Canto I.]
Orion.
43
Why joined I in the mirth?—how was I lost!
But when a regulated mind sedate,
Its perfect poise permits to waver aside
One tittle, certainly the man must fall
Somewhat in dignity, howe'er retrieved.
Hence, when a regulated"—Here his speech
Autarces interrupted hastily,
Since, for his share, no self-reproach felt he.
"I say the orgie, and his high disport,
Shewed in Orion some return to sense:
And when next morn I saw him near a brook,
Where I had stooped to drink—by him unseen—
Down ran he like a panther close pursued,
Then stopped and listened—now looked up on high—
Now stared into the brook as he would drink,
And drain its ripplings to the last white stone—
Then went away forgetful. This methought,
E'en by its wildness and its strenuous throes,
Savoured of hope, and of his safe return
To corporal sense, by shaking off these nets
Of moon-beams from his soul; but when I rose
And crossed his path, and bade him speak to me,
Again 'twas all of vapour and dark thoughts,
Unlike the natural thoughts of bone and thews,
But when a regulated mind sedate,
Its perfect poise permits to waver aside
One tittle, certainly the man must fall
Somewhat in dignity, howe'er retrieved.
Hence, when a regulated"—Here his speech
Autarces interrupted hastily,
Since, for his share, no self-reproach felt he.
"I say the orgie, and his high disport,
Shewed in Orion some return to sense:
And when next morn I saw him near a brook,
Where I had stooped to drink—by him unseen—
Down ran he like a panther close pursued,
Then stopped and listened—now looked up on high—
Now stared into the brook as he would drink,
And drain its ripplings to the last white stone—
Then went away forgetful. This methought,
E'en by its wildness and its strenuous throes,
Savoured of hope, and of his safe return
To corporal sense, by shaking off these nets
Of moon-beams from his soul; but when I rose
And crossed his path, and bade him speak to me,
Again 'twas all of vapour and dark thoughts,
Unlike the natural thoughts of bone and thews,
