Pursued its wondrous way.—

     Awhile the Spirit paused in ecstasy.
     Yet soon she saw, as the vast spheres swept by,
     Strange things within their belted orbs appear.             255
     Like animated frenzies, dimly moved
     Shadows, and skeletons, and fiendly shapes,
     Thronging round human graves, and o'er the dead
     Sculpturing records for each memory
     In verse, such as malignant gods pronounce,                 260
     Blasting the hopes of men, when heaven and hell
     Confounded burst in ruin o'er the world:
     And they did build vast trophies, instruments
     Of murder, human bones, barbaric gold,
     Skins torn from living men, and towers of skulls            265
     With sightless holes gazing on blinder heaven,
     Mitres, and crowns, and brazen chariots stained
     With blood, and scrolls of mystic wickedness,
     The sanguine codes of venerable crime.
     The likeness of a throned king came by.                     270
     When these had passed, bearing upon his brow
     A threefold crown; his countenance was calm.
     His eye severe and cold; but his right hand
     Was charged with bloody coin, and he did gnaw
     By fits, with secret smiles, a human heart                  275
     Concealed beneath his robe; and motley shapes,
     A multitudinous throng, around him knelt.
     With bosoms bare, and bowed heads, and false looks
     Of true submission, as the sphere rolled by.
     Brooking no eye to witness their foul shame,                280
     Which human hearts must feel, while human tongues
     Tremble to speak, they did rage horribly,
     Breathing in self-contempt fierce blasphemies
     Against the Daemon of the World, and high
     Hurling their armed hands where the pure Spirit,            285
     Serene and inaccessibly secure,
     Stood on an isolated pinnacle.
     The flood of ages combating below,
     The depth of the unbounded universe
       Above, and all around                                     290
     Necessity's unchanging harmony.

PART 2.