The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2)Southey, Robert
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The Curse of Kehama, Volume 1 (of 2)
Southey, Robert
English poetry -- 19th century
And many surly stoics, theirs he pull'd;
Whose proudest humours having drained out,
He blended in a large and polish'd mould;
Which up he fill'd with what from Heaven he brought,
In extract of those looks of Lucifer,
In which against his God he breathed war.
Then to the North, that glassy kingdom, where
Establish'd frost and ice for ever reign,
He sped his course, and meeting Boreas there,
Pray'd him this liquid mixture to restrain.
When lo! as Boreas oped his mouth and blew
For his command, the slime all solid grew.
Thus was the mirror forged, and contain'd
The vigour of those self-admiring eyes
Agenor's witchcraft into it had strain'd;
A dangerous juncture of proud fallacies;
Whose fair looks so inamour'd him, that he
Thrice having kiss'd it, nam'd it Philanty.
Inchanted Psyche ravish'd was to see
The Glass herself upon herself reflect
With trebled majesty. The sun, when he
Is by Aurora's roseat fingers deckt,
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Views not his repercussed self so fair
Upon the eastern main, as she did here.
_Be true unto yourselves._--XII. p. 127.
The passage in which Menu exhorts a witness to speak the truth is one
of the few sublime ones in his Institutes. "The soul itself is its own
witness; the soul itself is its own refuge; offend not thy conscious
soul, the supreme internal witness of men! . . The sinful have said in
their hearts, none see us. Yes, the gods distinctly see them, and so
does the spirit within their breasts . . The guardian deities of the
firmament, of the earth, of the waters, of the human heart, of the
moon, of the sun, and of fire, of punishment after death, of the
winds, of night, of both twilights, and of justice, perfectly know the
state of all spirits clothed with bodies. . . O friend to virtue! that
supreme Spirit, _which thou believest one and the same with thyself_,
resides in thy bosom perpetually, and is an all-knowing inspector of
thy goodness or of thy wickedness. If thou beest not at variance, by
speaking falsely, with Yama, the subduer of all, with Vaivaswata the
punisher, with that great Divinity who dwells in thy breast,--go not
on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to the plains of Curu, for
thou hast no need of expiation.--_Ch. viii. p._ 84, 85, 86, 91, 92.
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_The Aunnay Birds._--XII. p. 128.
The Aunnays act a considerable part in the history of the Nellah
Rajah, an amusing romance, for a translation of which we are indebted
to Mr. Kindersley. They are milk-white, and remarkable for the
gracefulness of their walk.
END OF VOLUME FIRST.
FOOTNOTES.
[1] _Murresoo_, or _Mursoo_, in the Hala Canara, signifies _rude,
uncivilized;--Wokul_, a _husbandman_.
[2] Dignus vindice nodus.
[3] In the Azanaga dialect of the Lybian tongue, Aseif signifies a river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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