"Whilst from off the waters fleet RECITATIVE. Second Spirit. Goddess dear, We implore thy powerful hand Of true virgin here distress'd, Thro' the force, and thro' the wile, Shepherd, 'tis my office best. Smear'd with gums of glutinous heat, 370 38 39° I touch with chaste palms moist and cold; And I must haste, ere morning-hour, [SABRINA descends, and the Lady rises out of her seat ; the Brothers embrace her tenderly. E. Bro. "I oft had heard, but ne'er believ'd till now, "There are, who can by potent magic spells "Bend to their crooked purpose nature's laws, "Blot the fair moon from her resplendent orb, "Bid whirling planets stop their destin'd course, 400 "And thro' the yawning earth from Stygian gloom "Call up the meagre ghost to walks of light : "It may be so, -for some mysterious end!" Y. Bro. Why did I doubt? Why tempt the wrath of heav'n To shed just vengeance on my weak distrust? "Here spotless innocence has found relief, "By means as wond'rous as her strange distress." E. Bro. The freedom of the mind, you see, no charm, No spell can reach; that righteous Jove forbids, The slave of evil, or the sport of chance. First Spirit discovering himself. Pay it to Heaven! There my mansion is : 410 "I shoot from heav'n to give him safe convoy." 4201 [Then the two first Spirits advance and speak alternately the following lines, which MILTON calls epiloguizing. To the ocean now I fly, And those happy climes that lye Up in the broad fields of the sky: All amidst the gardens fair Of Hesperus, and his Daughters three, That sing about the golden tree. Along the crisped shades and bowers 430 Now my task is smoothly done, I can fly or I can run Quickly to the green earth's end,' Where the bow'd welkin slow doth bend; 440 Chorus. Taught by virtue, you may climb Heaven itself would stoop to her. 450 THE END. EPILOGUE. SPOKEN BY EUPHROSYNE, WITH A WAND AND CUP. SOME critic, or I'm much deceived, will ask, The mealy fop, that tastes my cup, may try, One stroke of this,* as sure as Cupid's arrow, Dull poring pedants, shock'd at truth's keen light, The Wand. 10 20 |