No More Learning

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30.
Thus they with trembling limbs and pallid lips
Worshipped their own hearts' image, dim and vast, _4055
Scared by the shade wherewith they would eclipse
The light of other minds;--troubled they passed
From the great Temple;--fiercely still and fast
The arrows of the plague among them fell,
And they on one another gazed aghast, _4060
And through the hosts contention wild befell,
As each of his own god the wondrous works did tell.

31.
And Oromaze, Joshua, and Mahomet,
Moses, and Buddh, Zerdusht, and Brahm, and Foh,
A tumult of strange names, which never met _4065
Before, as watchwords of a single woe,
Arose; each raging votary 'gan to throw
Aloft his armed hands, and each did howl
'Our God alone is God! '--and slaughter now
Would have gone forth, when from beneath a cowl _4070
A voice came forth, which pierced like ice through every soul.

32.
'Twas an Iberian Priest from whom it came,
A zealous man, who led the legioned West,
With words which faith and pride had steeped in flame,
To quell the unbelievers; a dire guest _4075
Even to his friends was he, for in his breast
Did hate and guile lie watchful, intertwined,
Twin serpents in one deep and winding nest;
He loathed all faith beside his own, and pined
To wreak his fear of Heaven in vengeance on mankind. _4080

33.
But more he loathed and hated the clear light
Of wisdom and free thought, and more did fear,
Lest, kindled once, its beams might pierce the night,
Even where his Idol stood; for, far and near
Did many a heart in Europe leap to hear _4085
That faith and tyranny were trampled down;
Many a pale victim, doomed for truth to share
The murderer's cell, or see, with helpless groan,
The priests his children drag for slaves to serve their own.

34.
He dared not kill the infidels with fire _4090
Or steel, in Europe; the slow agonies
Of legal torture mocked his keen desire:
So he made truce with those who did despise
The expiation, and the sacrifice,
That, though detested, Islam's kindred creed _4095
Might crush for him those deadlier enemies;
For fear of God did in his bosom breed
A jealous hate of man, an unreposing need.

35.
'Peace! Peace! ' he cried, 'when we are dead, the Day
Of Judgement comes, and all shall surely know _4100
Whose God is God, each fearfully shall pay
The errors of his faith in endless woe!
But there is sent a mortal vengeance now
On earth, because an impious race had spurned
Him whom we all adore,--a subtle foe, _4105
By whom for ye this dread reward was earned,
And kingly thrones, which rest on faith, nigh overturned.

36.
'Think ye, because ye weep, and kneel, and pray,
That God will lull the pestilence? It rose
Even from beneath his throne, where, many a day, _4110
His mercy soothed it to a dark repose:
It walks upon the earth to judge his foes;
And what are thou and I, that he should deign
To curb his ghastly minister, or close
The gates of death, ere they receive the twain _4115
Who shook with mortal spells his undefended reign?

37.
'Ay, there is famine in the gulf of hell,
Its giant worms of fire for ever yawn. --
Their lurid eyes are on us! those who fell
By the swift shafts of pestilence ere dawn, _4120
Are in their jaws! they hunger for the spawn
Of Satan, their own brethren, who were sent
To make our souls their spoil. See! see! they fawn
Like dogs, and they will sleep with luxury spent,
When those detested hearts their iron fangs have rent! _4125

38.
'Our God may then lull Pestilence to sleep:--
Pile high the pyre of expiation now,
A forest's spoil of boughs, and on the heap
Pour venomous gums, which sullenly and slow,
When touched by flame, shall burn, and melt, and flow, _4130
A stream of clinging fire,--and fix on high
A net of iron, and spread forth below
A couch of snakes, and scorpions, and the fry
Of centipedes and worms, earth's hellish progeny!

39.
'Let Laon and Laone on that pyre, _4135
Linked tight with burning brass, perish!