Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/789

§II


 * Its fertile golden islands
 * Floating on a silver sea;

Whilst suns their mingling beamings darted Through clouds of circumambient darkness,
 * And pearly battlements around
 * Looked o'er the immense of Heaven.

The magic car no longer moved.


 * The Fairy and the Spirit
 * Entered the Hall of Spells :
 * Those golden clouds
 * That rolled in glittering billows
 * Beneath the azure canopy

With the aethereal footsteps trembled not:
 * The light and crimson mists,

Floating to strains of thrilling melody
 * Through that unearthly dwelling,

Yielded to every movement of the will. Upon their passive swell the Spirit leaned,
 * And, for the varied bliss that pressed around,

Used not the glorious privilege
 * Of virtue and of wisdom.


 * 'Spirit!' the Fairy said,
 * And pointed to the gorgeous dome,
 * 'This is a wondrous sight
 * And mocks all human grandeur ;

But, were it virtue's only meed, to dwell In a celestial palace, all resigned To pleasurable impulses, immured Within the prison of itself, the will Of changeless Nature would be unfulfilled. Learn to make others happy. Spirit, come! This is thine high reward :— the past shall rise; Thou shalt behold the present; I will teach
 * The secrets of the future.'

The Fairy and the Spirit Approached the overhanging battlement. — Below lay stretched the universe! There, far as the remotest line That bounds imagination's flight, Countless and unending orbs In mazy motion intermingled, Yet still fulfilled immutably Eternal Nature's law. Above, below, around, The circling systems formed A wilderness of harmony ; Each with undeviating aim, In eloquent silence, through the depths of space Pursued its wondrous way. There was a little light That twinkled in the misty distance: None but a spirit's eye Might ken that rolling orb ; None but a spirit's eye, And in no other place But that celestial dwelling, might behold Each action of this earth's inhabitants. But matter, space and time In those agreal mansions cease to act; And all-prevailing wisdom, when it reaps The harvest of its excellence, o'er- bounds Those obstacles, of which an earthly soul Fears to attempt the conquest. The Fairy pointed to the earth. The Spirit's intellectual eye Its kindred beings recognized. The thronging thousands, to a passing view, Seemed like an ant-hill's citizens. How wonderful! that even The passions, prejudices, interests, That sway the meanest! being, the weak touch That moves the finest nerve,
 * And in one human brain

Causes the faintest thought, becomes a link
 * In the great chain of Nature.


 * 'Behold,' the Fairy cried,

'Palmyra's ruined palaces ! — no
 * Behold! where grandeur
 * frowned;