Reviving flood;
To balm and to ether
It changes my blood.
I live through each day,
Filled with faith and desire;
And die when the Night comes
In heaven-born fire."



V.



Over the widely-spreading races of mankind, ruled aforetime an iron
Destiny with silent power. A dark and heavy band was around man's
anxious soul; without end was the earth; the home of the gods and
their abode. Throughout eternities had her mysterious structure
stood. Beyond the red mountains of the morning, in the holy bosom
of the sea, there dwelt the Sun, the all-inflaming, living light. A
hoary giant bare the sacred world. Securely prisoned, beneath
mountains, lay the first sons of the mother Earth, powerless in
their destructive fury against the new and glorious race of the
gods, and their kindred, joyous men. The dark, green ocean's depth
was the bosom of a goddess. In the crystal grottoes rioted a
voluptuous tribe. Rivers, trees, flowers, and brute beasts had
human understanding. Sweeter was the wine poured forth by youth's
soft bloom; a god in the vine's clusters; a loving, a maternal
goddess, shooting forth among the full, golden sheaves; love's holy
flame, a delicious service to the most beauteous of the goddesses.