Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead.djvu/216

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In hollowed caves they dwelt, as emmets dwell,

Weak feathers for each blast, in sunless caves.

Nor had they certain forecast of the cold,

Nor of the advent of the flowery spring,

Nor of the fruitful summer. All they wrought,

Unreasoning they wrought, till I made clear

The laws of rising stars, and inference dim,

More hard to learn, of what their setting showed.

I taught to them withal that art of arts,

The lore of number, and the written word

That giveth sense to sound, the tool wherewith

The gift of memory was wrought in all,

And so came art and song. I too was first

To harness 'neath the yoke strong animals,

Obedient made to collar and to weight,

That they might bear whate'er of heaviest toil

Mortals endured before. For chariots too

I trained, and docile service of the rein,

Steeds, the delight of wealth and pomp and pride.

I too, none other, for seafarers wrought

Their ocean-roaming canvas-wingèd cars.

Such arts of craft did I, unhappy I,

Contrive for mortals: now, no feint I have

Whereby I may elude my present woe.

A rueful doom is thine! distraught of soul,

And all astray, and like some sorry leech

Art thou, repining at thine own disease,

Unskilled, unknowing of the needful cure.

More wilt thou wonder when the rest thou hearest—

What arts for them, what methods I devised.

Foremost was this: if any man fell sick,