Page:House of Atreus 2nd ed (1889).djvu/195

Rh Shall fall, no more our watching gaze impend—

Death shall smite unrestrained.

Henceforth shall one unto another cry

Lo, they are stricken, lo, they fall and die

Around me! and that other answers him,

O thou that lookest that thy woes should cease,

Behold, with dark increase

They throng and press upon thee; yea, and dim

Is all the cure, and every comfort vain!

Let none henceforth cry out, when falls the blow

Of sudden-smiting woe,

Cry out in sad reiterated strain

''O Justice, aid! aid, O ye thrones of Hell!''

So though a father or a mother wail

New-smitten by a son, it shall no more avail,

Since, overthrown by wrong, the fane of Justice fell!

Know, that a throne there is that may not pass away,

And one that sitteth on it—even Fear,

Searching with steadfast eyes man's inner soul:

Wisdom is child of pain, and born with many a tear;

But who henceforth,

What man of mortal men, what nation upon earth,

That holdeth nought in awe nor in the light

Of inner reverence, shall worship Right

As in the older day?

Praise not, O man, the life beyond control,

Nor that which bows unto a tyrant's sway.

Know that the middle way

Is dearest unto God, and they, thereon who wend,

They shall achieve the end;

But they who wander or to left or right

Are sinners in his sight.