SCENE iv PART FIRST
He goes to another part of the cockpit, a midshipman ascends to the deck, and the scene overclouds.
CHORUS OF THE PITIES (aerial music)
His thread was cut too slowly ! When he fell,
And bade his fame farewell, He might havepassed^ and shunned his long-drawn pain,
Endured in vain, in vain !
SPIRIT OF THE YEARS
Young Spirits, be not critical of That Which was before, and shall be after you /
SPIRIT OF THE PITIES
But out of tune the Mode and merit less
That quickens sense i-n, shapes whom, thou hast said,
Necessitation sways / A life there was
Among these self-same frail ones—Sophocles—
Who visioned it too clearly, even the while
He dubbed the Will " the gods'" Truly said he,
ts Such gross injustice to their own creation
Burdens the time with mournfulness for us,
And for themselves with shame"1—Things mechanized
By coils and pivots set to foreframed codes
Would, in a thorough-sphered melodic rule,
And governance of sweet consistency,
Be cessed no pain, whose burnings would abide
With That Which holds responsibility,
Or inexist.
CHORUS OF THE PITIES (aerial music)
Yea, yea, yea !
Thus would the Mover pay
The score each puppet owes, The Reaper reap wkat his contrivance sows ! Why make Life debtor when it did not buy ? Why wound so keenly Right that it would die ?
1 Soph. Track. 1266-72. 127