Voice of the SECOND SPIRIT.

Mont Blanc is the monarch of mountains, They crown'd him long ago

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow.

Around his waist are forests braced,

The Avalanche in his hand;

But ere it fall, that thundering ball

Must pause for my

command.

The Glacier's cold and restless mass
Moves on..ard day by day;
But I am he who bids it pass,
Or with its ice delay.

I am the spirit of the place,

Could make the mountain bow And quiver to his cavern'd base

And what with me wouldst Thou?

Voice of the THIRD SPIRIT. In the blue depth of the waters, Where the wave hath no strife, Where the wind is a stranger,

And the sea-snake hath life, Where the Mermaid is decking Her green hair with shells;

Like the storm on the surface

Came the sound of thy spells;

The fleet I met sail'd well, and yet
"Twill sink ere night be past.

SIXTH SPIRIT.

My dwelling is the shadow of the night, Why doth thy magic torture me with light?

SEVENTH SPIRIT.

The star which rules thy destiny,
Was ruled, ere earth began, by me:
It was a world as fresh and fair
As e'er revolved round sun in air ;
Its course was free and regular,
Space bosom'd not a lovelier star.
The hour arrived-and it became
A wandering mass of shapeless flame,
A pathless comet, and a curse,
The menace of the universe;

Still rolling on with innate force,
Without a sphere, without a course,
A bright deformity on high,
The monster of the upper sky!

And thou! beneath its influence born-
Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn-
Forced by a power (which is not thine,
And lent thee but to make thee mine)

For this brief moment to descend,

Where these weak spirits round thee bend
And parley with a thing like thee-

What wouldst thou, Child of Clay! with me?

The SEVEN SPIRITS.

Earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, thy star, Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay! Before thee at thy quest their spirits are

What wouldst thou with us, son of mortals-say?

MAN. Forgetfulness

FIRST SPIRIT. Of what-of whom-and why? MAN. Of that which is within me; read it thereYe know it, and I cannot utter it.

SPIRIT. We can but give thee that which we possess: Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power O'er earth, the whole, or portion, or a sign Which shall control the elements, whereof We are the dominators, each and all, These shall be thine.

MAN. Oblivion, self-oblivion

Can

ye

not wring from out the hidden realms

Ye offer so profusely what I ask?

SPIRIT. It is not in our essence,

But-thou mayst die.

in our skill;

MAN. Will death bestow it on me?

SPIRIT. We are immortal, and do not forget; We are eternal; and to us the past

Is, as the future, present. Art thou answer'd? MAN. Ye mock mee-but the power which brought

ye here

Hath made you mine. Slaves, scoff not at my will!
The mind, the spirit, the Promethean spark,

The lightning of my being, is as bright,
Pervading, and far-darting as your own,

And shall not yield to yours, though coop'd in clay!
Answer, or I will teach ye what I am.

SPIRIT. We answer as we answer'd; our reply Is even in thine own words.

ΜΑΝ.

Why say ye so?

SPIRIT. If, as thou say'st, thine essence be as ours,

We have replied in telling thee, the thing

Mortals call death hath nought to do with us.

MAN. I then have call'd ye from your realms in

vain;

Ye cannot, or ye will not, aid me.

SPIRIT.

Say;

What we possess we offer; it is thine:

Bethink ere thou dismiss us, ask again—

Kingdom, and sway, and strength, and length of

days