The crowd gave way, and I arose aghast,
Or seemed to rise, so mighty was the trance,
And saw, like clouds upon the thunder's blast,

The million with fierce song and maniac dance
Raging around-such seemed the jubilee
As when, to meet some conqueror's advance,

Imperial Rome poured forth her living sea
From senate-house, and forum, and theatre,
When [
upon the free

Had bound a yoke, which soon they stooped to bear, Nor wanted here the just similitude

Of a triumphal pageant, for where'er

The chariot rolled, a captive multitude

Was driven;-all those who had grown old in power Or misery, all who had their age subdued

By action or by suffering, and whose hour
Was drained to its last sand in weal or woe,
So that the trunk survived both fruit and flower;-

All those whose fame or infamy must grow
Till the great winter lay the form and name
Of this green earth with them for ever low;-

All but the sacred few who could not tame
Their spirits to the conquerors-—but as soon
As they had touched the world with living flame,

Fled back like eagles to their native noon,
Or those who put aside the diadem

Of earthly thrones or gems [

Were they of Athens or Jerusalem,

Were neither 'mid the mighty captives seen,
Nor 'mid the ribald crowd that followed them,

Nor those who went before fierce and obscene.
The wild dance maddens in the van, and those
Who lead it-fleet as shadows on the green,

Outspeed the chariot, and without repose
Mix with each other in tempestuous measure
To savage music, wilder as it grows;

They, tortured by their agonizing pleasure,
Convulsed and on the rapid whirlwinds spun
Of that fierce spirit whose unholy leisure

Was soothed by mischief since the world begun,— Throw back their heads and loose their streaming

hair;

And in their dance round her who dims the sun

Maidens and youths fling their wild arms in air As their feet twinkle; they recede, and now Bending within each other's atmosphere

Kindle invisibly-and as they glow,
Like moths by light attracted and repelled,
Oft to their bright destruction come and go,

Till like two clouds into one vale impelled

That shake the mountains when their lightnings mingle

And die in rain-the fiery band which held

Their natures, snaps-the shock still may tingle;
One falls and then another in the path
Senseless-nor is the desolation single,

Yet ere I can say where-the chariot hath
Past over them-nor other trace I find
But as of foam after the ocean's wrath

Is spent upon the desert shore ;-behind,
Old men and women foully disarrayed,
Shake their gray hairs in the insulting wind,

And follow in the dance, with limbs decayed, Seeking to reach the light which leaves them still Farther behind and deeper in the shade.

But not the less with impotence of will
They wheel, though ghastly shadows interpose
Round them and round each other, and fulfil

Their part, and in the dust from whence they rose Sink, and corruption veils them as they lie,

And past in these performs what [

] in those.

Struck to the heart by this sad pageantry,

Half to myself I said-And what is this?
Whose shape is that within the car? And why-

I would have added-is all here amiss ?— But a voice answered-" Life!"-I turned, and knew

(O Heaven, have mercy on such wretchedness!)

That what I thought was an old root which grew
To strange distortion out of the hill side,
Was indeed one of those deluded crew,

And that the grass, which methought hung so wide And white, was but his thin discoloured hair, And that the holes it vainly sought to hide,

Were or had been eyes :-" If thou canst, forbear To join the dance, which I had well forborne!" Said the grim Feature, (of my thought aware ;)

“I will unfold that which to this deep scorn
Led me and my companions, and relate
The progress of the pageant since the morn;

"If thirst of knowledge shall not then abate, Follow it thou even to the night, but I Am weary."-Then like one who with the weight

Of his own words is staggered, wearily He paused; and, ere he could resume, I cried, "First, who art thou?"

-"Before thy memory,

"I feared, loved, hated, suffered, did and died, And if the spark with which Heaven lit my spirit Had been with purer sentiment supplied,

66

Corruption would not now thus much inherit

Of what was once Rousseau,-nor this disguise Stained that which ought to have disdained to wear it ;

"If I have been extinguished, yet there rise A thousand beacons from the spark I bore". "And who are those chained to the car?"—" "The wise,

"The great, the unforgotten,—they who wore Mitres and helms and crowns, or wreaths of light, Signs of thought's empire over thought-their lore

"Taught them not this, to know themselves; their might

Could not repress the mystery within,

And for the morn of truth they feigned, deep night

66

Caught them ere evening."-" Who is he with

chin

Upon his breast, and hands crost on his chain ?""The child of a fierce hour; he sought to win

"The world, and lost all that it did contain
Of greatness, in its hope destroyed; and more
Of fame and peace than virtue's self can gain