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133 PROMETHEUS BOUND 133

Of vain invention ; it is spoken and meant :

King Zeus's mouth is impotent to lie,

Consummating the utterance by the act.

So, look to it, thou ! take heed, and nevermore 1225

Forget good counsel to indulge self-will.

Chorus. Our Hermes suits his reasons to the times, At least I think so, since he bids thee drop Self-will for prudent counsel. Yield to him ! When the wise err, their wisdom makes their shame.

[^Third Scene of Exodus. ~

Prometheus. Unto me the foreknower, this man- date of power 1231 He cries, to reveal it. What 's strange in my fate, if I suffer from hate

At the hour that I feel it ? Let the locks of the lightning, all bristling and whiten- ing, 12a5 Flash, coiling me round, While the aether goes surging 'neath thunder and scourging

Of wild winds unbound ! Let the blast of the firmament whirl from its place

The earth rooted below, mo

And the brine of the ocean, in rapid emotion,

Be driven in the face Of the stars up in heaven, as they walk to and fro ! Let him hurl me anon into Tartarus — on —

To the blackest degree, 1245

With Necessity's vortices strangling me down ; But he cannot join death to a fate meant for me ! Hermes. Why, the words that he speaks and the thoughts that he thinks Are maniacal ! — add,