Hither, when all the deep unsounded skies Shuddered with silent stars she clomb, And as with optic glasses her keen eyes Pierced thro’ the mystic dome, Regions of lucid matter taking forms, Brushes of fire, hazy gleams, Clusters and beds of worlds, and bee-like swarms Of suns, and starry streams. She saw the snowy poles of moonless Mars, That marvellous round of milky light Below Orion, and those double stars Whereof the one more bright Is circled by the other, etc. [30] Thus in 1833:— And many more, that in their lifetime were Full-welling fountain heads of change, Between the stone shafts glimmered, blazoned fair In divers raiment strange. [31] The statue of Memnon near Thebes in Egypt when first struck by the rays of the rising sun is said to have become vocal, to have emitted responsive sounds. See for an account of this _Pausanias_, i., 42; Tacitus, _Annals_, ii., 61; and Juvenal, _Sat._, xv., 5: “Dimidio magicæ resonant ubi Memnone Chordæ,” and compare Akenside’s verses, _Plea. of Imag._, i., 109-113:— Old Memnon’s image, long renown’d By fabling Nilus: to the quivering touch Of Titan’s ray, with each repulsive string Consenting, sounded thro’ the warbling air Unbidden strains. [32] 1833. O’. [33] Here added in 1842 and remaining till 1851 when they were excised are two stanzas:— “From shape to shape at first within the womb The brain is modell’d,” she began, “And thro’ all phases of all thought I come Into the perfect man. “All nature widens upward. Evermore The simpler essence lower lies: More complex is more perfect, owning more Discourse, more widely wise.” [34] These stanzas were added in 1851. [35] Added in 1842, with the following variants which remained till 1851, when the present text was substituted:— “I take possession of men’s minds and deeds. I live in all things great and small. I sit apart holding no forms of creeds, But contemplating all.” [36] 1833. Sometimes. [37] And intellectual throne Of full-sphered contemplation. So three years She throve, but on the fourth she fell. And so the text remained till 1850, when the present reading was substituted. [38] For the reference to Herod see _Acts_ xii. 21-23. [39] Cf. Hallam’s _Remains_, p. 132: “That, _i. e._ Redemption,” is in the power of God’s election with whom alone rest _the abysmal secrets of personality_. [40] See _Daniel_ v. 24-27. [41] In 1833 the following stanza, excised in 1842:— “Who hath drawn dry the fountains of delight, That from my deep heart everywhere Moved in my blood and dwelt, as power and might Abode in Sampson’s hair?” [42] 1833. Downward-sloping. [43] 1833. Or the sound Of stones. So till 1851, when “a sound of rocks” was substituted. [44] 1833. “Dying the death I die?” Present reading substituted in 1842.