oracle.
For Phoebus said expressly he should fall
Through him whom I brought forth. But that poor babe
Ne'er slew his sire, but perished long before.
Wherefore henceforth I will pursue my way
Regardless of all words of prophecy.

OED. Wisely resolved. But still send one to bring
The labourer swain, and be not slack in this.

JO. I will, and promptly. Go we now within!
My whole desire is but to work thy will. [_Exeunt_

CHORUS
O may my life be evermore I 1
Pure in each holy word and deed
By those eternal laws decreed
That pace the sapphire-paven floor!
Children of Heaven, of Ether born,
No mortal knew their natal morn,
Nor may Oblivion's waters deep
E'er lull their wakeful spirit asleep,
Nor creeping Age o'erpower the mighty God
Who far within them holds his unprofaned abode.

Pride breeds the tyrant: monstrous birth! I 2
Insolent Pride, if idly nursed
On timeless surfeit, plenty accursed,
Spurning the lowlier tract of Earth
Mounts to her pinnacle,--then falls,
Dashed headlong down sheer mountain walls
To dark Necessity's deep ground,
Where never foothold can be found.
Let wrestlers for my country's glory speed,
God, I thee pray! Be God my helper in all need!

But if one be, whose bold disdain I 2
Walks in a round of vapourings vain
And violent acts, regarding not
The Rule of Right, but with proud thought
Scorning the place where Gods have set their seat,
--Made captive by an Evil Doom,
Shorn of that inauspicious bloom,
Let him be shown the path of lawful gain
And taught in holier ways to guide his feet,
Nor with mad folly strain
His passionate arms to clasp things impious to retain.
Who in such courses shall defend his soul
From storms of thundrous wrath that o'er him roll?
If honour to such lives be given,
What needs our choir to hymn the power of Heaven?

No more to Delphi, central shrine II 2
Of Earth, I'll seek, for light divine,
Nor visit Abae's mystic fane
Nor travel o'er the well-trod plain
Where thousands throng to famed Olympia's town,
Unless, with manifest accord,
The event fulfil the oracular word.
Zeus, Lord of all! if to eternity
Thou would'st confirm thy kingdom's large renown,
Let not their vauntings high
Evade the sovereign look of the everlasting eye!
They make as though the ancient warning slept
By Laius erst with fear