Armed to strike dead the spirit of the time, Which spurs to rage the many-headed beast. Do thou persist; for, faint but in resolve, And it were better thou hadst still remained The slave of thine own slaves, who tear like
The fugitive, and flee from the pursuer; And Opportunity, that empty wolf,
Flies at his throat who falls. Subdue thy actions Even to the disposition of thy purpose,
And be that tempered as the Ebro's steel; And banish weak-eyed Mercy to the weak, Whence she will greet thee with a gift of peace, And not betray thee with a traitor's kiss, As when she keeps the company of rebels, Who think that she is Fear. This do, lest we Should fall as from a glorious pinnacle
In a bright dream, and wake, as from a dream, Out of our worshipped state.
God is my witness that this weight of power, Which he sets me my earthly task to wield Under his law, is my delight and pride Only because thou lovest that and me. For a king bears the office of a God To all the under world; and to his God Alone he must deliver up his trust, Unshorn of its permitted attributes. [It seems] now as the baser elements Had mutinied against the golden sun That kindles them to harmony, and quells
Their self-destroying rapine. The wild million Strike at the eye that guides them; like as humors Of the distempered body that conspire
Against the spirit of life throned in the heart, — And thus become the prey of one another, And last of death. . .
That which would be ambition in a subject Is duty in a sovereign; for on him,
As on a keystone, hangs the arch of life, Whose safety is its strength. Degree and form, And all that makes the age of reasoning man More memorable than a beast's, depend on this That Right should fence itself inviolably
With power; in which respect the state of England
From usurpation by the insolent commons Cries for reform.
Get treason, and spare treasure. Fee with coin The loudest murmurers; feed with jealousies Opposing factions, be thyself of none;
And borrow gold of many, for those who lend Will serve thee till thou payest them; and thus Keep the fierce spirit of the hour at bay,
Till time, and its coming generations
Of nights and days unborn, bring some one chance,
Or war or pestilence or Nature's self, By some distemperature or terrible sign, Be as an arbiter betwixt themselves.
Nor let your Majesty
Doubt here the peril of the unseen event.
How did your brother kings, coheritors
In your high interest in the subject earth, Rise past such troubles to that height of power Where now they sit, and awfully serene
Smile on the trembling world? Such popular
Philip the Second of Spain, this Lewis of France, And late the German head of many bodies,
And every petty lord of Italy,
Quelled or by arts or arms. Or feebler? or art thou who wield'st her power Tamer than they? or shall this island be [Girdled] by its inviolable waters
To the world present and the world to come Sole pattern of extinguished monarchy? Not if thou dost as I would have thee do.
Your words shall be my deeds;
You speak the image of my thought. My friend (If kings can have a friend, I call thee so), Beyond the large commission which [belongs?] Under the great seal of the realm, take this: And, for some obvious reasons, let there be No seal on it, except my kingly word
And honor as I am a gentleman.
as thou art within my heart and mind Another self, here and in Ireland :
Do what thou judgest well, take amplest license, And stick not even at questionable means. Hear me, Wentworth. My word is as a wall Between thee and this world thine enemy - That hates thee, for thou lovest me.
No friend but thee, no enemies but thine; Thy lightest thought is my eternal law. How weak, how short, is life to pay-
Your Majesty has ever interposed,
In lenity towards your native soil,
Between the heavy vengeance of the Church And Scotland. Mark the consequence of warming This brood of northern vipers in your bosom. The rabble, instructed no doubt
By Loudon, Lindsay, Hume, and false Argyll, (For the waves never menace heaven until Scourged by the wind's invisible tyranny) Have in the very temple of the Lord Done outrage to his chosen ministers. They scorn the liturgy of the Holy Church, Refuse to obey her canons, and deny The apostolic power with which the Spirit Has filled its elect vessels, even from him
Who held the keys with power to loose and bind To him who now pleads in this royal presence.- Let ampler powers and new instructions be Sent to the High Commissioners in Scotland.
To death, imprisonment, and confiscation, Add torture, add the ruin of the kindred Of the offender, add the brand of infamy, Add mutilation: and if this suffice not, Unleash the sword and fire, that in their thirst They may lick up that scum of schismatics. I laugh at those weak rebels who, desiring What we possess, still prate of Christian peace; As if those dreadful arbitrating messengers Which play the part of God 'twixt right and
Should be let loose against the innocent sleep Of templed cities and the smiling fields, For some poor argument of policy
Which touches our own profit or our pride, (Where it indeed were Christian charity To turn the cheek even to the smiter's hand); And, when our great Redeemer, when our God, When he who gave, accepted, and retained, Himself in propitiation of our sins, Is scorned in his immediate ministry, With hazard of the inestimable loss Of all the truth and discipline which is Salvation to the extremest generation Of men innumerable, they talk of peace! Such peace as Canaan found, let Scotland now! For, by that Christ who came to bring a sword, Not peace, upon the earth, and gave command To his disciples at the passover
That each should sell his robe and buy a sword,
245 arbitrating messengers, Rossetti || messengers of wrath, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.
256 ministers, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.
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