O'er my calm Hall of Coral

The deep echo roll'dTo the Spirit of Ocean Thy wishes unfold!

FOURTH SPIRIT.

Where the slumbering earthquake
Lies pillow'd on fire,

And the lakes of bitumen
Rise boilingly higher;
Where the roots of the Andes
Strike deep in the earth,

As their summits to heaven

Shoot soaringly forth;

I have quitted my birthplace,
Thy bidding to bide—
Thy spell hath subdued me,
Thy will be my guide!

FIFTH SPIRIT.

I am the Rider of the wind,
The Stirrer of the storm;

The hurricane I left behind

Is yet with lightning warm;

To speed to thee, o'er shore and sea I swept upon the blast:

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, in our skill; But-thou mayst die.

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 me-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.

MAN.

Why say ye so?

SPIRIT. If, as thon 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

MAN. Accursed! what have I to do with days? They are too long already.-Hence-begone! SPIRIT. Yet pause: being here, our will would do thee service;

Bethink thee, is there then no other gift

Which we can make not worthless in thine eyes? MAN. No, none: yet stay-one moment, ere we part

I would behold ye face to face. I hear
Your voices, sweet and melancholy sounds,
As music on the waters; and I see
The steady aspect of a clear large star;
But nothing more. Approach me as ye are,
Or one, or all, in your accustom'd forms.

SPIRIT. We have no forms beyond the elements
Of which we are the mind and principle:
But choose a form-in that we will appear.

MAN. I have no choice; there is no form on earth
Hideous or beautiful to me.
Let him,

Who is most powerful of ye, take such aspect

As unto him may seem most fitting.-Come! SEVENTH SPIRIT. (Appearing in the shape of a beautiful female figure.) Behold!

MAN. Oh God! if it be thus, and thou

Art not a madness and a mockery,

I yet might be most happy.-I will clasp thee,