Oed. Wisely resolved. But still send one to bring
The labourer-swain, and be not slack in this.
Jo. I will, and promptly. Go we now within!
My whole desire is but to work thy will. [Exeunt
Chorus
O may my life be evermore I 1
Pure in each holy word and deed
By those eternal laws decreed
That pace the sapphire-paven floor!
Children of Heaven, of Ether born,
No mortal knew their natal morn,
Nor may Oblivion’s waters deep
E’er lull their wakeful spirit asleep,
Nor creeping Age o’erpower the mighty God
Who far within them holds his unprofaned abode.
Pride breeds the tyrant: monstrous birth! I 1
Insolent Pride, if idly nursed
On timeless surfeit, plenty accursed,
Spurning the lowlier tract of Earth
Mounts to her pinnacle,—then falls,
Dashed headlong down sheer mountain walls
To dark Necessity’s deep ground,
Where never foothold can be found.
Let wrestlers for my country’s glory speed,
God, I thee pray! Be God my helper in all need!
But if one be, whose bold disdain II 2
Walks in a round of vapourings vain
And violent acts, regarding not
The Rule of Right, but with proud thought
Scorning the place where Gods have set their seat,
—Made captive by an Evil Doom,
Shorn of that inauspicious bloom,
Let him be shown the path of lawful gain
And taught in holier ways to guide his feet,
Nor with mad folly strain
His passionate arms to clasp things impious to retain.
Who in such courses shall defend his soul
From storms of thundrous wrath that o’er him roll?
