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Haply it was but Nature:--she bestows Intuitive preception, and while art O'ertasks himself with guile, loves to disclose The dark soul in the eye, to warn th' o'ertrusting heart.
LXII.
Zophiel, howe'er the warning came, was foiled What torments burned in his unearthly breast!
The while her trembling hand--untouched, recoiled, That, wild, exulting glance, the wily fiend confest.
LXIII.
Faintly he spoke--"'Tis Meles' step I here, Guilty thou know'st him--wilt receive him still?"-- The rosy blood driven to her heart by fear She said, in accents faint, but firm, "I will."
LXIV.
The spirit heard; and all again was dark; Save, as before, the melancholy flame Of the full moon; and faint, unfrequent spark Which from the perfume's burning embers came.
That stood in vases round the room disposed; Shuddering and trembling to her couch she crept,-- Soft oped the door and quick again was closed, And thro' the pale grey moon-light Meles stept.
LXV.
But ere he yet, in haste, could throw aside His broidered belt and sandals--dread to [illegible]
Eager he sprang--he sought to clasp his bride-- He stopt--a groan was heard--he gasped and fell
LXVI.
Low by the couch of her who widowed lay Her ivory hands convulsive clasped in prayer, But lacking power to move; and when 'twas day, A cold black corse was all of Meles, there.
END OF THE FIRST CANTO.
NOTES.
(1) _Wandered malignant o'er the erring earth._
This pa.s.sage and, indeed the whole poem, is founded on a belief, prevalent in the earlier ages of christianity, that all nations, except the descendents of Abraham, were abandoned by the Almighty, and subjected to the power of daemons or evil spirits. Fontenelle in his _"Histoire des Oracles"_ makes the following extract from the works of the Pagan philosopher Porphyry.
"Auguste deja vieux and songeant a se choisir un successeur, alla consulter l'oracle de Delphes. L'oracle ne repondoit point, quiqu 'Auguste n'epargnat pas de sacrifices. A la fin, cependant, il en tira cette reponse. L'enfant Hebreu a qui tous les Dieux obeissent, me cha.s.se d'ici, and me ronvoie dans les Enfers. Sors de ce temple sans parler."
(2) _While friendly shades the sacred rites enshroud._
The captive Jews, though they sometimes outwardly conformed to the religion of their oppressors, were accustomed to practice their own in secret.
(3) _When fiercer spirits howled, he but complained._
So Milton. Others more mild retreated to a silent valley singing, With notes angelical, to many a harp, Their own heroic deeds and hapless fall.
(4) _Weary he fainted thro' the toilsome hours, And then his mystic nature he sustained On steam of sacrifices, breath of flowers._
Eusebe dans sa "Preparation Evangelique" raporte quant.i.te de pa.s.sages de Porphyre, ou ce philosophe Payen a.s.sure que les mauvais demons sont les auteurs des enchantemens, des philtres, et des malefices; que le mensonge est essentiel a leur nature; qu'ils ne font que tromper nos yeux par des spectres et par des fautomes; qu'ils excitent en nous la plupart de nos pa.s.sions; qu'ils ont l'ambition de vouloir pa.s.ser pour des dieux; que leurs corps _aeriens se nourissent_ de _fumigations de sand repandu et de la graisse des sacrifices;_ qu'il n'y a qu'eux qui se melent de rendre des oracles, et a qui cette fonction pleine de tromperic soit tombee en partage.
_Fontenelle, Historie des Oracles._
_Still true To one dear theme, my full soul flowing o'er Would find no room for thought of what it knew (5) Nor picturing forfeit transport curse me more._
Si l'homme (says a modern writer) constant dans ses affections, pouvoit saus cesse fournir a un sentiment renouvele sans cesse, sans doute la solitude and l'amour l'egaleroient a Dieu meme; car ce sont la les deux eternel plaisirs du gran Etre.
A celebrated female, (Saint Theresa) used to describe Satan as an unhappy being, who never could know what it was to love.
(6) _And o'er her sense as when the fond night bird Woos the full rose o'erpowering fragrance stole._
This allusion must be familiar to every general reader of poetry.
"The nightingale if he sees the rose becomes intoxicated; he lets go from his hand the reins prudence."
_Fable of the Gardener and Nightingale._
Lady Montague also translates a song, if my memory does not deceive me, thus,
"The nightingale now hovers amid the flowers, her pa.s.sion is to seek roses."
And from the poet Hafiz,
