with countless rills and shady woods, _75 Cornfields and pastures and white cottages; And where the startled wilderness beheld A savage conqueror stained in kindred blood, A tigress sating with the flesh of lambs The unnatural famine of her toothless cubs, _80 Whilst shouts and howlings through the desert rang, Sloping and smooth the daisy-spangled lawn, Offering sweet incense to the sunrise, smiles To see a babe before his mother's door, Sharing his morning's meal _85 With the green and golden basilisk That comes to lick his feet.

'Those trackless deeps, where many a weary sail Has seen above the illimitable plain, Morning on night, and night on morning rise, _90 Whilst still no land to greet the wanderer spread Its shadowy mountains on the sun-bright sea, Where the loud roarings of the tempest-waves So long have mingled with the gusty wind In melancholy loneliness, and swept _95 The desert of those ocean solitudes, But vocal to the sea-bird's harrowing shriek, The bellowing monster, and the rushing storm, Now to the sweet and many-mingling sounds Of kindliest human impulses respond. _100 Those lonely realms bright garden-isles begem, With lightsome clouds and shining seas between, And fertile valleys, resonant with bliss, Whilst green woods overcanopy the wave, Which like a toil-worn labourer leaps to sh.o.r.e, _105 To meet the kisses of the flow'rets there.

'All things are recreated, and the flame Of consentaneous love inspires all life: The fertile bosom of the earth gives suck To myriads, who still grow beneath her care, _110 Rewarding her with their pure perfectness: The balmy breathings of the wind inhale Her virtues, and diffuse them all abroad: Health floats amid the gentle atmosphere, Glows in the fruits, and mantles on the stream: _115 No storms deform the beaming brow of Heaven, Nor scatter in the freshness of its pride The foliage of the ever-verdant trees; But fruits are ever ripe, flowers ever fair, And Autumn proudly bears her matron grace, _120 Kindling a flush on the fair cheek of Spring, Whose virgin bloom beneath the ruddy fruit Reflects its tint, and blushes into love.

'The lion now forgets to thirst for blood: There might you see him sporting in the sun _125 Beside the dreadless kid; his claws are sheathed, His teeth are harmless, custom's force has made His nature as the nature of a lamb.

Like pa.s.sion's fruit, the nightshade's tempting bane Poisons no more the pleasure it bestows: _130 All bitterness is past; the cup of joy Unmingled mantles to the goblet's brim, And courts the thirsty lips it fled before.

'But chief, ambiguous Man, he that can know More misery, and dream more joy than all; _135 Whose keen sensations thrill within his breast To mingle with a loftier instinct there, Lending their power to pleasure and to pain, Yet raising, sharpening, and refining each; Who stands amid the ever-varying world, _140 The burthen or the glory of the earth; He chief perceives the change, his being notes The gradual renovation, and defines Each movement of its progress on his mind.

'Man, where the gloom of the long polar night _145 Lowers o'er the snow-clad rocks and frozen soil, Where scarce the hardiest herb that braves the frost Basks in the moonlight's ineffectual glow, Shrank with the plants, and darkened with the night; His chilled and narrow energies, his heart, _150 Insensible to courage, truth, or love, His stunted stature and imbecile frame, Marked him for some abortion of the earth, Fit compeer of the bears that roamed around, Whose habits and enjoyments were his own: _155 His life a feverish dream of stagnant woe, Whose meagre wants, but scantily fulfilled, Apprised him ever of the joyless length Which his short being's wretchedness had reached; His death a pang which famine, cold and toil _160 Long on the mind, whilst yet the vital spark Clung to the body stubbornly, had brought: All was inflicted here that Earth's revenge Could wreak on the infringers of her law; One curse alone was spared--the name of G.o.d. _165

'Nor where the tropics bound the realms of day With a broad belt of mingling cloud and flame, Where blue mists through the unmoving atmosphere Scattered the seeds of pestilence, and fed Unnatural vegetation, where the land _170 Teemed with all earthquake, tempest and disease, Was Man a n.o.bler being; slavery Had crushed him to his country's bloodstained dust; Or he was bartered for the fame of power, Which all internal impulses destroying, _175 Makes human will an article of trade; Or he was changed with Christians for their gold, And dragged to distant isles, where to the sound Of the flesh-mangling scourge, he does the work Of all-polluting luxury and wealth, _180 Which doubly visits on the tyrants' heads The long-protracted fulness of their woe; Or he was led to legal butchery, To turn to worms beneath that burning sun, Where kings first leagued against the rights of men, _185 And priests first traded with the name of G.o.d.

'Even where the milder zone afforded Man A seeming shelter, yet contagion there, Blighting his being with unnumbered ills, Spread like a quenchless fire; nor truth till late _190 Availed to arrest its progress, or create That peace which first in bloodless victory waved Her snowy standard o'er this favoured clime: There man was long the train-bearer of slaves, The mimic of surrounding misery, _195 The jackal of ambition's lion-rage, The bloodhound of religion's hungry zeal.

'Here now the human being stands adorning This loveliest earth with taintless body and mind; Blessed from his birth with all bland impulses, _200 Which gently in his n.o.ble bosom wake All kindly pa.s.sions and all pure desires.

Him, still from hope to hope the bliss pursuing Which from the exhaustless lore of human weal Dawns on the virtuous mind, the thoughts that rise _205 In time-destroying infiniteness, gift With self-enshrined eternity, that mocks The unprevailing h.o.a.riness of age, And man, once fleeting o'er the transient scene Swift as an unremembered vision, stands _210 Immortal upon earth: no longer now He slays the lamb that looks him in the face, And horribly devours his mangled flesh, Which, still avenging Nature's broken law, Kindled all putrid humours in his frame, _215 All evil pa.s.sions, and all vain belief, Hatred, despair, and loathing in his mind, The germs of misery, death, disease, and crime.

No longer now the winged habitants, That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,-- _220 Flee from the form of man; but gather round, And prune their sunny feathers on the hands Which little children stretch in friendly sport Towards these dreadless partners of their play.

All things are void of terror: Man has lost _225 His terrible prerogative, and stands An equal amidst equals: happiness And science dawn though late upon the earth; Peace cheers the mind, health renovates the frame; Disease and pleasure cease to mingle here, _230 Reason and pa.s.sion cease to combat there; Whilst each unfettered o'er the earth extend Their all-subduing energies, and wield The sceptre of a vast dominion there; Whilst every shape and mode of matter lends _235 Its force to the omnipotence of mind, Which from its dark mine drags the gem of truth To decorate its Paradise of peace.'