University of Virginia Library

[Scene I.]

Scene—The Temple of Vesta , or the Earth at Jericho. Time—The Evening.
RAMIEL, ASMODIA, NERGAL, and other Spirits of the Earth, Air, Water and Fire.
Rami.
With luckiest policy, Demonian powers!
In seeming resignation we have left
Our old distinguished, throne where long the world
Ador'd us, by the name of heroes old
And stellar virtues; this confirms our sway
Thro' all the limits of our old domain
Under proud appellations new bestow'd
By seeming sapient man: a general name
On us our slaves impose, of nature, power
(Never beginning, never doom'd to end)
Of this great mundane mass, upholding all
Itself upheld by nothing. Still the crowd
('Tis true) beneath our old heroic names
Our deities adore; but wiser men
Whose grey-hair'd prudence wield the state at will,
Tho' they support our worship and pretend
A reverence for our vulgar names, renown'd
Among the people, yet, by reasoning pride
Misled, but more by vice, have found a Power
Irrational prolific, which sustains
The varying forms of this prodigious mass
With eyeless bounty, undistinguished love
To merit or demerit, good or ill.
Hence are they freed from every anxious dread
Of coming retribution, and indulge
In lust and hard oppression, at their ease,
As youth or age the varying gust inspires.—
This bounteous mother here, with secret rites
The nobles worship, rites to none disclos'd,
But to th'initiate; Night shall soon behold
Some youths of noblest name admitted here
To share the knowledge of these mystic things
The vulgar must not know. The herd, which tills
The soil, and sweats beneath the noonday load
(Hewn from the quarry, and with labour borne
To lift yon bulwarks high against the foe)
These slaves have lost their freedom and their worth,
Bondmen alike in body and in mind,
They bear no mark of their great origin
Celestial, but the upright form, unless
Some bitter tears, when bondage wrings their souls
Forgotten soon, when in the sacred fane
The festive noise of jocund minstrelsie
Proclaims nocturnal orgies, when the powers
Of music, love and wine patrol our groves.
Then every tie of kindred, and of law
Dissolve beneath the musky hand, unfelt
Of midnight and her hell-born hags, who spy
With horrid glee, such sights as blast the morn
And check almost the sempiternal wheel
Of mundane things. Thus tho' our names be lost
Our old imperial names, among the great,
Our Empire o'er the minds of these proud peers
Under the favourite name of Nature, holds
With links more durable than adamant,
By the smooth sophistry of vice confirm'd.—
But these invaders from the banks of Nile
Must be provided for, therefore your aid
Ye spirits of the mingling elements!
Earth, air and water, and the rage of fire
I claim, how best your subjects to confirm
In their allegiance, by what charms to lift
Their ductile minds above the slavish dread
Of these fell rovers of the burning waste
To whose strange minstrelsie the rivers dance
In uncouth measures to the wond'ring clouds
And seem to dash the moon!

Ner.
More need have we
To keep the crowd from wild revolt, enflam'd
By their oppression, and bent down, like beasts,
Prone to their mother earth!

