PART THE SIXTH.

THE JUDGEMENT.

"Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God: every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth: and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God: thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

By the multitude of thy merchandize they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountains of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick: therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more."

EZEKIEL, Xxviii. 12-19.

XX.

SATAN.

THE Depth of Hell! the immaterial Centre
Of Darkness! Borne on wings cherubick, see,
Leading the Hosts of Heaven, Messiah enter!

A Universe of Darkness! horribly

Built like a wall, profound, sublime, immenseChaotic verge, Creation's boundary

Real as Life..as very Death intense..

And here they dwell together. Life in Death,
And Light in Darkness, but without the sense
To comprehend Light's radiance or Life's breath.
No Eye, no Ear, no Mind. But Silence sits
Gibbering to Night what Desolation saith.

Unutterable mysteries, it fits

No tongue of Angel or of Man to tell,
Too high for great, too mean for little wits.

ill!

Will without Power, the Element of Hell,
Abortive all its acts returning still
Upon itself;..oh! anguish terrible !
Meet guerdon of Self-Love, its proper
Malice would scowl upon the foe he fears,
And he with lip of scorn would seek to kill;
But neither sees the other, neither hears-
For Darkness each in his own Dungeon bars,
Lust pines for dearth, and Grief drinks its own tears-
Each in his Solitude apart. Hate wars
Against himself, and feeds upon his chain,
Whose iron penetrates the Soul it scars.
A dreadful solitude each mind insane,
Each its own place, its prison all alone,
And finds no sympathy to soften pain.

Within.. within the Abyss, the Eternal Son,
High in his living Chariot, with his Hosts
Of Earth and Heaven, royally rides on-

Rides royally amidst the Land of Ghosts,
Amidst the Land of Ghosts rides royally,
And with his Armies overflows Hell's coasts.
The Light of Life pervades the obscurity
Of Death, and Darkness from before his face
Recedes, and Hell reveals her mystery.
There in her deepest Centre, cursèd place,
The Throne of Hell, the vacant Throne of Hell;
And, at its footstool, prostrate in disgrace,
That Centaur-Wraith, there lying where he fell,
Vaunting of Victory o'er his Vanquisher,

Death and his Horse lie conquered. There, as well,
Lies Sin, conceived of Lust; (Death born of her;) ;
The Mother by her Son, while listening,
With gratulation, to the Triumpher-
Smitten as he was smitten.

Where their King?

Where he whose seat is vacant, who from hence

Sublime, ruled Earth by demon ministring?

Oh! he has found a centre more intense,

In his own being a far deeper hell,

Whereof this Hell is but the Circumference,