No More Learning

_Sar. _ Oh, thou wouldst have me doubtless set up edicts--
"Obey the king--contribute to his treasure--
Recruit his phalanx--spill your blood at bidding--
Fall down and worship, or get up and toil. "
Or thus--"Sardanapalus on this spot
Slew fifty thousand of his enemies. 260
These are their sepulchres, and this his trophy. "
I leave such things to conquerors; enough
For me, if I can make my subjects feel
The weight of human misery less, and glide
Ungroaning to the tomb: I take no license
Which I deny to them. We all are men.

_Sal. _ Thy Sires have been revered as Gods--

_Sar. _ In dust
And death, where they are neither Gods nor men.
Talk not of such to me! the worms are Gods;[11]
At least they banqueted upon your Gods, 270
And died for lack of farther nutriment.
Those Gods were merely men; look to their issue--
I feel a thousand mortal things about me,
But nothing godlike,--unless it may be
The thing which you condemn, a disposition
To love and to be merciful, to pardon
The follies of my species, and (that's human)
To be indulgent to my own.

_Sal. _ Alas!
The doom of Nineveh is sealed.
--Woe--woe
To the unrivalled city!

_Sar. _ What dost dread? 280

_Sal. _ Thou art guarded by thy foes: in a few hours
The tempest may break out which overwhelms thee,
And thine and mine; and in another day
What _is_ shall be the past of Belus' race.

_Sar. _ What must we dread?

_Sal. _ Ambitious treachery,
Which has environed thee with snares; but yet
There is resource: empower me with thy signet
To quell the machinations, and I lay
The heads of thy chief foes before thy feet.

_Sar. _ The heads--how many?

_Sal. _ Must I stay to number 290
When even thine own's in peril? Let me go;
Give me thy signet--trust me with the rest.

_Sar. _ I will trust no man with unlimited lives.