Asm.
The self same skill
Will serve to manage both, if any skill
Be needful, where themselves (if to themselves
Resign'd) will still hold out, if not against
The warriours steel, against the rigid law
That combates with their vices. On our power
We build too much, and with a fruitless care
(Which this occasion calls not) labour on
Still to deprave the self-deprav'd.—The powers
Of habit who denies? It gives to vice
Or virtue, as it chances each to aid
A nerve of steel, insuperably strong!
The mind, by heaven illumin'd, and confirm'd
In virtuous habits, tho' the welkin frown
Tho' friends forsake him, tho' yon elements
Conspire against him, yet, elated high
Above the small annoyance, wafts aside
The pigmy war, with calm, unruffled brow
And easy effort, like the shepherd swain
Whose gentle slumbers by an evening cloud
Of buzzing flies, is broke.—Nor less the soul
Whom deeds of darkness keep in thraldom sure,
Tho' nature, all alarm'd, with thund'ring peal
Clamours at every port of sense, which gives
An inlet to the mind, tho' clouds distil
Ambrosial food, tho' Neptune's surge invades
The rampires of the sky, and lifts their waves
In proud defiance to the fighting winds
Tho' Jordan's waters fly before the foot
Of heaven's proud favourites to the parent spring
In hoarse retreat, and send from hill to hill
The solemn warning to the nations round
To leave their crimes, the soul by habit fixt
In vice, her whole attention draws within
And lets the civil war of elements
In all their wond'rous transmutations, rage
Without, unheeded.—Hence the glimmering lamp
Of conscience at the last goes out, unfed
By this external nourishment, bereft
By tyrant vice, of that immaculate oil
Which reason breeds within—then leave the sons
Of Canaan to themselves, while lust survives
To rule the young, while selfishness and love
Of gold, inveterate grown, by thirst of sway
Enslaves the old, ye have no need to fear
A partner in your reign.

Ner.
But then, at last
What have we to expect, but to behold
(All impotent to save), our vassals, made
Public examples of cælestial wrath?

Asm.
Let them!—for such the strange variety
Of human character, that, tho' a few
May take the warning, and renounce their crimes
A greater number still will brave the hand
Uplifted to destroy, for, such was still
The consequence, even when the sentenc'd walls
Of Sodom flam'd, and such will ever be
While man is man, the sport of every breeze
The slave of habit, tho' his will be free
To chuse or to refuse his weal or woe.—
Meantime, tho' our great foe invades our bounds
With partial inroade, and alarms our states
Here on the frontier, yet our central hold
Of darkness, still his utmost power defies.—

Ner.
Who, at the last result, will gain the palm,
To what those various-fortun'd tribes of men
Are yet reserv'd, who knows?

Asm.
And how are we
Concern'd? our empire still survives and grows
With still advancing bounds, except alone
Those desart wanderers from the banks of Nile.

Rami.
And we must be provided to receive
These wanderers from the Nile, altho' heaven's hand
Fights for them, and our elemental walk
On their account, is hem'd in narrower bounds—
Yet we have room within the cavern'd world
Below, to range at pleasure, to explore
Her secret hoards, and thence, for our avail
No despicable aid may be procur'd.
Be it your province, Asmodai! to range
The subterranean world, with your compeers
And all the fragrant families that drink
In those green vales, and winding borders long
Or on the lofty hill's aerial brow
The salutary lymph, quintessence pure
Of health, which, mingling their ambrosial stores
Bid the eye sparkle, and the spirits dance
New brace the fine, corporeal chords, whose tone
Respondent to the movements of the mind
Chimes in glad unison, till all within
And all without is harmony and health,
High confidence, heroic energy
Of mind and body. Hence collect with care
The steaming soul of all the verdant tribes
Salubrious, that adorn th'enamel'd sod,
Or from the hill perfume the morning gale,
With them, commingle, sever, and distill
Each hidden virtue, each quintessence pure
Chalybeate, or saline, gem or stone,
With those exhal'd, sublim'd, or mixt with care
Or single (as requir'd) be the pure breath
Of morn impregnate, and this evening breeze
That whispers thro' yon palms, and bend their boughs
In gentle salutation; Thence the Peers
Of Canaan, as they bend before the shrine
Of the prime mother Vesta, nature's queen
Will think these emanations pure ascend
By her benignant order, to inspire
Elated thought, that spurns the mundane stage
And soaring, leaves behind the feeble dread
Of chance or change, of conquest or of death!—
Then shall they hymn the bounteous Power that gives
The transitory boon of sensual joy,
And short dominion, with a louder lay
Of triumph o'er their wand'ring foes, who camp
Among the rocks of Gilgal. Should the sons
Of vagrant Israel send their proud demand
With choice of conquest or submission, soon
With high contempt the message will be hurl'd
In proud defiance back.

[Exeunt Asmodai and other Spirits.