Made me a stranger; though I wore the form,
I had no sympathy with breathing flesh,

Nor midst the creatures of clay that girded me
Was there but one who- -but of her anon.
I said, with men, and with the thoughts of men,
I held but slight communion; but instead,
My joy was in the Wilderness, to breathe

The difficult air of the iced mountain's top,

Where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing
Flit o'er the herbless granite; or to plunge
Into the torrent, and to roll along

On the swift whirl of the new breaking wave

Of river-stream, or ocean, in their flow.
In these my early strength exulted; or
To follow through the night the moving moon,
The stars and their developement; or catch
The dazzling lightnings till my eyes grew dim;
Or to look, list'ning, on the scattered leaves,

While Autumn winds were at their evening song.
These were my pastimes, and to be alone;
For if the beings, of whom I was one,-
Hating to be so,-cross'd me in my path,
I felt myself degraded back to them,

And was all clay again. And then I dived,
In my lone wanderings, to the caves of death,
Searching its cause in its effect; and drew
From wither'd bones, and skulls, and heap'd up dust,
Conclusions most forbidden. Then I pass'd

The nights of years in sciences untaught,

Save in the old-time; and with time and toil,
And terrible ordeal, and such penance
As in itself hath power upon the air,
And spirits that do compass air and earth,
Space, and the peopled infinite, I made
Mine eyes familiar with Eternity,

Such as, before me, did the Magi, and

He who from out their fountain dwellings raised Eros and Anteros 2, at Gadara,

As I do thee;—and with my knowledge grew The thirst of knowledge, and the power and joy Of this most bright intelligence, until—————

WITCH. Proceed.

MAN. Oh! I but thus prolonged my words,
Boasting these idle attributes, because
As I approach the core of my heart's grief-
But to my task. I have not named to thee
Father or mother, mistress, friend, or being,
With whom I wore the chain of human ties;
If I had such, they seem'd not such to me—
Yet there was one-

WITCH. Spare not thyself-proceed.

MAN. She was like me in lineaments-her eyes,

Her hair, her features, all, to the very tone

Even of her voice, they said were like to mine;

But soften'd all, and temper'd into beauty;
She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings,
The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind
To comprehend the universe: nor these

Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine,
Pity, and smiles, and tears—which I had not;
And tenderness-but that I had for her;

Humility-and that I never had.

Her faults were mine-her virtues were her own

I loved her, and destroy'd her!

WITCH.

MAN. Not with my hand,

broke her heart

With thy hand?

but heart-which

It gazed on mine, and withered. I have shed

Blood, but not hers-and yet her blood was shed

I saw-and could not staunch it.

WITCH.

And for this→→→

A being of the race thou dost despise,

The order which thine own would rise above,
Mingling with us and ours, thou dost forego
The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back
To recreant mortality-Away!

MAN. Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that

hour

But words are breath-look on me in my sleep,
Or watch my watchings-Come and sit by me!
My solitude is solitude no more,

But peopled with the Furies ;-I have gnash'd
My teeth in darkness till returning morn,
Then cursed myself till sunset ;—I have pray'd
For madness as a blessing-'tis denied me.

I have affronted death-but in the war

Of elements the waters shrunk from me,

And fatal things pass'd harmless-the cold hand

Of an all-pitiless demon held me back,

Back by a single hair, which would not break.

VOL. VI.

I