fore the cry of "Misery!" when the curse smote the fell Tyrant of Earth and Heaven, and predicted his fall? When the curse has been recited to Prometheus, and he avows that he repents and recalls it, the Earth cries, naturally enough,
Misery, oh misery to me,
That Jove at length should vanquish thee;
and the naturalness of this misery at the revocation makes more startling the apparent unnaturalness of the misery at the imprecation.
To this first speech of the Earth and those of the elements preceding, the Titan answers,
I hear a sound of voices: not the voice
Which I gave forth;
and he goes on urging his Mother and his Brethren to comply with his appeal. The Earth answers, "They dare not"; and this he understands, for he asks, "Who dares?" Then an awful whisper rises up, tingling as lightning tingles, an "inorganic voice," which he feels, but cannot comprehend, and the Earth says:—
How canst thou hear
Who knowest not the language of the dead?
This is in her living, intelligible voice, for he responds:—
Thou art a living spirit: speak as they.
And the Earth answers:—
I dare not speak like life, lest Heaven's fell King
Should hear, and link me to some wheel of pain
More torturing than the one whereon I roll.
And this is in her inarticulate voice; for she calls upon him to earnestly hearken, with but a faint struggling
