SCENE VII

I RAD , O RAZIEL , A STARTE .

IRAD .

Astarte,
Reposing on an angel's bosom?

ASTARTE .

Irad!
Nay, hide me from his gaze. Let me depart.

IRAD .

Astarte! it is I will leave thee. Stay;
Thou little knowest of this heart to deem
I could reproach thee now, its hope extinct.
Nor passion nor resistance has despair;
Resigned beneath calamity, it seems
Like patience, while within — but fare thee well!

ASTARTE .

Ask thine own heart, is love in our control?
I grew with thee as helpmate to become,
In duty and affection equable.
I saw a mightier being, then I felt
Toward thee as a sister, fears nor hopes
Unproved as with the Angel. I sighed not
For thee as I had sighed for him, time, life
Forgot, till I beheld him, this was love;
I felt that if I gave myself to thee,
My heart was absent, centering in him,
To be remembered when I am at rest

IRAD .

I forgive thee; thou hast been sorely tried;
But can he save thee, whom thou lean'st upon?

ORAZIEL .

Mortal! I blame thee not for loving her;
But accuse not an Angel in thy wrath.
Astarte's will was free, her nature turned
Towards a higher one

IRAD .

May she be happier!

ORAZIEL .

She will.

IRAD .

Is agitation happiness?
The restless yearning toward a good unknown,
Ever renewed till sunk in apathy
By hearts unequal to endure a life
Of excitation? Joy exhausted ends
In sorrow, yea, despair, that wastes away
The vital function. The heart loves to glide
Stream-like along at its own peaceful will,
Imaging all, in heaven as on earth,
Of quiet and of beautiful, and blending
Itself delightedly with what it dwells on,
Till its free course be mingled with the deep.

ORAZIEL .

Thou speakest of thy mortal life, and well.

IRAD .

I live among immortal things; has not
An immortality in him commenced
Whose soul aspires toward eternal natures?

ORAZIEL .

Astarte rests her hopes on one whose being
Is deathless, and undying she shall live
With me; if this thou callest being saved,
I, too, can save her.

IRAD .

Are thy prescient eyes,
Closed up with gazing on Astarte's, blind
To manifold shadows of impending ills?
Read'st thou not in the elements perturbed,
Hear'st thou not from the opened tongues of earth,
Feel'st thou not stamped in thy immortal spirit,
A dreadful change at hand?

ASTARTE .

What meaneth Irad?

ORAZIEL .

Visions of phantasy, engenderings
Of watching and of fast.