No More Learning

_Witch_. And for this--
A being of the race thou dost despise--
The order, which thine own would rise above,
Mingling with us and ours,--thou dost forego
The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back
To recreant mortality----Away!

_Man_. Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that hour--
But words are breath--look on me in my sleep,
Or watch my watchings--Come and sit by me!
My solitude is solitude no more, 130
But peopled with the Furies;--I have gnashed
My teeth in darkness till returning morn,
Then cursed myself till sunset;--I have prayed
For madness as a blessing--'tis denied me.
I have affronted Death--but in the war
Of elements the waters shrunk from me,[136]
And fatal things passed harmless; the cold hand
Of an all-pitiless Demon held me back,
Back by a single hair, which would not break.
In Fantasy, Imagination, all 140
The affluence of my soul--which one day was
A Croesus in creation--I plunged deep,
But, like an ebbing wave, it dashed me back
Into the gulf of my unfathomed thought.
I plunged amidst Mankind--Forgetfulness[137]
I sought in all, save where 'tis to be found--
And that I have to learn--my Sciences,
My long pursued and superhuman art,
Is mortal here: I dwell in my despair--
And live--and live for ever. [az]

_Witch_. It may be 150
That I can aid thee.

_Man_. To do this thy power
Must wake the dead, or lay me low with them.
Do so--in any shape--in any hour--
With any torture--so it be the last.

_Witch_.
That is not in my province; but if thou
Wilt swear obedience to my will, and do
My bidding, it may help thee to thy wishes.

_Man_. I will not swear--Obey! and whom? the Spirits
Whose presence I command, and be the slave
Of those who served me--Never!

_Witch_. Is this all? 160
Hast thou no gentler answer? --Yet bethink thee,
And pause ere thou rejectest.

_Man_. I have said it.

_Witch_. Enough! I may retire then--say!

_Man_. Retire!