Chrysanthus. 
Why?

Daria. 
      Because no more of faith
Doth a love deserve that acteth
Such deceptions.

Chrysanthus. 
                  What deceptions?

Daria. 
Are not those enough, Chrysanthus,
That thou usest to convince me
Of thy love, of thy attachment,
When my first and well-known wishes
Thou perversely disregardest? 
Is it possible a man
So distinguished for his talents,
So illustrious in his blood,
Such a favourite from his manners,
Would desire to ruin all
By an error so unhappy,
And for some delusive dream
See himself abhorred and branded?

Chrysanthus. 
I nor talents, manners, blood,
Would be worthy of, if madly
I denied a Great First Cause,
Who made all things, mind and matter,
Time, heaven, earth, air, water, fire,
Sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, beasts, Man then.

Daria. 
Did not Jupiter, then, make heaven,
Where we hear his thunders rattle?

Chrysanthus. 
No, for if he could have made
Heaven, he had no need to grasp it
For himself at the partition,
When to Neptune’s rule he granted
The great sea, and hell to Pluto;—­
Then they were ere all this happened.[12]

Daria. 
Is not Ceres the earth, then?

Chrysanthus. 
                               No. 
Since she lets the plough and harrow
Tear its bosom, and a goddess
Would not have her frame so mangled.

Daria. 
Tell me, is not Saturn time?

Chrysanthus. 
He is not, though he dispatcheth
All the children he gives birth to;
To a god no crimes should happen.

Daria. 
Is not Venus the air?

Chrysanthus. 
                       Much less,
Since they say that she was fashioned
From the foam, and foam, we know,
Cannot from the air be gathered.

Daria. 
Is not Neptune the sea?

Chrysanthus. 
                         As little,
For inconstancy were god’s mark then.

Daria. 
Is not the sun Apollo?

Chrysanthus. 
                        No.

Daria. 
The moon Diana?

Chrysanthus. 
                 All mere babble. 
They are but two shining orbs
Placed in heaven, and there commanded
To obey fixed laws of motion
Which thy mind need not embarrass. 
How can these be called the gods—­
Gods adulterers and assassins! 
Gods who pride themselves for thefts,
And a thousand forms of badness,
If the ideas God and Sin
Are opposed as light to darkness?—­
With another argument
I would further sift the matter. 
Let then Jupiter be a god,
In his own sphere lord and master: 
Let Apollo be one also: 
Should Jove wish to hurl in anger