can degrade terror into pain—­are loftily dismissed.  The Titan grandeur of the Sorceress removes us from too close an approach to the crime of the unnatural Mother—­the emotion of pity changes into awe—­just at the pitch before the coarse sympathy of actual pain can be effected.  And it is the avoidance of reality—­it is the all-purifying Presence of the Ideal, which make the vast distinction in our emotions between following, with shocked and displeasing pity, the crushed, broken-hearted, mortal criminal to the scaffold, and gazing—­with an awe which has pleasure of its own—­upon the Mighty Murderess—­soaring out of the reach of Humanity, upon her Dragon Car!]

* * * * *

THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE.

A HYMN.

    Blessed through love are the Gods above—­
      Through love like the Gods may man be;
    Heavenlier through love is the heaven above,
      Through love like a heaven earth can be! 
    Once, as the poet sung,
      In Pyrrha’s time, ’tis known,
    From rocks Creation sprung,
      And Men leapt up from stone;
    Rock and stone, in night
      The souls of men were seal’d,
    Heaven’s diviner light
      Not as yet reveal’d;
    As yet the Loves around them
    Had never shone—­nor bound them
      With their rosy rings;
    As yet their bosoms knew not
    Soft song—­and music grew not
      Out of the silver strings. 
    No gladsome garlands cheerily
      Were love-y-woven then;
    And o’er Elysium drearily
      The May-time flew for men;[14]
    The morning rose ungreeted
      From ocean’s joyless breast;
    Unhail’d the evening fleeted
      To ocean’s joyless breast—­
    Wild through the tangled shade,
    By clouded moons they stray’d,
      The iron race of Men! 
    Sources of mystic tears,
    Yearnings for starry spheres,
      No God awaken’d then!

    Lo, mildly from the dark-blue water,
    Comes forth the Heaven’s divinest Daughter,
      Borne by the Nymphs fair-floating o’er
      To the intoxicated shore! 
    Like the light-scattering wings of morning
    Soars universal May, adorning
    As from the glory of that birth
    Air and the ocean, heaven and earth! 
    Day’s eye looks laughing, where the grim
    Midnight lay coil’d in forests dim;
    And gay narcissuses are sweet
    Wherever glide those holy feet—­
      Now, pours the bird that haunts the eve
    The earliest song of love,
      Now in the heart—­their fountain—­heave
    The waves that murmur love. 
    O blest Pygmalion—­blest art thou—­
    It melts, it glows, thy marble now! 
    O Love, the God, thy world is won! 
    Embrace thy children, Mighty One.

    Blessed through love are the Gods above—­
      Through love like the Gods may man be;
    Heavenlier through love is the heaven above,
      Through love like a heaven earth can be.