With Hebrew heat, thus Saul to Sergius; The frequent steep ascents meanwhile, the halts For rest, for prospect, or for dalliance Under some cooling shade of rock or tree-- Shield from the waxing fervors of the sun-- Slack pace, due to the humors of their steeds Unchidden while their masters held discourse, Left the twain still below the topmost crest Of Hermon when the noontide hour was on. Large leisure to refection and repose Allowed, with converse, and mid-afternoon It was, before to horse again were got The horsemen, and their forward way resumed. As, lightly, they into the saddle sprang, Out of a purple-dark dense cloud that slept Wakefully now along the horizon's rim Under the flaming sun in the deep west, There came a roll of thunder to their ears, Remote, and mellow with remoteness, rich Bass music in long rumbling monotone; They listened with delight to hear the sound. Then Sergius, as the vibration died In low delicious tremble from their sense, Said, coupling this with that in Saul's discourse, Fresh, or remembered from the days before: "That thunder and this mountain bring to me, Imagined, the wild scene on Sinai When your lawgiver gave his laws to you. He schemed it well to have a thunder-storm Chime in and be a brave accompaniment To enforce his ordinances upon the awe Of the unthinking timorous multitude. Popular leaders and lawgivers have Always and everywhere their tricks of trade, To impress, hoodwink, and wheedle vulgar minds. Our Sabine Numa, he Pompilius named, Had his mysterious nymph Egeria To bring him statutes for all men to heed; And that Lycurgus got an oracle From famous Delphi to approve his laws, Which having sworn his Spartans to observe At least till he returned from whither he went Abroad, he, after, masked in such disguise That never thence to have returned he seemed. The herd of men still love to be cajoled, Trolled hither and thither about with baited lies; Frighten them now with brandished empty threat, And now with laud as empty tickle them. Augustus taught the art to tyrannize Through forms of ancient freedom false and vain, The stale trick since of all our emperors. Your Hebrew Moses in his rude grand way Well plied his shifts of lead and government."