Hypolympia Part 21

NIKE.

And it may be present even where no final conquest can ensue?

aeSCULAPIUS.

Ah! how white they grow! How the serpents drop out of their tresses.

NIKE.

I am feeling forward with my finger-tips, like a blind woman searching.... And the real splendour of victory may consist in the helpless mortal state; may blossom there, while it only budded in our immortality?

aeSCULAPIUS.

May consist, really, of the effort, the desire, the act of gathering up the will to make the plunge. This will be victory now, it will be the drawing of the bow-string and not the mere cessation of the arrow-flight.

XII

[_The main terrace, soon after dawn. In the centre_ ZEUS _sits alone, throned and silent. One by one the G.o.ds come out of the house, and arrange themselves in a semicircle, to the left and right, each as he pa.s.ses making obeisance to_ ZEUS.

_It is a perfectly still morning, and a dense white mist hangs over the woods, completely hiding the sea and the farther sh.o.r.e. When all are seated._]

ZEUS [_in a very slow voice_].

My children, since we came here I have not been visited until to-night by even a shadow of those forebodings which, in the form of divine prescience, illuminated my plans and your fortunes in Olympus. [_A pause, while the G.o.ds lean towards him in deepest attention._] But a dream came close to my pillow last night and whispered to me strange, disquieting words.... I have no longer the art of clairvoyance, but I find I am not wholly dark. Still can I faintly divine the forms of the future, as we may all divine the roll of the woods before us, and the cleft which leads down to the sh.o.r.e, although this impalpable vapour shrouds our world.... And, from the dream, or from my faint perceptions, I am made aware that another mighty change is approaching us.

[_A silence._]

HERACLES.

Can you indicate to us the nature of this change? [_Looking round the semicircle._] If it is permitted to us to do so we would repudiate it. [_The G.o.ds in silence signify their a.s.sent._]

ZEUS [_not replying to_ HERACLES].

When we fled hither from the consuming malignity of the traitor, it was communicated to me that this island on the very uttermost border of the world was left us as a home from which we should never be dislodged. Here we were to dwell in peace, and here ... to grow old, and ... die. Here, in the meantime, new interests, humble wishes, cheerful curiosities have already twined about us, and we have gazed upon Pandora's jewel, and are no more the same.

PERSEPHONE.

Are we to be driven hence still farther towards the confines of immensity, father?

ZEUS.

I know not.

KRONOS.

More journeys, more weary, weary journeys?

ZEUS.

I know but what I tell you ... that I foresee a change. [_A silence._] How breathless is the air. Not the outline of a leaf is shaken against the sky.

PHOEBUS.

But the mist grows thinner, and high up in it I see a faint blueness.

ZEUS.

I do not--nothing but the bewildering woolly whiteness, that chills my eyeb.a.l.l.s.... [_With a sudden vivacity._] Ah! yes ... it is the sea! Is Poseidon here?

POSEIDON.

I went down to the sh.o.r.e very early indeed this morning, before there was an atom of mist in the air. I called upon the gla.s.sy, oily sea, and I could not but fancy that, although there was little motion in the wave, it did roll faintly to my foot, and fawn at me in its reply. To me also, father, it seemed as though my element was burdened with a secret which it knew not how to convey to me.

[_A silence._]

APHRODITE [_aside to_ PALLAS].

If we must be driven forth again, let us at least cling to such new gifts as we have secured here.

PALLAS [_in an eager whisper_].

I should like to know what you consider them to be. Do you hold introspection as one of them?

APHRODITE.

I certainly do. The a.n.a.lysis of one's own feelings, and the sense of watching the fluctuating symptoms of one's individuality, form one of the princ.i.p.al consolations of our mortal state.

PALLAS.

I think I should give it another name.

HERMES [_who has come up behind them, and bending forward has overheard the conversation_].

My name for it would be the indulgence of personal vanity.

APHRODITE [_speaks louder, while the conversation becomes general, except that_ ZEUS _takes no part in it_].

You may call it so, if you please, but it is a source of genuine pleasure to us.

PHOEBUS.

Ignorance is doubtless another of these consolations--ignorance chemically modified by a few drops of the desire for knowledge....

[_Enthusiastically._] And all the chastened forms of recollection, how delightful they are, and how they add to our satisfaction here!

NIKE.