II
hath with her showy Invincibles retaken amainthe trenches, and reclothed the devastated lands. See with how placid mien Athena unhelmetedrëentering hath possess'd her desolated halls;how her musical temples and grave schools are throng'dwith fresh youth eager as ever with the old books and games,971their live abounding mirth rëechoing from the walls,where among antique monuments their brothers' namesin long death-roll await the mellowing touch of time. And why not we forget? How is't that we dare notwish to forget and cut this canker of memoryfrom us, as men diseased in one part of their fleshfind health in mutilation: as if our agonywer a boon to keep, when in its own happy riddance'twould die off in the natural oblivion of things,980and with our follies fade: so, each one for himselfdisbanding his self-share, Reason would dissipateits own delusion, and lay that spectre of our dismay,the accumulation of griefs; to which War hath no rightprior or prerogative: miseries lay as thickand horrors worse when Plague invaded the cities,Athens or London, raging with polluted floodin every house, and with revolting torture rack'dthe folk to loathsom deaths; nor men kenn'd as they fell,
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