Page:Tower of Ivory.djvu/23

Rh

The fools! I follow Scaliger, who says

The devil's dead. Old Trismegistus' self

Ne'er saw him—only hoofspore in the sand,

His ass no doubt. And as for your nine orders,

Beelzebub, Apollo Pythius,

Belial, Asmodaeus, and Abaddon,

Diabalos, Meresin, Satan, Mammon,—

Your hierarchy of sprites terrestrial,

Sublunary, aquatic,—earth and sky,

I'll none of 'em.

Your sciolist in truth!

Your true agnosticus! "Unseen, Unknown"

Is sacred text for schoolmen. I myself

With deepest cabalistic—metaphysic—

What have I found o' midnights in the flame?

No satyrs, cacodemons, foliots,

No Bel of Babylon, no Greek Astartes,

No fairies such as Paracelsus saw,

Nor naiads that Olaus Magnus met

And feasted with on some moon-stricken shore,