CYPRIAN

I do not recognize among the Gods
The God defined by Plinius; if he must
Be
supreme goodness, even Jupiter
Is not supremely good; because we see
His deeds are evil, and his attributes
Tainted with mortal weakness. In what

manner

Can supreme goodness be consistent with The passions of humanity?

DEMON

The wisdom

Of the old world masked with the names of Gods

The attributes of Nature and of Man;
A sort of popular philosophy.

CYPRIAN

This reply will not satisfy me, for
Such awe is due to the high name of God
That ill should never be imputed. Then,
Examining the question with more care,
It follows that the Gods would always will
That which is best, were they supremely
good.

How then does one will one thing, one another?

And that you may not say that I allege
Poetical or philosophic learning,
Consider the ambiguous responses

Of their oracular statues; from two shrines
Two armies shall obtain the assurance of
One victory. Is it not indisputable
That two contending wills can never lead
To the same end? And, being opposite,
If one be good is not the other evil?
Evil in God is inconceivable;

But supreme goodness fails among the
Gods

Without their union.

DEMON

I deny your major. These responses are means towards some end

Unfathomed by our intellectual beam. They are the work of providence, and more The battle's loss may profit those who lose Than victory advantage those who win.

CYPRIAN

That I admit; and yet that God should not (Falsehood is incompatible with deity) Assure the victory; it would be enough

Though you may imagine That I know little of the laws of duel, Which vanity and valor instituted, You are in error. By my birth I am Held no less than yourselves to know the limits

Of honor and of infamy, nor has study Quenched the free spirit which first ordered them;

And thus to me, as one well experienced
In the false quicksands of the sea of honor,
You may refer the merits of the case;
And if I should perceive in your relation
That either has the right to satisfaction
From the other, I give you my word of

honor

To leave you.

LELIO

Under this condition then I will relate the cause, and you will cede And must confess the impossibility Of compromise; for the same lady is Beloved by Floro and myself.

FLORO

It seems

Much to me that the light of day should look

Upon that idol of my heart — but he — Leave us to fight, according to thy word.

CYPRIAN

Permit one question further: is the lady Impossible to hope or not?

The day affright,

As from the horizon round
Burst with earthquake sound

In mighty torrents the electric fountains;
Clouds quench the sun, and thunder smoke
Strangles the air, and fire eclipses heaven.
Philosophy, thou canst not even
Compel their causes underneath thy yoke;
From yonder clouds even to the waves
below

The fragments of a single ruin choke
Imagination's flight;

For, on flakes of surge, like feathers light,
The ashes of the desolation, cast

Upon the gloomy blast,

Tell of the footsteps of the storm;
And nearer, see, the melancholy form
Of a great ship, the outcast of the sea,
Drives miserably!

And it must fly the pity of the port,
Or perish, and its last and sole resort
Is its own raging enemy.

The terror of the thrilling cry
Was a fatal prophecy

Of coming death, who hovers now
Upon that shattered prow,

That they who die not may be dying still.
And not alone the insane elements
Are populous with wide portents,
But that sad ship is as a miracle

Of sudden ruin, for it drives so fast
It seems as if it had arrayed its form
With the headlong storm.
It strikes -

I almost feel the shockIt stumbles on a jagged rock, — Sparkles of blood on the white foam are

cast.

[A Tempest.

Wipe out the blot of the discomfiture Sustained upon the mountain, and assail With a new war the soul of Cyprian, Forging the instruments of his destruction Even from his love and from his wisdom. O

DEMON

Because my happiness is lost.

Yet I lament what has long ceased to be
The object of desire or memory,
And my life is not life.

CYPRIAN

Now, since the fury Of this earthquaking hurricane is still, And the crystalline heaven has reassumed Its windless calm so quickly that it seems As if its heavy wrath had been awakened Only to overwhelm that vessel, — speak, Who art thou, and whence comest thou?

DEMON

Far more

My coming hither cost than thou hast seen Or I can tell. Among my misadventures This shipwreck is the least. Wilt thou hear?

CYPRIAN

DEMON

Speak.

Since thou desirest, I will then unveil
Myself to thee; for in myself I am
A world of happiness and misery;
This I have lost, and that I must lament
Forever. In my attributes I stood
So high and so heroically great,

In lineage so supreme, and with a genius
Which penetrated with a glance the world
Beneath my feet, that, won by my high
merit,

A king-whom I may call the King of kings,

Because all others tremble in their pride
Before the terrors of his countenance,
In his high palace roofed with brightest
gems

Of living light-call them the stars of
Heaven

Named me his counsellor. But the high praise

Stung me with pride and envy, and I rose In mighty competition to ascend

His seat, and place my foot triumphantly Upon his subject thrones. Chastised, I

know

The depth to which ambition falls; too mad Was the attempt, and yet more mad were

now