Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/77

Rh shall lead there. Then he sends the Spirit of the Hour on her swift errand of proclamation, which done, "Return; and thou shalt dwell beside our cave," i.e., the cave which he has just described. Then immediately he invokes the Earth, "O, Mother Earth!" who exults in the warmth of immortal youth already circling through her marble nerves, and the blessedness which shall henceforth be the dower of all her children, and then describes elaborately a certain cavern where her spirit was panted forth in anguish under the evil domination of Jupiter—an oracular Delphic cavern, also in a forest, but distinguished by a noble temple, whose image ever lies in a windless and crystalline pool; and she tells Prometheus, "This cave is thine," and calls the child Spirit of the Earth to guide him and his company to it,

Again, is there any possible conciliation of the two temples (apparently meant for one and the same), as characterized in this single speech of the Earth before and after the Spirit has been called? Here is the first in the poet's own words, surely a temple of Evil:—

Here is the second from the same speech, surely a temple of Good:—

Beside the windless and crystalline pool, Where ever lies, on unerasing waves,