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A DRAMA OF EXILE.
And let you through to mercy. Ye shall fall No more, within that Eden, nor pass out Any more from it. In which hope, move on, First sinners and first mourners. Live and love,—Doing both nobly, because lowlily; Live and work, strongly,—because patiently! And, for the deed of death, trust it to God, That it be well done, unrepented of, And not to loss. And thence, with constant prayers Fasten your souls so high, that constantly The smile of your heroic cheer may float Above all floods of earthly agonies, Purification being the joy of pain! [The vision of Christ vanishes. Adam and Eve stand in an ecstasy. The earth-zodiac pales away shade by shade, as the stars, star by star, shine out in the sky; and the fol- lowing chant from the two Earth Spirits (as they sweep back into the zodiac and disappear with it) accompanies the process of change. Earth Spirits. By the mighty word thus spoken Both for living and for dying, We, our homage-oath once broken, Fasten back again in sighing; And the creatures and the elements renew their covenanting. Here, forgive us all our scorning; Here, we promise milder duty; And the evening and the morning Shall re-organise in beauty, A sabbath day in sabbath joy, for universal chanting.
And if, still, this melancholy May be strong to overcome us; If this mortal and unholy, We still fail to cast out from us,—And we turn upon you, unaware, your own dark influences;
