Fear will spurn with atheist foot the altar of Justice, and meet with certain retribution.
Strophe.
"But who unforced, with spirit free
Dares to be just, is ne'er unblest;
Whelmed utterly he cannot be:
But for the wretch with lawless breast,
Bold seizer of promiscuous prey,—
I warn you,—he, perforce, his sail
Shall strike amid the conquering gale,
When shrouds and yards dismasted own its sway."
Antistrophe.
"He cries, but 'mid the whirlpool's roar
None heeds him; for the gods deride
Eyeing the boaster, proud no more,
Struggling amid the surging tide;
Shorn of his strength he yields to Fate;—
The cape he weathers not, but thrown
On Justice' reef, with precious freight,
He perisheth for aye, unwept, unknown."
As this ode is ended the scene is changed again, and we are on Mars Hill, the Areopagus itself; and Pallas enters at the head of twelve Athenian citizens, the judges of the new tribunal. In that vacant space upon the floor of the theatre, in the centre of which the altar stands, these Areopagites take their places, sitting in semicircle just inside that lowest range of the spectators' seats on which are the magistrates of Athens. They are not separated far from the spectators; for in this grand final scene the whole Athenian
