Heathen mythology, Illustrated by extracts from the most celebrated writers, both ancient and modern. Various

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СКАЧАТЬ the Omnipotent: as yon clear lamps,

      That measure and divide the weary years

      From which there is no refuge, long have taught

      And long must teach. Even now the Torturer arms

      With the strange might of unimagined pains

      The powers who scheme slow agonies in hell;

      And my commission is to lead them here,

      Or what more subtle, foul, or savage fiends

      People the abyss, and leave them to their task.

      Oh that we might be spared: I to inflict,

      And thou to suffer! once more answer me:

      Thou knowest not the period of Jove's power?

      Prometheus. I know but this, that it must come.

      First Fury. Prometheus!

      Second Fury. Immortal Titan!

      Third Fury. Champion of Heaven's slaves!

      Pro. He whom some dreadful voice invokes is here,

      Prometheus, the chained Titan. Horrible forms,

      Whence and what are ye? Never yet there came

      

      Phantasms so foul thro' monster-teeming hell,

      From the all miscreative brain of Jove;

      Whilst I behold such execrable shapes,

      Methinks I grow like what I contemplate,

      And laugh and stare in loathsome sympathy.

      First Fury. We are ministers of pain, and fear,

      And disappointment, and mistrust, and hate,

      And clinging crime; and, as lean dogs pursue

      Thro' wood and lake some struck and sobbing fawn,

      We track all things that weep, and bleed, and live,

      When the great king betrays them to our will.

      Pro. Oh! many fearful natures in one name,

      I know ye; and these lakes and echoes know

      The darkness and the clangour of your wings.

      But why more hideous than your loathed selves

      Gather ye up in legions from the deep!

      Second Fury. We knew not that: Sisters, rejoice! rejoice!

      Pro. Can aught exult in its deformity?

      Second Fury. The beauty of delight makes lovers glad,

      Gazing on one another: so are we,

      As from the rose which the pale priestess kneels

      To gather for a festal crown of flowers,

      The aërial crimson falls, flushing her cheek,

      So from our victim's destined agony,

      The shade which is our form invests us round;

      Else we are shapeless as our mother night.

      Pro. I laugh your power, and his who sent you here,

      To lowest scorn. Pour forth the cup of pain.

      First Fury. Thou thinkest we will rend thee bone from bone,

      And nerve from nerve, working like fire within!

      Pro. Pain is my element, as hate is thine;

      Ye rend me now; I care not.

      Second Fury. Dost imagine

      We will but laugh into thy lidless eyes?

      Pro. I weigh not what ye do, but what ye suffer,

      Being evil. Cruel is the power which called

      You, or aught else so wretched into light!

      Third Fury. Thou think'st we will live through thee one by one,

      Like animal life, and though we can obscure not

      The soul which burns within, that we will dwell

      Beside it, like a vain, loud multitude,

      Vexing the self-content of wisest men:

      That we will be dread thought beneath thy brain,

      And foul desire round thine astonished heart,

      And blood within thy labyrinthine veins,

      Crawling like agony.

      Pro. Why use me thus now,

      Yet am I king over my self's rule,

      The torturing and conflicting throes within,

      As Jove rules you when hell grows mutinous."

      Shelley.

      This provoked the vengeance of Jupiter, and he ordered Vulcan to create a female, whom they called Pandora. All the Gods vied in making presents. Venus gave her beauty, and the art of pleasing; Apollo taught her to sing; Mercury instructed her in eloquence; Minerva gave her the most rich and splendid ornaments. From these valuable presents which she received from the Gods, the woman was called Pandora, which intimates that she had received every necessary gift. Jupiter, after this, gave her a beautiful box, which she was ordered to present to the man who married her; and by the command of the god, Mercury conducted her to Prometheus. The artful mortal was sensible of the deceit; and as he had always distrusted Jupiter, he sent away Pandora without suffering himself to be captivated by her charms.

      "He spoke, and told to Mulciber his will,

      And smiling bade him his command fulfil;

      To use his greatest art, his nicest care,

      To frame a creature exquisitely fair;

      To temper well the clay with water, then

      To add the vigour and the voice of men;

      To let her first in virgin lustre shine,

      In СКАЧАТЬ