Fifth Dialogued

The fourth with the viola sang : And pierced anon with such a light as this; Blindness worth more than every other sight, Pains sweeter far than other pleasures are, For to the fairest light Thou art thyself a guide, Show to the soul all lower things are null. The fifth with the Spanish drum sang : Showing the soul all lower things are null, Seasoning with hope the high thought of the mind, Was one who pushed us to the only path, And so did show us plain, The fairest work of God, Thus does a fate benign present itself.[AI] [AI] The lonely sore-footed pilgrims on their way back to their home are never sure to the last moment of not losing their way in this limitless desert of illusion and matter called Earth-life.—("The Secret Doctrine.") The sixth with a lute sang : Thus does a fate benign present itself, Who wills not that to good, good should succeed, Or pain forerunner be of pain, But turning round, the wheel, Now rising, now depressed, As day and night succeed alternately. The seventh with the Irish harp : As day and night succeed alternately; While the great mantle of the lights of night, Blanches the chariot of diurnal flames, As He who governs all, With everlasting laws, Puts down the high and raises up the low. The eighth with the violin : Puts down the high and raises up the low, He who the infinite machine sustains, With swiftness, with the medium or with slow, Apportioning the turning Of this gigantic mass, The hidden is unveiled and open stands. The ninth with the rebeck : The hidden is unveiled and open stands, Therefore deny not, but admit the triumph, Incomparable end of all the pains Of field and mount, Of pools and streams and seas, Of cliffs and deeps, of thorns and snags and stones. After each one in this way, singly, playing his instrument, had sung his sistine, they danced altogether in a circle and sang together in praise of the one Nymph with the softest accents a song which I am not sure whether I can call to memory. Giu. I pray you, my sister, do not fail to let me hear so much of it as you can remember! Lao. 74. Song of the Illuminati : "I envy not, oh Jove, the firmament," Said Father Ocean, with the haughty brow: "For that I am content With that which my own empire gives to me." Then answered Jove, "What arrogance is thine. What to thy riches have been added now, Oh god of the mad waves, To make thy foolish boasting rise so high?" "Thou hast," said the sea-god, "in thy command, The flaming sky, where is the burning zone, In which the heavenly host Of stars and planets stand within thy sight.[AJ] "Of these, the world looks most upon the sun, Which, let me tell you, shineth not so bright, As she who makes of me, The god most glorious of the mighty whole. "And I contain within my bosom vast, With other lands, that, where the happy Thames Goes gliding gaily on, Which has of graceful nymphs a lovely throng. "There will be found 'mongst those where all are fair, Will make thee lover more of sea than sky, Oh Jove, High Thunderer! Whose sun shines pale beside the starry night." Then answered Jove, "God of the billowy sea! That one should ere be found more blest than I Fate nevermore permits, My treasures with thine own run parallel.