But SOCRATES. yet, believe me, there is One above, Who can do all, and will do all to save you. One God, whose name is Love,-who, like a father, His love to sinners makes him hate their sins; WIZARD. You preach well; But 'tis in vain-you'll soon require your eloquence And courage for yourself. SOCRATES. What dost thou mean? WITCH. He does not mean the battle of to-morrow, For in the fight thou bearest a charmed life, That which thy genius Anticipated;-thy Athenian foes Gather their strength; they'll bring thee to thy trial, As they brought us, and, like ourselves, thou, too, Shalt be condemned. SOCRATES. Amid the fugitive dreams Of yesternight, I saw the visioned future ; 'Twas even as thou sayest. I trust in God and my good genius; I want no other watchers. Let dark death (Spirits vanish.) Come when he will, I am prepared to meet him— (WIZARD and WITCH vanish in the earth.) SCENE III. Battle-field in Boeotia. ATHENIANS and BOTIANS fighting. Enter XENOPHON, at the head of a Band of Athenians. XENOPHON. Soldiers of Athens! By your fathers' tombs, BOOTIAN GENeral. Peace, foul slanderer! We are not to be foiled by tongues, but swords ; Not by proud words, but valiant deeds! Come on! (The bands contend, and XENOPHON is worsted by the BOOTIAN GENERAL, who wounds him and stunds over him, brandishing his suspended sword.) Pallas, Athené, to the rescue! Down With your weapons! By the immortal Gods! I'll trample ye in the dust! SOLDIERS (terrified). "Tis Mars himself! No mortal man could scatter thus our ranks- On his burnished shield, and on his crested helm Thus, then, do I rend The spoil from the spoiler! There, my lord of Thebes, When you visit Pluto. (The BAOTIAN GENERAL falls.) What, my Xenophon! Is it you? Great Jove, I thank thee! My brave boy, Ah! you are wounded-faint from loss of blood-- SCENE IV. Athens. ARISTOPHANES, MELITUS, ANYTUS, and LYCON, with a Crowd ARISTOPHANES. Yes, gentlemen, you see 'twas not without Just cause I wrote my Clouds-that had the honour CROWD. LYCON. What said he? Said that all the gods were One, And One was all-in violation of The plainest rule of all arithmetic. Pythagoras, too, talked some such trash. We say 'Tis downright blasphemy. CROWD. Most infamous! MELITUS. Ay, 'twas most infamous-but worse than this, Yourselves no better than the idolaters Certainly, we'll stand By you, and make him smart for it-the sooner ALCIBIADES (entering). Ah, how now-ye base-born scoundrels, To meet you here. If you have tears or blushes, A man worth all the seven sages? Fie, You'll never know his value till you've lost him; The track which he least likes.—I spurn ye from me SCENE V. (He drives them out.) PLATO. They say, my prettiest, that the souls of lovers Were twin born in the empyrean skies, Around Jove's threshold. There they once were mingled, Soul within soul in such ambrosial bliss, Such nectarous luscious, metaphysical, marriage, That they, inebriated with luxury, Lost the eternal spell-word, and the wings Of their o'er-sensualizing spirits drooped. EUPHROSYNE. Well, Plato, what of this? PLATO. It was not well, Thou dearest of all darlings. Jove, to cure them What happens when they do, my Plato? tell me. |