Then the star lifted his pale front from his breast, and
answered the archangel:

"Lo!" he said, "ages have past, and each year thou hast
appointed me to the same ignoble charge. Release me, I pray
thee, from the duties that I scorn; or, if thou wilt that the
lowlier race of men be my charge, give unto me the charge not of
many, but of one, and suffer me to breathe into him the desire
that spurns the valleys of life, and ascends its steeps. If the
humble are given to me, let there be amongst them one whom I may
lead on the mission that shall abase the proud; for, behold, O
Appointer of the Stars, as I have sat for uncounted years upon
my solitary throne, brooding over the things beneath, my spirit
hath gathered wisdom from the changes that shift below. Looking
upon the tribes of earth, I have seen how the multitude are
swayed, and tracked the steps that lead weakness into power; and
fain would I be the ruler of one who, if abased, shall aspire to
rule."

As a sudden cloud over the face of noon was the change on the
brow of the archangel.

"Proud and melancholy star," said the herald, "thy wish would
war with the courses of the invisible destiny, that, throned far
above, sways and harmonizes all; the source from which the
lesser rivers of fate are eternally gushing through the heart of
the universe of things. Thinkest thou that thy wisdom, of
itself, can lead the peasant to become a king?"