Results  from  our  own  intellectual  force ; —
What  warrants  thee  predicting  force  shall  whelm
Our  regal  state  with  ruin,  in  the  course
Of  spiritual  duration,  and  disrealrn
Hades  of  kings,  humble  the  trophied  helm
Of  all  her  myriad  heroes,  and  exalt
The  serfs  of  her  mysterious  penal  realm
To  equal  state,  never  to  know  default
Or  end,  beneath  the  glory  of  this  gem-pi  ankt  vault  ?

cxxn.
What  canst  thou  know, — though  intellection  deep
Be  thine, — that  we  know  not  ?     Thou  shar'st  our  pain,
When  pain  returns.     If  o'er  thy  essence  sweep
Like  woes  with  ours,  how  doth  to  thee  pertain
Superior  potency  ?     Lacon,  explain
Thy  bold  vaticinations, — or,  henceforth,
Expect  from  kingly  spirits  naught  disdain
And  dumb  contempt,  or  tempest  of  their  mirth,  [birth  !
When  to  more  dark-wombed  wonders  thou  giv'st  dreaming


So  spake  the  soul  of  Mithridates,  while
Awe  or  approving  silence  held  the  Thrones
Who  in  that  mystic  clime  of  self-exile
Kept  disembodied  pomp  of  glistering  crowns
And  lustrous  sceptres.     Veiled  with  gloom  of  frowns,
Or  lit  with  eagerness,  each  visage  seemed,
Now,  on  the  Spartan  fixt.     Soft  spirit  tones
Of  suasiveness,  soon,  from  his  essence  streamed;
And  thus,  of  past  and  future  life,  he  calmly  themed  :


42  THE    PURGATORY

CXX1V.
Spirits  of  Men,  with  reverence  whom  I  hail
And  with  fraternal  love — albeit  I  deem
These  sculptured  blazonries  a  vision  frail, —
Or,  like  their  antitypes  on  earth,  a  dream, —
For  that  your  high  Humanity  supreme,
I  judge,  o'er  names  and  empty  pomps ; — forbear
To  count  me  fabling  fantast, — and  beteem  [35]
Me,  shunning  mortal  passion,  to  declare
My  thought,  by  spiritual  tongue  auxiliar.
cxxv.
