Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 16.djvu/208

186 Lift against thee? but if thou canst, Jocaste, Describe him to me.

Since thou wilt recall The sad remembrance, hear what Laius was: Spite of the frost which hoary age had spread O'er his fair temples in declining age, Which yet was vigorous, his eyes sparkled still With all the fire of youth, his wrinkled forehead Beneath, his silver locks attracted awe And reverence from mankind: if I may dare To say it, Laius much resembled thee; With pleasure I behold in Œdipus His virtues and his features thus united. What have I said to alarm thee thus?

I see Some strange misfortune will o'ertake me soon; The priest, I fear, was by the gods inspired, And but too truly hath foretold my fate: Could I do this, and was it possible?

Are then these holy instruments of heaven Infallible? Their ministry indeed Binds them to the altar, they approach the gods, But they are mortals still; and thinkest thou then Truth is dependent on the flight of birds? Thinkest thou, expiring by the sacred knife, The groaning heifer shall for them alone Remove the veil of dark futurity? Or the gay victims, crowned with flowery garlands, Within their entrails bear the fates of men? O no! to search for truth by ways like these Is to usurp the rights of power supreme;