University of Virginia Library


272

X. FRESCOES BY MASACCIO, AT FLORENCE.

Well hast thou judged that sentence, ‘Had ye Faith,
Ye could move mountains.’ In those forms I see
What God at first created man to be;
His image crowned, triumphant over death.
Born of that Word which never perisheth
Those Prophets here resume the empery
By sin in Eden lost. Their eye, their breath
Cancels disease; lays prone the anarchy
Of Passion's fiercest waves. Secret as Fate,
Like Fate's the powers they wield are infinite:
Their very thoughts are laws: their will is weight:
On as they move in majesty and might
The demons yield their prey, the graves their dead:
And to her centre Earth is conscious of their tread.