_Sar._ My best! my last friends! 400 Let's not unman each other: part at once: All farewells should be sudden, when for ever, Else they make an eternity of moments, And clog the last sad sands of life with tears. Hence, and be happy: trust me, I am not _Now_ to be pitied; or far more for what Is past than present;--for the future, 'tis In the hands of the deities, if such There be: I shall know soon. Farewell--Farewell. [_Exeunt_ PANIA _and Soldiers_. _Myr._ These men were honest: it is comfort still 410 That our last looks should be on loving faces. _Sar._ And _lovely_ ones, my beautiful!--but hear me! If at this moment,--for we now are on The brink,--thou feel'st an inward shrinking from This leap through flame into the future, say it: I shall not love thee less; nay, perhaps more, For yielding to thy nature: and there's time Yet for thee to escape hence. _Myr._ Shall I light One of the torches which lie heaped beneath The ever-burning lamp that burns without, 420 Before Baal's shrine, in the adjoining hall? _Sar._ Do so. Is that thy answer? _Myr._ Thou shalt see. [_Exit_ MYRRHA. _Sar._ (_solus_). She's firm. My fathers! whom I will rejoin, It may be, purified by death from some Of the gross stains of too material being, I would not leave your ancient first abode To the defilement of usurping bondmen; If I have not kept your inheritance As ye bequeathed it, this bright part of it, Your treasure--your abode--your sacred relics 430 Of arms, and records--monuments, and spoils, In which _they_ would have revelled, I bear with me To you in that absorbing element, Which most personifies the soul as leaving The least of matter unconsumed before Its fiery workings:--and the light of this Most royal of funereal pyres shall be[aq] Not a mere pillar formed of cloud and flame, A beacon in the horizon for a day, And then a mount of ashes--but a light[ar] 440 To lesson ages, rebel nations, and Voluptuous princes. Time shall quench full many A people's records, and a hero's acts; Sweep empire after empire, like this first Of empires, into nothing; but even then Shall spare this deed of mine, and hold it up A problem few dare imitate, and none Despise--but, it may be, avoid the life Which led to such a consummation. MYRRHA _returns with a lighted Torch in one Hand, and a Cup in the other_. _Myr._ Lo! I've lit the lamp which lights us to the stars. 450 _Sar._ And the cup?