_Ism_. Dread empress, this strange vision you relate Is big with wonder, and too full of fate, Without the god's assistance, to expound. In those low regions, where sad night hangs round The drowsy vaults, and where moist vapours steep The god's dull brows, that sways the realm of sleep; There all the informing elements repair, Swift messengers of water, fire, and air, To give account of actions, whence they came, And how they govern every mortal frame; How, from their various mixture, or their strife, Are known the calms and tempests of our life: Thence souls, when sleep their bodies overcome, Have some imperfect knowledge of their doom. From those dark caves those powers shall strait appear; Be not afraid, whatever shapes they wear. _Zemp_. There's nothing, thou canst raise, can make me start; A living form can only shake my heart. _Ism_. _You twice ten hundred deities, To whom we daily sacrifice; You powers, that dwell with fate below, And see what men are doomed to do; Where elements in discord dwell; Thou god of sleep, arise and tell Great Zempoalla what strange fate Must on her dismal vision wait._ _Zemp_. How slow these spirits are! Call, make them rise, Or they shall fast from flame and sacrifice. _Ism_. Great empress, Let not your rage offend what we adore, And vainly threaten, when we must implore. Sit silently, and attend-- While my powerful charms I end. _By the croaking of the toad, In their caves that make abode; Earthy Dun that pants for breath, With her swelled sides full of death; By the crested adders' pride, That along the clifts do glide; By thy visage fierce and black; By the death's-head on thy back; By the twisted serpents placed For a girdle round thy waist; By the hearts of gold that deck Thy breast, thy shoulders, and thy neck: From thy sleepy mansion rise, And open thy unwilling eyes, While bubbling springs their music keep, That use to lull thee in thy sleep._ _God of Dreams rises_. _God_. Seek not to know what must not be revealed; Joys only flow where fate is most concealed: Too busy man would find his sorrows more, If future fortunes he should know before; For, by that knowledge of his destiny, He would not live at all, but always die. Enquire not, then, who shall from bonds be freed, Who 'tis shall wear a crown, and who shall bleed: All must submit to their appointed doom; Fate and misfortune will too quickly come: Let me no more with powerful charms be pressed; I am forbid by fate to tell the rest. [_The god descends_.