358
JOAN OF ARC.
"These are the Dæmons that pervert the power
Of Love," said Theodore. "The time was once 825
When Love and Happiness went hand in hand,
In that blest aera of the infant world
Ere man had learnt to bow the knee to man.
Was there a youth whom warm affection fill'd,
He spake his honest heart; the earliest fruits 830
His toil produced, the sweetest flowers that deck'd
The sunny bank, he gather'd for the maid,
Nor she disdain'd the gift—for Vice not yet
Had burst the dungeons of her hell, and rear'd
Those artificial boundaries that divide 835
Man from his species. State of blessedness!
Till that ill-omen'd hour when Cain's stern son
Delved in the bowels of the earth for gold,
Accursed bane of virtue! of such force
As poets feign dwelt in the Gorgon's locks, 840
Which whoso saw, felt instant the life-blood
Cold curdle in his veins, the creeping flesh
Grew stiff with horror, and the heart forgot
Of Love," said Theodore. "The time was once 825
When Love and Happiness went hand in hand,
In that blest aera of the infant world
Ere man had learnt to bow the knee to man.
Was there a youth whom warm affection fill'd,
He spake his honest heart; the earliest fruits 830
His toil produced, the sweetest flowers that deck'd
The sunny bank, he gather'd for the maid,
Nor she disdain'd the gift—for Vice not yet
Had burst the dungeons of her hell, and rear'd
Those artificial boundaries that divide 835
Man from his species. State of blessedness!
Till that ill-omen'd hour when Cain's stern son
Delved in the bowels of the earth for gold,
Accursed bane of virtue! of such force
As poets feign dwelt in the Gorgon's locks, 840
Which whoso saw, felt instant the life-blood
Cold curdle in his veins, the creeping flesh
Grew stiff with horror, and the heart forgot
"To
