For he leant o'er his own deep soul, oracular; over the pit
As the Pythia throned her of old, where the rock in Delphi was split;
And the vapour and echo within he mis-held for divine; and the land
Heard and obey'd, unwillingly willing, the voice of command.
--Soaring enormous soul, that to height o'er the highest aspires;
All that the man can seize being nought to what he desires!
And as, in a palace nurtured, the child to courtesy grows,
Becoming at last what it acts; so man on himself can impose,
Drill and accustom himself to humility, till, like an art,
The lesson the fingers have learn'd appears the command of the heart;
Whilst pride, as the snake at the charmer's command, coils low in its
place,
And he wears to himself and his fellows the mask that is almost a face.
Truest of hypocrites, he!--in himself entangled, he thinks
Earth uprising to Heaven, while earth-ward the heavenly sinks:
Conscience, we grant it, his guide; but conscience drugg'd and deceived;
Conscience which all that his self-belief whisper'd as duty believed.
And though he sought earnest for God, in life-long wrestle and prayer,
Yet the sky by a veil was darken'd, a phantom flitting in air;
For a cloud from that seething cavernous heart fumed out in his youth,
And whatever he will'd in the strength of the soul was imaged as truth:--
Grew with his growth: And now 'tis Ambition, disguised in success;
And he walks with the step assured, that cares not its issue to guess,
Clear in immediate purpose: and moulding his party at will,
He thrones it o'er obstinate sects, his ideal constrain'd to fulfil.
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