Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/66

Rh Sleep on their eyes, for in them lives a great

Spirit and grows not old.

[They wonder if these sins be all due to pride and if has guilty ambitions;

’Tis Pride that breeds the tyrant; drunken deep

With perilous things is she,

Which bring not peace: up, reeling, steep on steep

She climbs, till lo, the rock-edge, and the leap

To that which needs must be.

The land where the strong foot is no more strong!

Yet is there surely Pride

That saves a city; God preserve it long!

I judge not. Only through all maze of wrong

Be God, not man, my guide.

[Or if can really be a lying prophet with no fear of God; they feel that all faith in oracles and the things of God is shaken.

Is there a priest who moves amid the altars

Ruthless in deed and word,

Fears not the presence of his god, nor falters

Lest Right at last be heard?

If such there be, oh, let some doom be given

Meet for his ill-starred pride,

Who will not gain his gain where Justice is,

Who will not hold his lips from blasphemies,

Who hurls rash hands amid the things of heaven

From man’s touch sanctified.

In a world where such things be,

What spirit hath shield or lance